Connected by DNA-Part One

Graphics Courtesy of rhiosampler.net

Happy New Year everyone! I trust that 2014 has gotten off to a great start for you and your family. With everything that has been going on in our family with our grandsons birth and multiple health issues I have had very little time to devote to this blog. Now that things have settled down a bit I am ready to get back into my research and sharing my findings here with my readers.
This update is concerning my husbands ancestry. As many of you know he has a Non Paternal event in his family line. We have been unable in times past to figure out just where but that has changed. Due to recent DNA findings we are on the right track. I wanted to share a big update concerning this line here within this post. In 2009 he submitted his Y-DNA to Family Tree DNA testing company. When the results came in we found that he was not a match to anyone in the whole database with the surname TINKER. Upon further investigation we found that his Y-DNA matches two different surnames almost synonymously: FANCHER & JOHNSON. At first we thought that perhaps an adoption had taken place in a closer generation; however, we now believe much differently. I am going to share here what we know thus far and I promise to keep this updated as apparently this finding effects everyone in this particular TINKER family line and not just my husband. We hope that some other members of this family will come forward and have their DNA tested as well so that we can see if the findings are consecutive with what we have found thus far.
Apparently this line of  the TINKER family originated in New Windsor, Berkshire, England. This line connects to Robert TINKER & Mary MERWIN.
Robert TINKER`s Find a Grave memorial reads as follows:

"New Windsor, the home of the Tinker family, is best known as the site of Windsor Castle, which occupies 12 acres of land and has served as the residence of a long succession of English Monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth II. In 1615 Robert was a church warden of New Windsor and "there for" signed the Bishop's Transcripts that year for the parish. At his death ,he owned property in New Windsor in the"parishe" of Clewer (Cleyw orth) and Winkfield in the County of Berk, in Berkshire and Burnham in the County of Buck, in Buckinghamshire, and in Berkhamstead, County of, Hertfordshire. He left hs wife Mary well off as long as she was widowed. She was to get a leasehold interest in a dwelling house in New Windsor and in a " messuage" or tenement in Clewer. The will is most interesting. It appears that he owned land, orchards and a tanning business, much of it in the tenure of others during his lifetime .
Robert was the son of Randall Tinker."

Contributed by FAG Member: Mad

This branch of the TINKER family eventually ends up near Lyme, New London, Connecticut. Now according to an article written by one Beverly Githens entitled: The Fancher Family-A Part of Our History an excerpt from that article reads:

Among these expatriates was one Richard Fancher who settled in Connecticut about 1700 and was soon well established. This is indicated by the fact that the Branford town records of 1694-1788 state: that he "entered the earmark of William Fancher which is two nicks or slits crossways of ye right ear on the under side, May ye 8;1724"-referring to his cattle marks or colonial "brands" This William was a brother of Richard, direct ancestor of the Arkansas Fanchers.

Members of this FANCHER family eventually migrated from Connecticut on to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and on into Northwest Arkansas. The TINKER family was living in very close proximity to the FANCHER family almost all of the time through history.

Please see the FANCHER Family DNA Project Website for more information on the connection between the FANCHER & the JOHNSON Families.

I have decided to break this post up into two different posts, please stay tuned for the rest of the story.