A few Blogs ago, I had shown the possible births of my ancestor Robert Hartley:
- Betty was my choice on my Hartley web page. I had also guessed that Betty Baldwin was the Betty. On the plus side the couple was from Trawden. However, the Betty name did not get passed down in the family. Perhaps because she died young?
- This Robert lived in Reedy Moor.
The faint red arrow near the word ‘Tunnel’ is where Reedy Moor Line. This is a little way from Trawden. However, the name Ann comes down in the family as the only daughter of Robert Hartley
3. Bough Gap is in an area near Trawden.
In order to give this Robert a chance, I will have to change his birth date and place in my Ancestry Tree. This is what I currently have:
I was a little unsure as to how to enter Bough Gap as it appearst to be part of Winewall which is part of Trawden.
Next, I wait to see if any ThruLines appear. My mistake in my earlier Blog, was that I did not change the birth of Robert Hartley on my family tree. I also need to remove the old birth reference that I had:
Re-Playing Out the James and Mary Scenario
Here are potential marriages for James Hartley and Mary
- Mary Holmes would be around 44 when she had Robert if she was 20 when she married
- The James Mary Stansfield married was a weaver. However, I suppose there were many Hartley weavers
- The James that Mary Berry married was a widower
- A witness for the marriage of Mary Robinson was John Shackleton. Mary Pilling’s mother was a Shackleton. Mary Pilling’s grandfather was named John Shackleton.
Based on the above, I am leaning toward Mary Robinson in this scenario. Here are some baptisms for Mary Robinson:
None of these place names sound familiar. Here is Barrowford:
I must say that ‘ye Call’ and other locations sound mysterious, but I do not know where that is.
Bough Gap Robert, Son of James and Mary Hartley
I think I now have what I was trying to achieve in my previous Blog:
It looks like it took a while to baptize this Robert. He was born in May and baptized in July:
I have left Robert’s mother vagues in my Tree as just Mary and the father is James Hartley.
ThruLines Compared
I can only look at ThruLines for DNA testers that I have access to. An important testers is my father’s cousin Joyce.
Joyce has only one ThruLine for Helen and that is through William who I supposed would be a son of James and Betty, so that doesn’t really count.
However another of my father’s cousins who has a tree showing Betty Baldwin as the mother of Robert fares no better:
Here the extra Robert Hartley Line should be a Pilling Line.
MM’s ThruLines do better a generation earlier where the tree has John Hartley as the father of James:
Here MM has four ThruLines. This could mean that:
- John is right, but Betty Baldwin is wrong
- James and Betty Baldwin had few children
- Going back a generation gives the chance of there being more Hartleys to have ThruLines for even though they are wrong.
The other two ThruLies are Brian and Sue:
I like the chances of John Hartley being a Hartley ancestor based on the DNA matches of my father’s cousin Maury.
Summary and Conclusions
- Due to the number of Robert Hartleys from the area of Trawden around the birth of my ancestor Robert Hartley in about 1803, it is difficult to try to find out which Robert is which.
- My father’s cousin Maury’s DNA administered by his daughter has a genealogy which includes John Hartley and Ann or Anna Bracewell.
- This couple appears to have a good series of DNA matches.
- If this John Hartley is indeed my ancestor and had a large family, that could account for the number of DNA matches.
- If this John had a son James who had a small family or a smaller number of descendants who had their DNA tested, this could account for a smaller number of descendant DNA matches.
- It may make sense to try to start with John Hartley and Anna Bracewell as the grandparents of Robert Hartley and try to fill in the middle with a likely son James being the father of Robert Hartley.