Tenth Stagles Clan Letter

22nd February, 2007
Dear All,
    Since our last letter in August, the main news is that DNA Testing has shown a connection between our Wisbech Stagles family and that of a Steggles family from Bacton in Suffolk.

DNA Link Between the Wisbech Stagles and Bacton Steggles Families
    Nigel Steggles and I decided to have our DNA tested to find out if our families were descended from a common male ancestor. Whilst the results showed that this was not the case, we did find that I (and theoretically all of the Wisbech Stagles) are related  to a Steggles family descended from Robert Steggal born in Bacton in 1720.
   This Robert is the father of William Steggles, the well known builder and property owner who lived in Bury St Edmunds.
    The results can be seen and compared at www.ysearch.org by putting Stagles or Steggles into the surname search. It will be seen that whilst there is a 12 step genetic difference over 37 markers between my results and those of Nigel, there is only a 2 step difference over 31 markers between the results of myself and Ray.
    From this it would seem most likely that the nearest male ancestor shared between Ray and myself was about 10 generations back.
    For men, sharing a surname and having no more than a 3 step genetic difference over 30 markers makes it almost certain that they are related. For a 4 or 5 step difference, it's possible, and for a 6 or greater step difference it's highly unlikely.

Holton Stagles / Stigle
    We are still searching for a possible link between the Holton and Wingfield families.

Mitford Stagles
    Other than Nigel's DNA results, there's nothing new. However, the result was rather surprising. It would be good if someone else from this family could be tested.

Wisbech Stagles
    For some time we've known that our Thomas of 1787 was a Coal Porter living close to the Wisbech Docks. We've now found that Coal Porters were responsible for measuring and filling 2cwt (that's about 100 kg) sacks of coal from the ship, barge, or quayside, and loading them onto coal merchants' wagons. That's incredibly heavy,  nowadays 25 kg sacks are the norm. The 50 kg sacks of Heavy Chalk that we used to take at my work place got reduced to 25kg for health and safety reasons about 20 years ago.

Steggles, Steggall, Stygall, Stagles and Variants Parish Records and Document Exchange
    Ray Steggles is setting up a website at www.steggles.info listing parish records. He's also proposing a document exchange system. The main aim is to provide genealogical information for those researching the Steggles (and variants) surname Have a look, it goes live this weekend.

The "Suffolk Muster to Arms" Rolls
    Ray  has also provided us with details of 9 Steggall's, aged between 16 and 60, listed in the 1584 Suffolk Muster Roll, they were all within a 10 km radius, the locations and numbers being;
Stanton 3, Coney Weston 1, Hunston 1, Wordwell 1, and Elmswell 3.
By the time of the 1841 census, the main centre of Steggall population was about 10km to the East of this area. Full details can be seen on Ray's website.

The Number of Stagles in England, Wales and the Isle of Mann today
    Previously we have quoted estimates derived from the 2002 electoral roll. From the Office of National Statistics at www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php we can now quote total numbers including children. The office suggest multiplying these numbers by 0.93 as they may be over estimated. We include our previous estimated number of adults, which also included Scotland, in brackets;
Steggles 835 (646), Steggall 326 (324), Stygall 111 (91), Stagles 99 (82), Stygal 48 (44), Steggalls 44 (40), Steggle 42 (46), Steggals 39 (42), Steggel 24 (24), Steggell 23 (23), Stigle 15(10), Stygalls 11 (9). The ONS did not list the following variants that each had less than 5 occurrances: Stegalls, Stegall, Steggal, Stygaall.
    So in England and Wales today there are about 1,500 of us sharing 18 variant spellings of our surname.

Stagles Abroad
    Although some of our ancestors emigrated to countries such as America, Australia, and Canada we have little idea of how many Stagles now live in those countries. In the USA very rough estimates indicate: Stegall 9,000, Stigall 3,000, Steagall 600, and Stagles 300.
    Amongst the Confererados of Americana in Brazil, Steagall is a common name. They are descended from cotton farmers from the Deep South who migrated there around 1866 following the defeat of the Confederates in the American Civil War.

Did the Name Steggall Evolve from Stegold?
    Although now defunct, this variant was fairly commonly recorded during the 16th and 17th centuries. Parish records for Wyverstone list a Thomas Steggold/Stegold in 1697, 1699, 1701, 1708, and 1710. In 1703, 1714 and 1737 the same person is listed as Steggall.

The Way Forward through Parish Records and DNA
    Hopefully we will find further references to our families amongst the parish records. However there are hundreds of parishes throughout the counties of East Anglia that can only be searched individually.
    However finding more DNA links between our families could point us towards the areas and parishes where we are most likely to find further records of our ancestors.
    A comparison of DNA can also indicate as to whether the Stagles / Steggles families are descended from just one single or many different male ancestors. Are we one family, or a group of families sharing a common name?
    Having 25 markers tested at Family Tree DNA as part of the Steggles / Stagles Survey costs $152 (about £80). There are also cheaper, but slower options.
   If you are interested, please let me know. Further information can be seen on our website at www.stagles.co.uk

East Anglia Visit

    Dad and I hope to visit East Anglia, probably in May to continue research into our family history. We would appreciate any suggestions about where we might concentrate our efforts.

Best wishes,


Tom and Ray Stagles,
e-mail tom@stagles.co.uk
tel, 0118 9676129