William Hellyer Geake (known as Bill)
18TH JUNE
Today marks the 25th anniversary of my Grandpa Geake’s (William Hellyer Geake) death. Here he is in front of his house at Crelake Park in Tavistock Devon.
Bill Geake (25.4.1917 – 18.6.1994)
And here Grandpa is sitting in the chair next to me at our house – Christmas time 1983.
Phyllis Grace Geake, nee Weaver
10TH JUNE
It’s hard to believe we lost my Granny Geake (born Phyllis Grace Weaver) 14 years ago today. I still miss her loads.
Grave plaque at Drake Memorial Park, Plymstock
Edward Carlyle Savory
6TH JUNE
Honouring my Great-Uncle, Edward Carlyle Savory, who was in the US 29th Division Artillery HQ Bty on D-Day, arriving on Omaha Beach at 14:10 hours on the afternoon of 6th June.
After the war, Uncle Eddie married my Great-Aunt, Eileen Geake, having met her in Tavistock, Devon, where he had been stationed for some time before crossing the Channel.
General Eisenhower inspecting the US troops in front of St Eustachius Church in Tavistock
Following on from a previous post where I explained that my patrilineal line doesn’t match the Hibbitt haplogroup, I am now giving an update for those called Hibbitt or a variant of the name.
We now have four people called either Hibbitt, Hibbett or Hibbit sharing the Z2534 haplogroup. At least two descend from John Hybot and Ann Tubbs who married in Exton, Rutland, in 1732, through their son, Matthew, who married Frances Penruddock. A third person could either descend from Matthew and Frances or Matthew’s brother, William, who married Elizabeth Skillet. Either way, John Hybot and Ann Tubbs would be this person’s forebears too.
The final Z2534 result came from a descendant of a John Hibbit who married Mary Toft in London in 1770. This then, would point to a connection back to either John Hybot or, quite probably, an ancestor of his, how far back we cannot know without specific Y-DNA testing.
Three of the results were obtained when testers ran their AncestryDNA raw data files through the Morley Y-SNP Subclade Predictor Tool at
https://ytree.morleydna.com/extractFromAutosomal
The fourth person in this Z2534 group tested with Living DNA which gave a more recent haplogroup than Z2534. The haplogroup was Z2189. The R Z2534 DNA project suggests that the people they have in their project who are positive for the Z2189 SNP have Iberian ancestry.
The Ancestry and Living DNA tests are not dedicated Y DNA tests, instead they are autosomal DNA tests with a small amount of Y-DNA data included. The YTree at YFull shows various testers who’ve taken the Big Y test at FTDNA or similar and who come under Z2534: https://www.yfull.com/tree/R-Z2534/. The ancestry of those in the Z2189 group includes places such as Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Puerto Rico. It’s curious then, how the Hybot family came to be in England but it needs to be noted that the Z2189 haplogroup was formed about 4000 years ago.
The R Z2189 Haplogroup on the YTree as at April 2019
(UPDATE June 2025: there are now many more men appearing on this branch of the YTree.)
If anyone in the Hibbitt etc. group was to take a Big Y test and upload to YFull, it would be interesting to see whether they were a match to any of the existing subclades of Z2189 or whether they would eventually form a brand new branch if a closer DNA match also tested.
As for my line, with every result that comes in at Z2534, it confirms that I am not a ‘real’ Hibbitt after all. My Dad’s haplogroup is Z36747 which separated from the Z2534 haplogroup at DF13, which is a couple of clades above Z2534, and therefore further back in time. I still have no idea what my maiden name should have been but I believe that it’s either my great-grandfather or his father who had a father who wasn’t a Hibbitt. This is contrary to what the records say so no clues so far.
[UPDATE June 2025: having taken a fresh look at the Hibbert DNA Project’s Y-DNA Results, I notice there are two people in the project called Hibbert who also have a haplogroup of Z2189 so it would seem the names are linked. The project is currently looking for an administrator.]
Ancestry has recently completed its Irish ethnicity regions update and now offers 92 distinct regions in Ireland. This has resulted in my being able to identify some areas on my maternal grandfather’s side (William Hellyer Geake). My mum, aunt and two of their first cousins have tested at Ancestry and here are the findings.
My Mum’s Irish Ethnicity Results
My Aunt’s Irish Ethnicity Results
Cousin 1’s Irish Ethnicity Results
Cousin 2’s Irish Ethnicity Results
Note: The Scottish connection is because Cousin 2’s mother was Scottish
Here are maps of the regions:
Connacht with sub-regions of North East Mayo & North West Sligo, North Connacht and North Mayo
Central Ireland with sub-regions of North Leinster & East Connacht and North Leitrim & East Sligo
The region known as North East Mayo & North West Sligo shows up in all of the cousins’ results and yet I cannot trace an ancestor from this region. The only Irish connection I have is currently tenuous – one of the cousins’ mutual great-grandmothers married their great-grandfather in Shanagolden, Limerick, in 1871. Her maiden name might have been Burgoyne or Congdon and I cannot be certain that she was definitely Irish. Her husband, John Gale Hellier, was in the Royal Navy and was from Tavistock in Devon –
www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam1847.html.
It’s remarkable that such a lot of Irish DNA has filtered down through the generations considering the three other shared great-grandparents were all Devonians and having only Devon ancestry going further back in time. The cousins’ other known family lines do not involve Ireland and so it cannot be easily explained.
[Please see the updated information below as the facts have changed.]
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[UPDATE June 2025: through DNA, I have since learned that my great-grandfather, James Geake, was not the son of his recorded parents and that he had strong genetic ties to Sligo in Ireland. The mystery continues but the surname Kilmartin/Gilmartin from that area crops up numerous times amongst our family’s DNA matches. Read about the DNA discovery here.
Later research, backed up by DNA, revealed that Mary Ann was the daughter of James Condon/Congdon and Louisa Reed. William George Henry Burgoyne was her step-father. Mary Ann’s maternal grandparents appear to have originated from Ireland, perhaps from the Cork area. More on this here.]
