Thursday, February 16, 2023

Contemplation and how that affects the work one does

I always say a good run brings out the best in the thinking process. Working on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter and I decided that I should reproduce the 16 charts (actually reduced somewhat from that but because of the labeling I still refer to them as 16 charts because the original researchers labeled them (for instance Chart 1-2 is North Molton and South Molton). I started work on Chart 1-2 yesterday and will continue this project until I have done all the Charts over the next couple of years. I always planned to revise them with new information and this just seems like the moment as I discovered whilst I was doing my 40 minute run. They will be in Excel so very portable (the joys of modern computing) and available for people in the future to revise as more and more information flows into our computer databases. I do not know what percentage of the UK records are now online but it was less than 5% about 15 years ago. There resources are vast and spread all over the country and carefully preserved everywhere. It is truly amazing to have a census from the 1640s for sure and all the various subsidies from even earlier. Although they do not capture all the population they end up covering quite a few people and the manor records themselves are a jewel in that treasure box that I have not yet really gotten into. 

So on to the day; another blessed one from God. When I woke up around four there was a clear sky with fluffy white clouds. It was quite magnificent and another gift from God.  He is with us always; watching and waiting. There are so many of us now - over 8 billion people on this tiny little earth in the cosmos. We must do more to protect it from the ravages of pollution. The tune " This is the day that the Lord hath made" continues to come to mind each day as I awake. We are truly blessed in our world. 

On to the day and Chart 1-2 for the next Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. However, I will return to having an individual Chart 1 for North Molton (as the place where Pencombe first is known in Devon) and a Chart 2 for South Molton as that was the first place that Pencombe lived in aside from North Molton. North Molton and South Molton are best known to me and I have been physically in both of these places as well as the Bucklands, Filleigh, Bishops Nympton, Barnstaple, Bideford, and a number of other places that we passed through on our trek to the Atlantic Ocean with my second cousin Ivan Kent and his wife who kindly drove us from Weymouth to the Atlantic Ocean. Ivan had not been for many years and we all enjoyed our day. There are so many memories still in my mind from that wondrous visit. Perhaps the one that stays closest to my mind is visiting St Mary's Bishops Nympton and finding the memorial stone for my 3x great grandparents Robert Pincomb and Elizabeth Rowcliffe. It was truly an epic event for me and in 2008 it was 158 years since my 2x great grandfather John Pincomb and his wife Elizabeth Rew left Devon to come to Canada with their five children. They lived at Lower Gatcombe near Molland but John was born at Park in Bishops Nympton which we saw from the road as we drove from South Molton to Bishops Nympton that beautiful day in April 2008. Robert Pincomb and Elizabeth Rowcliffe were known to me from childhood as my mother knew her family line on her paternal side back to John Pincombe and Johane Blackmore who were married 25 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton. There was a family Bible somewhere but not seen by me since I was a very young child attending one of the funerals in the family at one of the farms. Perhaps one of these days it will come to the surface and get scanned for its family pages. One can always hope for that.

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