Brick walls & DNA

[Prussian]

Call me cynical if you like but we have all heard the embellished stories that cover up illegitimacy.

Charles MARTIN of HMS Achille married Priscilla SHERKEY in Portsmouth in 1813.

The 21 February 1824 baptism of Charles Alfred in Frome Selwood, Somerset records his parents as Charles and Priscilla MARTIN.

 

[Prussian]

I found a tree on Ancestry which has a photograph said to be of Charles Alfred Martin, but since he doesn't seem to have a dark complexion it might be someone else:
View attachment 2050

I suspect that photograph is from my Ancestry tree or one of my cousins. Sadly the cousin who provided me with it is no longer in communication. From contact with a more recently traced cousin, there is the possibility its a descendant with the same name. Their accounts of our Trafalgar ancestor are of 'a man of colour, and his descendants have a tained complexion to this day. No such traits on my line but a cousin ancrestor in Frome was known as 'Darky Martin'.

 

[Prussian]

That was my first thought, but the tree I found at Ancestry lists a marriage and several older children. The baptism entry for the oldest child describes him as 'a foreigner'.

One such baptism or marriage lists the father Charles MARTIN as a seaman.

Being a mere Ordinary Seaman means there is no service record but the Trafalfar Roll records him born in Magtaburgh [sic], Prussia.

 

[peter]

Being a mere Ordinary Seaman

An Ordinary Seaman in the Royal Navy is a sailor with only one or two year's experience, so that in itself tells you something about his service. If he received a pension then there should be a record of this at Findmypast.

 

[At home in NZ]

Being a mere Ordinary Seaman means there is no service record but the Trafalfar Roll records him born in Magtaburgh [sic], Prussia.

I went looking for the Trafalgar Roll and found myself on this page in Forces War Records, as I don't have membership any more I couldn't be bothered to re-apply and go any further. Apologies if you have already seen that record.
I notice the record is for 1806, if he was still in the Navy when he married in 1813 he would have been of a higher rank than ordinary seaman. He would have at least been an Able Seaman, the rankings for the time period are here, scroll down and see under the heading of Minors in the Royal Navy.

This is just for interest, recounting the background of a black officer in the RN who had been a slave.

and, about the ship Achille at the battle of Trafalgar.

 

[Prussian]

An Ordinary Seaman in the Royal Navy is a sailor with only one or two year's experience, so that in itself tells you something about his service. If he received a pension then there should be a record of this at Findmypast.

I have researched the Admiralty (ADM) records at the National Archives and have a number of ship musters. My cousin did likewise for HMS Achille and found that my ancestor sailed to Brazil.

He was about one year short of qualifying for a pension.

At one point he reverted from Ordinary Seaman to Landsman. I do wonder whether he was disliked by the officer who signed him on after a break in service, although discrimination supposedly did not exist at that time.

I have also searched records at The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

 

[Prussian]

I went looking for the Trafalgar Roll

My ancestor Charles MARTIN is recorded as being at The Battle of Trafalgar per ADM 37/52 He was discharged, like so many sailors, from the navy on 8 August 1815 following the defeat of Napoleon.

He did receive prize money.

 

[Singer35]

One of my problems on my Charles Whitehead brick wall is that only 2 of his children had descendants - George (mine). and Alice. Alice has 61 descendants to the 5th generation and the George only has 1 with descendants. Altogether in five generations I only have 62 possible DNA connections (202 in 8 gens but some did not have descendants). My grandfather was an only child so have no maternal Whitehead 2nd cousins there. The next group are my 26 first cousins and their descendants. Possibly at Ancestry many of my "no common matches" are on my maternal side but so many don't respond to queries and too many do not have trees attached. What I do have are maternal DNA matches with 3 male 1stC, 1 female 1stC, plus 2 males: 2ndC1R. Someone told me the small number should not be a problem, but I think it is.

The great mystery to this brick wall is that I have found DNA matches to all of my other British maternal lines; even an illegitimate G-grandfather, which proved my hypothesis of his origins made before the DNA finds.

So far I have found no known cousins of any degree in this small Whitehead DNA family beyond 2 from Alice . Now wondering how to best use this limited info at Gedmatch (me and 2 of my male maternal cousins), which allows manipulation of input as to size of cms, which Chromosome to look at most closely, etc.

 

[peter]

One of my problems on my Charles Whitehead brick wall is that only 2 of his children had descendants

Knocking down a 'brick wall' usually depends on finding descendants of our ancestor's siblings or cousins. Where descendants of the 'brick wall' ancestor can help is in highlighting shared matches.

Generally if there are insufficient matches to knock down a particular 'brick wall' the best strategy is to focus on a different 'brick wall' (let's face it, we all have dozens of 'brick walls', and a good proportion are likely to be within reach of DNA); over time new matches, new or updated trees, and (perhaps) new Ancestry features may help us to solve the original 'brick wall'.