I started my ancestry journey some years ago but stopped. I have now restarted and what a fascinating journey it is!
I signed up for 3-months ancestry.co.uk which includes a DNA test for £75. I have been online and learned a lot on the way. I have linked up with two 2nd cousins on Facebook. The first got me started on the ancestry route again as we share the same Gr Gr Granparent – Arthur Kingswell (1875). His daughter was my Grandmother on the maternal side, Nellie Saunders. This line is interesting because Arthr’s father, Charles Henry (1846) was a gardener in Osborne House, Isle of Wight at the time of Queen Victoria. Frank Dennis (1899) was Nellie’s brother was in the Navy. The rest of the Kinswells were blacksmiths working in the dockyard. Nellie married Percy Valentine (1893) who was also in the Navy. He died just before the outbreak of WW2.
On the Bristow side (Dad’s mother) sees Samuel Bristow (1873) as a CPO in the Navy. He was a Navy shooting champion. On the Mayne side, Grandad Lewis was born on the Isle of Lewis in 1906. He joined the Navy at 18 it seems. He was promoted to Temp Act Gnner in 1944 HMS Excellent so he must have rejoined. After retirement in 1946, he was in the Royal Marines Police Special Reserve (Portsmouth Dockyard Police – Marine Special Reserve – the forerunner of the Ministry of Defence Police where I served for 25 years.)
His father William Thomas (1867) was also in the Navy. He had another son (Grandad’s brother, Thomas (1899)) who did not survive his first year. The family somehow ended up in Birkenhead, Liverpool where William Thomas died in 1936.
The rest of the Mayne family can be traced back to Roger Mayne (1520.) At the moment (Jan 2024) this is unsourced. The evidence is coming from other ancestry tree makers.
I am looking forward to seeing the results of the DNS test after which I will update this.
*UPDATE* - 6 April 2025 - I have had great fun with this and have met a new family member, Harry Mayne, my 7th cousin. He has allowed me to use material from his amazing 5-volume ‘History of the Mayne Family.’ From this, and my own research, I have compiled my own 6-volume (one in progress) ancestry publication I have called ‘Tracking My Past - My Ancestral Journey’. See https://sites.google.com/view/4rlife/projects/ancestry
