Andover Parish Registers - 3

Continued today on the Andover Parish Registers and I have now reached the milestone of 1600 with 636 baptisms recorded. This includes a number of Blake entries and one in particular I had wondered about is identified as of Pewsie (Penton Mewsey) and that explains that particular John Blake line at Andover. I also searched the Hampshire Record Office database and pulled out wills for Robert Blake at Knights Enham and for his four sons. This has become much more interesting to me now that I know the wife of Richard Blake was Joan (Jone) Blake daughter of Robert Blake. This new will to me for the mother of Nicholas indicates that Robert and Nicholas are brothers with one sister Elizabeth (Nicholas is the furtherest back ancestor that my family lore identifies). I would like a few more proofs between my Thomas (b 1685) and his father John (b 1649) and his father William (b 1615) than just the parish registers. The remainder both back to Nicholas and forward to my time is proved already by wills, parish registers and BMDs or other information.

I need to rethink the so called Nicholas Blake and Robert Blake lines at Andover as they are much more intertwined than I originally thought. It would appear that Richard married his second cousin. The name Gilberd (Gilbert) appears in this will as well and that is one of the names that is kinsman to John Blake at Abbotts Ann. The Blake family is becoming very interesting again now that I am backing away from all the published material from the 1900s. I have completely split out the Somerset line from my records. I think this relationship that has been published by Francis E Blake, Increase Blake, Edward Wales Blake and others will need to have more proof to satisfy the Genealogical Proof Standard. Genealogy has come a long way.

I have revised my webpage to reflect the new information from the will of Richard Blake (d 1624)'s wife Joan (Jone) Blake Blake. I have deleted the material from the published sources for the Blake family. If it can stand on its own once I get back into looking at Wiltshire Blakes then I will put it up again with appropriate notation. I am still not in agreement with the other Blake researcher as she has one more William generation between Nicholas and Richard. I will work away at that by making a large paper chart. Sometimes that is just simply the easiest way to understand all the wills.

Tomorrow I will continue with the Parish Registers for Andover. I wonder when I will reach marriages and burials. It is a couple of years since I looked at these registers so I need to check that out as well. I would like to do about 20 years at a time of baptisms, then switch to marriages and then to burials so that I can utilize the data right away.