French Family Tree Ancestors of Morgan, Sky & Kit FRENCH
Ancestry predominantly in Essex & Norfolk, England, but also Ireland, particularly County Meath. For location abbreviations: click here. Bkm=Buckinghamshire, Dby=Derbyshire, Esx=Essex, Mdx=Middlesex, Nfk=Norfolk, etc. NB A question mark (?) indicates a dodgy entry involving more than the usual amount of guesswork. Genealogical Exchange: for further information, corrections and connections: email Chris at frenchfamily.info I may have further information on siblings and other relatives of some entries.

OUR FRENCH MALE LINE ORIGINS

CLICK HERE FOR MORE UP-TO-DATE SITE http://www.frenchfamily.info/

Up to 30,000 years ago
"About 30,000 years ago a biological ancestor was the first to display genetic marker P15, which now defines the haplogroup G2. The G2 lineage arose in the Middle East ... spread westward ... into southeastern Europe. The bulk of these migrations took place more than 15,000 years ago, before ... the last glacial maximum. ... When the glaciers began to recede, the G2 lineage expanded northward and eastward to repopulate Europe." See The Genographic Project. Click on "EXPLORE THE ATLAS" and select the P15 [Y chromosome Haplogroup G2] by "GENETIC MARKER". Elsewhere, "The G haplogroup migrated to Europe from the Middle East or Mediterranean with the spread of agriculture 6,000 to 8,000 years ago."

Up to 2,000 years ago
It has been suggested by others, that G2s in Essex arrived there with Roman Legionnaires at Colchester and Caister St Edmund, Essex in the early part of the first millenium AD. See: East Anglia Geographic DNA Project

Up to 1,000 years ago
In contrast, the surname, FRENCH, suggest our male ancestor crossed the Channel from France in the early part of the second millenium when surnames were first introduced, maybe as part of Norman "immigration" (1066 and all that), maybe as late as the 13th or 14th century. A quick Google found "Fixed surnames began in France around the year 1000, came into England with the Norman Conquest, and arrived in Scotland circa 1124" but also "The fashion of adding surnames began in Britain in the thirteenth century."

Over 600 years ago
Anyway, by the 14th Century the FRENCH surname was well established, mainly in the south of England - see the GenMap UK chart below or 14th Century

We are talking two types of family history here, social and biological. Unfortunately, the two will never completely agree due to misattributed paternity and nonpaternity events, including adoption, name change and illegitimacy (Is the probability of the problem of the order of 2 to 5% for each generation?), something which is virtually inevitable with any line in any family tree if you go back far enough! See: Misattributed Paternity.

About 250 years ago
Our most distant known FRENCH ancestors hailed from Essex in England in the mid 18th Century. Their movements in the next 200 years are shown below

Chris's male line in Essex in last 250 years. Click on above for higher resolution image

Image created with Progeny's Map my Family Tree - http://www.progenygenealogy.com/ and then edited with Adobe Photoshop.

It has been said that "The G haplogroup occurs at a frequency of about 1 to 2% at various locations in Britain."

International Link: FRENCH List at RootsWeb.com

International Link: FRENCH Family Association Web Site

International Link: FRENCH Surname DNA Project

EAST ANGLIA Geographic DNA Project

- because our FRENCH's come from East Anglia in England since the mid 1700s.

Ybase: an open, global resource for genealogists

- and my G2-predicted Y-DNA.

HAPLOGROUP G European Distribution

- Haplogroup G is a rarity in Europe.

FRENCH surname distribution in England in 14th Century. Click on above image for better quality PDF chart.

Map charts produced using GenMap UK - http://www.archersoftware.co.uk

FRENCH surname distribution in England in 1881. Click on above image for better quality PDF chart.

Map Charts produced using GenMap UK - http://www.archersoftware.co.uk

ALL OUR DIRECT ANCESTORS

Ancestor footprints from 1591 to 2001. Click on above image for high res image of where our known ancestors and present family lived at the beginning of each decade from 1591 to 2001.

Images created with Progeny's Map my Family Tree - http://www.progenygenealogy.com/. plus a tiny bit of Adobe photoshop editing.

PDF file of our Ancestor Tree

Descendant tree of John FRENCH and Elizabeth BOWLES 'of Finchingfield', Essex, England

last updated 7:00am Monday 14-Feb-2005

There are three versions which if I haven't made a mistake should agree:

(ii) graphical PDF tree

(iii) outline descendant TXT tree for easiest download and printing

Corrections and additions are welcomed. Please email Chris at frenchfamily.info

The tree has been privatized with places and dates of living people omitted. The names of living can also be changed to "Unknown" on request.

Please note that this tree cannot be 100 per cent accurate. From time to time a little bit of guesswork (or maybe over-enthusiasm) has been used and there will inevitable be errors within it. It isn't practical to include sources and reasons for the guesses here. Please use your own critical judgement. Corrections are welcome. I am currently in touch with other Essex FRENCH researchers who have helped to assemble this information.