Handskum and Hart families in Hollywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire.
Hoo knows what the correct spelling of Handskum is?
In Hollingwell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire, England on the 31st of January 1721 my 6th great grandparents, Thomas Hart and Mary Handskum were married.
They named their son Handskum but in the church records it was spelt Hanscomb.
Handskum/Hanscomb Hart didn't appear to name a son Hanscomb (not according to the records anyway) but his son Peter Hart had a son whom he named Hanscom.
This Hanscom Hart married Hannah (Dunchely or Dunklin) in Huntingdonshire on the 14th of July 1817. They also used the family name for a son born in 1830 but somehow/somewhere the H was dropped - perhaps the Vicar needed a Hearing aid - and Hanscom became Anscum. Poor little Anscum died that same year.
His elder brother Peter Hart was my great great grandfather. I think Peter swam to Australia.
He married Agnes Mason at Talbot, Victoria in 1870.
Peter and Agnes also named a son Hanscom Hart. This Hanscom was born in Echuca, Victoria in 1887.
My Mum once told me that she remembers her grandmother, Margaret (nee Hart) always dropped the H from Hanscom when talking about her brother so it came out as Anscom.
If it wasn't for all the use of this unusual name back through the generations I would probably never have been able to trace my Harts and Handskums/Hanscombs/Hanscoms/Anscoms back so far.
This post is part of Gould's Family History through the Alphabet Challenge
