Death of Gordon Honeycombe

[hdw]

Yesterday's "Scotsman" carried an obituary of Gordon Honeycombe which didn't mention his interest in genealogy, so I've sent them this -

Alasdair Steven's obituary of Gordon Honeycombe omitted to mention his part in popularising the hobby of genealogy (family-history). As early as 1960 he was researching his Honeycombe ancestors in Cornwall, visiting churches and county record-offices and consulting dusty accession rolls and court rolls in those pre-internet days. He eventually came to the conclusion that all the Honeycombes in the world were descended from a yeoman farmer called Matthew Honeycombe, born around 1658 at St. Cleer in Cornwall, and a gathering of Honeycombes which he organised at Honicombe Manor in Cornwall in 1984 attracted 159 Honeycombes from all over the world. His BBC TV series "Family History" was shown in 1984, anticipating "Who Do You Think You Are" by several decades.

The "Guardian" obituary was better and did mention the genealogy.

Harry

[landej]

The Daily Telegraph obit mentioned the origin of the Honeycombes and the gathering but not the TV programme. I suspect it was probably made at his instigation. With some of the research already done he would have approached a contact in TV and suggested making a documentary series. He was high profile as a newsreader so some people may have watched who had no interest in genealogy.