Did Professor Eric Willmot AM Have Proof That He Wasn't Aboriginal ? — Dark Emu Exposed

Jan 13

Jan 13 Did Professor Eric Willmot AM Have Proof That He Wasn't Aboriginal ?

On March 26th 2016, it appears that someone using the name “Eric Willmot” joined Ancestry.com and ordered a DNA test kit. When the DNA results were in, they were posted on Ancestry.com (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Screenshot of an excerpt from the *Ancestry.com* Family Tree & DNA database. This was sent to *Dark Emu Exposed* by a reader who is a member of the wider Willmot family and has access to this information. *Source: A reader “LW”*

We were alerted to this by our reader, “LW”, after our original post on Professor Eric Willmot was published, where we detailed that Willmot appeared to have no Aboriginality in his family tree.

“LW”, who claimed to be a member of the extended Willmot family, emailed to us screenshot excerpts from some of the pages from the family DNA website, Ancestry. com. Given the complexity of the Ancestry.com layouts and the difficulty in ‘faking’ these images, it appears that they are genuine screenshots and we have accepted them as such.

Our informant told us:

“Interesting that Eric and his daughter’s DNA is on Ancestry.com and neither shows any DNA that would support his claims [of being Aboriginal]. The [DNA] relationship to my Mother and Eric is at an appropriate match for their relationship [1st cousins] as is the one to his daughter. This also applies to myself and my children.”

- Comment from “LW”, a reader and member of the wider Willmot family, 10 Jan 2024

“LW” shared with us their family’s DNA results, which Ancestry.com indicated were a suitable match for Shiela Moore [SM] (married name Asher [SA]) and Eric Willmot to be described as 1st or 2nd cousins.

Given that Shiela’s mother, Irene Bell and Eric’s mother, Mary Pauline Bell were sisters and both daughters of Albert Edward Bell, their family tree confirmed that they were in fact 1st cousins. Albert Edward Bell was thus maternal grandfather of both Shiela and Eric (See Figure 2).

**Figure 2 -** Screenshot of an excerpt from the *Ancestry.com* Family Tree & DNA database, sent to *Dark Emu Exposed* by a reader who is a member of the wider Willmot family and has access to this information. Note that “SM” is said to indicate “Shiela Moore”, the same person as “SA” in Figure 1, whose married name was “Shiela Asher”. *Source: A reader “LW”*

The Ancestry.com system made this DNA link between Shiela Moore (married name Asher) and Eric Willmot independently. Our genealogical research, also undertaken independently, corroborates this link by showing that Eric Willmot’s maternal grandfather is one Albert Edward Bell [b1869-d1929] (See Family Tree here).

Eric Willmot’s DNA Results

“LW” sent the following screenshots for the DNA data match of Sheila Moore (SM) and Eric Willmot (EW) (See Figures 3A & 3B).

**Figure 3A -** **Screenshot of page 1 of the *Ancestry.com* DNA results showing a 1st-2nd cousin match between Shiela Moore and Eric Willmot.** *Source: A reader “LW”*

**Figure 3B -** **Screenshot of page 2 of the *Ancestry.com* DNA results showing the comparative Ethnicity Estimates for 1st cousins, Shiela Moore and Eric Willmot.** **No Aboriginal ethnicity is indicated for either.** *Source: A reader “LW”*

Ancestry.com claims that with updates to their database, “customers will now have the ability to see a possible genetic connection with the Indigenous communities of Australia” (see here).

The DNA testing indicates that Eric Willmot has no match for any Aboriginal ethnicity. He thus appears to be a ‘fake’ by DNA analysis.

Was Eric Willmot a ‘Mistaken Fake’ or a ‘Conscious Fake’, or even a ‘Fraud’?

During our research into Aboriginal fakes, there are a few examples where the fakes we have exposed could possibly mount an argument that they were “just mistaken” about their Aboriginal heritage. They may, for example, claim that they just believed their mother, father, grandma or grandpa, who told them that the family ‘had Aboriginal blood in it.’ Their only ‘crime’ was that they failed to investigate the claims properly, by undertaking their own genealogical or DNA research.

But this, we believe, is not the case for Professor Eric Willmot AM.

Assuming that the DNA data for the “Eric Willmot” on Ancestry.com was actually from a sample supplied from Eric Willmot himself (and not a sample from another person who submitted it under the name, “Eric Willmot”) then it appears that Eric Willmot knew for certain, by around 2016, that he had no Aboriginal ancestry by DNA.

He then knew that he was definitely ‘mistaken.’

Many would go further and conclude that he was a ‘conscious fake’, given that when confronted by his family in the late 1980’s about his bogus claims, he renounced several ‘Aboriginal’ positions that he held at that time (See previous post).

If these DNA results are truely from a sample supplied by Eric Willmot himself, then many would feel that Professor Eric Willmot AM was much worse, a total ‘fraud’ - he appears to have had DNA evidence that confirmed he had no Aboriginal ancestry, but he failed to publicly apologise and hand back his AM, thus setting the record straight.

Within three years Willmot had died (2019) so, unless some of his confessional writings come to light, we will never really know how he reconciled this fakery within himself in the end.

Further Reading.

Place of Birth is Not Always the Same as Ancestry

When we investigate the claims of Australians who purport to be ‘Aboriginal’, the general way we decide if the subject is actually of Aboriginal ancestry is to trace their family tree back as far as possible, hopefully to the point where the apical ancestors on each branch can be shown to have been either Aboriginal or born outside of Australia.

If all branches lead to ancestors born in countries outside of Australia, then it is highly likely that these foreign countries define the subject’s heritage and they have no Aboriginal ancestry. If they in fact had an Aboriginal ancestor, we would not be able to trace that person’s heritage to an ancestor outside of Australia.

Thus, when we trace a person’s heritage back to an ancestor who was born in, say Germany, we then claim that the subject has some German descent. However, there is a minor qualification to this, which is nicely illustrated by studying Eric Willmot’s family and his DNA results.

The records show that Willmot’s maternal great-grandfather, Edward (William) Gustav Bell was born in Hamburg Germany. In our description of Willmot’s ancestry we therefore claimed that he had some German descent.

Based on Willmot’s DNA evidence it appears that we were (partly) wrong in this respect- Willmot’s maternal DNA does not appear to carry any links to Germany, otherwise his maternal cousin (Shiela Moore) would also be expected to show German ancestry, but she doesn’t (see Figure 3B).

Thus, it appears that the Willmot’s apical ancestor, Edward (William) Gustav Bell just happened to be born in Germany, to English parents - his genealogical records show his birth in Hamburg Germany, but his DNA (also passed down to his great-granddaughter Shiela) indicate there is no German ancestry. “LW” advises that this fits in with some family oral history - the Bell family were English, but had lived in Hamburg Germany.

“… I did notice that Germany was mention and that comes from Eric’s fathers side. It has been a long held myth in our family that we had German Ancestry but while they were born in Germany they were a British family. Regards LW”

Because the DNA testing does show that Eric Willmot has some 11% German ancestry (as well as some Italian and possibly North African) this must have come from his paternal side. Thus, Willmot’s paternal ancestors - the Willmot, Wilson (Lyall) or Sigston family ancestors - must be the source of this German heritage, from much further back in time (see Figure 4).