Part of my travel in 2014 was about my family history. My fathers’ family came from Chudleigh, a village in Devon. And yes for the Harry Potter people I have heard of the Chudleigh Cannons. What I hadn’t realised until I discovered the Chudleigh connection was the extent to which Devon place names, including Chudleigh, had been replicated in my home State of Tasmania.
However train to Exeter and a taxi to Chudleigh saw me standing in the ancestral space. I wandered down the two streets in which my 2x Great Grandparents had lived, unable to identify each house because numbers weren’t given in the census, the sense of place was eerie. Trawled the local high street and found shops, art centres and some interesting Cafe’s. Visited the post office where they were not aware of any remaining locals with the ancestral surnames, and trawled through all available churchyards.
The local library was rewarding for background in events in Chudleigh around the 1850″s which was the time of their departure for Australia. It seems that Chudleigh, like many such villages was bypassed by trains an suffered from poor weather patterns at the time, The wool industry was depleted and my family were wool combers. Further research shows that, unlike most of my other ancestors they had arrived as indentured servants, he was a painter and she a needle woman. No ancestors were buried in the local graveyard. Later research shows that the family were religious Non conformists, now there’s a surprise, and had a tendency to marry Catholics. Again not a usual thing at the time.
Not really sure what I expected to feel but I came away with at least some sense of what the ancestors were like and also with contacts at the Library. I’ve promised to send them the family tree when it’s finished. Curiously my father, who always said he had no family, has ancestors going back to 1400’s. Next year I hope to pursue my mothers’ ancestral ties in Ireland and Samoa.