Dates unknown (probably born about 1800–1810)

Third Generation: [First name unknown] Warner < William Warner < William Warner

My 3rd great granduncle (great great great great uncle)

Hypothetical brother of William Warner (1808–1845)

This man was the son of William Warner and Hannah Benson. He was born in England, probably in Yorkshire, probably around 1810 (when his father would have been about twenty years old).

His existence is proven by DNA evidence (as shown in the notes and the post listed below).

He had at least two children:

  1. Robert Warner
  2. James Warner

Notes

I call this person the “hypothetical brother of William Warner” (my great great great grandfather) because I have yet to find any documentary evidence at all about him, including his first name.

But there is DNA evidence to suggest that one of William’s brothers was the father of a man named James Warner, who was born in Montreal in 1832, moved first to Cleveland and then to Denver, and finally, in the 1860s, settled in Salem, Oregon.

So, if my DNA-based hypothesis is correct, this man, James’s father, was the son of William Warner (1789–?) and Hannah Benson and the brother of William Warner (1808–1845).

The DNA connection, in a few words, is this:

  1. My Ancestry.ca DNA test shows that I have DNA sequences in common with a living person (Edith, my fourth cousin once removed) who has a well documented line of descent from a man named James Warner in Oregon.
  2. I have a well documented line of descent from William Warner and Hannah Benson, who lived in Frampton, Quebec in the early 1830s, and from their son William, who moved from Frampton to Montreal in the mid-1830s.
  3. My late father also had DNA in common with Edith. Please see the chart below.

Some of the related documentary evidence is this:

  1. According to available documents, the James Warner in Oregon was born in Montreal in 1832 and so is in exactly the right place at the right time to be the son of the younger William’s brother.
  2. His brother Robert was born in England in 1827, and their father was also born in England. This also fits with the timing of the family’s arrival in Canada, as we know, from the 1831 census, that they came sometime between 1825 and 1830.
  3. One of James’s nieces (the daughter of his brother Robert) was named “Maria Jane Benson Warner,” reinforcing the hypothesis that Robert and James are grandsons of William Warner and Hannah Benson.

I’ll develop this hypothesis further as I continue to work on the website.

The DNA link between the Oregon Warners and the Ontario Warners
More DNA Evidence Confirms Who Our Warner Ancestors Were
Finding our Yorkshire Cousins: Part 2 of 2