Saturday, September 18, 2010

Blogging Paper and DNA Paper

Life seems very busy at the moment. I did complete the paper on Blogging (just three pages) for my husband's Ottawa Genealogist (journal of the Ottawa Branch of the OGS). It actually turned out to be quite interesting (at least I think so :) ). Initially I was trying to decide how to write and what about but once I started it seemed to just flow from the reason that I created this blog originally. I had 2500 images from Salt Lake City and I needed to think each lot through that I had taken and use the evidence thereby gained and formulate genealogical text to make use of the data. It was actually just for myself but along the way other people read my blogs and sent me ideas and suggestions that have been amazing actually. The best one was from the researcher of the Question family. I would simply not have readily found the will of Augustine Question and associated it with Elizabeth Siderfin wife of Robert Siderfin (my 6x great grandparents). There was absolutely nothing in the material I found for my Siderfin that pointed to Elizabeth Question as the wife of Robert Siderfin and indeed James Hooper Sanders in his book on the Siderfin Family of West Somerset clearly marked Elizabeth Blackford as the wife of Robert Siderfin. I think that that find was a turning point with regard to the book. This was a definite error with proof at hand and now I look carefully at each comment in the book to determine its authenticity. However, he did compile a vast amount of information and explain where it was located which is great and he is to be forever commended for that excellent accumulation of data.

The DNA Paper amazingly went together right after that and I had twelve pages before I knew it. I need to add more references but I have already heard back from Barrie Blake with his comments which strengthened the paper. I will go in now and add the references. Pulling them out is time consuming and I wanted the other two authors to see the draft as soon as possible. The Blake yDNA study is a very exciting one actually. With just 27 results Barrie and Bill have been able to formulate a number of conclusions which will aid Blake researchers all over the world. I am really glad that they are willing to have it published. As the least important of the authors, I am proud to be able to present their work and be associated with it.

I spent part of the early morning working on Henry Beard's will. I transcribed it about a year and a half ago but my talent (such as it is :) ) at transcribing has improved again over that time period and a relook revealed a few mis transcriptions on my part but no new information. I am basically brickwalled with the Buller/Beard/Hemsley families in Bermondsey. Were they always there i.e. had they been there for a couple of hundred years or were they recently there coming from say the southwest counties or the midlands? These two places have the surnames fairly commonly - as commonly as Buller and Hemsley appear with Beard being a commoner name in the British Isles.

Now for some housework and then I shall reference the paper. I am sure that Chris will be glad to have it as early as I can submit it. I might remake one of the figures as the title is a bit large. Over all the figures that I have created do not look too bad. I also have two tables that have proven to be quite interesting as I read back through the paper.

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