DNA destroys a brick wall

For many years I’ve attempted to track down the origins of my ggg grandmother Jane Jefferson who married James Peters at Chew Magna, Somerset in 1800. I have very little to go on, just the marriage entry in the parish register – Jane Jefferson of this parish with a cross for her mark in place of a signature. She died in April 1850, so a year short of the census which would have shown her birthplace and her burial record gives an age of 73, so she would have been born in 1777 approximately. The census of 1841 gives her as ‘born in county’, but this can be unreliable as it depends on who gave the enumerator the information and whether or not that information was known or indeed, correct.

My early investigations involved searching for other Jeffersons in Somerset, Bristol and south Gloucestershire in the hope of finding a possible baptism for Jane. Although a rare name in the south of England, being a mostly northern one, there were a few Jeffersons around in the late 18th century; a family in Easton in Gordano  who seem to have arrived there in the late 18th century, one in south Gloucestershire and a few individuals, but none having a Jane born around the right time. For many years I wrote Jane off as one of those ‘brick walls’ that lie in wait for all family historians and unlikely ever to be solved.

I have a distant cousin on the Peters line who mentioned to me a possible baptism at the right time, but in rural Yorkshire. I didn’t discount the idea, but it seemed unlikely to me that an individual might move from rural Yorkshire to rural Somerset at that time. Emigration into towns and cities was common and even fairly wide-ranging moves within an area were normal. However, the advent of DNA testing has changed my opinion and I now accept that the baptism of Jane, daughter of George and Anne Jefferson in Hudswell. North Yorkshire on July 26th 1778 is the one for my ancestor. I have four DNA matches with descendants of George Jefferson of Hudswell (born 1742), Jane’s father, all indicating a relationship of 5th cousin which would be correct if my ggg grandmother is Jane, the individual christened in 1778.

How and why Jane travelled to Somerset is a mystery and one which will probably never be solved, but I am grateful that DNA testing has cleared up one of my many brick walls.