Hello and welcome to my family history blog!

That feeling of relief, and excitement when we finally break through a brick wall, getting our hands and or sight set on old manuscripts, original documents, and more! The most rewarding feeling comes with it and that’s how I’m feeling about this right now!

I had a DNA match come back aligning with the work I and others have done on my tree. I tested positive to three Grey males from Chillingham Castle. Sir Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset is an ancestor both on maternal, and paternal side with Elizabeth Grey being an ancestor for both sides.  Lady Jane Grey, is now confirmed to be my 1st cousin 14x removed, (she is known as the 9 day Queen that was executed by my other 1st cousin 14x removed Mary Tudor (King Henry VIII daughter.)

The Grey family is an ancient English noble family from Creully in Normandy. The founder of the family was Anchetil de Greye, a Norman chevalier and vassal of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (Wikipedia)

About Thomas Grey …

Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset KG KB PC (22 June 1477 – 10 October 1530) was an English peer, courtier, soldier and landowner of the House of Grey.

Grey was the third son and heir of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset (1455–1501), at that time England’s only marquess, and his wife, Cecily Bonville, the daughter and heiress of William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham. His mother was suo jure 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham and 2nd Baroness Bonville, and the richest heiress in England. The first marquess was the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, a stepson of King Edward IV and a half-brother of King Edward V.

According to some reports, the young Grey attended Magdalen College School, Oxford, and he is uncertainly said to have been taught (either at the school or else privately tutored) by the future Cardinal Wolsey. In a French tour, he was tutored or chaperoned by Erasmus.

Grey’s father was opposed to King Richard III, and after the older Thomas joined Buckingham’s failed rebellion of 1483, father and son fled to Brittany, joining Henry Tudor. Five months after Richard lost the crown to Henry at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, the new king married the first Dorset’s half-sister Elizabeth of York, but Henry VII was also suspicious of Dorset, who was imprisoned during Lambert Simnel’s rebellion of 1487. In 1492, Dorset was required to give guarantees of loyalty to the crown and to make the young Thomas Grey a ward of the king. (Wikipedia)

Some of the offspring from this line also ties into my post The Timeline Thomas Howard and Descendants.

CHILLINGHAM CASTLE

Chillingham Castle is said to be one of the most haunted Castles. I have ancestral ties to it going back to Edward I, and Willam Wallace. I’ve added the story below that came back matching to me that were recently added onto My True Ancestry. If you are not familiar with My True Ancestry, it is a DNA testing site and also a site that you can upload your results to. If you do not know how to do this, it can be done by downloading your raw DNA test results from whereever you had your test done. I have a blog post on specifically this subject called Finding My True Ancestry. I’ve completely broken down the site and added other results that came back to stay organized. These results with Chillingham Castle specifics came in about a week ago. I keep paying more money. And they keep adding more results, and I know that’s just how it works.

I was really excited to see these test results show up! I can officially say source indexing pays off, becauseI had this information prior to my DNA test, but now DNA confirmed. I still have several holes in my tree, don’t get me wrong.  As there are results that came back I matched to subclade 0, which is an identical match and a few of the individuals I haven’t found on my tree… yet, at least not direct. It shows as an great aunt and 2nd cousin on my tree. (I’ll get into that another time) All of the other subclade 0 ones I have access to, and I have been able to match them my tree and confirm.

I have been having just as much fun with halpogroup exploration as I do finding long lost documents via source indexing, and breaking down brick walls!! I’ve got 3 ways to seeing Grey below.

I know there are more links in the tree to Grey/Gray but these are the 3 closest ones I could find.

Here below is shows Elizabeth as my 13th and 14th great grandmother

If you have had a DNA test and want to explore it further, My True Ancestry has been dead on with my results so far, even though after the initial free results, it cost. Is it worth it? I say yes if you are wanting to get into halpogroup exploration, learn about your families history and see if your ancestors have been tested. Find distant cousins via chat rooms that you will be placed in according to your sample matches.

-Dawn Piercy, PhD