Progress on the DNA front

GREY line – we have two sets of results from this line, which match very well in 36 out of 37 markers, and demonstrate that the branch that emigrated to Canada is closely linked to the branch that emigrated to Australia. Both men belong to the R1b1b2 haplogroup. As far as we are aware, there are no longer any living male descendants from the branch that remained in the UK, so we are not able to test whether that third branch is also actually part of the GREY line.

YELLOW line – we only have one set of results for this line, from a descendant of John ADAMTHWAITE and Charlotte MARRINER – his results fall into haplogroup E1b1b1, a much more unusual haplogroup. We really do need to find at least one other YELLOW line representative to discover if our reconstruction of the YELLOW tree is correct.

OLIVE line - again, we only have one set of yDNA results from a male descendant of this line – and he represents the descendants of William ADAMTHWAITE who emigrated to Australia and his second wife Mary Jane HOUGHTON. His results also belong to Haplogroup R1b1b2, though they do not match with those results from the GREY line, so we can say with confidence that there is no link between the OLIVE and GREY lines.

However, in the absence of any other male volunteers descended from William ADAMTHWAITE and Sarah MASON who remained in the UK, I have taken a rather unorthodox approach and tested myself against a female fourth cousin who belongs from the Australian branch of the same line, using Family Tree DNA’s new autosomal DNA test called Family Finder. I am pleased to report that this confirms our relationship, so at least we can say with confidence that William and Sarah MASON’s family has been correctly reconstructed.

I have put up some information about this new Family Finder test here on my own family history website as there may be some amongst you who are interested in using the test to confirm relationships within your own family – the big advantage is that either males or females can take the test and it pinpoints relationships within around five generations with any blood relative (that is ANYONE descended from any one of your own 4x gt grandparents).

I have been unable to find anyone to agree to represent the descendants of the other two branches of the OLIVE line that ended up in Australia (John ADAMTHWAITE and Sarah NICHOLSON or Joseph ADAMTHWAITE and Emma SMITH). However, I know that there are LOTS of male Adamthwaites from both these branches living in Australia ... so please come forward and claim your free test!

If we are to discover more about the early origins and links between all the Adamthwaite lines, we also need to find living male ADAMTHWAITEs to represent the following lines –VIOLET line – this is the oldest line that we have traced back through written records, so it is particularly important to discover if and how members of this line fit into the overall picture. We know that there are several male Adamthwaites from the VIOLET line ... if you can put me in touch with any of them I should be very gratefulORANGE line – we believe that this line is actually a branch of the VIOLET line – as far as we are aware there are no remaining males from this line in the UK, but we believe there are some in the USA. In the light of the new discoveries about Mark ADAMTHWAITE there is also a possibility that one of his sons, Mark junior or Thomas Michael married and had children. Or Mark and his third Florence could have had more children. They could be living in either Canada or the USA. Can you help trace a volunteer from this line? BLUE line – I have recently discovered more information about the deaths of William ADAMTHWAITE and Jane STEPHENSON of the yellow line, that provides a hint that in fact there could be a link between the YELLOW and BLUE lines. The only way we can possibly discover the truth is through yDNA testing a BLUE line descendant. Can you find one?
There are free yDNA test kits just waiting for you to come forward!!

And, if they exist any longer, male descendants of the PINK, TURQUOISE and LIGHT GREEN lines (though I am pretty sure that these lines have already ‘daughtered out’) would also be most welcome to join our DNA programme.

I have decided to open up the Adamthwaite DNA Project to include anyone with Adamthwaites in their ancestry who would like to take a Family Finder test.  I hope that this will provide evidence about links within and between those Adamthwaite lines that no longer have any male Adamthwaites to participate in traditional yDNA testing. 

If you are interested, please read this new section about the Family Finder test, and contact me with any queries.