Twenty years ago, a haplogroup estimate of R-M343 or R-M269 was assumed to be a marker of non-Jewish paternal ancestry. With new scientific tools, we now know that, instead, it might indicate descendance from any number of known Jewish lineages, small and large, with probable ancient origins in the Middle East, western Asia, Africa, or the Mediterranean. These geographic origins are all consistent with ancient Jewish history and migration, not indications of the large-scale introduction of recent northern or eastern European Y-DNA into the modern Jewish population.
His origins, half being from me, are as follows: European Jewish, and this is from me according to what DNA companies know was 24%, and that was all Ashkenazi. Western Europe was 72% whereas mine was 40, so he had 32% from his father. Ireland was 8% whereas mine was 3%, so he may have had 5% from his father. Central Europe was 8% and I had none. England, Wales, and Scotland was 25% and I had none, which surprised me as my maternal grandfather was a Robinson with lines going to ancient Ireland and England, we thought. My grandfather's tale was that his family had come from Wales. At the very end of the report, my son had a section from the Middle East and he had Anatolia, Armenia & Mesopotamia listed with less than 1%, but I had nothing. To have this even listed means there was a fraction of 1%, meaning something.
First settled about 14,000 years ago, Hampshire's history dates to Roman Britain, when its chief town was Winchester, then known as Venta Belgarum. Historically part of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight was made a separate ceremonial county and the towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch were administered as part of the ceremonial county of Dorset.
Medstead, East Hampshire, England: The earliest evidence of settlement in the village comes from two Tumuli burial grounds which date from 1000 BCE. Roman pottery and coins have also been found in the area. A chapel in the village was first mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 and was soon replaced by a Norman church. The village has six Grade II listed buildings, including the 12th century St Andrew's Church and its war memorial, a farmhouse and a Victorian wheelhouse with a working donkey wheel.
It's also possible that Jews from Judah came to England to do trading in this early Roman period as Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE (AD). Perhaps they came and settled down, finally immersing with the people there.
I would believe that the Hen family, if affected by the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, may have had to make the decision to convert to Christianity if they were Jewish. Where could they go from Spain being Jews? Nowhere, since Portugal also followed Spain's lead several years later. So they may have wanted to go to England. England had expulsed their Jews in 1290 and didn't allow them back in until 1655. They had to enter as Marranos, hidden Jews that had been baptized but kept the Jewish faith anyway. Then with marriage, the pretense finally wore off and they became Episcopalians in the end. This is just my theory.
I don't know what his possible connection to Sephardim in Spain could be, maybe 100:1, but it sure is interesting.
It would be most helpful if other Henwoods have Yhaplogroup DNA tested to see what their line is. Is it also R1b and have they tested further to become R-M269 ?
Update 6/25/15: R1a1, R1b, and R1a1a or R1a-CTS6 is the Levite haplogroup. Read www.levitedna.org. for more information. Jeff Wexler discovered this line of Ashkenazi Levites. Analyses posted here. R1a1 is common among Ukrainians-thought to have originated there, Russians, and Serbs (Slavic speakers in Germany, as well as among Central Asian populations with admixture possible with Ukrainians, Poles or Russians. R, R1, R2, R1a, R1b haplogroups are believed to have originated in NW Asia between 30,000 and 35,000 years ago.
Resource:
https://www.academia.edu/41172857/A_New_Narrative_for_Jewish_R1b_Jewish_Men_in_the_Most_Common_European_Y_DNA_Haplogroup_and_The_FTDNA_Jewish_R1b_Project?email_work_card=reading-history
Finding Our Fathers by Dan Rottenberg. Gracia, Hen
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-haplogroup-we-be.html
