Continuing on with the records that I accumulated at Salt Lake City, I am still transcribing the Protestation Returns for Devon. I have over 250 images of the original records as I filmed them using the 65x magnification film reader. I could have used the 45x and had more to a page and learned that later in the week. Plus I filmed the Cumberland records at 1x and they have also turned out quite well using my 10.0 megapixel camera with anti-shake technology. I am entering all of these into a single Excel file which I will then make a copy of for sorting purposes. I want to accumulate all the Pincombe/Pyncombe/Pinkcombe etc. families for my one name study and since I already have these dozen charts that I mentioned I will be able to locate the founding families in the different areas as most of them do go back to the 1600s. I have at least 30 different lines in Devon and sorting through these Protestations Returns will give me a handle on where these surnames occur most frequently and how they traveled from what might prove to be a "founder" area. As I research further back it is interesting seeing how many surnames have disappeared over time. The Protestation Returns are really like a census of all the adults in an area and an absolute treasure to the genealogist. Taxes, visitations do not cover everyone unfortunately although do give a list of the area at pertinent times.
Most days I receive one or two requests for information on Bishops Nympton where I am the online parish clerk. I am still transcribing the registers from 1813 to the present but it is fairly easy to do lookups in this part of the register. Having transcribed the earlier registers though has greatly improved my information level and if conversations continue beyond the simple BMB records then I also have subsidy records, hearth tax records, wills (prepared by Worthy), Visitations (handy as many farmers are listed as well as the landed gentry), and a number of other items. Today was not an exception and I responded to the two individuals.
I ordered the Parish Registers (early) for Landkey, Molland, Merton and Rose Ash today from the Devon Record Office. I need these to sort out my families that married into Bishops Nympton's families and the parish register microfilms at the LDS are transcripts only. One of the many reasons for going to Salt Lake City was to see what I would need to purchase from England as opposed to seeing the information there.
I also added the Burges family to my webpage. I had a question on the Tapp family at Bishops Nympton and noticed that I hadn't done the Burges family on my webpage and I had pulled their information from the North Molton register earlier. The Tapp family at Bishops Nympton trace back to the Tapp family found at North Molton. I now have 45 family lines on my webpage. I have stuck to lines where I have in hand the proofs to take me back (not just the IGI). The IGI is a great tool though to help you look at possible locations for your family lines. But it is always best to work from the known to the unknown!
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