Why Gavelkinder?
Gavelkind (/ˈɡævəlkaɪnd/) was a system of land tenure associated chiefly with the county of Kent. Its inheritance pattern is a system of partible inheritance, which bears resemblance to Salic patrimony: as such, it might testify in favour of a wider, probably ancient Germanic tradition. Under this law, the land was divided equally among sons or other heirs. The word Gavelkind is thought to have originated from old Irish phrases 'Gabhaltas-cinne' or Gavail-kinne, which means family settlement.
Gavelkind, an example of customary law in England, was thought to have existed before the Norman Conquest, but generally was superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture. Its survival (until as late as 1925) in Kent, is regarded as a concession by William the Conqueror to its people. For more information, click here. Nearly all of the families herein can trace their heritage to East Kent, more specifically to the Dover/Folkestone area. I have found references to gavelkind within my own ancestry.
Gavelkinder: a tenant by gavelkind
I thought I may have invented the word, but not so. I found the below in 'The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I' published in 1896:
The widow of the sokeman* or the Kentish gavelkinder is more liberally endowed than is the countess or the baron's lady, but her 'free bench' shows its ancient .. '
*A sokeman belonged to a class of tenants, found chiefly in the eastern counties, especially the Danelaw, occupying an intermediate position between the free tenants and the bond tenants, in that they owned and paid taxes on their land themselves. Forming between 30% and 50% of the countryside, they could buy and sell their land, but owed service to their lord's soke, court, or jurisdiction,
I have applied the definitions to genealogy, with one important difference - gender equality! Gavelkind applied chiefly to the male line, it is my understanding, rightly or wrongly, that genes are divided equally - although differently, amongst male and female descendants.
How it Started...
I entered my father's name into the search field of a well-known website (after watching WDYTYR), and hit the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' Button'. I was rewarded with a single response, which I knew to be correct as also displayed were the names of my paternal grandparents - names with which I was familiar. Interestingly, the 'domain' name also indicated that the website was perhaps in some way genealogy-related - as it contained the word 'tree'.
Suitably intrigued I continued ...
The screen displayed a page showing the names as advertised on the search screen, plus those of my three older brothers and some fairly basic information (year, place of birth etc). Just I and three other siblings missing. I quickly deduced the reason for the omission - my three oldest brothers where all born in the same place (Dover - my mother's hometown), before 1939 - Hitler was the cause!
Further investigation revealed in excess of seventy persons with my surname, with the exception of those already mentioned I recognised only one name - and then only vaguely from the mid-1950s.
With a little reverse-engineering I was able to identify my paternal 4th grandfather William and his wife Ann Finnis, Finnis, being the subject name of the website. Perhaps I should mention that the names were not in chart format but consisted of a page for each descendant of a John Fineux - my seventh paternal grandfather. It appeared that Ann's father, Henry, married a Mary Court (b. 1708, Acrise, Kent), on 25 Jul 1726 in Canterbury.
The name 'Court' struck a cord - I remembered that it was the name of a furniture store in Dover when I was at school - could they be related? The answer turned out to be no (but the Court's furniture story is an interesting one). Undaunted, I again used the search facility - without invoking 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, and scrolled through the results (some of which I was to return to) and found a link to a Portable Document Format (PDF). Even without the use of the button, it proved to be my lucky day.
When my grandson Jake asked the question 'Aren't we all related' as I was attempting to explain what I was doing using a well-known site. I carried out a reappraisal of what I was doing by investigating what I now refer to as the 'ancestry industry'. You can read some of the facts and figures here. As a result of my investigation, which included the merits of DNA testing, I abandoned what I call the 'big-chart' approach common to many well-known sites in the industry. Instead, I adopted the story-based format of this site.
You may like to to know how I come by my stories - and would it not be possible to identify sources of information, by for example via footnotes and the like. The answer to the latter is easy. I spent several years as what is known as a 'Technical Author' in the defence industry, where ABC, meant 'Accuracy, Clarity and Brevity. Where 'facts' were exactly that - there is no room for 'artistic licence'. It is liberating to be free of rules and regulations. I am reluctant, therefore, to clutter my writing with footnotes, cross-references etc.
Where I think it beneficial, I provide 'hypertext' links to websites/documents etc., which may be of interest. Additionally, some stories are to a PDF containing genealogical information cross-referenced to its sources.
As to the source of my 'stories', the answer is more complicated. While not be blessed with good-looks (feel free to disagree!), I am fortunate in having an enquiring mind. I discover a story after coming across an unusual name, or as sometimes occurs, one story leads to another. You may be familiar with the following, the opening words of 'Desiderata' by Max Ehrmann, which appeared on many a tea-towel in the 1970s:
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
For example, a name in a census will often provide a date, place and occupation - that's a star! I discovered one ancestor, who spent the night of the census in the same hotel as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - that's a mystery! Perhaps a parish record may be the source. Why, for example, would a couple from Dover (Kent) travel to Lincolnshire, in the 1870s, to be married by a vicar born in Croatia? They too, have their story - their granddaughter married a 'Sir' with royal connections, becoming famous in her own right.