Another glorious Sunday is with us

 A beautiful sunny day and 18 degrees celsius at 7:50 a.m.; a perfect Sunday and I will go to Church on YouTube a little later. Now just glimpses of the blue sky with the drape half open; the black walnut dominates the window; last year still a lot of sky but this year the foliage has increased so much that I just get glimpses of the blue sky on the one side of the window and the thickness of the foliage is about one-third of the way across the second pane. Hard to believe just a couple of years ago the tree wasn't as high as our flag pole but now reaches way up into the heavens. An aggressive tough tree is the Black Walnut dominating the world around it. 

Interesting article discussing how COVID infection is altering people by prematurely aging the immune system. It makes sense as it challenges the immune system everytime that one has COVID forcing it to work overtime and that is what happens to people really and why they age so constant repetitive cases of COVID it is not surprising could have the same effect making us more vulnerable to other illnesses in the future. I have now had my second booster and been lucky to avoid COVID and will continue wearing my mask in closed spaces for now on into the future. More and more people are shopping with masks on once again. It really isn't a problem to do that; quite easy actually. When you come upon a sudden burst of dust or strong perfume it is amazing how much it cuts that out having a mask on. 

It will be interesting to see the DNA work in a few years time on COVID susceptibility. Like the Bubonic Plague and other diseases some people are just more immune than others and eventually selectivity will help in that regard as well although there are still cases of the plague we just know how to deal with them. We are learning how to deal best with COVID and it is a process like everything else. 

Yesterday was busy with lawn cutting and organizing. I am slowly getting everything into the shed that I want to have there. Still another run to the dump with items that we no longer use and are not really useful to take to Salvation Army or other places. The metal waste was a big item for a bit as Edward had a lot of iron posts that he used with snow fences. The wood waste another big item as my husband never threw out a piece of wood that might be useful in the future. The garage is starting to look really empty and that is good as the car will live in there soon for the winter months. It is nice not to have to scrape ice off every day. The four bins of paper went last week and probably that will not be repeated. It just happened that that set of boxes (five of them) were mostly correspondence with many many cousins and I felt it was best to shred all of that and let people find each other researching (I think they generally do). Edward loved to write to people and so he had a lot of letters which eventually moved from family research into the weather and traveling and all such courteous type of conversation that he did tend to delight in. Many times as I sit at my desk working away my mind wanders back in time remembering Edward saying lets go shopping; lets go to the museum; lets go to the library or lets go for a walk. He was always getting us out doing things; walking, astronomy, shopping and the list is very long. 

Then finishing off the day with kayaking and a long walk. The work load continues to be heavy but gradually we are downsizing but still a long way to go to my one room vision of life. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. The Russian people must tire of their young men being killed in this illegal war. Certainly the Ukrainians will mourn the loss of their citizens for a very long time. War is such an archaic feature in life; talk in the United Nations; work together and love the land not destroy it. Regime change is the latest reason that Lavrov has put forward as a reason for the war.  That is for the United Nations to be involved in and Ukraine has democratically elected its current government with a good majority so why should Russia think they can change the regime. I do not think the Ukrainians hated the Russian people before all of this happened but the murder of their children will be hard to forget and forgive. Go home Russian soldiers; change your regime so that you can live in peace with your neighbours.

A Day of Redistribution

Yesterday was definitely a downsizing day and a day of redistribution. We had planned two large deliveries and both were successful. One to Salvation Army which was actually smaller than our usual loads as we are now starting to work on the really smaller sets of items. Our trips there will be less frequent and smaller now. The second to the Tool Library and this was two large shelving units and a number of Edward's tools. That has been pretty much cleared out now with us just keeping tools that we might need to look after the house. The Tool Library has a newer building now and I am sure they will be a real benefit to the community. It is such a good idea. Edward took a number of tools there about four years ago now and so I learned about the tool library and as the haze lifted on my mind that came to me as a way to celebrate Edward's life which was to give his tools to the library so that someone else can enjoy woodworking as he did. This was a perfect choice and another large load gone; the house must appreciate the slowly decreasing load on it. Basically my basement must be pretty much empty except for things that generally live in a basement and would stay here when we leave or come with us but it needs to be a small amount since any place that we move to is going to be smaller. The main floor is starting to look about right although still too many dishes and utensils for cooking. That is gradually decreasing and will be the focus of our thoughts next summer. The upstairs is also starting to be close to what it needs to be. The room that still needs a lot of work and it will take a while is Edward's Memorial Room. There is still a lot in that room although we altered the arrangement and it is easier to manage the room now. There are 16 boxes of research in there and another six in the front bedroom. Then I have twelve boxes (mostly smaller boxes) in my room that I need to work my way through in the next little while looking for items so that I can give material to two different family lines. Both have researchers and so my task there will be done once I have separated them out from each other. A few more pieces of furniture will be eliminated over the next year (mostly next summer). But we have accomplished possibly much more than I thought would be done by the end of July and can mostly just enjoy August working away on his research boxes. 

We have enjoyed our garden and there is still more to come there as the tomatoes ripen. The peppers are growing and we will have a few. Next year they will go back to where they grow best it would appear. I need to pull out the old raspberry canes and clear the back of that area and we can plant a few things there next year - likely sunflowers. The front yard is pretty good although I should cultivate just a little although it is not weedy just looks like it could have some breathing space. 

In the next couple of years I need to put in a new laneway so that is a major task one of these years.

Today we will completely clean out the garage which is rapidly becoming empty and start organizing our last load to the dump this year. We will dismantle the canoe holder and that will form a large part of the load along with other pieces of wood that did not yet go to the dump. There is a pile of metal fencing that will also go to the dump. The shed is getting organized with everything that will go into that this winter and I do not think we will have to build the shed in a box this year as everything will go into the shed. It is always progress forward to know that we are not having to create a spot for items that do not fit into the garage once the car is putting put into it for the winter. We need to buy a tarp for the swing as it will be outside again this winter. It is nice actually to have it there as it is available then until late in the fall and early in the spring to sit on when the sun is beating down on the patio out there which is a protected area and quite warm during the winter months on occasion. 

Forward to the day. I shall continue working on the new Pincombe entries to check them out in the parish registers. Also I will check out these new parishes in the subsidies of the 1500s to see what I find there which might assist me with looking at the earlier charts and Pincombe family members. 

My breakfast is the next step and I do so enjoy my breakfast! Likely a trip to the river and kayaking and walking. I do love to walk and it is pleasant walking along the edge of the river especially as there is a nice paved path. I am up to two rotations on the walk as my foot is improving rapidly after a slight setback.

Sorting some of the possible derivatives of Pincombe

I continued with my task of sorting some of the possible derivatives of Pincombe yesterday.  I have now removed Burcombe/Buncombe as a free standing surname with 11 hits 1570 to 1630 and a total of 1497 records on Find My Past. They appear to be a Hemyock family. The distance from North Molton to Hemyock is 55 kilometres. I will not research this family since their surname is consistently spelled Burcombe (occasionally Buncombe) in the registers. 

I have also excluded the Dinecomb/Bonicomb/Podicomb families. With Podicombe likely the Poddicombe/|Puddecombe/Puddicombe family at Iddesleigh. Iddesleigh is to the south of North Molton about 36 kilometres. The register at Iddesleigh has a number of old entries for this family. The Dinecomb (likely Dunscombe) and the Bonicomb (also likely Dunscombe) do have hits at Lifton but the registers only go back to 1653 so not helpful. North Molton to Lifton is 76 kilometres. 

That leaves me with 39 Pincombe entries and derivatives to observe including a Philip Dencombe at High Bickington which could be Dunscombe and I will have to determine that searching the registers. I have acquired 13 new mentions of the surname by going through the Protestation Returns. Although it seemed like a huge task initially it went quickly and I shall now move forward with looking at the charts from the earlier researchers in light of these new records. 

A beautiful day today; brilliant sunshine and just 17 degrees at 7:00 a.m. We are really noticing the trees in the backyard this year as it becomes dark quickly with all of the foliage. What an interesting thing to have lived for over 44 years in this house and observed the changes around me. 

COVID has changed us though I think. It has knitted families together which is a good thing for sure. 

It will soon be the dog days of August and one will sense the coming of Fall very soon with the birds concentrating on teaching their little ones to be good flyers for their long trip to the south. The young are pretty much feeding on their own now and flying to the feeder daily. It is interesting watching as the parent birds teach their little ones how to survive in the world. It is especially interesting when you have two large crows with their two large offspring on the feeder. They manage though; they are used to being in a small nest together but none the less that is a large group of birds on the feeder.

The ball is in Russia's court and they are using it as a tool of war

The ability to pump gas is once again in Russia's court and they are trying to manipulate European unity by decreasing the amount that they will send to Europe. They are desperate to get Europe to stand down and stop helping Ukraine. But why should they? The last time Russia rampaged across Europe we had an Iron Curtain around so many countries that lasted for over thirty years. No one wants to be a slave in a Russian Empire. Imperialism is archaic; the time for countries with rights determined by the United Nations has arisen. Too bad that Russia is slipping back into the dark ages and her people are losing their children to a war that is illegal from any standpoint. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always.

Continued with the Protestation Returns and I have nearly completed that process. Some of the Exeter parishes I am unable to bring up on the website so may miss a few Tincomb/Tincombe entries as they seem to center in that area of the south (32 entries for this surname found). The next step is to see if this is the same family as Pincombe. I suspect it is just coincidental that the spelling is so close as the writing of the surname Tincomb has a most distinct T at the beginning.  I note on line that the meaning for this particular name derives from Teigncombe in Chagford (Devon). Teigncombe takes its name from the River Teign with comb being old English for Valley. Interesting really and I suspect I will just put this data aside as not being part of the Pincombe/Pinkham family study. Interesting Gidleigh is just under three kilometres from Chagford and the density of Tincombe in this area is the highest. The distance from Chagford to North Molton is 58 kilometres. Thus far I am pretty content with this bit of sleuthing and will continue to not include the Tincombe/Tincomb family in my research.

That leaves me with 47 Pincombe and other spellings in my list. The next set to examine is Dencombe/Dinecombe/Bonicomb/ Buncombe/Burcombe to see if I can find them in the applicable register namely - North Tawton/|Lifton/Okehampton/Hemyock. My original list from Stoate's book at Salt Lake City gave me 25 Pincombe entries so I have acquired a few that I did not have before which might be helpful in understanding the Pincombe family of North Molton as they moved away from North Molton into the surrounding area of Devon. 

Two members of this group have the surname Pincam and in the Find My Past records Pinkham is one of the surnames selected as a variant so my first mention of Pinkham Edmund Pincam and Richard Pincam of Yarnscombe, Hartland. Yarnscombe is south west of North Molton and the route has one going from North Molton to South Molton to Chittlehampton to Umberleigh and hence to Yarnscombe a distance of 23 kilometres. Find My Past has 35 hits for this surname in Devon in a limited time period. Certainly members of the Pincombe family were using the Pinkham surname in London in the late 1600s (or it was being used for them; hard to say). An interesting survey looking at all of the Protestation Returns. A remarkable range of surnames although some surnames definitely dominated some villages/towns. The surname containing comb/combe had a number of variations perhaps because there are many valleys in Devon along the many rivers. 

In the case of Pincombe I am still suspicious that this is a surname that came to Devon perhaps from Herefordshire as mentioned on the Visitation of 1620 (arriving at the beginning of the reign of Henry VII (1485)). Because this family appears to have used the Pencombe surname initially there was a place name of Pencombe in Herefordshire. The use of the old English combe was probably pretty common across England when surnames began. Although there were not huge numbers of surnames with the Combe as part of it there were more than a few.

Protestation Returns and interesting results

 I always thought in the back of my mind that I needed to look at the Protestation Results for Devon (all of it) since the charts produced by the earlier researchers had included a number of places in Devon other than the north west which was where I had found most Pincombes in my searches. 

The chart that I produced when we were in Salt Lake City in 2008 was the following:

Parish    Surname    Forename    Suffix
Abbotsham    Pincombe    Richard    senior
Abbotsham    Pincombe    Richard    junior
Alwington    Pincombe    Thomas   
Bishops Nympton    Pincombe    John    senior
Bishops Nympton    Pincombe    John    junior
Bishops Nympton    Pincombe    William    senior
Bishops Nympton    Pincombe    William    junior
Chittlehampton    Pincombe    Richard   
Chittlehampton    Pincombe    William    senior
Chittlehampton    Pincombe    William    junior
Chumleigh    Pincombe    Robert   
Chumleigh    Pincombe    Robert   
Chumleigh    Pincombe    Thomas   
Great Torrington    Pincombe    Roger   
High Bickington    Pincombe    John   
Knowstone    Pincombe    John   
North Molton    Pincombe    Bartholomew   
North Molton    Pincombe    Thomas    senior
North Molton    Pincombe    Thomas    junior?
Poughill    Pincombe    John   
Satterleigh    Pincombe    Philip   
South Molton    Pincombe    Henry   
South Molton    Pincombe    Robert   
South Molton    Pincombe    Robert   
Twitchen    Pincombe    John   

Definitely I was a newbie in those days and had not recorded the Hundred along with this information but it can be readily found so no real problem there. 

I am just into South Molton Hundred now with my reading of the Protestation Returns but thus far I have collected:

Hundred    Parish    Surname    Forename    Notes
Bampton    Bampton    Penkeme    Edward    Signed P
Black Torrington    Hatherleigh    Peacombe    George   
Braunton    Filley    Pincombe    William    Churchwarden
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Alexander   
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Edward   
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Henry    Senior
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Henry    Junior
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    John   
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Richard   
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    Thomas   
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    William    Senior
Wonford    Gidley    Tincombe    William    Junior
Crediton    Crediton    Tincombe    Bennett   
Crediton    Morchard Bishop    Tincombe    Robert   
Crediton    Morchard Bishop    Tinkecom    George   
Fremington    Great Torrington    Pincombe    Roger   
Fremington    St Giles    none       
Fremington    Roborough    none       
Hartland    Yarnscombe    Pincam    Edmund   
Hartland    Yarnscombe    Pincam    Richard   
Hemyock    Hemyock    Buncombe    Henry   
Hemyock    Hemyock    Burcombe    Mark   
Hemyock    Hemyock    Burcombe     Nicholas   
Lifton    Okehampton    Tyncombe    Edward   
Lifton    Okehampton    Dinecombe    Hugh   
Lifton    Okehampton    Bonicomb    Roger   
North Tawton    Clanaborough    Tincombe    George   
North Tawton    High Bickington    Pyncombe    John   
North Tawton    High Bickington    Dencombe    Philip   
North Tawton    Tracey Nymet    Tingecombe    William   
Shebbear    Abbotsham    Pencombe     Richard    senior
Shebbear    Abbotsham    Pencombe     Richard    junior
Shebbear    Alwington    Pincombe    Thomas   
Shebbear    Beaford    Pinckcombe    Abraham   
Shebbear    Beaford    Pinkcombe    Arthur   
Shebbear    Bideford    Pyncombe    Richard   
Shebbear    Iddesleigh    Podicombe    John   
Shebbear    Littleham    Pincombe    George   
Shebbear    Merton    Pincome    John   
Shebbear    Merton    Pincome    Matthew   
Shebbear    Merton    Pincome    Thomas   
Shebbear    Petrockstowe    Pinnacombe    John   
South Molton    Chittlehampton    Pincombe    Richarde   
South Molton    Chittlehampton    Pincombe    `William    Senior
South Molton    Chittlehampton    Pincombe    William    Junior

I will continue collecting today but should complete the project. I need to check the various parish registers to see if I am able to determine if this spelling possibility gets repeated in the registers or whether it was a transcription anomaly. But certainly the results are interesting perhaps most certainly for the lack of the Pinkham surname in any of its possible spellings. I have had the Tincombe/Tyncombe surname spelling mentioned to me before but had not really looked into that at all. Once completed I will work with the older charts (they do have input from people in the various areas living in Devon) and the parish registers to see what I can find. I think it was a necessary step. I recorded no surnames at Roborough and St Giles in the Woods in Fremington Hundred just so that I would remember that I had read the original return on the government website. I had expected to find the family there perhaps although did not have a fixed idea that I would. 

Other than that the cleaning all done for another week. Another load to go to Salvation Army and will approach the Tool Library to see if they would like any of these tools. They are a collected from over 55 years and Edward had some tools when we married. He would like to think that others would benefit from his tools.

I will also check all of these parishes for the subsidies in the 1500s to see if there is more variety to the spelling there that I have missed although I have looked for a wider range of spellings there than I looked at in 2008 at Salt Lake City! One learns as one moves along.

Cleaning continues and downsizing

 Another load for Salvation Army as downsizing continues. It isn't that I need to move away from where I am but I need less stuff in case I do need to make that move and I want it to be in a respectful manner since Edward acquired all of these things because he loved them. Gradually he was finding spots for them and fortunately he did talk about all of that so that we are in as much as possible following his wishes on that. I am acquiring what will be a couple of mailer boxes of paper to send to the Princeton Museum of items that he scanned for them but they mentioned they would like the originals so will get that done probably by December. We continue to place the material into his four grandparent's lines as he was actively involved with groups in all four of those lines. I do want the originals to find a home with someone since we want to have only the scanned material unless of course one of my daughters decides to take on some of his work. 

Cleaning day two and it is a little more work today as yesterday was incomplete. We finally finished off the day wrapping up two boxes of dishes for Salvation Army and then off kayaking and walking. It was a lovely day; a little windy but welcomed after the heat of the last few days. 

Today I need to complete yesterday's cleaning - some dusting and scrubbing left to do as well as the basement to clean. 

I will continue on the Protestation Returns and we are in the last week of July so must remember to post the next issue of the Kipp newsletter on the 1st of August. 

The Pincombe Newsletter is for the 1st of September and it is slowly growing but needs the Protestation Return scan completed before being published. That is feasible and will get that done. Then I want to work on the Blake Newsletter which involves checking the Subsidies for Somerset for this particular issue of the Newsletter. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. They are newly refreshed in their battle to exist. What ever happened to the great dream in Russia of bringing all of the people out of serfdom and into a better way of life. China is doing it but Putin and his enablers are pushing Russia back into a dreadful existence. Russia was becoming part of the world; not rampaging around in Eastern Europe but moving forward until Putin came along and first he made the people love him and now he is abusing that love by sending their sons to the battlefields to die in an illegal war against Ukraine - their blood brothers; their cousins.

And the cleaning week will begin today

Today is cleaning day once again. Yesterday we had a lovely heavy rain which will be most welcomed. July can be such a dry month. Our tomatoes are beginning to ripen and we will soon enjoy them. The peppers are growing slowly and will not amount to much for sure. The lettuces are growing well and we pick some of that most every other day. The green onions I need to take out of the ground this week, the tops are starting to wither a little. The basil, parsley and dill are growing and we are enjoying them in our dinners. The sunflowers are getting taller and taller and we should see flower heads one of these days. 

Yesterday I continued reading through the Protestation Returns and found two more possible Pincombe/Pinkham members from this early census.  Edmund Pincam and Richard Pincam at Yarnscombe in Hartland Hundred. Surprisingly there weren't any Pincombes/Pinkham at St Giles in the Wood or Roborough on the Protestation Return but there was a Roger Pincombe at Great Torrington with all three of these places being in Fremington Hundred. It is a slow process although I am not having to read all of them from the original document initially as a number of them have been transcribed and so I read the transcription first and then check the original a little quicker! 

I am down to Hemyock Hundred in the list. Some of the hundreds are likely to have Pincombe/Pinkham but I need to check all of them I feel at this time. It is a worthwhile project. I am perhaps a third of the way through the hundreds. 

We also continued with our downsizing. A list of the tools is now made and we will soon write to the Tool Library to see if they would like any of them. Edward had purchased a package of papers on EBay that contained some Kipp material amongst other families. Since it was all copies I have destroyed all of the non-Kipp material and will take pictures of the remainder and post them on Edward's blog in case anyone is interested. The Kipp information is too late (mid 1800s) to be of use in his pursuit of his 2x great grandfather Isaac Kipp (b 1 Nov 1764) likely in Dutchess County of New York State and who came to Canada with his wife Hannah Mead in October of 1800 as a settler with four of their five children. But I would not like to see the collection of that information lost. I also kept a family tree and other items which I will publish of the family that this particular Kipp married into. 

Other than that the work of downsizing is slowly progressing and will take us at least another year to get through everything in a logical respectful manner. Edward was in the midst of doing all of that so we have his verbal instructions that he left with us to complete for him.

One Church

 Perhaps in this century the Church will come back together; for some Anglicans in the Church of England this was a dream that they held close as the centuries passed that one day all would be one once again. Even in the 1800s this feeling that one could only be Roman Catholic if one denied Elizabeth I as Queen of England was still in the thoughts of people. 

But perhaps in this century there will be union once again amongst the Churches that profess Catholicism and it is an exciting thought on this beautiful sunny July day which is also a Sunday. 

Church on YouTube today and I do enjoy the YouTube service. I do not go out very much - just groceries as needed and other shopping on occasion. But we have added kayaking to all of that and it is a wonderful sport. 

Yesterday I continued to go through the Protestation Returns and found a number of Tincombes. Not sure of that name but can now check the registers of that parish to see how far back this line goes and whether it became a mispelling of Pincombe. No other unusual spellings were located in the returns thus far. The repetition of names in the various parishes is perhaps amazing and I am making special note in my mind of the number of names that contain "combe." There actually are not a lot of them. 

This downsizing is a gradual process letting one remember once again and then moving on from that moment in time. Remembering my grandmother widowed at 38 years of age with two children eight and ten years of age who was full of a love of life even when I knew her when she was in her 60s. Once her children were raised she lived with her son and his wife until she passed away at 80 years of age. She loved to travel and one of her last trips was one that we took to Toronto. It was my treat for helping her all summer when I was twelve years of age. We had a wonderful time and it was my first time away from my parents and siblings for more than a week. It changed me doing that. I realized there was a world out there that I could actually know personally instead of just in books. 

On to the day. Breakfast is next my favourite meal of the day. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. Hopefully in this century we will learn to live in peace; to share the wealth and become a better world so that we do not miss out on the genius in our midst that can keep bringing us along to explore the unknown that is out there much like people set out from the shores of their countries hundreds of years ago now to discover the planet that they lived on. 

Propaganda

Hitler was a propagandist; Putin continues to take his ideas out of Hitler's murderous reign of terror that he inflicted on Europe. Perhaps Putin is really uneducated and doesn't know what happened to Hitler and his enablers. Education seemed to be a badge of pride in Russia as they educated their people in just a few years bringing them up from being little more than serfs to a well educated and progressive country by the 1950s when they sent Yuri Gagarin into space. Khrushchev continued this good news for Russia and other leaders who followed in his wake gradually becoming part of the world again but but this all ended in the 1990s and has steadily eroded since Putin strutted about and made the people of Russia love him while he let the oligarchies make themselves (he included) rich on the backs of the Russian people. How Putin and his enablers have betrayed the communal effort of the Russian people to make Russia a wonderful place for all of her people to live in. 

Continuing to bomb Odessa even after signing an agreement to open the ports on the Black Sea. He is evil incarnate along with his enablers. He and  his enablers use the evil of propaganda to try to move the people of Europe from supporting the Ukrainian people who have fled to their countries. It is the same evil tactics as used by Hitler who eventually attacked both the Jewish people and the Church trying to destroy both in his path of destruction.  Will the Russian people wake up; read what is really happening in Ukraine and stop the violence. Greed for land is such a vice; it is never satisfied as the grass always looks greener in the distance.

Ancestry's new ethnicity reports

 Spotted an interesting use of DNA Painter on Ancestry detailing Ethnicity Results. I spent part of yesterday putting that together and it was very interesting. For a person with 100% English Ancestry there isn't too much to say about one's ethnicity other than it is English/Northern European. But the areas that we descend from were covered with a kilometre of ice during the ice age of 15,000 years ago so we did live somewhere else and hence have other ethnicities. They must get filtered out though as they are very ancient as most of our lines were in the British Isles or Northern Europe a long time ago. My Huguenot ancestry is probably part of that Northern European and I know they arrived in Somerset before or by the mid 1500s because they are in the parish records. That would appear to be the newest of my ancestors outside of England. At about this same time our Routledge family came out of the Highlands of Scotland and settled in the Debatable Lands (now Cumberland) but Scotland is, of course, part of the British Isles. My only mystery person is my grandmother's mother and gradually I am getting to have a look at possibilities for her. At first I thought she might be from Ireland and that still may be the case but I think more that her line was in Scotland coming to Ireland in the 1600s when Cromwell sent non-conformists to Ireland and then her line back into England from there. Time will tell on that one. 

It was an interesting couple of hours charting all of that but I must get back to doing the Protestation Returns for Devon and that will be today's work. 

Yesterday we took another van load to Salvation Army - skis, poles, and ski boots to fit the skis along with a pile of other things. Still downsizing and I am beginning to enjoy the emptier spaces as I can not keep all of these things if I find it necessary to move into a much smaller place (like one room!). So now we are into keeping what we know will be used by me and by my children and donating the rest to places that will enjoy them or for resale at Salvation Army. 

It is the weekend though and no housework until cleaning begins again on Monday.

Another beautiful sunny July day

As we approach the end of July (just over one week away), I am noticing that it is darker in the evening as we watch our documentaries on the Television before doing our "Walk it Out" which is often a run rather than a walk! I love documentaries which is probably reminiscent of all those travel books I read as a young child. But especially I love documentaries about the natural world which is rapidly disappearing from our view these days. So many animals are on the endangered list and fish as well as birds in the sky. Mankind has not been a good guardian of the earth and we need to do better. 

Especially Russia needs to stop bombing and sending all that pollution into the skies. It will only make it worse along with forcing Germany to go back to coal burning energy because Russia is so greedy for land. Greed is one of the greatest sins that has been part of Homo sapiens for eons - always greedy. 

Today I read an article that Canadians are helping the ultra-rich to leave China presumably to escape income tax there - when will people learn to share the resources. Minimum Income is the way to go. Everyone over eighteen should have a minimum income - as a conservative that is the best way to protect the plant; the best way to encourage people to be better; to seek knowledge and to raise children who feel the future is there for them. Minimum Income supports the industries/services in the area where people live because that is where they are going to spend it. 

Continuing to work on the Protestation Returns and I am actually finding very few that I did not already know. The spellings in the 1640s were variable but my beginnings into one name studies in 2008 appear to have captured the Pincombe family quite well thus far. But I am less than half way through the Protestation Returns so time will tell plus I am being on the careful outlook for the Pinkham surname and its varieties since the original two researchers brought these two family names together with the idea that they had a common ancestry. Indeed members of the Pincombe family did use the spelling Pinkham even back into the 1600s. 

Also continuing to downsize. We worked on the tools yesterday - two of eight shelves were sorted and listed. It is never ending really and a sort of life story as we work our way through the tools many of which I gave to Edward as Christmas presents and Birthday Presents and Anniversary Presents through the years. One builds up this large reservoir of tools, books, personal items, dishes through the years and then as the tide turns and one becomes older it is necessary then to downsize these items as one is able. That is the process in which I find myself and probably for awhile as I must also downsize the research boxes and give them a good home with another aspiring researcher in these family lines. I wonder sometimes if one of my daughters will take up the challenge but I do not think so. There are some aspects of the research that might interest them like the DNA perhaps as both are of a scientific leaning but the accumulation of a large tree (Edward has over 80,000 people in his personal tree and a much larger tree for the Kipp family) doesn't interest any of us. 

Although I prefer science as a field to study in; I am a great lover of history and can often be found reading about historical happenings. As a conversation it can be quite fascinating to speak to people in different countries and get their take on history as well. We all view history through the lens of our upbringing and our experiences. In some ways that is a dangerous precedent because history is best served up by those who are not emotionally involved but see its happenings in a logical and exacting way so that the real history can be written about and one always hopes that such people will always exist in our world writing history as it actually occurs and not altered or changed to suit one aim or another.

Protestation Returns for Devon

Spent a number of hours reading through the Protestation Returns for Devon. Years ago when we were in Salt Lake City I looked up all the Protestation Returns for Devon for the Pincombe family but my mind was still fresh to genealogy and I did not capture all of the spellings that I now know to exist for the Pincombe family in Devon. Hence, I am working my way through the website from the Parliamentary Library which lets me look at each of the original documents. I have found a few more unique spellings and along with the Wills Index on the Genuki Devon pages I am finding a few more to help with the quest of where did the Pincombe family go from North Molton in the 1500s and 1600s. 

This slow but methodical collecting of information will help with this next Newsletter for the Pincombe family and for all future newsletters likely. Once I got into the idea of looking at individuals this was bound to follow. 

I also discovered Ancestry has a new DNA Painter attached to the ethnicity of each of the sets of results comparing one's parents. With four siblings at Ancestry this is quite an interesting display and I will probably do more work on it having now extracted the information into a powerpoint file so that I can do comparisons. Because my parents came from distinct areas of England it may be possible to determine which line belongs to which parent. Time will tell but in the meantime I would comment no surprises emerged as our ethnicity is pretty constant across sites although variable in total percentages because of the standards that are used by each testing agency. It is very interesting really to see the largest percentage which is always Britain and Northern Europe since everyone living in Britain today has come from elsewhere as Britain was probably covered in a kilometre or more of ice during the last ice age according to the thoughts on that matter. 

On to breakfast, I am late today.

Heat wave and rain today hopefully

 The heat wave continues although not as warm as in the British Isles and Europe. Hopefully rain today or will need to water likely. Wednesday already but cleaning is all done and now back to working on the Pincombe Newsletter. I would like to have it completed by the end of this month and then back to the Blake Newsletter for the first of October. I will publish the Kipp Newsletter on the 1st of August which is already completed. 

I spent some time yesterday going through Edward's research bags and have moved that material into one of the research boxes. Eventually I need to find a home for this research material as it includes original images of his various family lines. I think I have one cousin in each line that will perhaps take the material and continue his research. He has published his entire tree on World Connect and I would like to move it to Family Search as well but will need to work on that for a while. He was in the process of looking at that as well. 

The Tool Library donation will occupy us for a few days now as I would also like to put all of that material to good use. Edward had started to donate to the Tool Library before COVID and had planned on continuing to downsize his tools so we will continue with that idea. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. Although the defensive posture did not work in 1938-1939 we are a different world now and the benefits to war are pretty much gone. Everyone loses in a war these days; there are no winners just a few brutal animalistic people who are willing to murder innocent children in order to steal land. To be human one must be humane. But in the long run they do not win as their lives become hunted as hatred for them grows around the world.

I see Putin is saying that if Nord Stream 2 comes online then that can be used to send half of the gas to Europe. Interesting really how this man thinks; he is making a lot of money selling gas to Europe and he doesn't want to lose that ability. Perhaps he can step back now and pulls his armies out of Ukraine and let the world go back to peaceful existence once again. Really what does he gain by stealing the Donbas - a resistance fight on into the future. More Russian soldiers dying needlessly when they could be at home fighting the forest fires raging in the north. But perhaps most importantly in these days of climate change he is forcing the use of coal-fired energy producing plants to increase and like our Canadian north the north of Russia is being ravaged by climate change. He is actually accelerating that process that will help to destroy the world. Russia is a great nation and he is destroying the foothold that she has made in so many fields of development and scientific accomplishment.

Cleaning day and a different look

 Cleaning day again and we accomplished both floors once again. I also read through the notes that my husband wrote so many years ago when he did a postdoc in Chemical Engineering. It was new then this idea of taking sulfur dioxide out of the environment and he was excited to be in the project but gradually he found that his interest lay in just having a more permanent job than a postdoc and so the idea of going to Library School was born and he took it on, completed it and went to work at the National Research Council here in Ottawa. Books were always important to him and the opportunity to assist other researchers since a job for him in research appeared to be an unlikely happening; his new job appealed to him very much. But perhaps due to my lingering illness he felt the need to be permanently employed as I regained my strength and could return to the work force once again. It would be a little while although I must admit I liked to work and so I did find some proofreading and copyediting to do at home. Although it didn't pay very much it was a skill to cultivate whilst my little one grew up under our watchful eyes. It seems a long time ago now; we lived our entire life from that day onwards where we are now. The traveling though that we undertook through the years was enormous as I glance back occasionally looking for one item or another thinking about his work on his various family lines. My mind will soon be free to pursue more of his thoughts and publish them on his blog. I await that time in anticipation of being able to do so. 

A few projects as I need to contact his cousins to give them the family pictures that he acquired. I met some of them in the last few years before COVID when Edward directed all of his energy towards contacting them (likely so that I would know who they were as I think about that now). The pictures should not be lost now that he has located relatives who shared his interest. 

Today I finish the cleaning and work my way through a dozen bags of paper and information. I think there is one bag for each of our European trips and a couple of our larger American trips. Edward kept every piece of paper that he was given or picked up at various places we visited. He used to go through those bags I remember enjoying once again all the things that he saw when we traveled. He had an enormous thirst for travel once he made that first cross ocean plane trip. He had dreams of taking a boat trip back from Europe but COVID eliminated that idea. As always, I was just along for the ride although I did enjoy seeing everything as well. But I would never have done all of that traveling on my own. It just doesn't really interest me. But it was fun doing it together.

Lavrov, Putin and their ideas that people are anti-Russian

Lavrov and Putin keep saying that people are anti-Russian. I think that most of us respected Russia for her contributions to science particularly in engineering with their having the first astronaut in space. I applauded them for their accomplishment although I was just a 15 year old child marveling that we had made it into space. My first reaction was to draw space ships and wonder if I too could go into space! Russia did well but now Putin and Lavrov are spoiling all the accomplishments of the last sixty years moving the earth forward to a better place to live with their relentless greed for land. Do they really think that offering Russian citizenship to the Ukrainian people will make up for their murdering their children, their young men and women? They live in a fool's paradise.

Any anti-Russian sentiments have been created by Lavrov and Putin for invading Ukraine and killing citizens there in their relentless greed for land. Russia is the largest land mass in the world and yet these two and their adherents crave more and more land.

It is just greed and they are trying to say people are anti-Russian to support their incoherent and ignorant aggression against a neighbour just because they want their land. 

The idea that the EU emerged to be confrontational and that it had anti-Russian intentions is also ridiculous. However, Russia needs to bear in mind that they were the ones who rampaged through Europe all the way to Berlin after the Second World War abusing and looting as they went and it should not have been a surprise to them that countries built an alliance to defend themselves against Russian aggression considering the Iron Curtain stood for over fourty years as they enslaved millions of people behind that curtain. But anti-Russian, no I would not say that. There have been many great Russians that are respected around the world for their scientific, artistic, and humanitarian and more abilities than that. That definitely isn't Lavrov and Putin, they will go down in history as mass murderers. They are murdering children almost daily in Ukraine; little ones dying in their parent's arms if they happened to survive or in a stranger's arms because everyone else was gone. It is pure evil; disgusting and I am definitely anti-Lavrov and anti-Putin but not anti-Russian. I have had many lovely conversations in email with Russian members of my H11 studies. They sound like wonderful people; too bad Lavrov and Putin and their adherents are spoiling life for the Russian people for now they are a pariah nation. 

Work on closet completed

We completed the closet yesterday and it is a much more practical solution for storing as I work my way through Edward's research to make sure that all of his work was blogged. Edward had kept all of the papers that he used in his references in his thesis and yesterday we sorted out all of those items and they will be recycled. His thesis was most interesting (I typed it all those years ago) and he continued to be cited well into the early 2000s which is not unusual with initial work done in a particular field. I have not checked his citations lately. I think that gave him a good feeling to know that he had contributed to scientific endeavours. I do hope that in the hiring processes in our universities preference continues to be given to Canadian graduates although I also do agree that diversity is important and acquiring very knowledgeable people also interesting because it keeps the skill sets of departments at a high level but in general I strongly feel that at least 90% of hires at University should be Canadian born and educated. We put a lot of money into education and should support our own students first. 

Today I am thinking about his CD collection of music. It is very large and likely over 600 CDs in total collected through the years. He belonged to a Club as I recall although discontinued that not long after he retired. His interests lay elsewhere and genealogy demanded most of his time and purchases from 2004 on. Plus you could pay for music and download it online and he has a lot of that on his computer as well. I like music but not in the background all the time that I am working! I rather like silence. It is a wondrous thing as you can hear the songs of the birds and the wind whistling in the trees - those tend to be my favourite sounds these days when I am alone working. I begin to wonder if a Long Term Care Home would like these CDs and shall chat about that with my daughters since they do not want to have hundreds of CDs either. 

Other than that it is cleaning day and in between I shall work on the Pincombe Newsletter. Breakfast time and my favourite meal of the day.

Working on the Research Boxes and creating an index

 We decided to clean out the large closet where Edward's research is stored and separate out material for the OGS Library, his Link-Rathburn cousin, material for the museum in Princeton (Ontario, his home town) and items for his niece. The big closet got a good scrubbing as well and we will reload it in a slightly different way moving a few items elsewhere. 

The entire day was spent doing that work plus we found a good sized box of items for Salvation Army (mostly picture frames and that type of item). We created a memory wall in 2015 with about fourty pictures and I will put the pictures back into the folders they were originally in. 

We will continue to work away at that today along with scanning of documents - one set is particularly strong smelling that Edward bought on e-bay so will get that photographed and put the originals in the garbage unless they appear to be historically significant but will see what we find. Edward was letting them air for the last six years but I think they smell about the same so time to move on from that material. It was from a Kipp descendant in the States and I suspect just trying to make a little money perhaps. 

A beautiful day today and a wonderful Sunday. It is warm and sunny with the promise of rain next week. Forest fires all over the world these days. It is in those intense fires that some plants regenerate from dormant seeds. It is a mystery our world. Prayers for those fighting these dangerous fires when they are in built up areas. Here in Canada we tend to let them burn in the uninhabited places so that the scrub trees and dead branches are burnt up thus lowering the tendency for a forest fire in that particular area for a while. However, I do not think our philosophy is common around the world but then we fight fires in built up areas as well. 

Church on You-Tube today. Not sure what happened to last week's You-Tube service but I enjoyed the printed service copy that came in my email. COVID-19 changed me from that desire to be there in the building to one of being one on one with the service enjoying from afar which is more my nature anyway. I am reclusive and with Edward no longer here to prod me out the door to one thing or another my true nature has taken hold. As a child we attended every week and I do still miss being in Church but I also enjoy the quiet solitude in which I am now although my children are busy working and I see them but they have their own lives which is as it should be. I do live with my children and they are always there when I go out the door of my room. The one room concept is still upper most in my mind although I live in a house but in my one room I am alone with my thoughts and my prayers. That was also me as a child living in my attic room (my choice) as I could disappear there for hours reading. 

The day is before me and will be a busy one restacking all that research now itemized to make it easier to continue my project of publishing Edward's work. The year has passed quickly for me and I feel refreshed somewhat although still lingering weaknesses from nursing Edward those last couple of years. It is very difficult to be a care giver in your older years. 

No new accomplishment yesterday on the extraction of Pincombe material

 Yesterday was a really busy day and I did not really get into any work on the Pincombe material. I did glance at it and I think I will chart all of the results that I have thus far. I do have the 16 charts produced by the earlier researchers and I have entered a few of them into Excel so now the logical process is perhaps to revise them and move forward with that project which was in the works years ago but got set aside due to lack of time. 

Another beautiful sunny day and we are promised a heat wave for a few days. I watered last evening just to help the garden along but the peppers have finally realized it is summer I guess as they have doubled in size the last week or so. A few peppers set on the plants so we may have peppers yet this summer from our own plants. The raspberries are pretty much finished up although the ever bearing bushes will have some raspberries for the rest of the summer likely. The sunflowers are also reaching up high now and we should see flowers on them towards the end of August. 

I am looking forward to a quiet three weeks now as we complete our preparations for Edward's Celebration of Life. I am pretty much ready with just one more picture to put together once I have it printed. It was his favourite picture that he used pretty much everywhere that he put his picture up. I preferred the picture of the two of us on my webpage which was just a casual shot he took as a selfie one day on our travels. He looks so happy and carefree and I am remembering those days rather more often now and not so much his ill days of the last couple of years before he passed away. 

I still can not really imagine life without Edward being alive although I have been living that life for the last fifteen months; he remains in my thoughts daily and likely will to the end of my days especially when I am working on publishing his research.  I think at 76 one just moves forward in time as the days pass doing what one was doing but not living the joint life that one did when one's spouse was still alive. Our work life was quite separate, Edward and I. I found it just too heavy to continue being involved in Edward's research after the Pacemaker was inserted. I was taking on a lot of the care of the property and he liked it that I was able to do that. The amount of time left I devoted to my own research on the ancient material of my parent's families - Blake and Pincombe - my one-name studies at the Guild of one-name studies. It also included my H11 study of our mitochondrial DNA line. My newsletters for Pincombe and Blake are a summary of my thoughts and transcriptions through the years.

I continue to look at my H11 study but will not publish the Newsletter again until the illegal war against Ukraine ends. Sadly more children (and adults) have died in purely civilian areas that are being bombed from afar from uncaring Russians who are too far away to visually see the damage the are creating with their what appears to be a deliberate aim at civilian areas. Having offered Russian citizenship (as if it is a precious jewel) to the Ukrainian people they are now trying to frighten them into accepting that by bombing them. Prayers for Ukraine as always.

Earlier Charts of Pincombe/Pinkham

 I do have sixteen earlier Charts of the Pincombe/|Pinkham families of Devon and some emigrant lines to the Royal Colonies now the New England States of the United States of America. All of this information has been very interesting. It was collected after the 1960s but there were individuals who gave information to the two researchers Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham who being adults in that time frame were likely born before World War II or close to it thus having a knowledge of their Pincombe families in their areas. This is always valuable research and I shall always treasure these charts. 

The two researchers also put in time in the repositories collecting information where possible and all of that is also greatly appreciated and was a great inheritance for the Pincombe/Pinkham project. 

I spent the morning extracting using specific spellings that I have noted over the past couple of weeks but having done that I also noted a new spelling when I was going through one of the registers and have now added in that spelling because it is obviously (because of the record) another spelling that was used by this family not so much that they wrote it down that way but rather the priest has recorded this spelling in his registers. Although my Pincombe family does appear to read and write back into the at least 1600s not everyone would have been able to correct any spelling of their name. I do know that was a bit of a touchy point in my line as they spelled their family name quite specifically and attempted to correct any mis-spellings including the census here in Canada but that doesn't always come to fruition; spelling is what it is and once written down it is difficult to change although now we are pretty much set in stone here in our century that wasn't the case in the 1800s or even into the 1900s. 

Now that I have extracted all this information from Find My Past I am toying with the idea of reading the registers for Pilton, Barnstaple, Tawstock, Ilfracombe, Bideford and Kings Nympton (and continuing to read South Molton and Chittlehampton as I have been doing this week). I have transcribed Bishops Nympton, North Molton, Lankey and parts of Rose Ash. Although my own line seems secure as I take it back into Bishops Nympton I am always on the alert for any record that might add to or change what I do know. In that they did leave PCC wills which still exist that has been helpful as well as the wills in the Inland Revenue Books. I also found transcripts of the wills held by the Society of Genealogists made prior to World War II which was an exciting discovery back in 2013. That let me sort out the death date for my 4x great grandfather John Pincombe. 

Find My Past

Pincombe 16 Hits (12 unique)                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Tawstock    Edith    Devon Wills Index    1572    Edith is a widow at Tawstock (T)
2    Chittlehampton    Helen    Baptism 28 Mar    1577    Helen daughter of Richarde Pincombe
3    Bideford    Johane    Baptism 5 Oct    1566    Joane daughter of William Pincombe
4    Ilfracombe    Jone    Baptism 27 Feb    1570    Jone daughter of William Pincombe (T)
5    North Molton    Margret    Marriage  15 Nov    1539    Margret married Phillip Kyngdon
6    Roborough    Thomas?    Baptism     1588    Son of John Pincombe
7    Bishop's Nympton    Anne    Burial 4 May    1600    Anne daughter of Richarde Pincombe
8    Roborough    George    Baptism Mar    1588    George son of John Pincombe (T)
9    South Molton    John    Devon Wills Index    1593    Will transcription completed (T)
10    Bishop's Nympton    John    Marriages 27 Nov    1598    John of Southmolton married Margarett Stephan
11    Bideford    Richard    Devon Wills Index    1592    Will from Barnstaple Diocese (T)
12    Bishop's Nympton    William    Baptism 23 Mar     1599    William son of Richarde and Anne
                   
Pincomb 2 hits                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Bideford    Phillip    Boyd's Marriage Index    1583    Phillip married Wilmote Bear (T)
2    Bideford    Walter    Boyd's Marriage Index    1587    Walter married Johan Pine (T)
                   
Pinkcombe 1 hit                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Roborough    John    Burial 17 Feb    1596    John the elder
                   
Pinkcomb 2 Hits    (1 unique)               
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Molland        Baptism 26 May    1600    Unknown son of John Pinkcomb
                   
                   
Pinkome 6 Hits (5 unique)                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Roborough    Alexander    Baptism 20 Mar    1593    No details on Alexander's parents
2    Roborough    Henrie    Baptism 25 Mar    1597    Henrie son of John Pinkome
3    Roborough    Henrie    Burial 4 Apr     1597    No information
4    Roborough    Marie    Burial 10 Aug     1599    Marie daughter of John Pinkome
5    Roborough    William    Burial 09 Aug    1595    No details
                   
Pencomb 4 Hits (3 unique)                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    Roborough    Thomas    Devon Wills Index    1578    Additional Information 7 pounds 4 shillings 8 pence (T)
2    South Molton    Christopher    Devon Wills Index    1585    Additional information 152 pounds 15 shillings 8 pence (T)
3    North Molton    Eme    Devon Wills Index    1585    No further information (T)
                   
Pencombe 9 Hits (6 unique)                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    East Buckland    Johanne    Devon Wills Index    1563    Will transcription completed (T)
2    North Molton    John    Devon Wills Index    1576    Additional information 46 pounds 19 shillings 4 pence (T)
3    Tawstock    Philip    Devon Wills Index    1564    No further information (T)
4    North Molton    William    Devon Wills Index    1564    No further information (T)
5    Chittlehampton    Richard    Devon Wills Index    1588    No further information (T)
6    Kings Nympton    William    Marriages 23 Jan    1597    William married Temperance Pollarde
                   
Pyncombe 57 Hits (37 unique)                   
Item    Place    Forename    Record    Year    Note
1    North Molton    Agnes    Baptism 6 Jun    1543    Agnes daughter of William Pyncombe
2    North Molton    Ales    Marriage 29 November    1561    Ales married William Locke
3    Pilton    Anthonye    Marriage 22 July    1578    Anthonye married Alse Roche
4    North Molton    Elizabeth    Burial 18 Feb    1563    Elizabeth wife of William Pyncombe
5    North Molton    Johane    Baptism 5 Apr    1561    Johane daughter of John Pyncombe
6    North Molton    John    Marriage 1 Jul    1560    John married Emet Hodge (widow)
7    North Molton    Margerett    Marriage 26 May    1567    Margerett married William Squire
8    North Molton    Mary    Baptism 08 Dec    1547    Mary daughter of William Pyncombe (T)
9    Pilton    Maryan    Marriage 29 Sep    1577    Maryan married Roger Jule
10    North Molton    Marye    Baptism 8 Jul    1555    Marye daughter of John Pyncombe
11    North Molton    Marye    Burial 4 Feb    1563    Marye daughter of John Pyncombe
12    North Molton    Marye    Baptism 18 Jan    1563    Marye daughter of John Pyncombe
13    North Molton    Marye    Marriage 20 July    1567    Marye married George Squire
14    North Molton    Peternell    Baptism 29 Jun    1574    Peternell daughter of John Pyncombe of Pilton
15    North Molton    William    Marriage 26 Nov    1564    William married Margret Gregorye
16    North Molton    William    Burial 13 Sep    1564    No other details
17    North Molton    William    Devon Wills Index    1567    No other details (T)
18    North Molton    William    Burial 25 Mar    1565    No other details
19    Pilton    child    Burial 6 Mar    1582    Child of Anthony Pyncombe
20    Pilton    Elizabeth    Baptism 15 Oct    1583    Elizabeth daughter of Anthony Pyncombe
21    Bideford    Phillippe    Marriage 10 Feb    1583    Phillippe married Wilmote Beare
22    Bideford    Richard    Baptism 27 Mar    1585    Richard son of Phillippe Pyncombe
23    Bideford    Richard    Burial 7 Jun    1592    No other details
24    Bideford    Walter    Marriage 31 Jan    1587    Walter married Johane Pyne
25    Bideford    Agnes    Baptism 30 Sep    1590    Agnes daughter of Phillippe Pyncombe
26    Bideford    Anthony    Baptism 30 May    1596    Anthony son of Phillipps Pyncombe
27    Warkleigh    Anthony    Devon Wills Index    1596    No other details (T)
28    Tawstock    Edward    Devon Wills Index    1594    No other details (T)
29    North Molton    Emott    Baptism 9 Dec    1594    Emott daughter of George and Dorothie Pyncombe
30    Bideford    Johane    Baptism 18 Mar    1592    Johan daughter of Phillippe Pyncombe
31    North Molton    Johane    Baptism 9 Nov    1599    Johane daughter of George and Dorothie Pyncombe
32    Barnstaple    John    Devon, Port Books    1595    John Pyncombe Merchant 10 Jan 1595 sailing to La Rochelle, France (T)
33    North Molton    Peternell    Devon Wills Index    1591    No other details (T)
34    North Molton    Phillippe    Baptism 28 May    1592    Phillippe son of George Pyncombe
35    Bideford    Richard    Burial 7 June    1592    No other details
36    North Molton    William    Baptism 15 Apr    1597    William son of George and Dorothie Pyncombe
37    Bideford    William    Baptism 24 Dec    1599    William son of Richard Pyncombe

(T) The item was from a transcript; the original document was not seen by me.

I shall spend time today matching up this information with the charts produced by the earlier researchers. Solving the mystery of the Pincombe family in the 1500s would definitely be a step forward and delving into the South Molton branch has proven to be a good starting point because the families that were first there either daughtered out or moved on (Poughill being one of the locations that they moved to). My own branch at Bishops Nympton appeared to be there from the end of the 1500s into the 1900s although my own direct line emigrated to Canada in 1850/1851. 

Finding that John  Pincombe perhaps of Barnstaple was into selling at LaRochelle France in the late 1500s was quite fascinating. I had not seen that record before. Have I captured all the spellings though? I think reading some of these early registers will let me see that. Access at Find My Past to the scans of the early registers has been quite fantastic and easier to read than on my fiche reader.

Protestation Returns of 1641

The Protestation Returns of 1641 are an interesting "census" of an area. In the case of Somerset and Devon with the loss of the wills probated only in the diocese they provide a glimpse into life in 1641 in the various areas of Devon and Somerset. The wills being lost in the bombing of Exeter during World War II has proven to be a big loss in many ways although genealogy researchers in the 1800s often made precis copies of some of the more interesting wills (i.e. the person was interesting perhaps to clients or just known in an area). Then there were the people who wrote books about their families and they too produced a precis of wills that interested them at the time which was prior to World War II fortunately. This has been helpful to me in my quest for more information on the various Pincombe family members. However the 1500s has still not been solved for this family.  A search on Find My Past reveals 33 results between 1500 and 1580 plus another 2,333 if you select name variants with a lot of the entries being from the England and Wales Published Wills and Probate Indexes 1300-1858. Add in just the 20 years from 1580 to 1600 and there are another 1996 results with again the Wills and Probate Indexes providing many many entries. This is an all encompassing search so also includes the last name P. and there are Pincombe records from all over England in this time frame with various spellings. I think perhaps I will do the search with some of the specific spellings in mind. It is something I have thought about doing for a while. Along with the Protestation Returns of 1641 and the available wills plus the subsidies of the 1500s I might get an even better picture of the Pincombe family in this vital time when they are moving out from North Molton into Devon (and indeed into Somerset and Cornwall on occasion which are of interest to me). 

Devon entries from Find My Past

Search strategy - Pincombe, Pincomb, Pinkcombe, Pinkome, Pinkham, Pinckomb, Pinckham, Pencomb, Pencombe, Pyncomb, Pyncombe

Area - Devon, Somerset, Cornwall

Time - 1500 - 1600

Pincombe, 1500-1580, Devon -  7 results

Pincomb, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results  

Pinkcombe, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pinkcomb, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pinkome 1500-1580, Devon - 0 results

Pinkham, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pinckomb, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pinckham, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pencomb, 1500-1580, Devon -  1 results

Pencombe, 1500-1580, Devon -  5 results

Pyncomb, 1500-1580, Devon -  0 results

Pyncombe, 1500-1580, Devon -  30 results

An interesting picture actually as the surname spelling that predominate for me in this time period of 1500-1580 are Pencomb or Pencombe or Pyncomb or Pyncombe or Pincombe. 

The last entry Pyncombe proved to be interesting with a number of duplications but of the 30 results 28 were at North Molton and two at Pilton. Pilton is near Barnstaple and the distance from North Molton to Pilton via present day roads is 15 miles or  24 kilometres. This particular entry is the banns book and the marriage register for Maryan Pyncombe to Roger Jule 29 Sep 1577. No other details are given (she could be a widow with the surname Pyncombe or it could be her birth surname). 

The Pencombe entry with five results with three at North Molton, one at East Buckland and one at Tawstock. 

The Pencomb entry at Roborough Devon was most interesting for a Thomas Pencomb in 1578 from the Devon Wills Index. 

The Pincombe entry with seven results had just one at North Molton, two at Bideford, two at Chittlehampton, one at Tawstock and one at Ilfracombe. 

I have often thought about looking at the results in Find My Past in this way and I believe I will work away at that quest today. I also did a search on the time period of 1420 to 1500 and no records of any of the spellings above were found on Find My Past. A similar search between 1400 to 1500 on the Discovery Catalogue at Kew did not reveal any Devon, Somerset or Cornwall results for any of these surnames but there were 21 results for Pencomb/Pencombe but all for the area in Herefordshire known as Pencombe Court.

I see it is already 9:54 and my breakfast must be the next item on the agenda. The morning has passed quickly. 

The Turbine

I misread the story and thought we had returned the turbine but there is apparent opposition. Who is being hurt by the turbine not being returned? It looks like Germany; if I am mistaken then I do take it all back as greater minds than mine are thinking this all through. But Russia not using the repaired turbine just to hurt Germany is really hurting themselves as they are still making money on gas. So let Russia be in the wrong and not us; Germany is an ally and we should help them; they want us to return the turbine. We are not helping Russia; if they decide to continue punishing Europe withholding gas then that is Russia's problem. We are not weak just sensible. Keep arming Ukraine and continuing to build up our NATO forces in case Russia tries a breakout through Belarus. Russia wants a world war it appears as they think China will back them; defensive is never wrong. We need to protect ourselves and as much as I feel very sorry for Ukraine they have fifth columnists at work (it would appear) in their country and we can not help them solve that problem but we can continue to supply them with arms so that their resistance fighters can continue to strike blows. It will be the resistance that drives Russia back out of Ukraine just as it drove Russia out of Afghanistan and drove the Soviet Union to bankruptcy and caused its downfall. The cost to Russia is enormous to continue their aggressive greedy march into Ukraine but continuing to make Russia a pariah nation forever having to sell their products at less than their worth will be a painful future for them. Interesting Russia going to Iran with hat in hand - the evil powers continue to swirl about us. Iran is another of those evil countries that shot down an unarmed passenger plane (headed to Canada) over their own country and then tried to deny it. This is all about greed and Russia continues with that greedy acquisition of Ukraine land. Russia will attack anyone who has land that they want.

In the meantime we had a good rain yesterday; we could have a couple of days of that rain as the ground has soaked it all up and looks for more. July can be the driest month in the year for sure. 

Continuing to work on the Pincombe Newsletter and Chittlehampton has become an interesting excursion that has taken me into all the Protestation Returns for that area looking for where Pincombes lived in the 1641 returns. North Molton very interesting with a Thomas Pencombe senior, Bartholomew Pincombe and a Thomas Pencombe. In 1641 Thomas Pencombe the father of William Pincombe married to Emotte Snowe of Filleigh was still alive but who are the two Thomas Pencombes at North Molton - Thomas did not name a son Thomas - only John (lived at South Molton), William (lived at East Buckland and Filleigh) and Richard whose place of abode is not known to me but was it Chittlehampton and Richard had a son Thomas so did he also have a son Richard marrying at Chittlehampton in 1653 (probably not as the gap is too large but must keep putting this data together)? Thomas Pencombe senior could be the father of John, William and Richard and Thomas Pencombe could be the son of Richard (but not likely this Richard). Who is Bartholomew Pencombe and I do have his will transcribed from 1656 where he mentions a son John and daughters Francis and Richourd and his friend Thomas Pincombe? The loss of the wills during the bombing of the Record Office in Exeter during WWII is deeply felt looking at their old lines in Devon and Somerset. Perhaps today I will continue looking at all the Protestation Returns.

One day of cleaning completed on to the second day of cleaning

 I wonder how long my enthusiasm for cleaning will last! I do enjoy the process of cleaning a house methodically picking up and placing items that have become misplaced during the week but it is hard work and I can see that eventually I will not be able to clean even this smaller house. I find that my mind does, on cleaning day, go back to the house hunting that my husband and daughters engaged in about thirty plus years ago. I am so very thankful that they decided that they liked where they were well enough  although just ten years later they did wish that they had moved and had the larger "entertainment" areas that exist in larger homes but then they were grown up and life was moving them onwards so did not talk about that very much. But it left me, in my widowhood, with the home that I loved and could manage and a place for us all to gather together that has the memories of Edward firmly all around us even though we have donated so much of his life to various places to help other people as he was prone to do. Edward loved to help; to be part of so many places. It was just his way and we went along for that ride and it was always interesting; not always fun but life isn't about fun but more about service. That was the way that I was raised with the thought of service to God uppermost in our minds and service to our country coming in a quick second. Our civic duty being a very important part of our being on this planet. 

We returned the turbine and I am so in support of our doing that. We must stay in dialogue with the Russians; we must help Ukraine to fight off this evil imperialistic aggression by Russia but always in dialogue hoping that one day this will all end and the world will move forward once again in peace. That isn't to say we should not be ready for war; we should always be ready to defend ourselves from whatever emerges on our world but especially whatever comes to our world. We must be ready to defend ourselves. I am not hearing enough about improvements to our military; to me that is the most important item that should be uppermost in people's minds. We can live in small houses; we can have fewer clothes but we must have a well equipped military. God would want us to defend ourselves from evil; He did not create this world to see it destroyed by greed for land and imperialistic aggression. It shows because imperialism always loses eventually unless it creates instead of being greedy. As countries throw off the yoke of imperialism the ties that were originally imperialistic have turned into lasting friendship as the mother country tries to help those countries become independent prosperous nations. That is important as the world evolves. But imperialism needs to be a thing of the past. When the lines were drawn after World War II and again with the Iron Curtain rising; those lines were meant to be and if you didn't want to be enclosed in those lines you should go where you feel is home not become a fifth columnist in a country destroying the freedom of all the people who live there. Offering easy citizenship in an imperialist country isn't freedom it is just greed for more land and using fear to get it. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always.

Moving on to the day. I hope to spend some time on the Pincombe Newsletter today. My eyes are rested once again and I can go back into the Chittlehampton Register to look at the Pincombe entries. The first entry was most fascinating finding the priest recording the first Pincombe marriage as a William Pincombe of Fhilley (Filleigh). Then checking the Protestation Returns and finding that a William Pincombe has signed at Filleigh (and he is Church Warden there) but also a William Pincombe Senior and a William Pincombe Junior have signed at Chittlehampton. Proving that the William Pincombe at Filleigh and the William Pincombe Senior at Chittlehampton may not be an easy task but they are less than 10 kilometres apart and interesting that William Pincombe Junior may be the William Pincombe of Fhilley who married Mary Harvey 26 Sep 1639 in Chittlehampton. The name Pincombe in Devon in the 1500s is found in 29 results and in the 1600s records 449 results. A substantial increase showing a rapidly increasing family (and records of course but between 1500 and 1600 the records are more birth, marriage and burial with some civic records. The number of adult male Pincombes in the 1500s is quite small and eventually I shall have charted all of these records and discussed them in the Pincombe Newsletter but it will take a lot of time and I like to use more than the one data set (I have access to Ancestry, Family Search, Find My Past and My Heritage). My task seems to stretch far into the future and as I said when I turned 70 I can see that by 80 I may be winding down but life changed suddenly for me during COVID. I expected Edward and I to live to an old age together and that we would be helping each other to manage life but now alone I tend to be a reclusive loner and working away on my newsletters is how I would like to spend my widowhood years plus getting Edward's work published. I have set myself a huge goal but I try to take it day by day and just see how it all transpires. 

I was so right though in the spring when I said that I might not get back to the Siderfin book until August or later in the Fall. Initially I thought I might be done by August but I have not been able to work on it since the spring. Life has become so very busy. 

I have found with the help of the priest a suitable memorial for Edward's Celebration of Life since flowers were already chosen for the Sunday after. I am much happier with the new idea of hymn books. He loved to sing - he was in the Choir at Orleans United for about 16 or 17 years I think it was as well as being Treasurer for ten years. Shortly after we started going to Orleans United Then Convent Glen United I stayed home one Sunday while Edward and our oldest went on their own. Instead I read my Morning Prayer and worked away on my proofreading/copyediting. I found it a very fulfilling day but it was not to be as I had agreed to go as a family to the United Church and my husband and child missed me being with them so I did continue going with them and being Volunteer Secretary for about four or five years I think it was - Joanne Barr was minister (and I did finally remember her surname) and then Jamie Goss was minister and he took over the publication of the Bulletin which was nice actually as my worklife was increasing rapidly and I was finding that more difficult to do as well as my proofreading and copyediting at home. I will eventually investigate a memorial for Edward at Orleans United Church (we gave the large Bible for the altar when our youngest was baptized) but will need to save up for that.

One third of the way through July

 Amazingly we are now one third of the way through July and it is in some ways a typical July as we wait for rain. It is dry out there and the large trees all around us are soaking up the water when I do water and the grass is slowly browning. I would water again this morning  but it is really not useful as the tree roots quickly gobble it up! We need a heavy rain shower and that will benefit all the plants. Trees are very dominant but also very needed in our world. Plants always seem to come back even after a forest fire - nature does tend to win in that regard. 

Yesterday a little work on the Pincombe Newsletter but not too much eye work - heavy transcribing is something I always need to work up to or I have eye strain but once I am more organized I can really get back into that - there is still a lot of downsizing to do. The tool library will be our next visit likely once we make an inventory of what is here. A lot of it is old and possibly not useful but hammers and the like never really lose their usefulness. I have always been glad to have been a tradesman's daughter because I learned a lot of skills as a young child - like sorting tools! My father was well educated though for the times having completed high school, graduated from college studying business administration but electricity drew him in and he apprenticed to an electrician and was a Master Electrician eventually and owned his own company working on air conditioning. 

Looking out the window just the top quadrant is open now and not all of it. The trees are growing quickly and filling up the sky. I notice that the house is cooler because of all the trees (and the air conditioning). But the air conditioner does not run as much as it did when the trees were much smaller thirty years ago. 

The hoeing has defined the garden although we still like the idea of restorative gardening I think hoeing is probably still needed. The lettuces are growing nicely and we have had a lot of green onions already and the parsley is also thick now and we have used it fairly often. The tomatoes are abundant on the vines and will start to ripen towards the end of July but the peppers are not doing as well as one might like. However that is just one crop and they didn't do that well last year. I need to plant them back in direct sunlight somewhat difficult to find these days but will try again next year for a better crop. Our best crop was the summer before Edward passed away. He loved peppers fresh from the garden and they were abundant that year. 

Today is cleaning and the robot is busy working away on the first room upstairs. I will vacuum the main floor and dust whilst the robot vacuums the upstairs. I have loved this house from the time I first saw it and resisted the efforts to move to a single up on the hill. Edward traveled a lot then and this house just suited that life style and it continues to suit although the stairs may defeat me one day and I will have to go to a single floor. 

Maybe some work on the Pincombe Newsletter. I would like to complete it this week and then start extracting the information on the Somerset Subsidies to see if the mystery of Humphrey's parents can be truly resolved or will always be a thought more than a proven line. I did receive some wills which I will investigate although I think I have transcribed a lot of the Somerset wills but these may not be PCC wills but rather from the diocese. I will have a go at them as well once the Pincombe Newsletter is completed. 

I also need to work about eighty new matches into my database and will do that as well in the coming weeks. 

The Celebration of Life Service is prepared and I just need to enlarge Edward's favourite picture. Mostly we celebrate Edward every day in conversation and just personally remembering him. He was so much a part of the girl's life as they pick up his love of gardening and remember everything he taught them. Although he was a very busy person when he was here with the girls he concentrated on being with them. They did astronomy together and they gardened. In the summer they went camping (I generally stayed home and did my proofreading/copyediting unless it worked out for me to be gone for a few days but they generally went for a week to ten days on their annual fun camping trip. The pictures they brought back showed me how much fun they did have - canoeing, water parks, roller skating, hiking, astronomy and camp fires. Whenever they do any of those things their father will be fresh in their minds. 

On to the day including breakfast! A new addition to my breakfast cereal is a square of 70% cocoa chocolate - a wonderful energy addition.

Working on the next Pincombe Newsletter

Yesterday was a working day and I spent about four hours reading and transcribing the Chittlehampton Devon Parish Register.  A big surprise at the beginning of the Parish Registers set was the marriage of a William Pincombe of Fhilley and Mary the daughter of Mary Harvey widow 26 Sep 1639. It was the first Pincombe entry in that particular Parish Register. William Pincombe of Fhilley is likely of the North Molton Pincombe line surprisingly although when one considers the distances not such a surprise. 

Filleigh is 8.2 kilometres from Chittlehampton. Filleigh is also the location for Thomas Pincombe whose will was probated in 1544 and believed to be the father of William Pincombe who married Emotte Snowe as well as father to Richard and John and the time frame is approximately 100 years earlier than this record in 1639. It was an interesting discovery although the gap between 1639 and the next record in the register for the marriage of a Richard Pyncombe and Jane Bone in 1653 is not overly helpful. The next following entry is for a William Pyncombe son of William Pyncombe baptized 8 Feb 1652/53 and the following baptisms of Bartholomew and Margarett son and daughter of Richard Pincombe baptized the 24th Dec 1653 (born the 23rd of December). This is a difficult time for parish registers as it is the period of the Commonwealth in England and records were supposed to be recorded in the city/town/village records and not in the Church but in these far flung areas of the countries the priests were rather more defiant and did perform baptisms and marriages and record them in their registers. I am not surprised to find the North Molton family at Chittlehampton but more curious why people linked Richard Pincombe married to Jane Bond to the family of William Pincombe and Mary Carew a few hundred years later when they did have access to the Chittlehampton records. 

The Subsidy 1544/1545 for Chetylhamton (Chittlehampton) Parish does not list any Pincombe members. At that point in time the Pincombe members were found in: 

North Molton - Alice (widow) Pincombe, John Pincombe, William Pincombe

South Molton - Christopher Pincombe, John Pincombe, John Pincombe Jr, John Pincombe Sr

East Buckland - Thomas Pencombe

Bideford - Richard Pincombe

Tawstocke - Philip Pynkeham

Kings Nympton - Richard Pincombe

The Visitation of Devon 1620 mentions three sons for the original Pymcombe who came with Lord de la Zouch to North Molton in 1485 - John, Thomas and unknown (possibly William). John was the father of a John and a Christopher. Thomas was the father of a William, a Richard and a John and the unknown but possibly William was the father of a William and a John. All of these sons would have been adults or very close to that by 1544. The only real outlier is Philip Pynkham at Tawstock (near Barnstaple). I like it that the subsidy does list all of the potential children of these three individuals John, Thomas and unknown (possibly William). 

Will spend a little time today on the newsletter but the eyes definitely need a rest!

A lovely sunny day here and the temperature at 8:30 am is 17 degrees celsius. Thus far the weather has been pretty nice; not too hot but we could as always do with more rain. Watered yesterday once again as well as hoeing the garden. We have avoided that until now because of the bunnies but will see how that goes.

The Protestation Returns of 1641/42 at Chittlehampton (March 6, 7, 8, 1641) list:

Richard Pincombe

William Pincombe junior

William Pincombe senior

The Parish Records continuing up to the early 1700s where I am currently extracting do show a Richard Pincombe family and a William Pincombe family. How were they related? that is unknown to me but the priest recording the marriage of William Pincombe of Fhilley is most interesting and given the few numbers of Pincombe in Devon it might be realistic to think that this William Pincombe of Fhilley is descendant of the North Molton Pincombe family which would mean that all the descendants of William Pincombe at Chittlehampton are descendant of the North Molton family. Can one assume that the William Pincombe marrying at Chittlehampton in 1639 is William Pincombe junior since children were not in general recorded on these protestation returns although 18 year old and up males were recorded in many parishes. There is a William Pincombe baptized 8 Feb 1652/53 son of William Pincombe. The elder Pincombe though could have married a second time and Filleigh is closeby to Chittlehampton so recording his name on that Protestation Return would not be surprising. 

The Filleigh Protestation Returns (March 13, 1641) also show a William Pincombe both signing and as one of the church wardens. But there isn't a William Pincombe junior (or senior). 

No service on You-Tube today but I read the service and sang the hymns and I am content. I could have watched another but the hymns today are some of my favourites. It reminds me of the beginning of the pandemic when there was only a printed service available on the website which I quite enjoyed at that time. The You-Tube has just been a wonderful extra.