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.
