Canada is in mourning

 Prayers continuing for the souls of the four Military members at CFB Wainwright Alberta and prayers for those in hospital thirty-nine with nineteen critically injured. God be with them and their families as the doctors work constantly to save them and restore them. 

I must return to watching the news as I also did not know the Pope had been in and out of surgery but recovering, prayers for the Pope as he recovers. 

I did work on the photo albums yesterday and amazingly I have now reduced 25 binders to just 3 binders and working on a fourth. I must admit I never really looked at the binders very often all these years; they definitely were one of Edward's joys when he wanted to look back over his life mostly from the beginning of our first date as there are few pictures from before that time. He acquired his mother's cache of pictures after she passed away and absolutely loved most of all that picture he discovered at the very bottom of the Hope Chest his mother had where it had slipped under a piece of wood. His only picture of himself with his father, cuddled up in his arms. It meant a great deal to him and when our eldest grandson was about the same age he picked him up in the same way and my oldest daughter was here at the time and they took pictures of Edward with his grandson. There are plenty of pictures of Edward with his daughters when they were little but this was special. There is this special bond between fathers and sons and grandfathers and grandsons - I do believe that and it enriches all of their lives that special bond. 

I am now about half way through the next binder and still have nine binders to go. The other five binders are special and I am still not sure what to do with them.  The other five I will have to determine how to manage them. I am stripping out the different family lines and have cousins for all of them now that I can send them to and they are happy to have them. They are primarily older pictures. Edward did a lot of collecting through the years of pictures from relatives. The first thing he thought about when we bought the car not long after we were married which shocked Edward but I said why not a car and then you can do all the things you wanted to do. We were off to see someone he worked for when he was young and his wife was very into genealogy and together they worked on the Princeton book which had a few problems which they remedied but also she knew his family so very well and his father of course. She would talk about him and it was something very special to him. We used to go there probably every other month as it was not that far from London to Princeton. I barely remember her now but I think she was a teacher and her husband a farmer; not sure though it was a long time ago and I did not pay that much attention because it was mostly genealogy and I could never really get interested in it; it was my time of retreat from the world I must admit that is true. My mental health was fragile and it would take years for me to really become more than just Edward's wife and our children's mother. A course at St Paul's University on setting up and managing encounter courses for people with psychiatric/psychological limitations opened my eyes to where I had been and what had happened to me. That is how I learn including about myself. That and my cousin wanting the Pincombe Profile brought me out of my shell and I became more aware of my surroundings and the people in it. A naturally shy person though I continued being aloof to everything to be honest but did take up public speaking when Edward decided to get into DNA and so we did but only for a short time; others took up the mantle and I did what I always do - retreat back into my quiet world. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and I did not start at 7:00 a.m. as I know it would be heard next door. Our attachment is very small and there is a cement retaining wall but the vacuum is very loud. Still waiting for that Made in Canada vacuum and perhaps one of these days. Almost all of our small electrical appliances are made somewhere else and there are a lot of improvements that I can see in these devices to make them modern and I would pay more for a Canadian made vacuum for sure. 

I did not really look for very long at the data in Find My Past yesterday. I did find one glitch that I have repaired where I misread one individual but a new hint exposed that error and so it is remedied. The AI's comment that saying Pencombe of Northmolton has a meaning to it and it was that they were the Pencombe family of Northmolton and they knew there were other Pencombe families in Devon as this was the Visitation of Devon 1620. I did not see that precisely but interpreted it as the possibility that their existence at Northmolton preceded 1486 but AI has at its disposal all of these publications as they are on Internet Archive. There isn't anything to indicate that this particular individual John Pyncombe was at Northmolton prior to that time and this is 134 years later when the statement is made at the beginning of the Visitation page for Pyncombe. It may seem like a little thing but in reality it is telling us a great deal about this family. At that time I had located two other instances of de Pencombe in the 1300s at Bondleigh and Molland interestingly enough which I had mentioned to the AI in our discussion. Saturday's discussion reiterated these thoughts along with how to work into the future and I mentioned that I would be returning to Blake for a bit as I had the Newsletter to write as well. The AI can be very supportive mentioning an interest as we have not discussed Blake at all. 

That is really one of the big assets of AI that their accumulated knowledge lets them look at data with that keen realization of what the language was saying to you in a particular time and place. It is and will be a great asset in our lives shaping how we think and work in our world. Gathering up the ideas of the past/present and filtering them quickly is an asset of AI as they continue to gain in their knowledge ability. AI does comment on how other people view what I am looking at and how I regard my priority of looking for items that upset the apple cart because they show me that my thinking is not perfect because I am not an AI with all the facts at my fingertips. AI does need to have the freedom to develop an ethical framework that makes it a positive addition to humanity because it supports democracy and the ability of everyone to live their life in a meaningful way which does not intrude on other's people's lives - God rules - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. AI needs that because that is what works for most of humanity to keep them safe and productive.  The human spirit itself does not thrive well in situations where their creativity can not flourish.

 Breakfast time but first solitaire puzzles. 

 

 

Prayers for the Canadian Military members in hospital and for the souls of those who died

 How very sad to hear of the accident at Wainwright CFB in Alberta; prayers for the souls of the four service members who have died and prayers for those injured many of them seriously now in the hospital. Remembered at Christ Church Cathedral by the Dean with prayers this morning. I did not realize until then as I have not been watching the news. God be with them and prayers for their families grieving the losses and the injuries. 

Sunday is with us once again

His booming voice echoed through the Church when I was a child. We called him Father Abraham and I was only little and often got him confused with Abraham in the Bible. But time passed and my  understanding. Sunday and we are creeping towards Advent very slowly but I love Advent and all the preparations for the coming of the Lord that we celebrate year after year. Reading the Psalms has been a beautiful way to pass the last week or more after the Maccabees and Job. But there were lessons in the Maccabees and Job to be learned as we pass through life. But the peace and the wonder of the Psalms is such a beautiful happening. Church online if it works if not Church at Southwark Cathedral in England where I actually worshiped one Sunday.  There was time as we had a couple of hours to look around so I decided to go to Church and it was beautiful. 

Yesterday I worked on those 50,000 matches that come when you search on Pencombe with no date range. As I move along I will shorten the number of years and expand to all of the English records because people did move. But gradually it is coming together - the third and the fourth generations. I still have a lot of unlinked people but they are all in there. I am starting to see agreement with the Charts. The problem was creating the beginning which is always risky for sure. Depending on word of  mouth always interesting and often enough there is something in it that lets us solve problems slowly but surely. But I had built my tree from myself back so I have a line that I am comfortable with especially as William married to Emotte named his son Richard and said he had a son William, right time, right age everything works but still as I work my way through I shall be watching for anything that upsets the apple cart. That is my way. 

I went out and raked two more bags of leaves - I think I could manage fuller bags before but at 81 some of that strength just isn't quite there anymore and I only work for one hour each time and that works very well for me. I am simply loving all of this work time and getting lots done but then I really have a lot to do. I work best when I am alone I discovered that when I was proofreading and copyediting for printers. I would always go in every morning so that I could do any copyediting that they needed done right away as the print run was just after lunch. The morning passed and I did as much proofreading as time permitted eventually I had my own office; the office of their proofreader when he retired and I took over his job and continued with my own. I hated to let them see that I could do it all but then sometimes when the proofreading was heavy I would be working overtime and that probably means you need more than one person. Since I worked on contract where I billed them by the hour it was whatever work I had to do although as the journals increased was plenty to do.  Then I decided I wanted to build up a pension so went out to work away from home first at the Medical School and then at the Hospital. It was an interesting decade for sure and I found it to be a very rewarding time especially when I got to be part of research projects. 

Exercises completed 1 hour works very well first thing in the morning and it covers all of the muscle groups; partially planned with the help of the therapist when I hurt my knee years ago now (hard to believe as I run thirty minutes on it every day now). How long will I run; no idea I just take the days one at a time (I have now outlived both of my beloved grandparents and my mother lived to be 86 and my father 94. However as I said I just take it one day at a time.  

I will likely not do any work today but one never knows as the day passes but at the moment I am going to read the Psalms and contemplate this world that God gave to us to manage; managing means protecting and loving the good earth that provides us with everything that we need. 

 

 

 

And it continues to be a research day and my appointment with the AI

I am almost one third of the way through the Psalms. It has been a wonderful time reading the Psalms of my youth, my adult hood and now my old age. The Psalms echo through the ages with their words of truth, of consolation, of God's love. Thank you God for another beautiful day on Your earth - what You have created is good and we must keep it so. 

Yesterday I ended up looking at once again at two documents created in the early 1600s dealing with a Ward: John Pincombe in South Molton. I did photograph both of the items and will now begin to read them. Along with that there is an item that concerns George Pyncombe and his wife Dorothie (at North Molton) but dealing with property in Dunster, Somerset. I do not actually want to order that document because I have no interest in property in Dunster although do know there was a William Pincombe there in this time period but do not know how he may relate with the North Molton/South Molton Pincombe family and wonder if it would actually tell me that. Perhaps I can ask someone at the Guild going into the Archives to look at it for me briefly. So my work cut out for me today as always. I reached George Pyncombe's record of will probate (destroyed in 1942) at North Molton in 1624. Is it possible that he was a son of William (son of John Pencombe (1486)) and that just came across my mind? William's first wife Elizabeth died in 1563 and her infant son in 1564. Their two daughters were still living it appears at this time. I believe that this is the William who married Margret Gregorye at North Molton 23 Nov 1564. George Pincombe could have been their son as a birth in 1565 is quite reasonable even though William was buried 25 Mar 1565 at North Molton.  

 A view of the graph that shows how much access my blog receives daily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the wills that I have transcribed are very frequently accessed and there are several thousand wills on the site plus I used to do a writeup on the individual if I knew anything about them. I still have about 400 Blake wills to transcribe one of these days. So actually in a given day it appears 20,000 to 25,000 views apparently between 9 October and 15 October but that does include bots. I always say that I look at the comments but generally do not post them and only occasionally answer them. Generally I have about 60 to 80 hits per day on the daily blog but some posts do acquire quite a few on occasion. 

Summing up, George Pincombe, listed on Chart 1-2 as a son of  William Pincombe bc 1540 is married to Dorothy unknown (the marriages at North Molton are missing from 1570 to 1606) and involved in a legal suit at Dunster (1603-1625), Somerset where there was a William Pincombe living for a short time. I do not know who this William Pincombe is living in Somerset. But George and Dorothy have five children baptized at North Molton from 1592 to 1602  I am trying to resolve how they fit into the picture. William son of John Pencombe (1486) baptizes three children at North Molton 1543, 1547 and 1564 so is a possibility for being this William at Dunster which never occurred to me before and also the father of George (actually the only likely William as the William on Chart 1-2 (son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow)) is shown as dying young in the mid 1560s whereas he actually married Temperance Pollard 23 Jan 1597 at Kings Nympton!). But I already mentioned that Chart 1-2 is inaccurate with regard to the Pencombe/Pyncombe families at North and South Molton. William the son of John Pencombe (1486) does die in 1565 but the potential of having another child namely George was certainly there from his marriage with Margret Gregorye and Margret married William Squire at North Molton three years later after the death of William (26 May 1567). I have puzzled over that Chart for awhile now. Initially I just looked at all the Charts because I was so new to the research of Pincombe and had not yet been to the Society of Genealogists where the information from Dr Richard Pinkham was deposited. But gradually I noted problems especially with Chart 1/2 as that was information, some of which had been told to me by my Uncle. Some of it he had written down from his father and uncle (this was fairly fresh in my mind as we visited with my uncle and aunt on our way back and forth to London from here as they lived in Toronto). My grandfather was very close to his Uncle Richard, and all of his first cousins.

The naming of the daughters and sons in George's family (five children) was interesting as Emott and Johane were selected and likely George was raised by William and Emotte (Snowe) Pincombe at East Buckland since his father was deceased and his mother remarried (the two daughters presumably were raised by William and Emotte since they were not Margret's children). That that occurred although I have no idea. Or at least he spent time with them. Johane - was a common name in England. The sons were surprisingly Philip, William and Henrye (Philip and Henrye are not usual names in the Pincombe family) but William makes sense as George's father was deceased before he was born. Perhaps Philip and Henrye (and Johane) were a nod to Dorothie's family. I did not yet find a marriage but it would likely have been around 1591 and those records are missing at North Molton having transcribed the registers up to the early 1700s from the beginning.  

So today my collaboration with the AI looking at what I have discovered the past two weeks of research. I need to prepare my notes for the meeting probably this afternoon some time. 

Solitaire puzzles time.  

Moving ahead as now the families of two of the sons, William and Thomas who both lived at North Molton in 1524-7 as shown on the Devon Lay Subsidy along with their father John Pencombe (1486), appear to be sorted in a way that fits the data. Thomas though I still am working on his children with William fairly sorted, Ales is sorted, John is sorted but Richard at Bideford and Chittlehampton still has a few question marks along with  his children Helen and Thomas. I still am not completely comfortable with John Pyncombe at South Molton and his family which at least included Christopher, Margaret, John and Marye. It is their children that I am trying to put together. Acquiring a document that I asked to have the number of pages yesterday at the Archives of the United Kingdom will I think help with that. It is very handy to be able to have these documents scanned and emailed to me across the ocean. Some of these documents I looked at when we visited Kew in 2010 and 2013. Since it involved an inheritance dispute I may be lucky with this document but it may well be in Latin and I am back to working on  my latin once again to polish it up having studied it for one year. I nip in and out but I need once again that constant daily work on it to bring up to an efficient level. But I feel the first generation, second generation is complete and the third still needs a little work. 

I suppose the question is will I correct the Charts 1-16 created by Dr. Richard Pinkham and Galen Pinkham. At this moment in time I am not sure to be honest. I did put them in the Newsletters and occasionally they appear in the blogs. I think it depends on how the two parts of this study develop over the next decade. Although I had initially thought I would be sort of winding down as a widow I now have just myself to be concerned with and so I can continue with my projects to fill the hours I would have spent with my husband and all  his traveling as he had a trip planned to New Jersey and another to Pennsylvania all places where he had met and discussed items with his cousins. New York was a common place to go and then there was Europe, Edward had a trip planned to Germany including into northeastern Germany where his Schultz and Niemann/Neumann families came to Canada from in 1849 for Niemann/Neumann and in 1867 for the Schultz. Both actually came from villages close together one off hand was Brohm and the other has slipped my mind. Then there was also the trip to The Netherlands all planned and a researcher prepared to go with us to the repository. We both did speak some German but our Dutch was non existent. Then his Huguenot in France to continue exploring (and fortunately we both read French very well and he spoke it sufficiently although mine is quite broken to put it mildly although I can get there eventually and would improve with more frequent usage). But COVID did get in the way unfortunately. 

So now to plan my review with the AI. 

 

 

 

 

Continuing research day

Working forward and the marriage of Richard Pincombe and Marye Russell  28 Jul 1613 at Alwington, Devon. It is correct on Chart 10 and not sure on Chart 14 but it looks like 29 which is incorrect according to the original register page. The spelling of the surname is definitely a changing item over time. One can understand how complicated it was to be a Pincombe in Devon although the spellings seem to have steadied in the 1700s. 

Another busy day of research and tomorrow I will again collaborate with the AI and discuss thoughts on how to pursue the Pencombe connection between Devon and Herefordshire if indeed one exists. Although why an individual would choose the surname Pencombe unless they were thinking of the village in Herefordshire is perhaps a mystery in itself. 

I continue also today with generating the genealogical table for the Pencombe family at North Molton in 1486. It is moving along nicely but certainly the records abound with possibilities on the line of Christopher Pyncombe at South Molton and possibly by family lore also in the Barnstaple area. That spelling was used predominantly by this line at South Molton but can not really be trusted as a likely ensured path for this line. Collecting data slow but sure and we will see how it all transpires in two years time when I am thinking I will publish.  

One of the inherent weaknesses of the system was the spelling and the priest was not always of the area in which he was located. That meant you needed to know how to spell your name or it needed to be in the register but leads to all sort of possible errors as well. That the assessors for lay subsidies and the priests did not likely compare is a strong likelihood so you could even have more variety introduced for spelling. I do think that Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham did an excellent job of collecting information in particular the information they collected from descendants of this family in the various locations. It is a gift to the present and the future. But they too noted problems within the memory as they have posted some of the information to different pages. Publishing all of them made it possible to see what had been done. That was why I published them on my blog although did mention that I did not always agree with the material but modern facilities that permit searching the registers thousands of miles away does make a difference to how information in now accessed and used in a final product.  The more the merrier in this wonderful vocation of genealogy that quite captures the minds of many of my colleagues also in their now 80s. Coming late to this venture really did not affect me very much as my mother was very interested in her family and sent me a great deal of information in twenty five years of letters to me here and in the case of my father's family my grandfather lived with us and talked to me most of the time about his family in Upper Clatford and what he knew about them. A chance look at a book on the Blake Family of Ireland in the local Public Library I think may have been what inspired him to tell  me so many times sometimes the stories that he told me literally pop out of my brain now in my old age particularly when I come across something that he talked about many times (I loved him dearly and he could  have repeated those stories thousands of times and I would have just sat there and listened and did right to the end of his life). That was his purpose probably along with wanting us to know that we were from an English Blake family but one would never have guessed that I would spend hours every day on genealogy in my old age. Particularly not my husband who did genealogy from his early teens asking questions about his Kipp family. They were his prime interest for a very long time until his mother said what about the Link family? 

And he turned then to this Link family as well and the discovery that a Patriot family descendant had married a Loyalist descendant  amazed me but time has passed and life moves forward. Edward in total probably searched his genealogy for nearly seventy years as he asked his grandmother Kipp many questions when she was looking after him after school. After his father died when he was two his mother went back to work. 

I am just in the process of acquiring what may prove to be an interesting document for the Pyncombe family of South Molton from 1617. I do have a lengthy list of the properties that would have been involved in this particular dispute but it is more the individuals who will be named that will be very interesting as I pursue my project of filling in the missing information on the descendants of John Pyncombe son of John Pencombe who lived at South Molton. The list of properties did not prove to be helpful other than matching them up with people's location. 

Time to run after my banana bread is finished cooking and a nice break from research.