28 Jun 2014

More DNA results have arrived!

The results of the three DNA tests, which were taken during the Swinfield Gathering in Sydney, have now been received! What do they tell us about the members of Family 3 and the wider Swinfield genealogy?

Leslie, Ray & Ian give their samples
watched by John William
(the father of Andrew John) 


Fortunately, all three men, Leslie Ernest from Family 3A, Raymond Francis of Family 3B and Ian George of 3C match almost exactly. They only differ at one marker out of the 37 markers at which they were compared. This tells us that they really are Swinfields and do not have an errant paternal ancestor somewhere in the past as I do!






They really are “genetic” third cousins being descendants, as is Andrew John also of Family 3A, from William Swinfield (1804-1876), the emigrant of 1848. They also match with the other English representative of Family 3, Paul Frederick, who has been tested.

Swinfields genetic testers at the English Gathering
of September 2013. Paul Frederick, Derrick, Geoff and John Arnold
study the pedigrees
 
Furthermore, the five testees from Family 3 match very closely with those from Families 2, 5 & 12, who also been sampled. We now have 8 Swinfields whose DNA is almost identical. This suggests very strongly that all four branches have a common origin before 1700 and that, by inference, Family 4 which descends from William Swinfield’s younger brother, John, (sadly with no known living male descendants who have the surname) also joins on to that much larger lineage.

All the tests are identical at 32 of the 37 markers tested. There are only differences at 5 markers as:


Family 391 459b 464c 576 CDYb Genetic







distance
Derrick Swinfield 5F 11 10 17

0
Maxwell Swinfield 12 & 7 & 30 11 10 17 19 36 0
John Arnold Swinfield 2 & 9 11 10 17 18 36 1
Paul Swinfield 3 & 13 10 10 17 19 36 1
Andrew John Swinfield 3A 10 9 16 19 37 4
Leslie Ernest Swinfield 3A 10 10 16 19 36 2
Raymond Francis Swinfield 3B 10 10 16 19 36 2
Ian George Swinfield 3C 10 10 16 18 36 3

It now appears that the separate families are most likely to join up, based on the known genealogy of Family 3 and the DNA results as:



The results for those Swinfields, who have now been tested through FTDNA, can be viewed on the Swinfield Project page there. You can also read,in greater detail, what they tell us. Don't forget that is where you can also see the relationships between your male ancestors.

We now need a sample from another person on a different branch of Family 5. It would also be very useful to test members of Family 1 and Family 44 (the Swinfield-Wells branch). Those are the next goals for the genetic research into the Swinfield lineage.



11 Jun 2014

John Anthony Swinfield (1933-2014)

We are very sorry to learn of the recent death of John Swinfield. Born in the Pyrmont area of Sydney on 27th January 1933, he passed away on 24th May 2014. That was exactly three weeks after being at the Swinfield Gathering at Ryde in Sydney. He and his wife, Annette, were an integral part of that very successful day, which was held at the retirement home where his brother Ray now lives. We were very pleased to enjoy his company.


John leaves two sons, John and David, and three grandchildren, Samantha, Lachlan and Claudia. He will also be missed by his two daughters-in-law, Julia and Annette. John's funeral was held at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Victoria Road, Ryde, on 30th May followed by cremation at Macquarie Park.

John, Ray, the third brother Jim, and their families were reunited in September 2013 when 11 members met at Ryde. They were the three sons of John Anthony Swinfield (1902-1960) and Emily Delaney (1900-1991). I am sure that the meeting will provide them with very happy memories to cherish now that John is no longer with them.