During 2021 I have tried to encourage interest in DNA testing amongst the more senior members of the different parts of the Swinfield family. This is a very valuable tool for testing the relationships between people who the genealogical records suggest are connected in a certain way, joining previously unconnected branches of a family together and even bridging apparently insurmountable gaps in a genealogy. It is particularly useful when the identity of one or more parents or grandparents is unknown due to an illegitimacy or adoption or when the father of a child is not the man recorded in a genealogical document.
I wrote about the theory and practice
of using DNA testing in a One-Name Study in a Blog of May 2019. As it can be used to learn
more about the make-up and thus the genetic ancestry of either men or women, autosomal
DNA (at-DNA) is ideally suited to testing the accuracy of the Swinfield family
trees and perhaps joining the currently unconnected lines together.
This year, four members of two
of the larger Swinfield lineages have taken autosomal tests with AncestryDNA. They
were chosen as excellent testees as, being amongst the older members of their families,
they will have more Swinfield DNA than their descendants. Where possible, testing
the oldest people in the living generations provides the most information about
how much of the “Swinfield DNA” has been passed down to them and through which
ancestral line. It will also tell them about their ancestors and relations on
many other lines of their ancestry through both their mother and father. The raw
DNA data generated by AncestryDNA can also be uploaded, if required, to other
testing companies, such as My Heritage and Family Tree DNA, and a third-party
website called GEDMatch to increase the number and range of matches.
Andrew and Geoff
studying the tree of Family 3 at
the Swinfield Gathering in 2014
Three members of Swinfield Family 3 & 4 have been tested in 2021. They are Shirley Margaret Stott Despoja and Ian George Swinfield, both part of Family 3C, and Andrew John Swinfield, who is in Family 3A. Shirley, whose mother was a Swinfield, is a particularly significant and valuable asset to the study as she is perhaps the only living great-granddaughter of William Swinfield (1804-1876), the emigrant from Warwickshire to Sydney, Australia, in 1848. He was the founder of the very large Swinfield lineage of New South Wales named Family 3.
The “Swinfield DNA”, which has been inherited by his descendants through two of his three wives, can be identified by those who have tested today irrespective of the current surname which they now have. That same DNA will be shared by descendants of his Swinfield relations who remained in England after 1848. That same DNA is detectable in living descendants of the lines which come from William’s brother, John Swinfield (1806-1874), who followed him to NSW in 1853. Although it is probable that he no living descendants who are now named Swinfield, he was the founder of the large Swinfield Family 4 whose members will have the DNA that he took with him from England.
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| Geoff and Derrick in October 2021 |
His DNA is a very valuable asset to the research project as he has inherited Swinfield DNA. Sadly I am not his genetic 4th cousin, having received the DNA passed down to me from one Thomas Brown rather than Thomas Swinfield, the brother of Derrick’s ancestor. I am now busy analysing his DNA data and matches which is not only providing very useful information about his Swinfield cousins but also finding him new ancestors and relatives on many of his other ancestral lines.
It would be great to
test other selected older “Swinfields” especially from families that have not
yet given a sample. I would love to have DNA samples from those in Swinfield
Family 1, Family 12 and Family 44 (the Swinfield-Wells line).
Any volunteers in 2022?
