I tend to think of my maternal grandfather’s father – Henry Bailey – as from Co. Durham, since that was where he spent most of his life, but he was actually born in Devon, moving North as a young child. The Bailey’s were Kingsteignton and further back from Teigngrace, but 2 generations running married wives from across Dartmoor, so that more of my Devonshire ancestry is from west Devon, especially the western fringes of Dartmoor.

Names

From the Kingsteignton / Ideford area:

Bailey, Gerret, Clement, Bully, Gale

(before West Devon: Narramore, became Northmore)

From West Devon (including the western edge of Dartmoor):

Vogwell (Fogwell), Jury, Justham;
also Vogwell ancestors: Spurrell, Cudlip, Nott, Hook, Reed, Williams, Light, Barter;
Jury ancestors: Dyer, Mattacott, Wyer, Martyn, Kinsman, Glubb, Lavers, Hollock;
Justham ancestors: Oliver, Nute, (Pike?), Northmore (previously Narramore), Collins, Steven, Sweetland, Wilcocks, Diggon, Truscott, Pritchard.

From Dartmoor (other parts):

Hannaford, White

(before West Devon: Vogwell, before Ideford: Narramore)

On my tree

For some of the above I know nothing more than the name of a single ancestor, for some I have a number of generations, loads of siblings and cousins, lots of photos of graves and where they lived… .

And others of course are somewhere in-between.

Where I know little, this may be all I expect I shall ever know, either because they are too far back or the names are too common, or a combination of the two.

Take Mary Pritchard, for example, one of my 8 x great grandmother. Born during the Commonwealth, baptised in 1663 “in the thirteenth yeare of her age”, the baptism entry also records she was “a base child”. Her birth may have been recorded in a register, but not only is the survival of these Commonwealth birth records very patchy but I guess her illegitimate status may have made her mother reluctant to register it.

Much more recently my 4 x great grandfather, John Jury was born. He lived long enough to be recorded on a census, but only the 1841 one, and not knowing his birthplace means it would be hard to pick out him with any degree of certainty from all the other John Jurys. On the other hand, he named his first son Richard, not John – was that his father’s name? – quite likely. And when all the Parish Registers are indexed online perhaps it won’t be too much work to find all born around the right time, and who didn’t stay where they were born, and find just one with a father named Richard and maybe a brother James (another name John gave to a son), baptised not too far from Whitchurch, where John got married.