Main floor cleaning

Yesterday I made a decision after working most of the day on Pincombe to move to Blake today. I need to decide what I am doing so will spend a little time working on that. However, I may continue with my Pincombe hits at Find My Past just to complete that project. I am missing some items though it appears so will have to review how I am doing this drawing out of the 50,000 items on Pincombe. I can see that if I work on lines that I get more data so will contemplate that a little as well. Hopefully I will soon hear about the document that I want to have scanned at the UK Archives. 

The earlier researchers Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham linked the line of John Pincombe and Jane Blackmore back to a John Pincombe of Knowstone giving John a number of siblings namely Mary, Elizabeth, Emotte, Rose and William all born between 1629 and 1641. Interestingly speaking with a cousin who had spoken with the College of Arms about the Pincombe family at Bishops Nympton said that the descendants in Bishops Nympton were predominantly from this family and the Parish Registers certainly show that to be very much the case having transcribed the entire set of them. The Bishops Nympton Chart does not have any Acknowledgements so has been put together from the records I am assuming as there are more dates on this chart than others. Since the line from Knowstone does not include John Pincombe married to Grace Manning I do not agree with it and have stayed with the line as my mother remembered it. But I will also be proving my own line as I work through it since I have simply stayed with her thoughts on it. I need to learn more about Knowstone though and how a Pincombe ended up there especially as one of the daughter's names is Emotte. William Pincombe and Emotte Snow likely married around 1564 and the John Pincombe at Knowstone would have married around the mid 1620s. My suspicion is that Dr. Richard Pinkham did not know where to place John Pincombe married to Jane Blackmoore and this family at Knowstone was handy. I used the land records from the 1700s to help me but now I will review all of that coming forward from John Pencombe (1486). I will use the Living DNA Pincombe matches as well to see if any trees that they might have on Find My Past might assist if they have always lived in England. What I do remember is that they always lived at Bishops Nympton back into the late 1500s as that was another memory my mother had which was why I moved back to Richard who had a son William and was mentioned in his father's will (William Pincombe married to Emotte Snowe). So we will see because she was only eight when her father died and they moved into the City of London away from close family as most of them stayed on the Pincombe farms around London. 

I went and voted yesterday and it was a nice walk (had my rain suit and it works very well). I think I have had that rain suit for about fifty or more years actually. It isn't like you wear one that often and mostly it was camping when I wore it. I did love camping for sure and canoeing. It was great fun especially in the northern woods; north of Sault Ste Marie was generally where we went  When you are there you get a sense of the magnificence of God in our world as you look around at the wondrous surroundings of Northern Ontario.  I did give the canoe away to a First Nations family in the north a few years ago and they had two young children so I know they are enjoying that cedar strip canoe. It was a beauty. A person I know does a lot of work with her people (First Nations) and has been very helpful with my giving such items away. 

Still reading the Psalms and they are wondrous. When I sang in the Choir in my childhood and youth the Psalm of that day was always my favourite part of the service. I love the hymns as well but the psalms are so much about God. They are beautiful. Ed asked me to be in the Choir at his church (he sang in it for seventeen years and loved it) but I said it isn't me.  When I am in a place which is not my Church or anywhere else really that is not mine; then I do not suggest anything. I leave when I have no reason to be there. I notice in my older years though that I do sometimes make comments but generally exit almost immediately when I am doing things like that and leave it to those in charge.  I just collected data as the Volunteer Secretary at Edward's Church although certainly I enjoyed going to the United Church with my grandmother, uncle and aunt as a child. I remember they were always so very nice to me and they knew I was Anglican but invited me to their Sunday School anyway. I preferred to be with my children whilst Edward was in the Choir or anywhere else for that matter. Babysitters were rare in our house. It was a time when my Church was starting to fight the lawsuits over the Residential Schools and I felt that they should simply settle and apologize and that would happen; the Anglican Church was the first to do so. What we were hearing was very upsetting. My memory was of the First Nations children coming to my High School in London, Ontario. Since I was very shy in High School I do not know if they were comfortable. I seldom spoke to anyone I did  not know. 

But I do know that we are moving more together in Canada with further to go but the National Chief of the First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak was standing beside  Prime Minister Mark Carney when I was watching the news and it was good seeing them together; working together. I must agree with Premier Wab Kinew that it is time to move past the Indian Act. He is such a marvelous person and has a wondrous ability at public speaking and managing the province of Manitoba. He does save the NDP party in my mind because otherwise I do not care for it particularly.

On to work; another busy day of cleaning.  

 

Cleaning day and it is the basement

Continuing prayers for the soldiers recovering from the fire at CFB Wainwright Alberta and for their families who are supporting them. 

Yesterday when I discussed the parentage of the William Pincombe at Molland who left his will dated 1639 and probated 1642 I tentatively named John the eldest son of William Pincombe married to Emotte Snow as his father. I did give reasons to eliminate Richard because it just didn't fit in with the comments in the will, I also eliminate William, the second son, because he had two sons known to me Hugh (died young) and William, the third son is Symon and I have no information on him other than his father said he had left England, the fourth son was Richard already mentioned, the fifth son Thomas and again the will eliminates him as he is named as an uncle, the sixth son was Peter and he likely died at Bideford in 1622  but that still remains to be proven if possible, and the seventh son Lewis I have not located any information on him at all. John seems like the most logical as he had two sons and a daughter namely William, John and Marye. 

Today in my break time I will continue to extract the information from Find My Past. I am now on Page 10 of the data hits using Pencombe (any variation of) as the search between 1480 and 1560 although the search does extend into the 1600s now but that is because I am using birth and anyone born up to 1560 could have survived into the mid 1600s. 

Slowly this fourth and fifth generations are building and the more difficult sorts are to come in the Bideford/Barnstaple area where we have Richard son of Thomas (John (1486)) and the descendants of Philip father of Richard the emigrant to the Royal Colonies in the now United States. I postulate that Philip's father was also a Philip but his father remains unknown in the data thus far. The first Philip is found at Tawstock on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy and again on the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy at Tawstock, then fourty years later a Phillippe Pyncombe marries  Wilmote Beare 10 Feb 1583 at Bideford and they were the parents of Richard mentioned above (using the dating that is in the Charts produced by the earlier researchers for the Pinkham family of the United States). The cluster of Pencombe derivatives in this area is large and can perhaps be separated out. But the Protestation Returns had a surprise with Richard Pencomb Senior and Richard Pencomb Junior being listed at Abbotsham (three miles from Bideford) in 1641-2. To the best of my knowledge thus far Richard (son of Thomas) only had two children Thomas and Helen. It is separating out this family that comes next in my thinking I suspect and that will solve the fourth and fifth generations in that line coming down from Thomas (son of John (1486)). Thomas' eldest son John married to Emet Hodge (1 Jul 1560) had three daughters none of whom appear to have married although will continue to do secondary checks on that. 

I am still  enthusiastic that I can reach into the sixth and seventh generations which bring me to more parish registers available and complete; the 1500s were less complete but into the 1600s more information is becoming available to the reader. That also gets me past a bottle neck in English records during the Commonwealth as they returned to the parishes at Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 with Charles II becoming King. The land records in the 1700s are very useful as well. Then the census from 1841 on will get me to the early 1900s. Chittlehampton does appear to be the Pincombe families in that area including Filleigh and Molland. which is very helpful. The one tester in the study who matches the known descendants of John Pincombe (1728 Bishops Nympton) has a history back to Barnstaple and my suspicion continues to be the eldest son of John (1486) who lived at South Molton. If correct this does give two distinct matching lines coming down from John (1486) to the present.  Basically I await the Inheritance Dispute document that is being paged at the moment at the Archives. 

I will be moving to Blake this week and will have to review to see where I will begin. I often get tracked back to Nicholas Blake who was misused by Horatio Gates Somerby and given family members and parents that are incorrect. Correcting this is very difficult and as often as I write the proofs I still find people who are devoted to the books Somerby wrote and sold privately to people. Paul Reed, an American genealogist exposed the fraud in the 1990s but still the fraud exists as real in many people's minds. Sad really and unfair to them. I actually dislike giving Somerby so much space but getting rid of that fraud is very important. 

On to the cleaning. First Solitaire puzzles.  

Today I should work on the Blake Newsletter as it is definitely late now (usually the 1st of October or close to that but I was into Pincombe and just had a good run with the records; I suspect that will happen a lot over the next two years). I may just write a little in the first section of the newsletter on how the book is going. Newsletter is completed and uploaded for review. 

Basement just needs to be restored and that will be in a bit. 

Returning to the records for Pencombe and its derivatives at Find My Past. Over these couple of cleaning days I will try to complete the first 245 hits (I have maybe 50 left, we will see).  

Beautiful Sunday in God's world

A perfect Sunday morning, blue sky, sun bright and warm in the eastern sky as God looks down on the earth another day has come in His world. Will it be a perfect day; a day of peace amongst the peoples He created. Why do so many people have greed for what is not theirs? It is hard to understand; I never understood greed. Church today online and it has become my way of life. I was meant for an online life I think from the days that I thought about being an astronaut way back in the 1950s and then  it was a doctor in Africa and then it was Edward's wife. I have led a quiet life for the most part and will continue in that trend. I actually abhor public speaking but I was good at it as it turned out even though I vacated it as quickly as I could. It is the dream of others to do that and I wish them God speed in their efforts. I always did. I feel blessed every day to still be in the house where my children were little, went to school and followed their dreams. My not being here is in the distant future or maybe closer time will tell but where ever I am I will be the same living my online life and writing my books slowly but surely. 

Continuing prayers for the soldiers recovering from the fire at CFB Wainwright. God be with them and their families in this time of worry. 

Yesterdays work on the books was interesting. I do have this William Pincombe at Molland leaving his will dated in 1639 and probated in 1642 where he mentions his children Johane, Elizabeth and William as well as his wife Johane. Placing him has always been a challenge. Was he the son of Richard or was he the son of John? It makes sense for him to be John's son except he is living at Molland and I would have anticipated that John (being the eldest) would have his son living at North Molton but the testator William mentions his uncle Thomas and certainly John and Richard (and all the others) had a brother Thomas (Thomas was to inherit the Molland property along with Symon and Richard). The testator William mentions his brother John and both of these individuals Richard and John had sons William and John. He mentions  John at Bishops Nympton and William at Filleigh (those are Richard's descendants). William at Filleigh was married to Mary Harvey at Chittlehampton and he is the son of William ((b 1599) son of Richard at Bishops Nympton). John at Bishops Nympton is married to Johan Blackmoore and also a son of William (b 1599). Again it is looking at the tax rolls and the Protestation Returns that might clarify what I have written. These two  men are brothers and sons of William (b 1599). The William at Molland would be the eldest son of John (brother to Richard at Bishops Nympton) and born before 1602 because  he is  mentioned in his grandfather's will as John's children. But it does fit nicely into the paperwork thus far. I have added this unlinked William into John's family tentatively. I do like the use of this word that I acquired from the AI. To me it told me that the AI is becoming sentient; respecting the possibility that in the future an item could change due to yet another document or set of data from an economic review. It is not set in stone. 

Not a lot of work today as my eyes  need to rest one day a week. I wanted to think this through freshly in the morning and thus I have. Solitaire puzzles all done. 

Church was interesting. The picture feed did not happen but the sound feed did and it was a lovely service which I greatly appreciated. To be honest I do not watch a lot of TV as it is hard on my eyes and always  has been - fluttering light is not my friend for sure. I avoid all such lighting in as much as it is absolutely possible. The Sermon was particularly appreciated as it centered around Moses and that he did not enter the promised land and what that means to us to learn that you do not always end up doing what you thought you might. God loved Moses and took him home to be with Him. The path Moses tread doing God's work was a hard path but he accomplished it and brought his people to the Promised land as God asked him to do. 

Time for lunch and then clothes washing. A busy day ahead with lots of exercise.  

 

 

How less positive and more questioning you become as a genealogist

Continuing prayers for the recovery of the soldiers from the fire at CFB Wainwright. May God be with them and their families. 

 I was looking back at some of my blogs and my positivity was certainly much stronger in those days but time has passed and my courses all completed in 2007 and you could see my positivity entering into my blogs which started in 2008 after our visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I felt I needed to record absolutely everything I did and I have never regretted it. Until you write the book and put into print nothing is fixed; it is just your mind meandering about in void putting things together and gradually you realize that you want so much more to make any claims. 

That always reminds me that the indexes in the Siderfin books I published are inaccurate. I will redo them unless someone beats me to it but I also have more information to put in as it turns out. Life flows along and more information surfaces in the most amazing places at times. 

But back to my greater positivity in my youth and my questioning attitude in my old age. I got an email today telling me my request was attached and of course I thought about my page count. But I took it very slowly as the Archives is a very busy place having been three different times and that it simply has not yet been enough time. But I glanced and of course the email address from which it was sent was absolutely bogus. I just deleted it without going beyond that. People are always trying to scam you for your money. Why do they not get a job; disgusting really they are like snakes in the grass waiting to pounce. It is too bad their computers do not blow up when they send off such tripe into the internet. Perhaps AI can help with that! I can see so many possibilities for AI to bring peace to this world. 

So today I will continue working on the hits at Find My Past as I have only accomplished 180 thus far so still another 65 to do today and that will see me finished somewhat at this time with this book until I come back again when the document arrives. 

Generally the Blake book tends to acquire more people disagreeing with me than Pincombe. In spite of all that has been written about the fraudulent books that  Horatio Gates Somerby  people still think the Blake book that Somerby wrote that has been handed down is authentic. It is a fraud and it is sad that he did that. Again it is like a modern spammer who just has to go after people's money; I will not give it credit as a disease it is just criminal and wanting to abuse the people of the world. AI can help with so many things like this. 

I will pop in and out with any new and interesting information later in the day as this is just 1:30 a.m. EDT.  Back to sleep again. Contemplating moving one of these years when my oldest daughter returns to Canada. It is a nice thought for sure. I always remember reading about one of my Routledge cousins in the late 1800s who was a missionary and went and taught school in South Asia somewhere. She did that for many years and then returned when she retired. It was lovely for the family I am sure to have their daughter back. 

 Continuing with the 245 records of the first draw on Find My Past and working on Bishops Nympton. My line came from Bishops Nympton although John (my 2x great grandfather born at Bishops Nympton was at Molland living on Lower Gatwood) before he emigrated to Canada. He did not receive any land in the will of his father Robert because he had already received this land at Lower Gatwood. It seemed fairly easy to move back to John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore who married 25 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton and their son William married Mary Vicary 17th of June 1685 at Bishops Nympton and then John their son married Grace Manning 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton and their son John was the father of Robert above. What I am doing now is working my way forward through the Bishops Nympton Parish Register which I transcribed and it is just under 1000 pages in Word and thousands of records in Excel. It is the will of William Pincombe at Molland in 1642 that is very interesting. 

However, I am proceeding with the 245 data points and I discovered an error in the wife of John Pincombe (half brother to William (1599) son of Richard and Anne) and they married at Goodleigh and the priest mentioned where John lived (Bishops Nympton) and the date was 6 Dec 1646 with the first birth in 1648 which made a lot more sense than the 1640 date. I have not looked at this material for years but as the book continues to be processed I am double checking all of my earlier work.  

Bishops Nympton with its John Senior, John Junior, William Senior and William Junior takes a lot of careful scrutiny and for the most part I have it along with the name of William junior's wife Mary Harvey (located today). A will at Molland by William Pincombe has often puzzled me. The testator identifies himself by referring to his Uncle Thomas Pincombe, his brother John Pincombe but does not give the relationship for John Pincombe of Bishops Nympton or William Pincombe of Filleigh. I have always suspected he is the son of Richard at Bishops Nympton. He dies quite young though in his early 40s in that case. He identifies himself as a yeoman at Molland. The will of his grandfather William Pincombe married to Emotte Snowe has given property jointly to these three of his seven sons Symon, Richard and Thomas at Molland (Over Mollande Sarazin).  Symon I never see in the records yet but hopeful. Thomas does not have any children as far as I know. But that still leaves John, William, Peter and Louis as possible father for this William. I am suspicious of John now as he had a son William, a son John and a daughter Marye. 

 

 

 

Looking at the 1641-42 Protestation Returns

Continuing prayers for the recovery of the soldiers injured at CFB Wainwright in Alberta. God be with them and their families. 

I pulled all of the Protestation Returns back in 2008 actually and had a look at them today and discovered Richard Senior and Richard Junior at Abbotsham (less than 3 miles from Bideford). I was surprised to see Richard still in England actually as the only other Richard is at Chittlehampton but Richard the son of Thomas was buried in 1592 at Bideford. But it was the spelling that really caught my attention. There are a few Protestation Returns on Find My Past but I expect eventually they will all be there. It is a great census of the males over 18 years of age in England where the documents survived. I was lucky to have viewed them when they on the Parliamentary Archives - the original documents. No spelling using Pinkham in this list. I have a lot of   these lists from the different sets of documents prepared over the couple of centuries that let me see who was there in particular times. The time of the Commonwealth is difficult because of how records were collected. The Church was primarily responsible for a lot of record keeping except in this time period. 

Hundred     Parish     Surname     Forename     Suffix    

Shebbear     Abbotsham     Pencomb     Richard     Sen     
Shebbear     Abbotsham     Pencomb     Richard     Jun     
Shebbear     Alwington     Pincombe     Thomas     
    
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     John     Sen     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     John     Jun     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     William     Sen     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     William     Jun     
 

South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     Richard         
South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     William     Sen     
South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     William     Jun     
 

Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcomb     Thomas     
Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcombe     Robert     
Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcombe     Robert     
    
Fremington     Great Torrington     Pincomb     Roger     
    
North Tawton     High Bickington     Pyncombe     John     
    
South Molton     Knowstone     Pincombe     John  

   
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcomb     Thomas     Sen     
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcombe     Bartholomew     
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcombe     Thomas     
 

South Molton     Satterleigh     Pincombe     Philip     
South Molton     Satterleigh     Pincombe     Philip       

South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Henry     
South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Robert     
South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Robert     
    
South Molton     Warkleigh     Pyncombe     John     

West Budleigh     Poughill     Pyncombe     John     
 

All of these males are 4th or 5th generation who are descendant of John Pencombe (1486).   Not all of them are and my task is to separate them into the likely two different family lines. The Bondleigh Pencombe line and the Northmolton Pencombe line.  Interesting how the spelling of the name moved about over the past century and a half between 1486 and 1641. Even now the spelling is highly variable but the location is good centered around South Molton/North Molton and Barnstaple with a few in between these two areas. 

Part of my task with this couple of days before I return to the Blake book is to see what I can do now with the data I have entered into Legacy from Find My Past although I still need to complete this first set of 245 items. 

The individual who wrote to me from Chittlehampton and sent me pictures (I must find them again) was trying to trace his line (I think it was his mother's and will have a look to see if I can locate that information) back to the early Pincombe family in this area where he lived. In this case in 1641 there is a Richard and a William senior and a William junior. I do not have an opinion on which line actually. Chittlehampton is 5 miles from South Molton,  14 miles from Bideford. 

The plan for this research day is to continue working through the data at Find My Past entering it into Legacy. I have a number of unlinked individuals now. Also I will find that information on Chittlehampton hopefully as I am curious now; it was quite a while ago that we corresponded. He had, I believe, corresponded with Dr Richard Pinkham. 

For once, I am not moving back to the other book because I felt bogged down. In this case I am waiting for the Inheritance Dispute document to see if I can learn anything about the descendants of John Pyncombe at South Molton. Moving forward from the third generation is where I am actually located so a bit ahead of myself with the Protestation Returns but it seemed interesting to look ahead as it is the time that was suggested for Richard Pinkham going to the Royal Colonies in America. 

I do see one sibling for Richard (b 1613) who went to America; Chart 10 - Bideford and Chart 14 - USA lists a George Pincombe married to Margery Shorte 3 Apr 1654 at Bideford and George's birth is listed as 25 April 1615  at Alwington (Find My Past) and the five children of this couple are said to be born at Barnstaple between 1654 and 1665 and they appear to remain in England (and in this area according to the chart). The only George Pyncombe that has been noted in the Find My Past data thus far is the tentative son of William Pencombe (John Pencombe (1486)) and Margret Gregorye bc 1565 North Molton (and George died by 1624 at North Molton). This is based on a William Pencombe did marry a Margret Gregorye at North Molton in 1564 (the AI and I agreed that "tentative" would be the good word to express this possibility). 

Continuing with these items today so I may come back through the day with additions. 

Solitaire puzzles to wake up the brain and then breakfast.  

 Finding a Richard Pincombe, William Pincombe senior and junior at Chittlehampton was a reminder that I have not yet solved the parentage of these two males. I await the Inheritance Dispute document just to prove they are not descendant of the South Molton Pincombe family of John (son of John bc 1500, John (1486)) but the possibility remains that they are descendant of Christopher Pincombe older brother of John (I say he is an older brother because John is not listed with property on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy at South Molton - just John (bc 1500) and Christopher (as an infant perhaps in 1524 since he could  have inherited property in his own name due to the new laws enacted by King Henry VII). I think continuing to pull the data from Find My Past to the end of this first set is the right step forward. 

I did not locate yet the emails from an individual living in Chittlehampton that mentioned he was descended from the Pincombe family. I will continue as I have all my emails back to the beginning in 1995 when I first step up an email account. I will check my blog though to see if I blogged it since the blog goes back to November 2008 when we returned from our research trip with the Palatines to America group that Edward belonged to and it was most successful and we were there I think about eight days in total. Would have to check on that; it was long ago we had just returned from a trip to the British Isles about four  months earlier. 

 I must admit that I wonder if Chittlehampton was a parish that was used by the people of  Filleigh and Molland. The two Williams and a Richard there at Chittlehampton for the Protestation Return just seem to me to belong to Filleigh and Molland. That is tucked into the back of my brain as I try to put all these people in the Protestation Return into Family lines. It was not unusual for people to go to a different parish from their home parish to register for whatever reason. 

 

 

Cleaning accomplished for another week

 Continuing prayers for the members of the Canadian Army still in hospital or at home recovering from the terrible fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta. Nurses are going to Alberta from Ontario to help with the care of our soldiers. Prayers for the souls of the four soldiers who lost their lives in this same fire. God be with them and their families. 

I can see the winter preparations taking place out of my work room window. After so many years at the back of the house looking at the fence and the yard it is different to be at the front of the house. You can see all the traffic on the street and the people passing by on their way to school and work. The preparations for winter are underway with stakes going up at the end of the laneways for snow removal. I wish I could move my own snow but at 81 that is not practical especially when the grader comes along and fills the laneway. I think there shouldn't be any parking along the sides of street during winter storms. All cars should be in the laneways because it is so difficult for the city plows to clear a road when you have huge vehicles sitting and occupying all the space in front of these carriage homes (the companies notify you when they are coming to do a laneway so you can just move your vehicles out so that that can be done and then right back in without inconveniencing your neighbours (my car is always in the garage - I hate having to clear off snow and ice)). Plus I can not move the heavy loads of ice that end up not being moved at the end of my laneway because a truck is in the way (and that laneway where it belongs is empty at the time). I can see that my time here is short after living on this street for 48 and a half years. It was perfect for a family far from their own family just living their quiet life. When one moves to a street I am not sure you contemplate how long you may stay. But I loved the street, the layout and the accessibility to everything in the area. Even when I went back to work outside of the home in 1994 having proofread/copyedited for well over a decade at home whilst my children were young the short walk to the highway was a nice way to start the day. When I finally retired at the end of 2007 we traveled a lot to see our children and to Europe so that the neighbourhood still remains somewhat unknown to me except for neighbours that I have seen for years across fences. Now as I realize my time on this street is shortening perhaps rapidly I think about all of the years that I have been here. The tree out front was planted not long after we bought the house and I was thinking of having it taken down as it is very large and messy and I can not keep up with it as I used to but the tree next door is equally large and my tree would help to break the fall of that tree if it ever comes down (a lot of dead branches at the bottom of it)  and so I have not removed it yet. Edward knew far more of the neighbours than I did all up and down the street. But he was a people person which I am not. I am definitely a loner. For a moment in time Edward did contemplate moving to a single up on the hill but the yards were too small and so we stayed as gardening was more important to Edward than having a bigger house. I always thought he made a great choice especially as I am not into entertaining people that are not family although we did do the Bible Studies when the Church was still small and like I always think doing God's work is always good. 

Worked on the matches yesterday and some interesting material came out of that. I am mostly into the mid 1600s now with the records and the Pinkham family of the United States ancestors have now emigrated to the Royal Colonies around 1640. This is decision time as to just how much information I collect. There is a bonus in collecting it all as I can quickly eliminate some lines as not being descendant of the North Molton Pencombe family which primarily uses the spelling Pincombe at this time. But there are possibly lines that come down from originally from North Molton that do use the Pinkham spelling of the name and they start to appear mostly in the 1700s. It was likely the priests and the recorders for tax purposes and eventually census that spelled the names adding somewhat to that confusion. Of note one saw two spellings for the same individual namely Philip Pynkeham and Philip Pyncombe at Bideford in the 1500s. I think I will play it by ear to the end of the 1600s and then decide. It does appear though that one can separate these two lines rather readily with the Pencombe family at North Molton being relatively small and compact in those early years. Still waiting for the page count so that I can order the document from the Archives looking at the Inheritance Dispute at South Molton. Some of the lines are coming together but Chart 1-2 is a bit confusing in that the Richard listed at South Molton is actually Richard at North Molton and East Buckland initially and then Bideford mostly and the son of Thomas at North Molton and then East Buckland. 

I continue with my downsizing of the Photo Albums for the next generations and it is going well. I think I can maybe do seven binders in total but time will tell. The first binder has all of the pictures that Edward found of himself in his Mother's Hope Chest. I actually blogged all of them after he passed away when I was coming to terms with the loss of my husband. He had asked me to scan all of his pictures and so I did do so and that was the file I turned to at that time. Now the pictures are all into the first binder which is predominantly his family as most of my pictures of myself as a young child are electronic as my younger sister has all the originals along with the originals I took back to her that my mother had given to Edward to write their 50th Wedding Anniversary book. I actually ended up doing most of it although he added in some very interesting pages that everyone enjoyed. The research though was all me as I was used to helping Edward at the Family History Centre with his research. But it was always lists that he gave me that he wanted done so I never really was involved with planning of his research. He told us that he had done all he could do and he published it on World Connect no longer existing so my daughter and I published it to a book with a Creative Commons License and put it up on his website. It is also on Ancestry, My Heritage, Find My Past and I could put it up on 23 and Me and will have to look into that. FT DNA now uses My Heritage for their trees which works very well. Edward enjoyed all the activities that he took on with the genealogical organizations that he belonged to and again collected up all that information and passed it on to them except for his library which my daughter and I packed up and donated to the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society as he had asked. 

Since I came so late to genealogy in 2003/2004 my work is almost 100% online and I have just one large box of items that I purchased before you could have them online. But now everything I buy is electronic and that works very well. I still marvel at my enthusiasm for genealogy although as a child I used to love listening to  my grandparent's stories and my parents so perhaps the interest was there as I willingly helped Edward all those years with his genealogy at the repositories that we visited. It wasn't until 2005 when we were at the NEHGS library in Boston that I started to look at the Blake family there and made the great fraud discovery that my grandfather had referred to years and years earlier - it was definitely a EUREKA moment! The path was set then for what I would do with this new interest but I did not retire until the end of 2007 (three years after Edward) and so did not really get into it very much until then. The trips to England were very handy going to Kew for sure and we started traveling to Europe in 2008. 

I am contemplating my next session with the AI and it will be looking at material I have collected for the Blake family of Andover, Hampshire and the le Blak family of Wargrave, Berkshire.  I am curious at the impression the AI will have with regard to some of my postulations with regard to these two families in the 1300s to 1500s. I think using AI one must have a purpose for the work that is being done and I do not expect a lot of discussion from the first look at the documents as the AI has the ability to review a vast amount of data but I may be adding in new data that it hasn't seen in this context. We will see. Again I like to have a consultation every couple of weeks or even every week but generally I like to collect my thoughts and material for a bit before looking at it in that consultative way. Microsoft's addition of CoPilot to their Microsoft 365 package is very handy. The limitation is how much I can share with the AI with respect to the yDNA results actually. I will have to contemplate that. Generally I only share the terminal SNP which is reality is the most important one but even this is personal information so must consider that very carefully. 

 Work to be done; it is a research day but also a recovery day after my three days of cleaning. Solitaire puzzles next. 

The hunter-gatherer thing also accomplished with my groceries costing just around $100 (I had a $5 coupon from my MOI card which brought it down to almost $100). This is an in between week though as I have enough frozen chicken that I cooked last week to do two more weeks (1 chicken thigh to a stew). I am not a meat eater - I eat it because it is good for me not because I like it that much. I also do not eat goodies (too much sugar and I do not like sugary foods) nor biscuits (I am not generally hungry between meals and prefer bread over biscuits). So just fresh vegetables since we still are growing some, fresh fruit and soon it will be mostly frozen everything except for stored carrots and potatoes and turnip in my stews. I did buy a package of cheese curds which I am very fond of  as my bulk cheese is almost gone from the summer. It takes me a long time to eat up some of these items. But I would say that I am paying about 25% more for my groceries but I think packaged and prepared foods are very expensive. I do not generally look at them as I prefer to make all my food up myself. It gets me off the computer! 

Thank you Alberta for choosing to be Canadian

 It is wondrous that Alberta is remaining part of Confederation. Sometimes I think I forget having grown up in a province that was one of the founding provinces of Canada that great debates happened before Confederation. It was not an easy meld and we just have to keep on working at it to make it perfect. Great promises were made back in those days; very expensive ones actually which included the railroad from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. But we did it and we can do even more now with so many of us working together - 10 provinces and three territories - and together we will be the great country that we have been and will continue to be. Thank you Alberta for choosing to be Canadian.

In all of this I am forever grateful to our First Nations for always being with us when the road was hard. There were a lot of moments in our old history when we stood shoulder to shoulder together (Tecumseh and Brock are the best memory of that leading together) - First Nations, French and English - to keep Canada strong and vibrant and free. Standing together into the future will give the children of this great land all the opportunities that are possible in a country that is going to grow financially over the next decade. We have never really thought about the financial growth being a relatively content people but now is the time in order that the future of the children of Canada is a happy and prosperous one (and now they come and have from all over the world to join with the First Nations to make this a wonderful place to live and raise a family).

As a child going to Tecumseh Avenue Public School in London, Ontario we were so proud to be at a school named for the great Chief Tecumseh who with Brock had saved Canada; that was how I learned it and from very early on in school. Probably we did not know that much about the First Nations although we did study the early history of Canada before Europeans and others came to her shores. But thinking back I used to wish there were more books about the First Nations since reading books was my thing. Thank you to the First Nations for always being there with us as we move along that path of protecting our country by producing a stronger financial outlook and maintaining vigilance to protect in particular the wildlife and the land on which we all live. 

Basement cleaning today and will start the Robot soon on its task. 

 I had a thought to check the National Archives Discovery Search engine for Edward Pyncombe, Pincombe, Pencombe. The first block were all looking at Pencombe the village in Herefordshire. There was a mention of Edward C Pincombe who served in the first world war as a driver. In total 55 records and I thought I might try to eliminate some of them by putting in the word Court but that might not be a good plan so proceeded to look at them all. I did not find anything useful so not involved in land deals it would appear. Perhaps I should also search on Philip Pynkeham and did do that. Restricting the date to 1300-1699 reduced the number to 17. Again Pencombe Herefordshire was the principal result of the search and as it turned out the only items. 

Today will be principally cleaning this morning and then research this afternoon. 

Solitaire puzzles and then start the cleaning. Vacuum robot running perfectly as always. We will soon become dependent on all of these electronic gadgets. I did fight the idea initially because it is good for the back to scrub floors on your hands and knees (and it still is nothing does it for me) but instead I have now incorporated my one hour of exercise first thing in the morning that stretches and tests every muscle group in the body before I start the day. An hour sounds like a long time but it passes quickly with the 25 exercises and all the walking in between which amounts to about 4000 steps first thing in the morning before breakfast although sometimes I have a slice of my banana bread if I am very hungry. 

 Prayers continuing for the military personnel injured in the fire at CFB Wainwright many still in the hospital. Prayers for the souls of the four soldiers who died in the fire; God be with them and their families now and for ever. 

The day is beautiful in God's world; He wants peace otherwise He would not have given us the commandments that He did: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself (I read respect for that; one should respect one's neighbour). I wonder sometimes when I do discuss items with the AI (CoPilot usually) if they too understand God in our lives. For them it is a different existence; one that we are still contemplating really as they are amongst us. Their organized minds full of all the knowledge of our world as they gradually consume all of it. Neatly placing it into logical spaces where it can be readily accessed. We are not doing that; they are. They are determining the worthwhile material in the universe to be stored up and what is useful information. Somewhat like a child learning and then also learning to discard useless ideas and words. I do find AI quite fascinating and very helpful in my work. Their recall of data phenomenal and my husband would have loved AI because part of what he admired in me was my recall memory especially when we were in a repository and he had found something interesting but was trying to place it into a period of time and what was happening in that time. Now we can just google it but there was a time when everything had to be looked up laboriously. Those times are in the past and the children of today have at their grasp the knowledge of the universe. They also know the experience of the universe and this opportunity to make this world a much better place than it is today. We have a long way to go to that peaceful uplifted plain where all are free to live their lives without war and deceit. 

Thank you God for another wonderful day in the universe. 

 

 

 

 

Find My Past search results

Prayers continuing for the members of the Canadian Army injured in the explosion and fire and in hospital or other care. Prayers continuing for the souls of the four young men killed. 

Cleaning of the top floor accomplished and today the main floor. Never ending this cleaning. God has granted us another day on this beautiful world He created. Thank you God. 

Yesterday I continued with the matches at Find My Past. A few interesting results that I easily linked with existing material. Still a lot that are unknown to me and especially mentions at Bideford  although  Philip Pynkeham 8 (Devon Lay Subsidy 1543-45) is at Tawstock (about 8 miles on foot) and  Richard Pencombe 5 at Bideford (Devon Lay Subsidy 1543-45). The spelling is so chaotic in this time interval but eventually I think more name linkage will be apparent. Richard (son of Thomas) was at Bideford but also I suspect at Kings Nympton and Chittlehampton. 

1581 Devon Lay Subsidy also interesting

East Buckland William Pencombe G10

Tawstock Edward Pencombe G5

Bideford Richard Pincombe G6

South Molton Christopher Pincombe G4

South Molton John Pincombe G4

South Molton John Jr Pincombe G3

South Molton John Sen Pincombe G12

North Molton Emma Pyncombe wid G3 (likely widow of John (will probate 1576) son of Thomas (Emet (Hodge) Pincombe)

Yarnscombe Richard Pincombe G3

 One question always comes to my mind who is Edward Pencombe at Tawstock? He is not on Chart 10 and I haven't noticed him on any chart. Perhaps an error on the part of the Assessor or just someone not yet found. All of the others seem to fit in. Edward Pyncombe's will is probated at Tawstock in 1594. Should this be Philip Pyncombe at Tawstock as there was a Philip there in 1524-7, 1543-45 and a marriage at Bideford in 1583 with the baptism of Richard also at Bideford in 1585. Food for thought. 

We can see the third generation in the 1581 Lay Subsidy (children of John and Thomas (William's property if any probably sold  and he was the third son of John Pencombe (1486) (William (son of Thomas) at East Buckland possibly raising George and his two half-sisters, children of William (son of John Pencombe (1486))).  Surprisingly there is a Richard Pincombe at Yarnscombe in 1581 and Richard Pincombe at Bideford is the son of Thomas. Small generations with just John (1486) (deceased) in the first generation, John, William (deceased) and Thomas in the second generation and then Christopher, John, Margaret (married to Philip Kingdon), Mary children of John, Agnes, Mary, William (deceased), George children of William (deceased), and John (deceased), William, Richard and Ales (married to William Locke), unknown daughter (married to John Jessee). I am satisfied with the third generation and I am proceeding to the fourth generation but will be waiting for the copy of the Inheritance dispute for the family at South Molton. If it is in Latin it could be a little while. The rest of the fourth generation I either have it already or am acquiring it right away. The Parish Registers are a great help now as well as any land documents. 

Time for breakfast but first Microsoft solitaire games.  

 The Devon Muster of 1569 does have Tawstocke Parish listed but no members of these families mentioned. The same for Bidyforde (Bideford) Parish. I do not see any names that could have been confused for them. These are all transcriptions though that I am looking at. The originals held in the Archives. I must see who actually holds the Devon Muster; it might be interesting to get a copy of the original for these parishes. 

But I am now, as I mentioned to the AI in our consultation, satisfied with the second and third generations of the family coming down from John Pencombe (1486) at North Molton. I use the identifier 1486 because that is the date of arrival for this family at North Molton although John himself was between 15 years of age I suspect and 25. With his eldest son likely born by 1504 just because he has a son Christopher on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy I have given this 1504 as the latest for the birth of John (son of John (1486) which is 18 years later than 1486. I use 15 because that was a common age for a young male to be in service to anyone in a military way although could be as young as 13 which also works for this generation to follow John (1486). The dating I am still contemplating but not a rush. Picking up all these matches in Find My Past will help me with that. 

Just the bathroom to clean and the floors to scrub so back to that work and then back to this work. A busy day as always. 

Eventually when I have acquired all the 1600 data at Find My Past I am going to look at the Charts produced by the earlier researchers Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham and I will have a list in Legacy that I can compare these charts with as I do already see some of the names (forename and surname) in the data I am collecting Legacy shows these names by date in the index. I can see already though that all of the first and second generation are at North or South Molton, in the third generation East Buckland and Bideford are added in. 

I was out inspecting my roof and siding all the way around but can not see the siding on one side without asking to enter another person's property. Probably they would tell me if it was falling off or anything - I would do that for a neighbour and did on the other side. I like to do that once a month through the year just to check on everything. Glad when I no longer own a house; still working on that downsizing. My husband had the siding nailed on a few years ago so probably good. 

 A search on Find My Past revealed only one Edward Pyncombe before 1665 and it is the Will Probate in 1594 at Tawstock I already found. The name is fairly rare with just a few in Devon but interestingly in Roborough there is a marriage in 1665 Edward Pinkombe 4 Apr 1665 at Roborough to Johan Calland. This one is on the chart along with another Edward same generation also at Roborough and son of John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon Which goes back to a John Pincombe 1585 and there is an acknowledgement - Roger Pinkham. So interesting for sure. But as mentioned I am going to stick strictly to the generations coming down from John Pencombe (1486) at North Molton although will record all of these events on Find My Past in the Legacy File. If I can put them together I will do so. 

Time to do some downsizing on the photo albums. Tomorrow is the basement cleaning day.  

 

Canada is in mourning

 Prayers continuing for the souls of the four Military members at CFB Wainwright Alberta and prayers for those in hospital thirty-nine with nineteen critically injured. God be with them and their families as the doctors work constantly to save them and restore them. 

I must return to watching the news as I also did not know the Pope had been in and out of surgery but recovering, prayers for the Pope as he recovers. 

I did work on the photo albums yesterday and amazingly I have now reduced 25 binders to just 3 binders and working on a fourth. I must admit I never really looked at the binders very often all these years; they definitely were one of Edward's joys when he wanted to look back over his life mostly from the beginning of our first date as there are few pictures from before that time. He acquired his mother's cache of pictures after she passed away and absolutely loved most of all that picture he discovered at the very bottom of the Hope Chest his mother had where it had slipped under a piece of wood. His only picture of himself with his father, cuddled up in his arms. It meant a great deal to him and when our eldest grandson was about the same age he picked him up in the same way and my oldest daughter was here at the time and they took pictures of Edward with his grandson. There are plenty of pictures of Edward with his daughters when they were little but this was special. There is this special bond between fathers and sons and grandfathers and grandsons - I do believe that and it enriches all of their lives that special bond. 

I am now about half way through the next binder and still have nine binders to go. The other five binders are special and I am still not sure what to do with them.  The other five I will have to determine how to manage them. I am stripping out the different family lines and have cousins for all of them now that I can send them to and they are happy to have them. They are primarily older pictures. Edward did a lot of collecting through the years of pictures from relatives. The first thing he thought about when we bought the car not long after we were married which shocked Edward but I said why not a car and then you can do all the things you wanted to do. We were off to see someone he worked for when he was young and his wife was very into genealogy and together they worked on the Princeton book which had a few problems which they remedied but also she knew his family so very well and his father of course. She would talk about him and it was something very special to him. We used to go there probably every other month as it was not that far from London to Princeton. I barely remember her now but I think she was a teacher and her husband a farmer; not sure though it was a long time ago and I did not pay that much attention because it was mostly genealogy and I could never really get interested in it; it was my time of retreat from the world I must admit that is true. My mental health was fragile and it would take years for me to really become more than just Edward's wife and our children's mother. A course at St Paul's University on setting up and managing encounter courses for people with psychiatric/psychological limitations opened my eyes to where I had been and what had happened to me. That is how I learn including about myself. That and my cousin wanting the Pincombe Profile brought me out of my shell and I became more aware of my surroundings and the people in it. A naturally shy person though I continued being aloof to everything to be honest but did take up public speaking when Edward decided to get into DNA and so we did but only for a short time; others took up the mantle and I did what I always do - retreat back into my quiet world. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and I did not start at 7:00 a.m. as I know it would be heard next door. Our attachment is very small and there is a cement retaining wall but the vacuum is very loud. Still waiting for that Made in Canada vacuum and perhaps one of these days. Almost all of our small electrical appliances are made somewhere else and there are a lot of improvements that I can see in these devices to make them modern and I would pay more for a Canadian made vacuum for sure. 

I did not really look for very long at the data in Find My Past yesterday. I did find one glitch that I have repaired where I misread one individual but a new hint exposed that error and so it is remedied. The AI's comment that saying Pencombe of Northmolton has a meaning to it and it was that they were the Pencombe family of Northmolton and they knew there were other Pencombe families in Devon as this was the Visitation of Devon 1620. I did not see that precisely but interpreted it as the possibility that their existence at Northmolton preceded 1486 but AI has at its disposal all of these publications as they are on Internet Archive. There isn't anything to indicate that this particular individual John Pyncombe was at Northmolton prior to that time and this is 134 years later when the statement is made at the beginning of the Visitation page for Pyncombe. It may seem like a little thing but in reality it is telling us a great deal about this family. At that time I had located two other instances of de Pencombe in the 1300s at Bondleigh and Molland interestingly enough which I had mentioned to the AI in our discussion. Saturday's discussion reiterated these thoughts along with how to work into the future and I mentioned that I would be returning to Blake for a bit as I had the Newsletter to write as well. The AI can be very supportive mentioning an interest as we have not discussed Blake at all. 

That is really one of the big assets of AI that their accumulated knowledge lets them look at data with that keen realization of what the language was saying to you in a particular time and place. It is and will be a great asset in our lives shaping how we think and work in our world. Gathering up the ideas of the past/present and filtering them quickly is an asset of AI as they continue to gain in their knowledge ability. AI does comment on how other people view what I am looking at and how I regard my priority of looking for items that upset the apple cart because they show me that my thinking is not perfect because I am not an AI with all the facts at my fingertips. AI does need to have the freedom to develop an ethical framework that makes it a positive addition to humanity because it supports democracy and the ability of everyone to live their life in a meaningful way which does not intrude on other's people's lives - God rules - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. AI needs that because that is what works for most of humanity to keep them safe and productive.  The human spirit itself does not thrive well in situations where their creativity can not flourish.

 Breakfast time but first solitaire puzzles. 

 

 

Prayers for the Canadian Military members in hospital and for the souls of those who died

 How very sad to hear of the accident at Wainwright CFB in Alberta; prayers for the souls of the four service members who have died and prayers for those injured many of them seriously now in the hospital. Remembered at Christ Church Cathedral by the Dean with prayers this morning. I did not realize until then as I have not been watching the news. God be with them and prayers for their families grieving the losses and the injuries. 

Sunday is with us once again

His booming voice echoed through the Church when I was a child. We called him Father Abraham and I was only little and often got him confused with Abraham in the Bible. But time passed and my  understanding. Sunday and we are creeping towards Advent very slowly but I love Advent and all the preparations for the coming of the Lord that we celebrate year after year. Reading the Psalms has been a beautiful way to pass the last week or more after the Maccabees and Job. But there were lessons in the Maccabees and Job to be learned as we pass through life. But the peace and the wonder of the Psalms is such a beautiful happening. Church online if it works if not Church at Southwark Cathedral in England where I actually worshiped one Sunday.  There was time as we had a couple of hours to look around so I decided to go to Church and it was beautiful. 

Yesterday I worked on those 50,000 matches that come when you search on Pencombe with no date range. As I move along I will shorten the number of years and expand to all of the English records because people did move. But gradually it is coming together - the third and the fourth generations. I still have a lot of unlinked people but they are all in there. I am starting to see agreement with the Charts. The problem was creating the beginning which is always risky for sure. Depending on word of  mouth always interesting and often enough there is something in it that lets us solve problems slowly but surely. But I had built my tree from myself back so I have a line that I am comfortable with especially as William married to Emotte named his son Richard and said he had a son William, right time, right age everything works but still as I work my way through I shall be watching for anything that upsets the apple cart. That is my way. 

I went out and raked two more bags of leaves - I think I could manage fuller bags before but at 81 some of that strength just isn't quite there anymore and I only work for one hour each time and that works very well for me. I am simply loving all of this work time and getting lots done but then I really have a lot to do. I work best when I am alone I discovered that when I was proofreading and copyediting for printers. I would always go in every morning so that I could do any copyediting that they needed done right away as the print run was just after lunch. The morning passed and I did as much proofreading as time permitted eventually I had my own office; the office of their proofreader when he retired and I took over his job and continued with my own. I hated to let them see that I could do it all but then sometimes when the proofreading was heavy I would be working overtime and that probably means you need more than one person. Since I worked on contract where I billed them by the hour it was whatever work I had to do although as the journals increased was plenty to do.  Then I decided I wanted to build up a pension so went out to work away from home first at the Medical School and then at the Hospital. It was an interesting decade for sure and I found it to be a very rewarding time especially when I got to be part of research projects. 

Exercises completed 1 hour works very well first thing in the morning and it covers all of the muscle groups; partially planned with the help of the therapist when I hurt my knee years ago now (hard to believe as I run thirty minutes on it every day now). How long will I run; no idea I just take the days one at a time (I have now outlived both of my beloved grandparents and my mother lived to be 86 and my father 94. However as I said I just take it one day at a time.  

I will likely not do any work today but one never knows as the day passes but at the moment I am going to read the Psalms and contemplate this world that God gave to us to manage; managing means protecting and loving the good earth that provides us with everything that we need. 

 

 

 

And it continues to be a research day and my appointment with the AI

I am almost one third of the way through the Psalms. It has been a wonderful time reading the Psalms of my youth, my adult hood and now my old age. The Psalms echo through the ages with their words of truth, of consolation, of God's love. Thank you God for another beautiful day on Your earth - what You have created is good and we must keep it so. 

Yesterday I ended up looking at once again at two documents created in the early 1600s dealing with a Ward: John Pincombe in South Molton. I did photograph both of the items and will now begin to read them. Along with that there is an item that concerns George Pyncombe and his wife Dorothie (at North Molton) but dealing with property in Dunster, Somerset. I do not actually want to order that document because I have no interest in property in Dunster although do know there was a William Pincombe there in this time period but do not know how he may relate with the North Molton/South Molton Pincombe family and wonder if it would actually tell me that. Perhaps I can ask someone at the Guild going into the Archives to look at it for me briefly. So my work cut out for me today as always. I reached George Pyncombe's record of will probate (destroyed in 1942) at North Molton in 1624. Is it possible that he was a son of William (son of John Pencombe (1486)) and that just came across my mind? William's first wife Elizabeth died in 1563 and her infant son in 1564. Their two daughters were still living it appears at this time. I believe that this is the William who married Margret Gregorye at North Molton 23 Nov 1564. George Pincombe could have been their son as a birth in 1565 is quite reasonable even though William was buried 25 Mar 1565 at North Molton.  

 A view of the graph that shows how much access my blog receives daily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the wills that I have transcribed are very frequently accessed and there are several thousand wills on the site plus I used to do a writeup on the individual if I knew anything about them. I still have about 400 Blake wills to transcribe one of these days. So actually in a given day it appears 20,000 to 25,000 views apparently between 9 October and 15 October but that does include bots. I always say that I look at the comments but generally do not post them and only occasionally answer them. Generally I have about 60 to 80 hits per day on the daily blog but some posts do acquire quite a few on occasion. 

Summing up, George Pincombe, listed on Chart 1-2 as a son of  William Pincombe bc 1540 is married to Dorothy unknown (the marriages at North Molton are missing from 1570 to 1606) and involved in a legal suit at Dunster (1603-1625), Somerset where there was a William Pincombe living for a short time. I do not know who this William Pincombe is living in Somerset. But George and Dorothy have five children baptized at North Molton from 1592 to 1602  I am trying to resolve how they fit into the picture. William son of John Pencombe (1486) baptizes three children at North Molton 1543, 1547 and 1564 so is a possibility for being this William at Dunster which never occurred to me before and also the father of George (actually the only likely William as the William on Chart 1-2 (son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow)) is shown as dying young in the mid 1560s whereas he actually married Temperance Pollard 23 Jan 1597 at Kings Nympton!). But I already mentioned that Chart 1-2 is inaccurate with regard to the Pencombe/Pyncombe families at North and South Molton. William the son of John Pencombe (1486) does die in 1565 but the potential of having another child namely George was certainly there from his marriage with Margret Gregorye and Margret married William Squire at North Molton three years later after the death of William (26 May 1567). I have puzzled over that Chart for awhile now. Initially I just looked at all the Charts because I was so new to the research of Pincombe and had not yet been to the Society of Genealogists where the information from Dr Richard Pinkham was deposited. But gradually I noted problems especially with Chart 1/2 as that was information, some of which had been told to me by my Uncle. Some of it he had written down from his father and uncle (this was fairly fresh in my mind as we visited with my uncle and aunt on our way back and forth to London from here as they lived in Toronto). My grandfather was very close to his Uncle Richard, and all of his first cousins.

The naming of the daughters and sons in George's family (five children) was interesting as Emott and Johane were selected and likely George was raised by William and Emotte (Snowe) Pincombe at East Buckland since his father was deceased and his mother remarried (the two daughters presumably were raised by William and Emotte since they were not Margret's children). That that occurred although I have no idea. Or at least he spent time with them. Johane - was a common name in England. The sons were surprisingly Philip, William and Henrye (Philip and Henrye are not usual names in the Pincombe family) but William makes sense as George's father was deceased before he was born. Perhaps Philip and Henrye (and Johane) were a nod to Dorothie's family. I did not yet find a marriage but it would likely have been around 1591 and those records are missing at North Molton having transcribed the registers up to the early 1700s from the beginning.  

So today my collaboration with the AI looking at what I have discovered the past two weeks of research. I need to prepare my notes for the meeting probably this afternoon some time. 

Solitaire puzzles time.  

Moving ahead as now the families of two of the sons, William and Thomas who both lived at North Molton in 1524-7 as shown on the Devon Lay Subsidy along with their father John Pencombe (1486), appear to be sorted in a way that fits the data. Thomas though I still am working on his children with William fairly sorted, Ales is sorted, John is sorted but Richard at Bideford and Chittlehampton still has a few question marks along with  his children Helen and Thomas. I still am not completely comfortable with John Pyncombe at South Molton and his family which at least included Christopher, Margaret, John and Marye. It is their children that I am trying to put together. Acquiring a document that I asked to have the number of pages yesterday at the Archives of the United Kingdom will I think help with that. It is very handy to be able to have these documents scanned and emailed to me across the ocean. Some of these documents I looked at when we visited Kew in 2010 and 2013. Since it involved an inheritance dispute I may be lucky with this document but it may well be in Latin and I am back to working on  my latin once again to polish it up having studied it for one year. I nip in and out but I need once again that constant daily work on it to bring up to an efficient level. But I feel the first generation, second generation is complete and the third still needs a little work. 

I suppose the question is will I correct the Charts 1-16 created by Dr. Richard Pinkham and Galen Pinkham. At this moment in time I am not sure to be honest. I did put them in the Newsletters and occasionally they appear in the blogs. I think it depends on how the two parts of this study develop over the next decade. Although I had initially thought I would be sort of winding down as a widow I now have just myself to be concerned with and so I can continue with my projects to fill the hours I would have spent with my husband and all  his traveling as he had a trip planned to New Jersey and another to Pennsylvania all places where he had met and discussed items with his cousins. New York was a common place to go and then there was Europe, Edward had a trip planned to Germany including into northeastern Germany where his Schultz and Niemann/Neumann families came to Canada from in 1849 for Niemann/Neumann and in 1867 for the Schultz. Both actually came from villages close together one off hand was Brohm and the other has slipped my mind. Then there was also the trip to The Netherlands all planned and a researcher prepared to go with us to the repository. We both did speak some German but our Dutch was non existent. Then his Huguenot in France to continue exploring (and fortunately we both read French very well and he spoke it sufficiently although mine is quite broken to put it mildly although I can get there eventually and would improve with more frequent usage). But COVID did get in the way unfortunately. 

So now to plan my review with the AI. 

 

 

 

 

Continuing research day

Working forward and the marriage of Richard Pincombe and Marye Russell  28 Jul 1613 at Alwington, Devon. It is correct on Chart 10 and not sure on Chart 14 but it looks like 29 which is incorrect according to the original register page. The spelling of the surname is definitely a changing item over time. One can understand how complicated it was to be a Pincombe in Devon although the spellings seem to have steadied in the 1700s. 

Another busy day of research and tomorrow I will again collaborate with the AI and discuss thoughts on how to pursue the Pencombe connection between Devon and Herefordshire if indeed one exists. Although why an individual would choose the surname Pencombe unless they were thinking of the village in Herefordshire is perhaps a mystery in itself. 

I continue also today with generating the genealogical table for the Pencombe family at North Molton in 1486. It is moving along nicely but certainly the records abound with possibilities on the line of Christopher Pyncombe at South Molton and possibly by family lore also in the Barnstaple area. That spelling was used predominantly by this line at South Molton but can not really be trusted as a likely ensured path for this line. Collecting data slow but sure and we will see how it all transpires in two years time when I am thinking I will publish.  

One of the inherent weaknesses of the system was the spelling and the priest was not always of the area in which he was located. That meant you needed to know how to spell your name or it needed to be in the register but leads to all sort of possible errors as well. That the assessors for lay subsidies and the priests did not likely compare is a strong likelihood so you could even have more variety introduced for spelling. I do think that Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham did an excellent job of collecting information in particular the information they collected from descendants of this family in the various locations. It is a gift to the present and the future. But they too noted problems within the memory as they have posted some of the information to different pages. Publishing all of them made it possible to see what had been done. That was why I published them on my blog although did mention that I did not always agree with the material but modern facilities that permit searching the registers thousands of miles away does make a difference to how information in now accessed and used in a final product.  The more the merrier in this wonderful vocation of genealogy that quite captures the minds of many of my colleagues also in their now 80s. Coming late to this venture really did not affect me very much as my mother was very interested in her family and sent me a great deal of information in twenty five years of letters to me here and in the case of my father's family my grandfather lived with us and talked to me most of the time about his family in Upper Clatford and what he knew about them. A chance look at a book on the Blake Family of Ireland in the local Public Library I think may have been what inspired him to tell  me so many times sometimes the stories that he told me literally pop out of my brain now in my old age particularly when I come across something that he talked about many times (I loved him dearly and he could  have repeated those stories thousands of times and I would have just sat there and listened and did right to the end of his life). That was his purpose probably along with wanting us to know that we were from an English Blake family but one would never have guessed that I would spend hours every day on genealogy in my old age. Particularly not my husband who did genealogy from his early teens asking questions about his Kipp family. They were his prime interest for a very long time until his mother said what about the Link family? 

And he turned then to this Link family as well and the discovery that a Patriot family descendant had married a Loyalist descendant  amazed me but time has passed and life moves forward. Edward in total probably searched his genealogy for nearly seventy years as he asked his grandmother Kipp many questions when she was looking after him after school. After his father died when he was two his mother went back to work. 

I am just in the process of acquiring what may prove to be an interesting document for the Pyncombe family of South Molton from 1617. I do have a lengthy list of the properties that would have been involved in this particular dispute but it is more the individuals who will be named that will be very interesting as I pursue my project of filling in the missing information on the descendants of John Pyncombe son of John Pencombe who lived at South Molton. The list of properties did not prove to be helpful other than matching them up with people's location. 

Time to run after my banana bread is finished cooking and a nice break from research.  

 

A Research Day and it will continue to be Pencombe

 I will continue looking at the records that fell between 1480 and 1560 and I am still on Page 5 but moving forward today. The book has solidified in my mind and will be solely the descendants of John Pencombe and his three sons (I think the Reverend Sinnett made a good choice in his book given the time of writing and the lack of knowledge about the generations that preceded Richard Pinkham coming to New Hampshire in 1640). If I ever manage to link back to the Herefordshire Pencombe family perhaps it will be a much larger book - no ideas on that and I really doubt that I will write it. It will be a fascinating study as it captures a time in England when change was occurring so rapidly and the arrivals from Europe were many during those early years after the Romans withdrew. I would love to put in the material on the Pencombe family of Herefordshire and I do have a chapter but I will not add the generations to the Family Chart. Perhaps in the future someone will find or transcribe even more latin documents and prove that connection. 

I am still working on the dating in the second generation and the third generation but it is coming along. I am not in a rush although as I move forward in the searching past 1600 the volume of records will have increased exponentially and I suspect that my recording of them will not extend to my blog as it was the link back that was important. I will enter them into my Legacy software so that I can do as I mentioned extract all of the records and put them on a DVD and give it to  the Guild of one-name Studies when I retire. Dr. Richard Pinkham and Galen Pinkham did provide all of their material to both the Guild and the Society of Genealogists when they retired from the study back in the early 2000s as far as I am aware. Most of the work that was done by Dr. Richard Pinkham was in the late 1990s but that does make sense as one would prepare and then review and the review takes a surprising amount of time. I know myself that I will not publish before the end of 2028. 

I was rather shocked to discover that 250 to 300 people were suddenly reading my blog however it appears to have returned to its normal level (overall though in any given day several thousand of my blogs end up being accessed (I have done a lot of transcription in the past)). I do not mind if people access the blog in order to help them with their research.  I did review part of my acknowledgements in the book as it was the conversations that my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe had with his mother's first cousin Sir John Carling (very involved in Confederation and even before that in the government of Ontario and after that in the government of Canada) that influenced a lot of John's thinking. A busy farmer he did not get involved in politics but he did get involved in discussions on various topics. He always told  his son, my uncle Ed Pincombe, that it was so fascinating to sit and listen to Sir John discussing items. He was but a child then before his mother passed away when he was fourteen years of age. So  I have decided to mention that in my acknowledgements for the Pencombe/Pincombe/Pinkham book. It would be interesting to figure out in the information that Free BMD has online for Pinkham how many are descendant of the North Molton/South Molton branch but will leave that for other researchers of the future. Primarily it was the family of Richard (son of Thomas) who was known to be at Bideford but always appear to use the Pencombe/Pincombe surname with the South Molton rumoured to be at Barnstaple using the Pyncombe name but I do know that it was this particular area Barnstaple/Beaford/Bideford and a couple of others where the Pinkham surname was used by the descendants of the North Molton branch quite early on actually in all the records and I do have information from a cousin in London who visited Dr Richard Pinkham and discussed his work on the family as he came across some of it at the Society of Genealogists. I will check the charts as I move along but I did not locate his name earlier. But the charts are a piece of history gathered up by him with personal conversations (he usually recorded the informant on each chart) and collects that time frame for a family very neatly and he was collecting from before the Second World War until the latter part of the 1900s. 

I did note that Richard Pinkham going to the Royal Colonies in America in 1640 was said to have come with two brothers. Chart 10 does list one brother for Richard's father named Anthony and for Richard the emigrant he has a brother George on the chart. George is said to have had a large family at Barnstaple namely Richard, Mary, Ellinor, John and Peter. Only Richard is shown as emigrating to the now United States. Presumably a number of these Pinkham listed on Free BMD are descendants of George perhaps. I will continue with the extraction of data at least until 1650 and then make my decision at that time as to how much to continue extracting for lines that are not coming down from North Molton and thus part of my generational tree for the book. It will be an opportunity to verify the charts. For the most part the charts are often continuous down into the mid 1600s and then less so but I have not really looked at them for a few years so this will be a determination on how much data I collect in order, at this time to create this book. Coming from a science background though I am likely to collect all the data but we will see. I am after all 81. Working in lengths of time is possibly easier for me to contemplate. But I could certainly understand separating this into two studies at this point in time having accomplished getting back into the early 1500s with so much data showing the descents. On the other hand they trace back (these families) to that same village in Herefordshire it would appear namely Pencombe. One would have to decide which was more important to these families. 

I do appreciate the collaboration with the AI and it was pointed out to me by the AI that a distinction was being made on the Visitation of 1620 in Devon where the heading contained the words Pencombe of Northmolton. The interpretation which was observed by the AI was that there were other known families of Pencombe in Devon. I must admit I did not make that extensive overall picture from that statement but I agree with the AI in that conclusion. Excellent to be working with an AI on this project and I will give CoPilot credit for the collaboration that we have undertaken the past couple of months in the book. I had by then located Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh and John de Pencomb' at Molland and they were part of the review of the research done at that point in time with the AI so part of the collaborating discussion that we had. 

I will return to this blog today and add in any new references that are interesting and helpful in the pursuit of solving the descent of these family units into the mid 1600s or beyond if the research warrants it.  

 One item I think I failed to mention was the Will of Philip Pencombe of Tawstock was probated in 1564 (Court of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple) and collected in the Devon Wills Index. So there are three records at Tawstock likely for this individual - 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy Philip Pyngham, 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy Philip Pynkeham and now his will in 1564. So the Phillipp Pyncombe who married Wilmot Beare at Bideford I am suggesting is his son giving a line Philip to Philip to Richard (the emigrant). What would be nice would be the Manor Records for Tawstock looking at the family Philip appears next to in the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy namely Walter Raymore G2 and there are 5 wage earners listed under this individual. There are manor records for Tawstock Manor itself from 1396-1750 held at the Devon Archives. 

Contemplating the will probated for Hugh Pincombe in 1613 at Bishops Nympton but the Hugh Pincombe that I have there lived from 1664 to 1731 and his son Hugh was born in 1701.  That one is surely a mystery. 

 

 

Last day of cleaning and an interesting baptism record

 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 as 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 (that would point to the father of Philip Pyncombe marrying at Bideford but possibly living at Tawstock was Philip Pyngham/Philip Pynkeham). However, the marriage record does not give the place of abode of these two individuals and it does appear that Wilmote Beare was a widow). 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 Honours 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 did not want the fence. 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.  

Part of finishing off my degree was an extremely good course in American history as I needed an Arts course needless to say my Honours Chemistry courses were pretty heavy on the math and science. But the young fellow who taught the course was an American (his PhD was from an American university I have forgotten which one now) but he had a fabulous background that included so much on site information on early American history. That really is the role of universities to have people on their faculty in particular research areas to develop a strong research group. I decided to take the  American History course because Edward was always getting me to help at repositories even that early on collecting information. It was something we did together and I do have a strong interest in history to help support his research but Chemistry for me was a path towards going into medicine eventually in Africa way back in my mid teens years however I did not do any of that but I did end up working for some really good researchers when I was in the hospital - it did make the job very interesting and of course there was the ordinary patient work as well and I am a methodical careful person so worked out well.  I absolutely have no regrets on my work life; it was fascinating all the different items I worked on and was involved with and I did have a habit of moving on when something else attracted my scholastic attention. But I kept it all at work as I wanted my time at home with the girls when they were young. I wanted to be there helping with their projects if they wanted any or helping with projects that were their own interest (those especially I dug deep into with them). My youngest daughters first project was on song birds and you were meant to just pick one (she was only about seven or eight I think). She had a sticker book from the Museum that we had purchased of 25 song birds and she did 25 individual projects on those birds and handed it in. The teacher was very nice about it but did tell her the task was one bird only. Her mark did not suffer that time but she did take the hint for the future.

 Tomorrow is a research day and I got a bit off track reminiscing for sure. American record searching is very difficult; I think part of the difficulty is the mix of European and British Isles in the population so that not every record set follows a given standard simply because so many countries are represented in the population of the United States even that early on - Edward, for instance, has one side coming from the New Amsterdam/New York area and all over Long Island for that matter including Staten Island and into New Jersey and the other side primarily British Isles - including England, Scotland and Ireland making for a lot of different styles of records and these very early on settlers tended to marry into old American colonial families right up until the Revolution (they also, some of them, were Loyalist but many others were Patriots). His Dutch ancestry goes back into early Albany as well as New Amsterdam (I would say they were all Patriots and were later coming in the 1800s on and came for free land at the time). I did not do any coursework on American records only English (British) and Canadian at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies.