Category Archives: England

The Keen Family of Broughton Gifford – Good Old Research and a DNA Mystery

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I had done some preliminary research on my the family of my Great Great Grandmother, Dora Keen Wardell, a while ago. I found her and her mother and sisters in the 1841 Census in England. That info enabled me to figure out that they were from Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire.

Keen is a very common name in that area of Wiltshire, and to compound the difficulties of research in the 18th century, the families weren’t very unique when it came to first names.

Daniel Jane Keen marriageI am very confident that my Great Great Grandmother’s grandfather was a William Keen of Broughton Gifford. I am fairly confident that I know who is parents are, however, at this point I can’t be 100% sure. There were a few William Keens born about the same time in Broughton Gifford. Two of those are possibilities. A third William Keen who was the son of Daniel Keen and his first wife, Jane Shepherd, is the one that I am pretty sure is my ancestor.

I had been working on compiling as much data as I could for all of the Keen families in Broughton Gifford and attempting to connect them either to my family or others, when I found that I had a DNA match with a descendant of a Samuel Keen from Broughton Gifford.
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The Case of Two Different Maria Phillips Rundles

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I’ve always been aware of the Maria Phillips Rundle who was born in 1812 and was the daughter of Jeremiah Brice Rundle and Elizabeth White.

There is a marriage record for this Maria and Samuel Short in 1854 in Fowey, Cornwall, England. There is a marriage announcement at Fowey in June 1854 for Mr. Samuel Short of Fowey to “Miss Elizabeth Rundle” daughter of the late J. Rundle of Lankelly. Marriage Index lists Maria’s name. I don’t know why the newspaper had Elizabeth instead of Maria. The importance of this notice is that it proves the parentage of Mrs. Samuel Short.

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