About us
John Shorrocks (Warwickshire, UK) and Keith Johnson / Shorrocks are confirmed as directly related through James Shorrocks, Brushmanufacturer of Salford, England born c1796. John is a descendant of James' son Edwin Shorrocks and Keith is a descendant of another of James' sons Walter Shorrocks. This solves a long-standing 'brickwall' in Keith's genealogy / family history, as Keith's grandfather Harry Shorrocks changed his name to Harry Johnson around 1905 when he moved from Salford to South London.
Interestingly, Keith's first inkling that there may have been a name change in his family from Shorrocks to Johnson came from a 12:12 match with Ken Grist on the Ysearch site. Keith and Ken then compared their markers at the 25:25 level and found a 24:25 match. Now Ken has a 25:25 match with John Shorrocks. It appears that the marker that Keith differs on with respect to Ken and John (464c)is sometimes prone to slipping back to the value of the marker that precedes it - hence his final four value sequence of 15:15:15:18 as compared to their 15:15:18:18.
There is an exciting new development in the study. Dave Sharrock who has set up an excellent website at:
http://www.btinternet.com/~sharrock.family/
has joined the study to test the hypothesis that the Sharrocks of Veryan Cornwall are indeed part of the extended Shorrock family from Lancashire.
The historic reference is as follows from a Heraldic Visitation in the 16th Century:
"Sharrockes of Ribbelsdale in Com. Lanc. first of wh. was Ralph Shorrock of Shorockhayes wch in the Barrons' Wars was advanced to be a Captaine and therein lost his life, his descent grewe poore, and when the Scotts overan the Northern borders & parte of Lancashire and Chesheire the most part of this familie fled into Dublyn in Ireland, where by the Corruption of the Irish Ideoam they were termed Sharlock wch name of necessitie they were constrained to hold in the time of King Henrie the Seventh."
(The Barons War took place between 1258 and 1267. Henry the seventh was on the throne from 1485 to 1509.)
We look forward to seeing whether two of what must be among the most distantly related branches of the family can be reunited.
UPDATE - 27th October 2009
Ken, Keith and John
As previously noted, Ken, Keith and John appear to share a common ancestor – probably pre-1750. The family seems to have originated in the Blackburn – Preston area, as Ken can trace his ancestry to Blackburn. At some time around 1750, at least one of the family moved south to the Salford area and the name Shorrock took on the form Shorrocks.
David and Larry
With respect to David Sharrock’s exploration of the hypothesis that the Sharrocks of Veryan Cornwall are indeed part of the extended Shorrock family from Lancashire, the results have so far been disappointing. They indicate that David is not directly related to Ken, Keith and John. David’s results are from the same general family R1B1 (over 10,000 years ago) but there is no recent link. David has what is termed a ‘Friesian haplotype profile’ which has (according to Oppenheimer) a geographical focus on southern and eastern England.
David then sought another person with the same surname (Larry Sharrock) to test the possibility that he could link to Lancashire through them. The results were intriguing. They show that Larry has an even weaker link to Ken, Keith and John – and the same weak level of linkage to David. The probability is that Larry is a descendant of Norse / Viking settlers in North West England.
John and Andrew
Keith recently went hunting Shorrock subjects in their native habitat, central / northern Lancashire and came up with two new test specimens. Results from these denizens of the surname homeland (John Shorrock from Feniscowles and Andrew Shorrock - a farmer from Goosnargh) may therefore throw some light on how the various members of the surname group relate to each other and to the Lancashire area.
Interestingly, Keith's first inkling that there may have been a name change in his family from Shorrocks to Johnson came from a 12:12 match with Ken Grist on the Ysearch site. Keith and Ken then compared their markers at the 25:25 level and found a 24:25 match. Now Ken has a 25:25 match with John Shorrocks. It appears that the marker that Keith differs on with respect to Ken and John (464c)is sometimes prone to slipping back to the value of the marker that precedes it - hence his final four value sequence of 15:15:15:18 as compared to their 15:15:18:18.
There is an exciting new development in the study. Dave Sharrock who has set up an excellent website at:
http://www.btinternet.com/~sharrock.family/
has joined the study to test the hypothesis that the Sharrocks of Veryan Cornwall are indeed part of the extended Shorrock family from Lancashire.
The historic reference is as follows from a Heraldic Visitation in the 16th Century:
"Sharrockes of Ribbelsdale in Com. Lanc. first of wh. was Ralph Shorrock of Shorockhayes wch in the Barrons' Wars was advanced to be a Captaine and therein lost his life, his descent grewe poore, and when the Scotts overan the Northern borders & parte of Lancashire and Chesheire the most part of this familie fled into Dublyn in Ireland, where by the Corruption of the Irish Ideoam they were termed Sharlock wch name of necessitie they were constrained to hold in the time of King Henrie the Seventh."
(The Barons War took place between 1258 and 1267. Henry the seventh was on the throne from 1485 to 1509.)
We look forward to seeing whether two of what must be among the most distantly related branches of the family can be reunited.
UPDATE - 27th October 2009
Ken, Keith and John
As previously noted, Ken, Keith and John appear to share a common ancestor – probably pre-1750. The family seems to have originated in the Blackburn – Preston area, as Ken can trace his ancestry to Blackburn. At some time around 1750, at least one of the family moved south to the Salford area and the name Shorrock took on the form Shorrocks.
David and Larry
With respect to David Sharrock’s exploration of the hypothesis that the Sharrocks of Veryan Cornwall are indeed part of the extended Shorrock family from Lancashire, the results have so far been disappointing. They indicate that David is not directly related to Ken, Keith and John. David’s results are from the same general family R1B1 (over 10,000 years ago) but there is no recent link. David has what is termed a ‘Friesian haplotype profile’ which has (according to Oppenheimer) a geographical focus on southern and eastern England.
David then sought another person with the same surname (Larry Sharrock) to test the possibility that he could link to Lancashire through them. The results were intriguing. They show that Larry has an even weaker link to Ken, Keith and John – and the same weak level of linkage to David. The probability is that Larry is a descendant of Norse / Viking settlers in North West England.
John and Andrew
Keith recently went hunting Shorrock subjects in their native habitat, central / northern Lancashire and came up with two new test specimens. Results from these denizens of the surname homeland (John Shorrock from Feniscowles and Andrew Shorrock - a farmer from Goosnargh) may therefore throw some light on how the various members of the surname group relate to each other and to the Lancashire area.