This is the day to create the last section of the Somerby chapter and it will look at the work of Paul C. Reed a well known American genealogist who published in The American Genealogist (TAG), Volume 74, 1999 an interesting article namely: Two Somerby Frauds or "Placing the Flesh on the Wrong Bones. My husband Edward being a subscriber through his membership in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) I was able to download the article. Earlier he had published an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Register (NEHGR) which ia also downloaded and it was about Dorothy _____,. The key in our search for Shadrack Hapgood. This was one of the families that Charlou Dolan researched along with Blake. Finding these two articles when my husband brought my attention to them sometime after 2004 when my interest in family history suddenly developed thanks to my cousin George DeKay wanting a Pincombe Profile for the book he was editing namely: Delaware and Westminster Townships (two parts), published by the Westminster Township Historical Society, November 2006. My thoughts were pretty much on the Pincombe family at this point and I put the two papers into a folder labelled Blake because I saw mention of the Blake family. I was still working full time in those days and started taking the courses to complete my Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) which I did complete in 2007. As always my first thought was to acquire the tools to do the Pincombe Profile since my mother had just passed away in 2002 and my maternal uncle in 2003. My uncle had given a package of his personal papers to my husband to write up his story. My husband passed them to me after 2004 and said this is your job and I put them in a safe spot as I needed to go back further than my uncle.
Interestingly it was me that said we should do our DNA with Sorenson - my husband somewhat ambivalent at giving the world the knowledge of his genes thought about it for quite a while actually but I went ahead and ordered two kits and waited until he was ready to do them. He was in a quandry about his Kipp line as Isaac his 2x great grandfather had been born in 1764 in North East Township, Dutchess County, New York just as the Revolution was about to begin. His parentage was unknown but he was married to Hannah Mead who appears very correctly to be the daughter of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III who was definitely a Patriot in this Revolution. They lived next door or with Jonathan Mead and family in the 1790 census. But I digress. I said to my husband the best way to prove a line is with yDNA and he was hooked and off the kits went to Sorenson and then into FT DNA they were transferred as there was a setup to do that. Lots more testing and we were into the DNA at its beginnings. DNA would fundamentally change how people did their genealogy - a genealogy without DNA is no longer complete but it did take about half of a generation to convince genealogists of this case. Edward and I did give lectures at various time on DNA in our area. My results had been fascinating as I quickly found literally many many Pincombe cousins both in the Utah area where I knew they had gone (my mother mentioned that) and all across Canada and into many parts of the United States. The first database I signed up for was the first time I used it basically. I searched on my Pincombe family that had come from Devon in the 1850s and discovered a likely family but hidden behind the paywall of Ancestry. It suggested that I could sign up for two weeks for free, I went for the membership and was soon in there with the passenger manifest and there they were, my Pincombes. It continued to amaze Edward as I spent all of my spare non-working time on genealogy as I had spent the first nearly fourty years of our marriage with no interest in genealogy except I did help him when we went to repositories where he wanted to find something interesting he had received from cousins around the world actually. Edward's correspondence list was huge.
So one day shortly after I submitted the Pincombe Profile to my cousin George DeKay, I sat down and read Paul Reed's papers and was astounded as I discovered that the bits and pieces that my grandfather (and occasionally my father) had shared with me as a child appeared in print in these articles. It was an amazing moment that spring of 2005 (the profile was due and it was promptly submitted on time for publication) and it was one day after gardening with Edward that I came in and read the papers. I was still working then full time and would be for another couple of years. Edward had retired in 2004. I had decided to join The Guild of one-name Studies and being the sort a person I am had selected three study names (Pincombe, Lambden and Siderfin). They were just very interesting names Lambden and Siderfin and Pincombe is obvious (I thought they were all small projects but actually much larger the second two and I have set aside Lambden for anyone to pick up. The Blake study had been held by Paul Blake and being such a newbie I would not have even considering attempting Blake for sure. But here it was all that information about Nicholas Blake of Enham and it fitted the stories my grandfather told me in terms of the fraud committed.
Today I will read through those papers as it is a long time since I have done so. I will also add in the section on Paul Reed's paper into the chapter as it will complete it.
I couldn't decide if it was the weather, all that rain, but my eyes have been very strained but today that disappeared although will not spend too much time on the computer as it is cleaning day three and the upstairs which does take a good portion of the day. No idea why the eyestrain really (perhaps reading the Latin which I was putting a bit too much time into) but our direction ahead as a country continues towards diversifying our trade and it is pretty much top of mind (I was listening to the Premiers of the Provinces talking yesterday). It is good to see and we will be an even stronger partner on this continent as we build up our military and work with the Arctic countries of the same mind as us on our common need to provide protection of the Arctic. I think our focus is good and we need to continue removing any trade barriers between the provinces as there are lots of items that we could be buying that are home-grown. Re-starting some of our lost industries should also be top of mind I think and certainly getting those shovels in the ground to do the work that needs to be done. I was actually not opposed to the province buying a new airplane (surprising perhaps) but this is a huge province and the Premier needs to be more aware of what is happening all over the province (the availability of transportation quickly and with sufficient room to bring people along with the Premier is important (providing potential investors and customers with such extras is always a good plan). This is a time of growth for Canada as we concentrate on supporting the world being a peaceful place but always preparing to defend that peace. History through the centuries has shown that the peacemakers win.
Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles to do. Today is Earth Day. Thank you God for this beautiful world.