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I've been having a lovely email conversation with two of my DNA matches.

Their great grandfather in some online trees has become confused with a first cousin of his with a similar name.

One of my matches has been messaging with a lady that has this great grandfather with the wrong parents in her tree. This lady responds to all messages and chats away about all things family history but her tree remains uncorrected.

Between the three of us we have a fairly solid paper trail and we have attached records to our respective Ancestry trees. I have attached to my public tree an image of the marriage of the first cousin showing clearly the correct father. One of the witnesses is the brother of this first cousin and these brothers can be connected to the correct parents with census and BMD indexes.

I have spent this afternoon roaming around this other lady's public tree and I have concluded that she doesn't actually feature in the tree herself but may be an aunt of the "home" person.

Assuming that there are no further errors in this tree I think that the "home" person might be.....

The fourth cousin twice removed to the wife of the first cousin of the half brother of my grandfather.

Should she be on my Christmas card list? 

I love this hobby.

Tony.

Hi everyone,

I've been squinting at this word from the administration of a man who died intestate in 1946. Most of it is quite legible but I can't fathom the word after "Chapter 5 and amending acts", and before "to obtain a grant".

I'm sure it will be obvious to fresh eyes 

Many thanks, Tony.

Evening all,

I'm looking at a birth on freebmd and it looks like a child has been registered twice in the same district in two different quarters. All details are the same in both entries apart from the quarter and page numbers which are different.

It looks something like this (disguised to obscure living person) :

Births Mar 1946 Ambleford 6C 1234
BLOGGS, Jane (mmn DOE)

and

Births Jun 1946 Ambleford 6C 1256
BLOGGS, Jane (mmn DOE)

I haven't come across one quite like this before and was wondering if anyone could shed any light on what might have happened here.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Best regards, Tony.

Afternoon all,

My entry for inspired transcription of the week. 

I was looking for Arthur Macilroy in 1939 on findmypast and two likely looking ones came up in the search results. Looking at the first one (RG101/1557B/010/14 DDBH) in Coggeshall, Braintree, Essex I could see that this was my man as his occupation of 'Isinglass Roller and Cutter' matches his trade when I last found him in 1911. The transcription shows several unrelated people, mostly working with isinglass, and heading the household is Nora B Jackson whose occupation is given as

Mermaid Woman .

Cue an attack of the giggles and a look at the image!

The original reveals that the occupation of Mrs Jackson is .... 'married woman'. There is also a Harold Jackson who has not made it onto the transcription at all. He is a 'Company Director' and not  a merman!

Then for thoroughness I looked at the other result (RG101/1312B/010/14 CMBL) at Richmond Upon Thames, Barnes and here is the oddest thing. It's a slightly different transcription of the same people! This time Mrs Jackson is a 'Marmed Woman' (not nearly as much fun!), Mr Jackson is still missing and Arthur's birthdate is different. The image is of the same page and shows the Braintree location to be the correct one.

I'm not at all sure what has happened here but it has had me smiling all afternoon.

  Tony 

Hi everyone,

It's three weeks now since my Ancestry DNA results came in and I'm getting on quite well with sorting my matches into some sort of order. So far my traditional research is being confirmed and no one seems to have been 'playing away'.

The main reason for me testing was to try and prove or disprove that my 2xG Grandmother Mary Ann Thomas was the daughter of James Thomas and Caroline Kitcherside. Most evidence points to this being the case but on her marriage to my 2xG Grandfather William Holden in 1877 Mary Ann's father is given as John, not James. Earlier this year I had lots of help and advice on my Rootschat  thread about this puzzle.

My closest match is to my Dad's brother, uncle 'I' at 1932cm over 59 segments. 'I' is a Great Grandson of William and Mary Ann.

I also match to 'P' at 123cm/4 and his son 'K' at 52cm/2. 'P' and 'K' are Great Grandson and 2xG Grandson of William and Mary Ann.

Also in my Holden group is 'A' at 51cm/3, another 2xG Grandson.

Then it started to get exciting. I match 'L' at 10cm/1 and 'N' at 19cm/1 . Thrulines for both 'L' and 'N' is saying that our shared ancestors are James Kitcherside  and Frances/Fanny Street. James and Frances are showing as Grandparents of Caroline Kitcherside, potential mother of 'my' Mary Ann. Thrulines has 'L' and 'N' as fifth cousins once removed to me and third cousins to each other descended from an Aaron Adsett.

I have no shared matches with either 'L' or 'N'. Not even each other.

A google of 'N' led to a detailed website of the Adsett family history.

I have started to work a tree backwards, forwards and sideways from Aaron Adsett found on the 1841 census. So far my findings are confirming the Thrulines and Adsett website as correct. They are big families and a large proportion of them emigrate to Australia from the 1850s so lots to look at yet.

So is this my Kitcherside connection proved? Two things are bothering me:

1/ Am I going about this the right way?

2/ Should I be concerned that none of my Holden matches, known descendants of William and Mary Ann are shared matches to me with 'L' or 'N'? Or is this accounted for by the reduced chance of fifth cousins and beyond matching?

Thanks for reading to the end. Any advice or suggestions are very welcome.

Best regards, Tony.