Yesterday was productive I am pleased to say. I am sure Homo sapiens hibernated in the winter way back when and probably spent the time learning - this latest paper on a proto-language from 20,000 years ago was very interesting. I shall keep a watch on the research literature for more information (some are dubious but the human mind is a glorious thing when it is working properly). I think perhaps my thought is "why not" rather than to look at it through the narrow view of what has already been collected - being broadminded and open to new and thoughtful comments which can and should be more thoroughly investigated is a good thing.
Yesterday was an interesting time for me as I worked through some of the Pinkham information which I received over the past week. I am really glad now that I followed the course that I did when I took on the Pincombe one-name study at the Guild (collect and examine what has been done and move forward). The original researchers - Galen Pinkham and a Dr Richard Pinkham took on the study perhaps in the late 70s I do not actually know that but Richard Pinkham was already into the thick of it collecting information from his many informants in the north Devon area. He was a physician located in Gloucestershire when I heard of him but he was likely retired then. The opportunity to chat with people with the surname was for sure more available to him in his occupation. The name started as Pencomb(e) possibly in Pencombe Herefordshire near Bromyard but I have no proof of that just coincidence. In 1485 an unknown Pencombe arrived in North Molton with Lord de la Zouch. Given that Lord de la Zouch had been attainted in 1485 for loyalty to King Richard III there was likely a necessity for him to be "out of the way for a while." I have recently learned that the first Baron de la Zouch, Alan la Zouche (died 1190). was lord of the manor of North Molton which explains why he went to North Molton bringing along some of his adherents following the defeat of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. A wikipedia article has quite a bit of information but is lacking citations for some of the statements. However, the de la Zouche family is not of interest to me but rather the notation on the Visitation of Devon 1620 noting that an unknown Pencombe had arrived with Lord de la Zouch in North Molton in 1485. There we have a date for the beginning of the Pencombe family in Devon. Over time, a few people have hinted that this was a Cornwall name but a long list of surnames from another researcher in Devon does perhaps put that argument into the wind. When one collects up the surnames in the Parish Registers, which fortunately in many cases started in 1538 or shortly afterwards, and plots them a picture does emerge of this family moving out from North Molton across North Devon. Unfortunately, I have not done this particular mapping except in my mind as I have read the early registers of these parishes. A mapping task I may just set myself to one of these days.
I also did find time to continue with the Kipp Newsletter and this son Hendrick Hendricksen Kip (named after his father Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, the emigrant to New Amsterdam from Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and the discovery that the reporting for this son is incorrect in some of the early books. There was confusion between the two perhaps and in one book the author has the emigrant returning to Amsterdam leaving his children behind which, given the age of the children, was unlikely. The author also has him married to the wrong person. I can see why Frederic Ellsworth Kip put so much time into publishing the "Kip Family in America" to correct his portion of history and lucky that he did as once in print it is really difficult to make changes. I will continue with the Newsletter today.
The Siderfin Book was also looked at by me as I rediscovered when I had stopped (the footnotes were helpful in that regard) and at that point I found an interesting document which I believe I will purchase but there is a backlog of four to six weeks which is unfortunate as it fits in just where I am. Likely I could just move on but it would be nice to know what the document says. So I shall contemplate that whilst I continue with the third generation. The benefit of obtaining the document would be the verification that the Siderfin family was in Luxborough prior to 1548 which has more or less been proven but the original document would be nice. Spending time at Kew with all those documents at my fingertips gave me a thirst for having original documentation in my work. However, the practicality of spending time at Kew when I am thousands of miles away is questionable! This document is in the Somerset Archives so even less likely that I would ever be in that building. I do dream of all of these documents being online one day and it will likely happen which means the future one-namers will have access but in the meantime it is expensive to copy all of these documents and so I shall think very clearly about this one particular one. It is apparently very large and that does slow me down a little. Working on documents from the 1600s is a challenge although they are often in English which is helpful as I do not find reading the old English text difficult in itself if it is clear. Where I run into trouble is with Latin. I am very slow and prodding with Latin.
My research days are cut out for me which is great. Yesterday I also cleared away the small amount of snow for some nice fresh air. I generally move away the small amounts in between the Snow Removal company doing the job. We are expecting another snowfall over this weekend so great for skiing.
Not sunrise quite yet but I am up early and shall have my breakfast and on with the day.
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