Letters

Kevin Mullins wrote from Salisbury asking for help in tracking his grandmother's family whose surname is Eustace. He has drawn a blank so far, but the newspaper announcement of his grandad's death gave his name as Charles Frederick Blencowe Eustace. He was buried in Warwick cemetery. Her name was Ellen Cooke, Charles also had a brother, William. The family is believed to have lived and worked in Oxfordshire all their lives.

Mary Van Gorden wrote from Wisconsin, recalling her visit to Oxford this time last year. 'I am about to leave for a seminar in New York 'Discovering New Netherland' - a study of the early Dutch settlements in what is now New York. We will be in New York City, Albany, and the Hudson River Valley. I have several Dutch ancestors who were in New Netherland (including New Amsterdam) in the early 1600s, before the English took over the colony in 1664. Had it not been for Oliver Cromwell, that take-over may never have happened!'

It's interesting to think that Mary's Dutch ancestors pre-date the arrival of James Blincoe in Virginia by a decade or more.

Nicholas Blincoe (author of Burning Paris) sent an amusing anecdote about his wife's reaction to the family name:

'My wife is half Ukrainian, half Palestinian, with an attractive surname Sansour. But that's not the reason she refused to take my name when we married. She told me Blincoe is the diminutive of blini in Ukrainian and she was not going to be called Mrs Little Pancake for anyone!

Blincoe may sound like a Ukrainian word, but that does not mean it has ever been used as a surname. But I thought I would check. On a Jewish genealogy site. I looked up Blinko and it does appear to be a Ukrainian Jewish name.'

Pat McClenaghan wrote from Armidale NSW; the letter was over-shadowed by news of the tragic loss of their eldest grand-child (see above) but, as usual gave a glimpse of a grazier's life on the other side of the world.

The usual problems with rainfall: they've been carting feed to all the stock since the end of January. A welcome 50 mm on Saturday has put water in some of the dams and the grass has started to green (a bit) but they'll have to continue feeding for at least another three weeks.

Frank Blincow's war-time tales in our last newsletter reminded her of a friend sending food parcels to bomb-damaged Coventry.

Called away from the typewriter, Pat had to go and warn traffic whilst sheep were being mustered across the main road, then drive the Land Rover whilst cotton seed was shovelled out the back for the cattle. A busy life!

Douglas Bain wrote: 'I have never moved from Canada, I still live at my original address: 88 Bloor Street, East, Apartment # 3307, Toronto Ontario M4W 3G9'
<ds.bain @ syrnpatico.ca>

Sorry Douglas, my mistake! He then goes on to ask: 'Will there be an update of the Blencowe Families book?'

The answer to that one is that it would be hopelessly uneconomic. We still have some left of the original thousand and could never hope to sell as many of a second edition. A shorter print run would cost much more per copy. It might be practicable to produce a revised version for limited distribution on CD. (My son John put the original version on a disk for me.) It would be quite a lot of work and I can't see myself contemplating it before some kind soul takes over the newsletter!

Judith Blinco responded to my request for suggestions of places to visit during family reunion: 'Whilst I reside in America one of my favorite websites is the [UK] National Archives. This month's email suggests visits to archives with details on <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/events/behindscenes.htm>'

Judith went on to tell me she would send further information about her father Paul Blinco, adopted son of George and Myrtle Blinco of Nebraska. She also raised the problem of a suitable repository for original family documents or their copies.

We have deposited a very large collection of transcripts at the Northamptonshire County Records Office and Jill Dudbridge's collection of photocopies (from which many of the transcripts were made) are destined to go there too. Whilst this is a good centre for anyone researching their English roots, it wouldn't make much sense to accumulate American documents there too. Somewhere suitable in North America needs to be suggested; I'll follow this up in our next issue.

Judith's letter reminded me that it would be good to track down a male descendant of her branch of the family for a DNA test (they emigrated from Mixbury to Elora in Ontario). Her father Paul was an adopted son so his descendant's DNA would not reveal any clues to the ancestry of the Mixbury Blincos.

The correspondence continues with Thomas Grindley in Maryland and Jill Dudbridge in London about our Tolson family connections. Thomas suggested that John and Dorothy Tolson's father Henry had married a sister of Anthony named Joan of whom we had no previous knowledge; Jill feels that evidence is circumstantial but will keep an open mind!

Meanwhile, I have another suggestion. In her will Margaret Rampston had also named Dorothy Tolson as 'niece'. Margaret, a widow, had also named her daughter 'Frances Smythe formerly Bateman' and 'son Nicholas Blincoe'. I had assumed Margaret was a widow of Bateman who had subsequently married a Blencowe and then Rampston. What if 'Bateman' was the daughter's name by a first Husband? Margaret could have been the sister of Anthony who married Brodherst. The Blencowe arms she displayed on her tombstone would then have been in her own right, not that of a Blencowe husband. This still does not identify clearly who her Blencowe husband was! This may all seem a bit esoteric to many readers but Margaret had acquired considerable wealth from her successive husbands and her son Nicholas and his descendants were substantial landowners in London and Essex.