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That's great Matt.

We've had some similar success getting back to a mutual Scottish gtgtgtgt grandfather with four of his gtgtgtgtgrandchildren having tested (and perhaps more have tested,  but don't match this clutch of testers).  Three of them are third cousins.

Three had tested with FamilyTreeDNA (where two third cousins found each other very quickly) and the fourth tested with Ancestry.   It wasn't until the fourth person uploaded to Gedmatch that the link was obvious.  He is a closer genetic match to his half-fourth cousin (they have different gtgtgtgrandmothers) than to his double third cousin with whom he shares two sets of gtgtgrandparents (gt-grandmother's brother married the gt-grandfather's sister).  But that's the randomness of DNA inheritance patterns for you.

So, I would recommend uploading to Gedmatch as you may find more links across the different databases.

Quote from: hewgl on Wednesday 25 May 16 18:03 BST (UK)

I could pay $26.50 each for the three documents from NZ vital statistics but was looking for a cheaper alternative.

A 'printout' is the better option when obtaining information from NZ BDM's,it is a photo copy of the entry in the register and often has more information than the more expensive certificate

Cheers Janette

But the certificate is the legal document, which may be what is required in this instance (but of less use to family historians).

My mother forked out quite a bit to get the certificates required to prove she had a UK born grandparent.   I think she needed her grandmother's UK birth certificate, then the grandmother's NZ marriage certificate, her father's birth certificate, his marriage certificate and finally her own birth certificate (and probably her marriage certificate, since she was applying for a grandparent entry visa under her married name).

Thank you for the link sallyyorks.

Desperate times indeed.

Quote from: hurworth on Friday 13 May 16 14:22 BST (UK)

I'd had a nice cosy picture of rural English life for this family until I found them in the newspapers.

With roses round the cottage door and chickens running around the garden? 

Well, that image is now well and truly gone from my head.

By the 1840s there was serious unemployment in Wiltshire amongst agricultural labourers and one article mentions that without a job young men couldn't get a cottage either, so couldn't marry, and consequently illegitimacy rates were considered to be high.

http://www.burbage-wiltshire.co.uk/historic/Emigration1.htm

Hester Turton née Hillier ended up in Andover.  In addition to her charge of damaging underwood she was also sentenced another time for misbehavior in the workhouse.  The Turtons make the papers quite often.

However, the Andover workhouse was awful, and in 1845 there was an inquiry.  Mr McDougall was always trying it on with the female inmates.  He also didn't feed them well enough.  One woman admits she did have sex with him on several occasions because afterwards he would give her food and beer and her children were hungry.

The report also mentions that the men who were crushing pig bones at Andover workhouse were so hungry that they'd fight over them because they wanted to suck the marrow, even though the bones were very smelly.

It was reported in the papers that Harriet Turton was found guilty of stealing apparel (larceny as a servant) in Andover in 1854.  I presume this Harriet is Hester's daughter, as her age matches.  The prison record says she is a 16 year old servant - she stole a flannel dressing gown and a couple of other items.  She was sentenced to four months hard labour at Winchester prison.

So, Horsleydown seems a reasonable choice.   And a chance to make a new start too.