A DNA Connection

It is a while since I have posted a story and this ones comes with thanks to close relatives who have done DNA tests.

Mary Head’s origins were unknown to me until I solved the puzzle using DNA*.

May Head was born about 1768 in Willingdon, Sussex, a village just north of Eastbourne. Willingdon is thought to be the setting of George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”.  Mary was the daughter, and oldest child, of Edward Head and Elizabeth Balcomb**.  Her siblings, also born in Willingdon, were Edward, James, William, Henry (or Harry), John and Elizabeth. My uncle and I share DNA with descendants of Edward and John.  Curiously, Edward and his family lived very close to where I now live.

14 Children

 As it is Women’s History Month and was International Women’s Day this week, I thought I would share stories about a couple of my more prolific female ancestors.  My first subject is Caroline Rideout, another will follow in a week or so.

Caroline was the eighth of nine know children of James Rideout and Caroline Bennett. Caroline was born 4 April 1844 in Menangle near Camden, New South Wales, Australia.  Her parents had arrived in Australia six years earlier and I have written about them previously.  Her oldest surviving sister, Martha, married when Caroline was just 2 years old.