Throssell DNA questions

Image of a document kept by Philip Russell showing that Margaret Throssell left an inheritance to the siblings Herbert, Lionel, Kingsley and Marjorie Russell that was held in trust until their 21st birthdays.

Why the DNA questions?

Chris and Carolyn (known when she was a girl as Wendy) were told that the parents of their great grandmother Rosa Kate Russell nee Throssell was the daughter of first cousins John Throssell and Peggy Kingsley. Sometime after taking Ancestry DNA tests they began to wonder if this was true.

DNA, the natural parents of Rosa Kate and a family secret

After much research Chris and Carolyn have decided that DNA indicates that Margaret Throssell was not the biological sister of Rosa Kate. Rather Rosa Kate was likely informally adopted from her real parents Abraham Kingsley (1832-1872) and Abigail Hanscombe (1835-1921). This makes sociological sense: Abraham and Abigail were awash in nine children, and as Abraham was a sheep drover and Abigail home working for the hat trade probably quite poor. There is a time gap between when two of their children Charles and Joseph were born, when Rosa Kate could be conceived and born. The adoptive parents John Throssell and Peggy Kingsley, were well to do and their children were not strong, probably because of the close genetic link between John and Peggy.

How many of our Russell relations are already privy to the truth behind Rosa Kate’s official birth record?

This birth record shows that Rosa Kate’s birth was registered by John Throssell a month after she was born. So was the unofficial adoption arranged well in advance or after she was born? Vanessa’s family tree says that Rosa Kate was born in Shingay well away from Pirton where Abraham and Abigail lived.

How Chris and Carolyn came to this conclusion
When Chris was asked by Margaret Jenness (nee Handscombe) how he thought we were related to her Hanscombe family we reassessed our Kingsley DNA matches. Chris had already tried to find out how our Han[d]scombe DNA matches fitted into our family tree. Logically we could not have inherited DNA from Abigail Hanscombe who was the niece by marriage of Rosa Kate’s supposed mother Peggy Throssell (nee Kingsley). But we do have Hanscombe DNA and the above scenario solves the conundrum.

We also checked out our Throssell DNA matches as we had always been surprised that we had no strong matches. On re-evaluation we found that the range in strength of the Throssell surname matches was similar in all, but one, of the descendants of the offspring of the marriage of John Kingsley 1781-1842 and Mary Furrian. The exception was for John Kingsley 1781-1842 who married Peggy Barber and the father of Peggy who we were told was the mother of Rosa Kate Throssell. So all the DNA we saw in the Throssell surname matches was coming from the Kingsley-Furrian marriage via their daughter Sarah Kingsley 1790-1872 who married John Throssell.

Did John and Peggy have natural offspring?

We can never know if Margaret Throssell, who left the above inheritance, and her siblings John and Arthur were natural offspring of Peggy Kingsley and John Throssell, but family stories of inbreeding problems suggest that they carried Kingsley and Throssell DNA.

Note on registering a birth in the 19th Century

Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales started on 1 July 1837. Registration was not compulsory in 1859 when Rosa Kate was born. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1874 made registration of a birth compulsory and the responsibility of those present at the birth. Births had to be registered within 6 weeks of the event.

It would be interesting to know if John Throssell was breaking the law when he registered Rosa Kate’s birth. Carolyn found a reference to such an offence under the 1911 Perjury Act, but nothing earlier.

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