A VISITOR from the United States researching his family tree has gone home with three ring-binders full of information after a trip to Okehampton's Museum of Dartmoor Life.
A descendant of the well-known Newcombe family of Okehampton, Jim Futer was full of praise for the museum which he described as free from glitz and very down to earth.
'The museum was fantastic,' he said. 'There was no pressure and no glitz which is what you find very often now.
'In some places if you talk you are told to get out and it is very unnatural.'
Mr Futer, who lives in Houston, Texas, started researching his family tree last year after his mother died.
'My son asked where the family came from and that triggered it off really,' he said. 'At that time I did not know who my great-grandfather was, well now I know who my great-great-great-grandfather was.'
Mr Futer's mother was a Newcombe and he grew up in Chillaton but has spent the last 33 years of his life in Canada and America.
Although returning to Britain frequently on business this is the first occasion Mr Futer has spent any real time in Okehampton because he was unaware of his family links.
'I never knew the extent of how much the family was part of Okehampton,' he said.
Mr Futer has traced the Newcombes back to 1416 in Okehampton and found that among his descendants was John Newcombe, a vicar at Okehampton Church and J J Newcombe, who was town clerk for 50 years. Several Newcombes were mayors of Okehampton and the family was responsible for building Kent House, now a nursing home and the old cinema, where Nero's nightclub now stands.
'We found out a bit before coming to Okehampton but we have discovered so much more coming here — there is an awful lot about the family in the archives,' he added.
Mr Futer plans to return to Okehampton soon and hopes that some sort of ceremony can be organised to mark the opening of 'Newcombe Close' a new housing estate in Okehampton.