Gidley DNA news April 2018

Gidley haplogroups at April 2018

Thanks to two more Gidleys doing the Y-DNA test with the FamilyTreeDNA company, we now know more about the Gidley lineage. Unfortunately, the highly popular Ancestry Family Finder DNA test is of no use for surname research. It will only find you cousins within about 5 generations back, on both maternal and paternal sides of the family. So we do have to use FamilyTreeDNA, who are the major company supplying the Y-DNA test. All who have tested have gone for at least 37 markers, considered to be the lowest number of use for genealogists.
The following interpretation of the Y-DNA tests includes a lot of percentages. I've used FamilyTreeDNA's TiP reports. TiP stands for Time Predictor and makes more sense to me than most of the explanations I've tried to get to grips with. But please bear in mind that these percentages are only probabilities. And I gather different mutation rates could make a difference too. So care is needed.
Eric Gidley, whose furthest known ancestor is the John Gidley of Chudleigh in Devon who was born about 1799, has taken a Y-DNA test; as did James Gidley, whose earliest known ancestor is Archilaus Gidley born about 1636 in Buckfastleigh in Devon.
Their results were almost an exact match. There was one marker's difference, which means that (and I am quoting from FamilyTreeDNA's website), presuming that there is no known common ancestor within the last 4 generations (which we know from the paper records) "the probability that James and Eric shared a common ancestor within the last 4 generations is 24.27%, within the last 8 generations is 79.03%, within the last 12 generations is 94.98%, and within the last 16 generations is 98.88%."
And not only that. James and Eric also matched Bryan Gidley's results. Bryan's ancestors are from Cornwall, with his last known ancestor being Leonard Gidley born about 1710 in that county. The matches are not quite so close, but with one extra marker's mismatch. That brings the percentages down slightly for each generation, but not by much. The possibility of Bryan having a common ancestor with both Eric and James is 79.03% within 8 generations and 94.98% within 12 generations.
The other two Gidley males who have tested for Y-DNA are from my own branch, namely William Gidley who married Wilmot Gidley in Spreyton in 1795, and Pete Gidley from the Winkleigh branch. There the mismatches are much larger, particularly with Pete's results. Indeed, he is a completely different haplogroup from the other Gidleys who have tested so far, and even at a vast distance of 24 generations there is only an infinitesimal chance of his sharing an ancestor with James, Eric, Bryan and myself - at 0.09%.
With my own branch, I am pretty sure there is no link within 10 generations to James (and by extension to Eric and Bryan). That brings the chances of sharing an ancestor at 12 generations to 8.07% and at 16 generations still to only 27.25%. I have, however, been contacted by the only close matches to my cousin John, whose DNA was tested (a reminder that it does have to be males for the Y-DNA test), and their surname is always the same - Usry, Usery or Ussery. So I've done the TiP test between my cousin John Gidley and the closest Ussery match. I know there is no match within 5 generations so that brings the probability of a shared ancestor within 8 generations to 71.95%. It's not terribly high. In the next blog post I'm going to discuss some possibilities relating just to my own branch. There are some interesting points about the surname Ussery (and variations) which are probably only of interest to us.
Meanwhile at the moment it looks increasingly likely that William Gidley, my last known ancestor, could have been an illegitimate son of a Gidley female in Spreyton and a male descended from an Ussery ancestor.
I should love more male Gidleys to come forward for testing. The tests are available at a special price of £80 from the Guild of One Name Studies, which is a huge saving on the usual cost, and I am prepared to pay half. I am particularly interested to hear from you, if you would like to join the Gidley DNA Project which is jointly run by both Bryan Gidley and myself, and if you think you are descended in an unbroken male line from:

1. the Massachusetts Gidleys (who were in Massachusetts by 1662).
2. the Gidleys of West Virginia (descended from John Gidley transported in 1769).
3. William Gidley of Bovey Tracey born about 1805.
4. John Gidley who married Grace Rouden in Cheriton Bishop in 1745, and whose descendants were in Whitestone, Woodbury and Kent.
5. Bartholomew Gidley of Shoreditch born in 1806 (although the name Bartholomew puts them almost certainly on the Winkleigh tree).

Contact me via the Gidley profile on the Guild of One Name Studies website, if you aren't sure where you fit in on a family tree. Many thanks to all those Gidleys who have tested so far.