Presentation

I spent part of yesterday working on my presentation at BIFHSGO. It will be my last presentation as I find it simply takes too much time and energy to do them. I end up being sleepless towards the end of the time before I give it and that leaves me little energy for anything else. This one is on DNA Case Studies. I wrote it in early July so it has been complete for quite some time. I need to prepare my handout and send it in to be reproduced. It will likely be two pages back to back or 24 slides. I usually just include the slides that have general information on them.

We canned pickled beets yesterday and froze two large bags of tomatoes. We will likely do another couple of bags of tomatoes to use this winter. Our garden is slowly gearing down and the weather has turned definitely fall like. We had a bicycle ride yesterday as well - 12.3 km. I am now about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton on my virtual trip across Canada (I started in Victoria a year ago July just past). I was ill for a while last year so did not accomplish a great deal. I hope to reach Edmonton by mid-September. I have no idea how long it will take me to cross Canada - possibly 5 or 6 years!

I had one response to my request for Hartland information but the reply had Hartland ancestors in the late 1800s and early 1900s so does not link readily to my Hartlands in the mid 1700s! I am more or less ready to go back to the FHL to look at the film once again. This time I will film 1612 to 1700 or thereabouts looking for Harland, Wilkinson and Gray. The Gray family is found in many of the parishes in this area. The knack is sorting them out I guess - there is a large Gray family at Great Driffield.

Today I meant to work on the Hinxman will as I want to send off a draft to the individual that I am working with on this family line. I sent another 5 years of Cherry Burton to the Gray researcher. I do not see that we have common ancestry but one never knows what might surface as you work together. However, the day has passed me by and I haven't accomplished anything on the Hinxman will.

However, we went to Christ Church Cathedral today for the 10:30 a.m. service. I really have been wanting to go back as I used to go to Church every Sunday. Perhaps we will get there more often now. Then a bicycle ride 12.6 km and the day soon passed.

Tomorrow I will get back to genealogy!

Great Driffield

I spent a short time reviewing from the beginning of the Great Driffield registers. No sign of my surnames there in the mid 1500s but I will not discard yet as I am working in the early 1700s with known ancestry. There could be a number of female lines not yet disclosed. The Gray family wasn't there either though and I need to keep this family in the back of my mind as I look at all of these parishes as I do not know the location of my Gray family before 1708 when they are at Cherry Burton.

My new screen is going to make it much easier to transcribe as I can have two documents side by side. I hadn't really thought about that but my husband mentioned it in the store when we were purchasing and when I experimented with it; it is a really helpful tool. I have almost completed moving everything from the old computer to the new. I just need to load secure FTP and my ftp locations and then I think I have moved everything over. My husband is going to use the old machine to format 3.5 inch discs. My new CPU is about 1/6th the size of the old one and my workspace allows for my scanner to be hooked up all the time now which is a real bonus. The only other equipment I would like to purchase one day is a microfiche scanner. The microfiche reader is the largest thing on my desk now!

We watched the entire 4th season now of All Things Great and Small (borrowed from the Library). One new person in the cast and it took a little while to get into that but really enjoyed the last episodes. Both my husband and I have ancestors from Yorkshire so find it really interesting to see the wonderful scenery and meet all the interesting people who are part of the series. Ed's ancestors came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s so quite a piece back for him but my Robert Gray came in 1832 to Canada so not so far back!

We biked 12.6 km today and it was a trifle cool but a very pleasant ride. We hope to ride until on into October this year - we will bike in the afternoon now since the evening is rapidly disappearing as fall approaches. The crickets are singing now when we walk in the early evening. The birds are starting to flock in preparation for migration to the south. I was saying to my husband we can tell the time of the year by the flowers, the sounds and the birds. Winter is a little more difficult although the cold weather comes in late December and into January with the long nights. Gradual warming comes into February as the daylight lengthens. The snow is here for all of it though and can not necessarily help us to predict the month! However the heavy snows come in late February and early March as we warm up a little here.

Tomorrow I want to spend some more time on Great Driffield so as to prepare for my next session at the Family History Library and also work on the Hinxman wills.

Great Driffield

I spent the morning looking at the Great Driffield parish registers at the Family History Centre. Most of my names there are from my Gray line (my great grandmother Grace Gray's ancestors). The Gray family was from the East Riding of Yorkshire and from the parishes of Lund, Hutton Cranswick, Great Driffield, Cherry Burton, Holme on the Wolds, Etton and Kilnwick on the Wolds. This group of parishes all lie together about 15 miles from the North Sea in a parallel fashion. I have also looked at the parishes of Skerne and Watton which are part of this group and have not yet looked at Lockington and South Dalton mostly because I do not have even one entry thus far from those two parishes.

The Great Driffield parish registers go back to 1556 and will be very interesting if I find my Harland and Wilkinson (and possibly other lines) lines in this parish back that far. I photographed from the beginning of the registers to 1612 (baptisms, marriages and burials). I will have a look at them to see the names that are found in these early registers - I did note that there are several Gray families and I need to locate my Gray family prior to 1708 at Cherry Burton. My husband photographed the early Hutton Cranswick registers complete from 1657 (when they begin) up to 1747. I had not checked for my Gray family there and must do so now given the information that I learned on the East Yorkshire Listserv.

In all I took 174 images and my husband took 403. I will have a busy time going through all of those images. We are both waiting for one more film from Salt Lake City - Warrin for my husband (in Germany) and St Mary Bourne (Hampshire UK) for me. We do not expect them to arrive for another couple of weeks. I will see how much I go through tomorrow on my images and then decide whether I will go to the FHS Friday or next Monday. I found all the baptisms, marriages and burials I was looking for including Timothy and Ann Harland, Richard and Ann Sproxton burials. I also photographed a few Harland burials and a few Wilkinson burials that looked interesting.

A cursory glance such as I was using today did not reveal if my Harland and Wilkinson families were of the parish. Indeed the marriage between Timothy Harland and Ann Wilkinson was almost illegible. I am going to try to lighten that image to see if I am able to read the text. Unfortunately it is still quite illegible. I am thinking that the IGI entry must be from the Bishops Transcripts.

Tomorrow I will continue reviewing the images of Great Driffield as I want to go back and takes images of 1612 to 1720 of the baptisms, marriages and burials.

New Computer

I have been contemplating buying a new computer for about a year now and when we were shopping the other day we had noted the "Acer" computer. The "Acer" desktop was an interesting price of less than $500 with a lovely extended monitor (19") a little more and I am now nicely installed on both typing my blog today.

I usually inherited all the hand me down computers through the years that my husband was finished with and this last one was from 2000. The last couple of weeks in particular it was showing its age and searching had become a long laborious wait. The mouse sometimes didn't want to move about the screen and I was a little worried that I might be faced with a sudden computer failure like last year when my computer crashed. Fortunately I had heard this little ticking sound and just felt like something was going wrong. I had extracted all my data to the next hand me down (my youngest daughter's desktop) just in time as it failed to boot up just following a crash after I extracted my last bits of information! I didn't want a repeat performance so decided to be proactive. Normally I back up all of my data so that I would not experience loss of all of that but there are other little things on a computer that you hate to lose. I have all of my emails back to the beginning of my days of email (1995) and my bookmarks on Internet Explorer and Firefox are very important to me. Although I could find them again, some of the sites are unusual and I might forget which ones they are.

So here I am on my new computer and now my scanner can run on my desktop instead of only on my laptop. I can slip my SD card from my camera into this CPU which certainly wasn't a possibility with my old computer. My backup external hard drive can sit beside me so that I can spontaneously backup information whenever I choose without having to make space for my backup drive. This new CPU is just a small tower about 1/4 of the size of the old one. The biggest thing on my desk now is a microfiche reader. It is great having my workstation all set up to receive information now without a lot of interruption. I purchased a three year warranty as well. At that price I do not have to necessarily worry if I have to replace my computer in three years. Actually I will once again start to save for my next computer which will be a small laptop. When we go to Europe and England the next time I would like to have one of the smaller ones as I just use my laptop to collect information (images and data) and to use Skype to communicate back home. I do not need a large machine to do that.

Today is our day to work on Fruit Chili Sauce so that once again my genealogical endeavours must take a back seat. I need to get back to the Hinxman wills and I had meant to send my effort thus far back to my respondent but I didn't get along as far as I wanted to do. As I looked at the copy I realize that I have nearly read the entire text of the will with fill in here and there so will try to send that to him by the weekend. The inventory will take a little longer. This new screen may prove to be very beneficial as I can have the will on one side and the document on the other side of the screen. I have been doing top and bottom but it has not been smooth!

Fruit chili sauce all bottled and I did manage to do a little work on the will this afternoon. It is an interesting will as he refers to his shop (I am not sure what he did for a living but he might have been a draper). I am having a little trouble with the words that he uses to describe equipment in his shop. I shall have to have another go at the inventory as that would assist me with the main will.

Tomorrow I will continue with the will and spend some time on the Great Driffield film.

Back to Work

Three days pretty much lost to genealogy - nothing done at all! However, the days were most interesting and very family oriented which is not a usual thing with us in that our children are grown adults with their own lives. We enjoy our time with our children but also enjoy our time on our own probably because we were married for eight years before children and my mind goes back to those days of wild flower searching, birding, canoeing and hiking remembering them fondly. Our children always have first priority on our time but the rest of the time is all ours and mostly spent on genealogy. Why spend it on genealogy? Mostly because of this incredible desire borne of my trip to England in 2001 to understand my ancestral past.

I never experienced any "need to know" before 2001 and was quite content to let my various cousins write up the different lines. But now I would like to fit their work altogether along with my work and see where it takes me back in time. In the back of my mind I remember what my Grandfather told me about his Blake family (and his Knight family as he knew them quite well considering the distance apart and the dates involved) and I remember what my Grandmother said about her family which she mentioned more at the end of her life then when I was young.

I can remember after my grandfather died when I was eight years old that my grandmother said I didn't really love her until my grandfather died. He had lived with us until the last year or so and was a part of my daily life whereas my grandmother lived about a 20 minute bicycle ride away and I was too young to visit her. I can remember the first time I biked to her house. I didn't tell anyone I was going that far and it was just kind of a spontaneous decision. I knew that I had to travel down Windsor Avenue and cross over Wortley to get to her house but I was a bit lost and then I remembered the large Roman Catholic Church that was just down the street from her house and I was soon at 82 Dutchess Avenue.

The last time we were in London I went to look at her house and was shocked to see the overgrown weeds and the house looking much the worse for wear. It was immaculate when I was a child. She would be sad to see her wonderful garden all gone to weeds. But I digress. From the time I was turning nine I used to bike regularly to my grandmother's house and she would tell me stories at first about my grandfather (he had died when my mother was just eight years old) and then about my Canadian ancestors - little things that she knew. Then we talked about her English ancestors and some days she would say a lot and some days not a great deal. She was orphaned at 14 years when her father died and her mother had died when she was 11. The children were scooped up and put into Marston Green Cottage Homes (perhaps because her father was in the military or maybe just everyone was - I am unclear on that point). They were well taken care of and eventually the decision was made (I suspect that it was a mutual one on the part of the four children that were in the care of the Birmingham Union) that the four siblings of my grandmother would go to Canada.

My grandmother was by then working as a dressmaker having completed her apprenticeship as such and living with her Aunt Kate. She had an offer to stay with her father's three sisters who were by then living together (all widows) but decided to go to Canada since her siblings would all be there. Because one of my great aunts was too old to be placed my grandmother took charge of her in Canada and they lived together. It is a very long story that I must recite another time for my blog record but she would talk about that initially and then gradually she talked about her parents as she remembered them and their parents. She was vague on anything before that other than that her maternal grandfather and his ancestors were all shoemakers. The name Taylor and being a shoemaker was not an easy lookup in Birmingham but I have played away at that the last couple of years and once I find the marriage registration for Edwin Denner Buller and Ellen Taylor I will be able to prove the line that I obtained using family lore.

Today looks to be a sunny one here and perhaps less humid. The last two weeks have been warm with high humidity. Since this has been our first warm spell of the summer one doesn't like to complain at the oppressive humidity and it simply does not compare to real humidity that you find on Long Island!

I need to sit back a bit and think about what I am going to work on today. I have a number of need to do items but especially I need to be prepared to look at Great Driffield Parish Registers as they are now in at the Family History Centre. I am quite excited to have this film as it should help me with my Harland family there. Ann Harland married Richard Sproxton (of Hutton Cranswick) at Great Driffield 24 Dec 1753. Ann Harland was perhaps baptized 1 August 1731 at Great Driffield. She was the only Ann Harland baptized in a reasonable time frame and the daughter of Timothy Harland and Ann Wilkinson. Timothy and Ann had married at Great Driffield 24 Jun 1723. That much I learned at Salt Lake City but I did not pursue it further back when we were there as I was being firm not to go back further than 5x great grandparents in order to accomplish all of my goals. They were actually my 6x great grandparents so I exceeded the goal just that amount! Now I can have a look at the register and see if I can learn anything about the Harland and Wilkinson families. I will also look forward as the Sproxton family continued at Great Driffield for several generations.

Tomorrow we are going to make our Fruit Chili Sauce - 3 hours of boiling down all the vegetables fruit and we make about six jars at a time. We will do two lots. Later in the week I hope to get back to genealogy and will have a look at my Great Driffield parish register film at the Family History Centre. I will be looking at the Sproxton, Harland and Wilkinson families. I am back quite a ways now with these lines (5 x and 6x great grandparents). I hope to explore back to the beginning of this Parish Register. I am most fortunate in that it begins in 1566 so will be able to pursue these lines back 150 years if they were at Great Driffield. Of course Sproxton was not but Harland and Wilkinson may have been.

Interesting quandry - Gray

The Gray family has suddenly thrust itself forward after sitting dormant in my mind for quite a while. Meeting another researcher studying the line gives me a lot of ideas on my own line. They appear to be farmers (not well to do just small farmers I expect). They rent Glebe land I think as the Owner is a priest. They move about somewhat from Cherry Burton to Etton over a period of 140 years which is maybe not a lot of moving. Where they are before Cherry Burton is a mystery that reading all of the parish records can only solve. I need to look at Skerne and Watton for the name Gray as well. I know my ancestry for my Gray line back from my great grandmother who was a daughter of the emigrant Robert Gray Junior and my first Canadian born ancestor in 1839. Robert's parentage was known in my family as my mother knew that Grace's parents were Robert Gray Junior and Mary Routledge and that Robert's parents were Robert Gray and Elizabeth. She also knew that the Gray family was from Cherry Burton. This family lore proved to be true when I investigated the land records/parish registers for Cherry Burton and Etton. The Holme on the Wold registers are quite small (Robert and Jane only appear to have had two children). It is curious why they were baptized at Holme on the Wolds and not Cherry Burton. Robert was the only baptism in 1774 on the Bishops Transcripts (father listed as Robert Gray Husbandman). There were five baptisms in 1771 when Ellen (older sister to Robert) was baptized. I will continue to investigate as I did not find Robert Gray at Holme on the Wolds in the tax lists. My cousin wrote up the family in the 1970s and has the baptism for Robert Gray (our mutual ancestor) as Holme on the Wolds. Robert indicated on the census that his birthplace was Holme.

My youngest daughter started her clinical year at the hospital. She has wanted to be a physician since she was a young child and I have listened to her talk about it all these years. My personal preference for my daughter was that she do a Ph.D. like her older sister (she did do her MSc). However, I have only hinted at that, encouraged the idea of research and supported her every tendency to follow an academic/research career. But in the long run her main interest has always been healing. I am happy for her that she is doing that. Canada has a desperate need for physicians which will still be with us for another ten years or so simply because it takes a long time to graduate doctors (4 years of medical school, minimum of three years of residency for Family Medicine and longer for other specialties). It is a full time career really having worked in medicine in the 1960s and again in the 1990s-up to mid 2006. The difference in medicine between the 1960s and the 1990s is amazing. I worked in the lab in the 1960s and the miracles of the 70s, 80s, 90s and on into the present have created an enormous difference in the ability of medicine to solve problems and give people a longer lifespan where it would have been much shorter. They haven't cured everything but the inroads they have made into debilitating diseases is tremendous.

Occasionally people ask me (I always think it a bit rude to be honest) when we are going to have grandchildren but honestly there are enough children in the world and if my daughters decide never to have children they have my 100% support. Both of them are in full time careers that require a full time commitment and having children is not a particularly easy option. In the case of my youngest I can not even begin to say how proud I am of her taking on health care even if I would rather she was doing academia/research. Physicians are so desperately needed. They also have my 100% support if they decide to have children but that would be for them with me helping if they need help. The idea that one must have children is somewhat foreign to me. My husband and I enjoy our children now adults but no driving need here for grandchildren. We both have absolutely oodles of cousins/siblings all having children/grandchildren. I already have 4 neices, 3 nephews, 5 great nephews on my side and they are just starting into their child bearing years most of them. Five great nephews from my oldest neice and nephew alone already!

Although we are home all the time and could help out 100% we keep very busy bringing together our genealogies to pass on to our siblings and their descendants; our cousins and their descendants. I have proven back to all of my 3x great grandparents (with the problem discussed below) and I am in the process of proving the 4x great grandparents ( I am now down to missing the full names of 5 and the surnames of 2 of my 4x great grandparents in 7 of my great grandparents lines and for the eighth one (my maternal grandmother) I am missing three but need to find paper proof for the link between my great grandmother Ellen Taylor and the likely parents Thomas Taylor and Ellen Roberts - once that is resolved and if I am correct then I need to find 3 4x great grandparents)). Solving my maternal grandmother is a slowly evolving situation. I have my mtDNA Full Genetic Scan done and still no perfect matches. That may be my clue back along with paper data. I am working on family lore at the moment and where it was easy to locate the information I have accumulated it but do not want to make great expenditure on lines that are not mine.

Just back from an 11.6 km bicycle ride. It is starting to rain now so we were lucky that we went early. Now to bake the cakes and cupcakes for tomorrow. I will wait until tomorrow to ice them so that they have dried out a little but will still be tasty.

Cakes all baked and cooling. The day has passed quickly.

Tomorrow I will ice the cakes and that might just occupy quite a bit of my day.

Gray-Cobb-Hilton-Sproxton and others

I did receive an email from one of the Gray family descendants searching his line and belonging to the East Yorkshire Mailing List. I do not see a link between our lines in the 1700s and 1800s but perhaps earlier. He is still working his way back as am I. I hadn't really done anything with all the images that I brought back from Salt Lake City for East Yorkshire. Mostly because I am still working on my images from the 2nd and 3rd day and Yorkshire was the 5th and 6th day of research there.

I did determine that the Robert Gray at Cherry Burton in the late 1700s was the father of Robert Gray baptized at Holme on the Wolds (although I am not sure why he was baptized there). The burial registers for Etton and Cherry Burton revealed that Robert Gray who was baptized at Cherry Burton 4 Oct 1739 was the same Robert Gray who farmed at Cherry Burton into the early 1800s and who died at Etton and was buried at Cherry Burton 20 May 1808. There is only one Gray family at Etton in the Parish Registers. Robert Gray baptized at Holme on the Wolds 4 Aug 1774 was the Robert Gray who farmed at Etton from 1807 on from the Land Tax Records. He is still there well into the 1830s and I will give a more accurate picture of that once I review the Etton Land Tax Records which I filmed (every year although some of the images are somewhat blurry). My 2x great grandfather Robert Gray (aka Robert Gray Junior) also farmed at Etton before he emigrated to Canada in 1832. His prime reason for emigration was the lack of land for farming in his area and the abundance of it in London Township where he emigrated. His knowledge of this would have come from the Carling family who were brewers at Etton and whose son Thomas had emigrated to London Township in 1819 (he was a Talbot settler). Thomas married Margaret Routledge and in 1835 Robert Gray married Mary Routledge (her youngest sister). With Robert came his younger brother William and much later in the 1850s James their youngest brother emigrated to Canada - Richard and John remained in England as did their sisters Ann (never married) and Eliza who married Richard Hart Guy.

Having established the connection back to Cherry Burton I also was able to find the marriage of the parents of Robert Gray (Robert Gray and Jane Hilton who married 6 Jun 1771 at Cherry Burton). This would appear to be the Jane Hilton who was baptized 1 Aug 1739 at St Mary and St Nicholas, Beverley as one of the witnesses to the wedding was Robert Constable junior. The parents of Jane from the baptism were Thomas Hilton and Mary Constable. Robert could be Mary's brother. There only appears to be one child (Jane) in their family and Mary could be the Mary Constable baptized at Cherry Burton 14 Feb 1700 with father Robert. This Robert Gray's parents were Robert Gray and Ann Stephenson who married 2 Jul 1734 and I need to determine their other children hopefully from my images although I remember having difficulty with these years in the register. Robert Gray was baptized 28 May 1708 at Cherry Burton and was the son of another Robert Gray and it is at this point that I have difficulty. I am not sure who his father was in terms of where he was baptized. He does not appear to have been baptized at Cherry Burton. There is a Robert Gray baptized at Kilnwick in 1686 (28 May) who could be the Robert Gray buried 8 Aug 1736 at Cherry Burton. But this will require another long look at the registers.

I will now extract the Gray family from Hutton Cranswick given the information which I received from another researcher on his Gray family which is at Hutton Cranswick. I shall give a glance at the images that I took of the parish register when I did my initial run through.

An email from the Siderfin researchers that I was speaking of earlier on Genes Reunited came in today. I responded that we had chatted. I must admit that I do not mind turning over the Siderfin one name study to him if he wishes to take it on. He is advertising for people to send him their information and he will put together a family tree which is an excellent idea and I will wait to see what emerges. I have quite a bit of information that I have pulled out of the census which I had thought about putting up on a webpage (up to 1890) along with the images of the book on the Siderfin family by Sanders. I have already put up a Legacy file of the information in James Hooper Sanders book. There are errors and I have put in a note showing the correction to my line. I am not sure that I agree with the researchers thoughts on James not knowing his own great grandfather. I think that his family being inlaws with the Clark family does make sense but will wait and see what evolves in that regard. I do not have the advantage of all the records at Taunton with respect to the family.

Tomorrow I need to work on the cake for the engagement party. I decided that I would make the Wedding cake, this will be a trial run and I will see how I like doing that. I will use fondant icing for the engagement cake. Otherwise I will have a cake made for their wedding. I could bake the cake and cupcakes and just have everything iced. Other than that everything is ordered or purchased. Just the punch to make on Friday and cook the meatballs in sauce. My ability to do a great deal of preparation and then actually appear at a party is limited! I can do one or the other. Usually I choose to do the former and pass on the celebration but this is my daughter's party and I can not disappoint her.

Gill-Gale Family at Bishops Nympton

Discovered a rather interesting item for a requester looking for information on their Gill family at Bishops Nympton. For reasons unknown to me the priest spelled the name of this family Gale starting with the marriage of one of the sons of William Gill in the late 1770s. He continued with the Gale spelling for this family line into the 1800s although siblings were spelled Gill. Solved a mystery for the requester who had been trying to locate her ancestors on the IGI for awhile. I double checked all of my entries just to see if I had made a transcription error but the priest had clearly written Gale.

A little more work completed on the Hinxman wills and I decided to put off ordering the Blake wills from the Hampshire Record Office until September. I really do not have time to work on them right now. The days are flying past.

We had a lovely walk with the dogs up to the video store to return "Knowing" which I had watched for a second time today. No bike ride today though - too humid still.

Tomorrow more work on the Hinxman will.

Hinxman Wills - 18 August 2009

I continued working on the Hinxman Will and have something in every line now! I started on the Inventory as well. I think perhaps it is a combination of the very poor writing and the lightness of some of the strokes that makes this particular will difficult.

I created a new Group on GenealogyWise - my Rawlin[g]s family. Over a period of 250 years the spelling changed in my line from Rawlins to Rawlings. Some lines retained the Rawlins spelling particularly in Australia. I have an interesting picture of the house of one of these Rawlins' ancestor in Wiltshire. This Rawlins family is found at Enford from 1743 on with the baptism of William 17 Nov 1743 the son of William and Mary Rawlins. They baptized six more children (5 at Enford and 1 at Netheravon). The baptism at Netheravon reads William and Mary Rawlins from Enford and it is for my ancestor (4x great grandfather Jeremiah Rawlins). I have managed to trace down 5 of these siblings and the sixth sibling (the eldest) was traced down by their descendant in Australia. She may provide the clue to where William and Mary lived. They appear to have married at Wylye 30 Sep 1741 but this is still up for debate. I spent several hours looking at the parish registers of Wylye and the parishes around Wylye long enough to determine that neither William nor Mary were of Wylye. If this is their marriage then it is William Rawlins and Mary Foord. There are Ford families at Enford but I didn't find a baptism that fits for Mary yet. I need to purchase the Enford fiche prior to the 1740s to determine that. I did have a brief look at Salt Lake City but this particular register is not overly easy to read and requires more study than I could give it at the time. I was especially interested at that time in determining if the marriage between Thomas Rawlins and Mary Dove 9 Dec 1807 at Woodford Wiltshire was my ancestor's marriage. I know that his wife was Mary and examining the registers showed that Thomas and Mary were considered to be of the parish and there were Dove families there and posible parents for Mary but her baptism was missing. William Dove and Jane Morgan had married at Saint Thomas, Salisbury, Wiltshire 1 Jan 1783 but the baptisms of their children in the Woodford register begin in 1793 with the baptism of Robert 14 Apr 1793 (he died as an infant). No further children were born to this couple at Woodford. The Dove family is found at Woodford back into the early 1700s at least.

Off to the dentist today. Our smog warning has lifted and it is very warm here today 40 degrees celsius. The dentist appointment leaves me with a tooth to cap which is fine. I would rather cap them when they are full of filling. I expect to have six caps in total and I have four already. It could be I might have one more. By flossing and cleaning in the morning and then using the new dental picks and cleaning in the evening I have managed to eliminate a lot of plaque buildup which pays its premiums when I go for a cleaning! We have a dental plan which is most helpful although I will have to pay 50% of the cap (or whatever the portion left from what the plan will pay).

We went shopping in the afternoon. I wanted to have a look at dresses for the wedding but got quickly distracted buying a new outfit for the engagement party - not too expensive actually as everything was on sale. I got a pair of slacks 25% off and a top for just $7.99 regularly $39.99. I had liked the look of them earlier but didn't want to spend $40 for something I wouldn't wear very often.

Watched the movie "Knowing" in the evening after cooking our dinner. We decided to do Kraft Dinner with deviled eggs and left over salads from our dinner yesterday. Excellent meal actually. I never liked Kraft Dinner since I was a child but have acquired a taste for it the last year or so. I think because it is an easy meal that we can just prepare in ten minutes and accompany it with a salad and hot dogs. The movie was very very interesting - scary I suppose but it had a deeper meaning which I am finding these days with a lot of the movies. The use of Biblical imagery really suited the presentation and was totally not offensive. The idea of God seeding other worlds is quite fascinating and gives some hope that our civilization could survive far into the eons. The promise of Abraham and his seed forever would thus be fulfilled. I can not think that God intended otherwise although when one looks around at the results of human habitation on the planet one wonders about the survival of the earth. Although I firmly believe that nature will eventually win and teach us how to live with the earth - something our First peoples already knew how to do before we arrived. I think being a late comer and with so few emigrant ancestors I tend to look at this differently. Having just the three Canadian born ancestors does affect one's thinking (my mother, her father and his mother) as most of my forebearers descendants are still living in England. I represent just a few transplanted lines - Routledge (and Routledge) in 1818, Gray in 1832, Pincombe (and Rew) in 1850, Buller in 1908 and Blake (and Rawlings) in 1913. The bracketed name of course represents the spouse of the ancestor who emigrated. Two came as singles - my 2x great grandfather Robert Gray from Etton and my grandmother Ellen Rosina Buller from Birmingham.

This morning I intend to continue looking at the Hinxman Will and prepare a list of items for purchase from the Hampshire Registration Office. I have several more wills that I want to acquire - Richard Blake (1522), Robert Blake (1522), Jone Blake (1528), Thomas Blake (1541) and Robert Blake (1542). These five wills (I have transcripts of two of them) may be an eye opener with regard to the name of the husband of Jone Blake who wrote her will in 1527 and was probated in 1528. She was my 13x great grandmother and the mother of Nicholas my 12x great grandfather. It still amazes me being back that far with my Blake line although published genealogies claim a connection back to the Wiltshire Blake family at Pinhills and Calne. Time will tell on that connection as I am not accepting it just because it is published. I want to see the proof for the relationship.

Hinxman Wills - 16 August 2009

I continued working on the will of William Hinxman today. I decided to go back to the beginning and clean up the lines and see what else I could read. I managed quite well and am happy with about the first 15 lines now. That is progress. I spent a little more time on the later lines and will continue with it again tomorrow.

As well I joined the East Yorkshire Mailing list at Yahoo. I have had a couple of comments back but no one descended from my lines. I am trying to decide if I overwhelmed with details since no one has responded after the first initial responses! I have done a fair amount of work on my families in East Yorkshire from the mid 1700s to the end of the 1800s. The Tax records are particularly interesting as they list my Gray and Cobb ancestors and assist me in finding where they were in the 150 year period that they cover. The Tax records include the Poor Law Rate and the Land Tax Assessments from 1780 to the 1830s.

Tomorrow we are off to the dentist for teeth cleaning. As well I shall work on the will and start to work up my transcriptions for Timberscombe and Andover. I have read quite a bit of Skerne PR and will look at Watton PR tomorrow but I do not think that my lines were at these parishes. We did a 13 K bicycle ride first thing this morning.

Hinxman Wills - 15 August 2009

I tackled the most difficult of the Hinxman wills that I received to transcribe first. It is certainly a challenge although it is helpful that he is quite repetitive in his bequests to his children. I believe I have all the children now and this was a large family: William (eldest son it would appear), Joseph, Christopher and John are the sons and Elizabeth, Jane, Joane, and Joyes are the daughters. Kinsman/kinswoman are Andrew Henxman and Joane Hinxman and possibly Edward Henxman. A number of friends are listed as well. William appears to be fairly comfortable as he has a lot of household possessions. None of his children appear to be married. Very little money is mentioned nor property. It is more than 59 lines in length. I have done a first run through of page 1 and have text in the first 32 lines. It will likely be slow going but I shall send it off to a fellow researcher towards the end of the week as a rough draft.

I will leave the will for a while now and continue entering in my Sproxton data in case the next films come in more quickly than anticipated. I await Great Driffield and St Mary Bourne. The St Mary Bourne will be an easy read (I think!) because it is a typewritten transcription of the register. I shall extract all of the Lambden entries back as far as they go in the document. That way I will have it at hand in case Nathanael is actually a descendant of this Lambden family that quite early arrives in the St Mary Bourne area possibly from Berkshire where the Lambden family is most commonly found in the 1500s and early 1600s. The Great Driffield will be quite exciting when it arrives as it will have information on the Harland family. Ann Harland (my 5x great grandmother) married Richard Sproxton 24 Jun 1753 at Great Driffield. She was the youngest child of Timothy Harland and his wife Anne Wilkinson - marriage extraction on IGI). I have not yet been able to determine baptismal information for either of these two people although there was a Harland family at Great Driffield. Timothy Harland married Ann Wilkinson 24 Jun 1723 at Great Driffield.

I returned to working on the Hinxman will and made a couple of good breakthroughs with the text. It is moving along and I hope to finish it by the end of next week.

Tomorrow we have company for dinner and hope to get in a short canoeing trip. I will likely get some transcription done now that it is flowing a little better.

Sproxton - Watton and Skerne

I returned to the Family History Library yesterday to continue imaging the pertinent details for the Sproxton family at Hutton Cranswick up to 1800 and also to collect images of the Skerne and Watton Parish Registers. I took 394 images in total and will now start to look at these two parishes with respect to my family lines. This has proven to be an interesting search back in time as I have verified my line back to John Sproxton (the elder) married to Isobel and they had three known children: John Sproxton (the younger or junior) married to Ann Simpson 5 Jan 1659 at Hutton Cranswick and who was buried 8 Apr 1714 at Hutton Cranswick, Margarett married to Marmaduke Huwbanke12 May 1668 at Hutton Cranswick, and Francis who was buried 2 Sep 1657 at Hutton Cranswick (impossible to determine his age at that time).

Margaret Garrit (wife of Richard Sproxton (the elder)) was from Rotsea - from Genuki: "ROTSEA, in the parish of Hutton Cranswick, and wapentake of Harthill; 2¾ miles E. of Hutton Cranswick, 6 miles SE. of Driffield. Pop. 23."

I reviewed the entries for Sproxton in the parish registers for Hutton Cranswick and can firmly say that Richard Sproxton junior married Dorothy English and that Elizabeth and Dorothy baptized in 1717 and 1719 respectively are their first two children.

I copied the parish registers for Skerne and Watton to look further at on my computer where I can zoom in and the reading is a little easier. The early registers are in latin. I am hoping to find some of my lines - Garrit, English, Sproxton, Simpson - perhaps there. Time will tell.

We went for an 11 K bike ride this morning and then I was off shopping for the items needed for the engagement party for your youngest daughter. It will be very pleasant I am sure and then the preparations for the wedding in mid-December. A very busy time ahead for all of us. My eldest is off to Wisconsin to begin her assistant professorship there and we will miss her of course. But it is exciting to see her heading off into her academic career that she has worked so hard to achieve. The defense of her thesis being the final step (and its submission to the Faculty all accomplished) and now she can head into her interesting research and teaching portfolio.

Now I need to get back to my transcriptions and work on my lecture to update it although that will not be a rush. Closer to the beginning of September to produce my handouts from my already prepared slides and then do the updates right at the end before the lecture so that it is timely. I am looking forward to giving it as it is my last and I shan't have to do that again!

Sproxton - Interesting puzzle

Examining the images further for Richard Sproxton and the marriages has given me further details. Grace Sarum married Marmaduke Wiles in 1703 and Marmaduke was buried in 1719 leaving her a widow. Richard Sproxton married Grace Wiles in 1720. The priest does not note that she is a widow unfortunately but the earlier priest had added Richard Sproxton junior to the marriage of Richard Sproxton and Dorothy English adding further proof to the marriage being the correct one and Richard Sproxton's parents being Richard Sproxton and Dorothy English. I haven't been able to discover anything about Dorothy English but will cotinue checking into that family line.

I continued working with the John Sproxton line (although not mine I decided I might as well figure it out for the 1600s and early 1700s). The use of senior, junior and younger is helpful and I was able to separate all the families and put them into legacy under the appropriate parent. The John line is a much larger one in the early 1700s and is the line that remains at Hutton Cranswick into the early 1800s. The Richard line moves to Great Driffield where my Richard marries Ann Harland and when the Great Driffield film arrives I will be able to sort them out I am hoping.

We went for a two hour canoe ride in the bayou of the Ottawa River which is around Petrie Island. It is a most pleasant canoe ride and with three of us paddling we were able to traverse quite a distance in the two hours. We had marvelous views of yellow and white water lillies. We will try to get out again for a few more rides before the summer is past. No time for a bike ride these past few days with all the film viewing. I will just do one more day on Hutton Cranswick and also looking at Watton, Skerne and Beswick. I want to have a fresh eye to look at Watton and Beswick as I think that there may be a few entries there that might interest me. The Skern registers are badly damaged and I did not really see anything that would be helpful.

We are into the first really warm spell of the summer but you can tell that the cooler days are soon to come as the evenings cool off quite quickly. This is the coolest summer that I can remember for awhile. In some ways it is nice but the ripening is slower in the garden. So although our tomatoes are quite lovely they are still very green.

No time spent on the will today but I shall get back to it once I have finished with the Hutton Cranswick film. The Great Driffield film will be awhile as it had to be created from the master copy and it is possible that St Mary Bourne film will come first. It is a transcription and if it doesn't help me then I will buy the fiche for the parish registers from the Hampshire Record Office.

Welch family and Family History Library

I had a query on the Thomas Welch family in Birmingham. Thomas (b 1826 Rugeley Staffordshire) was a wheelwright and married to Ann (b 1834 Worcester) and they appear on the 1861 census with two children: John b 1856 and Martha b 1860. This is all the information that I have on Thomas - he is my first cousin 4 x removed. I haven't investigated him at all other than that information which I passed back to the individual who contacted me on Genes Reunited. I did take another look and found two marriages to Ann Williams Dec quarter 1852 and Dec quarter 1852. The first at Kings Norton and the second at Birmingham. Ann would have only been 17 in 1851 and 18 in 1852. Perhaps she married under age without permission and then married a second time with permission. There are too many births at Birmingham with surname Welch to determine if there were other children but there is an Emily born December quarter 1854 which would likely be the inquirer's ancestor (2x great grandmother). She is waiting for the birth certificate of Emily to determine the mother's maiden name. I wonder how many wheelwrights there would have been in Birmingham with the name Thomas Welch!

Off to the family history library soon and our research there. The days pass quickly for us with so many lines to look at. My husband will continue to draw out information on his Niemann ancestors at Staven and his Schulz/Passow ancestors at Brohm. He is putting together charts for the family reunion of the Schulz family in September. We have learned so much since the last reunion that it will be very interesting. We are a small group but very interlinked as Ada (my husband's grandmother) married William Henry Kipp and Charles (Ada's brother) married Elizabeth Kipp. Both of the Kipp lines are descended from Benjamin Kipp and Elizabeth Force although coming down from different lines with William Henry being the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth and Elizabeth the daughter of William Henry's brother Alfred. We have pictures of Benjamin and Elizabeth that we can bring with us in a Legacy file and pictures of the parents of Charles and Ada.

I spent some time on my lecture yesterday which I quite missed in my blog! It is ready to go but I will update some of the statistics before the lecture. It is interesting to me because it is my family and I hope that the audience enjoys it. The applicability is that this is a British Isles Family History group and all of my ancestry is British with this exciting deep ancestry created by my mtDNA which points to Scotland and the Scot/Irish in Ireland. Looking at my paternal ancestry involves a surname which is found in many parts of Ireland and in England. I end with the interesting mtDNA case history of my husband's 3x great grandmother - a young orphaned Irish girl (from Dublin) who came to Halifax as a young child. It will be my last lecture as I have decided not to do public speaking anymore. I find it very time consuming and I would like to dedicate my time to publishing some of the interesting items that I have discovered as I have moved back in time transcribing a lot of records on the way back.

The Family History Library ended up being an all day research as I decided to stay on for the afternoon session. I only took 113 images today because I was reading the Register searching out entries that I had missed in my first go through. I made a rather interesting discovery though. Richard Sproxton (bap 2 Oct 1691 Hutton Cranswick) did not marry Grace Wiles 19 Jan 1720. This was his father Richard's second marriage (Richard was baptized 2 Aug 1663 at Hutton Cranswick and had married Margaret Garrit 30 Sep 1688 at Hutton Cranswick). Margaret was buried 20 Sep 1720 and although the time interval is very short I none the less believe that this was his marriage. I suspect she was probably a widow and I am looking again at the marriages in the Wiles family at Hutton Cranswick. Richard (b 1688) was buried 3 Jan 1744 at Hutton Cranswick and Grace was buried 2 Jun 1753 also at Hutton Cranswick. There was such a large gap between the children of Richard and Margaret and the baptism of Elizabeth and Dorothy (children of Richard Sproxton and Dorothy English) and the burials of the other two provide the evidence that Richard Sproxton (bap 2 Oct 1691) married Dorothy English 15 Nov 1716 at Hutton Cranswick. Grace is listed as a widow when she was buried in 1753 and Richard Sproxton (bap 1691) was not buried until 9 Jun 1768. Dorothy (English) Sproxton was buried as a widow 19 Jan 1772 at Hutton Cranswick. It will take me a few days to fill in all the information on my Legacy file. I have found the evidence for the first marriage of John Sproxton (the elder) to Isobel with her burial 22 Aug 1650 and the subsequent second marriage of John Sproxton (the elder) to Anne Husen 25 Aug 1659 (mentioned as a widow). His son referred to as John Sproxton (the younger) married Ann Simpson of Beverley 5 Jan 1659 and he was the father of Richard (bap 1663). So all in all a very productive day and I would like to see the Protestation Returns if they exist for East Riding of Yorkshire. Along with subsidies that will likely be the only way to determine a linkage back in this family.

A new term for me is Grassman and I am assuming that is like a yeoman farmer. I shall have to join the Yorkshire list - something I have been meaning to do - to learn more about some of the terminology used in this county.

Tomorrow I will continue sorting and entering my results from today into Legacy. As well, I will continue working on the Hinxman will.

Getting ready for the FHS Library

Today I continued transcribing the William Hinxman will from 1579 and it is becoming less spotty but will be a little while completing. The Inventory should also be interesting and I found an inventory from the late 1500s that I shall use as an aid for the terminology in this inventory. Household effects are fairly standard so should be a good aid. It is quite an interesting will as William names many of his relatives as well as his own family. The Hinxman family at Andover is, I think, a rather small one in the 1500s and finding son Joseph there was quite rewarding as well as a son William. It does mean that the Hinxman families that I have found at Andover are related which is always helpful.

I also want to get ready to go to the Family History Library tomorrow morning to continue looking at the Hutton Cranswick Parish Registers. I will now start at the beginning and take images of the pertinent entries for the Sproxton/Simpson/Garrit/Wiles families. It would appear that John Sproxton Junior married Ann Simpson 5 Jan 1659 and that it was another John Sproxton who married Anne Huser in August 1659. It will be interesting to see if I can determine if this was John Sproxton Senior in a new marriage. I want to work my way through the register up to the late 1700s to ensure that I find all the BMBs for these families. In 1753 my Richard Sproxton married Ann Harland at Great Driffield and my Sproxton family is found there after that time.

If I complete all of that then I will look at the other Parish Registers on this microfilm (a bonus for me) which include: Skerne, Watton, Beswick which are all lying beside my parishes of Hutton Cranswick and Kilnwick on the Wolds. The other two parishes Burton Agnes and Bridlington Quay are somewhat away but I do have a couple of entries for Bridlington so will also look at them later.

Another full day spent working away on items plus a 14 km bike ride. I did a little more on the will and a little more on the Sproxton family.

Hinxman Wills

My husband had a meeting in Morrisburg today so I drove along with him and took a Hinxman will with me that I am transcribing. It will be a challenge as it is from 1579. I set up my template and captured the phrases that I recognized quickly. I like to transcribe on the computer and this I was doing from a paper copy. It was a good start and I am starting to become familiar with the writing.

I continued looking at Sproxton and heard back from one of the people who has Sproxton at both GeneTree and Ancestry. She mentioned that the furtherest back John Sproxton was married to Ann Simpson so I checked out my images and discovered that John Sproxton junior married Ann Simpson 6 Jan 1659 and the marriage that I found between John Sproxton and Anne Huser was perhaps his father marrying a second time although I need to go back to the register and have another look. This is very near the beginning of the register so may not be able to solve that. But in the meantime I can not quite make out the parish for Ann Simpson so will check that out on Tuesday to see if I can read it on the original.

Tomorrow I will continue listing all the images that I have made thus far and the records that I should be able to find on the Hutton Cranswick film. Then I shall be ready on Tuesday to continue working on the film. I haven't heard yet if Great Driffield is in but perhaps later this week or early next week. I am also going to order St Mary Bourne Hampshire film in as my husband has another one to order in for his German ancestors. He has done very well with his film and found his great grandmother quite readily and has traced her back to her grandparents. A very good research time for his microfilm. I have also found quite a bit so am very pleased. Too bad that the film only goes back to 1653 as it would be interesting to see if I could trace John Sproxton back to Wakefield Yorkshire.

Canoeing

Yesterday, we decided to take the canoe out and for me this was the first time I have been out canoeing in seven years. A little stiff today but we had a good trip around the bayou at Pelee Island.

My accomplishments yesterday on family tree research were very low although I had a response from my query on the Sproxton family to a member of Genes Reunited and Ancestry (I believe it was the same person). She is descended from the brother of Ann (both children of Richard Sproxton and Ann Harland Sproxton). That would make us sixth cousins. It is the first time that I have tried to locate descendants of that line (especially as the spelling I had for Ann's surname was Sprowston (incorrectly transcribed from the register). Having read the register I can see how the error occurred!

I did not start the wills transcription but will do so either today or tomorrow. I need to read away at them for a couple of days before I start to transcribe if they are a bit faint or blurry. Sometimes I can directly read one as soon as I download it but usually they are very old copy and have areas of lightness and blurriness.

We are still busy watching JAG and All Creatures Great and Small. We are into the 7th season of JAG and the 3rd season of All Creatures Great and Small. We managed to watch for nearly 4 hours yesterday. I guess we were tired of working away on our family trees and my husband has been putting together his two journals.

Today I shall read on the wills and perhaps do some more extracting of Sproxton from the various databases. It is a most interesting family and they are primarily found in Yorkshire well into the 1800s. My branch (Elizabeth Cobb daughter of John Cobb and Ann Sproxton Cobb was the mother of Robert Gray junior) emigrated to Canada in 1832 from Yorkshire where Robert Gray junior had been a farmer but was having problems renting farmland and so decided to try his luck in Canada. He farmed here successfully until his death in 1876 and the farm that he was on still continues to be farmed by Gray descendants here in Middlesex County (London Township) although the City of London is growing outwards creeping forward towards the farm lands of my Gray and Routledge ancestors. It has already absorbed the farmland that my Pincombe family was on although it is still farmland but very much part of the City of London. The Gray family is interesting and three sons emigrated, two sons stayed as did the two daughters. One son became a clergyman and I need to glance at the others once again but they were all quite successful in their vocation. I think perhaps farming was just difficult with enclosure.

Sproxton - BMDs, Census

I have a project in mind that involves me reading old text so I am reading that intermittently and extracting Sproxton members from FreeBMD, IGI and the Census. I have both Ancestry and FindMyPast so I use them together to find my people and then save them to my computer for future family assembly. This will be the first time that I have selected a name and decided on collecting all the information on that name for a one name study from scratch. Both my Pincombe and my Siderfin study had a lot of material assembled when I took them on at the Guild of one name Studies. I will wait awhile to take on Sproxton (if I ever actually do a one name study on this surname). Free BMD has 146 births in almost a 100 year interval, 88 marriages (that is less than 2 births to a marriage!), and 82 deaths. At least the births are exceeding the deaths by a good percentage. On the other hand this was a very small family in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s so not so many people who are old actually. From the IGI I found 104 baptisms between 1686 and 1890 (13 are patron entries which I usually ignore but in this case I have entered them and marked them as such since this is a very small family), 60 marriages between 1605 and 1892 (11 are patron entries and six between 1837 and 1892 are likely duplicates), and 3 burials all patron entries. I will be adding the data from the parish registers that I have extracted as well. The baptisms go back to 1653 at Hutton Cranswick and are missing from the IGI. All in all a very interesting sideline while I work on the wills.

We went shopping and found some interesting DVDs to watch and then took a 10K bicycle ride.

Tomorrow I hope to start transcribing the wills and continuing to extract data for the Sproxton family.

Sproxton - Hutton Cranswick

I expect that the Sproxton family will occupy me for a little while in my blog. I updated my legacy file with all the Sproxton entries in the IGI so that I can check them against the Hutton Cranswick film on Tuesday next. I printed off a map of the East Riding of Yorkshire which includes my pertinent parishes - Cherry Burton, Etton, Holme on the Wolds, Lund, Kilnwick on the Wolds, Hutton Cranswick, and Great Driffield. Interesting they all touch on corners or share borders. The Gray, Cobb, Hilton, Sproxton, Stephenson, Aly, Beilby, Harland, Todd, Wiles, Wilkinson, Garrit, Huser, and Cooper lines all live in one or other of these parishes. They form an interesting tree stretching back from Robert Gray Junior with parents Robert Gray Senior and Elizabeth Cobb (my emigrant ancestor who arrived in London Township by 1832). Looking at the other parishes on the Hutton Cranswick microfilm (Beswick, Watton, Skerne, Burton Agnes and Bridlington Quay) may be quite helpful to me with respect to marriages that I can not locate in the other parishes or baptisms - less so Burton Agnes and Bridlington Quay since they do not touch on the other parishes but I will give them a glance anyway :).

I am also starting to read through the three wills from the 1500s that I am going to transcribe. I am looking forward to reading them as they are on the Hinxman family. Although they are from an earlier time period than Eleanor Blake Hinxman they will none the less bring some light to bear on this family in Andover in the 16th century.

We were off for an 11 km bicycle ride early this morning just to start our day off. It was cool for an early August morning actually but our weather this summer has been very wet and cooler than usual. However, I will not complain - the gardens and lawns are beautiful this year.

I also did my short research note for the BIFHSGO journal which was due last week but we were away and then I forgot when I got back home. Thank goodness for email reminders. Today my first publication in an English genealogical journal was published (Cumbria Journal) and it is the Protestation Returns for Lanercost. I actually have transcribed every parish in the Eskdale Ward and will eventually get them proofread and can publish them if they want or simply give them to the Cumbria Record Office.

This evening we had everyone over for a barbeque and to plan the engagement party for our youngest and her husband to be. We have that all done and just need to put in our order. The dogs had a great time and enjoyed their steak.

My sister pointed out a possible error in the Carling tree. I had put this together about five years ago when I first started genealogy and had the material from another researcher. The tombstone says that Hannah Carling Beverley's parents were John and Ann not Thomas and Elizabeth as I had understood. I do find a patron entry for parents of Hannah Carling Beverley of John Carling and Ann Hodgson from Rowley (three parishes below Cherry Burton). I really have no idea on that. Thomas and Elizabeth married at Etton just 10 months before Hannah was born but her baptism isn't recorded at Etton so somewhat suspicious. I will put that one on the back burner for when we return to Salt Lake City. I have a lower interest these days in the Carling line as it is a collateral line to my own and I was researching it to see if I could learn more about the Gray family through it but actually I uncovered all the details directly at Salt Lake City and didn't need the assistance of a collateral line.

Tomorrow I shall work on the will transcriptions and finish preparing to go into the LDS on Tuesday. I want to have a list of all the Sproxton and collateral entries that I have not yet verified. I was very pleased to get back another two generations at Hutton Cranswick and would like to find the information for Grace Wiles, Margaret Garrit and Anne Huser and their parents/grandparents if possible. This microfilm has certainly provided a number of interesting pieces of information.

Pincombe and family, Visit to FHC

A two part post today as I am beginning the day by looking once again at my Pincombe family in Bishops Nympton and the families that married into the Pincombe family (I am sure that members of the other families see this exactly opposite :) ).

The Blackemoore family at Bishops Nympton and mine appears to have been there from the beginning of the Parish Registers was initially a puzzle for me. I had found the marriage of Johan Blackemore and John Pincombe and believed them to be the parents of William Pincombe who married Mary Vicary 17 Jun 1685 at Bishops Nympton and they were the parents of two children in as much as I am able to determine. John was baptized 12 Jul 1692 at Bishops Nympton and his sister Joan was buried 26 Mar 1726 but I do not have a baptism for her. Their mother was buried 5 Apr 1726 and all at Bishops Nympton.

Once I established that the chart that I had inherited from the earlier Pincombe researchers was incorrect - the marriage between Grace Manning and John Pincombe was a John Pincombe from a different line - then I was able to move backwards. I determined that the parents of my John Pincombe married to Mary Charley (Charlie) were indeed John Pincombe and Grace Manning since the John Pincombe that was a son of John Pincombe and Catherine Bryer was clearly someone else in the register.

I could then go back to the family of John Pincombe and Johane Blackemore and follow their children's lines which brought me to John Pincombe and Catherine Bryer through a different son. Then I had Johane Blackemore and which one was she. That proved to be quite straightforward that she was the daughter of Anthonie Blackemore (Anthonie was buried just three months before the wedding and the bride's mother is identified as Johane) and his father was Thomas Blackemore who appears on the Devon Visitation of 1620. This visitation lists the ARMS: Or, on a fess between three moors' heads side-faced, couped sable, three crescents argent and CREST: A moor's head erased sable, gorged or.

All these crests are very interesting and I think over time I will accumulate them just for "meat on the bones" of our ancestors. In this case I can trace directly back to the holder of this coat of arms (Thomas Blackemoore). Now that I have worked that through I will add it all to my Pincombe one name study Legacy tree which is slowly growing and will eventually be on my website.

I could photograph all the charts and put them up and may do that one day but for the moment I think they are confusing since I have found some of them inaccurate. They were put together by the earlier researchers using information gleaned first hand from informants. Although interesting, I feel more comfortable with the BMB, will and land information being used to reconstruct family lines. It is easy to mix lines!

My post will continue later with my observations from the Family History Centre as we will be off to there in another hour or so.

I spent the entire three hours on the Hutton Cranswick microfilm. I was able to find the marriage of John Sproxton and Anne Huser in 1659. I am not sure where this Sproxton line is going actually. I did some searching on the Internet last night (I only just learned about my Sproxton line last fall when we went to Salt Lake City and I could see the correct spelling - incorrectly spelled on the IGI) and there was a village called Sproxton in North Riding of Yorkshire which is in the Domesday Book as the King's Land. The Sproxton family seem to be quite old and they lived at Wakefield WRY in the 1500s. The next record to search is the Protestation Returns for Hutton Cranswick to see if the Sproxton family is there in 1641-42. The PRs only go back to the late 1650s. There are three Sproxton males baptizing children in the second quarter of the 1700s - Richard (my ancestor), Isaac and John. I need to keep reading the film to find all the Sproxton entries.

As well on the tape are the PRs for the villages of Skerne, Watton, Beswick, Christ Church - Bridlington Quay, and Burton-Agnes. All of these also interest me so I can see that I shall be quite busy with this tape until it has to go back 19 September 2009. I was unable to find baptisms for Grace Wiles, Margaret Garrit or Anne Husey who are my 6x, 7x and 8x great grandmothers respectively. I was feeling a bit impatient for Driffield PRs to come but I think that the wait will be quite advantageous to let me completely finish this microfilm first. The Bradfield PRs I will look at again before I send it back but there isn't anything in it that can help me to discover if this is my Nathanael Lambden.

Bradfield BRK and Hutton Cranswick ERY

We spent the morning at the Family History Centre reviewing the microfilms that we ordered in. I ordered in Bradfield BRK, Hutton Cranswick ERY and Driffield ERY. Unfortunately only 2 of my 3 films arrived: Bradfield and Hutton Cranswick. The Driffield leads into the Hutton Cranswick but not a problem since I have all the Sproxton information already that leads me back into Hutton Cranswick.

I started with Bradfield Parish Registers and I am looking for more information on Nathanael Lambden. Unfortunately this Parish Register didn't help me very much except to verify the records on the IGI. I can still not say that this Nathanael Lambden is my Nathanael Lambden who is at Andover at least from 1751 on when Nathaniel, eldest child, was baptized. I was hoping that Nathanael may have married Sarah at Bradfield as they did not marry at Andover. I have not yet found a burial registration for Nathanael although Sarah was buried at Andover 8 Nov 1797. I need to check and see if that was as a wife or as a widow or no mention of either. I have forgotten now! Definitely the wife of John Lambden (mother of the Nathanael Lambden baptized at Bradfield) is not Joan Caruthue. I am still working on her name but it comes closer to: _aruttens. I suspect the first letter is a B but that doesn't match any of the names closeby either. The Lambden family is not a common name at Bradfield although I want to review all the images that I made today to have a good look.

I have completed that survey of the 40 scans at varying years and I would say that the Lambden family did not live at Bradfield for an extended time period. I know by the Poor Rate that John Lamden held leases there (he paid his poor tax) in 1726. That is the only record that I have found thus far on the microfilm. Interestingly Mary Lambden (likely sister of Nathanael) was married in 1756 at Bradfield but she did not sign the register although Nathanael signed the register when his daughter Elizabeth married in 1789 (but Elizabeth did not sign, she made her mark). Perhaps this family only educated males!

I can not do very much more with this microfilm. I needed to at least look at it. Probably I should try to discover the other parishes where the Lambden family lived (known to be at Reading) in the area. That might be helpful. Also I will look at the St Mary Borne Parish Registers as the Lambden family were there in Hampshire as well.

Continuing to review the remainder of the images that I captured and this time of the Hutton Cranswick Parish Register. I found Richard Sproxton's baptism in 1721 and verified it and also that of his father Richard Sproxton 2 Oct 1691 also at Hutton Cranswick and Richard married Grace Wiles 19 Jan 1720. This Richard's parents were: Richard Sproxton and Margaret Garrit who married 30 Sep 1688 at Hutton Cranswick. I did manage to find this Richard's baptism 2 Aug 1663 at Hutton Cranswick with father John Sproxton. I need to review the register as it is a little blurry in my picture and there is more information in the line that just the name John Sproxton. I will see if there is a marriage for John Sproxton in this register. I would like to find Grace Wiles' baptism (Wiles is a fairly common name at Hutton Cranswick) and also a baptism for Margaret Garrit. That will be one of my assignments for tomorrow. If the Driffield Parish Register has arrived that would be very handy as I have quite a few items to look up in it.

I have two wills/documents to transcribe for a fellow Hinxman researcher. I will begin them in a couple of days. I like to read them over a bit before I start just to get my eyes used to the writing of this individual. Solving the Hinxman family may help to give me more proof for my Blake line. It is a slow process to really augment the "meat on the bones" of our ancestors.

Pincombe One Name Study - 3 August 2009

Today is Colonel By day in Ottawa. We commemorate this great man by a celebration around the locks which he built between 1828 and 1832. His enormous effort, tremendous confidence, engineering skill and ability to get the job done produced a set of locks from Ottawa to Kingston that are now a World Heritage Site. Pleasure craft travel up and down the locks all summer long here and they are efficiently maintained by Parks Canada. Today I saw my first "raw" Douglas Fir tree. The internal wood (freshly shaved) has a slight pink colour and a beautiful pattern. A new part of a lock was being prepared to repair one part of the lock. They are perfect reproductions of the original tooling of the wood supports of the lock. A Parks Canada employee spent at least fifteen minutes explaining the tooling of this particular piece to the group around him and we were quite enraptured by his comments!

We, my husband, my daughter and I visited the Celtic Cross which celebrates the lives of the 1000 (mostly Irish) people who died putting in the locks. It is a beautiful monument which looks down on the locks just behind Parliament Hill here. My husband's 3x great grandmother is his only Irish relative and she was not involved in the locks but came to Canada (Halifax) as a young orphan girl (she was born at Dublin) in 1787.

Today I continued looking at the Pincombe family. I pulled out the two copies of Visitation that I have just to review the genealogical chart which was attached to this family in the 1400s and 1500s into the 1600s. My own direct line back to Thomas (son of the Pyncombe who had accompanied Lord de la Zouch to North Molton in 1485 (beginning of the reign of Henry VII)) is through a younger son of his son William (Richard). Richard can be found at Bishops Nympton by the late 1500s baptizing his son in 1599 (William, my direct ancestor). His wife had already died or died soon after as he married Francis Gill (daughter of John Gill) 11 November 1603 at Bishops Nympton. My line continues at Bishops Nympton right up to the birth/baptism of my 2x great grandfather John in 1808.

The Visitation of 1686 is very detailed and encompasses the earlier visitations of 1531, 1564 and 1620.

The 1620 Visitation lists:

ARMS: Per pale gules and azure, three close helmets argent, garnished or.
CREST: An arm in armour embowed argent, grasping in the gauntlet a Poland mace azure, handle proper, fastened to the arm by a scarf gules.

I will list the pedigree as follows (denoting with numbers the generations):

1. Pyncombe of Northmolton came there with the Lord Zouche about the beginning of H: 7

2. Thomas Pyncombe dwelt at Filleigh and after at East Buckland
3. William Pincombe
+ d. of Snowe of Anstey in Devon
4. William Pyncombe of Southmolton and East Buckland hath been 14 or 15 years one of the Coroners of the said Countie, aet. 54, 1620
+ Temperance d. of Hugh Pollard, 1 s., of Rob. P. Esq brother of Sir Hugh P. Kt. who were sons of Sir Lewis P. the Judge
5. William s & h., aet 13

2. John Pyncombe
3. John Pyncombe of Southmolton
4. John Pyncombe of Southmolton (Coat of Arms, Mayor of Southmolton 1598)
+ Amy d. of Richard Doddridge father of the now Judge Doddridge
5. John Pyncombe of Southmolton and Barrister of the Middle Temple London, living 1620

3. Christopher of Southmolton
4. John

Signed William Pyncombe and this would have to be William Pyncombe of Southmolton and East Buckland (Coroner of Devon, age 54 in 1620 so born in 1566). The only question that remains in my mind is the dates of birth of the individuals marked as 1., 2., and 3. I am still working on that as I do have dates for the wills and several of them left very detailed wills.

Visitation of 1686

This visitation encompasses all of the prior visitations as I mentioned earlier. It is far more complete and generally points out that several of the Pincombe lines daughtered out by the mid 1600s with several substantial trusts being established for schools in the North Devon area. My own ancestor Robert Pincombe held Park, East Wood and West Wood until he died at which time these properties passed to his brothers except for one property which he held as a freehold which passed to his sons. His eldest brother John was at Great Woods, another brother Thomas was at Twitchen.

This visitation has misread the sons of the first Pyncombe of Northmolton actually giving him one son Thomas and two sons John (one at Northmolton and one at Southmolton). They are indeed the same person.

ARMS: Per pale Gu. and Az. three close helmets Arg. garnished Or.
CREST: An armed arm enbowed ppr. purified Or, holding in the hand a Poland mace Arg., fastened to the arm with a scarf Gu.

1. Pyncombe of Northmolton came thither with the Lo. Zouch about the beginninge of the reigne of K. Henry 7th

2. John Pynecombe of Northmolton and Southmolton
3. Christopher Pyncombe of Southmolton
4. John Pynecombe
3. John Pynecombe of Southmolton
4. John Pincomb of Southmolton in Coun. Devon
+ Amy, Da. of Richard Doddridge of Barstaple & sister of Judge Dodridge
5. John Pincomb of Southmolton and Barraster of the Middle Temple, living 1620, d before 1657
+ Mary, da of Sir John Carew of Crowcombe, vide ped. ante, page 137, extrix. of the will of her son Richard, living 1658. Admon. granted to her three daughters 20 June 1671.
6. Elizabeth, adm. to her brother and mother, living 1671.
6. Richard Pincombe of Poughill, co. Devon. Will 19 Nov 1658, the exrs Mary, the mother, and John Doddridge, the cousin of testator, having renounced, adnon. with will attached was granted to the three sisters of testator 10 Apl. 1658. P.C.C. (Wotton 146)
6. Gertrude, adm. to her brother and mother, living 1671
6. Mary, mar. 4 July 1657 at Crediton to John Tuckfield. Adm. to her brother and mother, living 1671.

2. Thomas Pynecombe of Filley and of Est Buckland
3. William Pynecombe
+ da. of ....Snowe of Antstey Devon
4. John Pincombe, overseer of his brother's will
4. William Pynecombe of Southmolton and of East Buckland in Devon, & Coroner of the same Countie 14 or 15 years together aet. 54, 1620. Will 28 June pro. 17 Dec 1625 P.C.C. (Clarke 138)
+Temperance, da. of Hugh Pollard, 1 son of Robert Pollard, Esq., brother to Sr. Hugh Pollard, KT. both sonnes to Sir Lewis Pollard, Kt., the Judge. Extrix of her husband's will. Will 7 Mar 1636-37, pro. 15 June 1637. P.C.C. (Goare 94)
5. William Pynecombe, eldest soune aet 13, Anno 1620. Named in the wills of his father and mother living 1637
+ Bridget, da. of Henry Worth of Washfield, mar. lic 14 Mar 16 Feb 1628-29 at Washfield
6. Elizabeth, 1 da. bap. 17 Nov 1631 at Washfield, named in her grandmother's will, living 1637.
6. William Pincombe, bap. 4 Feb 1629-30 at Washfield, exr of his grandmother's will
+ Gertrude da. of .....bur 8 Jan. 1685-86 at Southmolton
7. John Pincombe, bap 29 Jan 1672-73, bur 23 Apr 1676 at Southmolton
6. Bridget, 2 da. named in her grandmothers will, living 1637
6. Temperance, named in her grandmother's will, living 1637

These particular Visitations have been very useful as they have given some idea of ages of the remainder of their siblings since only the first son is mentioned. The dates of the wills/probates is also very very handy. My Richard is mentioned as the 3rd son of William Pynecombe and [Emott] Snow. No notation is made in this Visitation as to which individual obtained the Coat of Arms.

Tomorrow I will be at the Family History Centre for a few hours reviewing the film for Bradfield Berkshire to see if the Nathanael Lambden who was baptized there as the son of John Lambden and Joan Caruthue 26 Jul 1724 with their marriage October 1721 also at Bradfield could be my Nathanael who is at Andover in the 1750s with his wife Sarah. I have not been able to find their marriage so will check for a marriage in the Bradfield Register first and that should be around 1748-1750 since their first known son is baptized at Andover 23 Oct 1751. I may also continue looking at the Pincombe family.

Pincombe One Name Study - 2 August 2009

Yesterday evening, I had a marvelous find in the Crediton County Courier:

Pincombe family reunion success

Friday, 10 July 2009

DESCENDANTS of the Pincombe family, originating from Queen Dart near Rackenford, held their first ever family reunion at the Waie Inn, Zeal Monachorum - and what a memorable occasion it was!

More than 140 adults, plus children, gathered together, some from as far away as Yorkshire and Cheshire, to reminisce and study photographs of several generations. William and Sarah Pincombe started farming at Queen Dart at the end of the 19th century, where they brought up 11 children. The Pincombe family continued to farm there for the next 100 years. Large gilt framed photographs of William and Sarah Pincombe were on display as well as the Pincombe coat of arms, which was incorporated onto a large reunion cake. The 11 members of the original Queen Dart family were Jack, Emma, [Lily], Bessie, Fred, Frank, Bert, Ernest, Winnie, Henry and Gladys, who continued the family tradition of farming, marrying locally and settling in the area as have very many of their descendants; in fact you don’t have to go very far in North Devon without bumping in to a member of the Pincombe family! The eldest person at the reunion was 91 year old Ruby Cole and the youngest was six month old William Parris, whose grandparents, Winston and Heather Pincombe were celebrating their Ruby Wedding: certainly an unforgettable day for them. Everyone agreed that it was a most successful and enjoyable event and thoughts have now turned to the possibility of holding a similar event in a few more years.

Alan Quick

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I haven't made much of an effort to contact the Pincombe family directly in England other than people who contact me first. My line that was at Bishops Nympton is fairly dispersed from there since the mid to late 1800s.

One child is missing in the article from the list of eleven children - Lily would come between Emma and Bessie. I had not been able to place this group at Oakford into the overall family tree but have been able to take William Pincombe (married to Sarah Ann Skinner) who was born 1863 at Oakford to his parents Richard Pincombe and Caroline Arthurs. Richard was also born at Oakford circa 1835/1836 although the census give a birthdate closer to 1837/1838. His parents were William Pincombe and Elizabeth according to the census with William born circa 1793 at Bideford. My Bideford chart that I have from the earlier Pincombe one name study is one of the most incomplete in that it only traces lines down to the mid 1700s and there are at least 10 lines there. I haven't worked on that chart at all yet. The furtherest back ancestor for the Bideford group is William Pincombe with wife unknown. They had four known children: William (married to Johanne Pyne) 31 Jan 1587, Phillipp (b 1563) and married to Wilmote Beare 10 Feb 1583, Johane (b 5 October 1566) and Richard Pyncombe (married to Joan Row 27 July 1599). Phillipp and Richard appear to be the only two sons with descendants (four each). Since two of the four children were baptized in the 1560s then William may have been born around 1525 to 1535. I have suggested that he is the younger son of Christopher Pincombe who lived at South Molton with father John and is found on the 1620 Visitation for Devon. Christopher's son listed on the Visitation is John and he continued to live at South Molton. Christopher's older brother John's grandson John Pyncombe married Amy Doddridge (daughter of Judge Doddridge) and he was the Mayor of South Molton in 1598 and was granted a Coat of Arms which I shall search out and list here in a couple of days or sooner depending on when I find it! Family lore suggests that the Bideford/Barnstaple Pincombe families are descended from the South Molton Pincombe family.

I haven't a great deal of interest in Coats of Arms possibly because I am female and could only use one if I didn't have any brothers and was in a direct line from the original individual who was granted to Coat of Arms. In my case I have four brothers who would all come before me. There are Coats of Arms for the Blake, Pincombe, Siderfin and Routledge families that I have acquired information on thus far with my ancestors.

There is a hint that they will have another Reunion which is really very exciting. In another couple of years I will have input all of this information that I inherited from the original Pincombe one name study (one of their line was part of the research team (2 individuals)) which I would share with them if they are interested. This Pincombe line had one individual who emigrated to the United States in the 1600s and one member of the earlier research study was a descendant of that individual.

It always quite fascinates me how families flow actually. My Pincombe line has daughtered out (my uncle was the last). However the other two sons of John Pincombe and Elizabeth Rew Pincombe (the emigrants in 1850 with their five children to Canada) have a number of lines still carrying the Pincombe surname.

Tomorrow I shall continue working on the Pincombe family as this newspaper item has cleared up a few mysteries for me in the census. I have a picture of my emigrant Pincombe ancestor who was born15 Apr 1808 and baptized 5 Jul 1808 at Bishops Nympton.

Organization day

I spent the day organizing my images that I have taken this year and labeling them. I have meant to do that for awhile but I will be taking more images next week and wanted to be ready for that. I also collected the pipe roll images that I acquired on one of our visits to a repository and have them ready now for translation/transcription since they are in Latin.

I joined the GenealogyWise Somerset Families group and decided to post a discussion on Carhampton Hundred which necessitated my finding all the parishes in the hundred of Carhampton. While I was searching that out, I discovered a book on the Carhampton Hundred written in 1830 on Google books. I downloaded that and spent several hours going through it (672 pages). A most interesting read and I may have learned a new bit of Siderfin information. The Siderfin who was buried at Wootton Courtney appears to have used the Siderfin crest and he was in my line. Not that that affects me at all since I have little or no interest in family crests. I now have several family crests that are in my lines - Blake, Pincombe, Routledge and Siderfin.

I organized my emails and filed them away for the past month as I have gotten very far behind in that.

Tomorrow I hope to get back to transcription although I need to write a short essay on researching at the Allen County Public Library.