Monthly Archives: January 2018

Any genealogy of the Norman dukes and their associates is rather like peering at a stone wall which has most of the stones missing. They have been replaced by conjecture, from the early Norman chroniclers to Victorian antiquaries. References are … Continue reading →

It seems so long ago, a vast amount of thorough research into a titled family of Harris of Essex, led by luminary Harris researchers, that has moved on to the misty Somerset marshes, peopled by a hardy race of cow-herding, … Continue reading →

A Harris researcher of old has asked me to outline a Harris family of Hemington, given its links to Virginia: John Seward, the Bristol sea captain and merchant, held land in Somerset at Hemington, which is 4 miles fom Mells/Nunney, … Continue reading →

It is possible with a fair degree of accuracy to chart the genealogical links of the Counsell family of Cheddar, Somerset; perhaps only being wrong on whether someone was a brother or cousin, cousin or second-cousin, etc. This would not … Continue reading →

From the swampy lands of Somerset, kinship groups set forth to Virginia, surviving through joint effort, as of centuries past. The following notes give some indication of Welsh families with connections to Somerset and Virginia. 1. John Proctor, m. Alice … Continue reading →

If an aspiring yeoman family could not intermarry with with their lords, an alternative was to intermarry into the families of their lord’s cousins. From shaddow to the desired summit. 1. 1.1. Roger Hill, of Taunton, Somerset, Merchant. Will proved … Continue reading →

There are likely to be as many Hamiltons in Scotland as there are Sinclairs; obviously not all deriving from the same spawning ground. ‘But who, then, was the first Hameldun or Hamelton who actually held lands and had thus settled … Continue reading →