After twenty-five years of researching my paternal family history and publishing “Sambells Family History: Origins and Lineage”, I decided that it was time to share my discoveries and insights with a wider audience through this new web blog. The saga of my research begins with my most recent pilgrimage to the places which featured so prominently in the lives of my ancestors. The record of my journey is the focus of a series of posts of my “Ramblings” through northern France and southwestern England in the summer of 2017.  Additional posts will also reveal the exciting stories of my “Discoveries” as I researched the paper trail of my ancestor’s footsteps over the course of one thousand years.

I met up with my brother Harry, his wife Shannon, and their daughter Chelsea for the first week of my summer ramblings. Our trip destinations were selected on the basis of personal discoveries I had made from researching old documents. Our week-long tour together would take us to the castle site of what was our medieval French family origins. Additional excursions included visits to neighbouring towns where my early medieval ancestors had played a significant role in the geopolitics of the region. A pilgrimage to the Canadian war memorials at Vimy Ridge and Juno Beach were on our agenda and most significantly a visit to the Canadian WWII cemetery at Leubringhen where the remains of my uncle had been buried as a casualty of WWII.

The second week took me to some of the villages, manors, and churches of Oxfordshire where my 12th and 13th-century ancestors had lived while employed as royal tailors. From there a journey by train to Devon and on to Cornwall would provide a relaxing means of travel through the fields, farms and railway stations which featured so prominently in my ancestor’s rural farming history since the 1500s.

While in Plymouth, I found the location of the grave of my distant cousin and renowned architect Philip Sambell. In Truro, a visit to the Royal Cornwall Museum would give me a chance to update my document resources in order to write a biography of Philip Sambell for the Museum’s 250^th anniversary in 2018. I would once again spend time with my cousin Derrick Sambells and his family and continue our review of selected family-related documents at the Cornwall Records Office. Throughout my journey, I donated a copy of my book to several historical societies and libraries in towns and cities where my ancestors had been recorded.

It was a trip I had longed to embark on. Inspired by travel articles written by Philip Sambell, I wanted to journal my experiences in order to more accurately recount the stories of some of my discoveries from the perspective of first-hand observations of the places where my ancestors had lived.

 In July of 1848, “deaf and dumb” architect Philip Sambell (1813-1878) set out with his companion to “explore the Queendom of Victoria“.  His maxim “home first and foreign lands after” determined his travel destinations. After all, said Philip “the individual who does not, by adopting this maxim, find himself gratified and improved on his return home, must be endowed with — enviable perceptions of the varied attractions which his own native land supplies in Nature and Art“.

One hundred and sixty-nine years later my travel destinations were guided by a need to visit the places which had become so familiar to me through my research. Having discovered family links to medieval France – the royal courts of four Plantagenet kings – the churches and colleges of Oxfordshire, and the pirate ports of Cornwall, I was keen to gain first-hand impressions of these places which were home to my ancient ancestors.  

Philip viewed his nineteenth-century travels as a break from the routine of daily work. He writes, “Plans, elevations, sections, specifications, and estimates, are shelved for more exciting exercise in search of health and the picturesque“.  On the other hand, my journey was an opportunity to experience the essence of the environs of places which were significant to the telling of my family history. It was gratifying to see and walk about the 1000-year-old remnants of the ancient “donjon” de St Pol (the seat of our Norman clan) – the church of St Peter ad Vincula in Oxfordshire (founded in the 1100’s by my Plantagenet ancestors) – and the old millpond of Tresemple farm (where our earliest Cornish ancestors lived in the 13th and 14th-centuries). The experience of seeing and feeling the intrinsic nature of places, although far removed in time from that of my ancestors, were indispensable in providing me with an understanding of the environs of my early ancestors and renewed my enthusiasm to continue the quest to find more descendants of my medieval families.

Titled “Ramblings in Lancashire and North Wales“, Philip Sambell expressed his travel observation in ten articles published in the Plymouth Journal in 1849. His professional interests directed his observations and comparison of architectural styles of buildings among the cities he visited.  Likewise, my own passion for genealogy directed my often “off the beaten path” through northeast France, Oxfordshire, Devon, and Cornwall England. Living the typical life of a tourist I was keen to express my own observations to family and friends in part to thank them for the continued support they have offered me over the years in pursuing my hobby. 

This introductory blog initiates a series of weekly posts which will begin with reports on my own Ramblings in the summer of 2017.

• • next – – – Journey of Remembrance