Bishops Nympton Registers

As Christmas Day comes nearer I realize that I will not quite complete the last group of records although very close. There are still 400 burials to convert to the excel chart and I will leave them now until after Christmas Day although if there is a lull in activities I may find myself completing them :)

In total the Bishops Nympton Parish Registers have yielded 7302 baptisms, 1284 marriages, 5398 burials (with 400 still to convert for a total of likely 5798 burials), and 365 banns. These registers run from the late 1550s to the late 1980s yielding 430 years of history for this small village in North Devon. For myself, I descend from a number of families with deep roots in Bishops Nympton dating back to the earlier parish registers - Pincombe (from the mid 1590s on), Thomas, Tapp (from the early 1600s on), Blackmoore, and Manning (middle 1600s on) with the Thomas and Blackmoore families being in the earliest registers. My Pincombe and Tapp families were from North Molton and my Manning family from Landkey.

Thoughts for the New Year and I shall be downsizing my efforts in genealogical activities once again as my home commitments become somewhat larger and my time for genealogy smaller. I will be concentrating on my Blake one name study and my Pincombe one name study.

The latest Pincombe yDNA results are most interesting in that the Pinkham descendant does not match the results of my likely 5th cousin. Finding someone to test my direct line from Robert Pincombe would be really great as it would give me a baseline from which to look at all the data. The Pinkham result is quite within the realm of results to be expected from Devon. We are still awaiting results beyond the first 12 but a quick test with Withey's Haplogroup Predictor does yield I haplogroup rather than the R1b that is predicted for the results of my 5th cousin on ysearch. Since he is unwilling to be part of the project and has entered the data himself I would really like to have results in the study that are from a known cousin. Will have to wait and see on that.

The original researchers for the Pincombe one name study have linked the Pinkham and Pincombe family as having a common ancestor. yDNA results are really the only way to determine if in reality this was a true common ancestry.

Pincombe marriages and North Molton Parish Registers

I worked on the Pincombe marriages and it is surprising how many I actually do have between 1837 and 1911. Not so many Pinkham yet though; that needs to be a dedicated direction for the one name study. Once I have all the marriages that I can find then I want to do the births and deaths in conjunction with the census. Then I can move back into the parish registers. London is online at Ancestry making that task straightforward and I have most of the parishes in Devon where they lived but certainly not all of them.

Continuing with the North Molton Parish Registers I have completed to the end of 1656 with 3173 baptisms, 522 marriages, 135 banns, and 1529 burials. Looking at the results does skew the numbers somewhat as one might think that this was a very unusual parish with just half the number of burials to the baptisms but the reality is that 30+ years of burials are missing so easily 1200 to 1500 burials missing. There are banns once again as the Justice of the Peace is now recording the information on births, marriages and deaths (baptisms are also there which is a surprise but then North Molton is a long way from London and the authority of Cromwell).

There are more Pincombe entries but no unexpected ones particularly. I am curious about Pincombe entries from now until the end of the fiche that I own. I do not have any of them recorded if there are in fact any there. I watch the Bray family (and they have dwindled down in numbers) and the Tap family (still fairly frequent) that are also my ancestors as my lines were at North Molton in the earlier years.

Tomorrow I hope to complete this fiche and then I have two left. Completing the North Molton Parish Registers in November is becoming less likely although one never knows. I may put a push on for completion and leave some of the other items I had in mind until later. Although I do want to transcribe the last Pincombe will (Elizabeth Pincombe of Exeter) sooner rather than later and then I will have completed all the Pincombe wills that I have.

I also need to get started on my newsletter for the Eastern Region of the Guild of one name studies. I have a couple of other pending items there as well but I have a ten day block of days when I will be looking after all of these items. Right now I feel the push to get North Molton done. Of course, it is only me that is pushing. I have this tendency to be a bit of a scheduler although I also find it easy to adjust the schedule. It is just my numerical nature to be like that probably.

North Molton Parish Registers - Burges and Tapp families

Continuing on with the transcription of the North Molton Devon Parish Registers and at the end of 1558 I now have 446 baptisms, 87 marriages and 210 burials. The family names are fairly consistent with very few new additions thus far. Not many Pincombe records thus far which was as I had earlier read them but at that time I didn't have my Tapp and Burges information and I can also hope to find more about these families.

The Tapp family goes back to Roger Tapp who was baptized 6 Oct 1595 at North Molton and he married Margarett Burges who was baptized 24 Jul 1597 at North Molton. Fortunately the marriage of John Tapp and Anne Thomas provided me with the names of their parents (a rare enough occurrence in the early registers but Bishops Nympton where they married had a priest who duly recorded the parish of the bride or groom if they were not of Bishops Nympton in the early 1600s).

Margaret Burges was the daughter of John and Ann Burges. Ann thus far is unknown with respect to her surname but John was baptized 29 Oct 1576 at North Molton and the son of Matthew and Margaret Burges. Matthew in turn was the son of Paul Burges and was baptized 7 Apr 1546 at North Molton.  I can now extract all the children in these families to see if I can discover anything further on the Burges family. Finding a new family surname is always rather interesting especially now that I have done my Family Finder test at FT DNA. Expanding on the names by doing the collateral lines may help me with some of my brickwalls.

This is an interesting village with the baptisms being almost double the burials. It is a large areas in terms of manors/farms and some people have come to North Molton for baptisms from other parishes and this includes:

Brinacott
Brinsworthie
Elworthie/Ewerye
Flitton
Hunston
Molland
North Radderie
Radner
South Raderie
Upcott
Walscott

The year 1559 has been completely missed and not obviously so as the end of 1558 appears just above the beginning of 1560. No comment is made by the priest on the omission of the year 1559. The handwriting for 1558 and 1560 is virtually the same. A mystery that likely  has no solution.

I have extracted the Burges entries below from 1539 to 1558 for any one interested in the Burges family of North Molton. Paul Burges left a will in 1579 which was lost in the bombing of Exeter in WWII unfortunately. Thomas Burges left a will in 1584 which is located at the National Archives. I wonder if these two men were brothers and have included both of their families below.

Baptisms
Burges    John    son            Burges    Johane    1539    Jun    29
Burges    John    son    Burges    Paule            1540    Apr    8
Burges    Elizabeth    daughter    Burges    Thomas            1540    Aug    19
Burges    William    son    Burges    John            1541    Sep    20
Burges    William    son    Burges    Thomas            1541    Jan    12
Burges    Anstes    daughter    Burges    Paule            1544    Oct   
Burges    Mathewe    son    Burges    Paule            1546    Apr    7
Burges    English    son    Burges    Thomas            1547    Jan    11
Burges    Peter    son    Burges    Thomas            1553    Apr    9
Burges    Phillip    son    Burges    Thomas            1554    Mar    6
Burges    John    son    Burges    Richard            1555    Mar    2
Burges    Ellen    daughter    Burges    Richard            1555    Mar    2
Burges    John    son    Burges    Thomas            1556    Mar    4
Burges    William    son    Burges    Thomas            1556    Mar    4
Burges    John    son    Burges    Thomas            1557    May    12
Burges    Agnes    base daughter            Burges    Johane    1558    Mar    20

Marriages
Burges    Richard    Hodge    Marye        1554    Nov    20
[Lowdye] Andrew    Burges    Johane        1547    Nov   
Bray    James    Burges    Agnes        1555    Jun    16
Kerbye    Harrye    Burges    Alyce        1552    Jan    18
Hodge    Christopher    Burges    Ellen    1558    Jan    15

Burials
Burges    Johane                        1540    Aug    6    widow
Burges    Ales    wife    Burges    Thomas            1543    Jan    27   
Burges    John                        1547    Aug    20    Clerk, Vicar
Burges    Johane    daughter    Burges    Mychalel            1547    Mar    6   
Burges    John    son    Burges    Thomas            1553    Mar    22   
Burges    John                        1555    Oct    14   
Burges    John    son    Burges    Richard            1555    Nov    30   
Burges    Ales                        1556    Apr    14    widow
Burges    John    son    Burges    Thomas            1556    Mar    4   
Burges    William    son    Burges    Thomas            1556    Mar    4

The Tapp family too has caught my interest and I have not yet located old wills for this family at North Molton.

Baptisms
Tapp    Chosen    daughter    Tapp    John            1540    July    6
Tapp    Robert    son    Tapp    John            1543    Mar    31
Tapp    Johane    daughter    Tapp    William            1545    Sep    10
Tapp    Johane    daughter    Tapp    John            1547    Feb    21
Tapp    Johane    daughter    Tapp    Peter            1551    Dec    20
Tapp    Dorothye    daughter    Tapp    John            1552    July    6
Tapp    Thomas    son    Tapp    John            1552    Nov    12
Tapp    Anstes    daughter    Tapp    Water            1552    Mar    12
Tapp    Emet    daughter    Tapp    Peter            1553    Mar    5
Tapp    Siblye    daughter    Tapp    John            1554    Feb    3
Tapp    Henrye    son    Tapp    Water            1556    Jun    19
Tapp    Johane    daughter    Tapp    John            1558    Sep    29

Marriages
Tapp    John    Beare    Elizabeth        1556    Oct    20
Greade    Gregorye    Tapp    Ales        1542    Sep    30    bride of Hunston

Burials
Tapp    Anstes    daughter    Tapp    Water            1552    Mar    13   
Tapp    Johane                        1556    May    2    widow
Tapp    Johane    wife    Tapp    John            1556    May    20   

I have never received any correspondence on the Burges family but occasionally I receive an email asking about my Tapp family. I think they were probably tradesmen/craftsmen.

Full Genetic Scans on mitochondrial DNA

I continued working on the subgrouping of the T_FGS study group and completed the assignments to subgroups. I now need to add the mutations that belong to the particular subgroupings to the description and decide on a colour scheme. Although this isn't my mtDNA, the sample is my husband's line, it was an interesting couple of years spent looking at the grouping for T haplogroup.

 I think that if you are interested in testing your DNA and in particular the mitochondrial DNA the most practical and efficient way is to do the Full Genetic Scan. Overall the cost has diminished greatly and it is a very practical way to test in that there are no further tests in this area. My family finder results amazed me as I have a fourth cousin or greater match with someone whose family has always been in England. I still need to sort through the material which she sent to me. I suspect that the attachment is through my mother's Buller line - perhaps Christopher's mother was of German descent. Living in London as he did plus being executor of so many wills has left me wondering about who he was. My Buller day will look some more at the Buller records at St Olave where he buried his wife, two of his children and then himself although they attended St Mary Magdalene Bermondsey and baptized their children at St Mary Magdalene.

Now having published the paper, it has freed my mind up to look at the H11 mtDNA haplogroup which is my line. Having this likely "resting spot" for my mutations in Agryllshire Scotland has set my thoughts towards how my line ended up in the Midlands of England. I remember my mother talking about her thoughts on her ancestry and she suspected Irish but could that have been Scot-Irish! Would my ancestor have emigrated from Ireland to England looking for work at some time in the past? My grandmother's mother used to sing an Irish lullaby to the children. But it was a popular lilt and a lot of people could have sung that particular tune I suspect. I really have very little to go on with my great grandmother Ellen Taylor's family other than her father being a shoemaker in Birmingham. As far as I can ascertain none of Ellen's possible sisters had daughters so any matches would have to be more distant. Ellen's likely mother did not have any sisters so I am back to her mother Ellen Lawley who was born in 1819 in Wellington Shropshire England. Other than knowing that her father was Joseph I do not have any further information yet. I am  hoping that she might have had sisters with descendants.

The Devon Genuki pages updated with the index of wills prepared by Beckerlegge, J.J. (Ed.)  Index of the Wills and Administrations relating to the County of Devon proved in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, 1563-1858. Since my mother's paternal family comes from this area I pulled out my families from the index: Blackmore, Bray, Burges, Charley, Harvey, Hobbs, Manning, Moggridge, Pincombe, Pearse, Rew, Rowcliffe, Snow, Stanbury, Tapp, Thomas, Upcott, Vicary, Whetson.  I also pulled the Blake entries for the Blake one name study. It would be interesting to discover the ancestry of that particular Blake family in Devon - there appears to be a thought that it might be the Hampshire Blake family from Knights Enham.

I must get back to transcribing Abbotts Ann once again. I shall put a high priority on those parish registers to complete them.

Genealogy Wise

A bit of eye strain so I decided to leave the Andover Parish Registers alone for a day. Just a couple of years left of baptisms and then I start the marriages and after that the burials. I have completed the first row of images and I am working on the 4th image of the second row (12 images to a row). There are 4 complete rows and 4 images in the fifth row. A total of 52 images on this fiche so I am just a little over 1/4 of the way through Parish Register 2.

I worked on Genealogy Wise for a while creating a few new groups. I had created my personal Blake Family of Hampshire UK, Pincombe one name study and Siderfin one name study. I have now created a Hampshire Genealogy group (UK), a Routledge from Bewcastle Cumberland group, an H11 mt DNA group, and a Buller Surname group. I have joined a number of groups including an England Family History, London Genealogy, Devon Genealogy, Warwickshire, Tapp, and a Blake Surname. I joined the Blake Surname group out of curiosity as I already have my Blake Family of Hampshire UK group.

Tomorrow I hope to spend some time on the Andover Parish Registers once again. Next week I will get back to Timberscombe Parish Registers.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register

Completed another three years of marriages in Bishops Nympton bringing me up to 1773. There are 33 more images on the microfiche to transcribe to 1812. Then I will have completed all the records from the earliest (mid 1500s) to 1812 for Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. I have done a word for word transcription and I am also converting that to an excel file for easy sorting and searching. I am the on line parish clerk for Bishops Nympton and use the file at least two or three times a week for individuals asking questions about the parish. For myself, I have a number of ancestors who lived in Bishops Nympton some for several hundred years and more - Pincombe, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Thomas, Manning, Snow, Charlie, Tapp, Vicary, and Blackmoore. Having an excel file would permit me to sort on these families and separate out the lines a little easier than straight reading of the text! Eventually I would like to do a one name study of the Village of Bishops Nympton beginning with the families that are found there in the 1500s and their descendants as they trace down in the village using tax rolls, oaths, freeman's lists, etc.

Getting ready for Christmas and must try and make my stollen today. Still shopping to do as well. I bought four sets of fiche that I wanted, a book on transcribing early latin from the National Archives, another couple of books on DNA and a book on Hampshire subsidies from the 1500s for people to give me for Christmas. I didn't look at them when they arrived although it was very very tempting. I shall be busy with all of that material after Christmas as well. I have also ordered another set of two parish registers from Leicestershire and have an order for Wiltshire and Hampshire ready to go after Christmas. My family used to ask me what I wanted for Christmas in the past and I could never think of anything - genealogy has certainly given me new sources for Christmas presents to myself!

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 14 Nov 2008

The Protestation Returns for the part of Devon that interests me is nearing completion. It has been a major transcription task but will let me look at all my family names in the North Devon area in particular my one name study for Pincombe. Having this "census" of all males over 18 for this area is a fabulous tool for the 1641-42 time period. Occasionally there is a female name but only very rarely. By this time in the parish registers the forename of the wife is also included on the baptism. I think that the Church was remarkably ahead of its time with the recording of the mother of the child albeit without the maiden surname but that can often be obtained from the wedding lines.

A request for information on a family line in Bishops Nympton prompted a deviation from my avid transcription yesterday. Looking at the Tapp family caused me to look once again at my Blackmoore family connection there. I decided to extract all the Blackmoore family members from the register up to 1660. Although Thomas mentions the Pincombe family in his will, I rather think now that concluding that his daughter married a Pincombe is premature. His brother Anthony has a daughter Johane baptized in 1737 that is a more likely candidate for the wedding in 1655 of John Pincombe and Johan Blackemoore because Anthony died just a couple of months before and Johane was his only daughter still living. Her two brothers would have been 20 and 10 years old at that time. I had stepped away from this marriage because John was baptized in 1622 and thus 15 years older. That actually clears up a confusion in this line although John and Jane did not name a son Anthony - they chose William, John, Thomas and Hugh as the names of their sons. There were three children named Anthony Blackemoore born in this time period so that is perhaps the reason for not choosing Anthony.

Revised my webpage to bring the list of names to the top of the page since it will be expanded and it is the prominent item on my webpage. I expect to add another ten in the next couple of weeks. The trip to Salt Lake City provided me with a lot of female surnames. As these are usually the most difficult to obtain it will greatly improve my ability to prove all my people at the 4x great grandparent level. A task I shall begin once I have transcribed all my documents from Salt Lake City.