Well its been a busy few weeks in the world of Spurrett-ology. I have been wrestling with a little mystery of a certain Robert Spurrett who was a member of the 30th Cambridge Regiment of Foot and fought in Wellington’s army in the Peninsular Wars in the early 1800’s. The mystery arises because some other researchers seemed convinced that there was another Robert who was a member of the Dorset militia around the same time. Having spent an exciting day at The National Archives (yes, really) and going through all of the pay books for the Dorset Militia of that era, I am now convinced that the second mysterious Robert did not exist and I think I can see how the other researchers got mislead. More on that when I get it all written up.
I also received a present of a DNA kit (20 marker, Y-DNA). This is something that I have not explored before and know very little about. My preconception was that DNA was useful to determine how much African caveman is in your deep genetics or to nail you for a nasty crime (neither of which I am greatly interested in). So in true Spurrett fashion, I have bought a ton of books and have been reading up all about the possibilities for genetic genealogy – genetealogy (pronounced ge-neh-tee-ol-o-gee, I am told). It is absolutely fascinating and I think I can see how certain tests may be able to definitively confirm or disprove (gulp) two of the assumptions I have had to make in tracing myself back to the Spurrett’s of the 1500’s. I am pretty confident of a positive outcome but I would not be the first person to be surprised by DNA testing. All I need to do now is finishing reading a particularly brilliant book on testing that I am half-way through, design a DNA test program, trace some distant cousins from another branch of the tree, and get a few hundred dollars together. So I better get cracking …
SPURRETT Family History 