English Research from Canada

Roots Tech Conference

2012-02-05T10:27:00.002-05:00

My husband and I watched the live streaming of the Roots Tech Conference from Salt Lake City the past couple of days. The talks were often quite an eye opener and the discussion on Clouds most fascinating. I now have a dropbox account and sharing of files is so very easy. I intend to set one up for my Blake and Pincombe one name studies so that I can readily share material with other members of the research groups.

I continue thinking about the development of the Blake webpage and the Wiki for our domain. I want to plan it well so that I am not constantly changing it (although I suspect change will be the order of the day). In the meantime whilst I am thinking I am also transcribing a couple of Routledge documents. The first is a Star Chamber document (undated thus far in my transcription) but from the 1558 to 1601 period in that Elizabeth is Queen of England. It concerns the answer of Alexander Routledge (a now aged and infirm man) to the Bill of Complaint brought against him by Andrew Taylor. I am not sure that it involves land at this moment in time as my transcription is very sparse at the moment although I have managed to complete the first four lines of this 17 line document. The language is very early Middle English and the spelling/short forms are abundant for individual words.

Routledge of course interests me because two of my 3x great grandparents were surnamed Routledge and family lore says they were cousins. I have not yet been able to establish this cousin relationship although both are of the Oakshaw Routledge family and historically this family was known to marry first, second, third cousins etc. Of the four parents of my Routledge couple, three have the surname Routledge and going back to the grandparents it is likely that six of eight were Routledge (five for sure). Tom Routledge (the individual for whom I am doing the transcription) and I first met (online) back in 2007 when he asked about my routledge.xls file that I had online at the time. It was 2000 entries for Routledge and I said to do whatever he liked with it and the work he has done has been marvelous. His webpages on the Routledge family are tremendous and now he is in the process of reinstating the Routledge family as a Clan in Scotland where they originally lived (coming to Cumberland in the 1400s).

My transcription thus far and I shall continue to revise this blog posting until I am satisfied with the transcription (revised 9 Feb 2012):

Transcription Date - 26 Jan 2012 (begin)
Document Read - #STAC 7/30/8
Location of Document - The National Archives, Kew, London, England
Date of Document - 1558-1603
Title: The answere of Alexander Rowtlage def[endan]t to the Bill of Complaynte of Andrewe Taylour p[lain]ti[ff]
1   The said def[endan]t saieth that the said Bill of Complaynt ys verye werten untrue and insufficient
2   the kind to be answered unto and the matters therein conteyned against this d[ef]
3   devised ymagined and set forthe onely of more malice to put this def[endan]t verye verye
4   aged and Brused man to extreme paynes in travelinge and costes and charges
5   the same and not _____ use ____ or cause wastnable wherefore the s[aid]
6   def[endan]t prayeth to be desmyssed with his reasonable coste and charges in this behalfe
7   wrongefully ____ _____ ____yf the said dost shall by the order of the
8   this hon[our]able courte be compelled to make any further answer unto the said insuffici
9   ent Bill of complaynt then the Advantage ofe excer[t]ion to the insufficyency of the
10   same Bill at all tyme to this def[endan]t said forefull Answered and declaration of the
11   trothe sayeth as concerninge my Proff[its] Rents unlawfull assemblye or any other mysdeme[anor]
12   depend against the ____ or said sov[er]aigneLady the Quenes ma[jes]tie in these
13   said Bill of Complayente declared and setforth to this def[endan]t ys not therefore
14   gyltie nor yet did ___ consent or agree to comye to any suche Ryott or other mysdeme[anor]
15   nor any p___ts___ as in the said Bill ofe Complaynte against this def[endan]t ys most
16   untimelye and sclanderistye alledged and declared and w[i]thout that that
16   any other chargs or clamys conteynes and specified in the said Bill ofe Complaynte
17   materall or effectuale to be answered unto and not herein sufficiently wytessed
18   Avoyded denyed or therewise traversed ys true All wh[ich] matters the said def[endan]t
19   ys made to and was as this hon[our]able courte shall awarde and prayeth to
20   Be dissmyssed w[i]th costs and charges in this behalfe wro[n]gefully susteyned
21   [Star Chamber Elizabeth] Kytchyn[er] [sealed]

Marriage Challenges at the Guild of one name Studies

2012-02-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

Several marriage challenges have been completed and I now have at least 200 marriages to enter into my database for Blake. That will be several days of entering and I will begin that next week.

In the meantime I am still considering possible displays for the new Blake webpage. It will be accessed from the main page of our domain index page. I also want to create a Wiki but have now decided that it will be a Wiki for our domain so that my husband and I can both make use of it. That way if anyone picks up this family's genealogy in the future it will all be in one spot. We are diversified in that my husband has nine to ten generations of American/Canadian history going back to the 1620s and 1630s in colonial America. He also has more recent German ancestry (one set of his great grandparents were born in Germany and came to Canada as adults) and more recent English ancestry (one set of his 2x great grandparents came from Aylmerton Norfolk in the early 1830s to East Gwillimbury, Ontario, Canada with their family). My own lines are all English with just one Canadian line - myself, my mother, her father and his mother being my Canadian born ancestors). All the remainder of whom I have knowledge thus far were born in England, most lived in England all of their days and most died in England with my Routledge, Gray, Pincombe, Buller and Blake emigrants being the exception (they all died in Canada and some were married here). But, uniquely, each Canadian born ancestor married a new British emigrant thus creating my somewhat unusual tree. I have been able to research all my lines because I knew each and every emigration story (i.e. place of departure and place of birth for all emigrants).

How to display these two family sets in a meaningful way - my husband's and my own. My husband has extensive webpages already for his family lines. I have a little up there mostly just one page and relationship charts for each surname but I am moving away from looking at all my family lines with the same deep research. I want to devote my time to Blake and Pincombe for the most part but still continue, as leads arise, to collect information on all of my family lines.

The other new family line that I am investigating is our son-in-law's French Canadian family. I have researched his line in great depth now and would also like to display some of that line (trees are private on ancestry for his four grand parents) especially sections that evade me still because of the pioneering nature of the family they preceded the record keeping often enough. A fascinating baptism took place in Montebello where the parents traveled from just south of Plantagenet in February to Montebello to baptize their baby daughter. French Canadian families were in the forefront of settlement all through the Ottawa Valley and points north.

Blake Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1 2012

2012-02-01T09:51:00.001-05:00

The Blake Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1 2012 is available on my website and will eventually be available on the Guild Blake Profile but we are moving to a new IP and I cannot revise my profile page at the moment. The newsletter can be viewed at:

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/Blake-newsletter-1-1-2012.pdf

I hope to keep to a quarterly publication of this newsletter and invite anyone with Blake information to send it on to me to include in the newsletter. Initially I would like to keep it to two pages.

As I mentioned I want to set up a Blake one name study website on my own webpages and a Wiki. I am gradually developing the site in my mind and hope to start constructing it in the near future.

However, I continue to invite queries and lookups on any of the information on my webpages. I have collected a fair amount of information on many of my family lines and would continue to share that with any descendants of my ancestors.

My time commitments are shifting with the changes coming in our family life. We are about to become grandparents for the first time with a grandson expected in early summer. My fingers are busy knitting, sewing and smocking at least they will soon be doing all three. At the moment I have done some knitting.

As a result my studies will concentrate on the Blake and Pincombe one name studies and continuing with the Bedard family lines collecting stories, pictures and documents to continue proving this line as it will be half of our grandson's heritage.

Empty Nesters again (except for the bunnies)

2012-01-30T11:09:00.002-05:00

Back to genealogy as we said goodbye today to our youngest, her husband and their two dogs. They were here for about a month November/December and then over Christmas break (we went to their place for Christmas itself) and then back again with us looking after the two dogs whilst they went off to the sunny south for a sibling wedding (and a week in the surf and sun of Jamaica). Our house was full of running feet as the dogs kept us very very busy and my genealogy gradually decreased and finally I accomplished practically nothing. That is okay though; family time is always something wonderful that you can lock away in the memory banks as you carefully record your genealogy adding in all the other tidbits that make the story real to those who might read it later.

However, before that return to transcribing I am in cleaning mode as I must restore the house to our usual mode of living. The bunnies too may have a new home (they belong to our daughter and her husband as well) as four animals is just too much in one house but they have been so long together that it would be cruel to separate them. The older one is a dwarf bunny (but big for a dwarf) and he is four and a half years old and the younger one is a lion head bunny (full size bunny) and he is two and a half years old. Both are active and love to run about their large playpen which is basically a fence that links into a circle or any other style you might fancy. They have quite a bit of space and are used to being in that space all the time with us and then have runs when our oldest daughter comes home and give them the run of the hallways and stairs. They like that as well but do not seem to mind just having their cage the rest of the time.

Some interesting Routledge material has come my way and I will just have to transcribe it so will make time for that in between proofreading Bishops Nympton which I think I will give a two hour limit each morning and the other items I want to accomplish. I also want to build a Wiki for our Kipp and Blake research. At first I thought just a wiki for Blake but really we are a unit my husband and I and we could just divide the Wiki up into the pertinent sections and could have my husbands Kipp one name study and my Blake and Pincombe one name studies as sections of the Wiki. It would stand on our main page along with links to a Blake one name study website and a Pincombe one name study website. My husband has already established a very well looked at one name Kipp study website.

Hence my genealogy time is all blocked out for the moment but my external responsibilities are becoming smaller and smaller. I have expressed an interest in the Ontario Genealogical Society's Places of Worship database and will become more involved with that. I have a few ideas on how to construct and maintain that database from my Hampshire Genuki days with the Church database there. It is an item that interests me and would be my main external project other than my DNA studies.

A couple of Marriage Challenges to submit information to the Guild and I am back into the thick of research. As mentioned I will be doing the proofreading of Bishops Nympton parish registers, transcription of Routledge documents and working on our webpage wiki and one name study webpages for Blake and Pincombe. I also want to return once again to Abbotts Ann Parish Registers. It is nearly a year since I last worked on them.

Freedom of the City of London Blake members

2012-01-25T11:09:00.000-05:00

The Blake family in London fits rather nicely into the one name Blake study at the Guild for several reasons. I know that some members of this family were descended from the Eastontown Blake family and hence rather interesting just from my own family point of view but also I might be able to separate them out from the other Blake lines that ended up in London since there is sometimes genealogical information in these records (parent in particular).

I am going to produce a chart of the genealogical information in the documents and put it up on my Blake webpage. This webpage does not yet exist and I am contemplating what it will look like. I think I will head it up with the oldest coat of arms known for the Blake family and that is the Blake family that lived at Calne Wiltshire as early as the late 1200s. Although there are many many other coats of arms for the Blake family this is a section of Blake history that Barrie Blake has greatly excelled at and for a number of years available for the world to look at on his webpages. If you were lucky enough to see his marvelous webpages before they were taken down you will know what I mean.

Gradually over time this Blake webpage will become the repository of Blake information that members of various Blake study groups are collecting. I also want to produce a Blake wiki for people to post information to and ask questions on. I just now have to decide how to set all of this up. It will probably be a month in production since I also want to continue proofreading Bishops Nympton parish registers. I decided that it isn't fair to my one name studies to concentrate days and days on the proofreading especially as I am finding very few errors but before I publish it I want to have proofread it.

The Blake original coat of arms is a simple one and may have been first displayed by Richard Blake in the late 1200s. Just who this Richard Blake is and how he is related to Robert de Blakeland is still somewhat of a mystery. They could be the same person but the difference in forename is somewhat disturbing so I do not make any such conclusion but both lived in the Calne Wiltshire area.
Again I am reproducing this from the Blake Pedigree images which I purchased from the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office and it is but a taster for the images which they produced of this chart.

The details for the Pedigree Chart at Swindon Wiltshire Record Office:

343/1 c.1786

Pedigree of Blake from Edw. II to 1690, with additions to 1786. Fine illuminated document on parchment roll.

Finding tiny little sketches of this coat of arms on the Visitation attached to the William Blake family at Eastontown in the mid to late 1500s (presumably by the individual creating the Visitations) was my first introduction to coats of arms and the Blake family. Who attached them to the entry and why? Perhaps it was added to the charts as a result of queries by the visiting Procession with regard to just who were the members of the William Blake family at Eastontown. Time has eroded such information and one is left to just surmise possible scenarios that would have resulted in these tiny little drawings mostly added to the charts where a daughter of William Blake had married (with 5 sons and 5 daughters - 9 of whom married and had progeny). The number of descendants of William Blake is unknown at this but eventually I hope to trace the lines down of these nine children and my transcription of Andover has aided me in this regard. A few of these children moved away from Andover towards London and it is their fate that is hidden in the Freedom of the City of London Registers.

Routledge family

2012-01-24T10:01:00.000-05:00

Although I have stepped back from doing a really intensive study on my Routledge family, the search for our roots continues apace under the able guidance of my cousin (several times over) Thomas Routledge who lives in northern England. He has proven that the Routledge is truly a Scots Clan and has flung out the tartan for all to see on his webpages.

http://theroutledgeclansociety.yolasite.com/our-clan-chief.php

We are now in the process of working up information and membership so that we can eventually apply to Lord Lyon to be recognized as a Clan and to have a chieftan appointed from amongst our numbers.

When Tom first wrote to me about seven years ago now about my Routledge.xls file that I had on my webpage, I welcomed him to use it as he wished. I have since taken it down because it was so large. When I discussed it with him it was already over 2000 line entries. He had determined that we were likely related on the Routledge side and I determined rather quickly that he were also related on the Tweddle side (seventh cousins) and since then we are also related on the Routledge side at least once more through the Kirkbeckstone Routledge family. Our original relation was through the Oakshaw Routledge family.

I am trying to decide if I should try to help on this side of the ocean with Tom's desire to increase membership, encourage people with the surname Routledge to consider coats of arms in order to increase the number of such holders in the Routledge Society until we have sufficient for Lord Lyon to consider that we are a descendant group worthy to be considered a Scot Clan and part of the great Clans of Scotlands which the Routledges were in times gone by.

Perhaps, initially I will have a blog once a month or so on the Routledge family happenings in Cumberland. Tom has organized a reunion in May 2012 (see the webpage for more information).

http://www.facebook.com/groups/TheRoutledgeClan/

Write Tom to join the Facebook group and learn more about the reunion in May 2012.

Bishops Nympton Parish Records and the Blake family of Calne, Wiltshire

2012-01-22T16:27:00.002-05:00

Back to proofreading Bishops Nympton Parish Records as I was lured away by several interesting email requests over the last couple of weeks. Definitely I will not complete this task in January but it was perhaps very optomistic of me to think that I would. Life moves on and there are always queries on Pincombe and Blake that I want to deal with in a timely fashion. Although Bishops Nympton is quite important for my Pincombe family, in the total overall look at records doing an entire transcription of the records was a bonus (mostly for those people who write to me for information as I am the Online Parish Clerk for the parish). Once I have the proofreading done though the information will be online on the Genuki website for Bishops Nympton along with tax records and other interesting items. That will definitely minimize my queries for that parish. Initially I thought it might be a way to meet up with lines related to me but as I worked my way through the Pincombe family I did not find anyone. I have moved on completely from that idea actually and tend to meet my cousins on Genes Reunited which is a terrific site.

I have reached 1586 for marriages in my proofreading but have a great deal more to read as I have not done any baptisms or burials yet. I am following the flow of the registers as presented on the fiche that I purchased and the marriages came first.

I discovered whilst conversing with another of the Blake researchers that the Blake crest had a second variety quite early on in the history of the Calne Blake family. I insert a copy of the image from a large Blake Pedigree that I purchased from the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office. Since it is under copyright I will only put in a taster. It was a well spent ten pounds on the eight images. They were extremely good images.

Early Crest of the Blake Family of Calne, Wiltshire

This is a pike that is held by a knight and located around the timeperiod of 1300 to 1400 in the Pedigree Chart. Eventually the individual who shows this particular crest is William Blake who married Avice Ripley and lived at Eastontown. I am still sorting out the William Blakes who are paying taxes at Andover to discover just how many Blake lines lived at Andover (my own being one of them). Were they all related? or not? yDNA is the answer to that query and the yDNA study for the Blake family now has 47 members at FT DNA (see the link below if you are able to join this family grouping).

http://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?code=A70410&Group=Blake

There is an enormous amount of information on this Pedigree Chart and for the most part it has been prepared from the Visitations according to the notes on the chart. The only confusion for me is William Blake marrying Avice Ripley and his being named as a son of Roger Blake and Mary Baynard. I have not been able to prove this relationship to date. Roger's will only mentions his eldest son Thomas and his youngest daughter Mary. I acquired the wills for the Baynard family and I need to transcribe them to see if they will provide any clues.

Pincombe and Blake

2012-01-20T10:15:00.002-05:00

The last few days have produced a flurry of activity in my two main one name studies - Blake and Pincombe. I received emails from two descendants of each of these families that have provoked more thought on their lines.

In the case of the Pincombe family, the email request is from Australia and I am still learning about the Pincombe family now located in Australia. My 2x great grandfather's brother George went to Australia and died there. He did not have any children whilst living there though so I would be going back one more generation to find anyone in Australia related to me (5th cousin or greater likely). The person in question was a William Pincombe who married Emma White at the parish church of St Pancras in 1852. Fortunately I do have that marriage and know that his father was George Pincombe (deceased in 1852) and Giles White was the father of Emma also deceased in 1852. There was a substantial Pincombe/Pinkham family in Middlesex in this time period that was descendant of Arthur Pincombe who had migrated to Middlesex in the 1700s. It will be this family that I will investigate initially as the family lore says that William was born in Middlesex but there is also some controversy which may have him born in Devon. Since the records in Australia (thus far) indicate Middlesex my effort will be directed towards the family that is known to me in Middlesex and descendant of Arthur Pincombe who was christened 26 Dec 1761 at Robourough by Torrington and buried 19 Apr 1823 at St Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, London. Arthur married twice, first Elizabeth Milton 13 Oct 1784 at St James Westminster, London and second Ann Smale. From his second marriage, there was a son George Pincombe baptized 29 Aug 1802 at St Mary Whitechapel. I will first either eliminate or prove that this is the George for whom we are looking.

In the case of the Blake family, I have been corresponding with a descendant of the Charles Blake family living in the United States. Probably I have received more requests about this particular Blake line than any other from individuals who live all over the world including never having left England. Charles Blake appears in the Abbots Ann, Hampshire, England records that are available on the FamilySearch site first with his marriage to Mary Prince 4 Sep 1736. Mary was the daughter of James Prince and Ruth Burger. Charles was buried 28 Oct 1783 at Abbots Ann. They had only one child recorded in FamilySearch and I am still in the process of transcribing Abbots Ann so have not found any more either. Their son Charles was baptized 24 Jun 1737 at Abbots Ann and buried there 31 Oct 1800. Charles married twice.

His first wife was Jane Gilbert (baptized 3 Oct 1740 at Abbots Ann) and Jane was also descended from the Blake family through her father John Gilbert. John Gilbert was the son of John Gilbert and Sarah Kidgell with Sarah being baptized 28 Mar 1690 at Abbots Ann (married to John 3 Feb 1707 at Abbots Ann). Sarah's father was Richard Kidgell baptized 24 Sep 1661 and Richard's father was John Kidgell. John's father's name was Kidgell and his mother was Elizabeth Blake. This Elizabeth Blake was the daughter of unknown Blake married to Elizabeth Hinxman (baptized 17 Jul 1593 at Andover). My suspicion is that the unknown Blake was the son of Thomas Blake (brother to my Richard Blake). The brother of Elizabeth Blake was a merchant at Oxford according to his mother's will of 1688.

The second wife of Charles was Hannah Powell and they were married 17 Aug 1779 at Abbots Ann. From the two marriages there were nine sons in total who lived to adulthood. I have corresponded with descendants of a number of these sons but not all of them.

A will left by John Blake malster at Abbots Ann is full of genealogical information and can be found on my website. Both my ancestor Thomas Blake at Upper Clatford and Charles Blake are mentioned in the will with considerably more attention (and bequests) being paid to the descendants of Charles Blake making me think that there is more of a blood connection to John. I do know the connection to John for my Thomas as he was his uncle. The mother of Thomas was Joanna King and it was her sister Mary King that married John Blake malster at Abbots Ann. Whether or not I am also related to John Blake on the Blake side is unknown to me at this time.

I then extracted the Poor Law Records for Abbots Ann to find the Blake family there and indeed there was a Robert Blake there as early as 1727 when he was Churchwarden and paying the poor rate. The lands on which he paid this tax ended up being later assessed to Charles and John Blake leading me to suspect that Charles and John were sons of Robert Blake. Perhaps aiding with matching up families is the entry of 1812 where Ann Blake (sister to my Thomas) is paying the poor rate as per the terms of John's will where Ann was to remain on the property with various codicils pertaining to that.

There was a Robert Blake married to Elizabeth Russell 15 Jul 1694 at Andover where they baptized:

Blake Sarah       daughter       Blake Robert Elizabeth 1696 March 10
Blake Joannah daughter       Blake Robert Elizabeth 1700 February 12
Blake Mary        daughter       Blake Robert Elizabeth 1702 December 21
Blake Edward     son               Blake Robert Elizabeth 1711 August 12
Blake Thomas     son               Blake Robert Elizabeth 1714 July 2
Blake Jane          daughter        Blake Robert Elizabeth 1717 July 22

There is the rather large gap between 1702 and 1711 where the birth of Charles could have occurred but where is the question. Edward does appear on this list and he is also in the tax list at Abbots Ann living on Coles which was formerly held by Robert Blake. I did find a John Blake baptized to Robert 22 Feb 1714 at Penton Mewsey (he was born 14 Feb 1714) but the priest has not given the mother's name unfortunately. This does appear to be rather close to the baptism of Thomas on July 2 but February would follow July as this is old calendar but it is still only seven months later. However, it is a possibility. But still no Charles baptism found yet. The Abbots Ann parish registers are still in the process and the period that I am most interested in is very faint and poorly organized unfortunately. Plus I am only up to 1613 in the register thus far.

The ongoing debate for me is which to put first. I would like to complete my proofreading of Bishops Nympton and have those records online to reduce the number of requests for this information but I am also quite dedicated to the idea of transcribing Abbots Ann which is just one set of registers for the Andover Registration District that I am working on.

I must admit that I tend to always mention yDNA testing to people these days because I do believe that is the only way to sort these families in both of my one name studies.

Change in commitment

2012-01-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

I decided as the New Year dawned that it was time for me to lessen my commitments in terms of managing items and as a result have stepped down as Regional Representative for Canada East for the Guild of One Name Studies. Linda Hauley responded to my newsletter query as to whether or not anyone was interested in taking over this position. Thank you very much to her.

I have another item that I am pulling back from and that is my DNA studies. I have asked on the GOONS (Guild of one name studies) list if anyone is interested in taking on the study of Hampshire yDNA. There are over 100 members and I have not found the time to investigate any further than putting people into haplogroups. I haven't been as strict as Debbie Kennett who runs the Devon DNA study although people have indicated that they have Hampshire ancestry in a number of cases. Ideally the person would have very close ties to Hampshire (my father was born there as was his father, grandfather etc. back to at least his 11x great grandfather). The individual would also be a member of the Hampshire yDNA study group.

Enquiries on my Blake and Pincombe one name study have increased considerably and managing them will take up any spare time that I have. I would also prefer to have my time free to be available to help my husband who had another visit to emergency just after Christmas. He is greatly improved I am happy to say but my home workload has increased dramatically and I simply can not do justice to some items that require me to travel hence stepping down from the Regional Representative for Canada East.

My next item of business is to put together the Blake newsletter which will be found on my webpage for Blake once completed. I would like to produce freestanding pages for both Blake and Pincombe in order to put all of my information online that I have acquired/transcribed etc.

Tooley Street Fire 1861 lecture at BIFHSGO

2012-01-08T08:49:00.001-05:00

A very interesting personal lecture at the BIFHSGO meeting yesterday on the Tooley Street Fire of 1861. Myra Conway put a human face on what would have been a catastrophic event in the lives of many on the southside of the Thames River in Bermondsey in 1861. Although my own families were gone from the Bermondsey area by the early 1830s (my 3x great grandfather died at the hospital there in 1832), I found it fascinating listening to her story of her own family living quite close to the actual conflagration and indeed they survived to appear once again on the 1871 census. Perhaps it is the mention of Tooley Street which most fascinates me. On our first tour bus in London we passed by the intersection of Tooley Street and the London Bridge and back in 2008 I never anticipated that I would come even close to seeing anything in London that would bring me close to my Buller, Beard and Hemsley families. But there the roadsign was staring back at me as we slowly rounded the corner. The pull was so powerful that on our trip in 2010 to London we walked the streets of Bermondsey spending our time walking up and down Tooley Street, Bermondsey Street, Long Lane and others where I knew that my families had lived; where they too had walked. I mentioned in an earlier blog the slate reproductions of the wharf before the fire under the Southwark Bridge (my blog 18 Oct 2011).

Interestingly, my 2x great grandfather still had his pork butcher shop near Covent Garden (Lamb Conduit Way) and I wonder if he too wandered down to look at the burning docks so close to the area where he was born in 1805. Henry Christopher Buller used to commute between his pork butcher shop/restaurant in Birmingham and London on a regular basis between the late 1830s when he first went to Birmingham and 1862 when he died 26 Jun 1862 at Westminster Hospital in London. His story is an example of how life can change so drastically for a family once affluent with servants and then lacking a solid income on the death of the father. The young widow returned to live with her widowed mother bringing her large family with her (11 children).

I have discovered descendants of Henry's older sister still living just south of Bermondsey and an email from my fifth cousin reminds me of my promise to visit on our next trip to London. Edward (my cousin) is 86 years old and doing very well. He is quite fascinated by all the history that I have sent his way and to discover that he lived only a few miles from where his 3x great grandmother was born. I have these huge generation lengths which makes me a 5th cousin to Edward although we differ in age by 22 years.

Kudos to BIFHSGO for a most interesting lecture. An image that Myra displayed quite caught my attention and it was the funeral procession for James Braidwood (Superintendent of the London Fire Brigade) who died when a wall collapsed during the fire on Tooley Street. I was trying to place the location but heavily bombed London in the 1940s changed the look of the area in so many places but yet it remains so much the same which is amazing given the bombing that London endured. I look forward to walking those streets once again as I have learned even more about my London roots which extend back into the late 1600s thus far with my Beard and Roland families who lived in the Bermondsey area continuously from this time forward to the early 1800s.

Bishop Nympton proofreading

2012-01-04T07:34:00.001-05:00

A slow progress through the parish registers for Bishops Nympton as I am now into proofreading. I have completed the marriages up to 1581. I expect this will take me at least all of January.

No new work on genealogy as my time is consumed by other needed items at the moment. Hard to believe it is already January 2012 and it will be a year in early May since Ed had his first fall. This created a tremendous change in my life as I have now become the driver of the car. I like driving and gradually I am getting back into the swing of it. I used to drive quite a bit but after going back to work first at the Medical School and then at the Ottawa Hospital I stopped driving to work and took the bus.

I still have my calendar notices coming up every day to look at specific family lines but I rather think that I will be passing on the sequence once again when the names begin again mid January. I rather think it will be March or April before I get back to that process once again.

My mind is busy with thoughts at the moment and I am also busy knitting once again. Another of my great loves is knitting and I used to knit all of my daughters' sweaters and often knitted skirt and sweater sets when they were small. I also have some sewing to do and will get to that this week I rather think.

Ed is much improved after his second fall and visit to emergency. We are waiting now for a referral to a heart specialist once again. There is still the MRI to do and more appointments with the neurologist.

My eldest daughter and I are busy using the Wii every day. We received Wii Fit Plus for Christmas along with a couple of sports discs. It has been great fun doing archery, golfing, bowling and other sports. Although it is all electronic it still gets you up and moving. I especially like the Wii Fit and spend an hour a day on strength training and yoga plus aerobics (mostly running). In the summer there is always the gardening but in the winter I have to bundle up to go out and ski or snowshoe and I actually prefer not to go out and freeze although my eldest daughter and I had a good session of skiing the other day! She even has a disc for skiing which is rather fun!

An interesting query on Genes Reunited I have still to reply to. It is on the Elworthy family and is only a collateral line to mine. Since I do not have much on my tree for this family, I need to write an answer and must do that one of these days.

A couple of years ago the person who does the Elworthy family wrote to me to say that Elizabeth Pincombe (sister to my 2x great grandfather John Pincombe) and Richard Elworthy were not really married. It took a couple of emails and some research on my part to show that he had incorrectly married off Richard Elworthy (husband of Elizabeth Pincombe) to another person prior to their marriage. However, this other individual had married a Richard Elworthy but it was a different line (cousin actually though). I thought I had totally convinced him but a year or so later he sent out the same tree (without the corrections) to another Elworthy descendant so I had to go through the process once again. Since it isn't my direct line I am not sure I want to get involved once again with this line!

However, a short answer might be sufficient and then the person can begin to look elsewhere since I am not going to do anymore than I have already done on this family.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

Bishops Nympton's parish records are now in the process of being proofread - another enormous task but once completed will cut my workload somewhat in terms of queries about these records. They will be online for anyone to look at.

The good news is that this is a leap year so we have one extra day for genealogy.

Conversion of Bishop Nympton Parish Registers completed

2011-12-29T18:21:00.002-05:00

Although a few days late (completed 27 December), the Parish Register for Bishops Nympton has now been converted from the word document to the excel document. Now begins the long task of proofreading the excel and word file. I will have them up simultaneously so that I can make corrections to both. Since I went to the trouble of initially doing a word by word accounting of the parish register it only seems logical that I should correct this document as well as the excel file.

Unfortunately, my husband had another fall and had to be dashed off to hospital by ambulance again on Tuesday. I spent the entire day with him at the hospital and fortunately the problem was quickly resolved (new drug conflict) and we were back home again at 9:45 pm. having been picked up by our daughter and son in law. It has been wonderful having everyone here for the week after Christmas although they head home now in order to get ready to go back to work next week. Our older daughter remains with us another couple of weeks doing research before she returns to teach once again.

I believe that I will start tomorrow to proofread the documents. I would like to accomplish that by the end of January although that might prove to be too short a time. I will have to see how the reading goes.

I am trying to decide about my commitments for next year. I am tempted to back away from absolutely everything in order to be free to assist my husband as needed. I do not want to commit to anything very far in advance which will have its difficulties. I shall consider that over the next couple of weeks.

Bishops Nympton Registers

2011-12-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

As Christmas Day comes nearer I realize that I will not quite complete the last group of records although very close. There are still 400 burials to convert to the excel chart and I will leave them now until after Christmas Day although if there is a lull in activities I may find myself completing them :)

In total the Bishops Nympton Parish Registers have yielded 7302 baptisms, 1284 marriages, 5398 burials (with 400 still to convert for a total of likely 5798 burials), and 365 banns. These registers run from the late 1550s to the late 1980s yielding 430 years of history for this small village in North Devon. For myself, I descend from a number of families with deep roots in Bishops Nympton dating back to the earlier parish registers - Pincombe (from the mid 1590s on), Thomas, Tapp (from the early 1600s on), Blackmoore, and Manning (middle 1600s on) with the Thomas and Blackmoore families being in the earliest registers. My Pincombe and Tapp families were from North Molton and my Manning family from Landkey.

Thoughts for the New Year and I shall be downsizing my efforts in genealogical activities once again as my home commitments become somewhat larger and my time for genealogy smaller. I will be concentrating on my Blake one name study and my Pincombe one name study.

The latest Pincombe yDNA results are most interesting in that the Pinkham descendant does not match the results of my likely 5th cousin. Finding someone to test my direct line from Robert Pincombe would be really great as it would give me a baseline from which to look at all the data. The Pinkham result is quite within the realm of results to be expected from Devon. We are still awaiting results beyond the first 12 but a quick test with Withey's Haplogroup Predictor does yield I haplogroup rather than the R1b that is predicted for the results of my 5th cousin on ysearch. Since he is unwilling to be part of the project and has entered the data himself I would really like to have results in the study that are from a known cousin. Will have to wait and see on that.

The original researchers for the Pincombe one name study have linked the Pinkham and Pincombe family as having a common ancestor. yDNA results are really the only way to determine if in reality this was a true common ancestry.

Arnold Family

2011-12-15T11:13:00.001-05:00

Reading the posts on the Dorset list, I discovered a new cousin (probably quite distant) who has done quite a bit of research on the Arnold family. It would be most exciting to read her book now unfortunately out of print so I will search for that but she has offered to send me a CD of her Arnold research which is greatly appreciated. I find that my only seven years of genealogy research has not given me enough time and background yet to really offer to send large sections to people. I am still busily checking and proving connections. For a specific name though I can provide some information that has been extracted from the original records providing that the individual shares part of my direct line. With my father being an only child born in 1904 and my mother had only one sibling with no children and she was born in 1916, there are only my own siblings who connect back along this direct line. Because my father was 33 when he married and my mother's father was 42 when he married I am back into the 1800s with all of my grandparents (1872, 1875, 1876, and 1886) and then for my great grandparents I am well back into the mid 1800s so that finding these people has not been at all difficult plus I grew up on a diet of family history luckily for me (1845, 1850, 1859, 1853, 1837, 1839, 1850, 1859). One more generation back takes me to the late 1700s and mostly first quarter of the 1800s for all my lines (1798, 1804, 1827, 1828, 1825, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1808, 1801, 1810, 1804, 1805, 1820, 1830, 1841).

Still continuing with the conversion of the Bishops Nympton Parish Registers and at the end of 1880 there are 6363 baptisms, end of 1812 3676 burials (the post 1812 are to come at the end of the file), 1111 marriages and 364 banns (no changes except in the baptisms). There are 106 years left on about 80 pages. The number of baptisms does decrease considerably in the 1900s. There are no Pincombe births in this time period which is as expected. All of the my direct line was gone from the Bishops Nympton area with emigrations to Canada and Australia.

The yDNA result has come in for the Pincombe study and he does not match either of the sets of results thus far. No one has tested in my direct line and I have hopes that someone will. The result on ysearch is supposed to be my fifth cousin but until someone I know is my cousin tests I am somewhat ambivalent about the result's accuracy. Hopefully one of these days more Pincombe/Pinkham descendants will test. The Pinkham testor is descendant of the New Hampshire family who did indeed emigrate from Devon. The result is exciting as it may prove whether or not the original investigators were correct in thinking that the Pinkham and Pincombe family share common ancestry. Their charts very much indicate this to be the case but yDNA can now conclude with accuracy whether or not two families are indeed related even if they share a couple of centuries of assumed relationship. Since the latest member is probably I2b1 rather than the R1b of the earlier members there is always the possibility that his ancestor took on the Pincome/Pinkham surname from his wife many centuries ago. Likely the Pincombe/Pinkham family grouping predates the Roman occupation of Britain. I2b1 members came from the Roman Legions mostly as auxiliaries and some of them stayed on. They could have become part of the Pincombe/Pinkham family grouping through marriage with daughters of this family prior even to surname selection.

Once Bishops Nympton is complete and it does appear I may accomplish this task before Christmas with respect to the conversion, then I will turn to South Molton transcription although these registers do not begin until 1600. The next part of the task is the proofreading of the file. Since I created it very early on in my transcribing career I do wish to proofread it very thoroughly before sharing it or sending it off to Genuki to put on the Bishops Nympton webpage. I receive even yet a few enquiries a week and I would like to publish all of my work to reduce their enquiries.

I have answered probably a thousand or more enquiries on my early transcriptions but I want to just put everything up where people can find it so that I can concentrate totally on my lines and those of our son in law.

Bishops Nympton conversion

2011-12-13T22:05:00.003-05:00

Proceding along with the conversion of the word file to an excel file, there are now at the middle of 1835 5278 baptisms, at the end of 1812 1111 marriages, at the end of 1812 3676 burials and at the end of 1886 364 banns. The baptisms continue up to 1986 and I will complete all of those before going to the marriages. Marriages will just be up to the middle of 1837 as Devon does not make fiche of the marriages from 1837 onwards, the burials then continue from 1813 to 1987. The Banns are now complete. I am on page 554 of this 876 page document. I am quite pleased to be moving along so quickly. The next stage will be to proofread the documents from the original microfiche of the Parish Registers.

I have had a few interesting emails. One in particular was from a descendant of the older brother of John Pincombe (my 2x great grandfather). The two families communciated into the early 1900s (likely until about 1918 when William Robert Pincombe died (my great grandfather). He used to visit relatives in the United States with his second family leaving my grandfather to take care of the farm.

A second email was from a descendant of the William Millin/Elizabeth Beard family (the sister of my 3x great grandmother Mary Beard married to Christy Buller). I am not entirely sure what to think of their queries and perhaps it was an error on my part to record a couple of thoughts on the Millin family and their emigration to Australia. I may just remove them from my blog until I can figure out again why I think it was five rather than the three for which he has clear knowledge. I know I chatted back and forth with another Beard cousin at the time about the Millin family. I think perhaps I will just remove the statement. Sometimes people are quite friendly on line and other times they are rather pointed and this is supposed to be fun so I tend to ignore them for the most part. My study of family history is just a hobby these days. My working in genealogy is way back in the past now. If I am incorrect in a statement than I can just remove it if anyone can substantiate that it is incorrect.

A third email today mentioned North Molton records. I eventually plan to submit the transcription to Genuki Devon.
Well that being said I shall get back to my Bishops Nympton file and delete the short statement from the Millin post until I can substantiate it. Likely I will not delve that thoroughly into the Millin family so I may never substantiate it. Time will tell in that regard.

Home again

2011-12-10T15:19:00.001-05:00

I arrived home again from Milwaukee and my almost two week stay with our eldest daughter. Lovely weather and beautiful scenery walking along Lake Michigan.

Bishops Nympton excel file has moved along and I am now at 4372 baptisms (end of 1767) , 768 marriages (end of 1754), 3593 burials (end of 1767) and 21 banns (a short period of time prior to 1754). Surprisingly there are nearly 700 more baptisms than burials bespeaking a very healthy community at Bishops Nympton and environs. There may be a few more entries as this register's microfiche are very mixed up by years. Once I am into the 1800s the register follows the years but prior to that one flips back from the 1700s to the 1600s and the end of the 1700s to the beginning of the 1700s. It will be very nice to have a sortable file and I will give it to Genuki Devon once it is proofread. I may also send it off to Free Reg as well to put up on line.

No surprises for any of my families lines as I extracted all that information a long time ago now. What might change is how I see some of the collateral family lines to my own direct line. I transcribed these fiche at the beginning of my genealogical researching so that the proofreading is very much needed. As I get towards this time period though the transcriptions are probably more precise. I started to transcribe before taking the Palaeography Course. That course itself greatly speeded up m y transcriptions and smoothed them out.

Other than the Bishops Nympton file I haven't really looked at genealogy for a couple of weeks. I am at page 336 of the 876 page file (adjusted for our new printer). I like this printer as it shortens everything.

Conversion of the Bishops Nympton Parish Register from text file to excel file

2011-12-04T10:55:00.002-05:00

Working away on the Bishops Nympton word file and at the end of one week I have converted 25% of the file to an excel file. It has been a slow process on the one hand and on the other hand I do have 25% converted. It is still possible that I can complete the file by Christmas.

Initially I typed in the entries from the one file into the other. But I listened to the thoughts of my husband and daughter and tried capturing the text and converting it to an excel data sheet and then working on rearranging the text. Although it initially appeared to be slower gradually I developed a scheme that worked and I moved to this newer method for the conversion.

The priests of course had their own pattern for recording and it wasn't always the same. I have now reached the contracts/marriages which in the mid 1600s had an amazing amount of information in this parish register. I must reduce them to one line but it is the "form" that will be left out not the information that can be gleaned from these entries.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register

2011-11-28T08:37:00.001-05:00

My fifth day in Milwaukee and I have managed to get started with converting the Bishops Nympton Parish Register word file to excel. Mostly we have spent time enjoying American Thanksgiving which includes shopping. Black Friday we spent most of the day walking and enjoying beautiful weather here but also we went to the Milwaukee Museum which has a special Cleopatra exhibit. A wonderful exhibit and I highly recommend it if you are in this area. Saturday was a busy day doing some work my daughter needed doing.

Finally on Sunday we went shopping and it was quite busy. Since my daughter is away for my birthday in September she likes to take me shopping for my birthday present when I come in November. I had in mind a navy blue suit and we found a lovely one at the Boston Store. My daughter found some clothes that she wanted as well and so we had a very productive shopping trip. The roads were quite busy but traffic was flowing very nicely. This is a large metropolitan area with about 1.6 million people in total.

Now I shall begin my conversion in earnest hoping to accomplish as much of the 900+ pages as possible over the next week. With a big bite into it I should be able to accomplish it by Christmas. Then the proofreading comes next against the original register since I have never proofread the word file.

Doing a line by line transcription of the parish register can be quite revealing. For instance there are two marriages of servants of William Pincombe and no location is given but given there are no William Pincombes at Bishops Nympton in this time period who are adult then this is William Pincombe at Filleigh (son of my ancestor and brother to Richard my ancestor). He was by far the wealthiest of the seven sons of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow having inherited the property at Filleigh and East Buckland. My Richard was the fourth son and his holdings were all at Bishops Nympton. Possibly he held Park, East Week, West Week at Bishops Nympton and Gatcombe, Great Woods at Molland since these are the properties that can be traced back in my family lines.

Coming down from Richard, my William and then his son John were singleton land owners although William had a half brother John who held more property. My John had three sons and all the PIncombes at Bishops Nympton in the 1700s trace down from John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore. The grandson John of this couple then was the father of all the Pincombe lines at Bishops Nympton and John Pincombe and his wife Mary Charlie/Charley had four sons with my Robert being the third son. The Parish Registers bear this out as do the land records.

Other than the Parish Register I do not have any plans for work whilst here in Milwaukee. I would really like to accomplish the conversion of this file by Christmas.

Will of Elizabeth Pincombe, widow, dated 17 Oct 1816 and probated 16 Oct 1819 (Source - Inland Revenue Wills page 883)

2011-11-23T06:50:00.000-05:00

The last will in my cache for Pincombe is this particular one written by Elizabeth Pincombe widow of the City of Exeter. I do not have any particular information on this Pincombe line other than the original chart for Exeter prepared by the earlier Pincombe investigators. I can not locate a marriage between a Pincombe and an Elizabeth Arthurs which was my first thought on reading this will. However, I am unable to clearly read the relationship between Samuel Arthurs and Elizabeth Pincombe. I do not think that it says brother but the next opportunity that I have to read this will I will clarify that item.

The will of Elizabeth Pincombe, Widow, Exeter, Devon

Recorded: 23 Nov 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills page 883
Place: Exeter, Devon
Type of record: Will
Dated: 17 Oct 1816 (Probated 16 Oct 1819)
Read: Electronic File
Copy: bold, 19th century writing
1 This is the last Will and Testament of me Elizabeth Pincombe
2 Of the City of Exeter Widow, I give devise and bequeath unto my ______ Samuel
3 Arthurs of the City, of Exeter, Grocer all my real and permanent Estate with Effects
4 Of what nature or Account soever To hold the same unto the said Samuell Arthurs
5 His Heirs Executors Administrators and Assignes forever Now I revoke
6 Constitute and appoint the said Samuel Arthurs sole Executor of this my Will
7 And I revoke all former wills and declare this is only to be my last Will
8 And Testament In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and
9 Seal the Seventeenth day of October One Thousand eight hundred and
10 Sixteen.
11 The Mark of the X said Elizabeth Pincombe [Seal]
12 Signed Sealed Published and Declared
13 by the said Elizabeth Pincombe the
14 Testator as and for her last Will and
15 Testament in the presence of us who in
16 Her presence at her request and in the
17 presence of each other have subscribed
18 our names as Witness thereto
19 James Torrell [signed]
20 George Soelter [signed]
21 W[illia]m Tremlett [signed]
22 Examined with the Original Will by me
23 John Jackson
I still need to transcribe the Probate package for this will. A future endeavour that will eventually appear here

Family Pictures - Samuel George Blake 1875 - 1953

2011-11-22T07:52:00.008-05:00

Sorting through boxes with my husband we came across another cache of family pictures. This time it was the originals of some photographs that I had originally labeled Grandma Blake's pictures. They are actually my grandparent's pictures not just solely Grandma Blake's pictures as it turns out. I have now scanned all of them and because I now have the original of a picture of the Union that my grandfather belonged to (International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers Local 183) I was able to spot him and have now written to the London Leaf to see if they want the image to put in the newsletter as a "Can you name any of the men in this picture?" I have told them which one is my grandfather which is a start. I have no idea on the names of any of the other men. By the time that I knew my grandfather he had been retired for several years and did not really speak a great deal about his time of working.

When we chatted it was about the green hills of Upper Clatford and stories of his life there. It was somewhat hilly actually when we visited but he was remembering Bury Hill which they had climbed as children. I didn't get to climb it and I think it might be on private land actually now. But perhaps when we go again I can have a longer look at it.

I put together a collage of pictures of my grandfather and decided to put it into this post. Not so much that it will aid anyone researching our family since I know all of his descendants but there may yet be cousins lurking out there that I have not yet discovered who might like to see a picture of my grandfather. I understand that he resembled his father and that Harry in Toronto resembled his mother's side of the family.

Pictures of Grandpa through the years (the early dates are approximate with the latter three to the year).

All of the pictures have a story actually with the first having been sent to me by my cousin in England with the query is this Sam? When I first looked at it I wasn't sure because I only had pictures of Grandpa when he was over 50. The earliest one that I had of him at that time was the lower left picture where he is clearing away snow from their laneway on Hackett Street in London, Ontario. My father had purchased a camera and this was a picture that they sent to all the relatives back in England that Christmas of 1925. The next picture was a more formal portrait that included my grandmother Blake and was likely taken at the wedding of my parents in 1938. The blossoms are definitely spring and they were married in May 1938. The last picture is from his railway pass and that was 1940. My grandmother died in 1940 and the strain of her illness and death shows in this picture of my grandfather. In later years some of the strain was gone from his face but he always missed my grandmother and would often visit her grave. When my husband and I first went looking for my grandparent's grave in the 1970s I was able to walk right to it having been a number of times with my grandfather as a child. On the other hand it was much harder to find my mother's parent's grave as I had almost never been there in my memory. I knew it was up on the hill not far from my other grandparents but it was quite a bit further than I remembered plus a columbarium had been built which had changed the look of the graveyard. I thought it was somewhat surprising to have remembered a distance as shorter given the much shorter legs of a child!

Since I received that first picture I have since discovered the second picture at the top in the middle which is from a picture of my father and grandparents whilst they were still living at Eastleigh Hampshire and around 1910 as my father would be about six years old and as I recall it was just before he went off to school (it could actually have been closer to 1908). I have a number of pictures of my father and have not yet placed this one into the collection of his pictures which is quite extensive. Being an only child, his parents quite doted on him and he was 33 before he married. The top picture on the right I just identified last night from a picture of his Union (Local 183 International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers, London, Ontario). When I scanned the original image I was able to pick him out which I hadn't been able to do with the small copy I had from the earlier set of images. The story behind that picture is unknown to me but I am sort of hoping that London Leaf will take me up on my suggestion of printing it as a "Can you name any of the men in this picture?"

When I started genealogy I just had a few pictures of my grandfather starting with the one shoveling snow and right up until the early 1950s (he passed away in 1953). Now I have a picture story of him from his early adulthood. It is amazing how you can put together information as you glean it from various sources on your family. I have pictures of his brother's family (now all deceased I think) that I will post in case any of my other cousins should happen upon this page. I have now yet been able to determine if anyone else is still living aside from my known cousin's family.

I just have a very few pictures of my grandmother Blake but that cache has too been added to since my initial foray into genealogy. I think there is also a picture of my grandfather's grandmother Ann (Farmer) Blake but I haven't found it yet. My grandfather was 18 when his grandmother Blake died and because she lived right next door to them he knew her very well. Many of her stories have now become stories that I can pass on to the next generation.

Completion of North Molton Parish Registers up to 1707

2011-11-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

The Parish Registers of North Molton transcription to 1707 is now complete and there are 4963 baptisms, 1008 marriages, 3048 burials and 162 banns. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of entries. Being able to look deeply into the Pincombe family at North Molton was also most rewarding.

The next step is to proofread this parish register transcription and that will likely wait for the New Year. I must now prepare for my dedicated research time of ten days so that I have everything ready to go. Working on the excel file for the Bishops Nympton Parish Register has been a goal of mine for a few years but I never had a really good time that I would be isolated so that I could work on it. The time has come and I shall take full advantage of it.

The Pincombe entries in the last few years of the registers at North Molton (as far as I have transcribed it) yielded very few Pincombe entries. My thoughts are now directed at the Pincombe family there in the 1700s and one source that might lead me to them are the Freeholder books transcribed by the Genuki Devon team and I am happy to say that I was one of them. Checking the online database there were no Pincombe freeholders at North Molton in the 1700s. I will put the rest of the entries together shortly remembering there were a number of burials. I would like to complete my study of the Pincombe family there although it may have to wait until I purchase the other parish registers for North Molton.

Variants of Blake and continuing with North Molton Parish Register

2011-11-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

At the end of 1700 (I have now completed 162 years of parish records at North Molton) in North Molton there are 4714 baptisms, 929 marriages, 2844 burials and 162 banns. No more Pincombe entries these last few years. There are quite a few new families likely replacing the families that were quite reduced during the high burial years. A number of Cornwall males have moved to North Molton and if one followed the manor ownership one would likely discover that they were moved from the holdings of families that owned property in both places. Must look into that one day.

I also received an email from a fellow Goons who looks at the Blaker family. He was curious if I investigated the name Blak. In general it is not a variant that I investigate. However, in the parishes that I have done quite a bit of work transcribing in the 1500s to the 1700s I do look at each of these entries as they are generally my Blake family and the priest has simply written too lightly on the e and it isn't readily noticeable or he has spelled the name Blak (or Blaak or Blacke). There are a number of spellings for even such a short name as Blake. He is suggesting working together on a project looking at all the Blak names and I will think about that for a couple of days. I am still mostly involved with the 1800s in my overall Goons one name study for the Blake family and I do not want to rush back too quickly into earlier times until I have completed my accumulation of 1800s data and early 1900s data for the Blake family.

I will continue with North Molton planning on completing the last five years in the next two days. Then the proofreading must be done before I can submit it to Genuki. The work on Bishops Nympton conversion will come first and has a high priority from Thursday coming on to completion. After completion of that I have reserved research time which will then move to the Blake family of Norfolk where I plan to extract the Blake entries from the Norfolk Parish Registers.

Once I have finished this particular research time than I will return to my usual pattern of days working on my family history and that of our son in law. I had planned to begin this month but It will wait another cycle through. There is just so much ongoing to look at.

1688, 1689 and 1690 at North Molton

2011-11-17T18:04:00.000-05:00

The years 1688, 1689 and 1690 were quite severe at North Molton with the burials doubling and more. No indication of the cause in the parish register but looking at a few webpages smallpox is mentioned as being a problem after the 1650s.

At the end of 1690 I have now transcribed 4347 baptisms, 834 marriages, 2548 burials and 162 banns. There are more people listed as being from another parish which could be the new priest or just more diligent record keeping. The parish if not North Molton is a very handy item to have tracing some of these families where you might find Gould or Thorne or Shapland/Shopland families in many of the parishes in the North Molton area.

The Parish Registers were particularly difficult to read from 1687 to 1690 and hopefully they will improve for the last few years for which I have fiche copy (end of 1706). More Pincombe entries for me to sort out. Certainly there are at least two distinct lines at North Molton. I can not be absolutely sure that they are both descendant of Thomas Pincombe. There is a possibility that they may descend also from William Pincombe (possible third son of Unknown Pencombe who first came to North Molton in 1485).

I think that two more days may well complete the Parish Registers but perhaps a third day will be needed. Once completed than I will proofread it as I have time and then submit it to Genuki Devon where Brian Randall maintains the webpages.

My next project is to convert my word text of the Bishop Nympton parish register to an excel file. The 954 page document will likely take me a number of days to convert. Since I will have dedicated time to do the project I hope to complete it soon and also put it up on Genuki Devon. I am the On Line Parish Clerk for Bishops Nympton.

1675 at North Molton

2011-11-14T18:47:00.003-05:00

Although Pincombe variants have filled my thoughts for the last couple of days, I did manage to work away at North Molton Parish Registers in between. Now at the end of 1675 there are 3857 baptisms, 660 marriages, 2076 burials and 162 banns. It was interesting having the banns for a few years (1654-1658) at North Molton. It gives you irrefutable evidence of the linkage of the three generations (father to son/daughter to grandchildren of that marriage) unless of course you have too many similar forenames. Certainly the families that are most usual at North Molton have a lot of entries in any given year and the Locke, Thorne, Burges and Shopland families come to mind. This is 137 years of baptisms from 1538 (less of marriages, burials and banns because of missing years of records).

One Pincombe entry I hadn't noticed before was the baptism (and burial six weeks later) of a son Thomas to Thomas Pincombe in 1670. This is likely the son of Thomas Pyncombe and Johane Smith who married 28 Apr 1635 at North Molton and had five sons: William, Thomas, John, Richard and Robert all nicely named by their grandfather Thomas Pyncombe in his will. No Pincombe marriage in this time frame at North Molton and the name of the wife was omitted in the baptism.

There was also a burial for a John Pincombe 5 Apr 1673. There are two possible living in this direct area and I shall have to work away at that. He was likely an adult as the priest normally noted if the burial was the child of someone or the wife of someone which is rather handy.

Onto the fourth row of this fiche which leaves me with one full fiche and 18 images (1.5 rows) of this one to complete all the material that I have purchased for North Molton. This will bring me into the 1700s and I may in the future purchase more registers of North Molton. Once completed I will likely submit this to Genuki Devon and also Landkey.

One of my major projects this year to complete is the conversion of the Parish Registers of Bishops Nympton transcription from the word document that I prepared it in to an excel file. This was my very first big project of transcription and it is nearly 1000 pages long. I felt that I had to have a word for word transcription and it is all of that. I can search it readily but sorting like an excel file simply isn't possible. I never do a line by line transcription anymore; I record the extra details in a "Note" column which works very well but I was new to genealogy and had absolutely no idea that I would eventually prefer the ability to sort over the ability to have an exact replica of the original register.

Pincombe marriages after Civil Registration in 1837

2011-11-13T19:10:00.002-05:00

I have now gone through all of the marriages on Find My Past where I can readily connect the correct spouse with the Pincombe spouse. I have 150 of 450 left to find through the census. Some of these are in my Legacy file and I will tease them out next and then the task of going through the census to find the matching spouse plus it lets me now look at the births and death and match them into families. How to label each family is uppermost in my mind at the moment. I have heard of a number of different methods and I think I will go for numerical since the Pincombe family is not that large and it doesn't matter which County. I can make that reference within the family grouping. I need to also work on the Pinkham family as I have them partially linked with the marriages. The Pincombe records outnumber the Pinkham records about 2:1 in most cases but there is sometimes a crossover where the Pincombe name is used in one set of records and Pinkham in another set and it is the same family. I must learn more about the origin of the Pinkham family name. It arose spontaneously within the Pincombe family it would appear and as noted earlier is by far the greatest occurrence of the surname in the United States of America.

Working away on the marriages I have discovered two new variants of Pincombe that I hadn't really noticed. The numbers are sufficient to merit thinking about adding them to the study and they include PINCHAM and PINKAM. Looking at Free BMD there are 181 records for Pincham between 1837 and the 1950s; for Pinkam there is only one but more on Find My Past. It seems like a long stretch from PINCOMBE but if I look at PINKHAM as a variant then I need to consider whether or not to include these two new ones. Occasionally there is also a PINKCOMBE entry (11 in total on Free BMD which I have also ignored to date). If I move to including these three spellings I am wondering about Tincombe (87 records on Free BMD principally in the Exeter Devon area but moving into the London area especially in the 1900s) which I am asked about as well - is it a variant of Pincombe? Listening to the Forum others go through this experience once they are heavily into data collection of whether or not to include the "rarer" variants of the surname. Pincombe itself has 427 marriages and Pinkham has 293 records on Free BMD. If I include Pincham, Pinkam, Pinkcombe and Tincombe this would yield for my study around 1000 marriages between 1837 and the 1950s. Certainly doable as I am looking at that many marriages per county for my Blake one name study! But are they derived from the Pincombe (and originally Pencombe name).

Checking out these variants on the Public Profiler for British Names and they are less than 100 on the 1998 electoral list which I have already noted with the BMD records. Perhaps what I should do is take one of these variants and I think it should be Tincombe as that is the one most people ask me about with regard to being a variant of Pincombe and see if I can find the point at which a name change occurred.

The Tincombe name occurs (for marriages) in the following 34 Registration Districts from 1837 up to 1955:

Alresford
Brighton
Clerkenwell
Crediton
Croydon
Devon Central
Devonport
Elham
Essex S.W.
Exeter
Falmouth
Gravesend
Hackney
Hampstead
Holsworthy
Honiton
Lewisham
Newton A
Okehampton
Plymouth
Romford
S. Molton
Shoreditch
St Thomas
St. Saviour
Surrey N.E.
Swansea
Tavistock
Tavistock
Tiverton
Uckfield
W. Ham
Wandsworth
Woolwich

If I look at 1837 to 1911 only the number of Registration Districts is now 19:

Clerkenwell
Crediton
Croydon
Devonport
Exeter
Falmouth
Hackney
Hampstead
Honiton
Newton A
Okehampton
Plymouth
S. Molton
Shoreditch
St Thomas
St. Saviour
Tavistock
Tiverton
Woolwich

I can see this is primarily a Devon/London name and the Pincombe family up until the mid 1800s was primarily a Devon/London name. Point one in favour of Tincombe as being a variant of Pincombe - similar locality.

I then went to the IGI to look at the Tincombe family surname and with the new search I am able to bring up a box of information on locality:

Canada, USA, and Mexico 13,135
Europe 1,717

I excluded the other five entries as they were all less than 20 individual entries.

Why would the Tincombe surname be nearly ten times as frequent in the United States/Canada/Mexico than Europe (which is probably England primarily)? Perhaps transcription error of Pincombe which is fairly uncommon in the United States - the usual spelling is Pinkham in the United States.

I need to decide if this is a variant that I should include in my study? How far back does the Tincombe surname go in the Family Search records?There are almost 4000 results between 1400 and 1800 in the new family search. Narrowing this down to 1400 to 1600 gives fourty results which is quite a bit easier to work with.

Surname Forename Event Year Month Day Location Surname Forename Burial
Tinkombe Elizabetha C 1582 Jun 22 Bovey Tracey, Devon Tinkombe Willmi
Tinkcomb Wilms C 1577 Feb 25 Bovey Tracey, Devon Tinkcomb Willmi
Tinkham Richus C 1575 Dec 22 Bovey Tracey, Devon Tinkham Willmi 17 Jan 1586
Tynckombe Richardus C 1585 Mar 15 Bovey Tracey, Devon Tynckombe Johannis
Tingcombe Willms M 1592 Jul 15 Bovey Tracey, Devon Sprie Ebutta
Tinkham William C 1550 Nov 6 Bridford, Devon Tinkham Richard 30 Nov 1550
Tinkham Walter C 1552 Aug 13 Bridford, Devon Tinkham Richard
Tinkham Wilmot C 1563 Jan 21 Bridford, Devon Tinkham John
Tinckum Christofer C 1577 Jan 21 Dean Prior, Devon Tinckum Willm
Tynckum Margery C 1575 Oct 7 Dean Prior, Devon Tynckum Willm
Tinckum Joan C 1581 May 16 Dean Prior, Devon Tinckum Willm 24 Oct 1585
Tincombe John M 1593 Nov 12 Farway, Devon Perry Elsabeth
Tincombe Ede C 1589 May 11 Hatherleigh, Devon Tincombe Richord
Tingcombe John C 1587 Nov 21 Landrake, Cornwall Tingcombe Walter
Tynckom John C 1572 Feb 18 North Bovey, Devon Tynckom John
Tinckom Andrew C 1600 Aug 5 North Bovey, Devon Tinckom Pancrasse
Tynckom Johane C 1573 Feb 19 North Bovey, Devon Tynckom John
Tincumbe Henry M 1600 Oct 20 Saint Andrew, Plymouth, Devon Freende Anne
Tincome Christian M 1578 May 28 Saint Sidwell, Exeter, Devon Hill John
Tinkcombe John C 1584 Jan 19 South Tawton, Devon Tinkcombe Walter
Tinkombe Richardus C 1588 Jun 5 South Tawton, Devon Tinkombe Walter
Tinckcombe Walter M 1584 May 8 South Tawton, Devon Hoode Elizabeth
Tincombe Willmott M 1576 May 12 St Edmunds, Exeter, Devon Poole John
Tinckam William C 1600 Feb 8 Stepney, London Tinckam Robert
Tynckham Rose M 1573 Apr 13 Tedburn Saint Mary, Devon Ponsford Thomas
Tyncome Rochard M 1576 Nov 18 Totnes, Devon Masser John
Tincombe Henry C 1594 Mar 16 Whitestone, Devon Tincombe Gregory
Tinckham Robert C 1595 Feb 20 Whitestone, Devon Tinckham William 1 Mar 1595
Tynckeham Matthew C 1579 May 3 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Tynckeham Augustine 10 Jun 1579
Tynckeham George C 1590 Jun 25 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Tynckeham Augustine 19 Nov 1591
Tynckeham John C 1575 Feb 8 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Tynckeham Augustine
Tynckeham Susanna C 1573 Aug 20 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Tynckeham Augustine
Tynckeham Judith C 1582 May 11 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Tynckeham Augustine 31 Jan 1586
Tynckeham Augustine M 1568 Sep 4 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Polseland Beaton
Tynckeham Augustine M 1572 Oct 20 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Wyndett Elizabeth
Tynckeham Margaret M 1591 Aug 30 Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon Derante John
Tynckame Edward C 1569 Jun 26 York Tynckame John

The earliest entries were as expected in the mid 1500s (some parish registers do go back to 1538) but in general mid 1500s is fairly common. All of the entries with the exception of one are in Devon. The locations are in general around the Plymouth area. I do have a Pincombe family in the Plymouth area but the earliest is towards the end of the 1600s. In general they have used the surname Pinkham but not all; the Pincombe surname is certainly found there as well especially in the 1800s. This might appear to indicate that they are a separate family.

Looking online for a meaning for the surname Tincombe:

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Tincombe

"Recorded in a very wide variety of spellings including Tincomb, Tincombe, Tincam, Tinkum, Tinkham Tinckombe, Tingcombe, and no doubt others, this is an English surname. From early recordings which we have discovered in surviving church registers, the original spelling could have been the pre 7th century Olde English 'tynincel' meaning a small farm, plus either 'cum' meaning a valley or 'ham', a hamlet or village."

I will continue to look at available information but it would appear that this is a surname that arose spontaneously and independent of the Pincombe surname.

I will look at the other two surnames as variants of Pinkham at another sitting.

Pincombe family at North Molton up to 1660

2011-11-12T09:08:00.002-05:00

The Pincombe entries at North Molton continue to be a strong interest of mine for my one name study. By the end of 1660 there are 3365 baptisms, 563 marriages, 1669 burials and 162 banns in total with Pincombe being quite a small part of that total. Using the wills of Johane, William, Thomas and Bartholomew Pincombe the families can be put together and I hypothesize the following from the records.

Baptisms:

Pyncombe Agnes daughter Pyncombe William 1543 June 6
Pyncombe Mary daughter Pyncombe William 1547 Dec 8
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pymcombe John 1555 July 8
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1555 Feb 3
Pyncombe Johane daughter Pyncombe John 1561 Apr 5
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1563 Jan 18
Pyncombe Peternell daughter Pyncombe John 1574 Jun 29 of Flitton
Pyncombe Phillip son Pyncombe George 1592 May 28
Pyncombe Emott daughter Pyncombe George Dorothie 1594 Dec 9
Pyncombe William son Pyncombe George Dorothie 1597 Apr 15
Pyncombe Johane daughter Pyncombe George Dorothie 1599 Nov 9
Pincombe Henrye son Pincombe George  Dorothie 1602 Dec 19
Pincombe Thomas son Pincombe Thomas   1616 Mar 30
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas  Joan 1639 Mar 31
Pincombe Thomas son Pincombe Thomas  Joan 1641 Apr 14
Pincombe Richarde son Pincome Thomas  Joan 1644 Nov 10
Pincombe John son Pincome Thomas  Joan 1644 Nov 10
Pincombe Frances daughter Pincome Bartholomew  Frances 1647 Dec 12
Pincombe Robart son Pincombe Thomas  Joan 1648 Jan 21
Pincombe Richorde daughter Pincombe Bartholomew  Joan 1649 Feb 19
Pincombe John son Pincombe Bartholomew  Joane 1654 Nov 27

Marriages:

Pyncombe John            Hodge Emet 1560 Jul 1
Pyncombe William      Gregorye Margret 1564 Nov 26
Pincombe Thomas       Smith Joan 1635 Apr 28
[King]don Phillip         Pincumbe Margret 1539 Nov 15
Locke William            Pyncombe Ales 1561 Nov 29
Squire William           Pyncombe Margerett 1567 May 26
Squire George            Pyncombe Mary 1567 Jul 20

Burials:

Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John   1555 Dec 7
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John   1563 Feb 3
Pyncombe Elizabeth wife Pyncombe William   1563 Feb 18
Pyncombe William      1564 Sep 13
Pyncombe William      1565 Mar 25
Pincombe George      1610 Jan 19
Pincombe Dorothie widow     1610 Feb 2
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas  Katherine 1624 Dec 7
Pincomb Joan      1633 Jan 15
Pincombe Katherine wife Pincombe Thomas   1636 Feb 5
Pincombe Elizabeth      1645 Oct 13
Pincomb William      1637 Jan 29
Pyncombe Thomas      1651 Dec 8
Pincombe Bartholomew      1656 Dec 24
Pincombe Richorde daughter Pincombe Bartholomew  Joan 1657 May 21
Pincombe Frances daughter Pincombe Bartholomew (deceased)  Joane 1657 May 27

Placed into families:

William Pincombe (circa 1520 - 1564/1565)

Pyncombe Agnes daughter Pyncombe William 1543 June 6
Pyncombe Mary daughter Pyncombe William 1547 Dec 8
Pyncombe Elizabeth wife Pyncombe William 1563 Feb 18
Pyncombe William 1564 Sep 13
Pyncombe William Gregorye Margret 1564 Nov 26
Pyncombe William 1565 Mar 25
Squire William Pyncombe Margerett 1567 May 26
Squire George Pyncombe Mary 1567 Jul 20

John Pincombe (circa 1530 - still alive in 1574)

Pyncombe Marye daughter Pymcombe John 1555 July 8
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1555 Dec 7
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1555 Feb 3
Pyncombe John Hodge Emet 1560 Jul 1
Pyncombe Johane daughter Pyncombe John 1561 Apr 5
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1563 Jan 18
Pyncombe Marye daughter Pyncombe John 1563 Feb 3
Pyncombe Peternell daughter Pyncombe John 1574 Jun 29 of Flitton

George Pincombe (circa 1560s - 1610)

Pyncombe Phillip son Pyncombe George 1592 May 28
Pyncombe Emott daughter Pyncombe George Dorothie 1594 Dec 9
Pyncombe William son Pyncombe George Dorothie 1597 Apr 15
Pyncombe Johane daughter Pyncombe George Dorothie 1599 Nov 9
Pincombe Henrye son Pincombe George Dorothie 1602 Dec 19
Pincombe George 1610 Jan 19
Pincombe Dorothie widow 1610 Feb 2

Thomas Pincombe (circa 1572 - 1653)

Pincombe Thomas son Pincombe Thomas 1616 Mar 30
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas Katherine 1624 Dec 7
Pincombe Katherine wife Pincombe Thomas 1636 Feb 5
Pyncombe Thomas 1651 Dec 8

Pincombe Thomas married Smith Joan 1635 Apr 28
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas Joan 1639 Mar 31
Pincombe Thomas son Pincombe Thomas Joan 1641 Apr 14
Pincombe Richarde son Pincome Thomas Joan 1644 Nov 10
Pincombe John son Pincome Thomas Joan 1644 Nov 10
Pincombe Robart son Pincombe Thomas Joan 1648 Jan 21

Pincombe Frances daughter Pincome Bartholomew Frances 1647 Dec 12
Pincombe Richorde daughter Pincombe Bartholomew Joan 1649 Feb 19
Pincombe John son Pincombe Bartholomew Joane 1654 Nov 27
Pincombe Bartholomew 1656 Dec 24
Pincombe Richorde daughter Pincombe Bartholomew Joan 1657 May 21
Pincombe Frances daughter Pincombe Bartholomew (deceased) Joane 1657 May 27

The Pincombe family at North Molton are not all descendant of the marriage of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow since their marriage probably occurred in the early 1560s. His mother Johane Pencombe (widow) left a will in 1563 whilst living at East Buckland where William also lived after this time naming her children as William, John Alice, Richard and another daughter. The daughters were married to John Lock (Alice) and John Jesse (unnamed daughter). The parish register has William Lock as the husband of Alice Pencombe but the will has John. William is either not yet married or does not have any children in 1563 when the will is written but his brother John has married Emet Hodge and their eldest daughter Johane is named in the will. Richard is also not married. This is the Richard though who died at Chittlehampton and is he the ancestor of Richard Pincombe who married Jane Bond at Chittlehampton in 1652 - I have a broken line there which would be interesting to complete - land records perhaps?

George Pincombe is not a descendant of the William Pincombe and Emotte Snow marriage (at least he is not named in William's will). He is also not named in the will of Johane Pencombe which encourages me to place him in the family of the unnamed brother in the Visitation and we have a William buried in 1564 at North Molton who may have been married to Elizabeth (or the son) and their children Agnes, Mary and a William (father or son? who was buried in 1565). The Parish Register at North Molton definitely adds good additional information to the Pincombe family listed in the Visitation.

[King]don Phillip Pincumbe Margret 1539 Nov 15
This is the only unrevealed marriage and is likely a sister to the brothers listed on the Visitation as she is in their age range. The two baptisms Johane Kingdon baptized 6 Oct 1545 at North Molton (and married to William Hobb 28 Jan 1564 at North Molton) and Emote baptized 26 May 1549 at North Molton are likely their children. Since this is a one name study I do not usually follow the daughters down past the one generation (i.e. their children unless there was a non paternal event).

The records would appear to indicate that of the three brothers in the visitation the eldest John went to South Molton (none of his children appear at North Molton Parish Records), Thomas was known to be at East Buckland and Filleigh and the unnamed son was perhaps the William found in the records at North Molton. Solving the mystery of which William married Margaret Gregorye (father or son) would also be helpful but not absolutely necessary. Since the marriage of William and Margaret Gregorye was at North Molton one might think it was her home parish but not necessarily. Finding a George Pincombe baptized in 1564-1565 is a good next step or finding a will in the Squire family which I have not yet pursued might reveal more details on George other than what is in the Parish Register.

The Thomas Pincombe family certainly fits well into the William Pincombe and Emotte Snow family because they have a son Thomas the right age to be marrying a Katherine (unknown) who had three children listed in the will of Thomas buried in 1653 at North Molton (Bartholomew, Thomas and Grace). Grace is likely married to Richard Haniford (the will makes deciphering of her married name difficult) and they had three children. The Filleigh and East Buckland records in the 1500s would probably have filled in the missing items but one must work with what one has!

Pincombe marriages and North Molton Parish Registers

2011-11-10T18:43:00.000-05:00

I worked on the Pincombe marriages and it is surprising how many I actually do have between 1837 and 1911. Not so many Pinkham yet though; that needs to be a dedicated direction for the one name study. Once I have all the marriages that I can find then I want to do the births and deaths in conjunction with the census. Then I can move back into the parish registers. London is online at Ancestry making that task straightforward and I have most of the parishes in Devon where they lived but certainly not all of them.

Continuing with the North Molton Parish Registers I have completed to the end of 1656 with 3173 baptisms, 522 marriages, 135 banns, and 1529 burials. Looking at the results does skew the numbers somewhat as one might think that this was a very unusual parish with just half the number of burials to the baptisms but the reality is that 30+ years of burials are missing so easily 1200 to 1500 burials missing. There are banns once again as the Justice of the Peace is now recording the information on births, marriages and deaths (baptisms are also there which is a surprise but then North Molton is a long way from London and the authority of Cromwell).

There are more Pincombe entries but no unexpected ones particularly. I am curious about Pincombe entries from now until the end of the fiche that I own. I do not have any of them recorded if there are in fact any there. I watch the Bray family (and they have dwindled down in numbers) and the Tap family (still fairly frequent) that are also my ancestors as my lines were at North Molton in the earlier years.

Tomorrow I hope to complete this fiche and then I have two left. Completing the North Molton Parish Registers in November is becoming less likely although one never knows. I may put a push on for completion and leave some of the other items I had in mind until later. Although I do want to transcribe the last Pincombe will (Elizabeth Pincombe of Exeter) sooner rather than later and then I will have completed all the Pincombe wills that I have.

I also need to get started on my newsletter for the Eastern Region of the Guild of one name studies. I have a couple of other pending items there as well but I have a ten day block of days when I will be looking after all of these items. Right now I feel the push to get North Molton done. Of course, it is only me that is pushing. I have this tendency to be a bit of a scheduler although I also find it easy to adjust the schedule. It is just my numerical nature to be like that probably.

Parish Registers of North Molton continuing

2011-11-09T08:24:00.002-05:00

At the end of 1650 in the Parish Registers of North Molton there are now 2943 baptisms, 477 marriages, 103 banns and 1380 burials. New families have arrived in North Molton including the Scott family. The older families are still there and records for Pincombe continue with the grandchildren of Thomas Pincombe now being baptized. I have thirteen pages left to do on this fiche and that will bring me to the births of 1657. The plan of completing these fiche by mid November is unlikely although I shall continue to strive to do so.

On the other hand, the 50th Anniversary story is in the last stages of completion and I will submit it next week. I want to do a few more proofreadings and there is always the possibility that I will find one more set of pictures that might prove interesting to insert. There is only one more set that we have been looking for and the discovery two days ago of the package from my mother was most rewarding in terms of having better images using the originals instead of copies from years ago.

After North Molton is complete then I will return to Abbots Ann. It is a gruelling task working on Abbots Ann but once I am into the middle 1700s then the task greatly improves. There is that 30 year period that is particularly poor that I must get through. That will also return my focus to the Blake one name study once again. I have taken a short hiatus from that. I want to work with the study group and write a paper on Theophilus Blake to submit to The American Genealogist. It is such an exciting story to tell and will assist Blake researchers in the United States as there are several distinct Blake lines there.

One of the pictures in the cache which my mother gave to us includes one with a label that belongs to the Taylor/Smart family. I have sent the information off to my grandmother's half-sister's descendants to see if the extra information will help them to identify this family. There is always the remote possibility that it is a picture of Elizabeth Rawlings Taylor but time will tell on that.

I want to continue with my extension of the Pincombe family past the 1911 census in sorting out marriages, baptisms and burials in as much as possible. That will be a side project that I will keep ongoing.

Photographs

2011-11-07T21:55:00.007-05:00

Working our way through boxes and boxes of genealogical material and my husband came across an envelope that had been put away probably as much as 23 years ago. My mother had given it to me and my interest in genealogy at that time was virtually nil. As it turns out they were principally pictures of my father's family and she didn't actually know who all the people were anyway but fortunately I had sat with my grandfather in his last year quite a bit and he used to talk about the pictures so I recognized some of them amazingly.

However, one surfaced that I hadn't remembered at all. It was in it's own separate envelope and a tintype:

I decided to write my cousin to see if it struck a memory with him (especially as he is definitely the family historian reaching way back). There is writing on the back and one of the words is Robert. Of course, I would like it to be Robert Gray and Mary Routledge (my 2x great grandparents) but he doesn't really look like his two brothers for whom we have pictures albeit at a later date.

Tomorrow my husband will try to photograph the back and see if we can bring up the writing. I scanned it but there is just too much noise in the picture to zoom in on the writing.

I am trying to think of other possibilities. Since it is a tintype that dates it as after 1856. I have discovered they were not popular in England although they were done there but I can not think of anyone with the name of Robert in my family that lived in that time period and looked about that age. Robert isn't a very common name in my families.

Along with the tintype, the envelope also contained the originals of some pictures of which I have smaller reproductions. The originals are much sharper so we will photograph them tomorrow and replace the ones in my OGS story with sharper ones. They were my Grandfather's pictures although not the tintype. I can not remember him having any tintypes.

It is very exciting though to have a new picture to think about and perhaps if I am very lucky fit into my family lines. I have virtually nothing for my Gray and Routledge lines in terms of pictures. Lots of wills and other legal documents but no pictures. However, I shall really hang back on this one until I am very sure.

I sat and looked at the pictures of my four brothers and actually they do not all look exactly alike so it is a possibility that it could be Robert Gray but proving it is another story; that is for sure.

Ellis Ellis and Sarah Wellspring married 7 Mar 1738 at Winterborne Stickland

2011-11-06T14:11:00.000-05:00

Ancestry now has the Dorset parish registers online and a quick search brought up the marriage of Ellis Ellis and Sarah Wellspring. They are one set of my 5x great grandparents and I really hadn't expected to find out more about them until I made a trip to the Dorset Record Office in Dorchester and that was rather on the bottom of my list of things to do in Dorset. I had found the Ellis family in Andover and began to wonder if they had moved on from there but evidently not.

The parents of Ellis Ellis turned out to be Thomas Ellis and Mary Bound who were themselves married 27 Dec 1703 at Winterborne Stickland. The Ellis family has been in Winterborne Stickland for quite a while prior to this date so I may, when I read the register, find a baptism for Thomas and his parents. The Bound family is also found in Winterborne Stickland and a quick search did not locate Mary's baptism or parents but I will leave that for the Ellis research day once I am back into the schedule once again.

The youngest daughter of Ellis Ellis and Sarah Wellspring was Sarah Ellis who married William Knight 7 Aug 1775 at Winterborne Stickland. I may now be able to settle which of the eight children attributed to William and Sarah are actually theirs. I am in somewhat of a debate on the results which were given to me for the Knight family that I descend from and what I am finding. But I shall save all of that register reading for my research day.

I rather believe that my Dorset line are primarily agricultural labourers and skilled tradesmen as far as I can tell thus far. They all lived in the Winterborne Valley within about ten miles of Blandford Forum. A large number of them suddenly moved to Lancashire in the mid 1800s for work but they seemed to find their roots in Dorset coming back in their old age.

I am very happy that the Dorset parish registers and wills are now scanned and available on Ancestry. I will make very good use of that material. When I visit Dorset I really would like to drive about and see everything. It is a very rural area and quite full of history as we discovered when we were there in 2008. I would have been sad to spend days in the Registry Office with all the goodness of Dorset beckoning to me. It is also the home of a number of my husband's ancestors; they having left in the 1630s to go to America. His roots are a whole lot further back but he rather enjoyed visiting St Mary's Beaminster Church where his 10x great grandparents John Nyle and Johane Paviot were married in 1605. We had a great visit to that Church.

Will of John Rew dated 4 Jan 1840 and probated 10 Mar 1848 - Source: The National Archives - PROB 11/2072 - Image Reference 51/38

2011-11-05T09:11:00.003-04:00

The will of John Rew was my first introduction to transcription of wills. I had been trying rather unsuccessfully to find parents for Elizabeth Rew who married John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton 9 Jan 1834. She was reputed to be a school teacher at Bishops Nympton was the only extra information that I had to go on. Plus from the census I knew she was around eight years older than John (33 years of age when she married John in 1834). They had five children John (b 1834), William Robert (b 1837 and my ancestor), Elizabeth Anne (b 1839), Richard (b 1842) and Louisa (b 1844). With the Pincombe family I could often use names to help me with the parent quest but this set of parents appeared to do their own thing although William Robert carried the name of John's father Robert (William is a very common Pincombe forename and the name of the brother next in age to John who had died as a 15 year old in 1825. Elizabeth was the name of John's mother (Anne is still somewhat of a mystery), Richard was a surprise and reaches back a long way in the Pincombe family except one of John's brothers was also Richard. Louisa is simply an unusual name in the Pincombe family.

A couple of clues perhaps I thought at the time were the two names Anne and Louisa. Neither proved to be useful in my quest. There were Rew families in the Bishops Nympton area but none had a daughter Elizabeth who fitted the time frame. The witnesses on the marriage registration proved to be the most help although it wasn't until I purchased the Bishops Nympton fiche that I knew those names. Thomas Rew and Robert Nurcombe were the witnesses. I found a Thomas Rew on the 1851 census at Sheepwash and his place of birth was amazingly Selworthy Somerset. At this point I should have put the Rew and Nurcombe families together and did try. I purchased the census for Somerset (before indexes were available!) and tried that method but a lot of people lived in Somerset in the area of Selworthy.

It was about that time that I had the notion of looking at wills for the Rew family and discovered the will of John Rew probated 10 Mar 1848 at Bishops Nympton, Devon and at that time I had family lore that told me the John Pincombe/Elizabeth Rew family emigrated to Canada in 1848. Family lore can be very good and it can really throw you off the traces. In this case, it was somewhat helpful as I had this family coming to Canada in 1848 at what appeared to be a time after a father might have just passed away. I bought the will and it was my first purchase of wills from the National Archives (UK) website. It was so easy and straightforward and there was my will right in front of me just 3 pounds 50 pence later! The will though was difficult to read I thought initially but a quick scan gave me the name Elizabeth Pincombe. My first Eureka moment I think! Time has passed by and I can not now remember if that was the first but it must have been close.

Now that will is fairly easy to read but a lot of transcription has passed under the bridge for me plus my palaeography course which was really the eye opener for me. Up until that time I would have to leave out words with the old style of letters and work on each one individually. Once I took the course I could skim wills quickly and get the gist much more comfortably than before.

I had the father of Elizabeth Rew and a clue in the will that told me his wife was buried at Selworthy and he wanted to be buried there as well (he had been living at Sheepwash Farm near Bishops Nympton). More digging into the records and I found the marriage of John Rew and Elizabeth Siderfin and once found I quickly discovered that they had a daughter Elizabeth (actually two daughters born on that day so twins with Charlotte being the other daughter).

I then discovered a book on the Siderfin Family of West Somerset and thanks be to God there was my ancestress Elizabeth Siderfin in the book named as Elizabeth Rew in a will. It was my first real introduction to wills and I was hooked. Wills have become very much one of my leading research tools but I do realize that I am lucky to find so many wills but actually wills were left by people from all walks of life. One of my older wills was written by a shepherd in Wiltshire in 1610 so do not forget wills just because your people may have been agricultural labourers. They may have left a will as William Peck did at Milston Wiltshire.

The will opened up an entire family line starting with Elizabeth Rew my 2x great grandmother. I met descendants of all of her siblings on line at Genes Reunited. Elizabeth was the only one in her family to emigrate with all the rest remaining in England to this day.

The Nurcombe family was certainly a hint as well. Ann Siderfin (sister to Elizabeth Siderfin) married John Nurcombe and the census of 1841 revealed an amazing group at her home. I shall relate that one later.

This will also made me rethink the Pincombe family. I knew that John had come to Canada and purchased a farm for 750 pounds and did have the thought that Elizabeth had inherited money that then let them come to Canada. This was not the case at all. John himself sold his property in Devon and used that cash to fund their trip and buy the new farm in Canada. That set me to looking at Pincombe wills with an eye to following the properties which proved to be most useful in sorting out the Pincombe families in my direct and collateral lines back.

The will of John Rew (my 3x great grandfather):

Recorded: 21 May 2005
Source: The National Archives - PROB 11/2072 - Image Reference 51/38
Place: Sheepwash, Bishops Nympton, Devon, England
Type of record: Will – John Rew, Yeoman, Bishopsnympton
Dated: 4 Jan 1840 (Probated 10 Mar 1848)
Read: Electronic File
Copy: bold, late 18th century writing

1 This is the last Will and Testament
2 of me, John Rew, of Bishops Nympton in the County of Devon, Yeoman. First I desire
3 that my body may be privately and decently interred without any funeral pomp and at as
4 little expense as possible in the Church yard belonging to the Parish of Selworthy in the coun
5 ty of Somerset and as near to the remains of my late wife as can be. I give and bequeath unto
6 each and everyone of my daughters Mary Watts Sarah May Charlotte Griffith and Eliza
7 beth Pincombe the sum of five pounds of lawful money of Great Britain and I direct
8 that the same Legacies shall be payable and paid by my executor hereinafter named at
9 the end of six months next after my decease Also I give devise and bequeath unto my son
10 Thomas Rew his heirs executors administrators and assignes All my real estate goods or
11 chattels Personal Estate and property whatsoever and wheresoever subject ne
12 vertheless to and charged with the payment of all my just debts the expences of my funeral
13 and of proving this my will and the said pecuniary Legacies To hold the same (subject
14 and charges as aforesaid) unto and to the use of my said son Thomas Rew his heirs exec
15 utors administrators and assignes for ever Thus I hereby nominate institute and appoint
16 my said son Thomas Rew sole Executor of this my last will and testament And Lastly
17 I hereby revoke and make void all other wills by me heretofore made In witness whereof
18 I the said John Rew (the Testator) have hereunto subscribed and set my hand and seal
19 this fourth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand and eight hundred and
20 forty – John Rew [signed] [his seal] – Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the said
21 John Rew (the Testator) as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us present
22 at the same time who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other
23 have hereunto subscribed our names as witness thereto – J G Pearse [signed]
24 J Galliford [signed]
25 Proved at London 10th March 1848 for the Judge by the oath of Thomas
26 Rew the son the sole Executor to whom Admon was granted having been first sworn
27 by Commission duly to administer

OGS Golden Anniversary Family History Collection - Administration for Henry Routledge - Carlisle Record Office - died 15 Dec 1764, probate 29 Dec 1764

2011-11-04T20:09:00.000-04:00

Today, I completed the present edition of my Canadian family story and circulated it to my rather large family, my siblings (5 living), my nieces and nephews (many) and will wait to hear back. I want to submit by mid December with the printed copy. It managed to get to be 55 pages long but that includes four solid pages of pictures at the end (there are 25 images in the document and I was very restrictive I could have put in 100 easily. I also put in an ancestor chart back to my 14x great grandparents (it is somewhat sparse at the end) which is 18 pages long and it is just a basic chart by generation. Mostly I wrote about my Canadian family but that is only a small part of my family even going back just one generation as I have just the three Canadian born ancestors - my mother, her father and his mother. All the rest were emigrants from England and the parents of all of these three were either Canadian born or emigrants from England. I ended up being surprised at having so much to talk about but I added in some transcriptions and images of documents that I found when we were in London (Ontario) and Archives of Ontario in Toronto.

Whilst putting together the document I transcribed the will of my 3x great grandfather Henry Routledge so will add that to my transcriptions. Actually it was an administration with inventory and he died at the age of 44 years quite suddenly I rather think since just a few days earlier he was quite involved with a business deal. He was a farmer though and as I have learned sudden death was not an unusual happening in the 1840s and probably even more so in the 1760s.

This was one of the Border Reiver families and one of my most difficult lines. I have my 3x great grandparents who both have the surname Routledge, then three of their parents are Routledge surname and back another generation six of the eight are Routledge and it continues thus back. They are of the so-called Oakshaw Routledge family and they tended to marry cousins to keep the property intact.

The will makes interesting reading. When I read it about six years ago it didn't really mean much to me but now I can see that Henry was rather well to do in terms of the animals and feed that he had plus the property which was entailed - Borderrigg was a sizeable farm. He also held Antonstown and Parkhead which are all closeby.

His son Thomas (and the only surviving child of Henry) was a civil engineer although he also had farms while he was still in Cumberland. After he brought his family of nine children to Canada he only farmed as far as I can tell.

Recorded: 3 Nov 2011
Source: Carlisle Record Office
Place: Bewcastle, Cumberland, England
Type of Record: Administration
Dated: 29 Dec 1764
Read: File Paper copy
Condition: photocopy, light, modern English writing
Type: three pages - Administration , Probate and Inventory

1 Carlisle Dec[embe]r 29th 1764
2 On which day appeared personally Margaret
3 Routledge Widow and alleged
4 that Henry Routledge late of Borderrigg
5 In the parish of Bewcastle and Diocese of
6 Carlisle Yeoman deceased died intestate without making
7 any Will (so far as she doth know or believe) That she is the
8 Widow and Relict of the said deceased
9 Therefore she prayed Letter of Admon of all and singular the
10 Goods Chattels and Credits of the said deceased to be committed
11 and granted to her the said Margaret Routledge
12 on her giving good and sufficient security in that behalf
13 The said Margaret Routledge was
14 sworn in due form of Law to
15 the truth of the premis[s]es and to faithfully
16 administer and to the truth of the
17 Inventory & so forth
18 Before me
19 Robert Wardale
20 Surrog[ate]
[Page 2]
21 Know all Men by these Presents that WE Margaret
22 Routledge of Borderigg in the County of Cumberland Widow
23 Thomas Tweddle of Ringing hills in the s[ai]d County Yeo[man]
24 and William Armstrong of Askerton in the s[ai]d County Yeo[man]
25 are held and firmly bound unto the Right Reverend Father in GOD, Charles by Di-
26 vine Permission lord Bishop of Carlisle in Seven hundred pounds of
27 good and lawful money of Great Britain to be paid unto the said Lord Bishop or to
28 his certain Attorn[ey]s his Executors, Administrators or Assigns, to which Payment well and
29 truly to be made. WE oblige ourselves and each of US by herself & himself
30 for the whole our and each and every of our Heirs, Executors and Administrators firmly
31 by these Presents. Sealed with our seals dated the twenty ninth Day of
32 December in the fifth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE
33 the Third by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain France and Ireland, King Defender
34 of the Faith and so forth, and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred
35 and Sixty four.
36 The Condition of this Obligation is such that if the above bounden
37 Margaret Routledge Widow and Relict of Henry
38 Routledge late of Borderigg in the Parish of
39 Bewcastle and s[ai]d County Yeoman dec[ea]s[ed] intestate and
40 Administratix of all and singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased
41 do make or cause to be made a true and perfect Inventory of all and singular the Goods,
42 Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased, which have or shall come to the Hands, Possession,
43 or Knowledge of her the said Margaret Routledge or into
44 the Hands and Possession of any Person or Persons for her and the same so made do exhi-
45 bit or cause to be exhibited into the Registry of the Consistory Court of Carlisle on or before
46 the last Day of March next ensuing, and the same Goods, Chat-
47 tels and Credits and all other the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased at the time
48 of his Death, which at any time after shall come to the Hands or Possession of the said
49 Margaret Routledge or into the Hands or Possession of any other
50 Person or Persons for her do well and truly administer according to Law and further do
51 make or cause to be made a true and just Account of h[er] said Administration at or before
52 the last Day of September 1765 and all the rest and residue of the said Goods, Chat-
53 tels and Credits which shall be found remaining upon the said Administrators, Accompt, the
54 same being first examined and allowed of by the judge or judges, for the time being of the said
55 Court shall deliver and pay unto such Person or Persons respectively as the said judge or judges
56 by his or their Decree or Sentence, pursuant to the true Intent and Meaning of a late Act of
57 Parliament made in the two and twentieth and three and twentieth Years of the Reign of our
58 late Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second, intitled, An Act for the better Feeling of Intes-
59 Tate's Estates, shall limit and appoint, and if it shall hereafter appear that any last Will and Test-
60 ament was made by the said Deceased, and the Executor or Executors therein named do ex-
61 hibit the same into the said Court, making request to have it allowed and approved according-
62 ly if the said Margaret Routledge, above bounden being, being thereunto required
63 to render and deliver the said Letters of Administration, Approbation of such Testament being
64 first had and made in the said Court, then this Obligation to be void or else to remain in full Faith
65 and Virtue
66 Margaret Routledg [signed and sealed]
67 Sealed and delivered being first duly
68 Stamp'd in the Presence of
69 John Nicolson
70 Thomas Tweddle [signed and sealed]
71 William Armstrong [signed and sealed]
[Page 3]
72 A true full and perfect Inventory of all and singular the
73 Goods Chattels and Credits of Henry Routledge
74 late of Borderigg in the parish of Bewcastle
75 and Diocese of Carlisle Yeoman deceased
76 Taken and appraized on the 19th day of December
77 1764 By Rob[er]t Lattimer and William Armstrong
78                                                                          £ s d
79 His Horse and Wearing Apparell                  10 0 0
80 More Horses                                                  21 0 0
81 Cows young Cattle and Bulls                      59 10 0
82 Highland Cows                                            49 0 0
83 Sheep                                                         100 0 0
84 In the Parlor Press Bed &c                            7 0 0
85 In the Kitchen Table Dresser Clock &c     10 10 0
86 In the Room up stairs                                   6 0 0
87 Oats Barley and Hay                                  20 0 0
77 a Hogg                                                         1 10 0
78 Implements of Husbandry                          2 10 1
79 Highland Bullocks                                     65 0 0
80                                                               £ 352 0 1
81 App[raise]d Rob[er]t Latimer affirmed [signed]
82 William Armstrong sworn [signed]

50th Anniversary of the Ontario Genealogical Society and Family Stories

2011-11-01T10:56:00.001-04:00

November 1st on my calendar reminded me that I have just two months to submit my family story to the anniversary collection of family histories at the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) in order to be part of their Golden Anniversary Collection.

http://www.ogs.on.ca/home/golden.php

I have published parts of my family stories in three different publications thus far and I will put these together along with corrections to the original Pincombe story published as a profile in the Delaware-Westminster History Book which has since been enhanced by further research, a few additions to the Routledge story published in Families (journal of the OGS) and the Blake family yDNA study published in Anglo Celtic Roots. Of course, my blog is chock full of family information!

My story in Canada though is a relatively short one but mirrored by many others with their long history of British ancestry. Our British ancestors moved to Canada like it was traveling from one county to another in their native country. There was no thought of leaving the British umbrella; Canada was just another part of their great country and they carried their enthusiasm and devotion to the mother country with them across the ocean. My grandfather lived and died an Englishman although he loved Canada too but his Canada was part of Britain.

When I complete the story I will also place it on my blog as a free standing page - my second one. My first free standing page is on the Guild of One-Name Studies. I originally joined this group early on in my research days. My initial look at the group was to find the Pincombe One-Name study which had been mentioned online by others but had actually terminated in the late 1990s. In trying to find it on the Guild pages I discovered that it had been archived at the Society of Genealogists in London, England and my cousin went there and retrieved all the information thus deposited and had it photographed and mailed off to me (eight bristol board sized charts) and together we worked out our mutual ancestry (which was incorrect on the charts) and she published her family line in England almost at the same time as the Pincombe profile appeared here in the Delaware-Westminster History Book. We exchanged publications and write back and forth a few times a year now.

Perhaps later today I will complete the transcription of the last Pincombe will in my cache - Elizabeth Pincombe. I haven't read the will yet and do not know anything about this Pincombe line unless they are in the earlier charts. Although I have found errors in the charts I continue to use them because they were prepared by the Guild member in England talking to people who lived in these particular places. Family lore also plays a strong part in genealogical research so I am ever mindful that flat pages can not tell me the story as well as the spoken word of descendants (even though they could be in error especially when they are talking about lines of the family that are only remotely related to them and the stories are already a couple of generations passed on to them). If I have to go back later and correct because of new information that I find then that just adds to the story rather than detracting from it is my thought in that regard. Why did they think they were more closely related or less so? Probably there were many reasons!

Amazingly, the yellow daisies which my husband gave me for Mother's Day are still blooming as their second blossoming. I popped the plant into the ground late in May and didn't really expect anything but buds formed towards the end of September and still it blooms an amazing host of yellow flowers on November 1st. Most of the other plants have now been nipped by frost but this yellow flower continues to bloom. Such bright yellow in the midst of brown and dull green colours that tell us winter is coming. A real treat for the eyes whenever one chances to glance out the windows facing the rear yard.

Back to the story of my ancestors for the OGS Golden Anniversary Collection, you need to print it but can also send it as an electronic version by 31st December 2011.

Will of Abraham Pincombe of Stoke Damerel (dated 26 Apr 1830 (probated 5 Dec 1831)) - Source: Inland Revenue Wills p. 882

2011-10-31T20:07:00.000-04:00

The will of Abraham Pincombe is the second last of my cache of Pincombe wills (other than those of my 2x great grandfather and great grandfather and the administration for my grandfather which I have not yet published). I need to verify the transcription of these three other wills and will in due course publish them as well but the wills I have thus far completed are all wills published in England.

Abraham Pincombe allows me to identify him fairly closely by the entries in his will. Looking at the chart prepared by the earlier Pincombe researchers he is Abraham Pincombe baptized 30 May 1764 at Stoke Damerel and a quick check of Find My Past locates the burial for Abraham Pincombe as 4 Dec 1831 at 66 years of age. The earlier chart lists the parents of this Abraham as Abraham Pincombe and Mary (no surname) who were married before the 12th April 1750. This Abraham was said to be the son of Silas Richard Pincombe and Hannah. An interesting website traces the Pincombe family at Northlew:

http://www.speare.org.uk/pincombe_family_of_northlew.htm

This website identifies the descendants of Abraham Pincombe bc 1727; buried 23 Jun 1799 at Northlew Devon and his wife Mary whom he married by 1749 and she was buried 10 Aug 1773 at Northlew. Their children weere: Abraham Pincombe baptized 12 Apr 1750 (buried 16 Oct 1753 in Northlew), Elizabeth Pincombe baptized 30 Sep 1752; buried 27 Dec 1753 in Northlew, Abraham Pincombe baptized 23 Sec 1754; buried 28 Feb 1762 at Northlew, Elizabeth Pincombe baptized 20 Feb 1759 at Northlew, Thomas Pincombe baptized 6 Apr 1761 at Northlew and died Sep quarter 1841 at Northlew, and Abraham Pincombe baptized 30 May 1764 and buried 5 Dec 1831 at Plymouth.

The website identifies the sons of Thomas as Abraham, John, Thomas, William and Stephen. The progeny of William Pincombe is then followed in this chart.

The will mentions only Abraham, Thomas, William and Stephen as sons of Thomas, brother of Abraham (the testator). He also mentions Elizabeth the wife of John Dennis but a search of the IGI, Find my Past and other databases does not reveal if this is his sister Elizabeth or a niece Elizabeth. The same is true of Agnes married to Thomas Curtis. I do not know if there is any relationship between Agnes and Abraham Pincombe although they are named executors.

The will of Abraham Pincombe (probate to follow when I am satisfied with the transcription :) ):

Recorded: 31 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 882
Place: Stoke Damerel, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 26 Apr 1830 (probated 5 Dec 1831)
Condition: photocopy, light, modern English writing
Type: four pages - Original will (2 pages) and Probate (3 pages)

1 This is the last Will and Testament of me Abraham Pincombe
2 of the parish of Stoke Damerel in the County of Devon Gentleman made
3 the twenty sixth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
4 hundred and thirty First I desire and my Will is that my body be decently interred
5 at the discretion of my Executors hereinafter named I give unto my nephew Joseph
6 Pincombe the sum of Nineteen Guineas of lawful money current in Great
7 Britain to be paid to him within three months after my decease I give unto Elisabeth
8 Dennis the wife of John Dennis of Northlew in the said County the sum of ten
9 pounds of like lawful money to be paid to her within three months after my
10 decease I give unto Abraham Pincombe William Pincombe Thomas Pincombe
11 and Stephen Pincombe sons of my brother Thomas Pincombe of Northlew aforesaid
12 the sum of two pounds each of like lawful money to be paid as aforesaid I give
u unto my said brother Thomas Pincombe an annuity or yearly sum of five
14 pounds to be paid to him in half yearly payments the first payment thereof
15 to be made within three months after my decease and the same to continue
16 to be paid him for and during the term of his natural life All the rest residue
17 and remainder of my goods and chattels money and securities for many household
18 and other estate and effects whatsoever which I may have or possess at the
19 time of my decease (subject nevertheless to the payment of my just debts
20 legacies funeral expences and all other incidental expenses for securing and
21 further execution of this my Will and also to the payment of the said
22 Annuity in manner aforesaid) I give and devise the same and every
23 part thereof unto Thomas Curtis of Devonport in the said County Shipwright
24 and Agnes his wife to and for their own use and benefit and to be disposed of as
25 he she or they shall jointly or severally in their lifetime consider most necessary
26 and needful so as the same be used for and towards the benefit support and
27 maintenance of themselves and each of their children as may for the time being
28 most need the same and shall dispose of the same or whatsoever shall remain
29 though at the time of the death of the survivor of them the said Thomas
30 Curtis and Agnes his wife by any instrument in writing under the hand
31 and seal of such survivor And I do hereby nominate constitute and
32 appoint the said Thomas Curtis and Agnes his wife joint Executor and Executrix
hereby revoking all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made do confirm this to be my last Will and Testament
33 of this my last Will and Testament ^ to which I have set my hand and seal the
34 day and year first above written
35 Abraham Pincombe [signed] [sealed]

Abraham (the testator) is the youngest son in this family. When I look for descendants of his brother Thomas they are all agricultural labourers. One wonders why Abraham is listed as a gentleman (of course this is self-reporting). Did this family undergo a drop in status in this generation? Who is Richard Silas Pincombe the supposed father of Abraham Pincombe married to Mary and the father of the testator Abraham? As always each new will brings up a whole lot of new questions.

The remaining will in this set of wills from Inland Revenue is Elizabeth Pincombe and I will work on her will next.

Transcription of old, middle and modern English records

2011-10-30T16:51:00.002-04:00

Does transcription of old, middle and modern English records provide me with extra material for my genealogical studies? The overwhelming answer to this question is absolutely yes. There is so much hidden in these ancient, middle and modern records that can tell us about our ancestors, the times that they lived in, what they ate, what they wore and how they felt about the world around them.

How easy is it to decipher and extract all of this information about our ancestors? Initially when I took up Palaeography (the study of the writing in records earlier than our time period), I was struck by how similar the writing was to my grandparent's writing. Mind you I was mostly looking at documents from 1825 on initially. I was writing up the Pincombe Profile for my cousin George DeKay. I had a number of wills for my Pincombe family that had been collected by another cousin (married to my 3rd cousin Pincombe) plus wills that I had found in the Talman Room at the University of Western Ontario for my great grandparents Pincombe/ grandfather Pincombe. The reading of these was fairly straightforward for me as they were all written in that marvelous script that was taught to children in English schools especially from the 1840s on.

The wills told me so much about all of these people. There was always the religious section at the beginning of the wills which told me of their faith which they had passed on down to my generation. Church before self was deeply ingrained in me from early childhood. And that Church was the Church of England for I do not have any ancestors who were not born and raised Church of England. As adults a few became Methodist but they were rare most lived and died Anglicans with just one lone line exception - my maternal grandmother was educated in Roman Catholic schools in Birmingham and I still have to determine if her parents were married in the Roman Catholic Church there - no marriage has been found thus far. But that was found much later and has little to do with transcription and more to do with family lore. Her father was Church of England but a family story of disownment travels with the family lore.

The census and the parish records that I diligently went through looking for my Pincombe family all had that most exciting script style and I found the perfection of the writing to be such a joy to read. As time passed and the Pincombe Profile could be accomplished I started to move to other lines of my family that had only been glanced at in order to show how they combined with the Pincombe family and add to the Profile that bit of old knowledge to inspire people to look for more and to provide the best story that I could. All the while I was doing that, I was taking courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. But it wasn't until the advanced courses that I studied Palaeography. My husband had taken the course about ten years earlier and had warned me that it was a difficult course and needed my full attention for the two months.

The time for the course coincided with a visit to our daughter (I usually stayed with her for 10 days to 2 weeks when I went) and I was able to devote the entire day to my studies. I did the exercises many times working on the middle English and Old English style of writing. For indeed some of the letters actually changed in how they were written going back in time. Writing them time after time gave me a fluency with both writing and reading the writings of this earlier time period so I took on my first really large project of an old will written in 1615 and probated in 1624 for Sir Francis Bayldon (a possibly ancestor of my husband). This ten page will took me days to transcribe and there were blanks! Because of the will I also searched out all the families he mentioned and put together the genealogy of this family. That is really what transcription is all about; gleaning from the early writings every scrap of information that you can about a family. The inventory that often accompanies the wills sometimes is done room by room giving you a glimpse into the contents of the individual rooms of their home. Often the wills would tell you exactly what they wore as they handed their garments on to their descendants, collateral relatives and others. The ten page document was my first real introduction to Palaeography. I worked on it for hours but still it had blanks. I would take some of the words that were around the blank and put them into Google and sometimes I was rewarded with a will that contained similar expressions that let me then look at the word with that thought in mind and discover that indeed it was that word.

Learning to transcribe is a product of my taking the course at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (but also the National Archives (UK) offers a course on line as well which is also very very good and we now have Pharos which offers online courses). Since my studies were with the National Institute and it is locally here in Toronto most of my comments tend to be about the National Institute. However, I have also done some of the course work on the National Archives website. But just doing the course work isn't enough. You need to transcribe and transcribe all different kinds of documents to become ":fluent" in the language of the times. The way that sentences are phrased and the meaning of those sentences is different from today. Luckily I grew up with my English grandparents so that I am comfortable with some of the English expressions (still in use today by the way) that were used.

Of course, once I had become very fluent in early writings, I started to buy wills at the National Archives and the results of my transcription of the Pincombe wills (and others) can be seen in my blog. Noting that I do mention that I have gone through my transcriptions of a couple of years ago and improved them greatly. I have spent the last two years doing a lot of transcription so that I am far more comfortable than even two years ago with many different kinds of hand writing. Each time through those older transcriptions I have found a few changes here and there; I have been able to transcribe words that were just partial before. It is a skill that grows with the frequency with which you do the transcriptions. Between 2005 and 2010 I purchased more than 100 wills on the National Archives website for my various family lines.

Using these wills I was able to piece together much of my family tree as it now appears. Each will produced more questions than it did answers. That is perhaps the most amazing treat to transcription. It often leads you down paths you wouldn't have followed without them.

Parish Registers, as well, can often give you information that is totally hidden in the IGI records which do not add the extras that some priests added to their records. A good example is my Vicary line at Bishops Nympton. William Pincombe married Mary Vicary 17 Jun 1685 at Bishops Nympton. Their son, my ancestor, was baptized 12 Jul 1692 at Bishops Nympton. Sorting through these two families at Bishops Nympton proved to be a challenge. The earlier records produced by the first two researchers on the Pincombe one name study had linked my family to a line at Bishops Nympton but it deadended with that family.

Over a four year period I transcribed the Parish Registers of Bishops Nympton word for word. I was new to the idea of transcription and of transcribing parish registers. My thought to have a word for word transcription in a word file seemed to fit what I wanted to learn about Bishops Nympton and 985 pages later I had the records from the beginning in the mid 1500s all the way up to the 1980s. I can search it as a word file but can not sort it like I could an excel file. Since then all of my parish transcriptions are excel files. But back to Bishops Nympton. The priests at Bishops Nympton by and large provided interesting details on the people in the records. For instance the marriage lines for William Pincombe and Mary Vicary told me that Mary was of the parish of Rose Ash with father Christopher. That made a great difference in my family tree and allowed me to go back several generations at Rose Ash with my Vicary family. I could not have done that without the original parish registers. I also could not have put the Pincombe family together without the Parish Registers. By working from the past to the present I was able to put together the various Pincombe family lines and separate out my own specific line. Transcription is a wonderful tool which is absolutely essential to research in the past.

Be prepared to spend time learning the earlier style of writing and the rewards are great. John Reid asked if I would write a little about transcription. I hope that I have fulfilled his thoughts as to just what I might write. John did ask me about my numbering of my wills. I do this for myself. I do not number the original will (unless it is very tiny and that is the only way to really sort out the lines. Usually the will is fairly easily to read. The numbering I use as reference marks when I quote from the will in later blogs; in my notes in my family genealogy software (I use Legacy) and because I am that sort of methodical person. I have been known to number the lines of letters that I write much to the annoyance of some people receiving them. But then as a child once I learned to count; I simply counted everything beginning with dishes. I started to wash dishes when I was three years old. The numbering was particularly excruciating for those who dried I gather! My grandfather actually told me that when I am doing tasks I should keep track of them so that I know how much I have completed. It was a good idea and I have retained it throughout my life.

Will of William Pincombe of Beaford (dated 6 Apr 1811 (probated 2 Jan 1812)) - Source: Inland Revenue Wills p 886

2011-10-28T09:08:00.001-04:00

There are three Pincombe wills left in my folder to transcribe and this is one of them. William Pincombe of Beaford married to Sarah (surname unknown thus far) with sons Richard, William and John and daughters Mary and Sarah. Mary is married to Thomas How at the time of the writing of the will. William and John are under 21 years of age. Richard (eldest son) does not appear to be on the 1841 census, William is, I think, a journeyman Carpenter in Torrington on the 1851 census.

The Richard Pincombe family found in Delaware Township of Middlesex County in Canada on the 1851 census included Richard Pincombe (mason, 49 years), his wife Margaret Pincombe (47 years) and children: John (mason, 23 years), Rebeca (21 years), James (19 years), Robert (18 years), William (16 years), Margaret (14 years), Elisabeth (10 years) and Samuel (9 years). The 1861 census has Richard as being born in 1804. The family is Bible Christian in religious persuasion and now includes only Richard Pincombe (Mason, 57 years), Margaret Pincombe (56 years) and Samuel (17 years). The difference between the two is accounted for by the census actually being taken in 1852. Close to this family is Robert Pincombe (27 years) and his wife Elizabeth (18 years).

It would appear unlikely that the Richard Pincombe family in Delaware Township of Middlesex County is descended from this William Pincombe of Beaford. Richard isn't old enough since he is only born in 1804 and the will of William Pincombe implies that Richard is an adult who no longer needs to receive an education. He doesn't say whether or not he is 21 though so could be younger that is true but not young enough for a fit with Richard in Delaware.

There is another Richard (bc 1806 Devon) and Margaret (bc 1806 Devon) Pincombe family who lived initially in Westminster Township before moving on to Usborne Township in Huron County. This family is related to me but not thus far through the Pincombe line. One of the sons of Richard and Margaret was Richard who would have been 23 years of age on the 1851 census and he married Elizabeth Rowcliffe who was a great niece to my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth Rowcliffe married to Robert Pincombe in Bishops Nympton. This family includes Maria (bc 1826 Devon), Richard (bc 1828 Devon), John (bc 1829 Devon), Rebecca (bc 1831 Devon), James (bc 1833 Devon), Robert (bc 1834 Devon), William (bc 1836 Devon), and Margaret (bc 1838 Devon). This family is said to be of Beaford but again can not be descended from William Pincombe leaving his will in 1811 but may be related to him since they are both from the Beaford area. At some point, I need to acquire the Beaford Parish Registers to learn more about the Pincombe family there.

There is also a John Pincombe family living in Essex County who were first in Middlesex County in the 1830s. I need to learn more about this family. I have corresponded in the past with descendants of John but have lost touch with them. This family too was from Devon.

I am surprised that I have looked at this set of families now for six years on and off but I am no closer to a solution. Likely because I need to look at the Parish Registers to see the Pincombe lines that live there through the centuries.

I have a lot of work to do for the Pincombe-Pinkham one name study in Ontario. I have not yet extracted their information from the census and BMD records. I will probably do that at the same time as I extract the Blake entries. One name studies are all encompassing of one's time and I can feel my interest in my other family lines diminishing. It takes a really exciting lead now to bring me back to researching my other lines. I am glad of that as I was becoming too easily distracted looking at the other lines. I do want to concentrate on my one name studies for the most part. When my schedule of names for our son in law's ancestry and my own begins again in mid-November I am ready now to just put in the scheduled time to look at these families and extract their data. The French Canadian research though is a treat and I quite enjoy the ability to go back readily through time in the parish records.

The will of Willian Pincombe of Beaford is below:

Recorded: 27 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 886
Place: Beaford, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 6Apr 1811 (probated 2 Jan 1812)
Condition: photocopy, light, modern English writing
Type: four pages - Original will (2 pages) and Probate (1 pages)
1 This is the last Will and Testament of me William Pincombe
2 of Beaford in the County of Devon Yeoman First I Give and Bequeath unto Sarah my wife
3 during the Term of her Natural Life one third Part of the Issues and Profits arising from all
4 that my Messuage and Tenement called or known by the Name of late Alfords situate in the
5 Parish of Saint Giles in the said County I also Give and Bequeath unto my said wife during
6 the Term of her natural Life All that my Leasehold Messuage and Tenement to consist
7 of a House Garden and Orchard commonly known by the Name of the Lower House being that of a Tenement called Wayhouse situate
8 in the parish of Beaford aforesaid Also I Give and Bequeath unto my Daughter Mary
9 one other third Part of the Issues and Profits arising from the above mentioned Tenements
10 during my Right and Interest therein now depending on the Lives of Mary How the
11 wife of Thomas How of Alverdiscott in the said County Yeoman and Sarah my wife And
12 on the Death of my said wife my Will and Desire is and I hereby give and Bequeath unto my
13 said Daughter Mary two third Parts being the Remainder of the Issues and Profits arising
14 from the above named Tenements during the Life of the said Mary How I also Give and
15 Bequeath unto my said Daughter Mary after the Death of her Mother the said Messuage
16 and Tenement called the Lower House during her natural Life if my Interest so long
17 continue therein And after her Decease I Give and Bequeath the same Lower House
18 with the appurtenances unto my Daughter Sarah during all my Right and Interest thereon
19 and she to have receive and enjoy all the Rights Privileges Profits and Incomes from thenceforth
20 as her Sister Mary had before her And in case of Nonpayment by my Executors
21 hereafter named of any or either of the above mentioned Issues and Profits to my said wife
22 and Daughters or either of them on any part thereof That then my said Wife and Daughters
23 or either of them shall and may enter and distrain on the said Tenements and sell the
24 same or any part of the Goods and Chattels therein for so much as shall be due to her
25 or them and the serplus to pay back again to my Executors I Give and Bequeath unto
26 my Daughter Mary One Pound per Annum and unto my Daughter Sarah five Pounds per Annum to be paid out of the Profits arising from
27 Weyhouse with a like Power of Distress and Sale in case of Nonpayment as above specified
28 All the Rest Residue and Remainder of my Goods and Chattels Rights and Credits
29 I give to the Use only of my Sons Richard William and John they paying and discharging
30 all my Debts Legacies and Funeral Expences And I hereby nominate constitute and appoint
31 my said Sons Richard William and John Executors of this my Last Will and Testament
32 hereby revoking and making void all wills by me at any time heretofore made and declare
33 this only to be my last Will and Testament And I hereby appoint John Cox of Roborough
34 Yeoman and Thomas How of Alverdiscott Yeoman Trustees to superintend the education of
35 my younger Sons William and John In Witness whereof I the said William Pincombe
36 the Testator have unto this my last Will and Testament set my hand and seal this sixth
37 Day of April one thousand eight hundred and eleven
38 W[illia]m Pincombe [signed] [sealed]
39 Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the said
40 William Pincombe the Testator as and for his last Will
41 and Testament (the words "and Bequeath" other "Theirs"
42 Being first interlined) in the Presence of us who at his Request in his
43 presence and in the Presence of each other have subscribed our
44 Names as Witnesses thereto
45 Rob[er]t Wilson Jun[ior]
46 Mary Banten [signed]
[Codicil]
47 Whereas I William Pincombe of Beaford in the County of Devon Yeoman did on
48 about the sixth day of April one thousand eight hundred and eleven publish my Last Will
49 and Testament in writing Now my will and Desire is and I hereby request and direct that
50 in case my wife should think proper to reside in Way House that she shall have an
51 particle of a sort of the Household Furniture therein at the time of my Decease for her
52 own use without any Molestation whatsoever And I hereby direct that this may be
53 taken as a Codicil to my said Will and to be annexed thereto and a part thereof be
54 Witness whereof I the said William Pincombe have to this my said Codicil to be annexed
55 unto my said last Will and Testament and to be taken as part thereof my hand and
56 Seal this third day of June one thousand eight hundred and eleven
57 W[illia]m Pincombe [signed] [sealed]
58 Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the said William Pincombe the Testator
59 as and for a Codicil to his last Will and Testament in our Presence; who in his Presence
60 and in the presence of each other have subscribed our Names and Witnesses thereto
61 Rob[er]t Wilson Jun[ior] [signed]
62 Mary Banten [signed]
63 W[illia]m Pincombe wishes to have it mentioned that should Mrs. Pever come to want
64 (which at present there is no probability of) that not only the Laws of Nature but the
65 Laws of England will in such an Event oblige her Son Richard to maintain her.
66 This is inserted in order to give Mrs. Pincombe satisfaction
67 by R Wilson [signed]
68 This and the foregoing sheet of Paper contain a true Copy of the last Will
69 and Testament of the said William Pincombe deceased having been compared thus
70 this 5th day of Apr 1812
71 James Pearse Jun[io]r N[otar]y Public
[Probate}
72 No.
73 For the Stamp Office
74 Copy of the Will of
75 William Pincombe
76 late of Beaford Devon Yeoman
77 Executors
78 Richard Pincombe William Pincombe
79 and John Pincombe of Beaford
80 foresaid sons of the deceased
81 No. 2 REG NR B 12
82 FOL 209 H T
83 Proved in the Archdeaconial Court
84 of Barnstaple, Devon 2 Jan[ua]ry 1812
85 Effects under 300£
86 James Pearse Jun[io]r Reg[iste]r
87 Barnstaple Devon
88 12 Folios at 6 ... 6
[P. 886 in margin]

Will of William Pincombe of Bishops Nympton (dated 24 Nov 1838 (probated 17 Aug 1839)) - source: Inland Revenue Wills p 887

2011-10-27T16:25:00.004-04:00

This will is the last of the three brother's wills and thus far I have not been able to locate the fourth brother's will - Thomas who died in 1852 just one year after his son Thomas. The records are somewhat ambiguous and it may be that one of the wills lost in the bombing of Exeter during WWII is that of the father Thomas since he would not have been referred to as Thomas Pincombe Senior his son already being deceased. The will of Thomas Pincombe Junior was destroyed in the bombing. It would have been interesting to have that will as well to understand the movement of property in this family where leases moved sideways from brother to brother initially although in William's will he is now passing the land onto his own children and grand children.

William does not mention any of his nieces and nephews and this is probably understandable as he has his own family although his is a sad story. A total of seven children were born to William and Mary Pincombe (Mary's surname is still unknown):

John baptized 26 Dec 1798 at Bishops Nympton and buried 22 Jul 1830 at Bishops Nympton. He did not marry;

Mary baptized 31 Mar 1800 at Bishops Nympton and married to William Matthews 1 Jul 1818 at Bishops Nympton (three children and two mentioned in the will - John (never married/no issue) and William Pincombe Matthews (married Elizabeth Ellen Wreford Sep quarter 1856 at Crediton and they had three children Elizabeth Lydia M Matthews who married Doug Banfield Dec quarter 1883 and they had four children and I did not find marriages for any of them - Douglas, Ralph, Amelia Jane and Ida Matthews; William Matthews and Samuel John Matthews do not appear to have married); daughter Mary Ann Matthews who married Edward Baker rather late in life June quarter 1873 at Stoke Damerel

William baptized 1 Jan 1802 at Bishops Nympton and married to Maria Torrington 15 May 1822 at Bishops Nympton (nine children and one mentioned in the will: Maria Ann Torrington Pincombe married William Bond (seven children), Sarah Jane Torrington Pincombe married John Passmore, William Torrington Pincombe married Elizabeth Callard Jun quarter 1852 at Islington (eight children most born in Australia), John Pincombe b 7 Aug 1831;d 21 Aug 1831 Bishops Nympton, John Pincombe baptized 12 Aug 1832 and married Mary Ridd Dec quarter 1859 at Barnstaple (six children; all but the eldest born in Australia), Mary Elizabeth Pincombe baptized 23 Sep 1835 at Bishops Nympton and married to Edward Ellis Sep quarter 1861 at Crediton (10 children - this family remained in England), Harriet Torrington Pincombe baptized 18 Aug 1837 Bishops Nympton and died in Australia in 1929, Henry William Torrington Pincombe married Jane Hawke in Australia circa 1866 (nine children), and Thomas Torrington Caren Pincombe married Maria Sophia Thomas circa 1880 in Australia (seven children). The only sample I have of yDNA for my family line is from a descendant of this line. He placed his results on ysearch and I contacted him. He never responded but a few years later a friend of his wrote to ask for information. I supplied information but never did hear back. Perhaps one day ..... perhaps he died. It would be good to bring the family back together on email.

Johanna baptized 17 Oct 1803 and buried 14 Feb 1805 Bishops Nympton

Emmanuel baptized 1 Jan 1805 and buried 13 Apr 1806 Bishops Nympton

Anna Pincombe baptized 14 Oct 1806 Bishops Nympton (died Dec quarter 1841 Bishops Nympton) married John Hole 28 Feb 1828 at Bishops Nympton. They had four children - Mary b 1830; d 1838 Bishops Nympton; John b 1833 Bishops Nympton and married Elizabeth Jones June quarter 1865 at Tiverton (I have not been able to determine if there were any descendants of this couple); Maria baptized 29 May 1836 at Bishops Nympton and did not marry/no issue, and Joanna b 1838 Bishops Nympton and did not marry/no issue.

Catherine baptized circa 1813 and likely died by 1838 since William does not mention her in his will.

I will next put together the land that these brothers occupied and I know that Thomas was at Twitchen and compare that with the list of properties held by the Pincombe family in 1605 which I obtained from Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. A project for another day.

The will of William Pincombe (over 200 lines and packed with family information):

Recorded: 27 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 887
Place: Bishops Nympton, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 24 Nov 1838 (probated 17 Aug 1839)
Condition: photocopy, light, modern English writing
Type: eight pages - Original will (6 pages) and Probate (2 pages)

1 This is the last Will and Testament of me William
2 Pincombe of Bishopsnympton in the County of Devon Yeoman
3 First I give devise and bequeath All that my Messuage Tenement
4 and Farm called West Webbery situated in the parish of Bishopsnympton
5 aforesaid with the Appurtenances thereunto belonging unto my Son William
6 Pincombe his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns for and during
7 all such Estate and Interest as I shall have therein at the time of
8 my decease Also I give and deivse unto my Daughter Mary Matthews
9 for and during the term of her natural life one Annuity or clear
10 yearly rent charge or Sum of Twenty five pounds of lawful money
11 of Great Britain And unto my Daughter Anna Hole for and during
12 the term of her natural life one Annuity or clear yearly rent charge
13 or Sum of Twenty five pounds of lawful money as aforesaid to be
14 respectively issuing and payable out of All that my Messuage Tenement and
15 Farm called Withwell otherwise Withywine otherwise Shirelade situated
16 in the parish of Morebath in the said County of Devon and out of the
17 appurtenances thereunto belonging which I do hereby subject and charge
18 to and with the payment of the said two several Annuities or yearly
19 rent charges accordingly And I do hereby direct that the said
20 several Annuities shall be respectively payable and paid free and clear
21 of and from all Rates Taxes and deductions whatsoever (except the Annuity
22 or Legacy Stamp Duty) by quarterly payments on Midsummer day Michaelmas
23 day Christmas day and Lady day in every year and by even and equal
24 portions and that the first quarterly payment thereof respectively shall be
25 made on such of the said days as shall first and next happen after
26 my decease And I do hereby declare my Will to be that the said
27 several Annuities hereintofore respectively given to my said Daughters
28 Mary Matthews and Anna Hole shall be paid to them respectively or to
29 such person or persons as they respectively shall by writing under their
30 respective hands appoint to receive the same to the end that the same
31 Annuities may be for their respective separate use and not subject or
32 liable to the controul debts or engagements of the respective Husbands with
33 whom they may happen to be intermaried at the time of my decease or at
34 any time afterwards And that the respective receipts of the said Mary Matthews
35 and Anna Hole or of the person or persons whom they shall respectively
36 appoint to receive the same for their said respective Annuities shall be the
[Page 2]
37 ...... [text missing]
38 Also I give devise and bequeath unto my brother Thomas Pincombe
39 of Twitchen in the said County Yeoman his Heirs and Assignes All
40 that my said Messuage Tenement and Farm called Withwell otherwise
41 Withywine otherwise Shirelade situated in the parish of Morebath
42 aforesaid with the appurtenances (subject nevertheless
43 (1) William Pincombe [signed]
44 to and charged with the said several Annuities or yearly rent
45 charges and the powers and remedies hereby given for securing and
46 enforcing the payment of the same). To hold the same (subject
47 and charges as aforesaid) unto the said Thomas Pincombe his Heirs
48 and Assigns To the uses following that is to say. To the use of
49 my said Son William Pincombe and his assigns for and during the
50 term of his natural life without impeachment of or for any manner of
51 waste And from and immediately after the decease of my said Son William
52 Pincombe To the use of my Grandson William Torrington Pincombe (Son
53 of my said Son William Pincombe) his Heirs and Assigns forever
54 Also I give and bequeath unto my Grandson John Matthews for
55 and during the term of ten years (to commence and be completed
56 from the time of my death) if he shall so long live. One Annuity
57 or clear yearly rent charge of Ten pounds of lawful money of Great
58 Britain to be issuing and payable out of all that my Messuage Tenement
59 and Farm called East Webbery situated in the parish of Bishopsnymptom
60 aforesaid and out of the Appurtenances thereunto belonging which I do hereby
61 subject and charge to and with the payment of the same Annuity
62 accordingly And I do hereby direct that the said Annuity shall be
63 payable and paid free and clear of and from all Rates Taxes and Deductions
64 whatsoever (except the Annuity or Legacy Stamp Duty) by quarterly
65 payments on Midsummer day Michaelmas day Christmas day and
66 Lady day in every year and by even and equal portions and that the first
67 quarterly payment thereof shall be made on such of the said days as
68 shall first and next happen after my decease Also I give and bequeath unto
69 my Son William Pincombe his Heirs Executors Administrators and
70 Assigns All that the said Messuage Tenement and Farm called East
71 Webbery situated in the parish of Bishopsnympton aforesaid with the
72 appurtenances thereunto belonging (Subject nevertheless to and charged with
[Page 3]
73 the payment of the said Annuity of Ten pounds and the remedies and
74 powers hereby given for securing and enforcing the payment thereof as
75 aforesaid To hold the same (subject and charged as aforesaid) unto
76 and to the use of my said Son William Pincombe his Heirs Executors
77 Administrators and Assigns for and during all such Estate and Interest
78 as I shall have therein at the time of my decease Also I give devise
79 and bequeath unto my Grandson John Matthews one Annuity or clear
80 yearly rent charge or sum of Five pounds of lawful money as aforesaid
81 for and during all the rest residue and remainder which at the time
82 of my decease shall be to come and unexpired of my present and future
83 Estate Term and Interest of and in All that Messuage Tenement and
84 Farm called West Wood situated in the parish of Bishopsnympton
85 aforesaid with the appurtenances And I hereby direct that the said last
86 mentioned Annuity or yearly rent charge of Five pounds
87 (2) William Pincombe [signed]
88 shall be paid free and clear of and from all Rates Taxes and deductions
89 whatsoever (except the Annuity or Legacy Stamp Duty) And that the
90 same shall be issuing and payable out of All that the said Messuage
91 Tenement and Farm called West Wood with the appurtenances by equal
92 quarterly payments on Midsummer day Michaelmas day Christmas day
93 and Lady day in every year and by even and equal portions and that the
94 first quarterly payment thereof shall be made on such of the said
95 days as shall first and next happen after my decease Also I
96 give devise and bequeath unto my Grandson William Matthews
97 his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns All that the said
98 Messuage Tenement and Farm called West Wood situated in the parish
99 of Bishopsnympton aforesaid with the Appurtenances thereunto belonging
100 (subject nevertheless to and charged with the payment of the said Annuity
101 of Five pounds charged thereon and the powers and remedies hereby given
102 for securing and enforcing the payment thereof as aforesaid To hold
103 the said (subject and charged as aforesaid) unto and to the use of
104 my said Grandson William Matthews his Heirs Executors Administrators
105 and Assigns for and during all such present and future Estate Term
106 and Interest as I shall have therein at the time of my decease
107 Provided always and I hereby declare my Will to be that if the
108 said several Annuities or yearly rent charges hereinbefore devised or
[Page 4]
109 either of them shall be behind of unpaid by the space of any day
110 next over or after any or either of the days or times whereon the same
111 are respectively made payable and ought to be paid as aforesaid Then
112 and in such case and as often as it shall so happen I do hereby
113 empower order and direct the person or persons who by virtue of this
114 my will shall be legally or equitably entitled to the Annuities or
115 Annuity so in arrear and unpaid to enter into and upon the said
116 Messuages Tenements Farms and Premises hereby charged with the
117 payment thereof respectively and to obtain for the said Annuities
118 and Annuity or such of them as shall be so in arrear and
119 the distress and distresses their and there found to manage sell and
120 dispose of for the recovery and satisfaction of the said annuities
121 and Annuity and all arrears thereof and all costs attending the
122 Distress and Sale of the Goods distrained in such manner as the
123 law directs in cases of rent being in arrear and unpaid Also I
124 give and bequeath unto my Son in law John Hole his Executors
125 Administrators and Assigns the Sum of Four hundred pounds of
126 Lawful money of Great Britain To hold the same unto the said John
127 Hole his Executors Administrators and Assigns Upon Trust nevertheless
128 for the Child if only one and if more than one then for all the
129 Children of my Daughter Anna Hole living at the time of my death
130 and if more than one in equal shares and proportioned as Tenants
131 in common and not as joint Tenants and to be vested Interests in them
132 respectively on their severally attaining the age of twenty one years
133 (3) William Pincombe [signed]
134 and to be paid to them respectively as soon as conveniently can be after such
135 terms of vesting respectively shall have happened With equal benefit of
136 survivorship in the nature of Cross remainders to extend as well to
137 derivative as original shares in case any one or more of the same
138 Children shall happen to depart this life without attaining a bested
139 Interest or vested Interests in his her or their share or respective Shares
140 And I direct that the said Sum of Four hundred pounds
141 shall be paid by my Executor hereinafter named at the end of
142 Twelve months next after my decease (Also I give and bequeath unto
My Grand daughter Mary Ann Matthews the Sum of One hundred pounds
143 [Page 5]
144 of lawful money as aforesaid if and when she shall attain her full age
145 of Twenty one years (and unto my Grandson John Matthews the Sum
146 of Two hundred pounds of like lawful money if and when he shall
147 attain his full age of Twenty one years And I direct that the same
148 two Legacies or Sums shall be paid by my Executor hereinafter mentioned
149 if and when the same shall respectively become due and payable but not
150 before or otherwise and that the same two Legacies or Sums shall bear
151 or carry Interest at and after the rate of Four pounds per centum per
152 annum from the time of my death until the same respectively shall
153 become due and be payable (Also I give devise and bequeath unto my said
154 Son William Pincombe his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns
155 All my Freehold Leasehold and Copyhold Messuages Lands Tenements
156 Hereditaments and Premises whatsoever and wheresoever and which are not
157 hereinbefore given devised bequeathed or disposed of And also all my Real
158 Estate Goods chattles and personal Estate which are not hereinbefore given
159 devised bequeathed or disposed of (Subject nevertheless to and charged with
160 the payment of all my just Debts the expences of my funeral and of proving
161 this my Will and the said pecuniary Legacies or such of them as shall
162 become due and payable To hold the same (subject and charged as aforesaid)
163 unto and to the use of my said Son William Pincombe his Heirs Executors
164 Administrators and Assigns forever. Also I give and devise all Estates
165 vested in me as a Mortgagee or Trustee unto and to the use of my said Son
166 William Pincombe his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns upon
167 such Trusts and subject to such Equities as shall be subsisting therein
168 respectively. And I do hereby nominate constitute and appoint my said
169 Son William Pincombe sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament
170 and lastly I do hereby revoke and make void all former Wills by me at any
171 time or times heretofore made.
172 In Witness whereof I the said William Pincombe the Testator has
173 to this my last Will and Testament subscribed and set my hand and Seal this
174 (4) William Pincombe [signed]
175 twenty fourth day of November in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
176 hundred and thirty eight
177 William Pincombe [signed] (Seal)
Signed Sealed Published and declared by the above named William
[Page 6]
178 Pincombe the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the
179 presence of us (present at the same time) who at his request in his
180 presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed
181 our names as Witnesses hereto The words "County" in the first Sheet
182 and "the payment of" in the fourth Sheet having been first interlined
183 J G Pearse [signed]
184 James Pearse [signed]
185 J Galliford [signed]
[Probate]
186 For the Stamp Office
187 Copy of the Will
188 of William Pincombe late
189 of Bishops Nympton Devon
190 Yeoman dece[ase]d
191 Executor
192 William Pincombe of Bishops
193 nympton Devon Yeoman
194 Proved (by Commision) in
195 the Principal Registry of the
196 Lord Bishop of Exeter the
197 17th August 1839
198 Testator died 21 May 1839
199 Effects sworn under £1000
200 Ralph Barnes
201 Dep[uty] Registrar
202 DEC 7
203 No. 4 REG NR 1839
204 EW FOR 1828
205 Folio at 6 .. 13
[P 887 in margin]
206 FOR EXECUTORS
207 Appeared personally William Pincombe of
208 the Parish of Bishops Nympton in the County of
209 Devon Yeoman the Sole
210 Executor named in the last Will and Testament of William
211 Pincombe late of the said Parish of Bishops
212 nympton Yeoman his late Father deceased
213 who died on the twenty first Day of May 1839
214 and made Oath, that he hath made diligent search and due enquiry
215 after, and in respect of the Personal Estate and Effects of the said Deceased, in
216 order to ascertain the full Amount and Value thereof; and that to the best of
217 his Knowledge, Information, and Belief, the whole of the Goods, Chattels,
218 and Credits, of which the said Deceased died possessed within the
219 Diocese of Exeter (exclusive of what the Deceased may have
220 been possessed of or intitled to as a Trustee for any other Person, or Persons.
221 and not beneficially. (A) but including the Leasehold Estates for Years of the
222 Deceased, whether absolute or determinable on Lives, and without deducting
223 any Thing on Account of the Debts due and owing from the Deceased) are under
224 the Value of one thousand pounds
225 to the best of this Deponents Knowledge, Information, and Belief, (B) and
226 this Deponent lastly made Oath, that the said Deceased was not possess of
227 or intitled to any Leasehold Estate or Estates for Years of the Deceased, whether
228 absolute or determinable on a Life or Lives, to the best of this Deponents
229 Knowledge, Information, and Belief.
230 William Pincombe [signed]
231 Sworn on the seventeenth
232 Day of August 1839
233 before me
234 C Melhuish
235 Commissioner

It would be great to bring the family back together and I welcome emails from family members if they wish more information or would like to add to mine; I appreciate all information received for our Pincombe one name study for it isn't just mine; it belongs to all of us descendants of the Pincombe family - my mother was very fond of her birth surname and always curious about her family. I do my studies in memory of my parents Blake for my father and Pincombe for my mother.

What is your number? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

2011-10-27T07:26:00.001-04:00

A rather interesting website first thing in the morning - where do you fit into 7 billion? When I was born I was the 2,418,651,706th person alive on earth and I am the 75,251,231,975th person to have lived since history began. Fascinating stuff for genealogy.

Wow the world has grown since I was born - there are more than twice as many people alive today as were alive when I was born - mind you I was born just a month after the Second World War officially ended in the world. But still, imagine how fast the population is growing. Will people move to the Moon, to Mars in my lifetime?

Well with that profound knowledge first thing in the morning I shall now return to my Blake one name study. I am slowly putting together the marriages from 1837 to the mid 1950s. That way I am ready for any marriage challenges that the Guild of one name studies does for its members. There is still an enormous amount to do for the Blake study and I keep the Pincombe study moving along as well. I find that I am now working somewhat in a bubble doing my own thing. Occasionally interacting with other Blake and Pincombe descendants on the email but mostly just plugging away at collecting data and organizing it.

Half of the vegetable garden is now turned over and I will do the other half today. I hope to beat any deep freeze! Then there are all the plants to be trimmed before winter. Grass somehow sounds very inviting these days but the colours of the garden spring into summer into fall have been lovely. My husband gave me a potted yellow daisy plant for mother's day in May so I planted it in the garden after it stopped blooming and amazingly it bloomed about a week ago and it is still blooming. This marvelous yellow splash of colour in an otherwise slowly browning garden. The same with an Easter Lily that we had. Planted that in the garden as well and it is just waiting to burst into flower. Potted it and put it in the garage at night so that it wouldn't freeze. It should bloom in the next week or so. The snapdragons are also amazing. They are a mass of colour at the very back of the house where they are protected. The yellow daisy is way out in the yard looking quite spectacular still. Although last night's frost may have finished that story of blooming!

William Pincombe (another brother of Robert my 3x great grandfather)'s will is slated to be transcribed today. An interesting family the Pincombe and I wonder if they are a singleton. I have a new member of my Pincombe yDNA study group. I would like to try to persuade one of my Pincombe cousins to test and perhaps I will try to email a couple of them to see if they might consider doing that. Too bad I didn't think of it before my uncle passed away actually. But my interest in genealogy was still in its infant thought process and DNA was still not in my field of vision at the time.

Will of John Pincombe of Molland dated 3 Apr 1837 (probated 17 Apr 1840) (Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 884)

2011-10-26T14:22:00.006-04:00

The will of John Pincombe of Molland (deceased 19 June 1838) is a rather interesting one. This John was a brother to my 3x great grandfather Robert.

The reason for my Pincombe line coming to Canada passed down through the family was Robert Pincombe (eldest brother to my John Pincombe (2x great grandfather)) who had emigrated to the United States prior to 1835 came back with stories of the rich land to be had for a reasonable price already under cultivation with buildings. Robert had returned to marry Mary Shapland sometime in 1835 and they went back to the United States (Gennessee New York to be precise) almost immediately. Leaving England and coming to Canada was like little more than moving from county to county, except you had to cross an ocean to do it, if you happened to be English/Scot/Irish.

In his will written 3 April 1837, the above mentioned Robert has already returned to the United States and John does not mention him at all. He does though mention all of the other children of Robert Pincombe and Elizabeth Rowcliffe (my 3x great grandparents) with the exception of Elizabeth who has married Richard Elsworthy. Robert Pincombe (my ancestor) in his will had passed all of his copyhold land to his brothers in 1827 and left a number of legacies to his children which were to be paid from the profits of the copyhold land one might assume (although not written). John Pincombe (the present testator), his brother William Pincombe and brother in law Philip Rowcliffe were the Executors of that will.

In this will John identifies himself as being of Great Woods in Molland. This is the property that was held by him for his entire adult life. He is first found on Great Woods in the 1780s. This is now a Grade II Listed Building:

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-397880-great-woods-farmhouse-molland

MOLLAND
SS 72 NE
14/51 Great Woods Farmhouse
-
20.6.67
II
Farmhouse. Probably C16, with late-C19 addition and mid-to late C20 alterations. Rendered over stone rubble and cob. Gable-ended asbestos-slate roof, formerly thatched. Rendered front lateral stack, tops of stacks of C19 red brick. Plan and development: Probably 3-room and cross-passage plan, facing west with ground falling to right. Central room with full-height projection and external lateral stack to front, probably with cross passage to right. Service room to right with external lateral stack to rear and upper room to left with entrance in left-hand gable end. C19 wing to rear of upper room with integral brick end stack and lean-to outshut to north. Old list description mentions open fireplaces, hall with beams and joists, and kitchen with plain timber ceiling. Sawn purlin ends visible in left-hand gable end.

I find the reference to it likely being a 16th Century dwelling most interesting. At some point I want to do a history of the property as I suspect it was one of the properties that William Pincombe (married to Emott Snow) held. My ancestor John Pincombe was a butcher and farmer in this time period at Molland living at Gatcombe. John Pincombe (the testator) does not have any sons so I am assuming that his reference to himself as Elder is because my John Pincombe is considered the younger in this case (both living in Molland). They are fairly close together with John Pincombe (butcher) the younger at Gatcombe being about 1 mile north west of Molland and John Pincombe the Elder at Great Woods being about 1 mile to the south west of Molland. The only other Pincombe at Molland in this time period is Thomas (brother to John at Gatcombe) and he is a wheelwright.

The will commences with his remembering his two brothers William at Bishops Nympton and Thomas at Twitchen and his remaining sister Grace married to Richard Headdon. He remembers his niece Philippia Baker (daughter of Thomas Pincombe at Twitchen) married to Henry Baker. At the end of the will we discover that the witnesses include Richard (to be mentioned) Pincombe, Henry Baker and George Cockram. To the best of my knowledge George Cockram is not related to the Pincombe family. He then remembers the sons of his deceased brother Robert Pincombe Richard (signer), Philip the youngest, Thomas and George the next two in birth order before Richard (Richard is the second youngest). Then John Pincombe (2nd eldest son of Robert) Butcher is mentioned and there is some confusion on people's part because his aunt Grace Pincombe (sister of the testator's father John) was married to John Butcher and their son was named John Pincombe Butcher but he died as an infant at the same time as his mother died (in childbirth likely or shortly thereafter). He remembers two of Grace Headon's children John and Grace and coincidentally they are the only unmarried ones. The other two boys and three girls are married or living away from the area. One of Grace's daughters Ann married John Bond and their son John Joseph Bond was a Mormon who (with his family) made the trek to Salt Lake City probably in the 1860s. In particular though he mentioned his child born out of wedlock by Ann Smaldon - Mary Pincombe Thorne and she is to inherit Great Woods and Eastweek from him. Great Woods is a freehold but Eastweek he has by Copyhold so lifetime only. He also mentions Thomas Pincombe son of his brother Thomas at Twitchen. He has mentioned the daughter Phillippa already (married to Henry Baker one of the witnesses) but does not mention the other nine living children of Thomas! That is likely because the copyhold land that Robert passed to John and William will now pass to Thomas although not mentioned in the will. Most of the children are still young as well whereas all the others mentioned are adults. William Pincombe Junior of Bishopsnympton is the son of his brother William who also lives at Bishops nympton and is unwell at this time. Again only William is mentioned and not the other living children Mary married to William Matthews (has three children) and Anna married to John Hole (has four children) - the other children have died young. It would appear that most of the legacy recipients are unmarried children of his siblings.

It is always interesting to read this lengthy will where the individual is unmarried and he mentions all of his siblings, his nephews and nieces. It does so help to tie a family together. Plus there is always the curiosity why didn't he marry Ann Smaldon; presumably she was Ann Thorne since the name of their child was Mary Pincombe Thorne. The set of wills that I am now doing (three of them) tie together the children of John Pincombe and Mary Charlie/Charly/Charley but the will that John himself left was lost in the bombing of Exeter Record Office in WWII unfortunately as was the will of his father John Pincombe married to Grace Manning. This family though did make an effort in Canada to retain the genealogy of their family in England. There was a Bible with the genealogy back to John Pincombe and Grace Manning which I saw as a child. The Bible that has my great grandparents Pincombe Wedding Registration does not contain any details prior to the marriage of William Robert Pincombe and Grace Gray.

The will of John Pincombe the elder of Great Woods (my 3x great grand uncle) follows:

Recorded: 26 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 884
Place: Molland, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 3 Apr 1837 (probated 14 Apr 1840)
Condition: photocopy, light, modern English writing
Type: four pages - Original will (2 pages) and Probate (2 pages)

1 I John Pincombe the Elder of Great Woods in the
2 parish of Molland in the County of Devon Yeoman being at this time
3 sick of Body but of perfect mind and understanding do make and ordain
4 this my last Will and Testament in the following manner - First I give and
5 bequeath unto my Brother William Pincombe the sum of ten pounds Also
6 I give unto my Brother Thomas Pincombe the sum of ten pounds Also I give
7 unto my sister Grace Headon the sum ten pounds Also I give unto niece
8 Philippia Baker the sum of forty pounds. Also I give and bequeath unto my
9 Nephew Richard Pincombe son of the late Robert Pincombe the sum of Thirty
10 Pounds Also I give unto Philip Pincombe my nephew the sum of ten pounds
11 Also I give unto my two Nephews Thomas and George Pincombe Brothers ten
12 Pounds Also I give unto my Nephew John Pincombe Butcher the sum of
13 Ten pounds Also I give unto John Headon my Nephew the sum of ten
14 pounds Also unto my niece Grace Headon the sum of ten pounds - the above
15 Legacies to be paid by my Executors at the expiration of one year after my
16 decease. Also I give unto the poor people of Molland and Bishopsnympton
17 the Sum of twenty shillings in Bread. Also I give and devise and bequeath
18 unto my natural Daughter Mary Pincombe Thorne Daughter of Ann Smaldon
19 All that freehold Estate called Great Woods in the parish of Molland with
20 the appurtenances situate lying and being in the aforesaid parish Molland
21 unto her and unto her Children lawfully begotten and unto her heirs for
22 ever My will is that my said Daughter Mary Pincombe Thorne shall have
23 the whole of the freehold property left by me at my decease on her attaining
24 the age of twenty one years she is not to sign over nor mortgage nor sell
25 nor contract any debt on the aforesaid Estate during the time of her natural
26 life and at her decease I give devise and bequeath the whole of such freehold
27 property left to her by me at my decease unto the heirs, children lawfully
28 begotten of the said Mary Pincombe Thorne the Eldest Son if any to have the
29 freehold property but in default of Sons the eldest daughter and to her heairs
30 for ever the Proprietor of Great Woods may make a jointure to his Wife
31 not exceeding twenty pound a year But if the said Mary Pincombe Thorne
32 before she attains the age of twenty one years and leave no Child or Children
33 nor Grandchildren lawfully beggotten Then I give devise and bequeath all
34 that Freehold Estate called Great Woods in the parish of Molland unto my
35 two Nephews Thomas Pincombe of Twitchin Jun[io]r and John Pincombe Jun[io]r of
36 Molland to them two and to their heirs for ever the said Thomas Pincombe
[Page 2]
37 and the said John Pincombe may if he succeed to the freehold Estate or
38 their descendants may make a Jointer to their wives at ten pounds a year
39 not exceeding ten pounds a year each. Never to be mortgage nor sold
40 I also give and bequeath unto Mary Pincombe Thorne my Copyhold Estate
41 called Lower Eastweek situated the parish of Bishops nympton when she attains
42 the age of Twenty four year All the rest residue and remainder of my
43 property wheresoever and whatsoever I give upon trust unto Thomas Pincombe
44 my Brother and William Pincombe Jun[io]r of Bishopsnympton whom I nominate
45 and appoint sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament the[y] are to pay
46 and receive all monies connected with the property real and personal by me
47 at my decease untill my Daughter Mary Pincombe Thorne shall attain the
48 age of twenty four years when she is to have the whole of such property
49 in the hands of my Executors in trust. My Will is that my Executors in
50 trust are to pay unto Mary Pincombe Thorne the sum Forty pounds a
51 year to paid in two half yearly paym[en]ts But I confide entirely in the
52 judgment integrity and discretion and ability of my Executors in trust wheather
53 the[y] may think it right & proper or not have the whole of the property real
54 and personal at that time or not to have the whole of the property real and personal in the hands of the Executors in trust until she attains the
55 age of twenty four years, my Executors in trust are to use their own discretion
56 the[y] are to pay all my lawful debts legacies and funeral expences In Witness
57 whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this third day of April 1837
58 John Pincombe [signed and sealed]
59 Signed sealed and declared by the said
60 John Pincombe the Testator for his last Will
61 and Testament in the presence of we who have
62 set our names
63 Richard Pincombe [signed]
64 Henry Baker [signed]
65 George Cockram [signed]
66 Codicil to this will I give to the Executor William Pincombe the sum of Ten
67 pounds - John Pincombe [signed]
[Page 3] [p 884 in margin]
68 21 July
69 No. 18
70 For the Stamp Office
71 Copy of the Will and Codicil
72 of John Pincombe late of
73 Molland Devon Freeman dec[ease]d
74 Executor
75 Thomas Pincombe of Twitchen
76 Devon Yeoman
77 (Power being resigned to
78 William Pincombe the other
79 Executor)
80 South Molton
81 Proved in the Principal Episcopy
82 of the Lord Bishop of Exeter the
83 14th April 1840
84 Testator Dec[eased] 19 June 1838
85 Effects sworn under £600
86 Ralph Barnes
87 Dep[ut]y Registrar
88 22 Apr 1840 [seal]
89 For 464
Folios at 6 . 5 . 6
90 [page 4]
91 FOR EXECUTORS
92 Appeared personally Thomas Pincombe of
93 the Parish of Twitchen in the County of
94 Devon Yeoman one of the
95 Executors named in the last Will and Testament with one
96 Codicil thereto of John Pincombe late
97 of Molland in the said County Yeoman
98 who died on the nineteenth Day of June 1838
99 and made Oath, that he had made diligent search and due enquiry
100 after, and in respect of the Personal Estate and Effects of the said Deceased, in
101 order to ascertain the full Amount and Value thereof; and that to the best of
102 his Knowledge, Information, and Belief, the whole of the Goods, Chattels,
103 and Credits, of which the said Deceased died possessed within the
104 Diocese of Exeter (exclusive of what the Deceased may have
105 been possessed of or intitled to as a Trustee for any other Person, or Persons.
106 and not beneficially. (A) but including the Leasehold Estates for Years of the
107 Deceased, whether absolute or determinable on Lives, and without deducting
108 any Thing on Account of the Debts due and owing from the Deceased) are under
109 the Value of Six hundred pounds
110 to the best of this Deponents Knowledge, Information, and Belief, (B) and
111 this Deponent lastly made Oath, that the said Deceased was not possess of
112 or intitled to any Leasehold Estate or Estates for Years of the Deceased, whether
113 absolute or determinable on a Life or Lives, to the best of this Deponents
114 Knowledge, Information, and Belief.
115 Sworn on the fourteenth
116 Day of April 1840
117 before me
118 Thomas Pincombe [signed]
119 G M Mather B D Surrogate

Routledge and Pincombe

2011-10-26T08:15:00.001-04:00

These two families, Routledge and Pincombe, are forever linked by my family lines. I still find it fascinating how my family lines came together in London, Ontario. There was no great plan; just a merging of lines one generation after another. First the Routledge family arrived from Cumberland England in 1818 with all their children/grandchildren including Elizabeth Mary Ann twin to Joseph and only 14 years old. Then in 1832 Robert Gray arrived from Yorkshire England with his younger brother William. The first marriage in Canada was Robert Gray and Mary Routledge and the routine of each descendant marrying a new British emigrant began. The daughter of this marriage Grace Gray then in her turn married the next emigrant ancestor in my line as William Robert Pincombe had arrived with his parents in 1851 from Devon England. Their son John Routledge Pincombe (forever linking these two names in his own name) waited a long time to marry (b 1872 and married 1913); he was 42 years of age when he married the next emigrant from England Ellen Rosina Buller from Birmingham England. Their daughter Helen Louise Pincombe then married the next emigrant in my line from England Ernest Edward George Blake who had come with his parents in 1913 from Hampshire England. Just the flow of events quite stuns the imagination. Who would have thought so many new emigrants would marry into the Routledge family line time after time. I have always found it quite fascinating although admittably not fascinating enough to start studying it until 2003 :)

It really is difficult not to drift back into Routledge again and work my way through all the wills that I purchased but I want to stay focused on Blake and Pincombe for the most part. There will be a study day for Routledge once I am back into my pattern of days working on my family lines. It is truly amazing how quickly studying genealogy can totally take up your life. I used to be amazed watching my husband work for hours on his family lines but could never really get interested. Likely my cousin George DeKay is responsible for this shift in thought on my part although lurking at the back of my mind was the potential to do genealogy. I just needed an impetus and George provided that with his need for someone to write the Pincombe Profile. Amazing how things come together even when one is far away from the place of one's birth and one's cousins.

Today I worked away once again on the Parish Registers of North Molton. I am into the births of the children of Thomas Pincombe and Joan Smith. I must admit I do not yet find the surname Smith daunting. I have only a very few Smith surnames in my family tree thus far. Thomas and Joan married 28 Apr 1635 at North Molton and Thomas is the son of Thomas and Katherine Pyncombe with this Thomas being the son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow and hence a brother to my Richard Pincombe at Bishops Nympton. Joan Smith was not baptized at North Molton (at least she does not appear in the Parish Registers there). The luxury of one name studies is that you are not overly interested in the parents of the partner that is not Pincombe so I have not really bothered to attempt to find her parents but a quick check of the new IGI does show a number of Joan Smith baptisms in the area. The names of the children may be helpful but four are common Pincombe forenames: William, Thomas, John, Richard. The last son Robert is the surname of my 3x great grandfather but does not appear regularly in the Pincombe family. However, I didn't find a Robert Smith baptizing children. The family of Thomas Pyncombe and Joan Smith does appear to be complete now with the five sons baptized between 1639 and 1648. Richard and John were both baptized the same date in 1644 but the priest doesn't mention if they were twins. Their grandfather Thomas in his will of 1653 mentions his five grandsons so it would appear that there were no other living children of this son Thomas and his wife Joan in 1653. I wish to follow the Pincombe line through North Molton Parish Registers.

I am still left with my query of who was Richard Pincombe who married Jane Bond 30 Jul 1652 at Chittlehampton. But at least I now know it wasn't Richard Pincombe son of Thomas Pincombe and Joan Smith at North Molton nor was it Richard Pincombe son of John Pyncombe and Mary Carew at Poughill (often linked to Jane Bond in genealogies). Since the last child of Richard Pincombe and Jane Bond was baptized in 1673 one would expect that he was likely young when he married in 1652 (i.e. 20 to 30 years of age) and so born in the 1620s to 1630s. I continue to try to match up the baptisms of the Pincombe children with parents in the early parish registers.

I am thinking these days that I need a set of research questions for my one name studies and for my individual family lines. I think that I will devote some time to that thought on each research day for the individual family lines. For my one name studies I shall have to decide how I want them to flow in terms of product. I can not possibly accomplish more than make a dint in the surface of Blake research and as I extract the marriages I am thinking that I want to also look at emigration in the 1800s/1900s to see where Blake families moved to around the world and around England. Perhaps that will be my research question for Blake. I just have to frame it in an interesting way to put on my Blake profile to see if I can excite some interest in the study and furthering the yDNA study as well.

Kennedy family of Bewcastle, Cumberland - and interesting email - and continuing with North Molton Parish Registers

2011-10-24T19:29:00.003-04:00

An interesting email today from a Kennedy family researcher asking about Grace Routledge and her husband George Arthur Kennedy. Grace was an older sister to my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge. Grace and George lived at Nookhouse Farm in Bewcastle, Cumberland, England. They emigrated to Canada probably with Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth Routledge, Grace's parents in 1818. George and Grace baptized Robert 28 Jan 1818 at the Scotch Church Bewcastle and Thomas and Elizabeth were still on their property at Pikefoot in the spring of 1818 but they are known to be in London Township in the late Fall of 1818 and on their property as Talbot settlers.

I have not yet been able to locate the parents of George Arthur Kennedy. His baptism does not appear in the Bewcastle Parish Registers. There is a Kennedy family at Bewcastle. Alexander Kennedy owns the farm Cleughside at Bewcastle and he and his sons are running that farm into the latter part of the 1700s although Alexander was buried 9 Apr 1782 at Bewcastle at the age of 72 years. I suspect this Kennedy family is related to my Routledge family as they are all mentioned in a will (will abstract follows):

Carlisle Record Office
Will of Archibald FORRESTER of Cleughside, Bewcastle [Bc] 1767, pg 63. [buried 8 May 1767]
Grace Forrester, deceased
John Forrester, Wit
Adam Routledge s o Mary, Wid
George Routledge, of Oakshaw, Bc, father of 2 children
Grace Routledge, daughter of [d o ] Mary Routledge, Wid
Henry Routledge, s o Mary R*
Henry Routledge of Borderrigg, dec., father of 3 children
John Routledge s o Mary R*, Wid
John Routledge, my “sister’s son, possibly s o Grace
Leondard Routledge of Oakshaw
Mary Routledge of Crossgreens or Strandsheads, Wid, mother of Grace, Mary, Adam, John & Henry
Mary Routledge, d o Mary, Wid
William Routledge of Oakshaw, deceased, father of William R*
William Routledge of Oakshaw s o late William Routledge
Francis Armstrong, Wit
Catherine Dowglass of Ash w o Thomas Douglas
Thomas Dowglass [sic Douglas] of Ash husband of Catherine
Catherine Henderson d o Robert & Helenor Henderson
Helenor Henderson wife of Robert and mother of Catherine
Robert Henderson husband of Helenor & father of Catherine
Alexander Kennedie of Cleughside, Friend husband of Sibella
Catherine Kennedie of Cleughside, d o Alexander
Elizabeth Kennedie of Cleughside
John Kennedie of Cleughside s o Alexander
Sibella Kennedie of Cleughside w o Alexander
William Kennedie of Cleughside s o Alexander
One of these days I must order the original will as it would make very interesting reading. Now the testator names Alexander Kennedie of cleughside as a friend and husband of Sibella. Alexander Kennedy married Ann Story 23 Jan 1750. Although I do not find Ann Kennedy in the Burial Register their son John was buried 21 Apr 1751(baptized 24 Feb 1750). Alexander then married Sybil Routledge 29 Feb 1752.

The George Routledge of Oakshaw is one of my 4x great grandfathers and the children mentioned (2 include Elizabeth my 3x great grandmother who married Thomas Routledge and they are the emigrant ancestors who came to London township). Elizabeth's mother Grace is also mentioned as is her mother Mary listed as widow of Crossgreens or Strandsheads. Also mentioned is Henry Routledge of Broderigg now deceased but father of three children and Henry is also one of my 4x great grandfathers and father to Thomas Routledge who married Elizabeth above. Needless to say the will is a tremendous addition to my genealogy for the Routledge family.

The Sybil Routledge mentioned may be the daughter of John Routledge of Redgatehead
baptized 10 Oct 1726 at Bewcastle. The first mention of Redgatehead and the Routledge family is the baptism of John Routledge son Michaell Routledge 1 Feb 1691. We find the Forester family there baptizing John Forester 8 Jul 1714 son of John Forester. All very interesting and if I had the time I would try to put all this together into some sort of sensible timeline but I have learned my lesson in straying too far from my goal which is my one name studies - Blake and Pincombe. So I mention all these interesting details in case some one else wants to run with that :) Just one hint more, Michaell Routledge baptized children in Ashkam not far from Bampton.

All of these Routledge males lived in the Bewcastle area in 1641-42 from the Protestation Returns (go back in my blog and I do separate some of these into fathers and sons):

Routledge Adam
Routledge Bartholomew
Routledge Christopher
Routledge Edward
Routledge Edward
Routledge Edward
Routledge Francis
Routledge George
Routledge George
Routledge Gilbert
Routledge James
Routledge Michael
Routledge Nicholas
Routledge Quinton
Routledge Richard
Routledge Rowland
Routledge Thomas
Routledge Thomas
Routledge Thomas
Routledge Thomas
Routledge William
Routledge William
Routledge William
I already have eight lines of Routledge but I actually think that I am not descended from this one :) although it is likely a collateral line to one of one of my lines.

I have continued with the North Molton Parish Registers. I am determined to finish them quickly and I have now completed 1644. There are 2749 baptisms, 440 marriages, 1200 burials and 103 banns. There may still be time to do 1645 this evening as I am fighting the desire to look at Routledge some more :)

Blogs and genealogy research

2011-10-22T11:03:00.000-04:00

Although I initially started this blog totally for me as a diary, it has become more than that with comments received which have sometimes led me along the path to even more genealogical studies of my family lines. The ability to label each blog with the keywords that are most important to that particular post is one of the strongest features of the blog.

Today I started a blog for the Eastern Canada Region of the Guild of one name studies. It gives me the opportunity to interact with the members of my region and to send them quick messages as their Regional Representative.

Continuing on with Pincombe/Pinkham one name study, the excel file which I am updating now has all marriages complete from 1912 to the mid 1950s. I am working on the births now to list the parents of each child in the flat file. I will be continuing with my census work and linking the children born prior to 1912 to their parents. My mornings are generally spent on my one name studies (along with gardening, washing and a lovely walk and aerobic exercises). I think I shall have to rethink my day in order to glean the best possible working sessions.

Plus I am rethinking my priorities with regard to my surnames that I have researched in the past. I had enthusiastically set up my surnames on a rotating schedule along with those of our son in law but time ran away with me through the summer and I had to abandon the schedule. The beginning of the schedule (i.e. King for my family and Bédard for our son-in-law) will come around again in November and I shall begin again to work on these names but I will not expand my surnames beyond the frequency that they now hold in the old schedule. I will stick with no more than one hour in a single day on any of the surnames unless something arises which is spectacular - unlikely given the distance back I have now reached but one never knows that is true. The time will be spent transcribing principally in order to clear all the documents that I now hold on these surnames or any parish fiche which I have purchased. In the future my fiche purchases will be primarily to look at my Blake one name study or my Pincombe one name study. For our son-in-law's French Canadian ancestry I shall continue working as before on these names in order to pull all the documents out of the databases for them and organize the folders to accommodate them generation by generation.

I will no longer work on the Mead family although continue to be on their mailing list. I am satisfied with Hannah being the daughter of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III and unless someone discovers evidence to the contrary - the overwhelming evidence at the moment does point to that conclusion. Hannah Mead was my husband's 2x great grandmother and married to Isaac Kipp. My husband continues his Kipp one name study now officially a Guild study. The Force Study Group has become active on email once again and he may yet learn about his Force family (his great grandmother was Elizabeth Force daughter of Benjamin Force and granddaughter of Noah Force.

Well having made all those decisions, I can see the work that I will go ahead with as we go into Fall here. I continue transcribing North Molton Parish Registers to complete all the fiche that I own and then move back to Abbots Ann Parish Registers which I had to leave in the spring. I need to re-contact the Blake researchers that I spoke to last winter via email to let them know that I will be continuing with Abbots Ann as they are descended from Charles Blake who married Mary Prince at Abbots Ann in 1736. Determining his parentage is one of the goals of our joint research and of course part of the bigger picture on the Blake family. There are a number of Blake researchers who descend from Charles Blake and I would dearly love it if one of them would test their yDNA to see if they do match my brother. I am still curious if there are several different yDNA lines at Andover or whether they are indeed the same family and descendant of the Calne Wiltshire Blake family as the Pedigree Chart at Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office indicates.

I will also be working on my Pincombe/Pinkham one name study continuing to work on the flat file of BMDs and the Parish Registers that I currently hold. With the PRs for London on Ancestry I also need to start working on the Blake family there since they are known to be descendant of the Devon family.

Pincombe - Pinkham one-name study update

2011-10-21T10:06:00.001-04:00

The past couple of days I have been updating my excel spread on the Pincombe-Pinkham family. I had only extracted up to 1911 from the FreeBMD website and I have now extracted up to the early 1950s which is the furtherest that Free BMD has proceded with their transcription. It is absolutely fascinating to be able to see all the births, marriages and deaths right up to the present for UK records. It never ceases to amaze me as Canadian records are very restrictive. However, that is only the simplest database of the records. To see more you must purchase the record from the General Record Office.

Just to record numbers - I have before reducing because of double keying 425 Pincombe marriages and 291 Pinkham marriages, 614 Pincombe births and 407 Pinkham births, 420 Pincombe deaths and 256 Pinkham deaths. Given the frequency quoted yesterday I had expected to see the ratio of Pincombe:Pinkham records approximately 6:4 and that is roughtly what we are seeing.

I found it most interesting from the time that I took up the Pincombe one-name study that the two original researchers both carried the surname Pinkham and yet they referred to it as the Pincombe study. The actual original spelling of the surname does appear to have been Pencombe but I have not seen it in any Devon records spelled that way since the mid 1500s. Pincombe and Pyncombe definitely predominated the records through the 1500s and 1600s with the 1700s showing the first appearances of the alternate spelling of Pinkham.

I have matched up about 2/3rds of the marriages with their correct spouse and I am now in the process of matching up children with the correct parents using the census. I had put that aside a couple of years ago to work on entering in the large charts from the earlier researchers into Legacy. This has been a slow moving task as I was so incredibly successful in tracing my family back that I became distracted by my other lines and discussions with other researchers. I have now reached a point in many of the lines where I can not really do a lot more without seeing original records in England (or purchasing them/finding them on FindMyPast and Ancestry) and I am returning to my one-name studies with the occasional foray into my other lines. Blake and Pincombe are my parent's surnames and so my one-name studies are in memory of their memories. Some of the memories are shared memories but my father and his parents didn't come to Canada until he was already nine years old and so he has memories of people and times from Hampshire; my mother was born in Canada as was her father and his mother and from her I have my few tales of Canadian ancestry. I have in fact only five groups of emigrant ancestors - the Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth Routledge (with their nine children, son in law and two grandchildren) came first in 1818 (both were surnamed Routledge), then Robert Gray arrived in 1832, William Robert Pincombe and his parents John Pincombe and Elizabeth Rew and his four siblings arrived via the Port of New York to the same area in 1851, long hiatus and my maternal grandmother Ellen Rosina Buller arrived in 1908 and finally in 1913 my father Ernest Edward George Blake and his parents Samuel George Blake and Edith Bessie Taylor (aka Ada Bessie Cotteril Rawlings). My history in Canada is short; my history in England is long but I have only their memories although three visits there has now given me a number of memories of my own.

I suspect that I saw more of England than any of my grandparents (three were born and raised to adulthood in England), I saw Scotland, I saw Wales (although I rather think that some of my lines visited there as well). However, they did come by boat across the ocean which I have never done but do mean to do at least once in my lifetime.

When I first went to Europe; to Rome to be exact and the Vatican City to be even more precise as that was my reason for going I stood on the steps of St Peters and wondered if any of my ancestors in modern times had done that. It was my first conscious thought of my ancestors as other than silent figures of the past that actually occupied a good deal of the conversation that I had with my parents as a child growing up. For I was constantly enriched with knowledge about my ancestors on a fairly daily basis as they remembered stories told to them by their own parents, grandparents and in my father's and grandfather's case their great grandparents.

It makes for interesting telling actually to be able to remember stories that my grandfather told me that he had heard from his great grandfather who was born in 1800. My grandfather was a vivid storyteller and when he described Turnworth to me (I was that kind of a child; always one question followed an answer as I delved in to see what I could see that my grandfather already could see). Indeed I think some of the trees in the graveyard were there when he was there. There was also a hidden graveyard as he called it - the other section of the graveyard was in a close behind the main churchyard around the church. Seeing that brought the memory back to me. But his great grandfather was a Methodist preacher back when Methodists were still part of the Church of England. Charles Butt lived and died an Anglican but in between along with being an agricultural labourer on Glebe land he was a Methodist preacher. He did travel about somewhat according to what he told his grandson (my grandfather) and in those days it was mostly on foot. The land of Dorset so exquisitely described by my grandfather was true to form when we were there. The long low valleys shrouded in mist but oh so green; the crisp fresh scent of the air and the fields - all around you are farmer's fields full of grain with all that delightful smell in the spring (it was spring when we were there).

I digress as I am prone to do and I must return to my studies.

North Molton Parish Registers and Pincombe file updated beyond 1911

2011-10-20T12:32:00.004-04:00

North Molton Parish Registers continue to be my main transcription from fiche at this time and at the end of 1641 there are now 2643 baptisms, 422 marriages, 1134 burials and 103 banns. I am only on the second row of the third last fiche so still a fair amount to transcribe. I must investigate acquiring several more Parish Registers for North Molton to bring me up to the mid 1800s although no rush on that as I have copies of the records for my direct line already when we visited Salt Lake City.

By this time period all of my families of interest have now moved on to Bishops Nympton from North Molton so that my continuing interest is solely for my one name Pincombe study. Contemplating that study I realized that I had not yet updated the births, marriages and deaths registration file using FreeBMD so have now extracted all those entries and have added in the marriage partners from 1912 on. I still have the baptisms to work on in terms of making a file that is readily searchable on all items. I have not yet found all the partners in the 1837 to 1911 marriages yet and will do that in combination with the census.

Another piece of exciting news for the Pincombe study is another family member (Pinkham) joining the yDNA study. To really learn the deep ancestry of this family the yDNA study is absolutely essential to show if this is a singleton family. I will await his results.

The world profiler for Pinkham surname shows:

Top Countries

Country                       FPM
UNITED STATES      18
NEW-ZEALAND       15.17
CANADA                     8.25
UNITED KINGDOM   4.12
IRELAND                     1.03

The Pinkham surname is frequent in the United States and New Zealand.

Next looking at the Pincombe surname on the World Profiler:

Top Countries
Country                         FPM
UNITED KINGDOM    6.31
CANADA                       3.44
UNITED STATES          0.8
IRELAND                       0.34
SPAIN                             0.1

The spelling Pinkham dominates in the United States and I wonder if perhaps the individuals who use the Pincombe spelling are all descendant of my 2x great grandfather's older brother Robert whose family settled in Kansas. Robert had two sons the eldest of whom was killed in the Civil War (he was fighting with the North) but the younger son had a large family.

Worldwide the Pinkham spelling dominates as can be seen by the frequency of Pincombe which is highest in the UK but at only 6.31 per million (Pinkham is 18 per million in the United States of America).

Two branches of the Devon Pincombe (at least) came to Canada in the mid 1800s (my own and one line from Beaford) but there have been other immigrations to Canada. In general the Pincombe name is still primarily located in Devon with the top cities in the United Kingdom being:

Exeter , south west , UK
Taunton , south west , UK
Tiverton , south west , UK
Chulmleigh , south west , UK
South Molton , south west , UK
Barnstaple , south west , UK
Romford , south east , UK
Umberleigh , south west , UK
Reading , south east , UK
Crediton , south west , UK

The original Pincombe one name study was run by two researchers both of whom had the spelling Pinkham for their surname - one lived in the United Kingdom and the other in the United States. I continue entering their charts which they archived at the Society of Genealogists (it is now possible to archive your study with the Guild of one-name studies but that option was not available at the time they closed their study) into my Legacy Family Tree Program although I haven't done very much the last couple of months. The study was named Pincombe as the primary surname with the Pinkham spelling as a deviant. That surprised me somewhat as both carried the Pinkham surname. However, their charts show that all lines begin with the Pincombe surname with several of the specific family lines eventually moving to the Pinkham spelling.

North Molton Parish Registers and the Will of Robert Pincombe dated 19 Apr 1827 at Bishops Nympton Devon (Inland Revenue Wills - Estate Duty Office, Page 885)

2011-10-19T20:09:00.003-04:00

Continuing on with the North Molton Parish Registers as my plan is to complete them this year (i.e. before Christmas). There are now at the end of 1639 baptisms 2568, marriages 406, burials 1081 with 1636 being a particularly difficult year for the parish with a total of 56 burials (a usual year is 30 burials) and 103 banns.

More Pincombe entries were found in the latest transcriptions which are most welcome as the family was first in Devon in North Molton in 1485 according to the Visitation. My line moved to Bishops Nympton from East Buckland/Filleigh in the 1590s (remaining there for the most part until they emigrated to Canada in 1850 (last ten years were at Molland)).

This is of course most interesting for my one name study on the Pincombe/Pinkham family at the Guild of one name studies. Along with the wills, I am getting a much deeper understanding of the Pincombe family at North Molton.

These two entries were somewhat confusing until I found the burial of Katherine Pincombe wife of Thomas Pincombe

Baptisms
Pincombe Thomas son Pincombe Thomas   1616 Mar 30
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas  Joan 1639 Mar 31

Marriage
Pincombe Thomas Smith Joan 1635 Apr 28

Burials
Pincombe William son Pincombe Thomas  Katherine 1624 Dec 7
Pincomb Joan      1633 Jan 15
Pincombe Katherine wife Pincombe Thomas   1636 Feb 5
Pincomb William      1637 Jan 29

So I now know that Thomas Pincombe marrying Joan Smith was quite likely the son of Thomas Pincombe since the wife of Thomas Pincombe did not die until nearly two years after her son married. But it ends any thought that Richard Pincombe who married Jane Bond 30 Jul 1652 was a son of Thomas who married in 1635 as he was the fourth son of this marriage. Which brings us back to the question asked before in an earlier blog. Who is the Richard Pincombe who married Jane Bond at Chittlehampton?

I now have the name of Thomas Pincombe's wife (father of Bartholomew, Thomas (married to Joan Smith) and Grace) and it was Katherine. However I do not have her surname at this time. They did not marry at North Molton.

Moving away from the Parish Registers for the moment, I also worked on one of the first Pincombe wills that I looked at. The will of Robert Pincombe dated 19 Apr 1827. Robert was my 3x great grandfather and I did grow up hearing a few stories about him. Not a great deal as he died whilst his children were all still young - only his eldest son Robert was 21 years of age when he died. My ancestor was John (some people have asked me why he was disinherited as he received only 5 shillings) but I think that John inherited from his eldest Uncle (John Pincombe at Molland) so that he did not receive anything else from his father other than the token five shillings which said you are my son and I am remembering you in the will. We did find his gravestone at Bishops Nympton attached to the Church Wall (exterior) and somewhat hidden behind a Yew Tree. That was a lucky find. My husband was walking along and noticed the stone and moved the tree a little to read it and said Robert Pincombe died 1827. It immediately caught my attention as I knew that my Robert had died in 1827.

Robert was 52 when he died. That seems very young but at a time when the average age at death was in the late 40s early 50s his age at death was not uncommon. His brothers outlived him by ten to twenty years. His wife had died four years earlier of unknown causes and one of his sons William died two years after his mother. His will was dated the 19 Apr 1827 and he died on the 23rd Apr 1827. Perhaps it was a sudden infectious disease. That information did not pass down in the family.

Robert Pincombe and Elizabeth Rowcliffe was a love match as Elizabeth's father was a fairly prominent land owner and she was his only daughter. Robert was 28 when he married and Elizabeth was 26. They actually married more in line with present day marriages and went on to have eight children (7 sons and 1 daughter). They went through all the family names and the only one that wasn't a father/brother's name was that of Richard. I wonder why Richard although it is a fairly common Pincombe name in this line it had not appeared since Richard son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow. Richard was the first ancestor at Bishops Nympton. One piece of family lore that did come down was that they had named all of their children after family.

The wills for the Exeter Court were all destroyed in WWII so that the original of this will did not survive the bombing but a copy had been placed with Inland Revenue and so this particular copy has survived and I have transcribed it below with the Probate. It is modern English for the most part - very few middle English terms are used.

The will of Robert Pincombe:

Recorded: 19 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 885
Place: Bishops Nympton, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 19 Apr 1827 (probated 27 Oct 1827)
Condition: photocopy, bold, modern English writing
Type: three pages - Original will (2 pages) and Probate (1 page)

1 In the name of God, Amen. I Robert Pincombe of Bishopsnympton
2 in the County of Devon, Yeoman, being infirm in Body but of Sound and disposing
3 Mind Memory and Understanding praised be God for the same do make and ordain
4 this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following, that is to say, First
5 I give and Bequeath unto my Son Robert Pincombe the Sum four pound a year to be
6 paid to him within one year after my Decease, Also I give unto my Daughter Betsy
7 Pincombe the sum of Four pound a year, Also I give unto my son John Pincombe
8 the [sum] of five shillings, Also I give unto my Son Thomas Pincombe the sum of four Pounds a
9 year after he arrive to the Age of Twenty one, Also my Son George Pincombe the sum of four
10 Pounds a Year after he arrive to the Age of twenty one, Also I give unto my Son Richard
11 Pincombe the sum of four Pounds a year after he arrive to the Age of twenty one, Also I
12 give unto my Son Philip Pincombe the sum of four Pounds A year after he arrive to
13 to the age of twenty one my will is that if either of my Children should happen to
14 die under the Age of twenty one Years and unmarried then the Legacy or Legacies of him
15 or her so dying shall be equally Divided between them Survivors And also if my Son
16 Robert Pincombe should die and have a Widow and During her Widowhood to have her
17 husband share out of my Estate or Estates Also I give Devise and Bequeath unto my
Brother John Pincombe of Molland and William Pincombe of Bishopsnympton and Phillip
18 Routtcliffe of Mary Ansley in this County, Yeomen. All that my said Moiety and Half
19 fendle of West Wood and my Tenement called East Wood also my Leasehold Estate called
20 Park with their and every of their Appurtenances thereto belonging And also my Goods
21 chattels Personal and Testamentary Estate Whatsoever and Wheresoever
22 Robert Pincombe [signed]
[Page 2]
23 To hold the same unto the said John Pincombe William Pincombe and Phillip Routcliffe
24 their Executors Administrators and Assignes Subject and Charged and chargeable to and with the
25 Payment of all Just Debts and Legacies herebefore given, Also I authorize and Impower my
26 Trust or Trustees to Mortgage or Assigne over my Estate or Estates if required for the
27 better payment of my Debts Also my Will is that after my Debt is all paid that my Children
28 herein before named, that is to say, my son Robert Pincombe Betsy Pincombe Thomas
29 Pincombe George Pincombe Richard Pincombe and Philip Pincombe to have their equal share alike
30 out of my Estate or Estates And lastly I do hereby Nominate Constitute and appoint the said John
31 Pincombe W[illia] Pincombe and Philip Routcliffe Executors in Trust of this my last Will and Testament
32 and Jointly Guardians of my said Children And I do Declare this to be my last Will and
33 Testament In Wittness whereof I have to the first sheet of this my last Will and Testament I have
34 subscribed my name and At this last sheet I have sett my hand and Seal this nineteenth day of
35 April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven
36 Robert Pincombe [signed and sealed]
37 Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the above named
38 Robert Pincombe the Testator as and for his last will and testament
39 in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence have
40 subscribed our Names as witnesses thereto
41 John Pincombe [signed]
42 The Mark of Jane X Arnell
43 The Mark of Ann X Arnell
44 W[itnesse]s sig[ned] as A true Copy
45 William Gray [signed and sealed]
[Page 3]
46 For EXECUTORS
47 John Pincombe of Molland in
48 the County of Devon, Yeoman
49 and Philip Rowcliffe of
50 Mariansleigh in the same
51 County Yeoman
52 Executors in Trust named in the last Will and Testament of
53 Robert Pincombe late of Bishopsnympton
54 in the County of Devon Yeoman deceased
55 who died on the 23rd Day of April 1827
56 make Oath to say that they have made diligent search and
57 due enquiry after, and in respect of the Personal Estate and Effects of the
58 said Deceased, in order to ascertain the full Amount and Value thereof; and
59 that to the best of their knowledge, information, and belief, the whole of
60 the Goods, Chattles, and Credits, of which the said Deceased died, possessed
61 within the Peculiar Jurisdiction of the
62 Bishop of Exeter
63 (exclusive of what the Deceased may have been possessed of, or intitled to
64 as a Trustee for any other Person or Persons, and not beneficially, but
65 including the Leasehold Estates for Years of the Deceased, whether abso-
66 lute or determinable on Lives, and without deducting any thing on account
67 of the Debts due and owing from the Deceased,) are under the Value of
68 One thousand and five hundred pounds
69 John Pincombe [signed]
70 Philip Rowcliffe [signed]
71 Sworn on the Twelfth
72 Day of October 1827 before me
73 Edward Chave Tunsgate

I also have the wills of the two brothers of Robert Pincombe (John and William) which I plan to transcribe over the next few days and then that leaves me with three other Pincombe wills. The National Archives holds one Pinkham will I need to acquire. The name Pinkham is common in the United States and in some parts of England and is a variant of Pincombe.

William Pinkham, Carpenter of London, Middlesex - dated 21 Feb 1749; PROB 11/768 and Imae Reference 75/78.

Genuki Devon Wills project shows the following Pinkham wills:

Pinkham Richard Totnes DEV (carrier)    1812 W co    IRW P 907
Pinkham William Dawlish DEV (ironmonger)   1835 A ab EXE DDR2 IR 26/490 f.474 [NB - 'Place' shows administrator's abode]; to Ann Pinkham, widow
Pinkham William Dawlish DEV    1837 A ab EXE DDR2 IR 26/494 f.431

At some point I shall try to acquire any of these that are available - the IRW p 907 will be available.

My next step with Pincombe/Pinkham one name study is to once again extract all the names from FreeBMD - I have done this up to 1911 several years ago and placed many of them into families but FreeBMD is up to the early 1950s now and it is time to bring my project up to date.

Transcription of image displaying part of the Flemish Graveyard at St Olave Parish Church Southwark (The National Archives)

2011-10-18T19:48:00.004-04:00

My image of the graveyard (Flemish section) at St Olave Parish Church Southwark arrived today from the National Archives. The description in the catalogue mentioned that you could read the names of some of the graves and I just had to see that. My 3x great grandfather Christopher Buller buried his first wife Mary Beard at St Olave Southwark, buried two of their children who died as infants at St Olave Southwark and when he died in 1832 he too was buried at St Olave Southwark although all of these burials were from the St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey Parish Register with the note being added in all cases burial at St Olave. (To order this document put Tooley Street into the Catalogue Search keyword and MPA in the Department - the document is MPA 1/108.)

True to the catalogue description I can readily read the names on all the sketched graves. It is a very interesting image which was prepared because of the construction of London Bridge. The Bridge ramps would cross over a large section of the graveyard and so this amazing chart was produced to show the impact of the Bridge on the Churchyard of St Olave. The chart is in colour.

I decided to transcribe the names that appear on the document and will attempt to place them as well. Also on the document in pencil is a list of names and dates which I will also attempt to transcribe at a later date - some of them are very very faint (there were two columns in total on the upper right hand side of the image).

The image itself is labeled in the bottom centre of the image.

(this title is centred)
PLAN shewing that Portion of the FLEMISH BURIAL GROUND
in the Parish of St Olave Southwark
Required for the Purposes of the NEW LONDON BRIDGE.

The scale is 1 inch: 5 feet (this is located below the title in the middle of the image and is centred with respect to the title).

Surveyed by George Allen
69 Tooley Street
16 February 1831
(this information is in the lower right hand corner and is handwritten)

The entire image has a fine line border about 1/4 inch from the edge.
If we think of the Thames River as being on a easterly-westerly direction at this point (indeed at this point it has left the east-west flow to a more east south east flow) then I can work my way around the portion of the Churchyard as drawn in the chart.

Possibly fronting on Tooley Street and in the extreme lower left hand corner of the chart is the

"Premises in Occupation of Solomon Davis Esquire"

and approximately 8.9 feet from the top back corner of his building (in a straight line approximately northwestward) the portion of the Churchyard which will be used for the approaches for London Bridge begin. This approach (more or less northward will cut across 78 feet of the churchyard and at the topend of the churchyard will be 71 feet from the roadway. As I write this I am remembering how the land looked around the London Bridge. Of course it is so different now. It is a multilaned bridge with enormous easements which contain massive roadways that lead to the main bridge.

Luckily under the Southwark Bridge along the pedestrial tunnel there is a mural showing the various buildings that had been along Tooley Street before the bridge was built. From records I have looked at thus far I have more or less determined where Christopher Buller's slop shop was (slops being sailor uniforms) and he was about a block away from St Olave Parish Church.

My hand is pointing to the approximate location of Christopher Buller's shop and just to the left of my arm you can see St Olave Churchyard. The plaque for St Olave Church is on the other side of Tooley Street which rather confused me at the time as I had thought it was along the Thames River because of this picture.

I shall hunt out the other pictures of this mural as it is a most interesting picture of London/ Southwark/ Bermondsey south of the Thames River in the early 1800s. It has come up very nicely on the blog.

This is walking along the underpass below Southwark Bridge. There are a lot of bridges at this point along the Thames River. In a row, there are Southwark, then London and then Tower Bridges. All of which are very very interesting and well worth a walk across each one. We actually crossed all the bridges in London and Westminster doing all the main ones from Lambeth Bridge to Tower Bridge. Each one has something to see or it is just really interesting looking across the water at London from the vantage point of the middle of the River. We also crossed Hungerford and Millenium which are both pedestrian bridges.

This last image is an enlargement of St Olave Churchyard.

I am trying to find the exact location of the Church itself. The section of the Churchyard that was affected by the London Bridge construction was known as the Flemish Section. Looking at the original image which I received I am trying to place the Flemish portion into this larger area.

According to the website the Flemish ground was on Carter Lane and you can see that Carter Lane is above Tooley Street in the picture above directly above St Olave's Churchyard.

http://www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk/bgstolaves.htm

I shall continue to work through the location of this particular piece of property but now I will start the transcription of the names on the image.

I have named the chart and will do a short discussion of the other labels that appear on the image. In the top left hand corner there is a pink bar which creates a triangle in the upper left area bounded by the pink bar and then the two sides. In this area we find the title: New Ascending Roadway leading on to the New London Bridge. The pink bar contains the wording: New Wing Wall supporting the Roadway. This pink bar crosses the very top of the graveyard and beneath this line and outside of the graveyard are the words: Vacant Ground. Along the edge of the graveyard is a partial wall extending up from the premises of Solomon Davis Esquire. A line has been drawn which is parallel to the roadway and it extends across the graveyard.

Beginning in the lower left hand corner beside the premises of Solomon Davis Esquire and working across the graveyard and creating rows from left to right. Each of the entries represent a plot in the graveyard (the first two in Row 1 are single entries and the third there are three people buried in the plot (just by way of explanation on the spacing of entries).

Row 1:

Nich[ola]s Furminger 1800

Mrs. Martha Innott 1797

Will[ia]m Atkinson

Ann Atkinson

Sophia Atkinson

Martha Farrington 1781 Aged 18 days

Farrington (mausoleum probably)

Mr. W. Berryman

Wife

and Six Children

Row 2

Mrs. Ann Marsham 1800

William Breach

Mary Breach

Grace Edmeston

Row 3

Walter Brooks &

Frances Brooks 1783

George Worthington

Row 4

Mrs. Sus[anna]h Cuming 1788

Four Children of John & Martha Hiscock

John Hollick and Five of His Children

Row 5 (the graves are rather close together row wise and I will just list them as they occur across the page)

William B___y

and 2 of his Children

Will[ia]m Black 1780

Hannah Black 1756

Rachel Pounder 1814

and Children

S.M. 1751 E.M.

Two Children of Henry and Ann Ealing

Will[ia]m Moore

Mrs. May Latham

Mrs. Mary Kettle

Alexander Mausoleum

John Will[ia]m Moore

Joseph Will[ia]m Moore

Mary

Mr. Will[ia]m Thomas

Sarah Napier

Mrs. Eliz[abe]th Thomas

Ellen Sarah Thomas

There is an entrance gate and walls along the top edge of the burying ground.

There are hand written notes in the top right hand corner that refer to the various burials providing a little more information. At a later date I will transcribe the notes.

Although my intent in purchasing this document was the hope of finding information on my Buller family. However, I did know that it was a Flemish Portion of the St Olave Graveyard so realistically did not think that I would find any Buller graves listed. However, with my Family Finder results giving me so many German matches at the 4 to 5 to Distant Cousin level I thought it worthwhile to at least have a look at it.

The image is excellent. The National Archives does a terrific job of photographing documents when you order them.

Will of William Pincombe of Molland Devon dated 30 Oct 1637 - PROB 11/188 - Image Reference 392/350

2011-10-18T10:35:00.002-04:00

The will of William Pincombe at Molland Devon quite perked my interest. My emigrant ancestor John Pincombe had farmed at Molland (Lower Gatcombe Farm to be exact) until 1850. I still do not know how he acquired his farm and references to Gatcombe and Molland occur in several wills for the Pincombe family.

This William Pincombe is known to me. He is the son of John Pincombe who was himself the eldest son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snowe (and so the eldest brother of my Richard Pincombe). That information was a long time working through. I read the will a few years ago but couldn't place him initially. The relationships he mentions include his Uncle Thomas Pincombe and his brother John Pincombe. He mentions his kinsman Hugh Thomas and I wonder if Hugh is his brother in law or his first cousin - the use of the word kinsman still confuses me in a will. I do not know the name of the wife of John Pincombe his father. I do know from the will of William Pincombe (see blog 30 Jul 2011) that the children of John Pincombe (his eldest son) were William, John and Marye and his will was written 20 Dec 1602. William (will 1602) does not mention any property that was given to his eldest son John or his second son William - they must have already received their inheritance.

William in his will below doesn't mention any relationship between John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton or William Pincombe at Filleigh. They were his first cousins probably - William being the son of his Uncle William who had himself left a will in 1625 whilst living at East Buckland (Filleigh being nearby). His cousin William (son of Uncle William) was living at Filleigh according to this will. He had married Bridget Worth.

It is convenient though to be able to place this William in the family lines - the will helps to establish the family lines but unfortunately his daughters have not yet married and his son also unmarried and they are all under 21 years of age at the time of writing of the will. No neices or nephews are mentioned so I am left to wonder if John Pincombe his brother or Marye Pincombe his sister have married. Then Hugh Thomas his kinsman I am unable to place at all. Always a will may answer some questions but generally produces a whole host of other questions!

I am also curious why he mentions John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton (the only John there is a half brother to my ancestor William (baptized 1599 at Bishops Nympton). Since William (will 1602) and his wife Emotte Snowe had had nine children there were a lot of cousins though and the names John, William and Thomas are very frequent in this time period)! Although a second John Pincombe does not appear in the Bishops Nympton records, John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton could be the brother of William Pincombe at Filleigh. It is a possibility that has just entered my thoughts - I do not know where this John lived and choosing one member of the family might encourage one to choose the other brother as one of the overseers as well. I shall keep that one in my thinking cap as it is a distinct possibility. Coming from a large family, it is highly possible that the two eldest brothers kept close through the years and hence their children would have been close. Richard was the fourth son (and my ancestor).

The family that the priest at Bishops Nympton had me write to may be descended from one of these elder brothers as well. If one is not into genealogy then answering stray letters from far away and extremely distant cousins may not be something that one makes time for in a busy life. I can quite understand that.

Initially when I found this will for William Pincombe at Molland I wondered if it would answer any questions about my line back since my ancestor was last at Molland before he emigrated to Canada. But quite definitely my line was of Bishops Nympton; I have all the family lore that takes me back to John Pincombe and Grace Manning - going back further was more difficult but as I put together the family of William Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore from the Parish Records the descent down was obvious. William and Johane had six children (four sons and two daughters). One son died at 13 years of age (John) but the other three sons all had families with William (my ancestor) and Thomas being the two Pincombe lines at Bishops Nympton on the 1723 Oaths and William occupying/owning land at Bishops Nympton. I do not know what Thomas did for a living and that is still to discover. Hugh farmed at Landkey. The two daughters I have not yet found marriages for them - Johan and Wilmote were twins.

The will of William Pincombe at Molland:

Recorded: 17 Oct 2011
Source: Public Record Office, London, UK, PROB 11/188 - Image Reference 392/350
Place: Molland, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 30 Oct 1637 (probated 12 Mar 1642)
Condition: photocopy, bold and light writing, some smudges, old English writing

[in margin] T[estator] Will[ia]m Pyncombe

1 In the name of God Amen The thirtith
2 day of October in Anno D[o]m[ini] one thousand six hundred thirtie seaven
3 I William Pyncombe of Molland in the County of Devon yeoman being
4 sicke and weake of body but thankes be given to allmighty god of p[er]fect
5 minde and memory revokeing all former wills and testaments doe make and
6 ordaine this my last will and testament in manner followeing First I com[m]end
7 my soule into the hands of god my maker redeemer and Saviour hopeing assuredly
8 through the only merrits of Jesus Christ to be made partaker of life ev[er]-
9 lasting As for the worldly goods wherewith it hath pleased god to endowe me
10 I give dispose and bequeath the same as followeth Imprimis I give and
11 bequeath unto the poore of the parrishe of Molland aforesaid twenty shillings
12 to be distributed by my Rulers and overseers the next Saboth day after
13 my buriall Item I give to all my godchildren twelve pence a peece Item
14 I give and bequeath unto Hugh Thomas my kinsman tenn shillings Item
15 I give and bequeath unto Johan Pincombe my daughter fourscore pounds
16 of lawfull money of England to be imployed by my Rulers to her use
17 w[i]thin two moneths after my decease Item I give and bequeath unto
18 Elizabeth Pyncombe my daughter fourscore pounds in money to be imployed
19 to her use likewise w[i]thin half a yeare after my decease Item I give
20 and bequeath unto Johan Pyncombe my wife one bedd and bedsted p[er]formed
21 Item my will intent and meaneing is that yf the said Johan and Elizabeth
22 my daughters or either of them shall chance to dye before they or either
23 of them shall accomplishe the ages of one and twenty yeares Then the
24 said somme of fourscore pounds shall remaine unto the longest liver of
25 them and my executrix propor[t]ionably to be devided betwixt them
26 the residue of all my goods and chattels moveable and unmove-
27 able not given nor bequeathed my debts and legacies payed my
28 funerall rights and duties discharged I doe nowe give and bequeath
29 unto William Pyncombe my sonne whome I doe make my wholle and
30 sole executrix of this my last will and testament And I doe ordaine
31 and appoint Thomas Pyncombe my Uncle John Pyncombe my brother
32 John Pyncombe of Nympton Epi and William Pyncombe of Filleigh
33 to be my Rulers and overseers and to assist my executrix in the
34 execution performance of this my last will and testament In witness whereof I
35 have hereunto sett my hand and seale dated the day and yeare first
36 above written Signed William Pyncombe Memorand[um] before then sealing
37 and delivery hereof my will intent and meaneing is that yf the above
38 said William my executor doe happen to dye before he shall accomplish the full
39 age of one and twenty yeares then his por[t]ion of goods and chattles
40 shall come and remaine unto the foresaid Johan and Elizabeth my
41 daughters Sealed and delivered by the said William Pyncombe and
42 by him published to be his last will and testament in the p[re]sence of the
43 Sig[ne]d Thomas Pyncombe signed John Hoosgood Test. John Braye

I have not yet found marriages for William, Johan or Elizabeth the children of William the testator but I have not yet transcribed the Parish Registers of Molland - another future project! I have Parish Registers 1, 2 and 3 which covers the period 1538 for marriages and 1541 for baptisms and burials up to about the 1790s. I realized after I bought them that I hadn't brought them up far enough because my ancestor was baptized at Molland in 1837 (the first not to be baptized at Bishops Nympton in 250 years) and I should have purchased the next two registers - another time I will do that. But for the moment once I have completed North Molton (and South Molton comes next) then I will move on to Molland.

I now have two competing studies the Pincombe one name study which is so very centralized in Devon (and London after the mid 1700s) and the Blake one name study which has a very strong pull as it is my childhood surname. Nowadays one thinks of one's surname as life long but in the 1960s women were still for the most part taking on their husband's surname.

Leslie Huber speaking at Ottawa OGS - Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture

2011-10-17T22:31:00.002-04:00

I have known Leslie Huber for about five years now and her talks are quite interesting. Primarily her research talks that I have heard have been on her German/Swedish ancestry. Everytime I hear her telling the story of going to Germany at 21 years of age and walking in the tracks of her ancestors I am amazed that someone so young would do that. That was not that many years ago (maybe ten not sure). This was her first talk in Canada and nice that it was Ottawa she came to. Since they live in New England they took the opportunity to come through Quebec City, then to Montreal and keep coming slightly north west and you are in Ottawa. I hope they enjoyed the trip.

It is interesting that the first time I heard her talk was not long after we came back from England (it was my husband's first trip to England and for me it was my second trip to England). The first time in 2001 I had no interest in genealogy. It never occurred to me to go to the Record Office; I wouldn't have had anything to look up. But when she spoke about the feelings of being in a place where your ancestors lived and how you could feel so at home - I wondered again about my feelings of being in London where I didn't know at the time that we stayed just around the corner from where my 2x great grandfather had had his butcher shop. I thought that feeling of being home was because of my three grandparents who were born, raised to adulthood and lived in England. It never occurred to me that I could be experiencing in true Celtic terms - a memorable experience from my senses being intermingled with my ancestors. It was uncanny thinking about that after that first talk she gave.

I think it takes a while to recognize that where your ancestors lived, experienced all the nuances of life, and finally died can leave something behind for you to experience - was it my grandfather talking so much about Upper Clatford that made me see it through his eyes once again, recognize the turns in the road, Bury Hill up behind, the road to Goodworth Clatford, the Church yard. It is an interesting experience I think to walk the paths of your ancestor. Each one of us must do it in our own way.

Interestingly, when we walked the path up to the Church in Bishops Nympton I didn't have any of those stories to go on. The pull was less powerful except I thought about my ancestors retracing their footsteps up and back for four hundred years - that was powerful imagery but not as powerful as knowing that the trees I touched the tombstones that I looked at were all there when my grandfather was a child. Recognizing the look of the place, the stream passing nearby and then the Church door still looking as ancient as the day he walked through it. The Font that had baptized my 2x great grandfather and everyone on down to my grandfather (it was replaced in the later 1700s so would not have baptized my 3x great grandfather) was so amazing.

No there was somewhat of a disconnect at Bishops Nympton. They had come earlier. My mother knew many of their stories but not such a detailed description of daily activities - it was more of a family story. Names of parents/grandparents/great grandparents and stories about the lands they farmed but not in great detail. So the experience wasn't as powerful; I didn't talk to anyone at Bishops Nympton. I didn't want to do that. I had written to one of the Pincombes living there still but they didn't respond - I felt outside. I know the priest felt badly because he had given me the name (without my asking; he volunteered to do that) and so I didn't go and see him either even though he was in his yard by the Church. I could have gone into the Church but I didn't have that strong desire - I was an outsider. I felt like an outsider and it is my nature just to look not push ahead. Next time I would visit the Church; I will write to him to do so but that time I didn't do that.

Birmingham though is a place I would like to go to. My grandmother grew up there; her father was born there but there the link ends on that side. The next generation back was from London and Henry continued to go back and forth between his butcher shop in London and his butcher shop and restaurant in Birmingham. He died in London; he was buried in London. That must have been tragic for the young widow. She was 15 years younger than Henry and he died relatively young at 57. A whole houseful of children so she moved in with her mother. Well enough of reminiscing. Next time we go I want to look at Birmingham and perhaps walk those streets. Apparently the street where they had their butcher shop is a museum now dating back to the 1880s (they were there just before that). I have a picture of the house they lived in but none of them. I wonder if anyone has a picture of Henry Christopher Buller and his wife Anne Welch. Perhaps I will be lucky one day to find that.

Always I find listening to Leslie Huber reminds me again of my own treks looking for my ancestors. She has a long career ahead of her in Genealogy; her talks are very interesting.

Will of Robert Pincombe of Bampton Devon dated 21 Mar 1702 - PROB 11/476 - Image Reference 302/274

2011-10-17T10:08:00.003-04:00

The will of Robert Pincombe of Bampton Devon has been in my cache of Pincombe wills for several years. In his will he mentions his wife Sarah (no children and the will implies a short marriage) and his four sisters whom he names executors but does not actually name them. In the probate three of the sisters are named as executors - Elizabeth Pincombe, Maria Pincombe and Joanna Pincombe. He is likely the Robert Pincombe who married Sarah Pearse 25 Sep 1701 at Oakford Devon. Oakford is 3 miles southwest of Bampton. This also places it in close proximity to Washfield, East Anstey, Rackenford and just a little further away from Knowstone, Molland, Rose Ash, Bishops Nympton - hence not far from North/South Molton (13 miles).

From the earlier researchers the parents of this Robert were named John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon who had married 9 Feb 1640 at Roborough by Torrington Devon. This John is also a son of Richard Pincombe (my ancestor) but from his second marriage to Francis Gill. John and Elizabeth Pincombe lived at Bishops Nympton and had seven children baptized at Bishops Nympton which included Johan (21 Jan 1648), John (13 Mar 1650 - 13 Dec 1673), Elizabeth (22 Apr 1655), Frances (20 Nov 1657 - 27 Oct 1658), Emotte (31 Sep 1662 - 2 Nov 1692), Grace (died 27 Apr 1670 - no baptism found), and Robert (5 Aug 1668 - died after 25 Mar 1702 and before 31 May 1704). Robert would have been 33 years old when he married. He was the only remaining son in this line John having died unmarried in 1673. I have not found any marriages for his sisters and at the time of his death two of these sisters are still living but no Maria. I have transcribed Bishops Nympton Registers and decided to do a recheck just to see if I had missed one child of this family. In that I did not have a baptism for Grace, another two sisters are a possibility with one of them dying before 1702. Certainly he does have sisters Johan and Elizabeth. Looking at the land records for Bampton may assist with this linking back. The material on the John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon family does come from the earlier researcher with my verifying the children using the Parish Registers.

John Pincombe does not appear to have left a will at Bishops Nympton and I am curious why his son would be at Bampton. When the opportunity arises I will search out the land records for Bampton.

The transcription of the will for Robert Pincombe at Bampton follows:

Recorded: 16 October 2011
Source: The National Archives, London, UK, PROB 11/476 - Image Reference 302/274
Place: Bampton, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 25 Mar 1702 (probated 31 May 1704)
Condition: fairly clear, light, old English writing
[in margin] [Testato]r Rob[er]ti Pincombe

1 In the Name of God Amen
2 the five and twentieth day of March Anno dom[in]i one thousand
3 seaven hundred and two I Robert Pincomb of the parish of
4 Bampton in the County of Devon yeoman being sick and weake
5 of body but of sound and perfect memory (praise be given to Almighty
6 God for the same) and knowing the uncertainty of this life on Earth
7 and being desireous to settle things in order doe make this my last
8 Will and Testament in manner and forme following: that is to
9 say first and principally I commend my soul to Almighty God
10 my Creator and Redeemer assuredly believing that I shall
11 receive full pardon and free remission of all my sins and be saved
12 by the precious death and merits of my Blessed Saviour and
13 Redeemer Christ Jesus and my body to the earth from whence
14 it was taken to be buried in such decent and Christian manner
15 as to my Executors hereafter named shall be thought meet and
16 convenient and as touching such worldly goods and Estate as
17 the Lord in mercy hath lent me my Will and meaning is
18 that the same shall be employed and bestowed as hereafter by
19 this my Will is expressed and first I doe revoke renounce frustrate
20 and make void all wills by me formerly had or made and declare
21 and appoint this my last Will and Testament Item I give
22 unto the poor of the parish of Brishford Twenty shillings to
23 remaine to their use for ever. Item I give unto Edward Crudge John
24 Heffers Mary Bryant one shilling apeice to be paid within one
25 month after my decease Item I give unto Richard Budd and
26 Dorothy Toute one shilling apeice to be paid within one month
27 after my decease Item I give unto Sarah Pincombe my wife all
28 the money Bills Bonds Morgages and all other things which did
29 of right belong to her before marriage alsoe I give unto her the sum
30 of five pounds to be paid within Twelve months after my decease
31 and what Bonds or Bill have bin taken in my name for her mony
32 since marriage I also give unto her All the rest of my Estate goods
33 chattles lands and Tenements whatsoever which do now of right
34 belong to me or which shall hereafter belong to me I give and
35 bequeath unto my four sisters to be equally divided betweene
36 them whom I doe make whole and sole Executors of this my last
37 Will and Testament utterly revokeing all other wills by me
38 ever had or made and Lastly I do nominate and appoint my
39 Unckle Davied Bedow to be a Ruler in Trust to see this my
40 last Will truly performed Robert Pincombe [signed] Sealed Signed
41 and Published in the presence of Rob[er]t Norris John Gardner
42 W[illia]m Hugars

I do not know yet how he is related to Davied Bedow whom he names as Uncle. His father's sister Kathern Pincombe married John Eame 1 May 1630 at Bishops Nympton and his father's second sister Mary married John Sanders 7 Jul 1634 at Bishops Nympton. His mother Elizabeth Graddon's parents are not yet known to me and possibly one of her sister's married into the Bedow family. In that I am mostly interested in the Pincombe family, I would do this collateral line to verify that Robert Pincombe who left a will at Bampton was the son of John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon (just to remind myself of that in the future!). But I will not be doing that anytime soon unfortunately. Robert must, for a while, remain unproven for his line of descent although it is certainly interesting how well this does fit in to the existing information including the earlier study which has been both right and wrong with some of the lines traced.

His remembering the parish of Brishford is rather interesting. Is this likely Brushford which is nine miles from Roborough? I need to check this area out to see where the Graddon family lived as John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon were married at Roborough by Torrington. But again it is within a ten mile radius of where many Pincombe families lived also. But I wonder if the parish itself will answer a few questions and will investigate that later.

If he is indeed descended from John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon then he would be my half first cousin 9 times removed. Interesting all the relationships that ensue from the study of genealogy.

I continue with my charting of the Blake family marriages through the 110 years from 1841 to 1950 and I have now completed slightly more than 25% of the Registration Districts. Next project will be the births (and burials) to relate them to the marriages whereever possible. Then I can start to move backwards in time.

As well I am back to entering our library into Library Thing. With nearly 3000 items entered I am unbelievably about to start entering the larger portion now. But it does include as well as books all of our VHS tapes, DVDs, music CDs and my genealogy CDs and fiche. I still have all of my husband's genealogy material to enter and that is huge and where I am at now. I am trying for one bookshelf a day and there are about 20 bookcases (mostly six shelf) to enter still. I would like to accomplish the entry of all material by the spring so will have to try to keep at my shelf a day as it works into our schedule. There are days when I am completely distracted by genealogy and I fail to accomplish the other items that need doing.

Who would have ever thought I could become so distracted by genealogy? It has been an interesting journey these last eight years now since I first took on the Pincombe Family Profile for George DeKay (my fourth cousin) who was chairing the project for the Delaware-Westminster History Books now published. I have met an incredible number of third and fourth cousins who probably see me as this extremely distant relative whereas they are my closest kin aside from my own personal family (both married and childhood). It is interesting how one ends up viewing genealogy.

Graphing Blake marriages by Registration District

2011-10-16T11:08:00.005-04:00

Having now completed about 1/6 of the Registration Districts for Blake marriages, I have played a little with graphing the results. I have a number of ideas on how I want to look at this data. Registration districts in Bedfordshire and overlapping areas:

The number of marriages can be read from the y axis. This set of registration districts cover Bedfordshire plus overlapping areas where Registration Districts are in more than one county. The increase/decrease/no change in population within particular Registration Districts can also be noted if Blake is consistent with the general population.

Another graph depicting Registration Districts in Berkshire

There is an even increase in marriages again if Blake is consistent with the usual population numbers as well in this set of Registration Districts which include Berkshire and surrounding areas. Eventually I want to look also at the entire set of Registration Districts per decade and in this case looking at the group that I have completed thus far and comparing the 1st decade (1841 - 1850) with the second decade 1851 - 1860).

Historically Blake was found in the Wiltshire/Somerset/Hampshire area in the 1400s, in Norfolk/Suffolk in the 1400s, and several parts of Ireland in the 1400s I am still determining. In my mind I am always working forwards from the past and backwards from the present looking at Blake.

The profiler developed by the University of London Spatial Scientists group (Paul Longley, Alex Singleton, Pablo Mateos) yields the following rather interesting look at Blake worldwide:

The highest density of Blake members is found in Australia.

Country                                          FPM
AUSTRALIA                                546.24
IRELAND                                     519.41
UNITED KINGDOM                   475.47
NEW-ZEALAND                         391.15
UNITED STATES                        274.12
CANADA                                     257.19
SPAIN                                              4.82
BELGIUM                                       4.59
SWITZERLAND                             3.83
DENMARK                                     3.74

In the chart above also from the Profiler website (http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/Default.aspx ) the top ten countries in the world are listed with the frequency per million in the particular country of the Blake surname. Canada 6th in the world for prevalence of the Blake surname. I predict that close to 75% of the Blake members found in Canada are of Irish descent and as I collect the census for Blake in Canada I shall be able to prove or disprove that prediction. I know my own line from Upper Clatford/Andover Hampshire is very very small. Thus far all members of that line are known to me.

The American Blake family on the other hand is quite varied with ancestry going back to the Norfolk/Suffolk Blake family, the Somerset Blake family, the Irish Blake family. Collecting their census is also within my scope of collection over the next few years.

Will I become a leading expert on the Blake family? I think that is a while down the road; I will acquire a lot of enormous databases on the Blake family worldwide. Linking them is a thought that I do have. I already know by the yDNA studies that I am looking at eight distinct lines and there will be more.

Today I shall return to transcribing Pincombe wills as well. I would like to try to do one a day until they are complete. Then I shall start the Blake wills. The first that I transcribed for John Blake maltster at Abbotts Ann (1796 probate) is on my webpage. Since it contains my ancestor's name I completed the transcription and made it available to the many researchers of the Charles Blake family (Charles Blake married Mary Prince at Abbotts Ann circa 1737 and an earlier researcher placed Charles into the family of Thomas Blake and Mary Spring. However, there isn't a baptism for Charles at Andover where Thomas and Mary lived; only one child Thomas baptized 4 May 1709. In my blog there are entries tagged with "Russell" which if searched yields a number of posts that discuss possibilities on the parentage of Charles and how he links to John Blake maltster. Indeed I am related to John Blake maltster but thus far I only know of the connection through the King family. John Blake was married to Mary King sister of Joanna King who married Joseph Blake at Upper Clatford (my 4x great grandparents Blake).

Expansion of the Guild of One Name Studies

2011-10-13T08:53:00.004-04:00

Now that this task of assembling the Blake marriages is in hand and really involves simple arithmetic in order to compile the table that I will use to graph the results, I must get back to transcribing wills for the Pincombe family and perhaps mix it in with continuing on the North Molton parish register transcription. There is always so much that I could be doing.

The Guild of one Name Studies is also occupying my thoughts at the moment and my thoughts on the need to advertise the Guild in ways other than Conferences. Canada is a huge country and we are spread out across this land mostly within 150 kilometres of the border we share with the United States. We are 34 million peoples with three main backgrounds: the First Peoples who are around 2-3 million of that population, those with French ancestry who are around 8-10 million of that population, those with primarily British Isles (including Ireland since it is technically part of the Isles known as the British Isles) ancestry who are around 14-16 million of that population (with the Irish and the Scot being quite substantial and in particular including those who have American ancestry in Colonial America) and the remaining 5-8 million with roots that stretch into Europe (both East and West), into Africa, into India, into China, into South West Asia and more currently Mexico and South America. How best to present the Guild to our diverse population? The intent is to grow the Guild and for my part to grow it so well that we can split my Eastern group into two - Ontario/Quebec and the Maritimes being the two groups. I would especially like to present the Guild to Quebec. Although the Guild is primarily a UK based organization, lately the thought is that we could expand around the world and in Canada that means making the Guild known to the large portion of our population that has French roots (as well as Scot and Irish since many Quebeckers descend from the early Irish and Scot migrants who settled in Quebec particularly because of their shared Roman Catholic heritage).

I am thinking of starting a one name study of the Dorris family who emigrated to Quebec from Garvagh, Ireland in 1834. James Dorris (46 years) and his wife Mary Dorris (30 years) are mentioned as coming in the following website:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/bannvalley/errigal.html

I do not know if this is the correct family yet and I continue to work on this family line.No children are mentioned and I would be looking for a daughter Elisabeth born in the late 1820s or early 1830s who later married Didace Edouard Racine. Their daughter Anna married Joseph Jean Baptiste Chénier.

Such discussion always leads me to the thought that the world is best served if we think of ourselves as families rather than linguistic populations. Gradually our families will become more and more diverse - my husband's lines are like that with his very mixed European/British Isles ancestry which stretches all the way from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Mediteranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean to Eastern Europe. As he moves back in time his diversity increases rapidly. He belongs to all those different families and I think that the world's people will be better for it. For myself I continue to be all English thus far but I know that somewhere deep in my roots I am going to be also Scot and perhaps Irish and before that who knows but likely we were all huddled together in the Ice Age Retreats at Ukraina, Balkans and Iberia some 15,000 years ago before once again Homo sapiens expanded out across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The suggestion is that we use Skype as a tool to reach genealogical societies and I like that idea. There are several genealogical societies in the Greater Ottawa/Gatineau areas locally that I could reach but my French skills are limited to carry on an entire presentation in French. I need to investigate my group locally to see if anyone has the skills to do that. The Maritimes also has a number of members and I need to approach one or two of them to see if they would speak about the Guild to their local genealogy groups.

Now that we have progressed to the idea of further advertising the Guild, I need to set aside time to work on the methodology. I will spend a bit of time preparing a YouTube video of my last talk to BIFHSGO on the Guild or GOONS as it is better known! The acronym is a catchy word and I always have it on my sign but do tend, as I have noticed, to use the word Guild when I am talking. I hadn't really realized that I did that until the discussion came up on the acronym on the Forum.

Dick Chandler (western Canadian Regional Representative) and I will work on a January newsletter for our Canadian group over the next couple of months.

Blake marriages over a century plus (1841-1950)

2011-10-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

I have finally completed my initial cleaning up of the records in order to best graph the marriages in the Blake families in England between 1841 and 1950 (a century plus). I now have to clean the data because of double keying in the Free BMD database. Thus far I have completed four registration districts and in total I have 740 Registration Districts for which I have accumulated information. By the decade 1941 to 1950, the Blake family can be found in nearly every Registration District in England. However, there are still large pockets of Blake families in particular areas and this charting will, hopefully, be meaningful in that regard.

Once completed then my next step will be to look at the marriage records combined with the birth and death registrations to try to put families together beginning in the 1941 to 1950 time period. As I reach back to 1911 I will be able to bring the census into play but we are lucky with the civil registration records as the marriages include the partner's surname from 1912 on and in the case of the birth of children, the mother's maiden name.

This will be a very long term project which will occupy my mind's enjoyment for numbers and graphing and publication of results (primarily in my blog although if I find the data interesting I will write an article for the Guild of one-name Studies journal).

We are into house renovations as well. We have replaced two sets of closet doors and will also look at replacing the room doors. There is still one more set of closet doors to replace as well. Downsizing is always at the back of my mind. Although I am finding it is doable for me to do the gardening. I do not have my husband's fascination with plants - it is more that it is nice to see the yard looking neat on my part. The locust tree at the front of the house has dropped all of its leaves and we have them all raked up. Now it is the enormous maple in the rear garden that needs to drop its leaves along with the crab apple tree. That is the next major cleanup job along with the garden. We have whittled away at the garden and have only beets and broccoli left. The broccoli will probably go this weekend and we can enjoy the beets for awhile yet. The more the frost the better they taste - although I like beets anyway!

The flowers have managed to evade a lot of the frost thus far but one of these mornings they will be gone. We have filled the ruts between the bricks of our front patio and the trim along the paved laneway and it looks very smart. I like the sand in the crevices. It is a very interesting look instead of just the raw stones looking at you.

Our locust tree always looks so bleak so much of the year. It drops its leaves (and stems) in early October and isn't really into bloom until June so only four months of vegetation but it is a beautiful tree placed there by the city about thirty years ago. The maple tree at the back was grown from a sapling by our oldest daughter and my husband. It must be over 300 metres tall now. It has a beautiful shape and the richness of the colour is still in its leaves. The crabapple tree is about 33 years old and produces an abundant crop of crabapples which I used to make into jelly. The jelly eaters no longer do so and the fruit is now for the squirrels or anyone else who wants them. Generally they are composted.

This will be one of the last days to put out the washing and the umbrella clothes dryer will soon be put away for the winter. I love the smell of washing fresh from the line outdoors. It is my most favourite smell of spring actually once the line can go out into the soggy ground. We used to have a fixed one but then it is out there all winter so instead have one that we can readily take up.

The Canadian flag in the rear yard doesn't have any wind today but perhaps later when the rain storm comes. It is nice to look out the window and see it there - our beautiful red maple leaf flag that became our flag in my lifetime since as a child we still flew the Union Jack.

Back to my Blake chart, I am finding this study of my surname to be a most interesting one and it tends to occupy most of my time. Pincombe is also always in the front of my mind and I want to continue working on the wills and will do that before I start on the many Blake wills that I have acquired. That will be my control on working on the Blake wills - I must complete Pincombe first.

Guild Talk and queries

2011-10-08T20:50:00.000-04:00

The talk at BIFHSGO is completed and a surprisingly larger audience than I expected. The questions at the end were most interesting. For surname studies yDNA has become a very interesting tool and has proven to upset some surname studies of long standing that had thought a relationship existed between them in a direct yDNA fashion. But yDNA studies have proven that no such relationship in a direct line pattern exists. Of course there is always the possibility that the son of a daughter has taken his mother's surname (perhaps for inheritance purposes) and hence the yDNA will not match. Looking back from the distance of a couple of hundred years has the difficulty of not knowing the day to day events that may have occurred.

I had one query about a Cheatle ancestor which is very interesting and I shall have a look at my Loughborough Cheatle families to see if I can place the young woman. The Cheatle family greatly interests me and it tends to be a Leicestershire family name and in specific areas of Leicestershire. However, taking on this rather interesting surname as a one name study is simply not possible. I must admit that if I were ever to take on another study then Sproxton would be the surname that I would investigate.

That was my last lecture although my family says that I have said that before. It is the problem of taking on Regional Co-ordinator of the Guild of One Name Studies. When asked to explain the Guild I would be obliged to speak about it. Fortunately slide packages have been prepared by the Guild which I can use altering them to fit my study approach.

I shall now begin work on cleaning up the data for my eventual charting of the Blake marriages. It will take me some time to ensure that I have removed all the double keyed entries. But once completed it will be an interesting set of data.

Another query was on finding wills and whether there are any particularly good websites. This is actually a full lecture in itself but I did mention Kew (The National Archives UK) where you can purchase wills for 3 pound 50 pence each. It is a very reasonable site and I have purchased close to 200 wills over my eight years in genealogy. I downloaded another large set whilst we were there at Kew and when I go again I want to acquire the rest of the blake wills. I am already building my excel file to do that. There are a number of other sites of wills after 1858. Occasionally one might find a surname site for wills and this is the case with my Arnold family. My blog contains about two thirds of the Pincombe wills that have survived and will eventually contain all of the wills.

Yet another question was on the use of software to store data and I mentioned excel which is my preferred and also that of other members of the guild. However, other members use other programs to store their data. The Master Genealogist is a favourite.

All in all an interesting question period. I tend to enjoy the question periods as it often stirs other thoughts in my mind. One sets of questions often leads to other sets of questions. I think that is perhaps the greatest unknown in genealogy - one new piece of information often produces several questions or even more. Perhaps that is what makes genealogy very exciting - not so much the successful conclusions but the pursuit of those conclusions.

Graphing of Blake Marriages by registration district and by decade

2011-10-07T22:22:00.000-04:00

I have now completed my initial arrangement of the Blake marriages from 1837 to 1951 for all the Registration Districts in England. Now I have to clean up the data as some of the entries in FreeBMD are double keyed and not all of them match. However I have organized a list of all the Registration Districts by County checking with the correct lists of Registration Districts for these counties. I have about 115 entries to check - mis-spelled mostly and also the differring names through the 110 year period. This will be the chart that I use for my graphing and I have columns designated for each decade from 1841 to 1941.

Eventually I will also do the births and deaths per registration district and tie them in with the census for each decade where available. Since the surnames of the spouse are listed after 1911 on both marriages and births I should be able to assemble the families even lacking the census from 1921 on. Although this is a large study and most often family trees are not created in large studies I do intend to attempt to create family trees and take them back into the early 1800s, 1700s and further back if possible.

Tomorrow is my talk on the Guild of One Name Studies. I have prepared 24 slides and have gone through a few renditions and finally settled on a set that capture the essence of the Guild and why one would take on a study. The benefits of being in the Guild I have kept towards the end. We are around 2400 members which is quite a large society but if you consider the number of surnames (we study 7900 surnames) then we are looking at only 7900/270,000 potential surnames in the UK or 3% of the surnames. Really a very small number.

I do get the occasional request for information on my Blake and Pincombe studies. For Pincombe I am often able to assist but I am still new to Blake unless you are descended from the Andover Hampshire Blake family. In which case I have quite a bit of information and a lot of it I am still transcribing. It actually depends on how closely related you are to me as to whether or not I can help you.

I am starting to think about how I will graph the resultant data once I have finished cleaning up the data. Thirty thousands data points is a lot of information. However, some of those datapoints are duplicated and I will see at the end what percentage are duplicated. After graphing all of the information than I will go back to linking the spouses with the Blake partner using the census and I am still contemplating the best coding to use to designate family lines. Not sure yet but there are a couple of ideas that I have had. I could construct a code out of the Registration District name plus the Volume and page number - that would make it easier to locate the marriage that I am referring to but wouldn't have a lot of significance as I move back prior to Civil Registration so I would need a second style of coding which probably makes sense as I move backwards in time the families will collapse and the resultant coding of RD, vol, pagenumber will sit under the marriage of their parents. It is a rather major project and I want to think about it slowly to make the most effective flatfile that I can also take into Access and build queries. But first I need to clean the data and that will take me a while to complete that process. There may be further alignment of the data once I bring the census into play but the graphing of the Registration Districts is to show trends and I can always correct any errors later as I have a file (separate from the original collection that I made) that will be solely used to create the graphing. The original file from FreeBMD remains intact with all the odd spellings and double entries in case I ever need to refer back to the file although I can also refer to it online.

I actually transcribed for Free BMD back when I was first into Genealogy in 2003 (for about four years) but finally I was so into transcription of CMB fiche that I finally gave it up. It is a good way to get started in transcription though. I used to do one page a day which was around 50 names. I remain somewhat of a newbie to genealogy as I am just now into my eighth year of genealogy as compared to my husband who has been doing genealogy for over 40 years.

Family Finder at FT DNA

2011-10-06T12:25:00.004-04:00

An interesting email from another tester at FT DNA for Family Finder. This one was directed towards my brother's results for Family Finder. He had a match estimated at 3rd Cousin. I knew for sure this person was not his third cousin but I had been intrigued by the match earlier. This same individual matches me as 5 - Distant Cousin which is the more likely. He also has all Scot ancestry to this day. My brother also has a second individual who matches him in exactly the same locations as estimated 3rd cousin and is also a 5 - Distant Cousin for me. The other individual lives in the United States and as far as I can tell from his Gedcom his ancestors have been in the US for at least two hundred years.

Now what am I to think about these results? On the one hand they could be quite ancient like 9th or 10th cousin and we are talking a large group of people at that level back. When I look at the second person who has already declared us to be Distant Cousins he has quite mixed ancestry from England, Ireland, The Netherlands and France plus some surnames which could be Scot. So you are left to conjecture is the individual who wrote yesterday absolutely correct with all Scot ancestry which traces back to Norman lines? When we talk about 9th or 10th cousin we are only back into the 1500s or later. How large a block of DNA will pass unbroken and from how far back? Looking back at the book which I just read on mitochondrial DNA (this is nuclear DNA for autosomal) there was some comment on the nuclear DNA which has it remaining the same for longer periods with mtDNA changing more rapidly. So conceivably a large block of autosomal DNA could pass intact from generation to generation for a long period and in this case it probably has.

However, I have one interesting fact that binds me to Scotland and that is our mtDNA which has unusual mutations (we are H11a2a1 (my coding) which is a small grouping in itself) but according to the Blood of the Isles Database which Bryan Sykes prepared our mutations take us back to Argyllshire/Ayrshire Scotland. This part of Scotland is interesting in that these peoples became planters in Ulster in the 1600s/1700s and some of them were part of Rev William Martin's emigration to the Carolinas in 1772, some remained in Ulster to this day and another group is known to have gone from Argyllshire/Ayrshire to Cumberland and thence to the Midlands in the 1700s/1800s.

I know that my great grandmother's line belonged to one of the last two groups but I have, at this time, no ideas on when her line arrived in Birmingham nor the mode by which they arrived. A few bits of family lore intimate Ireland but that family lore is from my childhood and no one in my family remembers some of the things that my mother and grandmother said about the Taylor family of Birmingham into which my Ellen Taylor was born in 1859-1860 since she is listed as 37 years of age on her death registration in 1897. Of course this is her husband listing her age and I have no idea if he knew her as a child although he was also born in Birmingham but I have all of his details and ancestry back further from himself.

From my grandmother I know that her mother was 37 when she died and so this does fit in with the death registration but would a mother have passed wrong information to a child? There is a little suspicion in my mind in that regard I have to admit. Ellen Taylor had an illegitimate child in 1879 and no more children until 1886 when my grandmother was born as the first child of her marriage with Edwin Denner Buller. In 1879 she would have been about 19 years of age. Although by process of elimination I am tentatively placing her in the family of Thomas Taylor and Ellen Roberts I only have a bit of family lore for doing that (Thomas was a shoemaker and my grandmother mentioned that her maternal grandfather was a shoemaker). The other plus was my grandmother visited Ashton under Lyne where the Taylor family lived from the mid to late 1870s having moved there from Birmingham around that time. They are on the 1881 census at Ashton without their daughter Ellen (or older son Thomas). Anyway it made for a rather exciting time trying to discover any relationship and will continue to look at it.

It is interesting though to have the contact and the ideas that these people have as to how we might be related. I do note though that the mother of this individual is descended from the Lamont Clan and the Blake family is included in that Clan. But is it my Blake family? A piece of autosomal DNA could conceivably come down through a family for many generations. That is the mystery. The Blake family is beginning to consume all my genealogy thinking time and quite rightly as it is the one name study that I am spending most of my time on. The other, Pincombe, also has some of my thinking time but it has reached the stage where only an effective yDNA study can really answer any questions.

Presentation at BIFHSGO and Blake marriages by Registration District

2011-10-04T10:17:00.002-04:00

Spent the morning preparing my presentation at Before BIFHSGO this Saturday morning (October 8) at Library and Archives Canada (9:00 a.m.). I have 24 slides and another six slides that may answer questions that are asked. The time period is 30 minutes. The Guild of One-Name Studies has been an adventure for me. I joined way back at the beginning of my foray into Genealogy picking three surnames that rather interested me and about which I had acquired some information. The Pincombe study was from the beginning my largest study in that I had the charts from the earlier study. The Siderfin study had more correspondents from whom I learned a great deal plus I had a book published on this singleton family although through the ensuing years I have found a number of errors in this book which I have placed on my website.

I am now starting to look at Blake marriages by Registration District as I continue on the last six counties working up the data into a usable format for my purposes. The data is arranged in this blog with the Registration District and the total number of marriages between 1837 (if applicable) and 1951 in most cases although occasionally I have the data up to 1955. But this is just an overall look at the Registration Districts to see the spread of Blake over the entire period of Civil Registration.

Aldershot (Hampshire) 10
Alresford (Hampshire) 34
Alton (Hampshire) 24
Alverstoke (Hampshire) 60
Andover (Hampshire) 199
Basingstoke (Hampshire) 52
Bournemouth (Hampshire) 73
Bradfield (Hampshire) 12
Catherington (Hampshire) 10
Christchurch (Hampshire) 84
Droxford (Hampshire) 20
Eastleigh (Hampshire) 9
Fareham (Hampshire) 16
and this continues on.

My purpose in looking at the number of Blake marriages in each Registration District at this time was to ensure that I was correct in my thinking that Wiltshire would also have Andover Registration District and looking now at Wiltshire:

Alderbury (Wiltshire) 91
Amesbury (Wiltshire) 120
Andover (Wiltshire) 199
and this continues on.

The overlap is exact between these two counties showing Andover Marriage Registrations in both Wiltshire and Hampshire which is quite logical that it would be so. There are other Registration Districts in the Midlands where the overlap is more than two counties so that my totals that I have for each county are somewhat eschewed but looking at Registration Districts will solve that difficulty. There are of course a lot more Registration Districts but the idea of doing a one name study isn't to make it easy for you but rather to collect the data and crunch the numbers. Already the Surname Profiler does do this type of work with the census but I want to be able to look at all the Blake marriages in the UK by decade and where they take place. Eventually I will link this couple with their census entry (if findable) and then I can build the families back into the 1700s and earlier in particular areas.

Barrie Blake (my co-researcher on the Blake one name study at the Guild) on his website has a lot of information on famous members of the Blake family although in time I hope to be able to have family tables going back to these individuals which will be available on Barrie's website http://www.blakeheritage.com/ . Thank you very much to Barrie for his extensive collection of Blake historical information. Although my name is on the one name study as the Principal Researcher we are actually three with Barrie's information providing an enormous amount of material for Blake researchers worldwide. Bill Bleak and Barrie Blake are the co-administrators of the Blake yDNA study http://www.blakeheritage.com/blake-family-dna-project.php and there is always room for more people in the study. We anticipate that there will be a number of founding Blake families and thus far the yDNA study is showing that indeed that is the case. Please do join us at FT DNA if you have a male Blake descendant who is willing to test for your line.

Once I have completed my initial project of collecting all the marriages and organizing them by Registration District then I will start to separate them out by decade beginning with 1841 to 1850 which also matches the census. In total there will be 11 decades to map and see how the surnames moved out from their 1841 - 1850 locations. I will then move to the Parish Records and using the parish assignments of the 1841 census place the results of my marriage surveys of individual parishes into the Registration Districts and thus work backwards into the 1700s and 1600s. It is an enormous project and will be years in the doing I expect. I do so enjoy working with numbers though and have assigned a couple of hours each day to work on the Blake family. Hopefully in another year or so I can be quite helpful to people looking at their Blake family in particular areas and help them to link back.

Since my own family were last at Eastleigh and then before that at Upper Clatford for 150 years and before that at Andover for nearly 300 years (that I am able to trace thus far) my investigations are less about my own family and more about the Blake family itself which has figured quite often in the history of the British Isles. I remain quite interested in our (my paternal line) yDNA which continues to have only the one significant match with an individual tracing back his Blake line as Irish ancestry especially considering that our ancestry is within 2 miles of Andover for over five hundred years.

On the train to Ottawa and reading Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane

2011-10-03T18:08:00.002-04:00

For all those who avidly follow DNA and genealogy, the book by Nick Lane published in 2005 by Oxford Press is a most interesting reading. Amazingly we have moved on from his thoughts of 2005 but only to refine it somewhat. His careful survey of the literature over a fourty year period is a very instructive look at mitochondrial (and nuclear) DNA.

Although I will do a book report as well on the book in my other blog the book also deserves some thought on my genealogy blog. My own mitochondrial DNA appears to be located in a fairly small geographic area in the deep past with my matches being found as descendants of the 1772 migration from County Antrim in Northern Ireland of a large group of mostly Scots (planters from Scotland itself in the mid 1600s) to the Carolinas in America. A second group of matches remain in Ireland to this day and lately I have also discovered a small group (including my own possibly who are also in the Midlands) who trace their ancestry back from the Midlands to Cumberland and before that Argyllshire/Ayrshire in Scotland. Interestingly some of the people who migrated to the Carolinas were also from the Argyllshire/Ayrshire area of Scotland.

The book itself talks about the emergence and evolution of the Eucaryotic cell (as compared to evolution of bacteria). The various hypotheses for the eventual cell which in mammals contains a nucleus and cytoplasm containing mitochondria are detailed through the 321 pages of the book. Very interestingly he also discusses ageing as a result of mitochondrial changes and why he believes that the answer to ageing lies in looking at mitochondrial changes and not the particular diseases of ageing themselves.

But what did I find so interesting that I absolutely couldn't put the book down except for the pressing needs of going to Homecoming at Western University in London Ontario and also visiting with one of my brothers? The science was heavy and the reading of the first 20 pages was a slow process as I relearned all of the biological terms but once past that I fairly flew along in reading the book. The science is heavy so be forewarned but the rewards of reading the book are great. Perhaps it helps me to understand evolution even better. Being a late comer to evolution; I tend to simply absorb as much information as I am able whenever a good book comes along on evolution. Although I am still a deeply religious person I do not find that incompatible with a belief in evolution. Although Nick Lane in his book clearly sets religion aside as being totally uninvolved in the creation of mankind he does allude to a cataclysmic event that resulted in the formation of a cell that was capable of moving on to an eventual evolution that gives us the intricate and diverse flora and fauna which we find on earth today. When you see the intricacy of life; I find it hard to accept that there isn't a God above all of us who was there at the beginning and will be there at the end of the Universe if such an end ever does occur.

But back to genealogy and my thoughts as a result of reading the book. I was surprised somewhat that he considered the lifetime of a surname to be but a few hundred years although the 400,000 surnames on the 1881 census of the UK is now only 270,000 names by the 21st century. A demise of 40% in just 120 years.

My own surname Blake (for my line) I can trace back to the late 1400s but it does end with my generation; none of my four brothers has a son and so the name ends with us in my great grandfather's line. I found his thoughts on male surnames to be most interesting actually. As well he talks about the references made in the literature to the demise of the male sex but has assurances that this is unlikely to happen. But interestingly, he too (along with a couple of other authors that I have read) sees the real definition of human descent as mitochondrial DNA since all the children of one female will inherit her mitochondrial DNA. Interesting!

Gray family at Cherry Burton and continuing with the Blake Free BMD project

2011-09-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

Although I started my blog purely as a diary for myself, I love it that people comment on my blog postings. I heard today from a descendant of the Gray family at Cherry Burton. My Robert Gray Junior came to Canada between 1832 and 1835. I do not have his exact date of arrival but I know he was still farming in Etton in the summer of 1832 so he could have come in the Fall of 1832 or by the Spring of 1835 as he and Mary Routledge are married and their first child is born 9 Feb 1836. It is highly likely that Robert Gray has come to London Township in Middlesex County Ontario because of Thomas Carling who is descended from the Carling family who were brewers at Etton in this time period. Thomas was the only child of this family to emigrate and likewise only William Gray and Robert Gray Junior came to Canada initially although they were later joined by their youngest brother James. The other brothers and sisters remained in England (and primarily in the East Riding of Yorkshire). I suspect that he arrived in late 1832 but still no actual paperwork to prove that (I also have that opinion from my fourth cousin George DeKay who has researched his Gray line and published it).

I continue working on the Blake marriages in Free BMD. As I work away gradually evolving in my mind is the schematic for displaying this information once I have captured all of it. I now know that I will use the Registration Districts to display the information. That way I get around the problem of Registration Districts overlapping County lines. In my mapping though I shall have to find a map with Registration Districts as they were in the decade that I am demonstrating. That should be fairly straightforward. I can then colour them in by density much like the Profiler for British Surnames has done. Although not quite as sophisticated as my programming skills are somewhat limited (and becoming more so as new generations of programming are introduced).

I also want to work on some of the Pincombe wills that I have not yet transcribed. This project once begun has proven to be quite valuable to me and they are also linked to by the Devon Genuki website giving them fantastic usability. It is this visual that is prompting me to complete the task of transcribing every Pincombe will that I possess. I hope over time that my work on Pincombe will encourage people to test for the yDNA Pincombe project at FT DNA

Pincombe y DNA Study

Thus far I do not have sufficient samples of yDNA results to really say much more than that my 5th cousin who has tested has a 22/25 match with a line that traces back to Barnstaple (my tracing which I shall put online) and that family lore says that the Pincombe family of North/South Molton were the ancestors of the Barnstaple/Bideford Pincombe family. My own line was at Bishops Nympton from the late 1500s to the mid 1800s when they emigrated to Canada although siblings of my 3x great grandfather Robert Pincombe remained in Devon and were still living in the Bishops Nympton area into the 1900s. My 2x great grandfather John Pincombe continued to correspond with his siblings until his death in the 1890s. This correspondence continued between his eldest son John Pincombe (lived at Lobo) and his cousins in Devon and Somerset. However, my grandfather died in 1925 when my mother was only eight years old and the lines of correspondence were lost to my family line. I did manage to pick up the traces somewhat and am in correspondence with a descendant of Robert's son George (my 2x great grandfather John was his older brother).

We have visitors this week and the time is flowing by very quickly. Plus I must get ready for my 30 minute talk on the Guild of One Name Studies to take place 8 Oct 2011 at Library and Archives Canada at Before BIFHSGO. Being Thanksgiving weekend I do not anticipate large numbers in attendance, however I shall give a good overview of the Guild and the value to you of membership in the Guild and the opportunity to showcase your one name study if you have undertaken one. They tend to grow whilst you are busy collecting and particularly with rare names you have a sizeable one name study and become somewhat the expert on that surname. But more on that at the talk :)

Blake Marriages 1837 to 1950

2011-09-25T17:55:00.002-04:00

One of the projects for the Blake one name study is the location of Blake families in England by decade beginning with 1840s decade and ending with 1940s decade. I have extracted all the Blake marriages from Free BMD and I am slowly putting them into a form that I can use them to produce my charts and eventually maps of England. For the moment I have not touched Wales or Scotland. I will do that at a later date though. Eventually I will also continue this backwards into the early 1800s and 1700s and on back into the 1600s and even 1500s with the Parish Registers. Another ongoing project is extraction of Blake entries from the Norfolk Parish Registers which are online at the Family History Site. This will allow me to move forward with the Blake family there. Another researcher has researched the Blake family in Suffolk and I must be in contact with her again now that we have taken on the Blake one name study.

In total there are 30,993 records on Free BMD for marriages in England, Scotland and Wales between 1837 and 1956 although the last decade (1950s) is only just now coming in. Once I have completed all the counties of England then I will be able to determine the number of Blake marriages in the English Counties as they were in 1840. One of the problems with such a study is small changes that occurred over time in the record keeping in areas that overlap in more than one county and parishes that end up being counted in a separate county for historical reasons. However, the overall view will be an interesting one.

As the yDNA study develops with Barrie Blake and Bill Bleak, there are a few interesting Blake lines emerging and certainly they do not share common ancestry in thousands and thousands of years being from different haplogroups. I am working both forward and backwards in time with Blake families. One of my forward studies is the Blake family at Andover and I am looking at the descendants of Nicholas and Robert Blake (and their sister Elizabeth who married (unknown) Mylne). Their father is thus far unknown to me although other researchers claim him to be William Blake a son of one of the descendants of the Blake family of Calne Wiltshire - there is some discrepancy in just which son he is (several different researchers attach this family at different points in the Blake family there). I still need to prove the yDNA line at Andover but I am hopeful that that will happen in the near future as more and more people become interested in testing their yDNA and in particular Blake descendants.

Once I have completed my survey of the decades I will put it up on the Guild of one One Name Studies website for the Blake study:

http://www.one-name.org/profiles/blake.html

The maps I will likely place on this blog although time will tell on that. This is a long term project as I am only about 1/3 of the way through the Blake marriages at this point. A county file generally take me several hours to organize if it is around 400 Blake marriages and some of these counties have 1000 marriages and even as high as 5000. I would like to complete all the counties before putting the information together but if I find that something interesting is emerging I will relate that on this blog.

As mentioned I am returning once again to the Blake family after my hiatus with my Pincombe family. I will still continue transcribing the Pincombe wills but the focus of my research now will be Blake primarily. Once North Molton parish registers (what I own in fiche anyway) are complete then I will return to Abbotts Ann. The darkening evening is an open invitation to sit at the fiche reader by the hour.