The CFA English research team, Cary Moore, Pat Schnurr and Sherrill Williams, gathered at the Atlanta airport on the evening of August 31 for a 10:00 p.m. flight to London's Gatwick Airport. After a somewhat "rough" flight, due to weather conditions over the eastern U.S., we landed at Gatwick Airport about 11:30 a.m. (UK time) on Saturday, September 1. Bernard Welchman, our English certified genealogist, chauffeur, and now great friend, was at the airport to meet us. He loaded our bulky luggage into his auto and drove us the several hour trip to our hotel at Wellington, Somerset, with a brief stop along the way for lunch.

Cary and I had stayed at this same small hotel last year, The Cleeve Country House Hotel, and became well acquainted with the owner, his wife and the staff.  We had also discovered that the hotel property adjoins the village of Rowell Green (known in earlier times as Rewe Green, Row Green and Rogue Green).  Richard Calway, who wrote his will and died in 1582, owned property in this village.  In his will, Richard mentioned two sons, Peter and William.

On Sunday, September 2, Bernard took his "jet-lagged" crew on a tour, back to East Quontockshead (Quontoxhead) so that Pat could see the place where several Joseph Callaways we have been tracking resided, and to the Church of Our Lady St. Mary at Stogumber, Somerset. A Robert Calway, possibly from Wellington, once lived in this village. This was once a much larger village, being the center for the weaving and brewing industries, and is situated on the old route to the ancient port of Watchet. We ended our day with a tour of Dunster Castle nearby.  Both the Court House Manor at East Quontoxhead, and Dunster Castle had belonged to the Luttrell family for over 700 years.

The first week we worked in the records offices at Dorchester, Dorset county and at Exeter, Devon county, as well as in the wonderful collections of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society, located in the Southwestern Studies Library in the records office building at Exeter.

On the next weekend days, Bernard took us to visit some sites with Callaway/Kellaway  connections.  We returned to St. Winifred's church at Branscombe parish on the Devon coast, so that Pat could see the memorial to Joan Tregarthan Kayleway Wadham.  This memorial depicts Joan and her two husbands, John Kayleway (d. 1531) of Cullompton, Devon, and John Wadham, and her numerous children. We got much better pictures of the coats-of- arms on the memorial this visit. We also stopped by the beautiful church of St. Andrew at Cullompton, Devon, where John Kayleway (husband of Joan Tregarthan) had worshipped.

On this weekend we searched for and found the church at Godney, Somerset where, we had read in a publication, fragments of stained glass windows depicting the Kellaway coat-of-arms (the "glazier's nippers & pears") could supposedly be found. It had been suggested that these fragments of tinted, glass windows had come from the old Sherborne manor house at Sherborne, Dorset where the Kaylewaye family had lived for a number of generations. The church, a very plain building, located on Godney farm, was actually a "chapel" of Meare parish. On the end of the building were two windows, made up of many panels of plain glass. Inserted were several panels of small, repaired glass, much faded but one clearly showing the "glazier's nippers and pears." So far, we have found no explanation as to why these windows are now preserved at this particular chapel at Godney.

We moved on to investigate the church of St. Matthew at Wookey, Somerset where a John Kelway was rector from 1572 until his death in 1592. His name is on a plaque showing all the rectors of this church from the beginning until the present.

The church in Barton St. David parish in Somerset held a surprise for us. We knew that persons of our surname had resided in this parish. While investigating the interior of the church, and reading the booklet provided, we discovered that William Kelwaie had donated the altar table in 1613, and that information was carved on the end of the table. Bernard made an excellent picture of the inscription. We previously had secured a copy of the will of this William Kelwaie.

On Monday, Sept. 9 we worked in the record office at Bristol, Somerset. The remainder of the week was spent in "intense" study in our favorite research facility, the Somerset Record Office at Taunton. There is so much information stored there, but it takes a lot of digging to find it. We were joined at the SRO by "Bulletin Bill" - Bill Callaway, our CFANET Bulletin editor, from B.C., Canada, who worked on his Callaway family project.

We were at work in the SRO on Sept. 11 when the news came about the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington. One of the archivists, sitting at his work station, and monitoring Sky News on his computer, first saw this bulletin. He immediately came out to tell us about it, and later printed off a copy of the bulletin for us. For days people who research regularly at the SRO, and know that we are from the U.S., and other people, strangers, who would overhear our chatter in "American" English, would come up to us and express their horror and sorrow at this terrible event. We were touched when, at an appointed hour, there was a three-minute moment of silence for the victims of the attacks. We happened to be at the SRO, but this three-minute moment of silence occurred all over England. It was reported that traffic came to a stand-still on all the highways all over the country. We were disturbed by this tragic event, but were pleased to be safe in the land of our ancestors and among friends. From then on, our evenings were spent watching the BBC news channel, and later Sky News, just to keep abreast of the unfolding events.

The first of our "international gatherings" also came during our last week in Somerset. Dick Kingswell and his wife, Maureen (familiarly known as "Mo") came down from their home near Watchet; Bulletin Bill rode a bus from Taunton, and we all gathered in our hotel lobby at Wellington for several hours of "Callaway chat." We regretted that Ken Calloway of Taunton could not be with us, but he was away on a pre-arranged holiday to France with his brother. Cary and I had met with Ken last year when he shared with us his meticulously organized Callaway family records. Bulletin Bill, whose family connects with that of Ken Calloway, stayed over in Taunton for the weekend, just to meet with Ken upon his return from holiday. It was a pleasure to meet Dick and Mo and to finally put faces to the names on our email.

On our last Saturday in Somerset county, Bernard took us on our final tour. We visited Montacute House, now owned by the National Trust, but formerly the home of the Phelips family, near Yeovil, Somerset. There is a remote Callaway/Kellaway connection to this house, as Edith Phelips of Montacute married, as her second husband, Sir John Horsey of Clifton Maybank. Clifton Maybank is also near Yeovil, Somerset, but is in Dorset county. An Elenor Kelway married into this Horsey family, and C/K's had been associated with Clifton Maybank for several generations, particularly since 1525 when a Peter Kayleway was assessed for taxes on his wages in this parish. Later a Martin Kelloway/Callaway resided there. It was probably his son, Joseph Kelloway, who was hanged at Somerton, Somerset after the failure of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1685.

Sir John Horsey, who married Edith Phelips, was the builder of the mansion at Clifton Maybank, and he and Edith resided there. An entrance to that mansion had intricate stone carving around the doorway, celebrating the marriage of Sir John and Edith. When the Clifton Maybank mansion was demolished near the end of the 18th century, the entrance was saved and brought to Montacute, being added to the exterior of the west entrance to the mansion. This is an impressive and beautiful mansion with lovely grounds and gardens.

Finally, we visited the parish church of Hinton St. George, Somerset. This parish was home to the Poulett/Paulett family. The Poulett vault, within this fine church, contains many Poulett memorials and tombs, including those of Sir Amias Paulett and his second wife, Lora, daughter of Sir William Kellway, knight (1440-1507) of Rockborne, Hampshire.