The Family of Jeremiah Grace - DNA Project

28/08/2025

We appear to have found a new DNA match shared with this researcher and cousin Charles, with a descendant of Harriet Ann GRACE's son Edward Frank (born 1862 Spalding, LIN). They have been approached for collaboration.

Edward had son Frank WILKINSON (1897-1971), who had a daughter Beryl (1933-2012) who married . The family are in the Worthing area of SSX. This new match would be my 4th cousin, and the shared segment coming either through Jeremiah or his wife Mary Ann .

The importance of this type of match, back to Jeremiah and his wife, cannot be under-estimated, based on the need for clues for earlier missing ancestry. Such matches will need to be shared to GEDmatch so we can crossmatch all 26 people in the GRACE family, as one of us may show a DNA segment that relates to others outside of our tree.

04/08/2025

22/07/2025

Ancestry recently introduced matches by cluster a new ProTools feature that clusters your matches together. And no, before you ask, this is not the long-awaited triangulation. Ancestry’s new match …

26/06/2025

A very short mid-year update for family

On most DNA testing platforms the number of DNA testers has fallen overall, and so there is no progress to report so far this year.

There are 4 direct descendants of Jeremiah who have tested (on or ) with clear matches to project members and this researcher. Half have not replied and the others do not seem so interested in sharing their data. We do need need to see what DNA we have in common, and test whether it may open up new lines of enquiry to help us with Jeremiah's mysterious origins.

For those in the UK I hope you are enjoying ITV's new "Long Lost Family" series investigating modern-day foundlings. If Jeremiah is a foundling, as we suspect based on the lack of data, then all we can do is wait for that one-in-a-million chance of a significant match relating to 5 generations back suddenly dropping and the owner's willingness to collaborate as most of the family have done to date.

Have a good summer!

05/04/2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfVaYVADS24

The ancestry-research company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, raising questions about what happens to its stockpile of DNA profiles. Attorney and author Ma...

13/01/2025

I have been working through the 1921 UK census on , now that is part of the collection. It has been a useful exercise to see where the and associated families were living at the time.

The information showed that Martha GRACE was still alive and living in , which supported her death there incorrectly registered as Margaret.

Additionally, the line of Harriet GRACE through Edward Frank WILKINSON (1862) and the family in , has been clarified. His son Frank WILKSON (1897-1971) was an ice cream maker and eventually moved to settle in Sussex. Frank married Edith May and we have both WILKINSON & PACKHAM cousins. I have reached out to 4th cousins on Facebook and waiting reply. A number of other WILKINSON lines have been fleshed out too. No sign of anyone having DNA tested.

23/12/2024

ANNUAL PROJECT REVIEW 2024

After losing two branches of the family last year due to Non-Paternal Events (NPEs), we have one proven and a few mostly proven additional confirmed lines in our family tree.

The proven and shared line come from a tested cousin down another branch from Roger . Recently, we also had an unshared DNA match down the line from Roger's brother, Gerald GRACE, which confirms (for the first time) that this line is also a legitimate branch of our family tree. We have one GRACE cousin DNA test pending.

Elsewhere on the GRACE family tree we have confirmed DNA matches down the following lines, where data is yet to be shared:

- From Jeremiah's grandson, Charles GRACE into the family.
- From Jeremiah's granddaughter Mary Ann Rebecca into the family.

Attempts to find the three living survivors of the GRACE > line ( cousins) in have failed.

Although the family of my great granduncle John have been located in (both on DNA / genealogical websites and social media) none have opted to respond. The story of John was finally worked out after many years and presented on My English Genealogy & DNA. This is curious as their own research stops with the mysterious origins of John's son once he arrives in the US, so one might have thought they would be more interested in their roots.

The case for Jeremiah being the father of Thomas William remains unproven while there is no Y-DNA test from any of the male USHERWOOD descendants.

Investigations into some French records expanded our knowledge of our French family and the descendants of Joseph Thomas , which is more extensive than we first thought. The family of daughter Jessie has been traced to Kent, but remains unproven by DNA. The family of Isabelle-Alice SANDERS ( ) remained in France and two sons are known to have survived. Likewise, the family of Minnee-Rose SANDERS ( ) where one son is known. Outreach to apparent living descendants based on records and family trees / social media, has gone unanswered. I did discover that my 3C1R Joseph George CHAMBERS was taken into a forced labour camp in Germany during the occupation of France in 1942.

Patriarchs Joseph Alexander SANDERS and Jeremiah GRACE remain as brickwalls. Although many have pushed Joseph's ancestry further back, there is no DNA support for this.

For the earliest family origins, collaboration did reveal more about the origins of Jeremiah's wife, Mary Ann . This is a particularly difficult area of research due to pedigree collapse at many generations, making a DNA signature very hard to find. DNA does continue to support the line going back from BOWLES > > (also via the separate chromosome 19 study) > , with MRCAs Thomas SPAIN (1668-1742) & his wife Rebecca.

Thank you - I wish you the very best for the season and the best of luck in any research you undertake in 2025. This project will continue with small breakthroughs, unless a Y-DNA match to Jeremiah's line appears through modern DNA tests or those performed at archaeological sites. Whether the DNA gods are with us remains to be seen.

As always, if you are related and have DNA tested, integration into and knowledge from this project is available at no cost.

11/10/2024

have just done a major update to customer's DNA origins. I can see there are quite a few major changes that apply to me.

I will be discussing this in more detail on coming posts on my blog if this interests you too.

11/10/2024

has updated your ancestral origins.

08/10/2024

My column in in on page 46 for the October edition.

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/573121855/46/

Unfortunately, during publication the illustration accompanying the text appears to have dropped out, so part of the text may not make sense without the image. I have attached it below - "Display from DNA Painter showing shared ancestry up to 11th cousins".

06/10/2024

https://dna-explained.com/2024/09/30/myheritage-upload-your-dna-and-receive-all-dna-tools-free-forever/

From now through October 6th, you can upload your DNA file from Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA’s Family Finder, or 23andMe and receive all of the MyHeritage DNA tools for free, forever. Normally, th…

30/09/2024

More fiddling.

Over the last few days you may have noticed a few changes to your DNA match list, and some are quite important (and annoying!).

Firstly, the one-click buttons at the top to select your filter have disappeared. It is now an extra step by having to choose "filters" within a new menu.

In connecting your genetic cousins to an exact relationship, the maximum available is now 4th cousin (previously 5th cousin) which means all the 4CxR options have gone. Otherwise it is just "Distant Relationship" beyond that. I am wondering if they've moved the more distant relationship options into their add on Pro Tools to get people to pay more? Perhaps those of you still subbed to that will know?

You may also notice that many of your suggested relationships have been amended to much closer to you than they are in reality and were previously. Matches that were 5th-8th cousins previously and were a more realistic suggestions are now more commonly 3C2R or similar.

The green icon attaching the images of your matches also means something different now. Before, it indicated you have attached them to their place in your tree. Not now. It now indicates that your match has DNA-linked tree. This means my match list is much less green than it used to be. That icon was a valuable signal for visually sorting those who were connected by and who were not.

Grrr.