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Hello again,

I've been looking into DNA matches the last couple of days, and come up with some interesting (although still vague) findings. In brief, there is clear evidence among the DNA matches of my mother and two of her siblings of links to the Weaverham and Great Budworth areas of Cheshire. This makes me strongly suspect that our ancestor Margaret Harrison of Great Budworth who married Daniel Linacre at Weaverham church in 1751, was from that area.

Two DNA matches in particular are worth looking at, since they allow for triangulation.

"Lyndsay Jones, Nee Ormsby"
descended from Minnie Harrison, b. 1877 in Leftwich, daughter of James Harrison of Lymm & Mary Elizabeth Buckley of Warburton
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/66864865/family?cfpid=330106358423

"Sharon Harrison"
descended from Henry Leigh Harrison, b. 1866 in Davenham, son of the same James Harrison & Mary Elizabeth Buckley
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/170418931/family?cfpid=272219274393

I haven't checked the second tree for accuracy, but all the individuals seem to be from the areas of Lymm and Northwich. The earliest Harrison ancestor seems to be William Harrison b. ~1748, m. Ann Dean 1776 in Lymm, d. 1816 in Lymm (aged 68). Going back further is trickier. Lymm is a little way from Weaverham, but in several of the trees I've looked at, there seem to be links between the two areas, for whatever reason.

I should also draw your attention to a record for the baptism of Mary, illegitimate daughter of Margaret Harrison, 07 Apr 1745 at Witton-cum-Tawambrooks (a chapelry of Great Budworth parish).

https://www.findmypast.com/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FB%2F766554082%2F1

The abbreviation "st:ra" next to Margaret's name is an unusual one. I really don't know what it could mean.

Finally, here's the will of a certain Thomas Harrison of Little Leigh par. Great Budworth (the part that borders on Weaverham), which may be relevant.

https://www.findmypast.com/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FCHS%2F748091032

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas.

The only two I can find, other than 1728, at West Kirby are:-

Thomas Linekar, Yeoman, 29th December 1783 of West Kirby

Thomas Linekar, Yeoman, 9th July 1815 of Great Meolse, b 1722
Presumed husband of Elizabeth Shaw

David

Thanks for checking. That's what I thought. A little odd, however.

Sorry to throw more info at you, but I should also mention that I did a bit of digging into the origins of Margery Holt, the wife of Robert Smith of West Kirby / Heswall and the purported mother of our John Smith. I find no evidence of any Holt's in the vicinity of West Kirby or neighbouring parishes. The only Margery Holt I can find in the right timeframe is the one baptised 19 Feb 1688/9 [O.S./N.S.] at Ince, the daughter of John Holt (d. 1718) and Margery Billinge (d. 1693). This is certainly about the birth year I'd expect considering Robert Smith was born 1680 and Robert and Margery married in 1715. Would be interesting to see if anyone has DNA evidence to support this idea, as Ince is good few miles (though not excessively far) from West Kirby.

Hi Alex

Just had a read of your post on the Linacres, I like it, there is nothing like a good elopement in one`s family history.
Perhaps it’s a family tradition as my gg grandmother Emma Roberts went off to St Nicolas in Liverpool in 1862 to marry Jonathan Smith(b1841) the g  grandson of our Richard Smith(b1755).
I gather that was a place for elopements.
She gave birth to their first child a short while afterwards(within a day or two), so perhaps that was the reason Jonathan`s family may have felt that she had forced is hand.
Yes I had missed the bit about Nancy & Martha being 1st cousins.
Thanks for answering my other questions I was just curious. I thought you would have said if the place of residence for John`s marriages had been given, quite frustrating that they were not filled in.
Sadly I have not done my DNA, however it may not prove a match as it may be doubtful that Emma  Roberts who married Johnathan Smith in 1862  was not actually living with him when she gave birth to her daughter Emma Smith in Bury 1869. I think their marriage had broke down, as he marries again! Obviously bigamously.
I am also not quite sure how DNA works on Ancestry, I will have to have a look on the their site.
It would be great if anyone else has something to add.
Sue

Hi Sue,

Yes, elopements certainly make for interesting stories! In this case, it's just conjecture on my part, though it would surely make sense, and I can't think of another good explanation... although there may well be one.

I too have an English ancestor whose marriage evidently broke down, after which both he and his wife moved to different towns and remarried bigamously. I'm inclined to sympathy, as divorce required an Act of Parliament in those days, and was therefore only feasible for the rich and prestigious. That was his second wife. His first wife had died soon after they married, and his third wife (my ancestor) was a granddaughter of Richard Smith & Nancy Linacre. At least that one seems to have been happy and successful!

Do check out AncestryDNA – I recommend it. I don't think there's a sale on at the moment, but I (or someone else) could always send a referral for a 15% discount. However, as David and I have mentioned, once you get to the mid 1700s and beyond, the chances of finding DNA matches from those ancestors becomes very slim, though not impossible. It's been a great resource for me regardless.

Alex

Hi again,

I just made an interesting discovery on the Linacre side of the family, in case you're curious. As we know, Ann/Nancy Linacre (wife of our Richard Smith) was born around 1754, likely in Great Meols par. West Kirby, though she and her parents later moved to Moreton par. Biston. We know from Richard & Nancy's child's baptism record (Betty Smith, 1779) that Ann/Nancy's parents were Daniel Linacre and his wife Margaret.

The problem is that the West Kirby parish records are very patchy, as I mentioned. Checking FindMyPast and FamilySearch, it seems only these years are present (between the originals and bishop's transcripts).

Baptisms: 1561-1631, 1636, 1666-1667, 1669, 1671-1686, 1690-1732, 1734-1738, 1741-1743, 1747-1752, 1754-1964
Marriages: 1561-1631, 1636, 1666-1667, 1669, 1671-1686, 1690-1732, 1734-1738, 1741-1743, 1747-1752, 1754-1861
Burials: 1561-1631, 1636, 1666-1667, 1669, 1671-1686, 1690-1732, 1734-39, 1742-1743, 1746, 1748-1752, 1756-1757, 1759-1812

Ann/Nancy Linacre's birth year is estimated from her age at burial to be 1753-1754, with some usual room for error, of course. Given that 1753 is the only year that baptism records of West Kirby are missing, from 1747 onwards. Curiously, however, there are no other baptism records for children of theirs. There's another possibility: that all their children were baptised at Upton (Overchurch), whose parish records only survived consistently from 1756.

All this said, I stumbled across a very interesting record for a marriage at Great Budworth parish church, some 35 miles east of West Kirby! It's dated 23 Sep 1751, and for a Daniel 'Linigar' of Weaverham (nearby) and Margaret Harrison of Great Budworth. Now, there are no records of the baptisms of either Daniel or Margaret in this vicinity, and in particular no Linacre's (or any spelling variant) whatsoever in this area, so this got me wondering. The names, date, and other circumstances of this marriage seem too coincidental not to be our ancestors. So my best theory is that they eloped and then returned to the part of the Wirral where they were from. In fact, the most likely candidate for Margaret Harrison is the one baptised 01 Nov 1721 at Woodchurch church to Henry Harrison and his wife Eleanor Whittle, of Arrowe. The 04 Jan 1791 burial record for Margaret Linacre wife of Daniel is very curious, since it gives her age as 88, implying a birth year of ~1702, some 26 years older than her husband Daniel! My working assumption is that her age may actually have been 66, making her born around 1722, though I could well be mistaken on this point.

David, if you're able to check your DNA matches for any Harrison's in Cheshire and see if they point towards Woodchurch parish (Arrowe in particular), I'd be very interested in seeing what you find. No doubt they'll be very distant matches, a low number of cMs, if you have any.