Stories Of My Irish Families

Irish Native/Planter Stories

Friday 17 April 2015

Maternal connection through my Newenham / Burton Line to the Usher's

In recent weeks, through DNA technology, I have been able to identify, a little bit more of my lineage. Almost of "untold proportions" and this connection, also connects to more of a Lord Mayor of Dublin link than I ever thought of.

Most of this connection, is based upon Lady Grace Anna Newenham (nee Burton).
Lady Grace, was a Daughter of Sir Charles Burton - a former Lord Mayor of Dublin and Margaret Meredyth.
She was also a Grand Daughter of Alderman Benjamin Burton, also a former Lord Mayor of Dublin and Grace Stratford.
She married Sir Edward Newenham in 1754.

I am placing myself into "depths of the unknown", as my knowledge with the Burton lineage, is very little.
Most of my past research, was on Lady Grace's husband - Sir Edward Newenham, due to his involvement in the Irish Parliament of the 1700's, but most of this, was due to the fact that he was "Male" and his communication was well published.
Lady Grace's communication was seldom found. So I found it very difficult to concentrate on this line.

Until a few weeks ago, most was lost with this Burton line. I had to put this on the back burner as such. It sort of annoyed me, why I couldn't find descendants of this Burton/Newenham line.
But, to my amazement, when I least expected it, I then had contact from a person (a relative of a DNA tester), who's DNA linked to myself and my Mother's, with Burton/Newenham lineage.
Quickly, we established a line and the stories followed. Crazy feelings happen, when you can find "closeness" to using the science of technology.
We have now confirmed, on where we sit in our "cousin-age" - DNA testers are 5th Cousin's - 2 x removed.
The DNA was telling us that the Family Tree's were correct and that we did share a common ancestor. Initially, I was thinking the Newenham line, but quickly I realised that I may have made a mistake and it seemed much stronger, to show Lady Grace's DNA was coming through.

After finding this story, I tempted a little bit of fate and decided to see if my thoughts, of how to see the segments of DNA, was holding correct.
When I did a bit of trawling through the matched area of Chromosome 17, I discovered a Man who had the Usher name.
Unbeknownst to me, I didn't pick up on this straight away. It wasn't till I looked through the supplied Family Tree, that was sent to me from recent contact, did it uncover such a discovery.

The Maternal line of Lady Grace, contained a link to a daughter from an Usher (Ussher) /Loftus marriage. That is, Ann Usher - daughter of Sir William Usher & Isabella Loftus.
Lady Grace's Maternal Grandfather - Sir Richard Meredyth was a Grandson of Ann Usher.
So, when you do the math, that made Ann Usher, a 2nd Great Grandmother of Lady Grace and the marriage of Usher/Loftus, made it 3rd Great Grandparents to Lady Grace.

This was the most part of a "eureka" moment for me, discovering a "plausible" triangulated  lineage of DNA. But, I was a bit flabbergasted, as it seemed to be a few more generations than I expected.
What I did need to do, was to contact the Usher man, in hope that we could discuss this new found discovery. As this Usher connection, was still plausible, I had hoped for his Usher line to confirm a connection to this Burton/Newenham part of the Usher line. The contact was made by an "Educated Guess", as there was more than circumstantial evidence to go on.
After contact was made, he gladly supplied a Family Tree, in which divulged the connection.
He mentioned that his line was much closer to a British lineage of Usher's, but a few more generations further up, showed the Irish Usher connection.
The Usher Family Tree did show lineage to the area, where the Newenham/Burton Family Tree was thought to connect.
Both tree's, have now confirmed the connection. Unbelievable.
What I didn't know at the time, was that this line of Usher's had connection to being former Lord Mayor's of Dublin, as well. Small world.

But, to assist in proving this line, my Mother's DNA, did show the same segments in the same exact area of her Chromosome 17. Showing that I inherited a Maternal line segment that matched to now known family members.

The only thing that I just can't figure out yet, is that it feels that the Usher line is more distant from the paperwork/tree side, but it shows more of a slightly stronger/closer DNA connection, than that of the Burton/Newenham connection.
More research needed here.

Since this great discovery, it taught me one important thing. There are 2 parents to the DNA and that I was originally looking for the Newenham DNA, not the Burton DNA.
It did make me understand, that not to look at one parent. Though many years before DNA, I had a hunch on my DNA being "Burton-esq" as my Maternal family line, shares what I call the "Burton Nose".
The problem was, I had no way of proving it. Only photo's of relatives helped postulate this thought.

What also amazed me, is that these 3 DNA testers, are based in Australia - Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It goes to show that you can look outside of Ireland and or USA/Canada to find the connection.

Below is the DNA segments, showing a connection and a photo of my maternal lineage.
  • First image, shows DNA segments with myself and my mother, on Chromosome 17, with triangulation to the Usher & Burton/Newenham connections.
  • Second Image, is a DNAGedcom view of the same connection. The 2 top matches are my parents, DNAGedcom can show "phasing" (Which side the DNA is coming from).
    The Red Arrow, shows the Burton/Newenham/Usher DNA connections.
  • Third image, shows my Grandmother, her Great Grandmother (Eliza Persse Newenham), and Eliza's Great Grandmother (Lady Grace)







Read More
by Stories Of My Irish Families Friday, April 17, 2015 No comments

Bookmark Us

Delicious Digg Facebook Favorites More Stumbleupon Twitter

Search Our Site

Pages