Gordon Barlow

Well yes, Bevs, and to Adam and Eve. But not everybody can prove it by a printed pedigree.

BEVS

Not me. I may be related to the O'Neills of Ireland I suppose but I think I'm more your commoner variety.

Had an interesting one recently . Person from Norfolk was convinced was descended from the gypsy/traveller community. I didn't find one. I did find though that one line hailed from the Norfolk Strangers/Wallloons. All rather interesting.

Gordon Barlow

Bevs. If you've done this kind of thing professionally, you might be kind enough to give your opinion of this story of mine... A legend in my family told that our Irish ancestor (one John Hickey, bog-Irish, from Co Tipperary) killed a policeman and ran off to Australia - in the mid-1800s. I poo-poo'd the story, saying that it would be highly unlikely for a criminal on the run to escape to a British prison-colony. It's quite possible that the Hickeys as a family emigrated to Sydney in support of a family-member who had been convicted and transported for some lesser offence than murder. (Although, how would they have raised the boat-fare?) After a few years in Sydney, the family ended up in Queensland, eighty miles or so from the capital, and generally kept their heads down ever after. One of the teenage girls who emigrated played fast and loose with her age, claiming to be younger than she actually was; it was fairly common to do that, to shave a few years off one's age to muddy the waters.

What do you reckon?

BEVS

It is my serious past-time. I wouldn't consider myself a professional at this . Had we remained in the UK I would have all round sought professional qualifications as a genealogist.

It will be a mixture of truth and also chinese whispers.

A family of a convict might be offered assisted passage on a Bounty Ship with either the govt or the convict paying some of the cost. Some of the passages might even have been free . Said convict would have served a good part of the sentence and some , as is known, did quite well for themselves so could petition as it were for their families to join then. People & children helped colonial growth.

I have some doubts that a convicted murderer would have been able to slip custody or goal to then become a stowaway on a convict ship. Mostly they were sentenced to be hanged. Some may have been transported for manslaughter as that became seen as more humane.

If the chap was known to have killed a policeman but remained at large, on the run, there was usually a notice in the newspapers about that. It could be I suppose that he arrived from Ireland to Australia as a part of a greater Hickey family migration .
With regard to the Bounty Ships it was not uncommon for some to use false names if the first assisted passage application was refused.
He could also have simply been executed.

More details gives more clues.

Agree. Very common for females to shave years off their ages. It could also be that some may not have actually known how old they were.

Gordon Barlow

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to give me a full explanation. I don't think I'd ever heard of "bounty ships" before; I'd better look into them, in the hope of discerning my Hickeys from all the rest. My Hickey ancestor - my great-grandmother - also changed her name. Baptised Ellen (I have seen the Parish Register, in the actual R C church back in the village, if I recall), she became Eleanor in the colonies - because it sounded more English, I guess, or more posh. Another ancestral emigrant - from another line altogether - shaved three years off his age, perhaps to be more acceptable to his 19-year-old bride in Queensland. That trick took me the devil of a long time to establish where and when he was born!

Thanks again.

SultanOfSwing

Mine has been refined a few times since I first did the test (Ancestry as well, for clarity, and also to rile up the resident tin-hats), but FWIW:

53% Ireland & Scotland
41% England, Wales and NW Europe
6% Norway

I also have a 'region' (what they used to call Genetic Community) of Scotland, specified as Central Scotland & Ulster, Ireland. This doesn't really tell me anything I don't know since I already knew both sides of my family were Scottish, but the Norway was a bit of a surprise. I can only assume there was a Viking somewhere in there way back when.

Floridablues

Me, born in 1950sEngland with an American US Air Force father who I never met until about 20 years ago. Him and his wife told me his parents were from British one side and western Europe the other. So when my 23andMe DNA results arrived it shows me as 39% British Irish and 40% German French plus 13% NW European!! Surprised it tells me I have more European as my mothers side is generations Suffolk..and i've always been so passionate English when it comes to any sporting events! Ancestry.com did map me back to East Anglia though.

lansbury

She found another member of the family, not someone she knew, who had already researched a lot of the family tree on the English side. She was able to follow that to some degree, but found mistakes in it or at least links she wasn't sure the other person was correct in using. One of our nieces is married to a German guy and his parents are still living in Germany. My wife's German is fairly basic so between the niece and her in-laws she has had good interpretation and help in Germany chasing down and verifying links.

She has spent hours doing this, leads to some very peaceful evenings on my part.

BEVS

MrBEVS feels the same . He has been asking me recently to find a new tree to have a go at. I wonder why?

Sensible approach your wife has. Everyone but everyone can follow a red herring and not realise one has lost the way. Sometimes a bit too easy to do.