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Showing posts from December, 2023

Who is John Williams?

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I’ve chased down every genetic clue I could find to find my elusive 2nd great grandfather, Arthur 'George' Courtney. The best so far has been a match on the ‘X’ chromosome, also known as Chromosome 23. The 'X' chromosome has special inheritance characteristics and can sometimes be easier to trace back in time. It was in 2018 that I first I discovered a large match sharing about 92cMs, with both my mother and her sister. Given its size, it was an exciting discovery as the special inheritance factors suggested it was a paternal segment for my Mum and her sister, probably inherited from George Courtney.  We also shared smaller autosomal matches with this match and other extended family members and I soon discovered many matches that all led back to the same person - Ada Williams, born about 1892 in Notting Hill. Imagine my surprise when my match told me - ‘that’s my Romany line!’ I've previously written about this match -  Could George be a Romany? Ada was the child of