Finding George Courtney c1841

According to the records on Find My Past for the 1871 England Census there were 292 records for the name COURTNEY recorded at Middlesex.  This equates to ?? family groups.  Of these 47 were born in Ireland, and 151 Middlesex. Could George be related to one of them?  I am progressively adding links to these families at Wikitree.  The list below is by registration district, the first name mentioned in each entry reflects the head of the family.   This list remains a work in progress. Filling up the census paper.   Punch 1851 PD 1.  Bethnal Green (5)      * Eliza Courtney b1825 in Ireland.  Mother in law?  Jackson family?     * John Courtney b1800 Middlesex and family (wife Mary, daughter Lucy and grandaughter Eliza). 2.  Brentford (14)    * Henry FT Courtney b1813 Ireland.  Wife Ann.  Children: Henry TW, Ada and Charles F (5);   * David Courtney b1822 Ireland.  Wife Margaret,...

What's in a name?  Is it George or Arthur - George Arthur, Arthur George and for good measure and just to keep you on your toes, what about George William?     Courtney or Courtenay - so many possibilities....   This list is an attempt to list everyone I've looked at, those still in contention or if not, why not.  The Research Summary  is being continually updated and has more information on those still in contention.  This page is an attempt at a ready reckoner and to demonstrate my exhaustive research to find our mystery mans origins! Or, given the lack of DNA matching to the Courtney surname, should I be looking for someone else entirely?! Over the last couple of decades, I've looked for all possible candidates born between about 1830-1850.  My primary focus has been on candidates not recorded in the 1871 census, but this may not be a foolproof approach. Our George - is listed as Arthur George Courtenay in the 1871 census, b1841 Mar...

In the 1891 census Abigail describes herself as a widow, the census was recorded on the night of 5th April 1891.  We cannot find George, Abigail or their daughter Alberta in the 1881 census , where did they go after all living together in Woolwich in 1871?  What happened to George? I went in search of death records between the dates of these two censuses under various names, the following were extracted from FreeBMD UK for the period between 1871-1891.  Arthur 'George' indicated he was 30 years old at the time of the 1871 census, so if he died between 1871-1891 he would have been roughly between 30-50 years of age. Hans Christian Andersen's deathbed at Rolighed, Østerbro, Copenhagen (Wikimedia Commons) Arthur Courtney/Courteney/Courtenay/Courtny - all too young! * 1873 Arthur Baldwin Courtney, aged 0, St Thomas;  * 1877 Arthur Frederick Courtney, aged 3, Holbourn; * 1879 Arthur Courteney, aged 7, Camberwell; * 1885 Arthur Ernest Courtney, aged 0, Alderbury;...

Last year my first cousin tested for me at AncestryDNA, her father was my mothers brother, another great grandson of our missing George Courtney.  He had tested for me at other DNA sites but was not on AncestryDNA having died before being able to test there.  I lived in hope that my cousins results might give some additional clues given the extensive database at AncestryDNA compared to other sites. When her results came though I quickly analysed them and using her closest matches allocated them to her four grandparent groups. Through this process I came up with three additional ‘unknown’ groups.  It was impossible to tell which side they belonged to so I researched all three to see if I could find any genealogical connections within each group for clues. One group (U2) held particular interest as I found that several members of the group shared the ancestry of Michael James Courtney born c1865 in Bluffton, Winneshiek, Iowa and his wife Anna Agnes O’Brien also born in Iow...

After establishing that we may have some Romany DNA I started looking into how to research in this area in particular from a DNA point of view.  Three key sites of interest included:- The Romany and Traveller Family HistorySociety - joined FTDNA RomanyDNA Project - quite restrictive on who joins FTDNA Celtic Travellers - joined  I also created a resource page at Wikitree - British Romany Resources . It was on the Celtic Travellers site that I found a reference to a list of known surnames.  The Traveller Tinker Gypsy Surname Index of Great Britain  last updated 8/03/2010.  Under the name COURTNEY, two suggestions.  1841 Census St Austell, Cornwall and 1851 Census Scotland.  How these names came to be on this list are unclear.  Needless to say, I've now researched these families to see if they connect to any other Courtney's that have been subjects of interest in the past. 1841 St Austell - Nicholas COURTENAY The reference to the 1841 was actuall...

NOTE: This post is just a teaser!  I need to document more of the genetic evidence, but this is being written as part of the SAG DNA Blogging Group, so here goes the story so far.... ***** Continuing with my DNA analysis looking for the origins of my maternal 2nd great grandfather - Arthur/George/William Courtney/Courtenay. Many years ago now I discovered my mother had a large X match at GEDmatch with a female from England, it was two segments, totalling approx 92cMs.  This was a very big match and generally a sign of a close relationship.  However, the X chromosome can behave differently to the other autosomes and the relationship could be more distant than it seems. I attempted to contact the match back in 2018 and had no reply.   In 2019, I turned to Facebook sleuthing as she had an unusual surname.  I sent messages to people with that name in England asking if they had tested and could they be the person I matched?  I had a reply from one of them saying...

I have long been fascinated with the village of Barton Stacey and whether it holds the key to unlocking the mystery of my mysterious Mr Courtney.   Very early on in my research I discovered an Elizabeth COURTNEY , the wife of William BOUND of Barton Stacey who had connections to the PAICE and JOYCE families.   As it turns out some time later I found she was a descendant of William Courtney, gentleman, who had been involved in the Swing Riots of 1830 .  Some of Williams descendants had the middle name Hinxman, a quite unusual name.  However it is also a family name in my Paice family, Thomas HINXMAN being the second great grandfather of Abigail Paice the wife of the mysterious Arthur George Courtney.  Many years later a group of unknown DNA matches connected to the Australian convict Silas COLE from Barton Stacey also emerged.  It would seem these matches are somehow connected to our Paice family from Kingsclere Hampshire.  You can read...