Connecting in South Wales

My Hunters and Harrises were from Cornwall.

The Ponsfords and Hanneys were from Somerset.

The Cadogans and Francises were from West Wales.

They all connected in the tinplate works and associated industries around the north of Swansea in the mid-1800s.

My grandfather being from Morriston, Swansea, I knew about many of the family connections. But it is only a bit more recently - thanks to some puzzling DNA matches, and dare-I-say to online trees, that the full picture is emerging. Well some more of it at least.

We knew that the Hanney Silver Band popped up twice - once as my grandpa's maternal half-uncles and secondly as marrying his father's cousin Mary Ann Harris.

I was pretty sure that the Cadogans appeared two times, or three depending how you count, as my grandpa's uncle Tom married a Cadogan and then Tom's cousin Francis married Jessie Ponsford Cadogan as his first wife. The two Cadogans being cousins.

I hadn't appreciated that Francis's nephew David, who married a daughter of Sid Turner, had also married into the Ponsfords. As Sid was a maternal cousin of Jessie and her sister Annie. This helped explain why Sid's daughter was able to put me in touch with Jessie and Annie's grandson back in 1993.

Then we come to the DNA. Why on earth were my Hanney half-blood relatives showing up as DNA matches to the descendants of Elizabeth Rodda Harris, who married in 1869 to Samuel Hynam? It turned out that Samuel's aunt Hannah had married in Marksbury to James Hanney senior, progenitor of the clan in Swansea. (It further emerged that one of the couple's grandsons had married Annie Ponsford Cadogan.)

It emerges that the Hanney cousin was connected to Samuel Hynam possibly up to five separate ways.

Examining the wider Hynam tree just now, I discovered two things:

1) that when I rang Miss Hynam in the Swansea phone book in 1992 I had very good odds of reaching the right branch of the family, as the family though large had sons who mostly left the family area

2) that there are some good candidates including a Lily Hynam living in Coventry who might have invited my mother for an ill-fated visit in the late 1950s

I am almost certain that there most be other hidden connections. I remembered almost having to apologise to folk in Swansea for being connected to the Hanneys twice in such a muddling way, but now I see it is par for the course...

The Carpenter of 1839: finding his Nephew's Rolling Pin

Exhibit A: You will possibly have to trust me that this document says 'Guillermo Hunter... Carpenter'. It is from untranscribed Notarial Records now fully indexed on FullText at FamilySearch (2024-5).

The thick ink has bled through the pages and the Spanish (we are in Barranquilla, Colombia) is a bit of a scrawl. The year is 1839, and the offered apprenticeship will expire cuaranta y cinco (1845).

Exhibit B: This next document is both older and younger. It is dated 17 October 1993 and was sent to me by a very helpful correspondent from the entangled town of Morriston in Wales. And contains an unexpected sentence I had never followed up.

So in 1915, Mr Hunter the carpenter, nephew of the preceding chap and my great-great-grandfather, gave a rolling pin as a wedding present to Mr and Mrs Turner, who attended the same Wesley Chapel in Morriston.... whose daughter I happened to be writing to about another matter 80 years later.

O rolling pin, o rolling pin! 

Where might the rolling pin be? It is now of course the 2020s, and I am only now digging. The 'youngest sister' I track to her death in Kettering in 2002, and her husband to 2020 (mid-COVID). They had no children but his will gives two possible leads including a likely niece, for whom I now have an email address.

It is highly possible that the rolling pin and nursing stool may well have been jeté'd, but who knows? A photograph of them would be highly interesting. It is of course absolutely fine if they've long since disappeared, but it won't hurt to ask.

So from 1839 to 1915 to 2002 to now is quite a few hops. But maybe the Carpenter of 1839's nephew still has some of his woodwork in existence this year of 2025? We shall see.

Update: the first enquiree has no knowledge of the nursing stool or rolling pin... 

Full-text searches at FamilySearch: in Colombia, Barranquilla

FamilySearch have recently made full-text searches available on their site. One of my first ports of call was to see what new information there might be about the Hunter brothers, who had left England for Colombia in the 1820s/30s, 40s and 60s. The famous engineers Richard Trevithick and Robert Stephenson were there. And DNA had showed that the eldest brother William had settled in, of all places, Barranquilla, at the mouth of the Magdalena River. (Other brothers followed this great river 400 miles inland to Honda, the 'city of peace'.)

At RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a FullText Search product that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help users find historical records. As it happens Spanish is one of the languages covered.

The full-text searches have helped me piece together the family of my long distant uncle William Hunter (1805). He married in Cornwall, England to Ann Trevithick and had children William (1828), Eliza Jane (1829). William jr was listed in his grandfather Trevithick's will of 1840 so we know he was alive then, and Eliza Jane (and any younger ones) thus probably weren't.

In 1839 his younger brother Hugh Hunter (1808) is living in a house in Barranquilla, Colombia. The entry might relate to their father Hugh (1783), but as this Hugh is still there 1869 I don't think so.

In 1845, the full-text searches show me that William himself was a carpenter in Barranquilla, taking on an apprentice carpenter, Antonio Ferreira. He signs his name Guillermo Hunter. (One possibility is that he died shortly after this: that would account for there being no more kids, though wouldn't explain the family's continued wealth.)

It's not awfully easy to read but this is an abstract of a translation of a transcription of a digital image of a microfilmed image of a (photograph of a) bound original volume of notarial records from Barranquilla, Colombia, dated 1839-1840.

William had remarried to a woman who rejoiced in the name of Maria de Los Santos Palacio, perhaps born 1819. He must have died by 1863 and their only surviving children together were listed in a document of 1863: Isabel [Hunter], Eloisa Hunter, Ana Hunter. Isabel is not listed in a crucial land document of 1883 suggesting that she had died, perhaps without issue. From the 1863 document Isabel appears to be a Hunter, and as we shall see there is really no time for her to be William's stepdaughter.

Before we get to the final list of children, there are a couple of twists in the tale.

1) Who is Maria Hunter born about 1890, who married 23 Jan 1916 at the Lady of the Rosary, Barranquilla, to Eladio Ariza. Firstly I cannot see a marriage record at this church (January marriages are rather rare). Maria is a sponsor at the baptism of Ana Hunter's granddaughter (1914). Her death record gives her parents as Pedro Osio and Ana Hunter, seemingly not a married couple. Pedro was actually a neighbour of the Hunter women and sold his house to them in 1888.

2) In about 1866, William's widow Santos Palacio gives birth to a son, Generoso A Mendoza Borja, who lives to nearly 100 and whose death record states his father was Manuel Borja. In 1888 the young man is now over 21 and of his own free will declares that he has no right whatsoever to the property that his mother gave to his half-sisters Eloisa and Ana Hunter! Pedro Osio features in that document too.

So the combined children of William Hunter (1805) and Maria de Los Santos Palacio (~1819) appear to be:

1. William Hunter (1828), alive 1840. No further mention.
2. Eliza Jane Hunter (1829), seemingly died by 1840.
3. perhaps more Hunter children by first wife, born in Barranquilla? If so it's likely all had died by 1840.
4. Isabel Hunter, perhaps born 1840-1842. Died by 1883, likely with no children.
5. Ana Hunter, perhaps born 1845. She married in 1863 to Mr Mendoza of Caracas, Venezuela but if I'm reading the 1893 document correctly had separated with concerns for her safety by 1875, and returned to Barranquilla. Her daughter Modesta Maria was born in 1876 and the puzzling Maria Hunter in about 1890. She seems to have died the exact day that her property interests pass to Modesta, in 1913, though (if it's her) her age is given as '42'.
6. Eloisa Hunter, perhaps born 1856 though I suspect 1842. Her son and seemingly only child Fernando Silva is born in 1876 and dies a few months before her in 1930. Both their years of birth are reconstructed from the ages at death. I think Eloisa was actually quite a bit older than this, almost certainly older than Ana. This is somewhat of a relief as originally we had no idea if Eloisa was actually a child of William (1828)! Eloisa likely married a cousin (Fernando Silva Palacio) and his age is essentially unknown too, so we cannot use that as a guide.
7. perhaps other Hunter children who die - note that we seem to be saying the last kid was 1845 and then there was a 20 year gap (and new husband) until the next one....! 
8. Generoso A Mendoza Borja, born about 1866 and survives until 1965! Based on these sort of dates, a child born in his sixties could still be alive.

Incidentally one or two of Eloisa Hunter's descendants are DNA matches to myself, and to a few known of the wider Hunter family (in Australia), which is what cottoned me on to the Barranquilla story in the first place.

Maria De Los Santos was a widow in 1863 and 'de Mendoza' (i.e. married to Mendoza) in later records. She was alive in 1883 and likely died by 1886, when her property is described as owned by 'her successors'. Although on reflection that is open to interpretation... say if she transferred the property in anticipation of death, but didn't actually die!

It is still a bit odd that Maria (grandma) sat and watched her daughter marrying a Mendoza in 1863, then promptly (maybe) did the same thing and had a son in her late 40s. While her daughter's marriage foundered and was childless during this epoch.

And it is equally odd that Eloisa went ahead with a transfer of land on 20 Aug 1913, apparently the same day that her sister died. 

But the remaining question though is WHO is Maria Hunter's mother! I see three options. (We know she is stated as 'Ana Hunter'):

• Ana Hunter born about 1845. Given that her mother's son Generoso was born so late in life, it is certainly not impossible that Ana had a child 27 years after her marriage, and didn't bother giving Maria the name Mendoza. Ana had separated long ago from Mendoza and Osio had finished having children (1886). It seems the most likely explanation. She does stop signing herself 'de Mendoza' at some point: likely couldn't be bothered. The age '42' for her death in 1913 would be a ridiculous yet simple clerical error, perhaps from copying up rough notes.

• Ana Hunter born about 1871. This is assuming such a person existed - who died age '42' in 1913. Who is SHE then? Could be the child of Isabel Hunter (then late 20s if living), or of the ghostly William Hunter (1828)? Surely she could not be an older child of Ana Hunter (1845) as that person would have the name Mendoza as Ana's other daughter did. This apocryphal character would be the right kind of age, I suppose, to have a child with Pedro Osio or his son of the same name if living with her aunties. The main problem with this is 'where is the date of death then for Ana (1845)' if not 1913?

• Modesta Maria Mendoza Hunter! born about 1876. This would be a big plot twist, and would imply that the 14 year-old had a child with the neighbour (or his son) AND that the child listed her father correctly (on death certificate) but NOT the mother (putting grandmother Ana instead). I don't see this as very likely. Apart from being contradicted by the evidence (i.e. mother is 'Ana Hunter' not 'Modesta Mendoza') the family seem quite prim and proper, and also not afraid of recording hard facts in writing rather than covering them up. 

The family keep on trading houses into the next generation. The houses were of cane, wood and mud and on calle de Bolivar street, and calle de San Juan. I think they may have all now gone but here is an old photo of calle de San Juan from pepecomenta.com.

Signature of William Hunter (1805) - for many decades we thought we'd lost him, until he turned up as the husband of Maria De Los Santos in Barranquilla in a tree of a DNA match. I think we can safely say that all four Hunter brothers came out to Colombia... and left their bones there.

Note that you would need a FamilySearch login to access these links, and recall that Spanish names do not confirm to American style of naming, e.g. Jackie Kennedy Onassis (aka Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) would in Spanish naming style be Jacqueline Bouvier Lee, with her mother's surname Lee appearing at the end...

On Finding Dinah... or Dinah Might!

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Hang on isn't that the iconic opening shot of Daphne Du Maurier's novel Rebecca (set in the true residence of beautiful Menabilly, Cornwall?)

What's that got to do with my mother's unexpected grrrrrreat auntie Dinah, born perhaps in 1712? Well everything, as we shall see.

~~~

In the days of Christmas 1998 the newly installed Lady Rashleigh of Menabilly is setting out the enormous tables in the orangery for an intimate but international dining party. 

I, Writer, am galloping down a railway side path in an ugly part of Taunton, bearing extraordinary news from the 17th century, lately just in.

I arriving panting at the station and board it hoping I will not lose my discoveries. Were they real, or just a phantom dream brought on by too much Christmas treats?

The Internet has just reached England. It boarded our shores and one of the first e-mails I fielded from it informed me that my ancestors were James and Miriam who married at Ditcheat Somerset in 1777. Thankyou, internet! I wish I could have managed without you, but we'll accept this one electronic support in our quest to conquer the 1700s unaided. 

Stepping back through the pages of the IGI, in an ancient format called "microfiche", by good fortune Miriam's birthplace had been well catalogued. Her mother's and grandmother's names were found but the trail went cold. We simply couldn't tease out any more on Elizabeth....., mother of Sarah Speed (1722), grandmother of Miriam.

At this point I favoured the open cast mining method of research. Boarding the train I proceeded to empty every single reference to the Speed family onto the metaphorical floor. 

The record office were aghast at someone using their surfaces during the traditionally quiet Betwixtmas season, and I had to wait about three Mars bars before the pile of ribbony papers and parchment emerged from the Strong Room. 

Time had been a faithful guardian and I was now deep in the 1700s. No turning back now. The Speeds of Ansford, Somerset were at my purview.

Like a rocket I was instantly thrust back two further generations. I could feel the G- Force as I struggled to hang on to 1998. I was being pushed deep underwater. 1898..  1798... 1758... the parchment opened at the year 1733.

Edward Murrow, my new ancestor, was dying and he wanted his many scattered lands given to all his female descendants. Not one was to be forgotten. 

His fondness for youngest daughter - due a-childbed any day now- was apparent. He wouldn't live to see her die in that childbed in a matter of a few weeks time. 

He had already lost his middle daughter and the granddaughters he listed made for quite a list. I reached for my pencil: Sarah Speed (tick!), Elizabeth Speed, Dinah Widdows, Martha Widdows, Elizabeth Widdows, Mary Widdows and Grace - daughter of George Dyke.

I could find baptisms for all bar Dinah who OBVIOUSLY was the eldest sibling of those Widdows girls and NOTHING to do with my Sarah or the Dykes, right? Right?

I wasn't getting much of a reply from the papers. The ribbon wrapped around the parchment and I was back in the reading room with moments to go before legging it for the train.

Dinah got forgotten. There was no birth, marriage or death for her, so it stands to reason she basically didn't exist. A genealogical fluke. A flick of the pen made in error, a misunderstanding, mishearing a dying man, forgetful of details, just another inaccurate name in the records?

Undaunted I crossed the to the local library which housed Parson Woodforde's Diaries, 30 years after our man's death. He lived in my ancestral Ansford. Time to opencast  his writings. The young parson was forever doing battle with my forebears it seemed. Sarah, now a widow,  accosted him for a headstone for her late husband. Cousin Martha had been his school mistress and was later murdered by his close friend. Small wonder the parson took his leave of the district and began a new life in Norfolk. 

But before he left he cryptically wrote a note for me. "Ned Dick the carrier is the nephew of Edward Speed."

Ned is Edward Dyke son of our George Dyke and his mysterious wife  Dinah - no marriage found. 

Of course when I sit down with the evidence, our Dinah emerges. She was not the older sister of the 3 Widdows girls. 

She must instead be the child of Elizabeth Murrow 1692 from her unknown marriage to Mr Withers. It's as Mrs Withers that Elizabeth marries at Wells Cathedral in 1719 according to a volume of licences by Jewers.

So she's Dinah Withers, and born 1712 if we work backwards from her age at death. Aged 21 when her aunt dies in childbirth, she is quickly on the scene and marries the grieving widower George Dyke. For many years I'd assumed this was scandalous but now realise it was merely the family looking to resolve a difficult episode. 

(Decades later I find the marriage as Mary Withers in the unexpected parish of Batcombe, thanks, belatedly to the Internet, which arrived very late to this party.)

So she's an aunt, and through her son Ned the carrier (Amazon delivery driver of his day), she creeps socially back up the stations little by little. George apprenticed to a tailor, Charles has his own drapers shop in Lyme Regis, Charles junior runs a military outfitters in Marylebone. Then we thunder ever closer to the aristocracy and to Menabilly. We have a colonel, an ambassadress to Reagan and at last, the Châtelaine of "Manderley", the beloved fictional home of Rebecca, lived in by its author. 

Dinah has taken us here by sheer Genealogical brute force. Is it possible that Dinah has any more surprises? Dinah Might. Dinah does. 

Postscript:

Dinah's other descendants had the Cock at Hemel Hempstead and from them, there is an archdeacon or canon in Leicestershire. 

I never could find Sarah Speed's son John born about 1742, where on earth was he? Turns out,  baptised in nearby Castle Cary with the poor priest - doubtless mesmerised by Sarah's sister - unfortunately recording the infant's mother as Dinah. (Not our diaretic parson who was fending off the rest of the family across the river Brue.)

A woman who we nearly forgot about, but who has reasserted herself onto the family tree.

Thanks for the memories auntie Dinah x

Are you sitting comfortably? These are your new aunties from Somerset, 1856.

In 1992, the retired bursar of Wells Cathedral School read out the will of Priscilla Creed (1856) to me down the phone. I was in for some shocks. The bell tolled for Priscilla at Pilton church and after the actuary had calculated how many years her children might live for, and paid off the Tasmanian son, we get down to business:

There were six daughters and their names were spellbinding: Ann Tabor widow, Mary wife of Thomas Dauncey, Elizabeth wife of William Creed, Sarah wife of Edward Indoe, Priscilla, Jane wife of James Chappell.

Tabor, Dauncey, Indoe, Chappell.  And these were close relatives. My great-grandpa would be Elizabeth's grandson: it looked like there was no getting away from that. I was a bit puzzled that Elizabeth was a Creed who married a Creed, but I needed to get over it, and fast. There were all these aunties to explore...

By the good offices of Aubrey Brown, founding member of Somerset & Dorset Family History Society, I received in the mail, print-outs of the 1881 census entries for Ann Tabor's sons. Through the probate indexes I could easily find the Tabors still living and farming in Somerset. (Though not for long: when I visited them unannounced in 1994 they were sadly just selling their dairy farm.) I even saw the portrait of 'battle-axe' daughter Mary Ann while carousing through Somerset in my motor car in winter 1994.

Mary Dauncey, Sarah Indoe and Priscilla would have to wait a bit, and there was no rush. Each of them had just one or two children whom nobody could quite recall: just being outside of living memory.

But the youngest auntie, Jane Chappell is still unresolved right now in 2025. Born in 1830, she was just two when her brother chose to sail for Tasmania, she lived to see her grandson die in World War One, and was a widow nearly 58 years. I was sat in the library in Winchester in 1996 when her death date flashed up on the screen. Exactly 100 years ago in 1925. She was 95, and had survived into the modern epoch.

I had caught a glimpse of her in the old reels of census at the basement record office of Chancery Lane, aged 40 a widow with many of her brood, residing with the Indoes. She had many twists and turns yet, another fifty years of finding a home for herself, outliving almost everyone.

In 2018 I walked from Castle Cary to the little hamlet of Henley, with its own chapel, under Turn Hill, High Ham. I was able to meet a relative but not to solve the real quest: to find a photo of Jane Chappell (1830-1925). I think it will eventually turn up, but who knows where? On my walk I thought I saw the old schoolhouse where her grandchildren would have been taught the three Rs.

I also recently discovered that one of these grandchildren Albert Wilkins (1895-1986), farm worker, was interviewed age 87. But when the Heritage Lottery Fund came knocking in 2005, his voice did not make the online pages. (He was in disk format, so perhaps could not easily be converted to MP3.) The bursar's brother DOES make an appearance in these pages - now at Somerset Voices.

Priscilla perhaps has the last laugh. Most of her descendants are from her great-granddaughter Gladys (1911) who worked at Langport Glove Factory and married Ebbie Cook. They have a large family in the Seend area. They are never going to outnumber Jane's massive descendants (who have conquered Walthamstow, Havant, Decatur Illinois, Evercreech, Wells...) but Seend is one area that Priscilla's line have claimed for their own. And Jane's cannot get a foothold. It is not too far away, so hopefully I can get to the Barge Inn on the canal there one day and see if there's any cousins to say hello to.

Letting the youngest catch-up

While looking into distant auntie Betsy, I wondered about her brother Benjamin's family.

He and his wife had seven children, and the way things turned out has proved very fair in terms of marking each milestone.

Edwin (1839), Jane (1841), Joseph (1842), James (1844), Annie (1846), Sarah (1848) and William (1849). Several of them had the middle name of Haine whilst Jane had the middle name of Eliza. Joseph and Sarah had no middle names at all.

Eldest grandchild: this was from Edwin, child number 1.

Eldest great-grandchild: this was Ernest Court (1898), from James, child number 4.

Eldest great-great-grandchild: this was Kenneth Duffett (1932), from Annie, child number 5.

Eldest great-great-great-grandchild: this was Verna (1960), from William, child number 7.

Eldest great-great-great-great-grandchild: this was Anthony (1989), from Jane, child number 2.

Child number 3 was the first to be widowed (in 1870).

Child number 6 was the first to die (in 1870).

Incidentally child number 1's line became extinct in 2004 and child number 6's in 1954.

The time to next generation is 30 years each time, now bear in mind this is for the eldest. For example I belong to the same generation as Verna but am somewhat younger, so the average time-per-generation for me from Benjamin is 32 years.

We saw in an extreme case how Betsy's average time to next generation was 23 years when measuring the eldest. She was also 20 years his senior. Within a hundred years, Betsy was two generations ahead of Benjamin.

But mostly here I just wanted to remark on the unusual way the distribution of 'firsts' is shared among five of Benjamin's children.

Betsy's daughter v. the queen

We earlier looked at the mysterious case of why 'auntie Betsy' appears to have virtually no DNA matches to us, despite being not that distant a relative and also someone with hundreds of descendants.

The answer was that a typical DNA-tester in their mid-thirties would actually be a SIX-times-great-grandchild of Betsy, meaning they might possibly have none of her DNA whatsoever, and more likely that a half-fifth-cousin 3 times removed to myself is not very likely to match me. We are in effect at the limits quite suddenly of what autosomal DNA can do.

I am not sure I have any matches pertaining to a sibling or half-sibling of my 6xgreat-grandparents. So we close our Betsy-DNA files for now.

But all this attention on Betsy, some of the dates seemed quite familiar. Which got me thinking, how would Betsy's tribe fare in a face-off with the ruling royal family of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha?

It's the gamekeeper's wife, Betsy's daughter Mary Blacker nee Padfield (born 1818) up against Albert of SCG's wife, queen Victoria (born 1819). I think this could be an easy victory for Mary, given what we found earlier.

Round 1, the children: Betsy's daughter scoops this one easy, first child 1837 vs. the queen 1839.

Round 2, the grandchildren: a bit close for comfort but still falling down to Betsy's daughter for the win: first grandchild, Henry Plumley (1857) vs. Kaiser Bill (1859). I think the royals are genuinely struggling at this point. In a surprise move, Betsy's folk have opted to leave Somerset for London.

Round 3, the great-grandchildren: out of nowhere the queen pulls ahead, Henry Stephen Plumley (1882) is no match for Feodora (1879). Betsy's line has to concede defeat in this round.

Round 4, the great-great-grandchildren: Betsy's daughter just regains the lost ground with Dorothy Blake (1904) up against an unexpected contender Margarita of Greece (1905). The queen has changed her strategy and has inexplicably switched to the family of her second daughter Princess Alice, in an attempt to seize control in this competition.

Round 5, the great-great-great-grandchildren: the queen has absolutely no chance here, the under-prepared royals have no suitable candidate, so Roy Miles (1927) is streets ahead of Margarita's nephew Ludwig (1931).

Round 6, the great-great-great-great-grandchildren: by now both teams are exhausted but Roy's son (1955) is still in the arrivals lounge some time before Maria Tatiana of Yugoslavia (1957).

Both teams have averaged 23 years per generation for a sustained period of 120 years. Well done to the bunch of Londoners for defeating the royals in 5 out of 6 rounds but this race through the generations is yet more evidence explaining why I'm unlikely to have DNA matches to Betsy's daughter, wife of the gamekeeper.

Incidentally, researching this, it seems that Queen Victoria is about to reach the milestone of 1000 living descendants some time around now. I have no easy way of knowing whether the gamekeeper's wife is heading that way herself. Perhaps she has already got there?

The Betsys Best Forgotten

So, Betsy has been driving me up the pole.

She first appeared on a tree drawn by my cousin Janet in 1993. I was very grateful for this tree. And when I went to the archives at Taunton I was able to see the evidence for myself. There she was listed in 1825 as "Betsy, daughter of [my wife] Mary Padfield, by a former husband".

Benjamin Padfield (1808-1891) was so straight-forward, a farmer and champion cheese maker, raised his family well and all learned music. As a boy he was ambitious to play the flute and viol - it's flute and violin but flute and viol sounds much more of its time. He gave apples to his grandchildren if they asked and ran the Sunday school in the village. He was second or third generation Methodist. I was given his photograph in a field exchange somewhere in the Somerset borders: a stout-hearted chap. Also - we have his Journal, his life story.

So for him to have a missing sister is distinctly out of character. His journal makes not a mention of "Betsy", who died when Benjamin was just 18.

Benjamin grew up to marry and have seven children and a rather staggering 50 grandchildren. Of these I counted just now and only a third have living family, quite a small fraction.

Since taking the AncestryDNA test six years ago I have been gifted with many findings, but one thorn in my side has been the absence of any descendants of Betsy showing up as DNA matches.

When we last left Betsy she was a small girl. She was baptised at Leigh-on-Mendip in 1789 and after marrying at 21, she had at least a five year rest before the children started arriving. She didn't have long as she must die at age 38. Quite probably the young couple were living with in-laws - Betsy's much younger half-brothers also endured such a period of 9 years and 3 years respectively.

Betsy had three children who lived to adulthood that we can trace: Mary (1818), Ann (1819) and Joseph (1827), with whom she died in childbirth. At this, the end of Betsy's life, Benjamin was just 18. Is Betsy best forgotten?

~~~~

I can see the thing to do would be to compare Betsy's family with Benjamin, and the best way of doing that is to look at the 1840s. In this epoch Benjamin raised his 7 children, and Betsy by this point had seven GRANDchildren.

Betsy is getting a generation ahead, already, and her family fills the 1850s with still more grandchildren.

Let's compare numbers.

Benjamin's children had their family in the years 1867-1898, producing the 50 youngsters (of whom 17 have surviving descendants).

Betsy's grandchildren had their family in the same period (starting ten years earlier, in 1857), producing 105 youngsters. So Betsy is not only a generation ahead, and doubling her numbers, but is also not thwarted by the low birth-rate of Benjamin's family as we turn the corner into the 1900s.

All of this suggests I should have plenty of DNA matches to choose from, even if the connection is a bit remote at half-fifth cousin.

But there's a problem. Betsy is steaming even further into the future. With Betsy, her eldest daughter Mary and eldest granddaughter Mary Jane all dying by 1890, the phrase 'accelerated lives' comes into my head. Benjamin's half-niece has become a great-grandmother and died, yet Benjamin is still alive.

Betsy's great-great-grandchildren are the same age as Benjamin's grandchildren; she has slipped two full generations ahead. My mother would be the same generation but born nearly 70 years later. And on they race. Benjamin's grandchildren continue steadily until 1901. Three years later and the line of his forgotten sister Betsy is 3 generations further along.

Consequently my own generation are not cycling around the countryside and researching on their laptop. They are dead: long dead! Dorothy Blake (1904-1981) is unlikely to be taking a DNA test. Chances are we are looking 3 generations down from me to Dorothy's great-grandson (born 1986). Such a person is separated from their ancestress Betsy by a whopping eight other people.

Benjamin's line meanwhile are content to dawdle, and to wait for the youngest to catch up. The eldest of my documented third cousins on this line Verna, born 1960 in Canada, belongs to seventh and youngest child William Haine Padfield. Betsy of course achieved this milestone back in 1904.

Not to confuse matters but Benjamin's brother Peter approximately midway between himself and Betsy is by 1960 a generation ahead of Benjamin. Peter also by about 1950 has begun to overtake Benjamin by sheer number of descendants despite having had only 5 grandchildren surviving versus Benjamin's 50. The "Peter" effect is partly attributable to very fertile moves overseas (Australia and Canada) as well perhaps as to some early deaths which meant they were less well provided for, and had to make their own way in the world.

The "Betsy" effect is counter-intuitive. I would have thought that sheer weight of descendants would mean we were overwhelmed with DNA matches. Not a single person from the huge Plumley tribe of Betsy's granddaughter Mary Jane (1837-1890) are showing up. Mind you these are Londoners, not based say in Utah, where numbers of those testing are far higher. I hadn't appreciated how much the 'fast-moving dying generations' were costing us.

Betsy was survived by her mother 13 years and we can read about her mother as this is recorded in Benjamin's Journal. There was an aunt who attained 80 and is living surrounded by grandchildren in the 1841 census. I can actually trace DNA matches more comfortably to the aunt than I can for Betsy.

Coming up to 200 years since she died, leaving no apparent trace in our family's written record, and with her DNA fast disappearing from her descendants as they gallop through their alloted generations.

Do we really think it's time to say that Betsy's Best Forgotten?