The Woollcombe Family Archive is a private initiative of David R Woollcombe, funded in part by the legacy of Donetta Lorna Fiamma Woollcombe. It aims to embed in perpetuity, in digital format, the immense amount of research and records gathered by previous Woollcombe ancestors on the history and accomplishments of the many generations of our family. It also intends to promote the collection, preservation, display and dissemination of archival material and artefacts to other interested family members.
How did it start?
David Woollcombe started work on it in the summer of 2018. In March 2019, he met Nick Woollcombe – who had made a family tree of the Ashbury Woollcombes. The Archive launched in December 2019 with about 1000 entries – most from the Ashbury Woollcombe side of the family, drawn from Nicholas and Stephen Woollcombe’s excellent research work.
Will it ever be finished?
No! As long as new family members are born, the Woollcombe Family Archive will grow and be enriched. Our aim is to be consolidate and flesh out all public and private records of the Woollcombe family over the next five years, ie. by 2025. We shall gather photographs, diaries and memorabilia about different family members from as many sources as possible – public and private. In 2025, I shall hope to hand over the keeping of the site to A N Other family member with most of the available information about the family digitised and available to all registered family members.
Hopefully, with your input and ideas, it will have developed in ways that I currently can’t even imagine. If you are a Woollcombe – or related by marriage to a Woollcombe – join the party: send me your ideas and I will do my best to implement them!
The Woollcombe family began in Devon, but it has spread to include literally hundreds of other families around the world. This archive is a mechanism by which we can link these far-flung families together and learn the unique qualities – and defects – that have shaped our family over the centuries. For, in the final analysis family is all you’ve got! When times are good it is with family that we want to celebrate. In the daily round it is to family that we return in the evening. If times are bad, it is the support of family that we crave. At the end it is family we want at our bedside. Virtually all that we are, and all that we do stems from our ancestors and that is why we instinctively turn to family. We are made that way.
Viewing the many histories of our family compiled with such care and diligence by our ancestors, as I have been privileged to do these last few months, have convinced me of the crucial importance of conservation: the documents are, themselves, fragile – prone to dirty fingerprints, spilled coffee or wine – and at risk of fire or mislaying. We are all indebted to those family members who have guarded and cared for these precious family treasures over so many years – but now, the internet offers our generation the chance to immortalise them forever for our descendants. This is the opportunity that this website seeks to exploit: not that any less care should be taken of those precious artefacts in the future: but, from now on, facsimiles of them will be available to all family members on this website, and the many back-ups of it that we have made.
No. We all use the history of yesterday to make sense of our family today. Hopefully, by being honest about our history – and relating the personal stories of some family members, we shall learn about the mistakes and misfortunes brought about by family frailties. To adapt the famous saying: “Those who forget family history are condemned to repeat it…” Let us learn from our ancestors – and those living family members who are happy to share their personal stories. We can all learn from them.
The Cobbold Family History Trust – which inspired this Archive, and whose software we have shamelessly plagiarised, is run by a family member who does little else – and who spends literally thousands of pounds every year in keeping the Trust alive and growing. He has about 9,000 entries – and researchers working around the world to help him. I have no such elaborate plans. I have many other things going on in my life, so have neither the time or the money to devote.
The site will cost – at most – a few hundred pounds a year to maintain which I am happy to provide. I shall, as explained on the Donations page, set up a Bank Account so, if other family members are interested in hiring researchers or archivists, they can pay for those services through this dedicated account. As long as each one reads and observes our privacy policies, they can contribute whatever they like to the site. (I shall ensure a strict observance of those privacy policies and all offensive, proselytising material, or material that contravenes them in any way, will be edited out by me!)
With that sole provision, it is my hope that the site generates a genuine feeling of shared ownership: as noted – any and all family members can apply for an access code that allows you to mount Family News in your own words and at your own time; and I fully intend to hand over the keeper-ship of the site in 2025 – if I am lucky enough to survive that long! So – the question of how the site is managed and funded remains an open one: any thoughts / advice / guidance on this matter would be gratefully received.
Family members. The Family History site which inspired this Archive is not password-protected: it was created 11 years ago and is open to anyone. In preparing this site in 2019, with GDPR legislation hanging over us and many recent horror stories about data theft, several family members felt that we should be password-protected. So the Woollcombe Family Archive is. No system can be entirely fool-proof: it is no doubt possible to hack into this site – and people may pose as family members to gain access. However, we shall never take postal addresses or phone numbers for any family member. If any one seeks an introduction, I shall pass the request on to the family member concerned and allow them to decide whether they want to follow up.
The Keeper intends to acknowledge and thank all those family members – living and dead – who have created, conserved and contributed family histories, photographs, memorabilia and other materials to the Archive. Although many have helped already, some living family members may choose to do so anonymously, so I will only mention their names if they have given me permission to do so.
By next Christmas, I shall have compiled and, I hope, digitised a directory of all the major archive materials including the famous scrolls created by Carol Woollcombe and Charles Louis Woollcombe. There are also illuminated family trees at Hemerdon, carefully conserved and cared for by Kate Woollcombe and her sisters. Hopefully, these will be scanned and uploaded on this site by Christmas 2020.
But the greatest tributes are reserved for those Woollcombes currently unknown to us – far-flung family members who do not show up on the Burke’s lists, but who can trace their Woollcombe ancestry back to one of these two great houses: Hemerdon and Ashbury. I beg you to get in touch if you are reading this. As my son told me when I started this journey: “I’m not very interested in who begat whom hundreds of years ago: I am fascinated to learn what other Woollcombes there are in the world right now – and what they are all doing?!”
I look forward to hearing from you!
The Woollcombe Family Archive
C/o David Woollcombe, Keeper,
The Stables, 57 Wyddial Road
BUNTINGFORD
Herts, SG9 9AX, United Kingdom
Keeper: David Woollcombe
Phone: 01763 271 459 / 07798 665 202
E-Mail: david@peacechild.org
All enquiries about the site must go through the Keeper, unless personally authorised by another party;