I found myself contemplating the communications between Galen Pinkham and myself the last two days. I know Galen was interested in an update to the earlier Pinkham family book published back in the 1800s. I did encourage him to do it himself but as I work at 81 I realize this is a huge task and I did not realize until two days ago that when he sent me an obituary for a fellow Pinkham that it was his wife and not realizing it I did not say anything beyond did he want me to publish it in the next Newsletter and he said no he just wanted me to know that. Looking back in my life I often realize that there are times when my possible autism really stands out. I need to be told directly what has to be known as I am not one to think anything past the words themselves.
That being said I accomplished very little yesterday but today will perhaps be better. But it is also the heaviest cleaning day because it involves cleaning the rug on the stairs along with the main floor. Now that the record has come forward and looking back at the Rev. Charles Sinnett's publication "Richard Pinkham of old Dover New Hampshire and his descendants east and west" I reviewed once again the originating information on the emigrant Richard Pinkham and Section one begins with the likely arrival of Richard in 1640 at Dover Neck, New Hampshire, his wife was Julia and the names of their three sons Richard, John and Thomas. His location in England by family tradition was the Isle of Wight but the author says there is no historical proof. Galen and Richard, the two earlier researchers, created Chart 10 which is labeled Bideford (Devon) and it has a genealogical tree reaching back from the emigrant to his father also a Richard and to his father Philip. Finding the baptism of the father of the emigrant Richard was truly amazing the other day although the chart did provide a very close date to this so perhaps his birth in 1585 a couple of days before the baptism. But finding this location in Devon verified now by record is a fascinating happening. Although it is not my line I am incredibly happy that it has been located (Find My Past Hint).
I do find it interesting that the children's names are similar to the names in the Pencombe family found in Herefordshire - in this case John and Thomas. Philip and Richard are not found in the Herefordshire names although I continue to review those documents. Roger as a forename is not present but that was the early 1300s and this is 1585. Forenames are not necessarily an indication of a family as far as I can tell but can reinforce the search in some ways leading you to other possibilities.
The actual Parish Register line is now available on Find My Past:
Richard the sonne of Phillippe Pyncombe the xxvii th daie of Marche
And so the research of Galen and Richard has now been fortified with this original record on Find My Past.
This process of going through the 50,000 records will be a slow one but will continue to verify the great work that Galen and Richard did (I take no credit for it other than my access to Find My Past) but I am sharing this screen shot as it is permitted to do small amounts of a document. I will not share any further as I do not wish to infringe on copyright. Why the spelling of Pyncombe? Generally this spelling was used by the South Molton branch of the Pincombe family but the records that were lost would have let us see any connection between the two families using the surname in the 1300s in Devon. The distance from Bondleigh to Bideford as the crow flies is shorter actually than the distance between South Molton and Bideford. Now by modern roads it is nearly the same. The Manor Records may yet help to understand why we find Philip Pyngham in Tawstock on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy probably as a very young adult but perhaps a teenager as he is earning wages. The person he follows on the list is actually a common surname in Tawstock. The spelling of the name here and again on the Devon Lay Subsidy in 1543-45 Philip Pynkeham does leave me wondering as he is now established and his tax number is 8 which was a medium to upper range in Tawstock at that time. I believe it is the same name. The assessor collecting this information has a different set of records than a priest recording information on a baptismal certificate. Usually the assessors for a village/town/city were local to the area whereas the priest often had the luxury of knowing people from a larger area. There is an independent group of Pinkham and I did forward my last conversation with Galen to this group leader in hopes that he can pass on my writeup to his family. The email address is still functional I think as I did not get an error message for the email I sent to Galen.
Since I will continue to see Pinkham records in the search I will of course relate them in this blog along with the other records that catch my attention. A grandson taking on a grandfather's surname (particularly a daughter's son) is generally indicative of the family having daughtered out and the property to remain in that family could have someone change their surname (of their father) to that of the family line of his mother (since it was his mother's maiden name) that owned the property which was not unusual in England and particularly with the huge number of young male deaths at the Battle of Bosworth Field there would have been quite a few I suspect who had not left a male heir of their own. There also remains the possibility that picking the name of a village (Pencombe, Herefordshire) is not that unusual but when I discovered Roger de Pencombe I did wonder if he himself had chosen that particular surname as it was only the early 1300s. But the loss of records due to the bombing of the Exeter Record Office in 1942 has created a hole in the records of Devon although some records still remain (the parish records are primarily intact having been retained by the parish through the centuries). The Manor Records may also exist and the wills probated by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury still exist. But a huge amount was lost although we in the Pinkham/Pincombe families are very lucky to have the abstracted wills done by Dr Richard Pinkham prior to the bombing of the Record Office. I do have copies and I believe I have blogged all of them but will check. Two methods of arriving at those wills - label - Devon-wills and Pincombe/Pinkham will bring up the wills but also the name itself on a search. I welcome any queries and do try to check my comments on the blog and will make an effort to do that a little more regularly. They do not publish immediately as I do get a lot of comments that have nothing to do with my blog.
Moving on to the work of the day. Although I will likely return to this blog (I do make corrections through the day on occasion) as my review of the results of my search 1480 to 1560 continues and I am on the fifth page.
Continuing to read the Psalms as I do appear to get easily distracted. Having the email in my box of the Bible Readings of the day does keep me focused on that but I do want to continue and complete my reading of the Bible to better understand now in my 80s God's vision for our world. Psalm 19 Verse 14 "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." So familiar to my Anglican ears. The beauty of the Psalms about 50% written by King David is a source of so much joy in one's life. As I enjoy my solitude day after day (except when I am with family) and continue with my writing, the years pass by but my being with non family will not happen now in the rest of my life unless of course I end up like my elder sister in a wheelchair. I did speak with her on Thanksgiving but the call went on and on without my really realizing it (but it was special). It was a joyous family time with my sister and my brother in law whom I have know since I was an early teenager. A PhD Psychologist who taught at Memorial University for many years (my sister's degree was in French and German) and my children remember them as they drove back and forth to our mutual home in London (and my brother in law was from the Niagara area) stopping to visit us here in Ottawa. As I downsize the binders I am collecting up the many pictures of their trips here through the years to send back to them for their grandchildren to have and enjoy (I still have the electronic copies but also paper copies in the binders that I am creating). Edward especially enjoyed their coming as they had much in common with their PhDs from the same university except Edward's PhD was in Chemistry (Inorganic) and then his Postdoc in Chemical Engineering (Environmental) and I did three years of Honours Chemistry, got married and finished off my degree as a BA. I did contemplate and actually was marking papers for a professor that I would do my masters with when my eldest was settled in school but surprise my second daughter made her entrance and she definitely needed me to be with her those early years as her health was needing that extra care. Then I just decided to go back to work and did proofreading and copyediting initially the proofreading for the National Research Council Journals but later for the private printers and that included copyediting.
Vacuuming done, lunch time and then dusting and scrubbing the bathroom. I am late starting. My next neighbour appears to work at night I think sometimes so I never know and try not to start vacuuming as early as I used to (7:00 a.m. when my daughter is not here). I have only spoken to her once when I offered her a length of fence and the posts (wrought iron). My husband never got it put up and she had someone there doing work so I thought I would offer it in case she wanted it. But she suggested I throw it in her huge refuse bin so obviously was not interested which is fine not everyone wants a fence but I generally put anything I do not want out to the street in case someone else wants it. It is still in my shed actually. But for that reason I tend to clean later these days.
Solitaire puzzles all completed in the middle of the night as I awoke with my brain full of thoughts. A couple of good puzzles tends to mediate that tendency of mine.
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