Category Archives: Site Updates

Announcing the publication of my new family history blog – sourcingancestors.com – related to the discovery of the origins and lineage of the Sambells clan during the past 1000 years. The blog will take you on a journey along pathways and paper trails as I discover the footsteps of my ancestors. Postings in a section called “Ramblings” reveals stories of my travels to churches, castles, manors and farms which were so familiar to my ancestors. Postings in a second section called “Discoveries” follows the paper trail of ancient documents which reveal a continuous lineage of my ancestors since 980 AD.

BOOK NOW AVAILABLE Published Sept. 2016

Sambells Family History is a twenty chapter, two hundred page hardcover bound book printed in landscape format 11″ x 8.5″. The chapters are richly illustrated with a variety of unique maps and charts which have been included to help facilitate the understanding of who’s who, and who’s where in time and place.

Sambells Family History comprises two sections. Part I, with eleven chapters, presents the medieval history of the clan. The introductory chapter highlights my first-hand observations of the English homeland of the Sambells clan in Cornwall. Chapters two and three explain how I was able to determine the French origins of my medieval family and include brief biographies of the five earliest paternal generations from 1000 to 1150 AD. The origins of these earliest clan members discovered in eleventh-century cartularies from northern France are discussed in relation to the political circumstances which lead to their rise in prominence.

Chapters four to six present additional biographical sketches of my expatriate French ancestors who arrived in England with King Henry II. Explanations of when and why the form and spelling of the Sambells surname evolved from St Pol are discussed in the context of the evolution of the English language. Chapters seven and eight describe the type of records and methods used to search for ancestors from 1150 to 1500. Accounts are given of the lives of Oxfordshire ancestors who served in the royal household during the reign of Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III. Chapters nine to eleven highlight my discovery of ancient remnants of the family crest, wax seal, and shield bearing emblem – in the Parish church of South Newington – all of which contribute to defining kinships from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. In total, ten successive generations of medieval ancestors are highlighted from 1000 to 1350. In addition, the first members of the clan to arrive in Cornwall in 1287 have been identified in terms of where they came from, their occupation and where they lived.

Part II consists of nine chapters which trace another ten generations of my paternal ancestors in ascending order from the 1550s to 1850s. Chapters twelve and thirteen present the socio-economic background of life when the clan established firm Cornish roots in the Parish of St Germans in the 1500s. It should be noted that I have not yet been able to establish a complete paternal lineage over the course of 1000 years. There is a missing gap in kinship extending three or four generations from 1350 to 1500. Work on unraveling that mystery is in progress and will be part of the focus of the next volume of Sambells Family History.

Family history without documentation is mythology. It is for this reason that primary evidence used to identify kinship is clearly cited to encourage others to research their own connections to the clan. My assistance in this regard may be sought by contacting me through this website “Contact” option.

More information about the chapter contents and sample pages may be viewed at the “Book Order Form” page of this website.

• NOTE: Jan 17, 2017 The original order of 75 books have all been sold and accounted for. A new small run of 10 copies has been ordered with 5 of these remaining for sale.

WOW! Great news for tracing our Devon ancestors. FindMyPast has just added 3.5 million parish records for Plymouth and West Devon. These are baptism, marriage and burial records from 1538 to 1911. Access is by subscription which I highly recommend. PS Please don’t forget to footnote the exact source of each record you find. This will help to authenticate our data base.

The first transcript of original WWII letters by Rose Sambell has been added to the Family History pages. The new section called Archives will be the repository for transcripts of original documents related to the family history of the various branches of the Sambell/s clan.

Access to the Family Files page called Ancestor Files is now up an running. To view these pages you must first register and log in each time you visit the website. Read what the Family Files are all about. Help us to build the living branches of the Sambell/s family tree by submitting your own file of ancestors. For instructions on how to do this go to Family Files. Good luck. p.s. Once you register as a family member it may take 24 hours to activate your membership and access to the Ancestor Files pages.

Ted Sambell is the most prominent member of our London, Ontario, Canada Sambell family. His father was Francis John Charles Sambell (1899-1983) and his grandfather was Francis Poole Sambell (1873-1957) who immigrated to Canada in 1914.

Ted was born in London, England in 1923, the second child in a family of 10. Because of poor eyesight, he got special schooling, and at age 14, a scholarship to the Northern Polytechnical Institute to train as a Piano Technician. It was believed that if you had poor eyesight, you had very good hearing. In Ted’s case, it was true and the rest is history.

At age 18, in 1941, Ted volunteered for the Civil Defense, and his job was digging out bombing victims and clearing rubble. He did this throughout the war. Finally, in 1949, his family had the resources together to emigrate to Canada. Ted worked for Heintzmans in London, Ontario, and also for the University of Western Ontario, and the Stratford Frestival. In 1977, he set up the course at George Brown College in Toronto. In 1990, he moved to the Banff Centre. In each of these institutions, he set up a shop, taught, mentored, innovated, and led the way in piano technology.

Among his challenges was tuning for Glenn Gould. Glenn liked a keyboard adjusted for a very shallow touch, and it required the keyboard to be right on to avoid off-pitch tones. Adjusting for Bach music also necessitated a different adjustment than for later music. Ted was called to Detroit and New York to do last minute tuning for Glenn Gould. He was offered the job as Glenn’s Toronto technician. In 2007, Ted was the first Canadian to be inducted into the Piano Technicians Guild Hall of Fame, in Kansas City at the 50th Anniversary Convention. If you search for “Ted Sambell”, you will find lots more.

2012 – Ted currently lives in London, Ontario, close to his daughter Jessica Braun and her family. He is still teaching and tuning, and leading an active life.

The new domain Sambells.info is now active. Add a bookmark to your toolbar.

• The menu bar is now operational. However, there is no need to log in at this time since all the pages are presented for public viewing. Privacy settings for the Family Files will not be activated for a few weeks. This will give people time to examine all the site features.
• Content for each page has been added. It is hoped that the sample articles and stories will encourage you to make submissions to the website.
• “Leave a Reply” has been activated so you can leave comments, questions and suggestions on the specific topic pages.