When DNA changed Jane Feeney’s story
From immigration assumptions to genetic proof of her birth family This updated account builds on the story first told in early 2018 by Martyn and Christine, both descendants of Jane Feeney. It incorporates the pivotal AncestryDNA breakthrough of October 2017, when new evidence finally linked Jane to her birth family and transformed our understanding of her early life. The narrative has now been further revised to reflect the additional insights revealed through the dramatic growth in AncestryDNA testers since that time. Jane Feeney, our Killion, Quinn and Hand matriarch, arrived in Sydney on 4 April 1849 aboard The Digby as one of 234 young Irish women known collectively as the “Earl Grey” Famine Orphan Girls. Although years of traditional genealogical research allowed us to reconstruct much of Jane’s life in New South Wales, her origins, parents and siblings remained elusive. It was only with the advent of DNA testing that we were finally able to reconnect Jane with her bir...