Every generation back in time multiplies the total ancestors by two – no great news there but in only 5 generations before me, there are 2+4+8+16+32, a total of 62 ancestors to research. And as you can see from the fan chart, that only gets us back to about 1800.
Getting back to 1500 would involve some 15 generations and over 65,000 ancestors, and back to the doomsday book, in 1068, would cover over 30 generations. How many ancestors is that? A staggering 2.1 billion! Even more bizarre is that the ancestors living back then would be over 1 billion, more than the entire population of the earth at that point! How can that be so? Simple – our ancestors married each other and their cousins – which might explain a thing or two!
So, there’s clearly no way that any one person could, or would want to, research so many ancestors, let alone their siblings and surroundings.
Most people therefore research a single family name, usually their own birth surname. Others research more broadly across their names, but only go back a few generations.
I’m doing a bit of both – broad research across all lines for several generations, together with more far-back research for a small number of my family lines – generally my grandparents surname lines. I’m also doing research on Rachel’s family, in order that my own children know something of their own ancestors.
The following chart shows the last 6 generations of ancestors of my own children, including Rachel (first name Anita) and me. Like all images you’ll see in the online version of our family history, double click on it to make it larger and once opened up you can zoom in on it further.
The Last Few Centuries in a Nutshell
The following summarises our major family lines, those of my children’s great grandparents. Click on each one to explore in more detail.
As I trace these families back in time, I will update their stories in more detail in the hope that they will not be forgotten.
Looking Further Back
My son Josh, my brother Phil, my parents John & Moira, have all taken DNA tests from ancestry.com, as have I. These are autosomal tests which means that they analyse the 22 chromosomes which are irrespective of sex and identify and compare 700,000 markers with everyone else who takes the test. As more and more people take this type of test from around the world, the results can show where the highest concentration of people with ‘DNA like mine’ are currently living. This coupled with knowledge of human migration, helps Ancestry and their competitors make guestimates about how we got to where we are now. The test also establishes the amount of DNA in common with everyone else and from that determines the degree of relationship. I can happily confirm that those family members who took the test are indeed my family members!
I’ve also take a Y-DNA test, which looks only at the Y-chromosome passed down through the male line. This has the potential to link people today to a specific ancestor in common with someone else. It hasn’t so far done that. It’s also able to shed insights into our longer term origins, over thousands of years.
So what do these tests tell me about our ancestors?
- 59% of my DNA is shared by people in Scotland.
- We have DNA matches with other family history researchers, with shared ancestors dating back to 1700
- In the north east of Scotland, Caithness & Sutherland, we have DNA matches on many Sutherland, Swanson and Cormack ancestors. Interestingly, we do not have Gordon DNA matches, which implies that the family story about our illegitimate origins from the Gordon clan may not be true.
- In the Central Lowlands, we have many DNA matches on our Snowden/Snaddan, Thom/Tamm, Lamb, Geekie and Young ancestors.
- 27% of my DNA is shared by people in England and North Western Europe (Anglo Saxon).
- I have few if any of these ancestors outside of Yorkshire.
- There are a good number of DNA matches confirming our ancestors amongst the Glew, Pinder, Dealtry, Sykes, Bramham and Stones families, as well as the Spence & Blacker families.
- 7% of my DNA is shared with people in Norway.
- Of course this does not mean that we have recent family members living in Scandinavia, but its most likely the result of the Viking ‘invasion’ of the 9th century. Its tempting to assume that this passed through the Scottish line, but its also very likely that Viking blood flowed through the veins of our Yorkshire ancestors. Remember that the Vikings used the Humber and the Ouse & Trent tributaries to navigate their longboats right through the Spence heartlands, in 865 changing their pillaging attacks of the east coast to permanent occupation or settlement in Yorkshire & Lincolnshire. Their settlement at Torksey near Gainsborough was larger than most British towns of today.
- Of course this does not mean that we have recent family members living in Scandinavia, but its most likely the result of the Viking ‘invasion’ of the 9th century. Its tempting to assume that this passed through the Scottish line, but its also very likely that Viking blood flowed through the veins of our Yorkshire ancestors. Remember that the Vikings used the Humber and the Ouse & Trent tributaries to navigate their longboats right through the Spence heartlands, in 865 changing their pillaging attacks of the east coast to permanent occupation or settlement in Yorkshire & Lincolnshire. Their settlement at Torksey near Gainsborough was larger than most British towns of today.
- 7% of my DNA is shared with people in Ireland
- Again, there’s a general belief that the Irish & Scottish populations migrated in both directions. In our case, the Screen family (a grandmother on my mother’s side, and consequently a middle name of my grandfather) originated from Ireland, when Malachi Screen crossed over from county Mayo to Glasgow during the potato famine in the 1840s.
- We also have a possible more distant ancestor on the Blacker side, whereby the Blakkar & Blacker families arrived in Yorkshire from the Carrick Blackers in Ireland, descended form Blacaire mac Gofraid, the king of Dublin around 935. This I suspect is untrue, but makes a more aspirational story than poor Malachi who ended his life in Melrose lunatic asylum 15 years after a brief residence in Jedburgh prison.
So that’s my DNA. But there’s more to learn from a look at a comparison with the DNA of Josh (who will share some of Rachel’s DNA), Phil (who will share my parents DNA but in different proportions) and my parents, some of each of their DNA making it through into my results. You can see the detail here.
With all this in mind, these are my conclusions (perhaps scientifically flawed of course!):
- My father’s DNA is 61% shared with other people in Yorkshire, which is no surprise. However, more surprisingly is that 27% of his DNA is shared with people in Scotland. So far I have found no ancestors on his side from Scotland, although I am aware that Spence is a name which has a longer and more illustrious heritage north of the border. So I have more work to do here!
- My mother’s DNA is 63% shared with other people in Scotland and 25% shared with people in Ireland. Given that Malachi Screen who travelled from Ireland was only 1 of 16 of her ancestors of that generation, its likely we have several other Irish ancestors still to be uncovered.
- My brother’s DNA is 35% shared with people from Scotland, 28% with England, 18% with Ireland and 15% Norway. This implies that on my mother’s side, he shares more of her father’s Irish origin DNA whilst I have more of her mothers Caithness and Lowland DNA. And we both share a similar amount of my father’s Yorkshire DNA.
- My son Josh’s DNA is 45% Scottish, 37% English and 8% Welsh, with only 5% Ireland and Norway. This perhaps tells me that Rachel, were she to take a test, would be less Viking than we’d perhaps have imagined but would have a reasonable dose of Welsh. I’ve yet to find those ancestors in her tree, but with known family on the Wirral, and a longstanding penchant for family holidays in Anglesey, it’s only a short hop, metaphorically and geographically from Hoylake to the north coast of Wales.
Facts & Figures
The following are some of the statistics from our family history – I’ll update these from time to time as the research progresses.
Worth noting of course that the lifespan and marriage ages vary over the centuries, particularly the lifespan which is ever increasing.
Our Names
The following are the most common first names and surnames in our family history, so far. The high proportion of ‘other’ names merely demonstrates the enormous breadth and diversity of the research rather than focus on a single line.