She has given me permission to post her email on the Gidley blog, in the hope that it may enlighten us on the origins of John Gidley. Ann writes:
"My great great grandmother was born Elizabeth Gidley at Bishopsteignton in 1832, the daughter of John Gidley and Elizabeth Facey.
The family migrated to South Australia in three separate family groups in about 1850, but many of them subsequently moved to the goldfields of Victoria and Queensland.
I'm sure you've already spotted my problem: her father's name was John Gidley. On the passenger lists to SA his age is given at 54, meaning he was born in 1795 or 96 (there was absolutely NO advantage to bumping one's age up when applying for assisted passage). This is at the younger end of the timeframe indicated by the 1841 census. He married at Chudleigh in 1819, but both he and his bride were described at sojourners in that parish, so they could have come from anywhere. However, I suspect that he was born in 1796 in Bovey Tracey, the son of John Gidley and Elizabeth Knapman, but how can one be sure?
In your "Three John Gidleys" blog you said it looked as though DNA testing might be the only way to sort this out, but I do have some information that might help without that, or at least in the interim. My branch of the Gidley family has two distinct (and distinctive) genetic disorders: My gg grandmother's left eye was turned inwards, as was that of at least one of her children and at least one of that daughter's children. Another of Elizabeth's children married his Gidley first cousin, and several of their children were albinos, with white skin, white hair, bright blue eyes and legally blind. Other members of the family also have, right up to current generations, the brightest, bluest eyes -- clearer, brighter blue than Paul Newman or Mel Gibson -- so I suspect that it the gene for albinism still making its presence felt in those cases.
Have you heard of either of these issues amongst other members of the greater Gidley clan? It seems to me that it might help to separate the different branches."
So, does anyone have any knowledge of other Gidleys with the same genetic disorder? I haven't come across any myself. I know the Gidleys of Winkleigh had an unknown inherited medical problem, which was prevalent at least in Victorian times, as it was mentioned in a letter from early family historian Bartholomew Gidley in an enquiry to a family member, but presumably this cannot be related to the albinism, as the Winkleigh haplogroup is completely different to that of John and Elizabeth's descendants. The Cornish and South Devon branches, however, are related, so does anyone know of fellow sufferers?
