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I have a German great-great-great grandfather (from Vorpommern in northern Germany, around the Baltic Sea area).

Given the relative distance, I was not expecting to find much trace of this in the Ancestry DNA / FTDNA / MyHeritage ethnicity estimate, because on average a person derives 3% of their genes from a 3x great-grandparent.

In fact, no 'German' surfaced in my ethnicity map - I was 85% Irish / Scottish and 15% 'England, Wales and Northwestern Europe' on Ancestry DNA; 95% British Isles, 3% Scandinavian and 2% East Europe on FTDNA, whilst on MyHeritage the breakdown was 95% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh and 5% Scandinavian.

I didn't really think about this...until I tested an older relative who is the great-grandchild of this German Pomeranian ancestor. Now, a great-grandchild typically receives 12.5% from a great-grandfather (give or take a bit with random recombination) - yet this older relative, who is much closer genetically to the German heritage than myself, also had no 'German' showing anywhere in his ethnicity breakdown.

Instead, on Ancestry DNA (the only one he's tested with thus far) he was 91% Irish and Scottish and 8% England, Wales and Northwestern Europe, with the only other element being a very small 1% European Jewish.

I have read that AncestryDNA actually has a 'Pomerania' genetic community cluster and I find it rather suspect that even someone as closely related as a great-grandchild would apparently evidence none of this ancestor's ethnicity in his estimate.

Are the Pomeranian German genes being grouped under another category, such as 'England, Wales & NE'? Is there any other reason why the estimate would not include it at all?

I think that one of my ancestors may be referred to by name in the index to these papers of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, as follows:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mcgqAQAAMAAJ&dq=Letter+and+affidavit+from+agent%2C+Thomas+Fawell%2C+about+a+seizure+of+oats+by+customs+at+Stockholm&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=fawell

"29 March 1796 - Letter and affidavit from agent, Thomas Fawell, about a seizure of oats by customs at Stockholm (208 - 212)"

My Thomas Fawell (1759 - 1741) of Yarm was a corn merchant and I am curious to find out more about this letter to discern if it was sent by him.

Could anyone tell me how or where I might access these documents?

I am a little perplexed by an apparent inconsistency, or rather anomaly, found while researching my Smith ancestors in Harewood and Leeds in the 18th-early 19th centuries.

My ancestor Hannah Smith - daughter of George Smith, banker, from Leeds - married Thomas Fawell in 1807 in St. Peters Church, Leeds (please see attached). I have a series of contemporary 'letters' with dates of births and deaths for this family, two leafs of which I have attached as 'Fawell letter 1' and 'Fawell letter 2' below.

In this letter, George Smith 'banker from Leeds' is listed as the grandfather of Hannah Smith's children with Thomas and therefore her father.

From a memoir written by George Smith's son William (born 1785), I learned that George's wife was Hannah Craven of Harewood:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082272893;view=1up;seq=27

"My mother was Hannah Craven. daughter of a farmer who resided at Harewood..."

I subsequently found her marriage to George Smith in 1778 in Harewood on familysearch. There is another memoir written by Hannah Craven's sister in 1812 (Sarah Baiston) who likewise refers to her as "Mrs. Smith".

I then came across a newspaper account published in Salt Lake City in 1897 by Hannah Craven's great-granddaughter, Eve A Cooke and based upon her mother Sarah Anne Cooke's memories, in which she wrote the following:

"Hannah Craven married George Smith, a most estimable young man, a devout Methodist and a cashier in the Bank of Leeds, of which he afterwards became President.

They had a family of three fine sons, William and George, who succeeded their father in the bank, and Samuel, a surgeon, generally spoken of as the handsome and skillful Doctor, and two beautiful daughters, Mary (May?), afterwards Mrs. Towe, and Sarah, their youngest (Mrs. Sutton) my own mother's mother, whose early death was the great sorrow of the family"

(Written by Eve Anna Dykes, Salt Lake City, August 15th 1897. "My mother, if living, would be 89 years old today." (Written Sarah Ann Cooke Born 1808 7-15-1808))

I found it odd that my ancestor Hannah Smith, a daughter of George Smith (banker), was absent from the above list of family members.

Hannah and George's youngest daughter Sarah Sutton (the grandmother of Eve A Cooke, the author of the above piece) is mentioned in my Fawell family letter 2 as "Mrs. (Hannah) Fawell's sister", where it is noted that Hannah Smith and Thomas Fawell buried their one year old son Thomas Hindmarsh Fawell in a grave alongside his aunt Sarah Sutton and "Mrs Fawell's father George Smith, the banker" and her brother George Smith Jr.

I also found an entry about Samuel Smith - the "handsome" doctor referred to above - in Parr's Life of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, where it is noted:

https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002f372722/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E000538%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier
 

"[Samuel Smith was] born in Briggate, Leeds, the son of George Smith, banker; was apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Fawell, a general practitioner in Leeds."

Thus Hannah Smith was definitely the daughter of George Smith, banker, and sister of Sarah Sutton, William Smith, George Smith Jr. and Samuel Smith.

But on her marriage certificate to Thomas Fawell in 1807 (please see attached), Hannah Craven is nowhere mentioned. Her father George Smith 'banker' is again there but instead of Hannah Craven, I find 'Hannah Muschamp'.

This Hannah Muschamp is the daughter of Hannah Craven's sister Mary Craven, wife of William Muschamp of Harewood.

Could someone help shed some light upon: (a) the reason why Hannah Smith is not listed in the article above as one of the daughters of Hannah Craven and George Smith, banker & (b) the reason why Hannah Craven doesn't appear alongside her husband George on the 1807 marriage certificate.

I would be most grateful for any assistance.

One of my direct ancestors, Thomas Fawell (1784 - 1827), was a surgeon, apothecary and accoucheur with practices, at various times, in Leeds and London.

He sometimes wrote in medical periodicals; for instance "The Medical and Physical Journal, Volume 22" of 1809, where he wrote the following:


https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AA8UAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA48&dq=thomas+fawell+surgeon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqpri7isjSAhWCKMAKHZ0jBDoQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"...To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal,

Gentlemen,

Having mentioned to some of my medical friends a case of Superfetation, which occurred to me in my practice a few weeks ago, I was requested to state it to you for insertion in your periodical publication, which I leave to your judgement, if you should deem it worthy of notice.

On the 13th of April last, I was called to Mrs. Lacer, of Hunslett, near this place, in labour, who had previously spoken to me to attend her; on my entering into the room, I proceeded to examine her per vaginam, when I found the os uteri completely dilated, and the membranes unbroken; the labour went on regularly, and in the course of half an hour, one living child was expelled. After having separated the child, I laid my hand (as usual) upon the abdomen, and found the uterus not contracted; after a few minutes, a pain came on, when I examined her again, and found the membranes pressing forwards, and in the course of half an hour, she was delivered of a foetus; I should suppose from its size, about 4 or 5 months.

Apparently it had been dead a few days; it had no putrid appearence, but rather inclining to a darkish hue. The woman recovered remarkably well, and is in perfect health.

I should be happy if any of your readers would favour me with a few observations upon the above case.

I am, &c.
        Thomas Fawell, Surgeon

Leeds, May 30, 1809

Could anyone tell me what kind, or rather level, of qualifications, if any, one needed to have to work as a surgeon, apothecary and accoucheur (male midwife) in this period at the start of the nineteenth century?

I mean, what would Thomas's education have involved? 

I can easily find my ancestors Anne MacPherson ne้ McFarlane (for some reason called "Nany" in this census) born abt 1793, her husband John MacPherson born abt 1791 and their children Hugh, Mary, Peter and Donald in this transcription of the 1841 census on this website:


http://www.benderloch.org.uk/1841.html


Address: Dalronich       
MCPHERSON   John   M   50   Crofter    Argyllshire         
McPHERSON   Nany   F   45       Argyllshire         
McPHERSON   Donald   M   25       Argyllshire         
McPHERSON   Hugh   M   15       Argyllshire         
McPHERSON   Mary   F   11       Argyllshire         
McPHERSON   Peter   M   8       Argyllshire 

They had an 18 acre croft.

But, strangely, when I try to find this census return on Scotland's People or Ancestry...I cannot find it.

I am able to find every one of their neighbours but for some bizarre reason not them. Their names never turn up on either website, so far as I can see. Am I simply missing it or is this a case of the "vanishing family on the 1841 census"!?

I would like to see if I can parse a few more details, for instance where the father John was born in Argyll (he is presumably dead by the 1851 census which told me that his wife Anne was born in Mull. She is a widow on her death certificate in 1857). I am not sure if this would be on the 1841 census but even if it isn't, I am still frustrated that the family are there in the above but I cannot locate them on the Ancestry or Scotland's People 'census search'.

I have recently discovered that Anne, John and their son Peter (born 1832) are genetic ancestors of mine (through a match on AncestryDNA) - so this makes me doubly committed to finding out more about them, if at all possible.

If anyone can help me with my dilemma, it would be much appreciated!