the article and data that initiated the Ravenstonedale project
our project page on the Family Tree DNA website
ADAMTHWAITE information
Adamthwaite Farm, set in an isolated valley below Harter Fell, is believed to be the origin of all the Adamthwaite lines that exist in the world today.
Extensive information about the Adamthwaite family, which I have collected as part of the Adamthwaite One-name Study and which has been contributed by Adamthwaite researchers around the world, can be found in the Resource Section of the Adamthwaite Archive, including:
United Kingdom records
-
All ADAMTHWAITE entries in 1841-1911 censuses for England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland collected and identified
-
All ADAMTHWAITE entries on GRO and GROS indices collected and identified
-
Parish Registers checked for all parishes where Adamthwaites are known to have lived
-
Available Will Indexes checked, and copies obtained and transcribed of all early wills and many 19th and 20th Century wills
-
Available passenger records collected and identified
-
Available Military records collected and identified
-
Manorial Records for Westmorland collected and transcribed; Chancery records held at The National Archives still being checked
Overseas Records
-
Available Canadian and USA census entries collected
-
Available Australian electoral rolls collected
-
Available BMD records for Canada, USA, Australia and NZ still being collected
Spreadsheets containing all the above data are cross-indexed to the Births/baptisms sheet and colour coded to show which of the ten Adamthwaite lines each individual belongs.
Reconstructed trees: We originally identified nine Adamthwaite lines, but yDNA has revealed that in fact we had unwittingly merged two separate lines - so there are now TEN main Adamthwaite lines. Descendancy charts for each of these lines are available on the Adamthwaite Archive. The most recent yDNA results have disproved my belief that the ORANGE line was a branch of the VIOLET line (so I have had to go back to the drawing board again!)
DNA: we have now received yDNA results from ten living male Adamthwaites, representing descendants of seven of the ten lines, which suggest that there were at least five biologically unrelated males who founded lines.
Family Trees: Visit this page of the Adamthwaite website to view family trees for each of the lines shown below
Although early records indicate that all the Adamthwaite lines originate in Ravenstonedale, early manorial records show that the small hamlet named Adamthwaite (located in an isolated position on the fells to the south of Ravenstonedale village) comprised four separate farmsteads, which in the mid 1500s were home to several separate families. We know that surnames were adopted very late in this part of England, so it is possible that several different biological families all adopted the surname 'of Adamthwaite' - Alternatively, we also know that there was quite a high level of illegitimacy in the parish - so although we can be pretty certain about the origin of the VIOLET line, perhaps the reason we have had difficulty locating the suspected Most Distant Known Ancestors (MDKAs) for the Olive, Grey and Orange lines is because they were descended from female Adamthwaites!
Our website also includes photo galleries, historical information, and a number of articles and stories about individual characters and families. If you have Adamthwaites in your ancestry, please visit our website and join our mailing list.
Ravenstonedale DNA project
Ravenstonedale DNA project