Whitcomb - North Family History

Photocopies of old letters that were possessed by Frances Whitcomb Daniels [Spaulding] in Long Beach, California, at least until the 1970’s. David Burrows Whitcomb was her nephew, and his son (Jonathan David Whitcomb) got photocopies of the letters, owned by Frances, around 1972. At least some of them were written by an “Uncle Willard,” who did research as early as the beginning of the 20th century. This is not the Uncle Willard who is a brother to David B. Whitcomb, but apparently is an earlier-generation relative, possibly the uncle of David B. W.; nevertheless, at least one other Willard appears to have lived before the middle of the 20th century. (In other words, there are at least four persons in the family with the name Willard.) These typewriter copies of the pages of letters are not necessarily the original format. Perhaps it was Aunt Frances herself who typed out these copies from hand-written original letters. It’s possible that not all of these pages came from the letters of “Uncle Willard.” At least one or two of them may have been later additions to his letters, kept together because they were all on family history and they were all typed out on the same typewriter.

Henry Pennistone (Horseley Gate) [actually Horsleygate]                         |                         | Robert Pennistone married Emily Bland                              |                              | William North married Elizabeth Pennistone                           |                           | Thomas North, Senior mrd Ellen Hopkinson [1st]                                     mrd Jane Biggin 2nd . . . Children by 1st wife   1. William North . . .   2. Thomas North Jr. married Sarah Jane Brailsford   3. Jane married John Bussey [1st]                            Ben Bussey 2nd                 ************************** Thomas William North married Josie Ellen Wales 8/11/1882 . . . . . . Sarah Ann North married James Wileman [Sep 28, 1878] . . . . . .

Thomas North was born in Derbyshire in 1828 Concerning Derbyshire, England It seems that “Many of the narrow lanes and roads around Holmesfield (Derbyshire) are referred to as gates as in . . . Horsleygate . . . This name is taken from the Scandinavian 'gata' meaning way . . .”

Another spelling of the family name is “Pennystone”