Fish-Fisher connection found in USA-England
Most Fish researchers are aware of the line of Fish settling in the early Sandwich, MA area of America around 1637 (John, Jonathan and Nathaniel of Leicestershire England, sons of Thomas Fyshe (1584-1673) and Mary Sprigge) along with several of their cousins. This line’s origin in England is well documented in the Market Harborough/Great Bowden area of England back to around the mid-1500’s .There are those of the same surname found in this general area in the century prior to this.YDNA testing has identified several descendants of this line from the USA and Canada, some showing as being more closely related than others.A sub-group was formed for several participants whose DNA more closely matched each other but also matched descendants of the Great Bowden areaat what appears to be much further back in time.Many of those in this Fish sub-group seem to be descended from a Nathan Fish b. 1730 in MA along with other Fish born also in the mid-1700’s in North America. None of these participants have documentation any further back than these born in the mid-1700’s and no known connection to those of the Great Bowden group other than YDNA, although they all lived in the same general area in colonial America.
Recent YDNA analysis of men of the Fisher surname living in England, has shown a match to those whose YDNA also matches that of Fish descendantsin the above discussed sub-group!These Fisher participants still live in England and have excellent documentation of their Fisher ancestry back to 1535 in the area of Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire England….a significant distance away from the Leicestershire area where the Fish were found at the same time! Obviously these 2 lines (Fish and Fisher) are related somewhere in the past and the surname was changed by one group.Current thought is that this surname change possibly occurred in the 1300-1500 time frame for those in England.
But this brings to question those in the Fish YDNA project who more closely match this Fisher line than the related Great Bowden Fish.Could the immigrant ancestors of this group have changed their surname from Fisher to Fish? Or did it happen before they came to North America?
Researchers from both surnames would love to have more participation in the YDNA Projectsto help us solve this puzzle!Especially need those of the Fish or Fisher surname in England or with good documentation of that connection.We have 2 “missing links” to find!All thoughts and theories welcome!
Please remember that this does not mean that all Fish and Fisher’s are related.