My DNA Link to West Midlands

Ancestry.com has updated my ancestral regions and I have a very strong connection with the West Midlands. This is the first time my DNA has been so strongly linked to any part of England. This does not discount the possibility that the point of origin of my ancestors John Gaulding and perhaps Mary Steward were from Oxfordshire and Warwickshire before immigrating to America.

My DNA profile has determined that my earliest ancestor may have come from the West Midlands. That is not inconsistent with the records of the period as far as the surnames Goulding and Steward are concerned.

Any connection to my original immigrant ancestor from England would be on my father’s side, because I don’t know of any close connection to any other place in Europe that he might have been connected to except Germany. As far as I know, none of his ancestors came from Scotland or Ireland but his Great Grandparents were both immigrants from Oberellenbach in Hesse, Germany. West Midlands is a very large area in England. My DNA region stretches from Manchester in the North all the way to Gloucester in the South. The area is approximately 135 miles north to south.

This area encompasses the West Midlands

The area that I have concluded John of New Kent Gaulding came from is within the West Midlands area. Banbury in Oxfordshire is north of Oxford and south of Coventry.