Ancestry DNA But No Matches With GTGrandfather’s line at all?

[JillyNutton]

Hi

We have a mystery we can’t solve - we think our paternal GT grandfather wasn’t our biological gt grandfather?

My sister and I have had our our trees and DNA test results on Ancestry.co.uk for many years but we have no matches with anyone from our paternal great grandad’s line. His name was John Michael Robinson Lewis b. 1865 in Gloucester, UK and he was married to Annie Lucretia Howells who also used the maiden name Eskins.

I have matches with their children’s descendants and matches with Annie’s ancestor’s descendants but nothing from the John’s ancestors descendants.

A few years ago, I was contacted by a descendant of John’s ancestors to ask why I have him in my tree when we weren’t connected by DNA - and it started me thinking.

I have colour coded all of my DNA into family lines - not one Lewis connection other than from my grandmother’s siblings descendants.

My grandmother was the 7th out 8 children to John and Annie. They appear to have separated shortly after their 8th child and she moved in with another chap called Harold Nind and had a further 8 children with him. I have DNA matches their descendants.

Could it be that John M R Lewis wasn’t our biological great grandad? Could it be that he is but my sister and I don’t have much of his ancestors DNA?

Any advice on how we can investigate further would be most welcome!

Thanks
Jill

[TreeDigger]

I think it may be a valid theory that the reason Mr. Lewis moved out was the discovery of an illicit affair that later resulted in a marriage.

Have you been able to find the whereabouts of the Lewis family in census takings? Maybe look at those again and see whether Mr. Nind was living in the area.. it could be that child #7 and #8 were not Lewis but Nind children. And yes, that would obviously include your grandmother 

If you and your sister don't share any DNA with the Lewis family, this seems to be a plausible explanation. If your grandmother's presumed younger full sibling has any descendants, have they taken a DNA test? If not, that would certainly shed more light on the matter. 

TD

[TreeDigger]

I see Harold Nind & Annie living in Tewkesbury in 1911 with their 6 children, 1 child having died, married 12 years. John Lewis and daughter Clara Winifred are then boarders in NE Leicester. John says he's still (or again?) married. Do you know what happened to the other Lewis children?

[Biggles50]

Is the contact who queried your inclusion of him in your tree a direct descendant of JMRL?

It is odd that as your Grandmother was the 7th out of 8 and then they both may well be HN’s.

ie if say these matches are Second Cousins then the cM should be about 230cM and if they are 1/2 Second Cousins then the DNA shared would be about 120cM

Descendants of the children 1 to 6 inclusive of JMRL and your Great Grandmother are probably 1/2 xCousins and their cM probably reflects this.

Then cM values of your matches and their generational distances may well help us.

[TreeDigger]

It appears Harold & Annie weren't married, as John Lewis remarried Rebecca Smart the very year Annie died (1918). So John was truthful when stating 'married' in 1911. Found Harold & Annie in 1901 with2 kids of their own and 6 Lewis children, but I'm assuming you have all that.

Too bad most of the goings-on fall right between two census takings, 1891 and 1901.

Btw, apologies for the blunt manner in which I proposed the 'illicit affair'. It's one of my less charming character traits 

[JillyNutton]

Thanks for getting back to me.

My grandmother, Olive May Lewis was born in Gloucester in 1895 but the family appeared to have moved to Tewksbury shortly after. Harold Nind lived in the Tewksbury area.

John MR Lewis had been a printer for many years in Gloucester but strangely when they moved to Tewkesbury, he became the landlord of the Oddfellows Arms. My grandmother’s younger brother, Archibald was born in 1927 and they all moved to Leicester shortly after.

In the 1901 census - Annie is living back in Tewkesbury with Harold Nind with a new baby, Reginald, my grandmother and some of her siblings. John MR Lewis is living in lodgings in Leicester and is working back as a printer.

I discovered a letter from Annie to the war office in Harold Nind’s WW1 service records, she said her marriage to John MR was proved void by her solicitor - not sure what this meant. Annie didn’t actually marry Harold until 1915 and her marital status is listed at spinster, although I have a marriage certificate for Annie and John MR in 1886.

Even more odd, my grandmother listed John MR as being deceased when she married my grandad in 1918 - even though he wasn’t dead and she’d been staying with him in Leicester. My grandmother met my grandfather in Leicester.

So it seems there were definitely secrets in the family.

[JillyNutton]

Annie died of Spanish flu at then end of WW1 and shortly after John MR married her landlady - Rebecca Smart.

All of the Lewis children stayed in contact with both parents - seemingly living/spending time with both John MR and Annie.

Also in Annie’s letter to the war office she says she was fostered with Harold’s family when a child and used the surname Nind. Interestingly she also used the surname Eskins as well as Howells - her mum wasn’t married when she was born, but her father was Eskins.

[TreeDigger]

Ah, just noticed something which may prove my theory about the two youngest Lewis children actually being fathered by Harold..

Archibald is listed as Nind in the 1901 census but was baptized Archibald Barnett Lewis as John & Annie's son on 6 Aug 1897 in Tewksbury. In contrast, the older children are listed as 'Lewis'. It's possible Annie wasn't sure about your grandmother's parentage, but I think your DNA results indicate she was fathered by Harold.

I think the Lewis household was not a happy place in the latter years of the 19th Century.

[TreeDigger]

My grandmother, Olive May Lewis was born in Gloucester in 1895 but the family appeared to have moved to Tewksbury shortly after. Harold Nind lived in the Tewksbury area.

Your grandmother may have been born in Gloucester but she may possibly have been conceived in Tewksbury. In the 1901 census her older sister Clara is listed as being born in Tewksbury, so the family did live there before.