Family 3B had 13 attendees at the Gathering

Brothers Ray and John and their family tree

Our hosts at the Swinfield Gathering were brothers, Raymond Francis and John Anthony of Family 3B. I wrote about their own family reunion in my post of 5th January 2014 on this Blog.

Family 3B

This part of the family can trace their ancestry back to the youngest son of William Swinfield (1804-1876) who claimed to be a tailor in England by his first wife, Sarah Ballard. That son was born in Hartshill in Warwickshire before the family left for Australia in 1848. They are the great-grandsons of that immigrant, Daniel Swinfield (1842-1877), and his wife, Eliza Hayes through their youngest son, another Daniel (1877-1905). John's wife, Annette Marie, and their two sons, John Joseph and David Gerard were also with us. David's wife, also Annette Swinfield, brought along their two children, Samantha and Lachlan to meet more distant relations.

John Allan Swinfield with Penny and Felicity 

They were the descendants of Daniel's older brother, John Swinfield (1873-1961), though his wife, Margaret Prior. John Allan Swinfield is their grandson and he brought with him his two daughters, Penny and Felicity. Unfortunately, John's cousin, Ronald John, could not be with us but his wife, Stephanie, was there with one of her daughters, Debbie Humphries. 

Debbie Humphries, Stephanie Swinfield,
David Swinfield & John Swinfield

Family 3A was very well represented

38 members of Family 3 came to the Gathering. All are descended from William Swinfield (1804-1876), a native of Wolvey in the county of Warwickshire in the English Midlands, who arrived with his family aboard the Walmer Castle which reached Sydney on 30th December 1848.

Family 3A has as its ancestor William's second son who survived to adulthood. That was John Swinfield (1838-1903) who was the child of William's first wife, Sarah Ballard (1800-1845). John's mother died prior to the family's emigration. By then, his father had married again to Sarah Williamson, the progenitor of Family 3C. John's oldest brother, Thomas (1824-1881), did not travel to Australia with his father and siblings. He has a large number of descendants still in England.

John and his wife, Eleanor Sophia Burrows (1840-1890), a granddaughter of Frederick Meredith, who had arrived in the First Fleet of 1788, produced 10 children. Three died in their infancy.

Leslie Ernest and David Frederick Ebenezer 

Andrew, Chloe, Lauren with
John William Swinfield 

Of their 6 adult sons, two were represented at the Swinfield Gathering. The oldest son, Henry (1858-1923), had two grandsons who were there. They are David Frederick Ebenezer and John William, who are first cousins. All 4 children of John William and 4 of his grandchildren also came along to meet their relatives.

Thea, Pamela, Lauren, Helen,
Andrew and Chloe descendants
of Henry & Eleanor Sophia Swinfield  

Sid and Linda Swinfield,
two more of Henry's descendants  

Leslie Ernest Swinfield, the grandson of their fifth surviving son, James Ernest (1871-1923), was also able to join us. He is second cousin to David and John. 

Alan and Cheryl Cooper with her father,
Leslie Ernest Swinfield  

He was accompanied by his daughter Cheryl and her husband, Alan Cooper, who celebrated his birthday on the day of the Gathering! 

The Australian Swinfields gathered in force!

Di and I are now home from our five week holiday, where we visited Indonesia, to see my son Tom, and Australia. It was a wonderful experience to see just a very small part of Australia, travelling the east coast from Sydney to Brisbane and then moving on to Cairns and into the rain forest where we stayed at the wonderful Bloomfield Lodge.

On our return to Sydney, the Swinfield Gathering took place on Saturday 3rd May 2014 at the Calvary Retirement Community, now home to Ray Swinfield. He arranged for us all to meet there in what proved to be an excellent venue where we could mingle and chat with the 45 people who came together. 

Although the majority were from the Sydney area of New South Wales, others made the journey from other parts of the state whilst others travelled in from as far afield as Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria! Ray's sister-in-law, Annette, ably supported by his brother and nephew, the two Johns, brought in a wonderful array of cakes and kept everyone supplied with tea and coffee.

There was great excitement as people found themselves on the family trees which I had brought with me from England, identifying how they were related, and meeting newly-found cousins.

The attendees were all from Families 3 and 4, being descendants of William (1804-1876) and John (1806-1874), the two sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Swinfield who arrived in very late 1848 and very early1853. The vast majority are part of the very large pedigree 3, accounting for 38 of those who were there. Three members of Family 4 also came, representing John's family, which includes, as far as we know, no living Swinfields. 

Di kept us all in order so that we all knew exactly “who was who” and made sure that we had a photographic record of what was a very enjoyable and informative event. 

Four weeks to the Australian Gathering!

Tomorrow Di and I leave for our holiday in Indonesia and Australia. After a two week tour of the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns and a spell in the Rain Forest, we will be back in Sydney by 26th April.

Just a week later, on Saturday, 3rd May, it is now certain that we will have a very successful Swinfield Gathering. Thanks to Ray Swinfield, we will all meet together at:

Dalton House Auditorium

Calvary Retirement Community
678 Victoria Road
RYDE, NSW 2112

Anyone who is now called Swinfield, was one in past, or who is descended from someone who had the surname, will be very welcome to join us there from 1-4pm. There will even be tea, coffee and afternoon cakes!

At present, 35 people have told us that they will be coming from many parts of the country. Another 8 have suggested that they may be able to be there. No doubt others will come along on the day unannounced. The more the merrier to make it a great success!

Of the “definites”, they represent these parts of the family:

Family 3A             7

Family 3B             9

Family 3C           14

Family 4                3

Family 5                2

So whichever branch you are on, of the Swinfield tree in Australia, there will be cousins there for you to meet, probably for the first time. Don't miss out on being there. If you have other relatives who have not yet decided to come, encourage them to be there too. A Swinfield Gathering does not happen often! They will regret missing out. 

Bring with you any old Swinfield documents, photographs or certificates that you have in your cupboards or attics to share with us all. You will also be “encouraged” to be in the group photographs, which will document the day for posterity.

We look forward to meeting you all on what, we are sure, will be a great day.

Geoff, Di, Ray, John, Andy & Linda  

The Australian Gathering will happen!

In only two months time in early May, Di and I will be nearing the end of our visit to Indonesia and Australia. On the last weekend before we fly home via Singapore, there will be another Swinfield Gathering. This time we will be in Sydney on Saturday, 3rd May 2014.  

Ray Swinfield of Family 3B has arranged for us to all meet together from 1-4 pm at the Auditorium of the Calvary Retirement Community, 678 Victoria Road, Ryde NSW2112 where he lives. All current Australian Swinfields, or those who have used our surname in the past, are very welcome to come along. There you will be able to find yourself on the family trees, which I have drawn up showing the Antipodean bearers of our name, and, most excitingly, meet up with new cousins and distant relatives who were previously unknown to you. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity gather together to share in the history of “our family”. The vast majority of Swinfields there will be related as they are descendants of William Swinfield (1804-1876) who reached NSW at the end of 1848.You will all be cousins of some sort. I will show you how!

How many Australian Swinfields may be there? I have a rather vague idea how many people with our rare surname live near Sydney. My guess is somewhere in excess of a hundred. There are certainly 43 subscribers listed in the current White Pages of whom 33 live in NSW. All were written to back in mid 2012 by Andrew Swinfield. He will now be contacting you again, inviting you to be there. Please respond so that we will know how many to cater for. We hope that as many of you as possible will make the effort to come along to find out about the family's history. Bring along your family's documents and photographs to share with your new-found relatives. 

It is likely that we will have attendees from as far afield as Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmania.  Let's make their trip worthwhile by as many people as possible being there from the NSW area. I will be there from the other side of the World representing your English cousins!

Put this date in your diary and be there on May 3rd!

DNA gives us more clues to a single ancestor!

Another DNA test result has now been received for a male Swinfield. John Arnold Swinfield of Family 2, who was one of thepeople who attended the Swinfield Gathering inSeptember 2013, commissioned a test from Family Tree DNA. We have now have the answer!

	Family	393	390	19	391	385a	385b	426	388	439	389a	392	389b	458	459a	459b	455	454
Derrick Swinfield	5F	13	24	14	11	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11
John Swinfield	2	13	24	14	11	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11
Maxwell Swinfield	12	13	24	14	11	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11
Paul Swinfield	3	13	24	14	10	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	10	11	11
Andrew Swinfield	3A	13	24	14	10	11	14	12	12	11	13	13	29	17	9	9	11	11

447	437	448	449	464a	464b	464c	464d	460	GATA-H4	YCAIIa	YCAIIb	456	607	576	570	CDYa	CDYb	442	438
24	14	19	30	15	16	17	17	11	11	19	23	15						12	12
24	14	19	30	15	16	17	17	11	11	19	23	15	14	18	17	35	36	12	12
24	14	19	30	15	16	17	17	11	11	19	23	15	14	19	17	35	36	12	12
24	14	19	30	15	16	17	17	11	11	19	23	15	14	19	17	35	36	12	12
24	14	19	30	15	16	16	17	11	11	19	23	15	14	19	17	35	37	12	12

John is an exact match to Derrick Swinfield of Family 5 at the 32 markers at which both have been tested (Derrick's test was done through DNA Worldwide). This must surely lead us to the conclusion that families 2 and 5 have a common origin. Of the other three men, who have also had a 37 marker test from FTDNA, Maxwell from Australia, a member of Family 12, differs at only one marker from John, giving him what is termed a "genetic distance" of only 1, having a different value at marker DYS 576. Paul Swinfield of Family 3, has a genetic distance of 2 from John, also having a different value at marker DYS 391. Surprisingly Andrew, Paul's cousin, has a “GD” of 5, having a different STR value at three other markers. However, they do share a common mutation at DYS 391 where, unlike the other three men, they have a value of 10.   

John, Derrick, Maxwell and Paul all seem to have a "typical" Swinfield Y-chromosome. It is now very likely that the four families which they represent (2, 3, 5 & 12) have a common origin. They must surely share a common ancestor, within the last seven centuries, since the surname of Swinfield came into existence! I wonder how the other main branch, Family 1, would match up?

All we have to do now is to find the “paper trail”, through genealogical research, to join them all together. Easier said than done!

John and his sister, Clare Woodward, can trace their ancestry back to Burbage via the parish of Quorn(don). Their great-grandparents are buried in the churchyard there. In the adjacent grave is their infant son, William Henry, who died at only 6 months. This parish has a fantastic website which provides access to most of its records.

How is their great-great-great-grandfather, the blacksmith of Burbage, who was born about 1773/4, related to the earliest known ancestor of each of the other main branches? The DNA results tell us that they were all “cousins”! 

Another Swinfield Gathering in Australia

Another reunion of members of one of the Swinfield families took place in late 2013. This time the meeting was in Australia.

Wolvey, Warwickshire

Wolvey church

Since 2003, Raymond Francis Swinfield recently of Rozelle, NSW, and myself have corresponded about the origins of his branch of the Swinfield family. He is part of what I have called Family 3B, stemming from William Swinfield (1804-1876), the tailor of Wolvey and Nuneaton in Warwickshire, and his second wife, Sarah Williamson. They emigrated to Australia in 1848, taking with them their five younger children aged from 7 to 18. The majority of Australian Swinfields are descended from this couple through their sons John (1838-1903) and Daniel (1842-1877). I wrote about Ray's family in Part 23 of this Blog in November 2012 and in Part 8 of September 2011. He and his three brothers are the great-great-grandsons of William and Sarah through Daniel.

The three boys in 1938: 
John, James & Ray

The three "boys" in 2013: John, James & Ray

On 14th September 2013, following his move into a retirement home due to ill health, Ray received an unexpected visit from many members of his extended family. These included his older brother, John Anthony (born 1933), and his younger brother, James Ronald (who was born in 1935). They had not met for more than 20 years! Other members of the family who were present were John's wife Annette, their son David and his wife, also Annette,and their two grandchildren. Jim was accompanied by his daughter, Deborah, her husband and their two children.

Back row: Samantha Mary, Annette Mary, Annette Marie, John Anthony, David Gerard, James Ronald, Edward James Adcock, Deborah Jane (Adcock), Madison Alexandra Adcock  
Front row: Lachlan David, Raymond Francis, an unknown woman    
Photograph taken by Michael James Adcock 

A very happy meeting of 12 members of the Swinfield clan together in one place for first time. It just does to show that it is never too late to meet up with our relatives!