And so to Okehampton - Harris and Sprague families

So now we're under Dartmoor, in Okehampton. Jane Harris' father's family were rooted in the district for several  - perhaps many centuries. I wanted to mark the route of that family prior to her grandfather William Harris' leaving his home-town and settling over in East Devon.

Following a recent visit to the town I decided to write an underlayer of 'description' conjuring the moorland, which here appears half visible beneath a poem I wrote after finding the graves of Jane's ggrandparents (and my generation's great great grandparents) Richard Harris and Jane Sprague (who probably spent their lives in Okehampton), in the graveyard of the church high above the town.

Path leading up to Okehampton Church

Richard Harris and Jane Sprague -
gravestone
at Okehampton Church
Photo Julie Sampson

A slightly different version of  'As We Climbed the Slope' was published by Helen Ivory online, in Ink Sweat and Tears

Best Blog Post to read before this is Land of the Luggs

Going Forward You Must First Go Back

So the following is a very early draft of a now completed poem based on William Harris, who held an important role at the Bicton estate in the C19. I wanted to focus the poem around reflections on the nature of time, his own granddaughter (my grandmother Jane) and the monkey-puzzle (aurucaria) avenue) that was planted at Bicton during his life time. William's name and his wife's, Elizabeth Brewer, appear above the scroll of the poem about William Harris.

The Aurucaria (monkey puzzle) avenue is still at Bicton and we also had a monkey puzzle at our home, which I imagine Grandmother planted. Lost Trees, a poem I wrote about that tree many years ago appears below. It was published in the lovely, but now non existent Devon based poetry magazine Otter.

copyright Julie Sampson

Finding Sites the Older Ways (1) - Land of the Luggs

My family wheel begins in east Devon, in what I call the 'land of the Luggs'.

It was only a handful of years ago I found that the maternal branch of grandmother Jane  (father's mother) side of the family, the Luggs, were rooted in and around the Budleigh Salterton district, at Colaton, Harpford, Otterford and other nearby parishes. Jane's immediate ancestral names will appear on the next blog post.The piece below is a layered superimpostion of pieces inspired by the area near the estuary of the river Otter, which weaves into and through the Lugg family's homelands. I wanted to try and capture the essence of the landscape.

There are also fragments from drafts of poems I've written about people on that tree, with the names of Jane's parents, Elizabeth (Lydia) Lugg and Richard Harris (who I think must have met in the area of East Budleigh, or perhaps Bicton, where Richard's father William was for some years Farm Bailiff) standing out (see a draft of another poem about William on this post).
 
Why can't you read all  of the piece? Well, this representation is for me the best way of illustrating how I see genealogy. There are multiple complicated levels of a life-journey for each individual on a family tree and each of these is complexly interwoven with the equally intricate life-trails of the others on the tree. How ever much we find is only partial; much will remain lost or invisible and as a writer this kind of document reflects the frustration and intrigue of the process of research and documenting the family-tree.

Copyright Julie Sampson