Is my grandmother a William Penn descendent as she always claimed?

Question

My Grandmother always told me that she was descended from William Penn, but as I did her tree, I saw no Penn's. I assumed that she had just assumed or something (as her Blackburn family were Pennsylvania Quakers and did go back a long time). 

Yesterday, though, on the last day of a Newspapers.com free trial, I came across the Obituary of her grandmother, Sarah White (Mother's maiden name = Giles):  

"MRS. SARAH W. ENGLISH. Mrs. Sarah White English, 85, widow of James English, died in her home. 1208 Orchard Street, Northside Thursday. She was the last living child of Henry and Elizabeth White, of Connellsville, descendents, respectively of Captain Thomas Field and William Penn. Mrs. English leaves two daughters,  Mrs. Nellie Wilcox and Mrs. Glenn Blackburn; two sons A.E. English of Philadelphia and Joseph English, 18 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren." 

I don't see any tie to Elizabeth Giles from the Penn side going down, and can find no link going up. Think that this was a perceived tie between the Giles surname and Giles Penn?

Is there a tie between Penn-40 and White-45631 that I just haven't found?

-Scott

Answer 1

The Connection finder has Penn-40 and White-45631 at 19 degrees apart.

Comments

There is a Connection, but the Relationship finder did not have a positive result.

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Actually surprised at 19. Even if there *was* a direct line, I'd expect a secondary or tertiary connection closer than 19 in such a closed community. A lot of the historic "Daily Profiles" seed me more closely than that, and I have 6 or 7 degrees of history alone.

Answer 2

I added familytree links to their profiles.

Answer 3

Curious to find this connection.  Several sources have Elizabeth Giles parents as Samuel Giles (1766-1850) and Dorothea Phields (1770-1865).  And Samuel Giles parents as William Giles (1698-1730) and Anna Parker (1705-?).  I believe the family search link in the other answer provides sources for that line.  William Penn's spouses were Gulielma Maria Springett and Hannah Margaret Callowhill and I don't see any obvious connections there, could be through the Dorthea Phields line or possibly the Anna Parker line.  One  strategy may be to work through William Penn's daughters to see if they married anyone with these last names.

Answer 4

Almost certainly not: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/penn/1345/

Comments

Don't *like* seeing my family history (pretty much) disproven, but love the (partial) closure.

Of course, I have 4 generations of females between myself and Giles, so am quite separated from the Penn surname... I'm researching in printed histories seeing if I can tie the two generations (or find concrete proof that there are none).