Author Topic: Possible Romany ancestry, Wiltshire most hopeful  (Read 4697 times)

Offline SamuelF992

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Possible Romany ancestry, Wiltshire most hopeful
« on: Tuesday 24 April 18 22:49 BST (UK) »
Hi all,

I did an Ancestry DNA test a while back and my results came back as 1% South Asian. I always assumed it was an anomaly rather than possible Romany, as I wasn't aware of any ancestry. But recently a family member told me my grandmother said she had Romany ancestry. I uploaded my results to Gedmatch (attached) and there's quite a lot of possible population groups from Iberian peninsula and South Asia.

As I say I'm not aware of any ancestry, but looking back one of my ancestors, Thomas Turner (1770-1843 m. Elizabeth Rogers), was a gunmaker in Marlborough, Wiltshire. His son then went on to become a 'gunmaker and engraver', before moving around the country as a commercial traveller, and eventually marrying my 3x greatgrandmother in Deptford.

There's clearly a lot of expertise on this board. I had a look through the resources, but found it hard to know where to start. Do any of you think the above may be an indicator, and if not, could you point me to any other good signs to look for?

Best wishes
Samuel
2nd generation - Fawcett, Elsbury, Sanders, Aldridge
3rd - as above, Hutchison, Babb, Enticott, Edwards
4th - as above, Turner, Bater, Marshall, Webb, Chick, Cottey, Tozer, Rowland
5th - as above, Broomfield, Fry, Wood, Clark, Baker, Boyland, Lane, Bryant, Pearce, Carey, Bailey, Freeman, Hill

Offline Steve G

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Re: Possible Romany ancestry, Wiltshire most hopeful
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 25 April 18 00:47 BST (UK) »
Samuel; Whilst I happily admit I know practically nothing about this DNA game ~ and probably care even less ... One thing I thought I'd picked up was that one could / should simply ignore anything of 2% or less as just a glitch in the system.

None of those charts ye showing us, above, mean a thing to me. I don't even know where half the places are.

However, looking over that list of names? There's a good handful of names there, used by Gypsys, down the ages. Turner and Rogers, even.

But, when we consider that Smith is an extremely common, Gypsy, name; Are we then to assume a British phone directory is full of pages upon pages of Gypsys?

Not wishing to dampen ye parade. But, chasing whispers of family rumours just doesn't cut it, in Genealogy. The tried and proven way is best: Start with yeself and work back. Methodically and with an open mind. Accepting that which navigable paper trails show ye.

I'm open to discussion and debate, on this point. But, I'd suggest occupation is possibly an even greater pointer to a possible Gypsy than even name. Gun Maker just doesn't smack of a Gypsy occupation.

But, as I say, there's a whole clutch of 'Gypsy' surnames ye list there. Who knows? Ye might be barking up the wrong tree. Enjoy researching those people. One or two may actually throw a little more light  ;)
GAITES (Alverstoke / Bath Pre 1850)
CURTIS (Portsmouth & 1800's Berkshire).
BURGE (Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire)
HUNTLEY (Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, 'Surroundings')

Offline SamuelF992

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Re: Possible Romany ancestry, Wiltshire most hopeful
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 25 April 18 10:53 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I'm very sceptical of this grandmother as she also claimed to have Jewish ancestry (of which I can find no trace) and that we were related to the painter JMW Turner (not true at all).

I'll keep researching!
2nd generation - Fawcett, Elsbury, Sanders, Aldridge
3rd - as above, Hutchison, Babb, Enticott, Edwards
4th - as above, Turner, Bater, Marshall, Webb, Chick, Cottey, Tozer, Rowland
5th - as above, Broomfield, Fry, Wood, Clark, Baker, Boyland, Lane, Bryant, Pearce, Carey, Bailey, Freeman, Hill