Routledge and Pincombe

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

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

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

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

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