A question of paternity

[Gwelanmorrep]

Hi.  I'm trying to narrow down the odds of a particular soldier being the father of one of my ancestors.  The baby in question was born early June 1905, so was most probably conceived mid-August to mid-September 1904 with end of August/start of September being the most likely period.  This chap was an Army Service Corps Driver based at the Woolwich barracks.  His Defaulter Book record shows him absent from tattoo on 17th April.  The next entry has him absent off permanent pass for 3 days from 3rd October.  My question is, what's the likelihood of him being out of barracks at any time between these dates?  If that might have been possible, for how long might he have been legitimately absent?  Is there anywhere other than his service record (which I've accessed through Ancestry) that I might look for further information?  Thanks for any help!

Edited 8 September , 2021 by Gwelanmorrep

[ss002d6252]

As we're primarily ww1 focused, is there any evidence the soldier served in ww1 ?

You've not really given much to go on.

Craig

[Gwelanmorrep]

He enlisted in December 1903, did 10 years service, was recalled Aug 1914, and serving until 1920. Between enlistment and mid 1905 he was at Woolwich.  I'd rather hoped someone with insight into the lives of regular soldiers at this time might be able to say if they were allowed out of barracks, if so for how long, if/when they were given leave - stuff like that.  Apologies if that wasn't clear,  

[Interested]

I can't help with answering your question, but here's an idea...

It might be possible to trace a descendant of your man who might agree to a DNA test to verify (or otherwise) any connection.  There's a lot of genealogy interest in finding family links this way, however distant they might be.

Good luck with your search, who knows what might turn up.

[Gwelanmorrep]

Thanks Interested - the question has sort of come up because of lack of expected matches following DNA testing.  I'm trying to work out if it would have even been possible for the soldier in question to be the father.  His service record shows absences in April and October, but implies he was in the barracks over the critical period - but we don't know what that would have meant for the day to day life of a soldier.  The woman in question was only about 5 miles away... might he have been legitimately allowed out of the barracks?  Might he have sneaked out and not been caught?   

[clive_hughes]

My brother has taken 2 DNA tests with different genealogy companies.  The first stated we were about 87 per cent Welsh/Scots/Irish as a block, 7 per cent Italian and 4 per cent Finnish.  The second stated we were 97 per cent Welsh and 3 per cent Irish.   This is not stated so as to discourage you, but perhaps a different DNA provider might give a different result to the one you're chasing now?  If it matches, at least you know it's accurate: if not, perhaps it wll match the "expected" result?  

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

What  you get with a DNA test Clive is effectively two reports.

One is the detailed genome mapping test that will positively identify you down to the Billions to One odds so often quoted. They smple your DNA in hundreds of thousands of locations -Ancestry is autosomal testing so examines both sides of the family tree, others only do mitochondrial DNA or Y Chromosome DNA which only tests one side.

Having got the DNA Pattern, Ancestry will make a prediction on ethnic mix. It's just that, it's based on how many examples of similar gene patterns they have in their database. In their database, a certain pattern may be common in Welsh people, in another database, the same pattern may have been noticed in Mediterranean people. Similar gene pattern, different interpretation.

 

[clive_hughes]

Thanks Dai - I'll bear that in mind but don't want to digress too far from the original poster's research question!