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The southern South Hams
The southern South Hams (as defined in this study) stretches from the River Erne to the River Dart along the south coast of Devon, England. It includes the parishes shown on the right, which may be divided into three regions: Central, West and East.
Three of the reconstructed M*CH*MORE trees (Trees 02, 05 and 09) originated in the Central region of the southern South Hams. These family trees had their origins in the parishes of Charleton, East Allington (where there was an earlier concentration of M*CH*MOREs that has since died out) and Stokenham. These trees are no doubt linked, but it has not yet been possible to establish these links due to the frequent use of the same forename (especially John) and the absence of data that would differentiate persons with the same forename.
Two further southern South Hams family trees (Trees 11 and 13) have been reconstructed: one in the West, originating in the parish of Thurlestone, and one in the East, originating in Blackawton (where there was also an early concentration of M*CH*MOREs). It seems likely that the progenitors of these trees also originally came from the Central region.
The early southern South Hams M*CH*MOREs were not educated, almost always making their mark instead of signing their name in marriage registers. When occupations began to be recorded at the beginning of the 19th century, it turned out that most of them were agricultural labourers. As such, many of them were victims of the harsh Poor Law system.
Another sign of their lack of education is the fact that the surname was recorded in a large number of spellings in the southern South Hams. Apart from MITCHELMORE and MICHELMORE, the most common were MUCHAMORE, MUCHMORE, MOUCHEMORE and MAUCHIMER. Today, most of their descendants use the spelling MITCHELMORE.
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