The Family of Jeremiah Grace - DNA Project

02/01/2026

A couple of additional discoveries following on from Ann being proven at 6xGGM. It turns out that her sister, Sarah HORN married a Jeremiah , who seems to be a 2nd cousin of Thomas (through Thomas & Susannah).

Having cousins extend their trees with the new BOWLES info has provide a tantalizing new connection (very small though) from cousin Sarah through Sarah & Ann HORN's brother William. I am waiting for the data to be shared which may prove this one way or another, i.e. push our DNA trail back another generation to 7x great William HORN & Mary LYON. That will be a result!

30/12/2025

Thanks to cousin Lizbeth who provided some more information about Barnes (husband of Mary Ann Rebecca ) from a newspaper clipping regarding his retirement from the Railway.

It mentions his wife ‘Mrs Usherwood, daughter of Jeramiah Grace (coach painter and writer at the railway works)’. It also mentions Barnes 3 sons (all in ‘the works’) and a daughter in Hastings (her Great Grandma – Ellen Alice Usherwood).

30/12/2025

Repost of the 2020 gravestone analysis mentioned in the previous post.

If anyone has good photographic processing techniques, have a go at processing the BOWLES gravestone. I don't have good software but have managed to get a bit more out of the stone, which suggests if it was ever photographed in IR or UV it might be fully revealed. We have more than transcribed.

The large red box contains the words "In Memoriam"

The blue box has the name of Thomas BOWLES.

The two yellow boxes have the word Ann. I believe the upper one will be the wife of John BOWLES and that John's memorial line must lie under Thomas but is not visible.

The lower "also Ann" refers to the name "Henry Harvey" in the yellow box beneath, which may refer to the wife of Henry (see below). This might imply that Ann, d/o John & Ann may have married a Henry Harvey. I cannot find a marriage to match.

The upper yellow box has "Henry Harvey dep."

There is other text but I am unable to clarify. For e.g. the word below the lower Henry Harvey, to the right appears to be "months" which would relate to the age of child for the lower Henry or a child's name we can't see.

What is interesting is that there is clearly a relationship between the BOWLES family and the HARVEY family, which would explain why guardianship of her children in Ann BOWLES Will was given to one William HARVEY of Sandwich.

A William HARVEY was baptised in 1773 Sandwich to Henry Harvey & his wife Elizabeth, who would have been 24 when Ann died; maybe even her son in law.. A Henry Harvey is given as being buried at Whitfield in 1800.

There is no evidence (yet) that our John BOWLES married an Ann HARVEY, for example.

There is clearly a lot more information that might be gleaned from this monument with the right techniques. if any gets insights, please comment.

30/12/2025

This is the simplified version of the overall direct line family story as provided by paper records, up to the point it is DNA proven at the level of my 6xGGPs. Comments welcome.

10xGGPs:
Thomas Sr (c1605-1680) of St Margaret at Cliffe, , Kent, & Jane FYNEAS (1614-1690). 3 sons & 5 daughters. Jane was the d/o Edward or (1571-1664) & Alice . FFYNEUX is believed to be a Norman French surname and probably from a family that settled after 1066 or subsequently in Kent. The most similar-sounding place is in the department of Finistère.

9xGGPs:
Phineas BOULES (1638) & Katherine HOWLING of St Margaret at Cliffe. It appears that Phineas was an anglicized version of his mother’s family name. 3 sons and 1 daughter, including another Phineas (1670-1740). Phineas is often recorded as Finnis or Finnes prior to spelling standardization.
[Note: There are historical notes for several Phineas BOWLES in the C17th/C18th, military men (Major-Generals, MP, and a Lord Lieutenant) however they were from a different family based in London and often confused in family trees, especially those that prefer people with status.😉 ]

8xGGPs:
Thomas BOULES Jr (1666-1722) & Susanna KENNET (1670-1730) of St Margaret’s at Cliffe. 2 sons known.

7xGGPs:
Finnis aka Finnes aka Phineas BOULES or BOWLES (1690-1750) & Ann COOK (1692-1784). 4 sons and 3 daughters. Sons include Jagger BOWLES (1724; presumably named after an ancestral family on his mother's side) and Finnis BOWLES Jr (1727-1747).
Junior’s gravestone can be found at St Margaret of Antioch graveyard and reads: “Here lieth interred ye / body of PHINEAS BOWLES / He died July ye 7th 1747 / aged 29 years / and left surviving Sarah / his wife /” (having married Sarah in 1744). Limestone headstone, two skulls with hourglass and two sickles:
https://www.stmargaretshistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/catalogue/7/71f83d78f0a2f033681d21c94a14ba4b-758x788.jpg

It was from about this time the spelling became standardized to what is found today. Phineas as a family name also fell out of use. Subsequent family burials can be found at near Dover.

6xGGPs:
Thomas BOWLES (1720-1761) & Ann (1722-1799) represent MRCAs based on DNA crossmatching. Ann was the d/o William (1699) & Mary (1698) of Whitfield. She married Henry in 1763 after Thomas’ death. This neatly explains the mystery of the gravestone at Whitfield I examined in my blog post of 3rd March 2020, wondering what the HARVEY connection was. The gravestone must be for this Thomas, wife Ann & her second husband. I will repost that analysis for ease of reference.

Thomas & Ann had 6 children, of which only some history is known:

Thomas BOWLES (1754-1833) was a Blacksmith based in who married Elizabeth BARTLETT (widow DODD) in 1783 and had 12 children by her. His second marriage was to Elizabeth widow DIXON in 1805. Thanks to his Will we know that Thomas owned a forge and 1 acre of land in Tilmanstone and that his surviving children included John BOWLES (1783, Blacksmith), Anne (1785-1862), Frances (1789-1876), Elizabeth (spinster; 1786-1865) & Angela (1798-1872).

John (1783) was the father of Mariner John Jones BOWLES (1815-1867) who married Elizabeth DAY in Deal before settling in New Zealand. John Jones BOWLES in the MRCA for all NZ DNA matches.

Ann BOWLES (1757-1834) had an illegitimate son John Emerton BOWLES (1778-1826) who has descendants in North America (no known DNA testers). She later married Johnson WEBB and lived in , Kent.

Susan BOWLES (1760-1799) married Thomas SMITH and lived in St. Lawrence. No descendants found to date.

My 5xGGF John BOWLES (1758-1795) was born in Tilmanstone but settled in Sandwich (buried in Whitfield). In 1780 he married Anne COOK (widow of Philip ) in Deal. In addition to my 4xGGF Thomas (1790-1818) the only known surviving children are a married daughter (Ann CARLTON) with no issue and Thomas’s boating partner and brother Henry (1791-1865) whose descendants settled in Reading as part of the developing railways (no known DNA testers).

30/12/2025

The BOWLES speculation has been running for 46 years, ever since I found out my 3xGGF Jeremiah married Mary Ann in 1836. We knew BOWLES was a common name so working out her ancestry was always going to be a problem. She was an only child and therefore any genetic expression inherited by GRACE descendants would be the only DNA on our side of the family tree available to match others.

Thanks to the collaborators in the family project who have DNA tested and shared their results, I have now successfully crossmatched 11 GRACE descendants with 10 BOWLES descendants in New Zealand. One segment on chromosome 5 seems to be a more common “family” marker and two others have been identified.

Thanks to the cousins giving me access to their match lists on , I was looking for clues way down in the low end of their lists. Any genetic connection was likely to be small. I was fortunate to notice a match with a distinctive pseudonym in several of the lists who had NZ BOWLES ancestry. Further investigation found a trail through other trees that lead back to in Kent, the same area our family came from. It was possible to use available records to connect both sides of the trees at a place commensurate with the degree of match, at my 6xGGPs; pushing back our BOWLES line by 3 generations. The genetically supported BOWLES family tree is shown in the image. It was John Jones BOWLES who settled in New Zealand. Matches in NZ are 5C2R, 6C1R & 7th cousins, depending on who matches whom.

I have several enquiries pending on Ancestry & which appear to be additional segments. I will post shortly the apparent paper trail back to Elizabethan times in St Margaret’s at Cliffe, near .

Happy New Year!

25/12/2025

03/12/2025

The latest update is completed (pp. 113). I shall be issuing it to participating DNA-matched cousins this week, based on email list. Remember, if you are entitled to a copy and don't get an email, please let me know.

01/12/2025

The project has been informed of the passing of Brian Walter GRACE (1930) at the aged of 94 years. Our condolences to his family. Brian was the Reading-born only child of Walter Frederick GRACE (1911) of Birmingham and Edith MORRIS and the grandson of Frederick George GRACE (1883). He had two sons, two of whom are still living (son Paul having passed in 2023).

Brian represented the last of three living 2C1Rs to this researcher, who were the oldest and the most complete reservoir of GRACE genetics. It is with regret that we were unable to obtain his DNA.

With the data from cousin Richard being the only data from that generation (after the deletion of Brian's cousin John's data by his manager before we could use it), the opportunity for obtaining the best DNA evidence has now closed. It now turns to 3rd cousins who would have inherited no more than a random half the DNA of their parents, which inevitably means some signals from our family's past has been lost.

Once genetic distances reach 3rd cousins, we enter the window when no DNA may be shared at all from the target generation being investigated; having been lost in the intervening generations. We know of 8 living 3Cs in branches that have yet to be genetically tested, so we will hope for some unique results should they ever test that may break through the genetic wall we have faced.

This is also a reminder to all who are doing family DNA studies to collect the data from the oldest generation while you have the opportunity and preserve it for later generations. The easiest way is to turn up at Christmas gatherings with DNA test kits in hand!

01/12/2025

I am a unicorn!

This is a term used by (FTDNA) in the Y-DNA analysis (male line) for people like me who represent either a rare or under-sampled male genetic line.

As you can see on the image (I am at the top, and my 3rd cousin inferred as the same through a less detailed test), our nearest male connection goes back to the Bronze Age. The result is a direct line, or single 'unicorn' spike. Other people we very distantly relate to in the chart appear in genetic branches more resembling deer antlers.

My Y-DNA has been on this database for over 20 years, so I am not sure whether our line is rare, but certainly under-sampled.

The chart does now show our connection to the mediaeval burial uncovered beneath St. John's College in Cambridge (St. John 78), who I have posted a picture of in this blog.

Not shown on this chart, now that Tutankhamun's DNA has been added to the historical database, is that the male GRACEs share a common male ancestor at around 17,000 BCE. That's nice to know. 🧬

29/11/2025

GRACE DNA Project – End of 2025 Report

Dear Genetic Cousins

It has been nearly 25 years since my first DNA test and it has been 46 years since the journey into our shared past began. Morphing from a family history into a genetic genealogy during the “noughties.” Irrespective of what we have discovered to date, depending on which side you are looking from, the truth is that there are only few living descendants of Jeremiah ; probably less than 100 in total. We are a unique genetic group.

It has been a frustration that we can easily connect ourselves because we all seem to have inherited the same pieces of DNA. Those that have different pieces have not led us anywhere at the moment, despite all the different creative approaches I envisage from time to time and the help from some who appear to be distantly related to us. However, I am using the experience to help others with their DNA and solving many adoption and illegitimacy questions.

We are as well positioned as we can be to make breakthroughs as the genetic tree is on and the full family tree is on with over 85,000 people (scoring 9.5 out of 10). My thanks to those collaborating genetic cousins who have kindly shared their DNA results to (where some are included in the 90 kits I manage on that platform) and those who tested with Ancestry, who copied their data over to the main DNA project on MyHeritage. As those following will have noted, MyHeritage has now gone full genomic with their testing which means that the window of opportunity for the free uploading of data from other testing companies has permanently closed. MyHeritage provides frequent offers, so the only way to join the project is by independently testing with them (kits are as low as €29 in some online sales), so price should not be a barrier. If you still haven’t joined in, DM or email me for advice before you get started.

Along the way we have lost some data but have gained the occasional new cousin. There remain 6 cousins who have declined to join the family project by sharing their DNA. One from Ernest Sanders GRACE, one from Charles GRACE, one from Gerald GRACE, two from the side, and a new cousin on the side from Harriet GRACE. Any match is extremely rare, so we hope to see their data sometime. There were also three people who responded positively to DNA testing following the initial outreach but then did not follow through. Hopefully, they will revisit the idea later.

As a reminder, DNA collaborators are entitled to a copy of the GRACE DNA Family History studies. There are two volumes:
Part 1 covering GRACE, GRACE = BOWLES, GRACE = SANDERS & SANDERS= (last issued October 2022, 48 pages) and
Part 2 covering the GRACE = BRADLEY side, for those interested in the extensive ancestry (last issued December 2022, 46 pages).

If you did not get your copy, please email or DM me and I will send. Since the 2022 editions, I have been waiting for some of the additional DNA matches mentioned to share their data, so the latest draft version of Part 1 (now 115 pages) has been pending. I think I will now wrap that one up in the next few weeks and issue it to those of you who are on my email list. Just in time for Christmas, hopefully!

Some short notes on where we stand:

- Jeremiah: Nothing new in terms of Y or atDNA, except ancient Medieval remains in Cambridge hint at the family being local to East Anglia. A few very distant matches suggest leads into , but nothing concrete.

- Very little DNA signal coming through Mary Ann as she was an only child, however we have a tentative DNA link to a BOWLES line from into Australia/New Zealand (no reply). If we change our opinion on Thomas, the Boatman, Mary Ann’s father, then we can explain the match. I need to see the match in detail first.

- in Middlesex: Nothing proving anything prior to Joseph Alexander, despite what people may have in their own trees. I am still getting paternal signals from the West Midlands. The historical newspaper article in Leicestershire that gave the possible SANDERS gunmaking story did refer the “the family business in .” After finding JA’s daughter Elizabeth Mary Ann being baptised in (YKS) and following her marriages to , they went and settled in . Therefore, there may be wider roots that we are unaware of in this area. We have one US STEVENS cousin who provides a DNA link (no reply). Note that many people with an interest in our family have the wrong Elizabeth and the wrong marriage, so the is a lot of disinformation out there for this family.

- ASHFORD: Several cousins have now DNA supported Charlotte ASHFORD (1810) as the one who was born in Scotland. This follows the earlier discussions with members of the family that there was some connection between Birmingham and through the WALKERs and that they were a Scottish family. My origins, according to Ancestry, is 7% Central & NE Scotland on my paternal side. The surname comes from “waulker,” the son of a fuller or clothmaker, particularly part of a process used in the making of tweed. The name is widespread in Scotland.

- SANDERS in France: The access to some French records have expanded the tree headed by Frederick Thomas SANDERS and the family. This will be in the new edition. I have found a few living cousins in France on Facebook but have not yet got any answer to outreach to fill out the details, despite my best French!

To conclude, your DNA contribution remains important as I do go into the databases semi-regularly, specifically on the look out for new matches or possible leads that may move the needle forward in some of our problem areas. One of us may have the answer. I hope that new AI-based algorithms will be able to provide more clues soon. The project remains low-key until new data makes an appearance.

Wishing you all the very best,
Mark