* Y-DNA test

[oldenstar]

I have a major brick wall, in that my surname is probably not strictly correct going back to 1878.
My grandfather, who died before I was born, was born in Paddington Workhouse in 1878. I have the Birth Certificate which shows only the mother (with my surname), showing her as a housemaid. I know that women used to go into the workhouse just to have illegitimate children.
Less than one year later she married a John Edwards Webb, who was a widower with 3 children. In his early years my Grandfather lived with his Grandmother and Aunt in Kent, until they died when he was 12. It seems that he then moved to live for a while with his mother and her husband in Bowden Hill, Wiltshire, where he must have trained as a gardener. John Webb was head gardener to the Prime Ministers brother, a Gladstone.
Via Hawarden castle, the Prime Ministers home, my Grandfather then moved to Highbury Hall In Birmingham, where he eventually became Head Gardener to Joseph Chamberlain.
Sorry to be long winded but do you experts think it might help if I took a Y DNA test. Might I get a good idea of the name of my real Great Grandfather? It could of course be John Webb.
TIA
Paul

[tatewise]

Have you researched the Paddington Workhouse medical records that may still be archived?
I had a similar situation with a relation born in a Sheffield Workhouse and found the records in Sheffield Archives.
The admission, birth & discharge details had been archived when the NHS took over.
I had to apply and pay a small fee to obtain copies by Email.
Those records gave name, address & occupation of the mother, her next of kin, name of the father, and loads more...
Unfortunately, only the first name of the father was given, but she did later marry somebody with the same first name.

According to http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Paddington/#Records, Ancestry has Paddington Worhouse Admission & Discharge records at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60391/ and https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1557/ and the London Metropolitan Archives has records at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things- ... n-archives.

[oldenstar]

Hi Mike

Yes I did try that route some years ago but unfortunately the Paddington records did not go back as far as 1878. It may be worth trying again now though.

Than you

Paul

[tatewise]

London, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764-1930 at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60391/ for Borough: Westminster Parish or Poor Law Union: Paddington has Harrow Road Workhouse Registers for 1883 - 1897 so you may be correct that they don't go back far enough.

[Mark1834]

Paul,

Y-DNA is specific to the male line. You imply you are talking about your paternal grandfather (common surname), but that needs to be the case.

If (and it is of course a very big if) another living male line descendant of your biological g-grandfather has also taken a Y-DNA test with the same company, it would be conclusive evidence of a link.

So, in summary, yes it would be worth taking the test, but with a low probability of success. More general autosomal DNA testing works across both the male and female lines, but is less precise in matching.

[LornaCraig]

If (and it is of course a very big if) another living male line descendant of your biological g-grandfather has also taken a Y-DNA test with the same company, it would be conclusive evidence of a link.

It wouldn't have to be a male-line descendant of your great-grandfather. You could potentially get matches with any male-line descendant of any of your direct male line ancestors. For example you might get a match with a male line descendant of your male line great-great-great grandfather. Obviously the further back the common ancestor is, the more difficult it will be deduce anything useful.

If you do a Y-DNA test and get several matches with people who all have the same surname as each other that would give a clue as to what your great-grandfather's surname might have been. But bear in mind that you might also get Y-DNA matches with people who have different surnames because, like you, their male-line ancestry includes someone who was not known by his biological father's surname.

[Mark1834]

Fair point - the OP doesn't say whether he has already taken an autosomal DNA test (e.g. Ancestry DNA). A strong link there to other descendants of his presumed g-grandfather (or earlier) would also provide evidence of a link, but the further you go back in time, the higher the chance of the link being missed compared with Y-DNA.

[victor]

My grtandfather was illegitamatew and baptised under his mother's maiden name of Briggs in 1962. His mother married Charles Markham in 1865 and he used the Markham surname ever since.
I had a DNA test to see if Charles could be his father. It turned out he isn't and his father is of Polish origin.
So this mean I am living under a false name but then I have no idea of 'my Polish' name. A Polish friend sent me a web link showing that in the 1860's upper class Poles were persecuted and they fled to England.
So if the mother married it doesn't mean her husband is the father of the child.

Victor