CASE STUDY
In my research into my Cruwys ancestors in Devon, I hit a brick wall trying to find William George Cruwys (born 1821), the brother of my great great grandfather, Thomas Cruwys (born 1831). William disappeared from English records after the 1841 census. I found a William of the right age in Prince Edward Island, Canada, but couldn’t find any records to confirm a link, though naming patterns provided a strong clue. Frustratingly, the 1848 marriage certificate I obtained didn’t include the parents’ names. Y- DNA tests on my dad and a descendant of the Prince Edward family showed that the two lines were related though Y- DNA cannot pinpoint the date when two people share an ancestor.
However, a year later an autosomal DNA match popped up in the Family Tree DNA Family Finder database with a cousin in Canada. His ancestors were from Prince Edward Island, and he was the great great grandson of William Cruwys through a female line. If our family trees were correct, he would be my dad’s third cousin once removed. The amount of DNA we shared was within the expected range for the presumed relationship, thus providing confirmation that the tree was correct. The chromosome browser (left) shows a comparison between my dad and his third cousin once removed. The three orange shapes on chromosomes 1, 3 and 11 are the segments of DNA that they share in common through descent from their mutual ancestors William Cruwys senior (1793-1846) and Margaret Eastmond (1792-1874), the parents of Thomas and William George.