Family Tree UK

YOUR DNA WORKSHOP

This month, Karen takes on a challenging case from Margaret Armstrong, who has two possible candidates for her greatgrandfather. Can DNA help to show which one was her ancestor?

MARGARET WRITES

I read with interest your DNA articles in Family Tree each month and wonder if you can help me as I find DNA matches very daunting?

I was able to prove without a doubt who my great-grandmother was after researching a woman whom I thought was my great-grandmother for 28 years, through a DNA match. My great-grandmother was born in 1861 in Shepherd’s Bush, Middlesex, emigrated to New Zealand in 1879 and became a prostitute in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The name of my great-grandfather was not shown on my grandfather Alfred’s birth register, dated 1887. Now I have had a few DNA matches to which it appears my greatgrandfather was named William Williams, supposedly born in London c.1807, emigrated to New Zealand in 1865 with his wife Maria and a child named William. Here is where it becomes murky.

William Junior born c.1858-63 also supposedly born in London (birth register cannot be located) was old enough to have sired a son in 1886.

I’m confident that the name William Williams is my greatgrandfather but which

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