Wednesday 30 July 2008

A greyhound called Fitzhenry?

So... I was Googling "Dr Fitzhenry" this evening to find the fate of some of the medical members of the family and came upon this link.
It appears there was a greyhound named Dr Fitzhenry running the Eastern Australian tracks in 2006. And not winning.

A big hello to the Canadian Fitz-Henrys!

It shows that sometimes it pays to go back over all those old posts from places like Genforum and Rootsweb from the days when the web was new and shiny and all text was in the hideous Courier font.

Back in September 2000, Garry Fitz-Henry of Ontario left a message asking if anyone knew about the provenance of the names "Woodfield" and "Eagles" in his family.

Two weeks ago I came across that email again, and now have four contacts from the family of William Fitz-Henry and Martha Eagles (see this post for more about William and Martha). Brilliant!

So a big hello from the nerdy world of the "Fitz-Henry Family History" blog to Garry and his wife Laurie, Brian Dulcombe Fitz-Henry and Annabella Fitz-Henry. If there are any other descendants of William and Martha lurking out there, come and join the group hug!

Sunday 20 July 2008

25-marker results now on the website

FAmilyTreeDNA are getting a move on, and the next batch of results have now been posted to the Fitz(-)Henry project page.
Until there are more participants in the DNA project, these results don't really mean much. But it will get really exciting when men from other family branches start to get tested...

Thursday 17 July 2008

First results back on the first DNA test

More quickly than expected, the initial results for the 12 marker test are in for my Dad's DNA sample.
They can be viewed here:
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Fitz-Henry
FamilyTreeDNA have sent us the names of over 750 men who also are matches at this very basic level of testing. None are Fitz(-)Henrys, which just goes to show that the basic level tests give a lot of false postives.
However, there is a gentleman by the name of Mr. Paul John Mac Henry, Sr., and I will be watching this name with interest when the more detailed results come in. This may be an ancient Irish variant of the Fitz-Henry name.

Monday 14 July 2008

New DNA project website


In an embryonic form, the Fitz(-)Henry DNA project website.
Very embryonic.
I'm working on it, honestly.... and we've got a logo.
Come and see.
www.fitzhenrydna.com

Thursday 10 July 2008

More news on my Dad's Y-DNA test

I got an email today from FamilyTreeDNA to say that the test was expected to be finished on the 13th August. Marvellous.
I'll post the results when they arrive.
Anyone else interested in taking part?

William Fitzhenry and Gold Mining in Australia (1860's)

From the Federation of Family History Societies website:
From the Victorian Government Gazettes, Australia
Name - William Fitzhenry State Victoria Location Year 1861 Subject Unclaimed Letters Page 1988

2. Name – William Fitzhenry State Victoria Location Jericho Year 1865 Subject Shareholders Princess Alexandra Gold Mining Co Page 402

Not sure of the family group of this man, but if anyone has access to copies of these Gazettes, then I'd be most grateful if they would do a lookup for me.