Theory in progress

Miss W. General info, Smith, Somers ,
PIRO4D / Pixabay

 

This theory is a big DNA puzzle.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you will realise I had my dad do a DNA test to check if we had Samoan heritage. Unfortunately we don’t but among his DNA matches there were quite a few names I didn’t recognize. I have since sorted them out into his paternal side – all came from England and his maternal side – all names unknown but having links in Tasmania.

So looking at his mother’s links, I again grouped into paternal – sorted them out, but the maternal side is half cousins (generally come from the Smith side of the family who do have Samoan heritage) or unknown.

A common name among the trees in this unknown group which originate with his maternal grandmother is Thorp. When searching his matches there are 40 that come up with that surname in their trees. They are third cousins or further back. Now to confuse matters even more, we are unsure of the parentage of dad’s grandmother. Her father is supposed to be Thomas Somers and her mother Alice O’Keefe but this has not been proven yet.

So does the Thorp name connect somehow to the Somers/Summers/O’Keefe names?

There was a Thorp family arrive in the north west coast of Van Diemen’s Land (as Tasmania was first known back in the early 1800’s). I have built their tree out and added as an mirror tree on my tree – not linked yet.

It begins with a Thomas Thorpe born in Yorkshire in 1783, marrying and having 13 children born in Yorkshire, before he dies in Wisconsin after moving there to be with his eldest son and his family in the early 1830’s.

Thomas’ s fifth son Henry is the one who moved to Van Diemen’s Land (VDL) after marrying in 1840 in Yorkshire. Their first child was born in 1842 in VDL. The couple had nine children – seven sons and two daughters. My dad has DNA matches through 4 of those children.

I still need to develop this tree further into those families in Tasmania and hopefully find a link to Somers/Summers/O’Keefe – my great grandmother’s parents.

This story and why it means so much to me

Miss W. #52ancestors, Allen, Wyatt ,
Peggy_Marco / Pixabay

Most of the stories I have researched in my family have been pretty straight forward. Lots of easily found data relating to births, deaths, marriages, children, newspaper articles giving the background to the family as well as photos to add that personal touch. Also more recently DNA matches proving the relationships.

But the one person who has taken a lot of research was my grandfather, William Elvis Allen. I have written about him often on my blog and wrote his biography here. But a bit of background to him.

  • Born in England just after his father died
  • Mother remarried
  • He joined the navy
  • Eventually arrived in Australia
  • First marriage in New South Wales then deserted wife and two children
  • Moved to Tasmania, added new surname of Wyatt
  • Married, two children, wife died
  • Remarried, one child (my dad) then deserted wife and child again
  • Moved back to New South Wales
  • Married again, three children, stayed with that family until death

Why was the research tough? I had been using paperwork from his marriages in Tasmania which were under his assumed name. He had listed his grandfather as his father, his mother’s maiden name was correct, his occupation as steward was correct but the most important bit was wrong. His surname at birth.

It took over twenty years research and DNA matches from the two marriages in New South Wales to finally get the answers I needed. Once I had the correct surname at birth, it only took a weekend to build his biography using all the different sources I could find.

This story means so much to me because all the research was completed and the biography written before my father and his half brother in New South Wales passed away in 2024. Also this was a story of collaboration with newly found cousins who each had their own stories and knowledge of William Elvis Allen aka Wyatt.

Please read the biography linked on this post to read the full story of my grandfather.

Adding colour

Miss W. #52ancestors

This #52ancestors topic was hard to think about. I saw the word colour and thought I could write a post including all the colours mentioned in surnames in my family database. But then I read the topic more carefully and saw the word record.

My dad’s stepfather was known to my brother and I as Uncle Mike. His wife, our grandmother as Nan Hydro. Until I began researching, all I knew about Uncle Mike was that he was Polish and had come to Tasmania after WWII. He had a very strong accent which made it hard to ask questions about his life as he would often get upset and emotional, making the accent more pronounced.

So a record I found that added a lot of colour to Uncle Mike was the Incoming Passenger Card for Surface Vessels for the Immigration Department for the Commonwealth of Australia.

He arrived in Australia on the ship Strathnaver and disembarked in Hobart, Tasmania on 8 August 1948. His most recent permanent address had been Rougham Camp in England. I found this was a post-World War II site for the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC). It was a central point for Polish soldiers and airmen who couldn’t return to Soviet-controlled Poland.  Uncle Mike must have said he wanted to migrate and two weeks after being assessed and checked medically, he was on the boat heading to Australia.

The record also noted he was born on 27 July 1915 at the town of Luszki in Poland. Talking to Uncle Mike he said this was a town on an island in the middle of the Minuta River and there were seven bridges onto the island.

On the record, Uncle Mike had said he was single, but this was later changed to married. The reason why was written up in a newspaper article before Uncle Mike married my grandmother.

He wanted to settle in Tasmania and have that as his permanent residence. He was going to be staying at H.E.C. Hobart, Tasmania. This is the Hydro Electric Commission and he would be based at Waddamana. This is where power stations were being built in central Tasmania including Bronte Park where he eventually stayed.

The cost of his travel was paid for via the Ex-servicemen’s assisted passage scheme.

There was also a personal description including height, hair and eye colour. Uncle Mike had no notable marks.

The second page of the record was a photo of Uncle Mike when he arrived in Australia.

Biography I wrote about Uncle Mike.

Mike at ANZAC Day parades