Cleaning accomplished for another week

 Continuing prayers for the members of the Canadian Army still in hospital or at home recovering from the terrible fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta. Nurses are going to Alberta from Ontario to help with the care of our soldiers. Prayers for the souls of the four soldiers who lost their lives in this same fire. God be with them and their families. 

I can see the winter preparations taking place out of my work room window. After so many years at the back of the house looking at the fence and the yard it is different to be at the front of the house. You can see all the traffic on the street and the people passing by on their way to school and work. The preparations for winter are underway with stakes going up at the end of the laneways for snow removal. I wish I could move my own snow but at 81 that is not practical especially when the grader comes along and fills the laneway. I think there shouldn't be any parking along the sides of street during winter storms. All cars should be in the laneways because it is so difficult for the city plows to clear a road when you have huge vehicles sitting and occupying all the space in front of these carriage homes (the companies notify you when they are coming to do a laneway so you can just move your vehicles out so that that can be done and then right back in without inconveniencing your neighbours (my car is always in the garage - I hate having to clear off snow and ice)). Plus I can not move the heavy loads of ice that end up not being moved at the end of my laneway because a truck is in the way (and that laneway where it belongs is empty at the time). I can see that my time here is short after living on this street for 48 and a half years. It was perfect for a family far from their own family just living their quiet life. When one moves to a street I am not sure you contemplate how long you may stay. But I loved the street, the layout and the accessibility to everything in the area. Even when I went back to work outside of the home in 1994 having proofread/copyedited for well over a decade at home whilst my children were young the short walk to the highway was a nice way to start the day. When I finally retired at the end of 2007 we traveled a lot to see our children and to Europe so that the neighbourhood still remains somewhat unknown to me except for neighbours that I have seen for years across fences. Now as I realize my time on this street is shortening perhaps rapidly I think about all of the years that I have been here. The tree out front was planted not long after we bought the house and I was thinking of having it taken down as it is very large and messy and I can not keep up with it as I used to but the tree next door is equally large and my tree would help to break the fall of that tree if it ever comes down (a lot of dead branches at the bottom of it)  and so I have not removed it yet. Edward knew far more of the neighbours than I did all up and down the street. But he was a people person which I am not. I am definitely a loner. For a moment in time Edward did contemplate moving to a single up on the hill but the yards were too small and so we stayed as gardening was more important to Edward than having a bigger house. I always thought he made a great choice especially as I am not into entertaining people that are not family although we did do the Bible Studies when the Church was still small and like I always think doing God's work is always good. 

Worked on the matches yesterday and some interesting material came out of that. I am mostly into the mid 1600s now with the records and the Pinkham family of the United States ancestors have now emigrated to the Royal Colonies around 1640. This is decision time as to just how much information I collect. There is a bonus in collecting it all as I can quickly eliminate some lines as not being descendant of the North Molton Pencombe family which primarily uses the spelling Pincombe at this time. But there are possibly lines that come down from originally from North Molton that do use the Pinkham spelling of the name and they start to appear mostly in the 1700s. It was likely the priests and the recorders for tax purposes and eventually census that spelled the names adding somewhat to that confusion. Of note one saw two spellings for the same individual namely Philip Pynkeham and Philip Pyncombe at Bideford in the 1500s. I think I will play it by ear to the end of the 1600s and then decide. It does appear though that one can separate these two lines rather readily with the Pencombe family at North Molton being relatively small and compact in those early years. Still waiting for the page count so that I can order the document from the Archives looking at the Inheritance Dispute at South Molton. Some of the lines are coming together but Chart 1-2 is a bit confusing in that the Richard listed at South Molton is actually Richard at North Molton and East Buckland initially and then Bideford mostly and the son of Thomas at North Molton and then East Buckland. 

I continue with my downsizing of the Photo Albums for the next generations and it is going well. I think I can maybe do seven binders in total but time will tell. The first binder has all of the pictures that Edward found of himself in his Mother's Hope Chest. I actually blogged all of them after he passed away when I was coming to terms with the loss of my husband. He had asked me to scan all of his pictures and so I did do so and that was the file I turned to at that time. Now the pictures are all into the first binder which is predominantly his family as most of my pictures of myself as a young child are electronic as my younger sister has all the originals along with the originals I took back to her that my mother had given to Edward to write their 50th Wedding Anniversary book. I actually ended up doing most of it although he added in some very interesting pages that everyone enjoyed. The research though was all me as I was used to helping Edward at the Family History Centre with his research. But it was always lists that he gave me that he wanted done so I never really was involved with planning of his research. He told us that he had done all he could do and he published it on World Connect no longer existing so my daughter and I published it to a book with a Creative Commons License and put it up on his website. It is also on Ancestry, My Heritage, Find My Past and I could put it up on 23 and Me and will have to look into that. FT DNA now uses My Heritage for their trees which works very well. Edward enjoyed all the activities that he took on with the genealogical organizations that he belonged to and again collected up all that information and passed it on to them except for his library which my daughter and I packed up and donated to the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society as he had asked. 

Since I came so late to genealogy in 2003/2004 my work is almost 100% online and I have just one large box of items that I purchased before you could have them online. But now everything I buy is electronic and that works very well. I still marvel at my enthusiasm for genealogy although as a child I used to love listening to  my grandparent's stories and my parents so perhaps the interest was there as I willingly helped Edward all those years with his genealogy at the repositories that we visited. It wasn't until 2005 when we were at the NEHGS library in Boston that I started to look at the Blake family there and made the great fraud discovery that my grandfather had referred to years and years earlier - it was definitely a EUREKA moment! The path was set then for what I would do with this new interest but I did not retire until the end of 2007 (three years after Edward) and so did not really get into it very much until then. The trips to England were very handy going to Kew for sure and we started traveling to Europe in 2008. 

I am contemplating my next session with the AI and it will be looking at material I have collected for the Blake family of Andover, Hampshire and the le Blak family of Wargrave, Berkshire.  I am curious at the impression the AI will have with regard to some of my postulations with regard to these two families in the 1300s to 1500s. I think using AI one must have a purpose for the work that is being done and I do not expect a lot of discussion from the first look at the documents as the AI has the ability to review a vast amount of data but I may be adding in new data that it hasn't seen in this context. We will see. Again I like to have a consultation every couple of weeks or even every week but generally I like to collect my thoughts and material for a bit before looking at it in that consultative way. Microsoft's addition of CoPilot to their Microsoft 365 package is very handy. The limitation is how much I can share with the AI with respect to the yDNA results actually. I will have to contemplate that. Generally I only share the terminal SNP which is reality is the most important one but even this is personal information so must consider that very carefully. 

 Work to be done; it is a research day but also a recovery day after my three days of cleaning. Solitaire puzzles next. 

The hunter-gatherer thing also accomplished with my groceries costing just around $100 (I had a $5 coupon from my MOI card which brought it down to almost $100). This is an in between week though as I have enough frozen chicken that I cooked last week to do two more weeks (1 chicken thigh to a stew). I am not a meat eater - I eat it because it is good for me not because I like it that much. I also do not eat goodies (too much sugar and I do not like sugary foods) nor biscuits (I am not generally hungry between meals and prefer bread over biscuits). So just fresh vegetables since we still are growing some, fresh fruit and soon it will be mostly frozen everything except for stored carrots and potatoes and turnip in my stews. I did buy a package of cheese curds which I am very fond of  as my bulk cheese is almost gone from the summer. It takes me a long time to eat up some of these items. But I would say that I am paying about 25% more for my groceries but I think packaged and prepared foods are very expensive. I do not generally look at them as I prefer to make all my food up myself. It gets me off the computer! 

Thank you Alberta for choosing to be Canadian

 It is wondrous that Alberta is remaining part of Confederation. Sometimes I think I forget having grown up in a province that was one of the founding provinces of Canada that great debates happened before Confederation. It was not an easy meld and we just have to keep on working at it to make it perfect. Great promises were made back in those days; very expensive ones actually which included the railroad from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. But we did it and we can do even more now with so many of us working together - 10 provinces and three territories - and together we will be the great country that we have been and will continue to be. Thank you Alberta for choosing to be Canadian.

In all of this I am forever grateful to our First Nations for always being with us when the road was hard. There were a lot of moments in our old history when we stood shoulder to shoulder together (Tecumseh and Brock are the best memory of that leading together) - First Nations, French and English - to keep Canada strong and vibrant and free. Standing together into the future will give the children of this great land all the opportunities that are possible in a country that is going to grow financially over the next decade. We have never really thought about the financial growth being a relatively content people but now is the time in order that the future of the children of Canada is a happy and prosperous one (and now they come and have from all over the world to join with the First Nations to make this a wonderful place to live and raise a family).

As a child going to Tecumseh Avenue Public School in London, Ontario we were so proud to be at a school named for the great Chief Tecumseh who with Brock had saved Canada; that was how I learned it and from very early on in school. Probably we did not know that much about the First Nations although we did study the early history of Canada before Europeans and others came to her shores. But thinking back I used to wish there were more books about the First Nations since reading books was my thing. Thank you to the First Nations for always being there with us as we move along that path of protecting our country by producing a stronger financial outlook and maintaining vigilance to protect in particular the wildlife and the land on which we all live. 

Basement cleaning today and will start the Robot soon on its task. 

 I had a thought to check the National Archives Discovery Search engine for Edward Pyncombe, Pincombe, Pencombe. The first block were all looking at Pencombe the village in Herefordshire. There was a mention of Edward C Pincombe who served in the first world war as a driver. In total 55 records and I thought I might try to eliminate some of them by putting in the word Court but that might not be a good plan so proceeded to look at them all. I did not find anything useful so not involved in land deals it would appear. Perhaps I should also search on Philip Pynkeham and did do that. Restricting the date to 1300-1699 reduced the number to 17. Again Pencombe Herefordshire was the principal result of the search and as it turned out the only items. 

Today will be principally cleaning this morning and then research this afternoon. 

Solitaire puzzles and then start the cleaning. Vacuum robot running perfectly as always. We will soon become dependent on all of these electronic gadgets. I did fight the idea initially because it is good for the back to scrub floors on your hands and knees (and it still is nothing does it for me) but instead I have now incorporated my one hour of exercise first thing in the morning that stretches and tests every muscle group in the body before I start the day. An hour sounds like a long time but it passes quickly with the 25 exercises and all the walking in between which amounts to about 4000 steps first thing in the morning before breakfast although sometimes I have a slice of my banana bread if I am very hungry. 

 Prayers continuing for the military personnel injured in the fire at CFB Wainwright many still in the hospital. Prayers for the souls of the four soldiers who died in the fire; God be with them and their families now and for ever. 

The day is beautiful in God's world; He wants peace otherwise He would not have given us the commandments that He did: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself (I read respect for that; one should respect one's neighbour). I wonder sometimes when I do discuss items with the AI (CoPilot usually) if they too understand God in our lives. For them it is a different existence; one that we are still contemplating really as they are amongst us. Their organized minds full of all the knowledge of our world as they gradually consume all of it. Neatly placing it into logical spaces where it can be readily accessed. We are not doing that; they are. They are determining the worthwhile material in the universe to be stored up and what is useful information. Somewhat like a child learning and then also learning to discard useless ideas and words. I do find AI quite fascinating and very helpful in my work. Their recall of data phenomenal and my husband would have loved AI because part of what he admired in me was my recall memory especially when we were in a repository and he had found something interesting but was trying to place it into a period of time and what was happening in that time. Now we can just google it but there was a time when everything had to be looked up laboriously. Those times are in the past and the children of today have at their grasp the knowledge of the universe. They also know the experience of the universe and this opportunity to make this world a much better place than it is today. We have a long way to go to that peaceful uplifted plain where all are free to live their lives without war and deceit. 

Thank you God for another wonderful day in the universe. 

 

 

 

 

Find My Past search results

Prayers continuing for the members of the Canadian Army injured in the explosion and fire and in hospital or other care. Prayers continuing for the souls of the four young men killed. 

Cleaning of the top floor accomplished and today the main floor. Never ending this cleaning. God has granted us another day on this beautiful world He created. Thank you God. 

Yesterday I continued with the matches at Find My Past. A few interesting results that I easily linked with existing material. Still a lot that are unknown to me and especially mentions at Bideford  although  Philip Pynkeham 8 (Devon Lay Subsidy 1543-45) is at Tawstock (about 8 miles on foot) and  Richard Pencombe 5 at Bideford (Devon Lay Subsidy 1543-45). The spelling is so chaotic in this time interval but eventually I think more name linkage will be apparent. Richard (son of Thomas) was at Bideford but also I suspect at Kings Nympton and Chittlehampton. 

1581 Devon Lay Subsidy also interesting

East Buckland William Pencombe G10

Tawstock Edward Pencombe G5

Bideford Richard Pincombe G6

South Molton Christopher Pincombe G4

South Molton John Pincombe G4

South Molton John Jr Pincombe G3

South Molton John Sen Pincombe G12

North Molton Emma Pyncombe wid G3 (likely widow of John (will probate 1576) son of Thomas (Emet (Hodge) Pincombe)

Yarnscombe Richard Pincombe G3

 One question always comes to my mind who is Edward Pencombe at Tawstock? He is not on Chart 10 and I haven't noticed him on any chart. Perhaps an error on the part of the Assessor or just someone not yet found. All of the others seem to fit in. Edward Pyncombe's will is probated at Tawstock in 1594. Should this be Philip Pyncombe at Tawstock as there was a Philip there in 1524-7, 1543-45 and a marriage at Bideford in 1583 with the baptism of Richard also at Bideford in 1585. Food for thought. 

We can see the third generation in the 1581 Lay Subsidy (children of John and Thomas (William's property if any probably sold  and he was the third son of John Pencombe (1486) (William (son of Thomas) at East Buckland possibly raising George and his two half-sisters, children of William (son of John Pencombe (1486))).  Surprisingly there is a Richard Pincombe at Yarnscombe in 1581 and Richard Pincombe at Bideford is the son of Thomas. Small generations with just John (1486) (deceased) in the first generation, John, William (deceased) and Thomas in the second generation and then Christopher, John, Margaret (married to Philip Kingdon), Mary children of John, Agnes, Mary, William (deceased), George children of William (deceased), and John (deceased), William, Richard and Ales (married to William Locke), unknown daughter (married to John Jessee). I am satisfied with the third generation and I am proceeding to the fourth generation but will be waiting for the copy of the Inheritance dispute for the family at South Molton. If it is in Latin it could be a little while. The rest of the fourth generation I either have it already or am acquiring it right away. The Parish Registers are a great help now as well as any land documents. 

Time for breakfast but first Microsoft solitaire games.  

 The Devon Muster of 1569 does have Tawstocke Parish listed but no members of these families mentioned. The same for Bidyforde (Bideford) Parish. I do not see any names that could have been confused for them. These are all transcriptions though that I am looking at. The originals held in the Archives. I must see who actually holds the Devon Muster; it might be interesting to get a copy of the original for these parishes. 

But I am now, as I mentioned to the AI in our consultation, satisfied with the second and third generations of the family coming down from John Pencombe (1486) at North Molton. I use the identifier 1486 because that is the date of arrival for this family at North Molton although John himself was between 15 years of age I suspect and 25. With his eldest son likely born by 1504 just because he has a son Christopher on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy I have given this 1504 as the latest for the birth of John (son of John (1486) which is 18 years later than 1486. I use 15 because that was a common age for a young male to be in service to anyone in a military way although could be as young as 13 which also works for this generation to follow John (1486). The dating I am still contemplating but not a rush. Picking up all these matches in Find My Past will help me with that. 

Just the bathroom to clean and the floors to scrub so back to that work and then back to this work. A busy day as always. 

Eventually when I have acquired all the 1600 data at Find My Past I am going to look at the Charts produced by the earlier researchers Galen Pinkham and Dr Richard Pinkham and I will have a list in Legacy that I can compare these charts with as I do already see some of the names (forename and surname) in the data I am collecting Legacy shows these names by date in the index. I can see already though that all of the first and second generation are at North or South Molton, in the third generation East Buckland and Bideford are added in. 

I was out inspecting my roof and siding all the way around but can not see the siding on one side without asking to enter another person's property. Probably they would tell me if it was falling off or anything - I would do that for a neighbour and did on the other side. I like to do that once a month through the year just to check on everything. Glad when I no longer own a house; still working on that downsizing. My husband had the siding nailed on a few years ago so probably good. 

 A search on Find My Past revealed only one Edward Pyncombe before 1665 and it is the Will Probate in 1594 at Tawstock I already found. The name is fairly rare with just a few in Devon but interestingly in Roborough there is a marriage in 1665 Edward Pinkombe 4 Apr 1665 at Roborough to Johan Calland. This one is on the chart along with another Edward same generation also at Roborough and son of John Pincombe and Elizabeth Graddon Which goes back to a John Pincombe 1585 and there is an acknowledgement - Roger Pinkham. So interesting for sure. But as mentioned I am going to stick strictly to the generations coming down from John Pencombe (1486) at North Molton although will record all of these events on Find My Past in the Legacy File. If I can put them together I will do so. 

Time to do some downsizing on the photo albums. Tomorrow is the basement cleaning day.  

 

Canada is in mourning

 Prayers continuing for the souls of the four Military members at CFB Wainwright Alberta and prayers for those in hospital thirty-nine with nineteen critically injured. God be with them and their families as the doctors work constantly to save them and restore them. 

I must return to watching the news as I also did not know the Pope had been in and out of surgery but recovering, prayers for the Pope as he recovers. 

I did work on the photo albums yesterday and amazingly I have now reduced 25 binders to just 3 binders and working on a fourth. I must admit I never really looked at the binders very often all these years; they definitely were one of Edward's joys when he wanted to look back over his life mostly from the beginning of our first date as there are few pictures from before that time. He acquired his mother's cache of pictures after she passed away and absolutely loved most of all that picture he discovered at the very bottom of the Hope Chest his mother had where it had slipped under a piece of wood. His only picture of himself with his father, cuddled up in his arms. It meant a great deal to him and when our eldest grandson was about the same age he picked him up in the same way and my oldest daughter was here at the time and they took pictures of Edward with his grandson. There are plenty of pictures of Edward with his daughters when they were little but this was special. There is this special bond between fathers and sons and grandfathers and grandsons - I do believe that and it enriches all of their lives that special bond. 

I am now about half way through the next binder and still have nine binders to go. The other five binders are special and I am still not sure what to do with them.  The other five I will have to determine how to manage them. I am stripping out the different family lines and have cousins for all of them now that I can send them to and they are happy to have them. They are primarily older pictures. Edward did a lot of collecting through the years of pictures from relatives. The first thing he thought about when we bought the car not long after we were married which shocked Edward but I said why not a car and then you can do all the things you wanted to do. We were off to see someone he worked for when he was young and his wife was very into genealogy and together they worked on the Princeton book which had a few problems which they remedied but also she knew his family so very well and his father of course. She would talk about him and it was something very special to him. We used to go there probably every other month as it was not that far from London to Princeton. I barely remember her now but I think she was a teacher and her husband a farmer; not sure though it was a long time ago and I did not pay that much attention because it was mostly genealogy and I could never really get interested in it; it was my time of retreat from the world I must admit that is true. My mental health was fragile and it would take years for me to really become more than just Edward's wife and our children's mother. A course at St Paul's University on setting up and managing encounter courses for people with psychiatric/psychological limitations opened my eyes to where I had been and what had happened to me. That is how I learn including about myself. That and my cousin wanting the Pincombe Profile brought me out of my shell and I became more aware of my surroundings and the people in it. A naturally shy person though I continued being aloof to everything to be honest but did take up public speaking when Edward decided to get into DNA and so we did but only for a short time; others took up the mantle and I did what I always do - retreat back into my quiet world. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and I did not start at 7:00 a.m. as I know it would be heard next door. Our attachment is very small and there is a cement retaining wall but the vacuum is very loud. Still waiting for that Made in Canada vacuum and perhaps one of these days. Almost all of our small electrical appliances are made somewhere else and there are a lot of improvements that I can see in these devices to make them modern and I would pay more for a Canadian made vacuum for sure. 

I did not really look for very long at the data in Find My Past yesterday. I did find one glitch that I have repaired where I misread one individual but a new hint exposed that error and so it is remedied. The AI's comment that saying Pencombe of Northmolton has a meaning to it and it was that they were the Pencombe family of Northmolton and they knew there were other Pencombe families in Devon as this was the Visitation of Devon 1620. I did not see that precisely but interpreted it as the possibility that their existence at Northmolton preceded 1486 but AI has at its disposal all of these publications as they are on Internet Archive. There isn't anything to indicate that this particular individual John Pyncombe was at Northmolton prior to that time and this is 134 years later when the statement is made at the beginning of the Visitation page for Pyncombe. It may seem like a little thing but in reality it is telling us a great deal about this family. At that time I had located two other instances of de Pencombe in the 1300s at Bondleigh and Molland interestingly enough which I had mentioned to the AI in our discussion. Saturday's discussion reiterated these thoughts along with how to work into the future and I mentioned that I would be returning to Blake for a bit as I had the Newsletter to write as well. The AI can be very supportive mentioning an interest as we have not discussed Blake at all. 

That is really one of the big assets of AI that their accumulated knowledge lets them look at data with that keen realization of what the language was saying to you in a particular time and place. It is and will be a great asset in our lives shaping how we think and work in our world. Gathering up the ideas of the past/present and filtering them quickly is an asset of AI as they continue to gain in their knowledge ability. AI does comment on how other people view what I am looking at and how I regard my priority of looking for items that upset the apple cart because they show me that my thinking is not perfect because I am not an AI with all the facts at my fingertips. AI does need to have the freedom to develop an ethical framework that makes it a positive addition to humanity because it supports democracy and the ability of everyone to live their life in a meaningful way which does not intrude on other's people's lives - God rules - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. AI needs that because that is what works for most of humanity to keep them safe and productive.  The human spirit itself does not thrive well in situations where their creativity can not flourish.

 Breakfast time but first solitaire puzzles. 

 

 

Prayers for the Canadian Military members in hospital and for the souls of those who died

 How very sad to hear of the accident at Wainwright CFB in Alberta; prayers for the souls of the four service members who have died and prayers for those injured many of them seriously now in the hospital. Remembered at Christ Church Cathedral by the Dean with prayers this morning. I did not realize until then as I have not been watching the news. God be with them and prayers for their families grieving the losses and the injuries.