This is one post I have written each time I have taken part in the #52ancestors challenge. I had to check out what was my favourite photo from previous years so I don’t choose one of those again this year.
My parents had a great friend called Jon Grey and he enjoyed photography. He took a couple of fantastic photos of my parents when they didn’t realise they were in his camera frame. These photos are very reminiscent of how my parents were – thoughtful, loving the outdoors and together always.
Jon caught them at just the right moment to get these photos and then he sent them to dad and also to me.
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.
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.
