Like most extended families, the Tattersfield Family has branched out geographically over time. The most significant branching appears to have taken place around the beginning of the 19th Century.
The pages below give some details of the various Tattersfield branches that ensued. By far the most numerous was the branch in Heckmondwike, which lies a mere 3 miles from Dewsbury. Other Tattersfield family branches appeared, at various distances from Dewsbury, from the early 1800s; in York (35 miles), Hull (64 miles), Leeds (8 miles), Rochdale, Lancs. (25 miles) and Mirfield (3 miles).
While these distances may seem small from a modern perspective, they were sufficient, over time, for the branches of this diaspora to forget one another. However, the fact that the above branches were all clearly present in Dewsbury Church in the late 18th century, gave the very strong impression that all must be related. A Y-DNA Program carried out in 2020 showed that this is only partly true, as explained in the Section “The Tattersfield Y-DNA Project” described in a later section.
There has been a Tattersfield family with continuous records in London since 1772. No documentary link with the Yorkshire families has been found. Similarly the Tatterfield family of Massachusetts have no documentary links.
It is remarkable that descendants of all the Tattersfield families collaborated in the Y-DNA Programme, to find out whether and how we are all related, after more than 200 years of dispersal from Dewsbury.
Header Image: The branches of the famous Angel Oak tree on St John's Island, South Carolina, convey some of the complexity of studying the genealogy of the Tattersfields! Dale Dudley / Shutterstock.com