Really interesting read, even more so given that I live near Louth and recognise some surnames from the newspaper extracts - such as Atkins and Marshall!
Stumbled across your article, very interesting and have similar circumstances but with such large families to trawl through I feel I really do have to try and narrow down to matches. In researching my husbands family, I noted his grandmother's parentage (Hilda May Blackman) incorrectly at first and not until I got the birth certificate (born 1901) did the penny drop that her mother Alice had been "sent off" to a mother and baby church charity in Essex for the birth, then returning with baby Hilda who appears to be living as a "daughter" of her actual grandparents (James & Harriett Blackman) on 1911 census in Hampshire. Subsequently found that Alice had married in 1910 and gone onto to have 3 more daughters with her new husband. Baby Hilda never seemed to go live with her mother and new family and when I asked for research purposes about Granny Hilda, all anyone would say was "she never spoke about her family much". My father in law passed away 4 years ago and I'm sure he never knew his mother was illegitimate - his brother has a family tree online and had it wrong - not sure how to tell a man in his 80's that his mother was potentially abandoned with her grandparents as a child. I'm sure that I would be looking for a local village male to be the father of Hilda May in 1901, small farming community and they had all been there for generations. The place is still much the same now.
You have inspired me to go and delve deeper to isolate my husbands DNA matches and find his Great Grandfather from Hampshire.
I had a similar experience with DNA research to try and find my mother's father. My closest matches were totally unknown to me but with a little detective work and a few pointers from one of my matches, who was showing up as 1st/2nd cousin, we managed to confirm my grandfather's family. Unfortunately there were a lot of possible candidates for the position of grandfather - 6 brothers which were rapidly narrowed down to four, one was already deceased at the time of my mother's conception, another would have been too young.
So we have William, George Robert (Bob), Joseph, and Stephen (Steve) LAWTHER. My grandmother Dora RIDLEY was a domestic servant for the LAWTHER family and neighbour when she fell pregnant with my mother Winifred RIDLEY in February 1914.
We have established that the four brothers were all living at home at that time.
To complicate things their 60 year old father Edward LAWTHER was also alive and should be included.
William married but had no children....
Bob married a widow who already had a son. Bob did not have any children....
Joseph was not interested in women, never had a girlfriend and continued living with his parents until they died.
Steve married and had one child, a girl.
So my DNA hasn't taken me any further but I have had a lot of help from the family who were intrigued to learn about my grandmother.
Before going any further I should mention that William and Steve were politically active and both became famous in later life. Because of this their younger brother Edward's wife Gladys kept a record of the family history including a lot of personal gossip.
According to her Bob is my mother's father, and my mother confronted him in the late 1950s at his home! If this is true she never ever mentioned it to anyone which is most unusual for her.
I was wondering how to prove this with my DNA results! I have no idea where to start and would greatly appreciate some help.
Really interesting read, even more so given that I live near Louth and recognise some surnames from the newspaper extracts - such as Atkins and Marshall!
Stumbled across your article, very interesting and have similar circumstances but with such large families to trawl through I feel I really do have to try and narrow down to matches. In researching my husbands family, I noted his grandmother's parentage (Hilda May Blackman) incorrectly at first and not until I got the birth certificate (born 1901) did the penny drop that her mother Alice had been "sent off" to a mother and baby church charity in Essex for the birth, then returning with baby Hilda who appears to be living as a "daughter" of her actual grandparents (James & Harriett Blackman) on 1911 census in Hampshire. Subsequently found that Alice had married in 1910 and gone onto to have 3 more daughters with her new husband. Baby Hilda never seemed to go live with her mother and new family and when I asked for research purposes about Granny Hilda, all anyone would say was "she never spoke about her family much". My father in law passed away 4 years ago and I'm sure he never knew his mother was illegitimate - his brother has a family tree online and had it wrong - not sure how to tell a man in his 80's that his mother was potentially abandoned with her grandparents as a child. I'm sure that I would be looking for a local village male to be the father of Hilda May in 1901, small farming community and they had all been there for generations. The place is still much the same now.
You have inspired me to go and delve deeper to isolate my husbands DNA matches and find his Great Grandfather from Hampshire.
Very interesting article, thank you!
I had a similar experience with DNA research to try and find my mother's father. My closest matches were totally unknown to me but with a little detective work and a few pointers from one of my matches, who was showing up as 1st/2nd cousin, we managed to confirm my grandfather's family. Unfortunately there were a lot of possible candidates for the position of grandfather - 6 brothers which were rapidly narrowed down to four, one was already deceased at the time of my mother's conception, another would have been too young.
So we have William, George Robert (Bob), Joseph, and Stephen (Steve) LAWTHER. My grandmother Dora RIDLEY was a domestic servant for the LAWTHER family and neighbour when she fell pregnant with my mother Winifred RIDLEY in February 1914.
We have established that the four brothers were all living at home at that time.
To complicate things their 60 year old father Edward LAWTHER was also alive and should be included.
William married but had no children....
Bob married a widow who already had a son. Bob did not have any children....
Joseph was not interested in women, never had a girlfriend and continued living with his parents until they died.
Steve married and had one child, a girl.
So my DNA hasn't taken me any further but I have had a lot of help from the family who were intrigued to learn about my grandmother.
Before going any further I should mention that William and Steve were politically active and both became famous in later life. Because of this their younger brother Edward's wife Gladys kept a record of the family history including a lot of personal gossip.
According to her Bob is my mother's father, and my mother confronted him in the late 1950s at his home! If this is true she never ever mentioned it to anyone which is most unusual for her.
I was wondering how to prove this with my DNA results! I have no idea where to start and would greatly appreciate some help.
Kind regards
Janice
Janice