Pincombe yDNA and its ramifications with respect to the Pincombe - Pinkham one name study

The matches in the Pincombe yDNA this past week have been phenomenal. I had not been able to persuade my closest Pincombe cousins to test (all third cousins) but at last long I do have a 3rd cousin once removed who has tested and he matches 24/25 with a fifth cousin in Australia. The one step out is rather convenient actually.

The Australian cousin descends from William Pincombe (baptized 21 Dec 1769 at Bishops Nympton, Devon son of John Pincombe and Mary Charley who married 8 Nov 1767 at Bishops Nympton) through his son William (baptized 1 Jan 1802 at Bishops Nympton) and he married Maria Torrington 15 May 1822 at Bishops Nympton. They had nine children a number of whom emigrated to Australia.

My recent tester descends from Robert Pincombe (baptized 4 Oct 1775 at Bishops Nympton and also a son of John Pincombe and Mary Charley) through his son Robert Pincombe baptized 2 Sep 1804 at Bishops Nympton) and he married Mary Shapland around 1835. They had two children both born in the United States.

I descend from Robert Pincombe through his son John Pincombe baptized 5 Jul 1808 at Bishops Nympton and married to Elizabeth Rew 9 Jan 1835 at Bishops Nympton. They had five children all born in Molland, Devon and they emigrated to Canada in 1850. John Pincombe was my 2x great grandfather.

A second result in the project matches 34/37 with my third cousin once removed and that particular tester is descendant of the Pincombe family at Barnstaple, Devon. These two Pincombe lines are separated by hundreds of years but interestingly enough they match on DYS458 with our fifth cousin having the value of 18 instead of the 17 which the two other Pincombes show at this particular allele. One is left to conjecture that perhaps 17 is ancestral to the Pincombe family with 18 being a mutation showing up in the descendants of William Pincombe. The other two differences with this other tester are in DYS464 where my cousin has 14,15,16,17 and the Barnstaple Pincombe descendant has 14, 15, 15, 16 as well as at DYS570 where my cousin has the value of 18 and the other tester 17 and also CDY, my cousin has 36-38 and the other tester 37-38. All of these markers are considered fast moving so that a mutation in one of them occurs frequently in people's lines if a mutation does happen.

Hopefully more Pincombe males will test in the study giving us a more complete picture of the Pincombe family.

I also am left with a rather clear answer to the riddle of the Pincombe and Pinkham families. They do appear to be distinctly different. The charts I have do show the tendency in some of the family lines to use the spelling interchangeably.

I now need to do a little research on Pinkham to see how far back I can find this spelling along with Tinkham in Devon and cornwall.

1688, 1689 and 1690 at North Molton

The years 1688, 1689 and 1690 were quite severe at North Molton with the burials doubling and more. No indication of the cause in the parish register but looking at a few webpages smallpox is mentioned as being a problem after the 1650s.

At the end of 1690 I  have now transcribed 4347 baptisms, 834 marriages, 2548 burials and 162 banns. There are more people listed as being from another parish which could be the new priest or just more diligent record keeping. The parish if not North Molton is a very handy item to have tracing some of these families where you might find Gould or Thorne or Shapland/Shopland families in many of the parishes in the North Molton area.

The Parish Registers were particularly difficult to read from 1687 to 1690 and hopefully they will improve for the last few years for which I have fiche copy (end of 1706). More Pincombe entries for me to sort out. Certainly there are at least two distinct lines at North Molton. I can not be absolutely sure that they are both descendant of Thomas Pincombe. There is a possibility that they may descend also from William Pincombe (possible third son of Unknown Pencombe who first came to North Molton in 1485).

I think that two more days may well complete the Parish Registers but perhaps a third day will be needed. Once completed than I will proofread it as I have time and then submit it to Genuki Devon where Brian Randall maintains the webpages.

My next project is to convert my word text of the Bishop Nympton parish register to an excel file. The 954 page document will likely take me a number of days to convert. Since I will have dedicated time to do the project I hope to complete it soon and also put it up on Genuki Devon. I am the On Line Parish Clerk for Bishops Nympton.