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  • UNICUME - I may be able to help you with your research.

    As the keeper of much 19th Century family documents I may be able to help you with your research into the UNICUME Family Tree. The spelling is important.

  • #2
    Hello Unicume and welcome to FTF.

    With great respect, you may think the spelling is important but unfortunately, those who recorded our ancestors, didn't think the spelling was important at all and with such an unusual name, I wouldn't mind betting it was recorded in a hundred different versions.

    OC

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    • #3
      Unicume family history, genealogy, and family tree. Find the origins, meaning of the Unicume name, photos, and more.


      Edna

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      • #4
        There are only 12 births with that spelling from 1837 to 1915 all in and around the Kent area. There are more with the spelling Unicomb.

        Margaret

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        • #5
          Edna, I honestly don't think the site you linked to is very reliable; it seems to be some sort of automated thing.

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          • #6
            Thank you for your advice, but if you read my whole entry I do advise that there are occasional mis-spellings as names were often written phonetically and so further evidence would be needed to ensure that it is the correct family. For example there were/are people called Unicombe who mainly came from Mayfield in Sussex and a few in Cranbrook but who are not members of our family.

            Some mis-spellings that I have found have been Unecume, Unicome, Unecome but very rarely has the spelling been more obscure. I have not, as yet, come across anyone called Unicume who is not a member of the family.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Unicume View Post
              Thank you for your advice, but if you read my whole entry I do advise that there are occasional mis-spellings as names were often written phonetically and so further evidence would be needed to ensure that it is the correct family. For example there were/are people called Unicombe who mainly came from Mayfield in Sussex and a few in Cranbrook but who are not members of our family.

              Some mis-spellings that I have found have been Unecume, Unicome, Unecome but very rarely has the spelling been more obscure. I have not, as yet, come across anyone called Unicume who is not a member of the family.
              It is possible that you are quite correct in respect of your own particular family - but it would probably be unique. I have a couple of families - at the very least - where the names vary from generation to generation (sometimes radically), and sometimes the same person spells their own name differently from date to date - or even in the same document! As has been observed before, spelling wasn't that important before mechanical/electronic data storage, and it's hard to say that one spelling was more "right" than another at any given time.

              I think that what we are trying to say is that our own experience suggests that you could miss something if you are too rigid in sticking to the one spelling, or declaring that a particular spelling is the only "right" one.

              Christine
              Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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              • #8
                Originally posted by margaretmarch View Post
                There are only 12 births with that spelling from 1837 to 1915 all in and around the Kent area. There are more with the spelling Unicomb.

                Margaret

                Hi Margaret,

                I too have found that it is quite difficult finding Unicumes in official records as there are comparatively so few of them. (I have only found 270 from the earliest being 17thC to present day.) However family documents and the family bible records tens of births during that period. Just three generations of one 'strain' of the family shows that 34 children were born between 1804 to 1878.

                Sadly, to date, I have not found any links between the Unicumes and the Unicombs other than they both lived in Cranbrook, Kent. It was my Grandfather John Unicume Wood (born 1890 at Bull Farm, Cranbrook) who told me that it is family folklore that the spelling had to be Unicume. However I have found several Unycomes in the Cranbrook area dating from the early 17thC but again I have been unable to make any connections to our family.

                Up until the middle of the 19thC all Unicumes lived in the Cranbrook / Hawkhurst / Sandhurst area of Kent. Then many emigrated to the USA, Canada and Australia probably due to the downturn in agricultural industry. Two or three moved up to London, one as the landlord of a pub, another was a builder / bricklayer. Another bought a farm just outside Maidstone and there is still a lane nearby called Unicume Lane. Several of the 'Unicume Girls', siblings of my G-Grandmother, went into service after the family sold two of its farms, (possibly due to death duties,) and some others went into the military. (The only Unicumes left today are the ones in the USA, Canada and Australia.)

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                • #9
                  Honeycombe was my very first thought. How is the name pronounced - Ooonie cume or Yoonee cume?

                  Like Christine, I too have many families where the spelling (of a very ordinary) name varies from generation to generation, including on land documents - which you would think were important - and on marriage settlements - even more important. The very fact that you have only found one family called UNICUME suggests to me that the name was spelled differently before that.

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Sadly this website is a phoney. I have just entered a madeup name "Bumster" and it instantly produced exactly the same bumph as it had for Unicume:
                    Bumster Family History and Origins

                    The Bumster family name is an old heredity that has migrated all across the world over time, and as the name Bumster has migrated, it has evolved making it's history challenging to piece together. This page is a hub for the complete history of the Bumster last name, Bumster origins, and history of Bumster ancestors. Bumster family history has a complex evolution whose details are beginning to be understood by Bumster family researchers.

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                    • #11
                      That site does the same for whatever you put in. I avoid it like the plague

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                      • #12
                        Yes, I used the site recently for an unusual name and after reading through what seemed like pages of stuff, realised that it said a lot and told me nothing!

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          I can only repeat what others have said about spellings of names. I would be very suprised if the name you have has not been mispelled or changed in some way somewhere along the line. I am researching the name O'Neill and have found the following spellings all within the same family. O'Neill/O'Neil/Neil/Neill/Neale/Neal/Neille/Neile. Similarly I have other names like Hight/Height/Hoyte/Hait with many variations on Hait, all the same family back to the 1600's and Tebbutt/Tebbatt/Tebut/Tabbut and so many more. In fact it was a "misspelling" of Tebbutt which knocked down one of my brick walls to take the ancestry back to the 1400's.

                          I presume you have found this family back to 1841 with the same spelling? Have you checked all wills of all members of the family and been to the county record offices? Is there a One Name research for thsi name through GOONs? It was Goons that helped me with my Tebbuts.

                          Janet
                          Last edited by Janet; 15-07-12, 18:41.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                            Honeycombe was my very first thought. How is the name pronounced - Ooonie cume or Yoonee cume?

                            Like Christine, I too have many families where the spelling (of a very ordinary) name varies from generation to generation, including on land documents - which you would think were important - and on marriage settlements - even more important. The very fact that you have only found one family called UNICUME suggests to me that the name was spelled differently before that.

                            OC
                            I couldn't agree more, its just that I cannot take any name without further evidence of a connection.

                            My own thoughts are that because the name is so 'unique' and that it was originally only found in and around Cranbrook, Kent that the family possibly came en masse from Europe such as the Lutherans and Huguenots and maybe gave themselves a new name on arrival. I can find no mention of the name in any other country in Europe save a drink made in Hungary called Unicum, the manufacturers of which say the meaning of the name is 'Unique' and they are not aware of anyone being called Unicum in the past.

                            I also suspect that the family were always quite well to do and educated. There is even reference in St Dunstan's Church Marriage Register in 1754 that both Bride and Groom unusually signed with their own names. Certainly the Groom (Richard Unicume) was only a Turner but at his death left £1,000 to his wife. His son (Richard) became a Surveyor of Note.

                            As I have said in a previous post, I have found a family in the 17thC called Unycome in the Cranbrook area and that spelling is not around in the 18thC. They may be part of our family but until I get evidence of a connection I cannot add them to my tree. The same goes for other spellings such as Unicum, Onicum, Unecum, Unicombe, Unicomb, etc. (I have already spent many hours/days checking all the Unicombes / Unicombs etc in the area but as yet can find no connections.)

                            Unicume is pronounced ju:nikum.
                            The only meaning that I can find in several languages is 'Unique'. One person did suggest that that the name may have something to do with Honey as in Onycume, but again I have not found any further evidence. I am always open to any suggestions as it all goes into my research notes, but until proved cannot be included in the official history of the family. And I know that much will never be proved.

                            Thank you for your interest.

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                            • #15
                              it's your tree (as opposed to a one-name study) and you are entitled to put whoever you wish in it, or to exclude whoever you wish.

                              As a matter of curiosity, however, what do you do about census records if the entry on the image is a spelling which deviates from Unicume?

                              Jay
                              Janet in Yorkshire



                              Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                              • #16
                                Surprisingly I have managed to go back to 1689 with the same spelling.

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                                • #17
                                  I am sure that like most other family tree compilers we all spend a huge amount of time cross-checking new evidence to make sure that it is correct.

                                  With any mis-spellings in a census I mainly go by the christian names of the family and where they live. Fortunately most of the family occupied Woods Hall Farm, Bull Farm and Silverdine House (all neighbouring properties) for the majority of the 19thC. Also if in one census the spelling is incorrect it is quite often corrected in the next census.

                                  I am very lucky with my research as the Unicumes were mainly based in Cranbrook, Kent and were a wealthy and much respected family, so there is much evidence for cross-checking in local newspapers, company records, social documents etc.

                                  Cheers,
                                  Alistair

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                                  • #18
                                    And coming forward and going sidewards, have you been able to find a complete events record for each individual, so dotting each i and crossing each t?

                                    Sadly, I haven't, not for each dynasty I'm researching at any rate, even though I do accept some graphic variations like Abel/Abell/Abil/Abill.

                                    Jay
                                    Janet in Yorkshire



                                    Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                                    • #19
                                      The point being, if you have found misspellings on census, for instance, then your potential contacts may have found them too under the "wrong" spelling and by stating that the spelling is important, you may be putting off a potentially useful contact.

                                      OC

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                                      • #20
                                        Oh Yes I could have lost a very valuable American contact, if I had accepted just the main spelling of one of my names. As it was that contact opened up a whole new vista with me having one side of the story and the Americans having the other side and put together made a perfect fit.

                                        Janet

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