2024: Week 41: Most #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Looking at my DNA matches over various platforms and my family tree research, it is obvious to me that my paternal grandmother's line - the Walkers - are the line which have the most descendants (or at least the most descendants who have tested) and who have spread out furthest over the world.

My great great grandparents James Walker (1777-1862) and Ellen Muir (1790-1866) from Linlithgow in Scotland had ten children - eight boys and two girls. Such large families were not uncommon in those times. Two of the boys never married, but between them the other eight siblings produced at least 52 grandchildren! The eldest of the siblings, George Walker was, however, the only one of the children to ever leave Scotland and that was later in life, when he followed his son John, a miner, over to the USA.

It is, however, many of the grandchildren of James and Ellen who decide to leave their homeland for the USA and for Australia. Their USA destinations included Kansas, Colorado, Ohio and Maryland. No doubt the next generation spread out even further across America. At least one of their great grandchildren ended up in Manitoba, Canada.

When I first started clustering my DNA matches, one large cluster seemed to dominate. The matches in this cluster all seem to descend from James Walker and Ellen Muir. Ancestry's 'Thrulines' identifies 64 matches and their relationship to me (which is more than double the number they identify for the next closest great grandparents). Of the ones I have taken the time to verify and 'place' in my tree, the majority are the American descendants of that couple's grandchildren, followed by the Scots, then the Australians. The Australians seem to be all in New South Wales which is not surprising, the Americans still mainly in the states mentioned previously as well as now in Iowa.

I find it fascinating that taking a simple DNA test not only allows you to to trace your line back into the past, but also to see how your line has spread throughout the globe over the centuries.

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