(11) My paternal great-grandfather was born out of wedlock and so was his mother. An astute RootsChatter was able to identify his possible mother between some word of mouth information and a perceived name change. I had been told the said great-grandfather born out of wedlock was the son of a Mr. Lewis of a certain farm and an "adopted Evans" who was "booted down to South Wales" after the illegitimate birth. My great-grandfather was born in 2 Jan 1882; and thus the 1881 census occurred at about the time of his conception. In the 1881 census we find a Mr. Lewis living at the farm I was told about, along with a 19 year old servant Ann E Hopkin. There was no sign of that Ann in any other record - census, BMDs, PRs. Yet an astute rootschatter noted in the 1871 census there is a household with a Hopkins family, and a step-daughter Ann E Evans that matched the age and place of birth of the Ann E Hopkins from the 1881 census.
When my father took Ancestry DNA in 2016, this was the first mystery it helped me solve - the "adopted Evans" from word-of-mouth information changed her name to the name of her step-father - Hopkins.
However alas, Ann E Evans was also born out of wedlock, and that sat as a dead-end for 13 years, when I began combing through my DNA matches. One of my closest matches was a man named with no tree or other details. We shared 102cM. From the shared matches, I assumed he was a half-2nd-cousin via Ann E Evans/Hopkins. This is noted somewhere else in this thread - since his name is uncommon I decided to go through each of the four men of his name in the birth index. By chance, the first one I looked at was the right one, and within minutes I was looking at the long-lost great-great-grandmother in the 1901 or 1911 census. As noted, I had word-of-mouth info that she was "booted down to South Wales", and indeed her whole family had moved to South Wales in the year following her birth out of wedlock.
The problem now was the unknown parentage of Ann E Evans. Combing through the matches I soon found MRCAs in the matches and quickly made an assumption to her father based on the closest matches. But as I found no further DNA matches correlating to lines of ancestry for that assumption, it was put to rest.
The situation was complicated in that there are multiple intermarriages and overlaps in MRCAs and matches' trees. For the latter, I'm referring to matches where you share multiple lines of ancestry. That was further complicated with apparent overlaps with other MRCAs from my direct paternal line (also illegitimate).
This is a common issue when ancestry is localised and I've had a few instances where I instantly snag on apparent MRCAs in a tree, only to realise the link is something else. So in this cluster for Ann E Evans's ancestors. Further complicating the cluster is that two of the closest matches are obvious NPEs that had my DNA work-file looking at the wrong family (Richards) for two years, when it was actually a James family the link came from. That NPE can clearly be seen, as I am also a descendant of Richards, and those matches did not overlap with other shared Richards matches.
So I was able to find about 10 matches with Richards ancestry, but on closer examination - paying attention to which matches match whom - I was able to determine the common link was really via James.
In the common matches I was able to find MRCAs for James, Humphrey(s), Davies, yet I couldn't identify any marriages between those families. Making it more difficult, these families were non-conformists with their CoE baptisms usually giving way to gaps around 1810. As is the case with such families, you tend to have considerable gaps in families, piecing them together from the 1841 census, wills, and marriage records.
The breakthrough came with three matches, that were all from Australia, and there was nothing I could see on Ancestry to bridge their common ancestors - Humphreys back to Britain. Digging a little deeper into public trees, I was able to find one hidden away, linked to a death certificate that listed parents back in Wales as Richard Humphreys and Jane James.
I asked the Ancestry user if they had taken Ancestry DNA - they had and gave me access to their results. Though we are 4th cousins (~50% chance of matching), we don't match, but they have the same correlating Humphreys and James clusters as me.
So that sealed the link to Humphreys and James, and since that union only had three sons, and only one of them remained in Wales by the birth of Ann E Evans, it's pretty much certain he was the father.
When I started with genealogy 34.375% of my tree was missing due to births out of wedlock and a line in India. That's now down to 15.625%.
One note: when you find MRCAs among matches, it's important to note if you have matches from multiple children of a marriage, e.g.
Richard Humphrey (1774-1842) m. Anne Owen
- Richard Humphreys (1804) <- 3 matches
- Anne Humphrey (1809) <- 6 matches
- Sarah Humphreys (1814) <- 2 matches
This suggests a probable descant from both spouses; or possibly a births by another man to the wife.
