Intro

My Somerset ancestry comes from Simon ANDREWS of Martock, and his once mysterious wife Jane GIBSON, now (Oct 2017) known to be from Queen Camel, parents of my great grandfather George Gibson (Gib) ANDREWS who was born in Taranaki in 1851.
They emigrated to New Zealand on the Timandra in 1841 with their infant daughter Sarah, settling in New Plymouth, and later Huirangi.
Whereas Simon's ANDREWS and WINES ancestors are reasonably well documented, give or take a few gaps, and some only recently (Apr 2016) reunited branches in Canada and Michigan, little work has been done on the other branches, and his wife Jane GIBSON's was a complete mystery - at least until Oct 2017.
Check out this blog post to see how research and DNA combined to crack that mystery.

Would love to hear from any relations, potential relations, fellow researchers or DNA matches to any connections of the families included here (see footer for contact details).

DNA

To aid my understanding of my Somerset families, as with many others, I have turned to genetic genealogy (DNA testing), a wonderful, no longer, new tool in the genealogist's toolkit.

We are still looking for a second direct male line representative of our ANDREWS line to fully confirm the yDNA signature, but the fun and serendipity of finding dna relatives is no longer restricted to just the direct male lines.
Anyone interested in their genetic matches can now test their autosomal dna (atDNA), the bits we inherit, unfortunately randomly, from ALL of our ancestors.
We have a satisfying collection of atDNA matches between assorted descendants - see the ANDREWS page on DNASurnames for further info.
If you are a descendant of any of the families shown here, you would be welcome to join the newly created (Nov 2013) FFLornaHen project and see how much of which ancestor's dna has made it down to present day.
Who knows what we'll learn about unexpected connections between families!
FamilyTreeDNA's FamilyFinder test is our recommended test of choice but if you have tested with Ancestry instead, please do consider FamilyTreeDNA's autosomal transfer option as Ancestry simply does not provide tools to confirm where a DNA match belongs.
For maximum return on your dna investment please also upload your raw data from your autosomal results (FamilyTreeDNA, Ancestry or MyHeritage) to GEDMatch where results can be compared across the main testing companies (the newer 23andme tests are no longer as compatible - Sep 2017).
  • ANDREWS - confirmation of existing DNA signature still needed from our ANDREWS line
  • see also the ANDREWS page on this site for some of the other highly likely to be related other ANDREWS lines of around Martock

If genetic genealogy are foreign words to you, here are some links to items that may be of interest to explain why genealogists are turning to this fascinating, now not so new, science for their family forests.

My Somerset ancestors

John Andrews (say 1685 - 1719)
John Andrews (cir. 1712 - 1776)
Ann Cole (say 1685 - 1751)
Thomas Andrews (cir. 1745 - 1820)
Robert Cuff (say 1685 - 1734)
Anne Cuff (cir. 1712 - 1771)
John Fry (say 1665 - )
Elizabeth Fry (cir. 1692 - )
John Andrews (cir. 1777 - cir. 1867)
John Ralph (cir. 1722 - 1785)
Elizabeth Ralph (cir. 1753 - cir. 1818)
William Prankerd (say 1695 - )
Jane Prankard (cir. 1722 - bet. 1758 - 1785)
Simon Andrews (1814 - 1900)
Thomas Wines (cir. 1673/74 - )
Thomas Wines (cir. 1714 - cir. 1784)
Ann UnknownSurname (say 1680 - )
Samuel Wines (cir. 1750 - bef. 1841)
Thomas Hembry (cir. 1665 - )
Thomas Hembry (cir. 1690 - )
Elizabeth UnknownSurname (say 1665 - )
Joan Hembry (cir. 1716 - )
Robert Hellier (say 1670 - 1738)
Joan Helliar (cir. 1692 - )
Joane UnknownSurname (say 1670 - 1712)
Rebekah Wines (1782 - 1870)
John Andrews (say 1685 - 1719)
Joseph Andrews (cir. 1717 - 1766)
Ann Cole (say 1685 - 1751)
Betty Andrews (cir. 1746 - cir. 1786)
Elizabeth Greenham (say 1720 - 1787)
George G. Andrews (1851 - 1920)
John Gipson (say 1750 - )
William Gipson (cir. 1776 - 1860)
Jane Capper (say 1755 - )
Jane Gibson (J2a1a1) (1812 - 1906)
John Hanham (say 1750 - )
Mary Hanham (cir. 1778 - 1835)
Edward Rawlins (say 1730 - )
Ann Rawlins (cir. 1755 - )
Frances UnknownSurname (m. Rawlings) (J2a1a1) (cir. 1734 - 1791)
Subject
Mother
Father
Duplicate
Y DNA tested line

Somerset people on this site

The following link is a list of all people included on this site with a page of their own and therefore further information.
Bear in mind that the flag this is based on isn't always accurate however, and some people will not necessarily have been to the places shown, eg they may have a relation there instead.
All name variants recorded for each are indexed, so some will appear more than once.