Generally I put the most difficult tasks in front of me first but when a solution is not readily available then I do the easier tasks as if preparing the mind for the more difficult one ahead. Works for me - all games completed in about the same amount of time.
Good to see the sun up today and no rain - we have had a lot but really we do not control that anyway so just have to appreciate what comes. Mother Nature, as always, is in control. Hopefully my big bag of garden earth will come tomorrow as planned. I would like to get a little of it spread and grass growing in this delightful grass growing weather. Still no dandelions but that will be soon; need enough light for them for sure as we gradually come out of the long dark winter.
Yesterday I worked on the Pencombe family and it was interesting. I have probably 95 to 98% of the entries in my database but a couple of new ones are there although they are on the charts that were prepared by the earlier researchers. Now that I am happy with the first three generations working up the fourth should be somewhat revealing because the family is moving out from North Molton and some of the places are known to me and the lines that go there but others are most elusive especially with spelling changes from Pencombe to Pincombe to Pyncombe to Pinkham and there are other derivations. So that continues today and through the month as I work through the pages sent to me. It is good to have fresh looks at the data and I have a goal in mind now that I really didn't before. I went into surname studies sort of on a whim after completing the Pincombe Profile for my cousin George DeKay. Since he never married his line ends with him although his siblings, cousins gave him lots of close relatives (he was my fourth cousin) so it is nice to mention his name; that is the wonder of genealogy perhaps that a name never dies really it is forever remembered in the lines of a family. I shall try very hard not to get distracted from my task now. I want to eventually put all of this material into a book on the Pencombe family of North Molton and have given myself quite a bit of time, God willing, to accomplish the task.
The other task in the future for me is a book on the Andover Blake family. Gradually as my life slows down and I am sure that it will, I want to concentrate on the Blake and Pincombe families as they were the surnames of my parents. I still have a lot of work to do that I planned which includes transcribing the rest of the Blake wills and publishing each of the counties of England to individual *.pdfs for the sets of wills in these counties and they are numerous (and I have blogged all the ones that I have transcribed). The thousands of hits a month that are on my website are mostly those wills I suspect. This is a big family (although not a single family; there are many founding families in the United Kingdom for Blake and initially when one looks at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for the early years (up to the mid 1400s) these families are in distinct areas of the United Kingdom as it is now known but then England. They range from being prominent and well-known to quiet farmers locked away in small areas in England. The Andover Blake family was such a family; quietly managing their land (likely freehold) in Knights Enham at least from the 1400s (and likely earlier but need to verify the information on the Manor Documents) on until it was sold in the time of James Blake who left his will in the 1700s. They held other parcels of land in the area as well but my own line was in Andover early on and the individual heading up that line in Andover was a Richard Blake (10x great grandfather) a Draper. The 50 pounds that he inherited in his father William Blake (11x great grandfather)'s will must have helped him to establish himself. As far as I can tell though this line mostly dwindled down in that area with Joseph Blake (4x great grandfather) moving in 1757 to Upper Clatford where he married Joanna King (4x great grandmother) whose father was a small farmer there. I think their mothers were second cousins or the like and my line was then at Upper Clatford and my grandfather Samuel George Blake went to Eastleigh near Southampton to work on the railway after finishing his apprenticeship as a Blacksmith. So an interesting part of the Andover Blake family for me but there are other interesting stories coming out of the Andover Blake family.
Tomorrow is Coronation Day and I shall be up to watch that but probably not until my usual waking time of 6:00 a.m. Although one never knows. I shall be sitting there watching and thinking of my grandfather, parents and siblings also watching the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 when I was seven years of age. I knew she was our Queen, we sang God save the Queen just as we had sung God Save the King at school every day. But this black and white spectacular was eagerly watched by my grandfather and he enjoyed it very much. I think I shall enjoy watching King Charles III crowned because he has been a fascinating person his entire life with his stands on the environment when it wasn't trendy and the same with Organic Farming. I do believe he was even laughed at and ridiculed for his thoughts but time has proven him to be so right. Time hasn't been kind to him in other ways; the fishbowl of Royal Life robbed him of his independence but there it is now he will be King and I think an excellent one. King of Canada is also a great idea because the alternatives are dreadful. Politics is fine but it is nice to have something solid at the top that has continuity. We will see how that goes; of course being of 100% British ancestry I know that I am biased where the Royal Family is concerned. I really do not care how they live their lives so long as they are respectful of the people. I think they generally live good lives now because life has let them be themselves and not controlled by their elders in terms of whom they marry etc. Theirs is a life of service and they do it very well. My own opinion of course.
I prefer my quiet life style; always have really and medically speaking it is a necessity for me and always will be. I think working at the hospital for ten years (when my daughters were in their teens) was really good for me as I went to work early and came home late because I worked in the west end and it is a long way from where I live. Along with going to Church quietly on Sundays at Christ Church Cathedral (which I still do on YouTube), I led a very quiet life except for helping Edward with his activities. But I tried very hard to stay in the background and still do. So on to the day, breakfast and then research. I shall say my prayers for the many situations in the world that need them and wait for the return of my daughter once again as she does her research for the summer. Do I wish she was here? I want her to be happy and so where ever she is happy that is where she should be. At 77 my time is likely short in the overall picture but this is her time to do the work that she loves doing and especially I am proud of how she helps people with learning disabilities to attain their dreams (most of her students are not in that situation she does teach masters and PhD students for the most part although some undergraduate) but the ones that are I am glad she does that. She has personal knowledge that helps to guide her. My other daughter is a busy physician doing family medicine, hospitalist and emergency medicine. I am very proud of both of them for their enormous contribution to society. That is why we are here really to help society to attain the best that they can.
The sun is shinning beautifully.
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