Canton Family History

Below is the blog I posted in mid-August. I am glad to tell you that this offer has been extended to September 30th.

I’m specially glad because the last two weeks of August, including as they do a bank holiday weekend, are a difficult time to contact people in Britain, at least. It turned into quite a stressful time, writing personal emails, helping sort out the odd glitch, etc, in a period when the days go whizzing by! Good news. though: we have at least one new (i.e., hitherto untested) line committed to taking part, and considerable hopes of another.

As ever, I will be only too pleased to answer any questions on this subject. I think the Comments facility (below) works now, or write to me at canton’at’one-name.org (but replace ‘at’ with @). 

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Today I received the following information from FT DNA - it is such a good offer that I want group members and supporters to know about it as soon as possible.

 From the Canton Surname Project point of view, I am - needless to say - keen to take advantage of the Y-DNA37 test at 119 USD (a saving of 70 USD on the normal, already-reduced project price. Please contact me [see above] if you are at all interested, so that we can look into possibilities - no obligation if you just enquire, but the offer closes at the end of August so I need your response soon.

For members and others who want to take advantage of other offers below, of course I will support you in that, too, and also answer any questions you may have.

Please support our research into the Canton Surname!

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Dear Group Administrator,

In June, Family Tree DNA ran our most successful promotion ever, in which we offered a significant discount on many of our test upgrades.
 
Now that our lab has had time to process the high volume of orders generated by that promotion, we are ready to challenge the record that we set in June by returning to you with our “Sizzling Summer Sale.” This time, the promotion is geared towards bringing new members to your projects by offering the following big incentives:
 
= Y-DNA12 orders include a FREE mtDNA test (Y-DNA12+mtDNA promotion price of $99; normally $189)
= Y-DNA25 orders include a FREE mtDNA test (Y-DNA25+mtDNA promotion price of $148; normally $238)
= Y-DNA37 orders price REDUCED to $119 (normally $189)
= Y-DNA37+mtDNAPlus orders price REDUCED to $189 (normally $339)
= Y-DNA67+mtDNAPlus orders price REDUCED to $288 (normally $409)
= mtDNAPlus price REDUCED to $149 (normally $189)
 
This promotion goes into effect immediately and will be available until August 31st, 11:59PM CST.
 
We would also like to make you aware of a change in shipping costs. Since our inception we never increased our shipping charge, even though in the meantime USPS has increased its rates 6 times. For that reason, our shipping cost will increase by $2, effective immediately. We appreciate your understanding.
 
As always, thank you for your continued support!

Family Tree DNA, Best Regards, Bennett Greenspan

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Apologies for letting this slip through the net: when I received notification that some haplogroups, including the current most common one in our Project, had been renamed, I prepared a posting at the time. It has been that sort of year! For convenience I will point you towards the Wikipedia entry for Haplogroup I1 (as I1a has become) as this is a fairly clear explanation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I1

When reading the historical detail, bear in mind that Pembrokeshire (the home of Cantons tested so far) was invaded by the Normans, and also that many of their followers were English. There was permanent settlement in Cemais, north Pembrokeshire, home of the earliest known Cantingtons/Cantons - not to the same degree as in anglicised south Pembrokeshire but quite sufficient to leave genetic evidence.

For general information on the subject of haplogroups, read:

http://www.familytreedna.com/hap_nomenclature.html

I should also point out that one member of our group has I1 coloured green on our results chart. This is because this member’s result was tested further and verified. You can take it that those shown in red must also, therefore be counted as confimed.

New Y-DNA results arrived last night, for Kit #121546. This test was for 12-markers, the participant being (on documentary evidence) a member of line PM/K, the branch of the Martletwy line which settled in Kent before c.1830.

These 12 markers of #121546 match exactly with three other previous participants - you can see their results at the Family Tree Canton Surname Project Webpage:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/CantonSurnameProject/

Thousands of other people might have the same results for 12 markers but - and this is the important point - not with the Canton surname. So these results have helped to reinforce earlier research on this family line.  

More soon about DNA testing in general and about the future objectives of the Project.

Here is some more about the colliery accidents referred to in my last posting. The numbering is mine, for clarity here only. These notes are not meant to be exhaustive and are based on my notes on parish registers, censuses and Picton Castle deeds as well as reference works in my own library.

1. 1878: John POWELL (15) collier, was killed by a roof fall in Southwood Colliery, owners Walters & Canton, Haverfordwest, Pembroke[shire]. Southwood is in Roch parish, Haverfordwest being the nearest town. The Canton owner is David Canton of Nolton Haven, Roch, descendant of the family of Cantons (line PF) who had earlier farmed and mined in the parish of Freystrop for several generations.

2. 1879: Thomas LALLIS (42) collier, was killed by a fall of stone in Southwood colliery, owners Walters & Canton, Haverfordwest, Glamorgan [sic]. This error re the county name suggests that occasional mistakes in recording or transcription could occur - on this point, see no.4, below. There is a map showing the location of Southwood in Fig. 10 in (c) below.

3. 1877: Henry WEBB (23) labourer, was killed by a blow at Woodland colliery, owner David Canton, Haverfordwest, Pembroke[shire] - the same DC as in nos 1 and 2. Woodland is in the parish of Walton West - there is a map of its location in Fig.12 in (c) below.

4. 1877 Nov: Henry ROBERTS (44), sinker, was killed by falling down sinking pit shaft … at Woodfield colliery, owner David Canton, Pontypridd, Glamorgan. This one presents a real difficulty. There is a Woodfield colliery in the Pontypridd, Glamorgan, area, but I rather doubt that David Canton was ever one of its owners, usually described as Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. Ltd.  (The forename David isn’t actually very numerous in Canton  families.)  I think that probably Woodland and Woodfield have become confused here, as Pembs and Glamorgan were in no.2, above. With the intention of unravelling this riddle, I searched for the death of Henry Roberts in the last quarter of 1877 (and later) but found no-one of that name and general age.

Some further reading:

(a) George Edwards, The Coal Industry in Pembrokeshire (Field Studies reprint, 1963).

(b) Dr Brian S. John, The Geology of Pembrokeshire (1979, reprinted 2003).

(c) M.R. Connop-Price, Pembrokeshire: The Forgotten Coalfield (Landmark, 2004).