Another busy cleaning day

 The second day of cleaning completely accomplished and just the basement remains and will soon start the Robot vacuuming the rug. It is a nice way to finish the three day cleaning spree! The time commitment is just two hours at the most - one hour is done by the Robot although I have to prepare the area for the Robot to run effectively which takes maybe ten minutes. 

I finished looking at the four files created by Copilot and they are in good shape. The next step I will probably take on Thursday - my first working day of the week. Copilot will look at each of the files that are referred to by the Blake file it created just by matching the name on the file and the name in the file that it created. Within those files are lists of relatives in common/Matches and I will make a list of what to look for and then Copilot will make a complete list of those names along with a list of the matches that have those names in common. I should get a list of people who match within Blake and a list of people who match within Knight as well as a list of people who are matching Blake/Knight because I did not separate them. I will not have any decision made by the Copilot on this last group because it will be confusing and hence I will do that split although I could supply enough information for Copilot to do it there is a possibility of junk emerging so will avoid that. The human input is still more valuable in this case that the input from Copilot. 

The comparisons between "common areas" will also be made by me because that is indirectly what I am looking for in these sorts - matches deep into the past that take me back to Blake lines in Andover although few people do have that in their tree but some do. The 1700s was particularly small in my Blake line with Thomas Blake (born in the 1680s marrying in the early 1700s and having just one son Thomas and this son Thomas marrying in the late 1720s and having two sons but only one survived infancy and that was Joseph baptized in Andover in 1730 and marrying in Upper Clatford in the late 1750s. He married Joanna King of Upper Clatford and they had three sons. The second eldest died as a child (around the same time as Joseph) leaving the eldest son William who lived in Andover in the latter part of the 1700s and does not appear to have any children and the youngest son Thomas (born posthumously about five months after his father died) who married Sarah Coleman in the early 1790s in Upper Clatford. This very weak line in the 1700s is replaced by a very large line in the 1800s and up to the present. This Blake family of Andover/Upper Clatford is related to the Blake family at Abbotts Ann and I would like to determine the cousinship. I do know they are related through the King family because Joanna King's sister Mary King was married to John Blake, malster, Abbots Ann and all of this is mentioned in John's will in 1796. My thought is that John Blake of Abbotts Ann is descendant of John Blake of Andover who married Elizabeth (unknown) in the late 1670s and was the father of the ancestor of John Blake of Abbotts Ann and Thomas Blake mentioned above (born in the 1680s at Andover). This would make Thomas Blake who is mentioned in John Blake's will of 1796 likely 1st cousins ?x removed. I have yet to find anyone who descends from John Blake and Elizabeth (unknown) with a reliable tree other than my own line. A lot of people have these individuals in their trees but the link is questionable that they are using although by atDNA they are matching me (generally at least three of four siblings or more)! The fun is in the chase as always and as it turns out I do not have a lot of investment in the result other than curiosity. 

It is perhaps being Canadian that I do not particularly get excited about any of my ancestral lines. They are interesting even fascinating given my small footprint on this continent with my father born in England and coming to Canada with his parents as a child in 1913. Then my mother's father's mother was my first Canadian born in Upper Canada in 1839. Grace Gray (my great grandmother) was a first cousin to Sir John Carling heavily involved in politics in Ontario (was Upper Canada) initially and then into federal politics and was Minister of Agriculture hence the naming of the now torn down Agricultural Building and Carling Avenue. This area will now be part of the new Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus (where I actually worked at the existing campus for six years). So first generation Canadian on my father's side and fourth generation Canadian on my mother's side and I was born before "Canadian citizenship" was created on the 1st of January 1947 so grandfathered to Canadian Citizen all on my own which I always found quite exciting actually. 

Why ever do I spend so much time on this? George DeKay is mostly responsible but there was a tug on my senses after my mother passed away which was a year earlier than George asking me to do a Pincombe Profile for the book he was publishing. My mother knew that I was so into DNA as a child in the late 1950s - found it so exciting and studied Chemistry with that on my backplate at all times. She reminded me of that in the late 1990s as she was going to the Family History Library and looking up items and wanted me to use this new thought that was breaking into genealogy with yDNA studies. I explained that we would need to test my uncle for that and that thinking was in the works but he passed away in 2003 (however a cousin of his did test for me) but I digress. 

The two elements came together with George DeKay asking for the Pincombe Profile and my mother's letters and discussions with me in that regard pushed me into doing the Pincombe Profile, joining the Guild of one-name Studies and reviewing what had been done with yDNA by Sorenson in the 1990s and early 2000s. As it turned out a known Pincombe cousin in Australia had tested his yDNA and I contacted him and an in-between person wrote back (perhaps that cousin had passed away no ideas on that as the writer didn't say that).  It was sort of weird so I just used his results comparing them to my uncle's cousin and they were a match and I just moved forward with the Guild study of Pincombe and Siderfin at that time. 

Who would of ever guessed that I would be so deeply into genetic genealogy at this time in my life! I had always said that when I retired I was going to knit baby outfits and sew clothes for packages going to the First Nations Reserves in my old age as my grandmother had done in her old age. I haven't sewed or knitted very much since I got into my course work at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and graduated with my PLCGS in 2007 in English and Canadian studies. Funny in retrospect as I continue down this path really with my mother at my side leading me onward. Then my grandfather's memories came into play as I took on the Blake study in 2011 after giving the Siderfin study to a cousin in England as he wanted to pursue it and he was much closer to the repositories than I was in 2010! So Grandpa's stories of his Blake line tumbled out of my brain and I was into Blake and Pincombe pretty much 100% from 2011 on. I continue there actually. 

At 81 nearly I had thought myself to be winding down and I have quite a bit done with that but the intent is to publish all of this on Pincombe and Blake in the next two years and then move forward into Buller and Rawlings my other grandparents to publish their information - the Rawlings because my cousin John Rawlins sent me all his research perhaps thinking I have come to the thought in retrospect that he thought I would write a book. Amazing really as I go down memory lane  - I am beginning to think that is a habit of over 80 year olds.

Must do the solitaire puzzles, tea all drank.  

 

 

Now that I am approaching 81

My only true experiences with old age consist of my grandfather, my grandmother and the visiting that I did as a teenager at a local nursing home. When my parents were in their 80s/90s I was far away and only seeing them a couple of times a year so did not really have a glimpse of their aging outside of a large family picture as many people were there whenever I was. 

My grandfather was basically a very healthy person although he did on occasion smoke a pipe. But throughout his 70s he continued to work on a very light schedule helping my father in his business. He maintained the supplies keeping them well ordered and ready for use on a daily basis. He read a lot as he borrowed books from the library or purchased them. He walked a lot as he never did learn to drive; it didn't interest him. His stroke was sudden and he passed away about three months later. During that three month period I can remember he slept a lot in a chair during the day. He could still walk about but less capable. His mind still pretty good actually as I can remember him repeating stories he had told me before and they were the same basically. His diet tended towards beef and potatoes and I would have said a high cholesterol diet on his part. This was the early 50s. 

My grandmother was similar a very healthy person except for having a slight tendency towards epilepsy which was controlled by drugs which she did not like to take. So a seizure would mean taking them for a bit and then stopping. That did not particularly seem to affect her overall health as I recall. She walked a great deal; she gardened a rather large plot which included tomato plants for her son's store. Her flowers were absolutely beautiful. She was less of a talker with regard to family but occasional stories did slip out. Most of her spare time when she wasn't helping her son with his store was spent knitting and crocheting baby outfits for bales to the North for the Salvation Army. She continued to be very nimble with her fingers pretty much up to the stroke that she had. Again she had a high cholesterol diet that I can remember very well probably because I was not a meat eater as a young person and still only eat what I need to be healthy sticking to chicken and fish which was not the case for either of my grandparents. This was the mid 60s.

The effect of cholesterol on them was perhaps partially controlled by their very active walking life styles. 

The nursing homes tended to be younger people in their late 60s and early 70s. People did not live a long time in many cases when I was a teenager. A few years after retirement for many of them. So interesting reflecting on that. I did learn that it is better to eat chicken and fish certainly by noting the effects of red meat on one's health. I also learned that constant exercise is very necessary all of your life. This was the early 60s.

An interesting thought for the day as we made a delicious meatloaf last night consisting of half ground pork and half ground beef. It made a large meatloaf which I will eat sparsely; just a narrow slice but it does taste quite good because it is also full of vegetables (2 cups of diced onion, pepper and carrot cooked in butter and cooled and then added to the meat mixture with 2 eggs, 1 cup of rolled oats, spices, herbs, garlic and hand mixed to produce a lovely loaf in a glass loaf pan. Then cooked at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours along with baked potatoes and baked squash. Overall a very healthy dinner especially if you are light on the meat but a good restorative meal if you are recovering from a bit or dental surgery and a good meat to start with in recovery stages as chicken and fish (other than poached salmon) are not necessarily easy to chew. 

Today I am cleaning the top floor and will begin around 10 washing the bathroom first and then vacuuming and dusting and should be finished around 1 hopefully. Yesterday seemed like an enormous task but I did a few extra items so I will keep it easy for this session. 

A beautiful sunny day and it is back up to 16 degrees celsius after a low of 10 degrees celsius. I must fertilize the tomato plants today as they are growing very well but fertilizing them is a good plan. 

Never a dull moment and solitaire games are next.  

Peace

 Peace is a beautiful word and what God wants for us. Jesus brought us the two commandments by which we should live - Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Living these two commandments could bring us to that uplifted plain of peace where all live a good life. Greed and envy must disappear from our world.  When they do the world will be a better place in which to live. 

Tough times continue in Canada and will for a while yet as our diversification of trade around the world takes hold. There are increases in jobs being created and we just have to wait. The Baby Boomers have had an entire lifetime worked around them and now they need to tighten up and help the economy to survive by spending locally instead of flying all over the place and enjoying themselves all the time. Life was easier for the Baby Boomers than it is for subsequent generations in so many ways. Attending university was so much easier and less costly and the dreaded compulsory Departamental Examinations became nonexistent in the later 60s (after I wrote them actually because I was two years ahead of my age group!). Life was handed to the Baby Boomers on a platter and they need to do the same for the generations that are following them. This diversification of trade is sixty years coming and should have been the practice of all Canadian governments prior to this one but it wasn't and we are paying the price.  We will continue to pay that price until we are on solider financial ground. 

Sad for Michigan because they were meant to split the tolls with Canada from the new bridge following the repayment to Canadian taxes as the people of Canada actually paid to build the new bridge. It would be a good bonus for Michigan and its people all that toll  money coming in to support all sorts of special projects or even just usual items like sports for children, better facilities in schools and all that sort of thing. Strange to continue to use such an old bridge especially for all these trucks when there is a bridge that is brand new (built equally with both Canadian and American steel and other products) with better access to the main highways. This new bridge has been talked about for years because the old one is just that - very heavily used and getting very old. Likely people will still use the old bridge but the truckers deserve to have a new bridge which is easier to access from the main highways and so modern. Truckers are the great heroes of people as they drive long hours; many miles to transport goods from coast to coast and back again. Ever increasing amounts of goods travel by truck all over North America. 

Worked the Pincombe file yesterday and it took only about 30 minutes to add in the Gray. Thinking of Michigan I have a lot of cousins who still live in Michigan that are descendant of the Pincombe Family. I still think that hand adding the known greatgrandparent is perhaps the better way so as not to create any confusion in the instructions to Copilot. Plus it lets me look at them in a global way as I entered them one after another without really regarding them beyond putting them into the table. The real challenge is coming where the work that I have done on the individual files will be used to help to look at matches that are totally unknown to me but share pertinent matches. That is very time consuming to do one by one but Copilot will be able to, without bias, pull out the information and produce lists that will be very productive. 

Today is cleaning day and it will be the main floor. I borrowed my sewing machine back from my daughter to make some new tea towels. The ones I have date back at least fifty years. Amazing they have lasted so long but I did make about twenty of them I think and there are three left that still have some cloth to dry dishes coming out of the dishwasher. Dishwashers have certainly made tea towels less of a necessity. 

Continuing to work on the phasing of great grandparents and creating the genealogical charts for the Blake book high on the agenda for my work time. 

Cloudy today and cooler just 15 degrees celsius - a normal June for sure. Tea brewing and solitaire puzzles to do. 

   

 

 

 

 

Copilot

 Working with Copilot yesterday was most interesting and I separated my large table into the four grandparent components although I did not do a complete separation as I wanted to see the results. They were pretty much as expected. A good separation with regard to the four names. A reasonable number in each grouping as anticipated. I could sort to get the entire table back into its numerical run and thus reproduce on a grandparent level the original chart. I could have asked Copilot to do that at the end if I so desired. I did not have it place the Knight family into this chart and will need to do that. It always picked up every incidence of Blake as I worked on Blake first (in the Greatgrandparent category). I could have written a python programme as well and will work with that methodology also. Did it save me a lot of time? Probably but the manual items that needed to be done have to be fed in one line at a time although you could do it as a long list of statements at the beginning possibly. Will have to look at that. I do need to do more work with Copilot in this regard. 

A good exercise day with my usual yoga and calisthenics in the morning followed by a run before lunch and then weightlifting in the  afternoon and a lovely walk on the beach after dinner. A most pleasant day although we had a fierce thunder storm later in the evening. 

Sunday and Church is beginning (I ended up switching to the Church online in England as I was not picking up my own Church here). God is with us always waiting and watching for us to do the one item other than loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. That other part that Jesus brought to us from God is loving our neighbour as ourself which really is about respect for sure. 

Solitaire puzzles later as the day escapes me today.  

I often do agree with Conrad Black

" Last week ..... we [Conrad Black writing about his conversation shared with his readers that he had with Stephen Jarislowsky]  had a most amicable conversation on the somewhat distressing subject of the current political condition of this country. We agreed that I would write it up. We think our greatest national problems are that governments as a whole employ 4.6-million Canadians, 25 per cent of the entire workforce, an unsustainable burden, and that the first one-third of these people to reach retirement age and full pension eligibility should simply not be replaced. The compensation of the remaining government employees could then be somewhat increased: as in the private sector, fewer, better-paid jobs, with everyone eligible for full pension benefits.

Our second point is that both corporate and income taxes have to be reduced to below United States levels to compete successfully for investment dollars. To be eligible for government assistance, universities must devote themselves to producing a great majority of graduates who will be capable of earning an income in the field of their specialty, and skilled trades should be elevated to the socio-intellectual status of university disciplines: we need plumbers and electricians more than gender studies and decolonization experts. The demarcation of federal and provincial jurisdiction should be clarified, duplication avoided, and Canada should finally become a domestic common market. With reasonable care for the environment, we must exploit and export to the world our natural resources, and outgrow neurotic fixations on fictional climate horror stories. Stephen and I agreed that whoever advances these points will quickly lead this country to the position of admired success in the world that it rightly aspires to and can certainly attain. "

Thank you once again Conrad Black for an exceedingly interesting editorial in the National Post. I could not agree with him  more particularly on the role of trades in our society; their importance is the gift that will bring us to the prosperity that is the promise of Canada. 

Yesterday another busy day and the car is all vacuumed and dusted and the windows shinning. Then we took it through the car wash to complete the task. My husband did all these things in the past and every day one is reminded of how much a part of our lives was lost to us but we remember him every day so he is never forgotten. That was his greatest wish I think because his own father appeared to be forgotten; lost to him when Edward was just two years of age but he lived a full life doing all the things that he wanted to do except for following through on his childhood desire to be a Scientist working in the field of Chemistry. But Edward served his country very well working at CISTI in the National Research Council for thirty years. 

Today is a work day and I do hope to finally get to my file that I want to apply AI to in order to look at some interesting details that I have in the accompanying word files that match up with these particular results in the large excel file. The questions are somewhat jelled in my mind and I am ready to begin this very interesting task. 

A beautiful sunny day full of promise with just a slight breeze in the trees. God is with us always waiting and watching for His world to live the right kind of life. Love they neighbour as thyself. It was all that He asked us to do. The Creator waits for us to do the right thing. 

Solitaire puzzles next.