Going round in a circle

My interest in genealogy stems from stories told by my mother, who born in 1912 in Tyneside, about her life as the eldest of 8 children. It was not so much ‘Once Upon A Time’ as ‘Once Upon Another Time’ and it fascinated me as a child and still does so today.

My father’s life however was a closed book as he never discussed his childhood or family. It wasn’t until he died aged only 57yrs that I realised how little I knew about him. My mother knew his immediate family and little else. As my parents had moved south to the Midlands, I had only met my paternal grandfather once and my grandmother had died before I was born.

However life intervened and it wasn’t until my younger daughter went to University in the North East that I realised her accommodation was located in the parish where my father was born. With little idea how to approach the task, together we began to explore my father’s family history in a world of fiche and film readers, parish registers and archives.

His paternal family proved to be quite unremarkable moving around the Durham coalfields without any change in family fortunes.

However his mother’s ‘Norwood’ family came as a surprise as her family were Yorkshire born & bred. This research brought me straight back almost to my own doorstep in the Yorkshire market town where my family were then living! I had come full circle!

I discovered that my great grand father, Alfred Barker Norwood born 1850, was illegitimate. His birth wasn’t registered though he was baptised at a later date.. Neither of his Christian names have appeared anywhere in the extended family tree before that birth so my guess is that he was named him after his father. For 30 years I have tried to prize Alfred Barker snr. out of hiding and have recently tested my DNA hoping to obtain some clues to his existence. I have been unsuccessful to date. Perhaps one of you may be my long lost distant cousin?

 

I have already tried this but there is only one match with a 9cm match across 1 segment. This relates to one Nowood Aunt listed on the tree but not researched. Someone else is managing the tree. Alfred's mother had other children but some died young or before marriage. I have posted details of her family in 1841 together with details of the extended family, Alfred's surviving siblings and his own family in 1881 and 1911. To date no matches but I will dig into my files for more names. Over the years, I have researched the Norwood family back a very long way but still have this one dead end.

 

I agree in theory, but in practice it isn't usually quite that simple. When it comes to my "4th cousins or closer" matches, the unknowns is still the largest group, accounting for over 50% of the matches.

 

Well again, I agree in theory but I think a fair bit of luck is needed too. Finding documented cousins is one thing but finding ones who have (a) done a DNA test, and (b) are interested in corresponding and collaborating, is another.

 

I would be more than happy to collaborate with anyone who takes the time to reply to the messages I have sent. Some matches have contacted me and they have been very helpful with my maternal side, as well as that of my maternal grandmother, but I also have a great many "unknowns" in the 3rd-4th possible cousins range and those I have contacted have not bothered to reply.

 

I have actually identified many matches from all my DNA results and tagged/colour coded them as applicable and identified common ancestors.. There are many however with unlinked, private trees, no trees or ones with just a few entries. I have also contacted several & in turn received messages from others. Often there is no response or in one instance the correspondence tailed off when I supplied a will which trashed her Ancestry Tree.
One notable success was identifying the relation who lived until she was 105 yrs old courtesy of a new found distant cousin. My mother had often related this story but apart from a married name, didn't know how she was related. My DNA 'cousin' had found newspaper cuttings amongst his father's papers and having been able to find our common ancestor we were able to fit this blood relation into our trees. She is also on my ancestors list in 1881 & 1911
I have actually read through your masterclass several times Peter so thank you for all explanations & new ideas it has given me. I have also completed an online course with one of the universities. As you say though, it requires others to have done DNA tests so can only improve with time. I was about to upload my DNA results to Gedmatch but for the moment will wait for things to become clearer.
My Alfred Barker brick wall is unlikely to fall through other Norwood matches as his mother had 5 other illegitimate children, each with a different father. All of them were named after close family members except Alfred so maybe she was expecting to get married after the event. The 'cousins' I am in contact with through conventional research and who are descended from these have the same problem but without any clue to who the father was. I guess she must have enjoyed the exercise or never figured out what caused them!! Illegitimacy was quite common in farming communities who just took the children into the family. I could find no bastardy bonds.

 

Sorry - it wasn't my intention to discourage anyone from entering their relatives at Lost Cousins which benefits not only ourselves, but also other LC members.

However, for a long time researcher such as Joyce, who I'm guessing has been able to build a pretty comprehensive tree along the way, there may be fewer benefits as far as sorting out DNA matches is concerned than if she was a brand new researcher.

But there are nevertheless plenty of other good reasons for all of us to enter as many relatives as possible into Lost Cousins.

 

I had three main brick walls in my ancestry due to illegitimacy and was likewise unable to find any bastardy records relating to any of them. Two of the illegitimate ancestors are 2 x great grandmothers, and the other one was a 3 x great grandmother. Like you, the documented cousins I have found were all stuck in the same place as me.

The fathers of the two nearer ancestors are still a mystery, though I live in hope of finding the answers one day.

I was able to find the father of my 3 x great grandmother after I did my DNA test. As it happens there was a paper trail as well but one I had missed in my extensive searches 25 years ago because I was then pretty much in the dark as to exactly where to look. However, looking at my DNA matches in that area of my tree gave me a big clue as to where to look, which eventually led me to the missing father.

 

What are bastardy bonds?

 

I should have Googled before I asked. Obviously, there were none in the case of my grandmother.