Frearson Family Trees and the DNA Project

Family trees for many Frearson families have been established by use of census data and Registration data that is now searchable on the web and from other sources.  These Trees are being further extended using contacts from Genes Reunited and similar sites.  The Family Trees and their listing references for the Study are given below. 

Missing reference numbers [and additional numbers in brackets] show where earlier trees have now been combined as a result of ongoing research.

These Frearson Trees are now being classified on the basis of their likely suitability for inclusion in the FREARSON DNA PROJECT.  

Derbyshire

D0 [also N13 and N14] – Frearsons from Ockbrook.  This group that includes my own family, spreads from Ockbrook in Derbyshire to Lincolnshire, Hampshire and Berkshire; also from other Derbyshire branches to Nottingham, also London and later to USA and Australia.  DNA tests on 6th cousins from England and Australia have confirmed that these two branches are descended from the same 6 x Great Grandfather in Ockbrook, and now provide a confirmed Frearson DNA profile for comparison with other Frearson families.  [Three individuals have been tested – Australian and British relationships confirmed.]

D1 – Frearsons of Boulton and later Derby.  The family had a harder urban lifestyle, and one allegedly unmarried mother had seven children, many of whom also had large families.  Later, many of the men joined the army and navy; many of them lost their lives in WWI.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

D2 [also D3] – Frearsons of Breaston.  Another very large grouping, where DNA testing might, hopefully, show a connection to the “neighbouring” D0 Ockbrook group.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

D4 – Frearsons of Derby.  These are an earlier group of Frearsons, working in Derby in the 17th and early 18th Centuries, and being successful business and trades people.  Because of their comparative wealth, it has been possible to establish the family relationships from their Wills.  It was hoped that a connection could be established with the D0 Ockbrook grouping.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

D5 – Frearsons of Draycott.  Many of the family later moved to Scotland and New Zealand.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

D6 – Frearsons.  This family ancestor was a military man who had children in the Channel Islands, Ireland, India, and China.  The family still requires considerable research input.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.] 

D7 [and also L7] – Frearsons from Stanton [and Humberstone branch].  This family is now expected to be part of the D0 family – as they also  came from Ockbrook, but no definate proof is yet available.  A family with the Butler name but apparently descended from a Joseph Frearson in this group might usefully be included in the DNA study and any male descendants of that line will also need to be identified.  The L7 group has also been linked to this family.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

D9 – Frearsons from Alvaston.  A small grouping that went north to Yorkshire and Lancashire – and may have been confused with the Lancashire families.  More research needed.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

D10 – Frearsons from Riddings.  A fragment represented by an Elizabeth Frearson born 1790 in Riddings who married into the Moss family.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

D13 – Frearsons from Derby.  This family group is descended from the enigmatic “Born at Sea” Isaac Frearson.  Many descendants are now in New Zealand.  Speculation about Isaac’s later career as an “engineer”, and his date of birth, suggested that he might be a brother of John Frearson of Manchester and Birmingham [within the Leicester L3 Frearson family – see below].  DNA tests on this branch may assist.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

D14 – Frearsons from Normanton.  A small Derbyshire group that may link to the L24 Leicestershire family.  However, five daughters mean there is no DNA continuity.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

D15 – Frearsons.  A fragment with no known living descendants.  [Line has died out, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

D16 – Frearsons in Wales.  A family descended from George Frearson b. 1837, a soldier born in Willington, Derbyshire who married and lived in Wales.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

Leicestershire

L1 – Frearsons of Ratcliffe on the Wreake.  The family migrated to London and some then on to the USA.  [Living male descendant in USA tested; no direct link with the D1 family group for this individual.]

L2 – Frearsons of  Bagworth.  A small group with some unresolved parentage.  More research needed.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L3 – Frearsons of Birmingham.  A Leicestershire family that had seemed to be an “adopted” part of the D0 Derbyshire family.  The family is now found to descend from the L27 and the L24 family.  Considerable research has revealed the fascinating story of this family which includes the socialist campaigner John Frearson [see Interesting Frearsons].  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L5 – Frearsons of Hinkley.  A very small group that migrated to Birmingham.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L6 – Frearsons of  Hugglescote and Donnington.  An early, presently isolated group that needs further research.  [Line has  no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L8 – Frearsons of Ibstock.   One of the groups from this village – they appear to have lost the Frearson name after a generation of mainly female children.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L9 – [also L30, L34 & L44] Frearsons of Leicester.  Known for a “Confectioner”, further connections have now revealed living members.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

L10 – Frearson of Ibstock.  Another more extensive group from the village.  They moved to London, Nuneaton and Nottingham, and there are a number of living male Frearson members.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

L11 – Frearsons of Burbage.  They generally remained in the Leicester area. [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.] 

L13 – Frearsons of Barwell.  Again generally remaining in the Leicestershire area.  Living Frearson members.  [Living male descendants and contacts are available; hopefully candidates will be available for test.]

L14 – Frearsons of Kirby Muxloe and Desford.  A small family group still to be placed.  [Line has probably died out, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L15 [also L4, L16, L19, L20 and L22] – Frearsons of Peckleton.  An extensive family that has seen several separate trees come together.  Largely remaining in Leicestershire and with extant members including a large section with a probable male line “discontinuity”.  [Living male descendant in UK tested; no direct link with the D1 or L1 family group for this individual.]

L17 – Frearsons of Peckleton.  Another of the several families from the village – further research needed.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L18 – Frearsons from Peckleton.  An 18th Century family group – further research needed.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L21 – Frearsons from Peckleton.  Moved to Leicester Forest.  Further research needed.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L23 – Frearsons from Whitwick.  One female line went to USA.  Further research needed.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L24 [also L3, L25, L27 and L28] – Frearsons from Worthington.  This group were also in Aston on Trent and Breedon.  Now includes the L27 branch which moved to Tamworth and connects down to the L3 Birmingham group.  An extensive family, with later branches moving to back to Derbyshire, to Newbold and Chesterfield.  More research is needed to conclusively link the various Worthington families, many of which have apparently no record before about 1800.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

L26 [also L12] – Frearsons from Worthington.  Another major family group from the same area of Leicestershire.  Later moving to London and the West Midlands [Dudley and Birmingham].  [Possible living male descendants, but no contact with line at present.]

L29 – Frearsons from Ibstock.  Possibly connected with the D0 Derby family.   Some research is needed to clarify the origins if this group.  One member of this family group, William Henry Frearson, a Director of the Leicester firm of William Gimpson & Sons is seen in a 1927 photograph].  [Possible living male descendants, but no contact with line at present.]

L31 – Frearsons from Worthington.  Like families L26, and L27 this family originated in Worthington.  A preponderance of daughters meant that the Frearson name only lasted a few generations.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L32 [also Notts N4, N6, N8 and N12] – Frearsons from Worthington and Wymeswold.  Another Worthington based family that soon moved to Wymeswold and Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  [Possible living male descendants, but no contact with line at present.]

L35 – Frearsons from Stoke Golding, Leicestershire.  A small family group that appear to have “died out” in the 1850s.  [The line seems to have died out.]

L36 [and L41] – Frearsons from Loughborough and Norton Juxta Twycross.  This group was present and identified in Wills from as early as the mid 1700s.  May link with L40 and L41[Line has apparently died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L37 – Frearsons from Market Bosworth.  Another early group [mid 1700s family] established from Wills and other documents. [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.] 

L38 – Frearsons from Appleby Magna.  This group could connect with one of the Worthington families.  Research needed.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L39 – Frearsons from Worthington, recorded in an earlier Will of about 1821.  This may allow a link with some of the other Worthington families to be established.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L40 – Frearsons from Norton juxta Twycross, [possibly related to L36].  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L41 – Frearsons from Norton juxta Twycross, [now linked to L36].  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

L42 – Frearsons from Leicester and London.  Fragments from a Will in 1744.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

Nottinghamshire

Further details of these Frearson families will be added later – many have now connected into Leicestershire and Derbyshire groups.

N2 – Frearsons from Sutton Bonnington and Hyson Green[Line has apparently died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

N3 – Frearsons from Nottingham.  They later moved to Ossett and Accrington and also to Utah, USA.  [Possible living male descendants, but no contact with line at present.]

N9 – Frearsons from New Radford.  A “fragment” of family that requires linking.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

N13 – Frearsons from Nottingham.  They moved in part to Warwickshire.  Now connected to D0 family.  [Possible living male descendants, but no contact with line at present.]

N14 – Frearsons from Nottingham.  Mainly in the later 1700s.  The male line died out in the early 1820s, with the Frearson name remaining as a first name for a while longer.  Now connected to D0 family.  

Lancashire

The Lancashire Frearson relationships have still to be researched in greater detail, and appear to be a completely separate group of families.  At present the various Frearsons have been combined into some eight families.  There are a considerable number of archived documents and the family in Hawkshead in the Lake District produces some of the earliest examples of the Frearson name.  The present groupings are as follows:-

La1 – Frearsons from Hawkshead.  The Frearson families in the Hawkshead Parish Registers are the earliest grouped occurences of the Frearson name, dating back to the 1500s.  How [and if] they relate to any other groups has not yet been established.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

La2 – La3  – La4 – La6 – La9 – La10 – La12 – Frearsons from Kirkby Ireleth.  A line based on early Deeds and Wills, and land descending from a James Frearson b.c.1720s.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

Of some note is James Frearson [b.1759] whose mother was a Sawrey and who moved to London and set up “Frearson and Sawrey – Haberdashers”, with another Hawkshead man, Henry Sawrey.  The firm traded for some time but had a difficult time in 1818 when they were in administration.  A Deed with the signatures of about 100 debtors appeared on EBay but the Study was out-bid.  Better copies of some images have been obtained and may be sufficient to allow information to be obtained about the business in due course.  The firm continued trading, however, until the two original partners died.

La5 – Frearsons from Kirkby Ireleth.  Another small group from this area, descended via a James Frearson b. 1836 in Kirkby Ireleth, possibly from a George Frearson.  [Line has probably died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

La7 – La14 – Frearsons from Cartmell to Field Broughton.  A group with the possibility of descendents being investigated, descending from a Jonathan Dixon Frearson b.c.1811.  Two descendant brothers died in WWII.

Of some note is Martha Wilson Frearson b.1864 in Cartmel, Lancashire, who became a missionary in 1899 in Turkey, taking charge of the Armenian Orphanage in Ainab caring for children orphaned in the massacres.   Later, although ill she refused to leave.  When Turkey entered WWI, she had to leave, not to home but to Egypt.  She returned after the war, but with Turkish hostility had to take the orphans to Syria.  In WWII she ran canteens for troops in the Lebanon, employing her former orphans.  She died in 1950 and is buried in the Anglo-American Cemetery in Bierut.  [Line has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

La8 – Frearsons from Euxton and Chorley.  A well documented line traced back to the early-mid 1700s.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

La11 – Frearsons from Tottlebank.  A small group including the family of the Rev. Strickland Frearson who cannot yet be “connected”  [Line has apparently died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

La13 – Frearsons from Kendal.  A small group descended from George Frearson b. 1837.  Includes living descendants.  [Line includes known living male descendants and contacts will be sought.]

La15 – Elizabeth Frearson.  She married the Revd. Barber in 1809.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

London

There are early examples of the Frearson name in London.  Some families migrated from Derbyshire, but others appear to have been in the city from quite early times.  They appeared to be merchants and in trade and fairly prosperous.

L1 – Frearsons from London and Chelmsford.  This group, dating back to the very early 1700s, includes John Frearson, an artist and member of the Royal Academy.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

Warwickshire

These families lived and worked in Coventry, where there are excellent records in Poll Books and Freeman Registers.  The two Frearson family groups are probably related, indeed the heads of the two trees may have been brothers.  Unfortunately, the last UK resident male Frearson descendant died in 2009, so unless an émigré to Australia in the 1920s with one known [deceased] son, had other male descendents, the opportunity to study the DNA is passed.

W1 [also W2 & W3] – Frearsons from Coventry.  There are records dating back to a marriage in 1768.  It seems that they may have arrived from elsewhere in the 1760s, as there are no earlier BMD records for the name.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

W4 – Frearsons from Coventry.  A smaller group, dating back to a marriage in 1774.  [Line has died out – or has no known Male descendants, thus no DNA test opportunity.]

Miscellaneous

There are also some smaller trees that are not connected to any particular county – some of these include living members and may provide information in due course.  DNA testing may help identify where the links may be.

USA

The North American groups can be generally traced back to their UK families – it is hoped that these links can be confirmed by DNA testing.

Australia

The majority of the Australian Frearsons descend from the D0 Derbyshire family, by the son of a Nottingham butcher, John Frearson, who acknowledged his son John Farnsdale or Varndell in his Will.  The family with ten children travelled to Australia in 1853.  A DNA test sample has confirmed the link with the other Ockbrook descended Frearsons in the Derby – D0 family.

Links

Frearson One-Name Study