Genetic history of Turvey -1213

Date: [unknown] to 1680
Location: Gloucestershire, England
Surnames/tags: Turvey Wilkinson Genetic_Genealogy

Ben Turvey (c1680-1746) was married in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire in 1703, where he died in 1746. He has 77 male line descendents on WikiTree, most of whom lived in or near Bristol. One of his descendents, Turvey-154, has been genetically tested. This article is largely based on those results. It is assumed that the paper trail to Ben Turvey is consistent with the genetic inheritance, which could be confirmed (or disproved) by testing of other lines in future.

See also: Space:History of the Turvey surname

The hereditary surname "Turvey" is believed to have originated around 1200 as a locational name relating to the parish of Turvey in Bedfordshire. Over the next 200 years, nearly all of the people called Turvey named in sources come from nearby counties.

However, a third of all Turveys today are descended from a cluster of Turvey families in Worcestershire and neighbouring counties, including the descendents of Francis Turvey (c1680-) of Pershore and John Turvey (1665-) of Dudley. In the 1841 census, Pershore had the largest number of Turvey families of any parish in the country, showing how important it was for the family. The Dudley and Wotton Turveys may be branches of the Pershore line although proof is lacking as there is no paper trail back to Pershore and there has been no published genetic testing of either the Pershore or Dudley lines.

The Pershore Turvey family seems to have emerged from Richard Turvey of Walcot, who was born around 1470. This family acquired the manor of Walcot in the parish of Pershore in the second half of the 1400s. Members of this family were listed as yeoman or gentry over the next 200 years, although the main property of the Turveys of Walcot passed out of the male line in 1658 when Elizabeth Turvey inherited her father's estate, passing it to her son, the Earl of Plymouth.

The haplogroup of Turvey-154 is I1. The haplogroups of six other Turveys have beeen published, of whom five are R1b and one is J1. Two of the R1bs are from counties near Bedfordshire (John Turvey (c1700-) of Eaton Bray, Beds and Samuel Turvey (1705-) of Romford, Essex), two others are from English colonies (Daniel Turvey (c1750-) of Virginia and John Turvey (1738-) of South Africa) and one (Turvey-508) is unknown. It seems reasonable to assume that the original Turvey ancestor was an R1b. The I1 Haplogroup could have emerged either from a different original surname-bearer or through a non-parental event (NPE) such as an adoption, maternal remarriage, bastardy or cuckolding.^[1]

Given the absense of Turveys in or around Worcestershire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (by which time hereditary surnames had been established) it seems less likely that the haplogroup difference was due to a separate original surname-bearer. If it is due to an NPE then it's unclear whether this affects all of the Pershore cluster, only the Wotton line or indeed relates to an NPE in the paper trail between Ben Turvey and Turvey-154.

Comparison to other tests show a match within the last 700 years with five individuals called Wilkinson or variants Wilkerson and Wilkey. This indicates that the NPE may be with a Wilkinson. This surname is derived form the patronymic Wilkins-son, where Wilkins is a diminutive form of William typically used in northern England in particular the Danelaw.