‘my ancestors were mps with royal connections’ with a dna test as her starting point, lynsey ford followed a trail that led from humble ‘ag labs’ back to the movers and shakers of the 15th and 16th centuries, she tells claire vaughan

As she posted off her DNA test, Lynsey Ford had no idea of the amazing family secrets it would help her unlock. She would go on to discover ancestors who were members of Parliament, bishops and authors, and who had links to royalty: James I, Elizabeth I – and even Princess Diana.

Lynsey, a postgraduate student at Oxford University with a PhD on the horizon living in Wimbledon, South-West London, is no stranger to research. It’s perhaps no surprise then that she

would be gripped by the family history bug. “My grandfather used to tell my mother that he knew he was related to a squire, but his knowledge was a bit patchy.” He also had a deep loathing for MPs, which is ironic.

“I did my first family tree when I was eight years old,” she says. “It went back to my great grandparents on both sides. It was a very basic, sketchy tree.”

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, she decided to get to grips with her family history more seriously, and took an AncestryDNA test (ancestry.co.uk/dna). When the results eventually came though, she used the firm’s online tools to help pick her way back through them to fill in the gaps on her tree.

One particular branch grabbed Lynsey’s attention. “I knew about the Copes back to my great grandfather, Albert Cope (1872–1960), and his wife, Rose Burnham (1878–1938).

“I recently managed to pinpoint the earliest DNA matches on that line, which were Robert Cope (1743–1770) and Elizabeth Tarrant (1746–1814), who are my 5x great grandparents.” The AncestryDNA test reveals family relationships reliably back 200 years. Beyond that, Lynsey resorted to documentary evidence to continue her quest.

Robert and Elizabeth lived in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. As far as Lynsey could tell, Robert and his father Robert (1712–1770) and grandfather Thomas (1691–1757) had all worked the land. The will of Thomas’ father Richard Cope (1658–1728), which she tracked down on Ancestry, revealed that he had been a yeoman and owned a property called Braill Farm.

FOLLOWING THE PAPER TRAIL

Lynsey pursued every lead possible to find out about the Copes – parish registers, wills and Ancestry member trees. She was astounded to discover a verifiable link to Sir Anthony Cope (1548