Ruby Blyth

Cousins

Miss W. #NaGenWriMo 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

There are some great places to meet your cousins. Weddings, family reunions, birthday parties and picnics at the beach.

The first photo today of cousins are some male members of the Davey, England, Boxhall and Stirling families. The Stirlings are actually double cousins to me as they are related through both England and Davey surnames. They are being serious in this photo but I also have one with them making faces and mucking around with the photographer at my aunty Margaret’s wedding in 1949.

Davey Stirling and Boxhall cousins
  • Back row: Len Davey, Ted Stirling, George Boxhall, Jack and Bill Stirling (twins) and Trevor Davey
  • Front row: Frederick Davey, Henry Lewis England (my grandfather) and Les Moore (husband of a Boxhall)

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, I helped organize family reunions with my cousin Hilary Birchall nee Davey. I would organize the family tree to be displayed, while Hilary would book the venue and invite the relatives she knew. We would also put an advertisement in the local papers in Tasmania for people to ring us to find out more about the reunion.

Many of the cousins from the south of the state would come up to Evandale where the reunion was always held. They would make a day of it, with the kids and grandparents, bringing a picnic lunch to share. These reunions also involved visiting the local church where many of the Davey and Colgrave ancestors were baptised and buried.

Whenever cousins from interstate arrived in Hobart we would have a get together. This particular one celebrated birthdays of the cousins from Western Australia.

Four young cousins from the Ryan family who are now adults

Dad has one favourite cousin from the Smith side of the tree, Ruby Blyth. He is pictured here with Ruby at her 21st birthday according to the information on the picture. I recently met Ruby again when I visited Flinders Island on a trip. This is where many members of the Blyth family live and where Ruby worked at the local hospital.

Finally, get togethers with visiting cousins could also be held on the beach especially if in summer. Our favourite beaches were Long Beach at Sandy Bay or we would drive down to Snug area and the beach near Coningham Nature Reserve.

In the first picture Raelene is our cousin as her grandmother (Aunty Glad) was the sister of my grandfather Henry Lewis England. In the second picture Michael is the grandson of Frederick Davey (also seen in the background) who was my grandmother Hannah Davey’s brother.

According to my DNA test, I have thousands of cousins but the main ones I know live in Tasmania.

Readers: Do you often get together with cousins?

Dad’s DNA test vs Ruby his cousin

Miss W. Smith, Using DNA , , , , , , , ,

Today I decided to check out the new chromosome browser in Ancestry. Looking at dad’s results these are his ethnicity on each chromosome:

Parent 1 

  • Irish – 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
  • Scottish – 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 22
  • English/NW Europe – 1, 13

Parent 2

  • Welsh – 7, 13
  • Scottish – 2, 3, 6, 16
  • Swedish – 9, 17, 21
  • English/NW Europe – 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22

But which parent is dad’s mother?

When we first began this journey with dad’s DNA, it was to find out if he had Samoan heritage. Most of his cousins were very dark as were one of their parents with the surname Smith. Yet dad’s mother, Irene, had an extremely pale complexion.

IMG_2596.JPG
Dad’s mother Irene with her pale complexion

Mike and Maddie
Ruby’s mother Maddie with her darker complexion


Maybe looking at Ruby’s DNA ethnicity and chromosome browser, I can work out which side is dad’s mother and which is his father.

Parent 1 has the Samoan DNA so this is definitely from Ruby’s mother. The Samoan DNA comes from her father Robert Smith who was one quarter Samoan. Some of the other DNA will be from his wife Nellie Smith nee Somers/Summers/Clark/O’Keefe/Charles who is the common ancestor to both dad and Ruby. Nellie is a problem ancestor as we are unsure of her parents.

What other ethnicities are from Ruby’s mother that match or are similar to dad’s mother?

  • English/NW Europe – 2, 11, 13, 15
  • Irish – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22
  • Scottish – 7
  • Welsh – none
  • Swedish – 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 19, 21

Ruby’s other ethnicities from parent 1 include: Southern Bantu, Tonga, Nigeria, East Polynesia/New Zealand Maori, Benin/Togo and Southern Philippines.

Comparison

As dad’s parent 2 has no Irish at all, yet Ruby’s mum has Irish on 12 different chromosomes, this would suggest that dad’s parent 1 is his mother. Any chromosome ethnicity common to both dad’s mother and Ruby’s mother must come from their mother  who is their common parent.

  • Irish – 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 – Dad
  • Irish – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22 – Ruby
  • Scottish – 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 22 – Dad
  • Scottish – 7 – Ruby
  • English/NW Europe – 1, 13 – Dad
  • English/NW Europe – 2, 11, 13, 15 – Ruby

I think this fits well as dad’s mother’s father has mainly Scottish and Irish ethnicity. So that would be the remainder of the chromosomes not fitting with Ruby’s mother.

My next step to continue using the DNAPainter program to paint dad’s chromosomes using results from other databases.