Revised Aug 2026
The DNA matches to persons with matches to Frank William Jefferies' maternal ancestors
The persons that share DNA sequences with one or more of the close family mapped on MyHeritage or GEDmatch can be seen on DNA Painter; the links to the family DNA results are on the 'DNA Test Information' page. You can expand, contract and look at individual matches as you like; the key at the side shows which of the matches are thought to be from the individual ancestral lines. You can also switch from all matches to Paternal or Maternal using the line at the bottom right under the coloured key. Persons with names between #....# are persons with known family links as well as DNA matches.
One of the best known families is that descended from the Streatfields of Chiddingstone, Kent whose family history goes back to the 1500's.
Currently I know of 60+ DNA tests that are attached to people descended from John Streatfeild and Mary Gates. They were married in Sevenoaks, Kent in May 1772, both as widowed. Their descendants are now all over the English speaking world but it is interesting, but not surprising, that many of the DNA tests are on persons not resident in the UK. Nor have I found a match that is for a person who is a Streatfield or any of it's spelling variants.
DNA tests can be resolved into two groups; those descended from Dinah Streatfield, and those descended from Richard Streatfield and with a group also said to be descended from Sarah Gates Streatfield.
The descendants of Dinah and Richard have a few instances of marrying among themselves and are thus match both ancestors in some lineages, including my own. The current puzzle is with the descendants of Sarah. There are 2 matches on Ancestry that claim in the attached tree that Sarah married and had children. One is to Sarah Timney at 20cM on 1 segment and the other is to Kathryn Creech at 21cm on 1 segment. These two people are around 3rd cousins and share matches to a David Fry who is Kathryn's brother, at that level but no others. However our documentary evidence (a death recorded in a family book) suggests that Sarah died in infancy. So who is the possible Sarah Streatfield who married Sarah and Kathryn's ancestor?
The Stacey links older than William Stacey, who married Eleanor Streatfield, were problematic earlier in my research, and, before DNA, there were thought to be baptisms that showed a link to the Godstone area. Researchers of the Godstone Staceys at the time said it was not likely but a number of matches with other Stacey descendants suggests there are links to these Staceys of Godstone or nearby such as Merstham and Burstow, of which there are many.
Apart from our descent from William & Eleanor through his son Richard and Ann Titchener we share a match to descendants of Richard's brother William, Peter R Aitken, test on MyHeritage. This match is on 5 chromosomes and shows a number of other matches on DNA Painter to a number of other persons whose relationship is not resolved. The majority of these matches are on chromosome 3.
Another descendant from Richard's brother William is to Shane Fein; he is descended from John Stacey who emigrated to Maryborough, Queensland in 1882. Another match to this line has appeared and is to Marianne Stacey, the grand-daughter of Norman John Stacey who lived all his life in the Northern Territory, Australia and was well known as a drover, even having an obituary in the Northern Territory Times. This line was previously unknown, no other family members emigrated. This match is crucial to another strong link to a group of matches from a Stacey family in South Australia.
In the meantime other matches link back to Michael Stacey of Godstone but another examination of the records suggest that this Michael and our ancestor William may have come from Bletchingley next door to Godstone and have different parents. This link is from DNA matches to Richard Anthony Parrett, and Barbara A Sheppard, descendants of Michael Stacey. However these matches do show that Michael and William were brothers, with parents of William Stacey & Amy Roffey.
To go back to the Stacey family of Adelaide. This family has a been the subject of a lot of detailed documentary and DNA testing research of many persons by Jon Lee and Ross Stacey. DNA matches could be interpreted to show that this family had connections to the Dorset side of the family and this seemed to be backed up by possible Dorset links, the name Stacey is not uncommon in Dorset. However a close look at shared matches using the Pro Tools on Ancestry and painting the matches from MyHeritage and GEDmatch supported the origin as being Stacey from the Surrey family and not a Dorset family. This match is in a paternal group on chromosome 11. There are another 20 matches at this place on the chromosome but none have bee confirmed as yet. For the purpose of this web site the suggested origin on the Adelaide Stacey line is John Stacey, said to be born in Putney, Surrey, but not confirmed, and to be a brother of William Stacey of Godstone. Currently it is presumed by me that the father of the three Stacey brothers that are linked by the DNA matches discussed above is Michael Stacey of Worth, Surrey, but this, in part, is conjecture.
A Meekhams DNA match that came to light, to Adam Watson, who knows he is descended from Richard Meekhams, father of Fanny Meekhams who married William Titchener, my g-g-g-grandfather. This link has now been established with records and has led to exploration of a number of other descendants of Richard, compounded by the large number of variants to the name over time. A second match to Clive Meekham is also established and documented, since doing this work this record has been withdrawn from Ancestry! In November 2020 Ancestry suggested a number of ThruLine matches to other descendants of Richard Meekhams related to Adam Watson and he provided some screen shots of these which then disappeared. The suggested lines have been analysed with some success and a number of descendants, at least 9, of the siblings of Fanny Meekhams have been confirmed in spite of the name variation. Names known to be used include Meekham, Meekcoms, Meekcomes, Meacomes.
Recently a link to Edward Titcomb & Mary Mulcock has been suggested because of a match between MGJ and Patricia Anne Byrne, brother Peter Dermott Byrne & her sister Margaret Lovesey on MyHeritage on chromosome 15. This match is small but is in a much larger group of matches. This group took some sorting but is now on-line and include the two who are Margaret Hutchings from Victoria and Emma Gifford from Durham!