As the paper trail for my Great Grandfather William Batchelor goes cold before 1923, I am taking a look at DNA matches - to see if any will tie into the Batchelor family further back.
I have been looking at matches shared by myself and my half aunt, as these have to be via our shared nearest ancestor (my grandmother, her mother), Bette.
I have well researched my grandmother's matneral Devonshire genealogy, so can rule out any links to that side.
What I am left with should be individuals, who share DNA with myself via William Batchelor. How - I am yet to determine.
I found out two DNA matches possibly share the ancestors Adin Peppiatt and Lucretia Slim.
Implying I am related to one or both (if descended from them).
I am also found that six DNA matches share the ancestors Henry Marcus Clark and Martha Annie 'Pattie' Day. This line is in Australia.
Implying I am related to one or both (if descended from them).
I also found out five DNA matches share the ancestors Robert Thomas Caskey and Mary Polly Dyer and/or William H Littlefield Dyer and Hannah Hopkins. These lines are firmly in America.
Implying I am related to one or more (if descended from them).
I also found out twelve DNA matches share the ancestors Christopher Lister Riding and Mary Ann Hale.
Implying I am related to one or both (if descended from them).
A Promising Lead???
I also found out seven DNA matches share the ancestors, Benjamin Branson and Mary Enoch.
Implying I am related to one or both (if descended from them).
And that two DNA matches share the ancestors, James Townley and Sarah Hornsby.
Again implying I am related to one or both (if descended from them).
Of these matches noted above, Jennifer Wilson shares the most with me: 44cm across 3 segments.
Ancestry roughly predicts her relationship to me (see yellow highlighted sections below). Estimating we share a great grandparent/s, great great parnent/s or great x3 grandparents.
Gwyneth Day also comes up higher than most (37cm across 2 segments) and has similar relationship predictions to me. Gwyneth and Jennifer share the same great grandmother in Mary Ann Branson, so my connection to them is likely through Mary Ann.
Mary Ann Branson (1859 - 1906) lived in the village of Wootton Wawen, in Warwickshire. She married twice and had children between 1882 - 1902. If William was born around 1882, as later records imply, he would be the same generation as her children.
Also, Gwynth and Jennifer are both older than me - at the top end of the same generation as my mum, so seems a reasonably rough but intelligent guessimate that they would be the same level on the chart as my mum.
Going across right from my mum, the first yellow box we hit is 2nd Cousin Once Removed... If Gwyneth and Jennifer are my 2nd Cousins Once Removed, that would make Mary Ann the mother of William Batchelor. Though age wise this could be a possibility, she was married and recorded having other children then.
We go right to the next yellow box over... Puts them as my 3rd Cousins Once Removed, and Mary Ann as the sister of one of William's parents.
Or one more right across... If more distantly related to me, say a column over, and 4th Cousins Once Removed, that would make Mary Ann the first cousin of a parent of William.
So I need to research: Mary Ann, her siblings, her parents, her grandparents, her uncles and aunts, and first cousins.
That I also have DNA matches via other descendants of Mary Ann's parternal grandparents Benjamin Branson and Mary Enoch. Implies I need to look into Mary's father James, his siblings and their children.
Mary Ann was the youngest of five. Her father James was the youngest of eight. A rough first search puts it as Mary Ann having 28 first cousins just on her patneral side. Many of them were older than Mary Ann, meaning she would have been closer in age to their children.
As I am yet to see any Batchelors or variations of name, are we looking at William's Batchelor's maternal side here?
Not so fast!!!!!
Mary Branson indeed had a first cousin called John Batchelor. He was born around 1858 in Bourton, Oxfordshire.
Our William was reported to be a native of Oxford[shire] in a 1923 newspaper article and his 1928 marriage certificate gives his father's name as John.
A John Batchelor, born c 1858 - 1860, could indeed had a son as a young man, c 1882.
