As we enter a new year, research is continuing on a few fronts in our search for our Somerset Sainsbury ancestor’s place of origin.

Based on last year’s discoveries, our priorities for this year include:

• Using tools available on MyHeritage to see whether our two cousins who share a match with a descendant of Anne Sainsbury Lessiter all share the same segment of DNA.
  • For background see this post: Seeking Triangulation: Anne Sainsbury of north Wiltshire
• Using tools available on MyHeritage to see whether our several cousins who share a match with a descendant of Martha Sainsbury Humphrey Sparey all share the same segment of DNA.
  • For background see this post: DNA Match Profile: The Sainsburys of Codford St Mary, Codford St Peter and Heytesbury
• Finding a Y-DNA candidate to verify whether we are a close genetic match to the Sainsburys of Urchfont.
  • For background see this post: DNA Match Profile: The Sainsbury family of Eastcott in the parish of Urchfont
• Finding a Y-DNA candidate to verify whether we are a close genetic match to the Sainsburys of Potterne, Wiltshire (which includes descendants from Tytherington, Gloucestershire)
  • For background see this post: The Sainsburys of Worton in the parish of Potterne

Now that we’ve examined our English matches and identified these research priorities for the New Year, it seems like a good time to explore some of our other findings.

Those findings include many matches to Sansbury descendants in the United States.

Daniel Sansbury (c.1750-1816)

In our search for distant Sainsbury cousins we discovered quite a few matches among our Somerset Sainsbury cousins to Ancestry users who descend either from the Maryland Sansburys or from Daniel Sansbury of South Carolina.

As an aid to people researching those lines, here’s a downloadable family tree showing the matches we found among our Somerset Sainsbury cousins to descendants of Daniel Sansbury:

These matches could be due to a common Sansbury/Sainsbury ancestor in England. However, it’s important to remember that Ancestry DNA tests look at all ancestral lines–so some of these matches might actually be due to shared “non-Sansbury/Sainsbury” ancestors.

On the other hand, Y-DNA tests from descendants of each group (Somerset Sainsburys and descendants of Daniel Sansbury) definitely indicate we share a genetic family relationship. (For more on that approach to our research see this post: Sainsbury, Sansbury)

The predominance of matches on James’s line are noteworthy. If all or most of these matches are valid (i.e., due to shared DNA on the Sansbury/Sainsbury line of all concerned) it makes theoretical sense that there’d be a predominant line in a distant relationship cluster like this. That line would be the one that happens to have retained some segments of DNA that more distant cousins also inherited.

We found similar clusters — where descendants of one branch predominated — among our matches to other known Sainsbury families. For example, among our matches to the Sainsburys of Urchfont, Wiltshire there was a distinct cluster to descendants of Elizabeth Sainsbury Moore (1696-1771). Among our matches to the Sainsburys of Potterne, Wiltshire, there was a cluster who descended from Mary Sainsbury Berrett (1775-1820).

The Urchfont cluster were Osland descendants in Australia and Canada, and the Berrett cluster was a set of descendants in the US — so it might just be that people in Australia, Canada, and the US are more likely to have done an Ancestry DNA test than people in England. (Which I believe is the case.)

In a future post we’ll look at the matches we found to descendants of the Sansburys of colonial Maryland.

Y-DNA Testing for Sansburys and Sainsburys

Are you or are any of your close male relatives Sainsburys or Sansburys?

A Y-DNA test can indicate how closely you’re related to other branches of the Sainsbury and Sansbury family.

More results from Y-DNA tests will enable more detailed and accurate analysis of our shared history.

Interested? Please visit the Sainsbury-Sansbury Group Project website.

Disclaimer: As with any research project, when new evidence comes to light, former theories may change. This blog post includes theories and conclusions developed from the best available evidence at the time this post was written. It may be corroborated or refuted by later research. This post must therefore be considered in the context of all information presented in earlier and later posts.

• USA, South Carolina