I've just had an email to let me know my AncestryDNA kit is on its way. Having deliberated about whether to take the ethnicity and genealogical DNA test for more than a year, I've finally decided to grab the bull by the horns and get it done.

Ancestry are currently discounting the test by £20 - £79 plus £20 P+P. If you order two tests at once the postage cost on the second one is £10 instead of £20.

I'm curious to know how British I am as my research has hardly taken me outside the country. There could be some Irish blood as one of my 2 x great-grandmothers may have been Irish. And I'm imagining there might be some Scandinavian from the Vikings or Continental links from the Normans or the Saxons. If anything else turns up, it'll be quite a surprise. Getting excited already!!

As DNA is passed down randomly, it is suggested that other family members be tested too. That's because your cousin or your sibling could have inherited different sections of DNA than yourself and so more matches could show up between you. For instance, your brother could have a match to your second cousin where you might not but you'll be able to make a connection because of your brother's DNA results.

If you're related to me and you decide to take the test (or have already done so) please let me know and perhaps we could compare notes.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

A couple of weeks ago my dad, who's been a radio ham for 50 years, heard a radio contact between the British astronaut, Tim Peake, and a school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. He had to dig out his 2 metres rig which he hadn't used for ages - a small handheld receiver with a rubber duck antenna. Not having a decent aerial, he was amazed that it worked. It was the first transmission he'd heard from outer space.

Today I visited dad and listened out for another ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) contact from the ISS, this time with the City of Norwich Schools. We heard Tim Peake from here in Plymouth and I recorded it on a dictaphone and then edited it in Windows Movie Maker using screenshots from the live webcast and a photograph of dad's radio set.


This video can also be viewed on my YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/S-FYxga-0f4

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Last year I posted in the Great War Forum a number of photographs which were taken by Harvey's grandad during World War I. I wanted to see if any of the forum members could identify the places and indeed they were extremely helpful.

Amongst Cyril Ellen's collection was a series of photographs of the Lower Struma in Greece, believed to have been taken by him when he was an Observer Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service, based at nearby Stavros. At the time, the River Struma formed the Front Line between the Allied and Central Powers.


Series of Photographs of the Lower Struma, September 1917
(Click the image above to view a larger version.)
Six pictures were glued onto some paper to form a panorama and, at one end, a village called Kato Krusoves/Krusovo is to be seen overlooking the river. This area is now known as Kato Kerdylia because the village was destroyed by the Germans in 1941 and the male population was massacred. Only the church was rebuilt, and the original bell tower still stands as a memorial to the 230 dead of Ano and Kato Kerdylia. A forum member informed me that photographs of the village before its destruction are rare and that the picture could be of historical interest.


Zoom of the village of Kato Krusoves during the First World War
(Click the image above to view a larger version.)
This brings me on to an unusual request which came via my family history website last week. A German television network called Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln or WDR (West German Broadcasting Cologne) got in touch and asked for permission to use Cyril's photo of the village in a major documentary about the atrocities committed by German forces during the Greek occupation in World War II.

Eager to find out more, I wrote back and learnt that the purpose of the documentary is to educate the German public about the atrocities in this partly forgotten aspect of the war. The background to this is the recent controversy over Greek demands for compensation relating to the time of the occupation, amounting to billions of Euros, and the programme will serve to inform people of the facts.

The TV crew visited Kerdylia a few months ago and went up to the former village, together with one of the few survivors of the massacre, the village being the first of more than 1000 completely destroyed with thousands of innocent people killed in the action to take revenge for partisan attacks.

Cyril's photographs were originally taken in 1917 when they were used together with a trench map and lists of enemy positions. The map can be viewed here and the observation post, from where the picture was taken, is clearly marked as a blue dot in Sector 47 H. More on the photographs can be seen here.

The programme, called Schuld und Schulden (Guilt and Debt), is due to be broadcast on 27th April 2016 and I understand it will also be available to watch online. As I don't speak German, I doubt I shall know what is being said which is a pity as it sounds like an interesting documentary.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Hibbitt Family Tree section

I've recently been investigating my North Devon ancestors, in particular the Martin family who lived in the village of Shebbear, and I've managed to trace back further in time than any other line so far.

Henry Martin was my 11 x great-grandfather, which accounts for 15 generations if we include my son's generation. Henry married his first wife, Margery/Margarett Gawman, in 1613 so I would hazard a guess that he was born prior to 1595 when Queen Elizabeth I would have been on the throne and the 1588 invasion of the Spanish Armada would still have been fresh in the minds of her subjects. 1595 saw the Spanish Raids which destroyed Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole and Paul.

The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in September 1620 and Margery died three months later. Henry married Johane/Joan Stapledon in the following June. There were three young children to care for so this may account for the haste. King James I had ascended to the throne in 1603 and in the following years England saw the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, the publishing of the King James Authorized Version of the Bible in 1611 and the death of William Shakespeare in 1616.

King Charles I inherited the throne from his father in March 1625 and six months later Henry and Johane's third child, Edward, was baptized in St Michael's Church, Shebbear. Edward Martin was my 10 x great-grandfather and would have been in his late teens and early 20s during the English Civil War which began in 1642. There was a decisive battle called the Battle of Torrington in February 1646 which ended Royalist resistance in the West Country. Great Torrington is less than 10 miles from Shebbear so might Edward have been involved in the fighting?

Edward's first wife, Rachell, died in 1660 but not before producing three children over a ten year period. Just a few months prior to this, Charles II had been restored to the throne after eleven years of Parliamentary rule known as the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell and then his son, Richard.

1666 saw the Great Fire of London, the Great Plague having broken out in the previous year. Edward married my 10 x great-grandmother, Rebecca, in 1672 and their eldest child, Mary, my 9 x great-grandmother, later married John Hopper.

Henry Martin passed away in 1674 and in 1687, Isaac Newton published his book, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. James II ruled from 1685 to 1688 until William of Orange and his wife Mary took the throne from the exiled James in what became known as 'The Glorious Revolution', then Queen Mary II died in 1694. She was followed by her husband in 1702 when Queen Anne succeeded her brother-in-law and Edward Martin died in November of the same year.

The Acts of Union took effect on 1st May 1707 uniting England and Scotland under one legislature, and Edward Martin's widow, Rebecca, died in early 1708 leaving £8 2s 0d in her will.


St Michael's Church, Shebbear
(Click the image above to view a larger version.)
Listed below are the direct descendants of Henry Martin through to my maternal grandmother:

1 HENRY MARTIN d: 1674
+JOHANE STAPLEDON m: 11 Jun 1621 in St Michael's Church, Shebbear, Devon

2 EDWARD MARTIN b: Abt. 1625 in Shebbear, Devon d: 1702
+REBECCA UNKNOWN m: 26 Nov 1672 in Germansweek, Devon d: Abt. 1708

3 MARY MARTIN b: Abt. 1674 in Shebbear, Devon
+JOHN HOPPER m: 02 May 1706 in St Michael's Church, Shebbear, Devon

4 MARY HOPPER b: Abt. 1707 in Shebbear, Devon
+JAMES LARKWORTHY m: 12 Sep 1728 in St Michael's Church, Shebbear, Devon

5 MAUD LARKWORTHY b: Abt. 1729 in Shebbear, Devon d: 1802
+JOHN RIGSBY m: 21 Feb 1751 in St Michael's Church, Shebbear, Devon

6 ANN RIGSBY b: Abt. 1754 in Shebbear, Devon d: 12 Oct 1811
+LEWIS BURDON HORN b: Abt. 1748 in Black Torrington, Devon m: 25 Sep 1773 in St Michael's Church, Shebbear, Devon d: 1833 in Black Torrington, Devon

7 WILLIAM HORN b: Abt. 1792 in Black Torrington, Devon d: 02 Sep 1870 in Black Torrington, Devon
+ANN BAYLEY b: Abt. 1792 in Black Torrington, Devon m: 29 Aug 1813 in St Mary's Church, Black Torrington, Devon d: Abt. 1858 in District of Holsworthy, Devon

8 ELIZABETH HORN b: Abt. 1816 in Black Torrington, Devon d: 15 Jul 1895 in Black Torrington, Devon
+JAMES SMALE b: Abt. 1813 in Shebbear, Devon m: 10 Aug 1836 in St Mary's Church, Black Torrington, Devon d: 1889 in The District of St Thomas, Devon

9 WILLIAM SMALE b: Abt. 1838 in Black Torrington, Devon d: 25 Jun 1872 in Black Torrington, Devon
+MARY JANE MOORE b: 31 Aug 1834 in Beaford, Devon m: 05 Dec 1857 in St Mary's Church, Black Torrington, Devon

10 WILLIAM HENRY SMALE b: 14 Jun 1865 in Sheepwash, Devon d: 1943 in 42 Bannawell Street, Tavistock, Devon
+GRACE MARTIN b: 15 Dec 1856 in Bradford, Devon m: 1885 in The District of Holsworthy, Devon d: 09 Mar 1925 in 22 Ford Street, Tavistock, Devon

11 FLORENCE SMALE b: 11 Jan 1888 in Heathfield, Tavistock, Devon d: 18 Aug 1921 in 22 Ford Street, Tavistock, Devon
+HENRY JAMES WEAVER b: 03 Oct 1882 in Curry Rivel, Somerset m: 12 Dec 1915 in St Andrew's Church, Curry Rivel, Somerset d: 08 Sep 1916 in France

12 PHYLLIS GRACE WEAVER b: 18 Sep 1916 in 22 Ford Street, Tavistock, Devon d: 10 Jun 2005 in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon
+WILLIAM HELLYER GEAKE b: 25 Apr 1917 in Gilfach Goch, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Glamorgan, Wales m: 14 Aug 1938 in St Eustachius Church, Tavistock, Devon d: 18 Jun 1994 in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon

[Why Surname Saturday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

My Grandpa Hibbitt was born on this day, 1st December, in 1898. Gosh, it's hard to equate that I knew someone who was born in the 19th century! His father was a coastguard serving at Soldier's Point near Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland (there was no North or South in those days) and so this is where Grandpa came into the world.

Cars were just one of his hobbies and here he is proudly standing beside one of the ones he owned, most likely taken during the 1960's.


Charles George Hibbitt beside one of his beloved cars
(Click the image above to see a larger version.)
[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

As the Imperial War Museum Duxford is being featured on the BBC programme, The People Remember, all this week I thought I'd post a video of a de Havilland Tiger Moth which came in to land at Duxford when we were there in the summer.

A similar aircraft was featured on today's show when former 'Spitfire Girl' Joy Lofthouse reminisced about her service delivering fighter planes to the frontline and flew in a Tiger Moth at the age of 92, briefly taking the controls whilst in the air.

According to Harvey's grandad's surviving log book from the 1930's onwards, Cyril Ellen also flew in moths, primarily as a practice aircraft.



This video can also be viewed on my YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/UE0jQaENsW8

[Why Travel Tuesday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

In 1893, Harvey's great-great-grandfather, Samuel Wright, was at the forefront of new technology. After three decades working with machines, he was put in charge of a new steam joinery works in Penzance, Cornwall, owned by Messrs Caldwell.

A newspaper article of the time goes into great detail about the new equipment. There was initially some concern that the labour-saving machinery would lead to unemployment in the trade but the reverse turned out to be the case.

It seems Samuel was head-hunted for the job as the newspaper states… The machinist and joiner, who was had down from Exeter to take charge of this branch, was Mr. Samuel Wright, and Messrs. Caldwell consider "Cappen Sam" is "the right man in the right place."


From The Cornishman newspaper article dated 1893
Site Updates - Barnes Family

• Added details about Samuel Wright and the names of his wife, Sarah Deverill, and children.
• Also added a biography page for Samuel Wright with a full transcript of the newspaper article mentioned above.

[Why Workday Wednesday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

Tavistock Goose Fair 2015
Last week, Harvey, my parents and I went to Tavistock Goose Fair, the annual fair which dates back to the 12th century.

This reminded me of the time when we took my gran to the fair a few months after my grandpa died. We had a nice time until poor gran slipped off the curb and fell down. At the age of 78, it's a wonder she didn't break a bone. She was always very supple and could touch her toes, even when she was quite old.


A few seconds of video showing my gran at Goose Fair in 1994 before the fall.

[Why Matrilineal Monday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

We like to visit Newlyn in Cornwall from time to time, the home of Harvey's forbears as well as the place where he lived as a young child, so last weekend we took a drive down. We brought along a bucket, a scrubbing brush and cleaner together with some shears to the cemetery in Sheffield Road on the outskirts of the nearby village of Paul where a number of Harvey's relatives are buried. The cemetery is always well kept but it's nice to be able to tidy things up just a little bit more.

After we'd tended Harvey's parents grave, we moved over to that of his great-grandparents (Thomas Barnes & Sarah Elizabeth, nee Wright) and his grandad (also Thomas Barnes). The monument had become quite dirty in recent years and a few stumps of grass had decided to poke through the side of the covering stone so it was with great satisfaction that we removed the grass and cleaned up the headstone.


Grave of Thomas Barnes senr., his wife, Sarah nee Wright,
and their son, Thomas Barnes jun. before the clean-up.


Grave of Thomas Barnes senr., his wife, Sarah nee Wright,
and their son, Thomas Barnes jun. after the clean-up.
Amongst the family archive, we have the somewhat dilapidated, stone mason's original invoice which describes the monument in detail. The firm was W. H. Snell who were based in Newlyn. Sarah died in October 1910 but the invoice is dated almost two years later on 27th July 1912. It states…

For making Polished Granite fronted Headstone and Polished fronted Base of fine Grit Cornish Granite with Scotch Granite Green pearl Urn, and Red Suede Pillars all polished, and Lead Inscription Gilded over front of Letters and fine dressed Granite Kerb around Grave Galvanized Iron Tomb Rail 871 Pattern and Slate Covering Stone over Grave Space fixed at the Cemetery Paul as per price agreed. £25 0s 0d. (equivalent to more than £2000 today). Written below this are further costs which have since faded and become illegible.

When Thomas Barnes senr. died in 1939, the cost to remove the monument for burial, to add further lettering and clean and re-erect it with new foundations came to £6 7s. 0d. The invoice was produced by Snell & Son with the slogan… When outstanding Quality is essential discriminating buyers favour "SNELLS". We have no paperwork denoting the costs for when Thomas Barnes jun. was buried in 1975.

Finally, it wasn't until we arrived home and looked at the photographs I'd taken that we realized we'd paid a visit on the anniversary of Harvey's great-grandfather's death - 10th October.


Thomas Barnes senr's. headstone inscription.

[Why Those Places Thursday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

Today is the 43rd anniversary of my Grandpa Hibbitt's passing so I thought I'd post this slide of my grandparents, taken in the 1930's, together with some memories I have of him.


Charlie & Isey Hibbitt.
Grandpa was called Charles but was known as Charlie and my gran was Ivy but became known as Isey (pronounced Icy) when my dad tried to say her name when he was a young child.

Although I was only nine when Grandpa died, it's surprising what comes to mind like when we used to be parked in the car park at Plymstock Broadway in his Hillman Minx, waiting for mum to do the shopping and listening to the police (tut tut) on his radio - he held a listener's licence, but obviously not for listening to police transmissions.

We had lots of happy times on the boat, a cabin cruiser he used to keep on the Kingsbridge Estuary. I used to like combing Grandpa's hair, what little he had of it by the time he was in his 60's! He called his cardigans 'smoking jackets' and I always remember he loved eating Wagon Wheels and a rather large oatmeal biscuit covered in chocolate, the name of which I forget.

Grandpa was buried at Drake Memorial Park on the outskirts of Plymstock and I still visit his grave from time to time. So here's to Grandpa, thanks for the memories.


Grandpa's grave at Drake Memorial Park - photographed 7th October 2015.
Rather poignantly, I caught the sunrays shining on his memorial plaque.

[Why Thankful Thursday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]