Ancestry DNA But No Matches With GTGrandfather’s line at all?

[JillyNutton]

I agree - obviously the marriage was going a bit pear shaped.  Interestingly - I wonder where the Barnet came as in Barnet Lewis came from? Perhaps there is a Barnet connection?

[JillyNutton]

I think Clara’s birth place on the 1901 census is incorrect as her birth was registered in Gloucester. But if Annie was fostered by the Nind family, she may have been visiting them all through her marriage.

[TreeDigger]

When exactly was she fostered? Because if I've found the correct person - Annie Eskins b.1868 Redmarley - then in 1871 and 1881 she's with her parents William & Ann in Worcestershire, a good 15mi from Tewkesbury. Unless the Nind family didn't live there at the time. And did Annie experience a 'Freudian slip of the tongue' when stating Clara was born in Tewkesbury? 

Interestingly, there's an Annie Lucretia Howells born 1903. Relative? She died in Wales in 1978.

Anyway, I think DNA will definitely provide the answer here. As Biggles50 said, the clue lies within the amount of centimorgans (cM) you and your sister share with matches. If your grandmother was fathered by Harold Nind, your shared DNA with Nind-Eskins descendants should be about 2x the amount you share with Lewis-Eskins descendants. Theoretically speaking.

In the end, DNA will uncover any family secret.

[coombs]

I take it you know Olive Lewis' exact DOB. You can work out round about when she was conceived then, this may help with the timeline.

While typing I found a Ancestry tree listing her DOB as 20 May 1895, so she was conceived around August 1894.

[JillyNutton]

I’ve 1 descendent match with my grandmothers’s Lewis sibling’s descendants - it’s her eldest brother’s great granddaughter with 51cm.

The closest I have from her Nind siblings is her sister’s grandson at 106cm and her brother’s great grandson at 46cm.

So I suspect that neither John MR Lewis or Harold Nind were my grandmother’s biological father?

[TreeDigger]

Interestingly enough I have a similar situation, but reversed. My 2nd gr. grandfather had children by two women, and I have numerous matches with descendants of both full and half siblings of my gr.grandfather. And the DNA distribution doesn't quite follow theoretical predictions, which is why I said "in theory" when stating matched DNA with descendants of your grandmother's full siblings should be twice that of her half siblings. It's literally the luck of the draw, i.e. how much and which bit of DNA got passed to one of the children, which bit they passed on, etc. So, also in theory (and reality) half sibs could've passed on more to descendants than full sibs. And the only way to see whether great-grandfather passed on a segment or whether it's from great-grandmother is to assign each segment to the correct individual, a.k.a. DNA painting.

So basically you'd need to analyze each match with a tool to see which great-grandfather passed on DNA to you. Unfortunately Ancestry doesn't provide chromosome information. It does, however, tell you which parents supplied possible bits of i.e. Welsh, Irish, etc. That would be the only current way to narrow down the 'suspect'.

Enclosed is a chart with the DNA distribution within my own family, it should give you some insight. If you right-click on the image and select 'open in new tab' you can see the whole picture.

TD

(EDIT re-uploaded chart with years of birth added)

[TreeDigger]

As you can see in the chart, 2x.gr.grandfather seems to have passed on more of his DNA to the children in the blue relationship, my gr. grandfather's half siblings, than the children in the green relationship, the full siblings.

Naturally I share more DNA with descendants of my grandfather's siblings.

(EDIT - Maybe I should add the birth years to the siblings and re-upload. Done!) 

[JillyNutton]

Looks fascinating, I have DNA Painter now and have downloaded my DNA to Gedmatch and MyHeritage - so can do the beakdown. Thank you so much of your help!

[TreeDigger]

Ah, the chromosome browser at MH should definitely help if you also get more matches there! And GedMatch can be helpful as well.

Do please let us know if and when you've discovered who your actual gr.grandfather is

Good luck!

TD