Can you help me solve my Courtney/Courtenay family brickwall?

Question

I have been searching for many years for the origins of my great great grandfather.  His name is either Arthur George Courtenay/Courtney or George William Courtney.

There is some suggestion the family may have come from Ireland.

I have two theories about possible 'Georges' as well as two theories about families that may be connected.  You can see them on the Courtney-412 profile.

i have been hopeful that DNA tests would help me find some family connection, but so far no luck!

Can you help?

Answer 1

The Courtenay family was a recusant Catholic family in England during the Elizabethan period, with recusant meaning that they refused to conform to the new Protestant religion.  The Courtenay family was intermarried with the Hervey/Harvey family of Suffolk.  The Courtenays were involved in New World exploration, specifically with other Catholic gentry and nobles attempting to find a safe haven for Catholics.  These nobles eventually did through the founding of the stateof Maryland.  Later in the 17th century, Virginia Governor John Harvey was known to be a Papist sympathizer through his friendship with Lord Baltimore and support of the Catholic Maryland colony in a dispute with Virginia.  The Harvey family was intermarried with the Catholic Browne family.  Magdalen Dacres Browne was the grandmother of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton and the literary patron of Shakespeare.

Answer 2

I recently busted through my brick-wall a few weeks ago by reviewing some of my autosonomal genetic matches through FTDNA's Family Finder.  Like yourself, my brick-wall involved my great grandfather.  I therefore highly suggest that you do some DNA testing, especially autosonomal DNA testing.  I believe that the best company avaiable is "Family Tree DNA" (AKA: "FTDNA") and they currently have a special for only $99.00.  You can google "Family Tree DNA" to obtain more information.  If you do decide to get tested, I highly suggest that you purchase FTDNA's "Family Finder" for only $99.00.  FTDNA's "Family Finder" will connect you to all of your cousins and ancestors five or more generations back, assuming, of course, that several of your currenlty living cousins (your distant and unknown cousins) are being tested and are also sharing their list of known ancestral names and/or family trees.

Good luck!  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Enrique Treat Gleason

Comments

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have already had the FF test and had 2 other relations in the line test as well. Lots of tantalising leads but nothing definitive yet, still living in hope!!

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Veronica,

Contact me at juanitacpaull@gmail.com - I am a Co-Administrator for the FTDNA Courtenay/Courtney Project and let's compare our dna matches.

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This guide i created will help you :) https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fpresentation%2Fd%2F1tdrm3Cj6Zbc8nb-piGhweJYMzkDOYqbaceVrPDwq_0I%2Fpub%3Fstart%3Dfalse&h=zAQHWpBpx&s=1

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I also match kits you admin

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Hello Janet, do you mean me or Enrique?  I tried to click on your name but I seem to be directed to a strange page with what I presume is your IP address at the top.  If you are referring to me, what kits do you match and are you related to the Courtenay/Courtney family?

Veronica

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Hi Cousin Juanita,

The original poster of this thread continues to be a DNA match with my dad, your other cousin, on Ancestry.com. The cMs are low, but high enough to continue registering even after the algorithm change making results more conservative. Comparing with GEDmatch kits and dropping the the cMs to 3 definitely produces results. I do not believe this Courtney match is "Identical by Chance" as suggested. Based on similar matching results, I believe this is a case of "Identical by Descent" but at the current cM level, without additional test results in the mix to compare, this is cannot be proven. We only have our original match results so far.

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The Courtneys are on my maternal side.  

The match I have with Shauna's Dad is only 6cMs and does not match my mother so it is not a Courtney segment.  I double checked at GEDmatch and the segment triangulates with a paternal 2C and also the phased kit for my father.  If anything, it could be an IBD segment a long way back on my Prussian line.

I do have a 3cMs match with Shauna in the same segment area, but it phases with my mother and not my father - which suggests to me that it is a false match.

All other matches to Shaunas Dad and her paternal aunt with my mother and her 3 siblings are in the 3cMs ranges, none of the segments aligning with visual phasing to their Courtney grandparent.

Much as I would love for these segments to be real clues, there is no evidence to suggest it, in my opinion.

Answer 3

Hi Veronica

I am awaiting adoption records for my mother Wulffers-11, and I think this will be one of my great grandmothers...  Mary (Courtney) Christie from Parkgate, Co. Antrim, Ireland b 1795 and emigrated to Ontario Canada.

My GEDmatch is QS2227782, and I see we match 10 segments, total 38.4cm, largest 4.9

Perhaps Arthur was from co. Antrim.  Hope this helps. I cant sink much time into Courtneys until I know who my grandfather really was. If i get to know

Chris Luck Luck-863

Comments

Thanks Chris - You match my Mum so thats the right side of my family but the segments are quite small.  I feel he may have been from Antrim so you never know!  

I'll check out all the segments and compare them to how they match her 3 other siblings and 1C1R on this line and see how it looks.

Fingers crossed you'll identify your grandfather!

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Thanks. DNA led me to two certain Martin cousins of some sort, one in California, and one nearby. "We" think this might by my grandfather but perhaps time will tell  Martin-68219

Answer 4

My husband’s step-great-great-grandfather (not a DNA match  unless we are really reading the clues incorrectly), was a James Courtney who was born in Kilworth, County Cork around 1800. He came to NYC and owned a store at 50 Grand St. I have never been able to narrow down his exact parents but there were a number of Courtney’s in or near Kilworth. The birthplace comes from his obituary.

Comments

I have looked at a number of Courtneys from Ballynastra Cork - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Ballytrasna_Townland%2C_Templenacarriga_Parish%2C_County_Cork

Answer 5

TY for sharing your DNA testing and matches on your line.