Cleaning day and it is the basement

Continuing prayers for the soldiers recovering from the fire at CFB Wainwright Alberta and for their families who are supporting them. 

Yesterday when I discussed the parentage of the William Pincombe at Molland who left his will dated 1639 and probated 1642 I tentatively named John the eldest son of William Pincombe married to Emotte Snow as his father. I did give reasons to eliminate Richard because it just didn't fit in with the comments in the will, I also eliminate William, the second son, because he had two sons known to me Hugh (died young) and William, the third son is Symon and I have no information on him other than his father said he had left England, the fourth son was Richard already mentioned, the fifth son Thomas and again the will eliminates him as he is named as an uncle, the sixth son was Peter and he likely died at Bideford in 1622 but that still remains to be proven if possible, and the seventh son Lewis I have not located any information on him at all. John seems like the most logical as he had two sons and a daughter namely William, John and Marye. 

Today in my break time I will continue to extract the information from Find My Past. I am now on Page 10 of the data hits using Pencombe (any variation of) as the search between 1480 and 1560 although the search does extend into the 1600s now but that is because I am using birth and anyone born up to 1560 could have survived into the mid 1600s. 

Slowly this fourth and fifth generations are building and the more difficult sorts are to come in the Bideford/Barnstaple area where we have Richard son of Thomas (John (1486)) and the descendants of Philip father of Richard the emigrant to the Royal Colonies in the now United States. I postulate that Philip's father was also a Philip but his father remains unknown in the data thus far. The first Philip is found at Tawstock on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy and again on the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy at Tawstock, then fourty years later a Phillippe Pyncombe marries  Wilmote Beare 10 Feb 1583 at Bideford and they were the parents of Richard mentioned above (using the dating that is in the Charts produced by the earlier researchers for the Pinkham family of the United States). The cluster of Pencombe derivatives in this area is large and can perhaps be separated out. But the Protestation Returns had a surprise with Richard Pencomb Senior and Richard Pencomb Junior being listed at Abbotsham (three miles from Bideford) in 1641-2. To the best of my knowledge thus far Richard (son of Thomas) only had two children Thomas and Helen. It is separating out this family that comes next in my thinking I suspect and that will solve the fourth and fifth generations in that line coming down from Thomas (son of John (1486)). Thomas' eldest son John married to Emet Hodge (1 Jul 1560) had three daughters none of whom appear to have married although will continue to do secondary checks on that. 

I am still  enthusiastic that I can reach into the sixth and seventh generations which bring me to more parish registers available and complete; the 1500s were less complete but into the 1600s more information is becoming available to the reader. That also gets me past a bottle neck in English records during the Commonwealth as they returned to the parishes at Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 with Charles II becoming King. The land records in the 1700s are very useful as well. Then the census from 1841 on will get me to the early 1900s. Chittlehampton does appear to be the Pincombe families in that area including Filleigh and Molland. which is very helpful. The one tester in the study who matches the known descendants of John Pincombe (1728 Bishops Nympton) has a history back to Barnstaple and my suspicion continues to be the eldest son of John (1486) who lived at South Molton. If correct this does give two distinct matching lines coming down from John (1486) to the present.  Basically I await the Inheritance Dispute document that is being paged at the moment at the Archives. 

I will be moving to Blake this week and will have to review to see where I will begin. I often get tracked back to Nicholas Blake who was misused by Horatio Gates Somerby and given family members and parents that are incorrect. Correcting this is very difficult and as often as I write the proofs I still find people who are devoted to the books Somerby wrote and sold privately to people. Paul Reed, an American genealogist exposed the fraud in the 1990s but still the fraud exists as real in many people's minds. Sad really and unfair to them. I actually dislike giving Somerby so much space but getting rid of that fraud is very important. 

On to the cleaning. First Solitaire puzzles.  

Today I should work on the Blake Newsletter as it is definitely late now (usually the 1st of October or close to that but I was into Pincombe and just had a good run with the records; I suspect that will happen a lot over the next two years). I may just write a little in the first section of the newsletter on how the book is going. 

Beautiful Sunday in God's world

A perfect Sunday morning, blue sky, sun bright and warm in the eastern sky as God looks down on the earth another day has come in His world. Will it be a perfect day; a day of peace amongst the peoples He created. Why do so many people have greed for what is not theirs? It is hard to understand; I never understood greed. Church today online and it has become my way of life. I was meant for an online life I think from the days that I thought about being an astronaut way back in the 1950s and then  it was a doctor in Africa and then it was Edward's wife. I have led a quiet life for the most part and will continue in that trend. I actually abhor public speaking but I was good at it as it turned out even though I vacated it as quickly as I could. It is the dream of others to do that and I wish them God speed in their efforts. I always did. I feel blessed every day to still be in the house where my children were little, went to school and followed their dreams. My not being here is in the distant future or maybe closer time will tell but where ever I am I will be the same living my online life and writing my books slowly but surely. 

Continuing prayers for the soldiers recovering from the fire at CFB Wainwright. God be with them and their families in this time of worry. 

Yesterdays work on the books was interesting. I do have this William Pincombe at Molland leaving his will dated in 1639 and probated in 1642 where he mentions his children Johane, Elizabeth and William as well as his wife Johane. Placing him has always been a challenge. Was he the son of Richard or was he the son of John? It makes sense for him to be John's son except he is living at Molland and I would have anticipated that John (being the eldest) would have his son living at North Molton but the testator William mentions his uncle Thomas and certainly John and Richard (and all the others) had a brother Thomas (Thomas was to inherit the Molland property along with Symon and Richard). The testator William mentions his brother John and both of these individuals Richard and John had sons William and John. He mentions  John at Bishops Nympton and William at Filleigh (those are Richard's descendants). William at Filleigh was married to Mary Harvey at Chittlehampton and he is the son of William ((b 1599) son of Richard at Bishops Nympton). John at Bishops Nympton is married to Johan Blackmoore and also a son of William (b 1599). Again it is looking at the tax rolls and the Protestation Returns that might clarify what I have written. These two  men are brothers and sons of William (b 1599). The William at Molland would be the eldest son of John (brother to Richard at Bishops Nympton) and born before 1602 because  he is  mentioned in his grandfather's will as John's children. But it does fit nicely into the paperwork thus far. I have added this unlinked William into John's family tentatively. I do like the use of this word that I acquired from the AI. To me it told me that the AI is becoming sentient; respecting the possibility that in the future an item could change due to yet another document or set of data from an economic review. It is not set in stone. 

Not a lot of work today as my eyes  need to rest one day a week. I wanted to think this through freshly in the morning and thus I have. Solitaire puzzles all done. 

Church was interesting. The picture feed did not happen but the sound feed did and it was a lovely service which I greatly appreciated. To be honest I do not watch a lot of TV as it is hard on my eyes and always  has been - fluttering light is not my friend for sure. I avoid all such lighting in as much as it is absolutely possible. The Sermon was particularly appreciated as it centered around Moses and that he did not enter the promised land and what that means to us to learn that you do not always end up doing what you thought you might. God loved Moses and took him home to be with Him. The path Moses tread doing God's work was a hard path but he accomplished it and brought his people to the Promised land as God asked him to do. 

Time for lunch and then clothes washing. A busy day ahead with lots of exercise.  

 

 

How less positive and more questioning you become as a genealogist

Continuing prayers for the recovery of the soldiers from the fire at CFB Wainwright. May God be with them and their families. 

 I was looking back at some of my blogs and my positivity was certainly much stronger in those days but time has passed and my courses all completed in 2007 and you could see my positivity entering into my blogs which started in 2008 after our visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I felt I needed to record absolutely everything I did and I have never regretted it. Until you write the book and put into print nothing is fixed; it is just your mind meandering about in void putting things together and gradually you realize that you want so much more to make any claims. 

That always reminds me that the indexes in the Siderfin books I published are inaccurate. I will redo them unless someone beats me to it but I also have more information to put in as it turns out. Life flows along and more information surfaces in the most amazing places at times. 

But back to my greater positivity in my youth and my questioning attitude in my old age. I got an email today telling me my request was attached and of course I thought about my page count. But I took it very slowly as the Archives is a very busy place having been three different times and that it simply has not yet been enough time. But I glanced and of course the email address from which it was sent was absolutely bogus. I just deleted it without going beyond that. People are always trying to scam you for your money. Why do they not get a job; disgusting really they are like snakes in the grass waiting to pounce. It is too bad their computers do not blow up when they send off such tripe into the internet. Perhaps AI can help with that! I can see so many possibilities for AI to bring peace to this world. 

So today I will continue working on the hits at Find My Past as I have only accomplished 180 thus far so still another 65 to do today and that will see me finished somewhat at this time with this book until I come back again when the document arrives. 

Generally the Blake book tends to acquire more people disagreeing with me than Pincombe. In spite of all that has been written about the fraudulent books that  Horatio Gates Somerby  people still think the Blake book that Somerby wrote that has been handed down is authentic. It is a fraud and it is sad that he did that. Again it is like a modern spammer who just has to go after people's money; I will not give it credit as a disease it is just criminal and wanting to abuse the people of the world. AI can help with so many things like this. 

I will pop in and out with any new and interesting information later in the day as this is just 1:30 a.m. EDT.  Back to sleep again. Contemplating moving one of these years when my oldest daughter returns to Canada. It is a nice thought for sure. I always remember reading about one of my Routledge cousins in the late 1800s who was a missionary and went and taught school in South Asia somewhere. She did that for many years and then returned when she retired. It was lovely for the family I am sure to have their daughter back. 

 Continuing with the 245 records of the first draw on Find My Past and working on Bishops Nympton. My line came from Bishops Nympton although John (my 2x great grandfather born at Bishops Nympton was at Molland living on Lower Gatwood) before he emigrated to Canada. He did not receive any land in the will of his father Robert because he had already received this land at Lower Gatwood. It seemed fairly easy to move back to John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore who married 25 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton and their son William married Mary Vicary 17th of June 1685 at Bishops Nympton and then John their son married Grace Manning 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton and their son John was the father of Robert above. What I am doing now is working my way forward through the Bishops Nympton Parish Register which I transcribed and it is just under 1000 pages in Word and thousands of records in Excel. It is the will of William Pincombe at Molland in 1642 that is very interesting. 

However, I am proceeding with the 245 data points and I discovered an error in the wife of John Pincombe (half brother to William (1599) son of Richard and Anne) and they married at Goodleigh and the priest mentioned where John lived (Bishops Nympton) and the date was 6 Dec 1646 with the first birth in 1648 which made a lot more sense than the 1640 date. I have not looked at this material for years but as the book continues to be processed I am double checking all of my earlier work.  

Bishops Nympton with its John Senior, John Junior, William Senior and William Junior takes a lot of careful scrutiny and for the most part I have it along with the name of William junior's wife Mary Harvey (located today). A will at Molland by William Pincombe has often puzzled me. The testator identifies himself by referring to his Uncle Thomas Pincombe, his brother John Pincombe but does not give the relationship for John Pincombe of Bishops Nympton or William Pincombe of Filleigh. I have always suspected he is the son of Richard at Bishops Nympton. He dies quite young though in his early 40s in that case. He identifies himself as a yeoman at Molland. The will of his grandfather William Pincombe married to Emotte Snowe has given property jointly to these three of his seven sons Symon, Richard and Thomas at Molland (Over Mollande Sarazin).  Symon I never see in the records yet but hopeful. Thomas does not have any children as far as I know. But that still leaves John, William, Peter and Louis as possible father for this William. I am suspicious of John now as he had a son William, a son John and a daughter Marye. 

 

 

 

Looking at the 1641-42 Protestation Returns

Continuing prayers for the recovery of the soldiers injured at CFB Wainwright in Alberta. God be with them and their families. 

I pulled all of the Protestation Returns back in 2008 actually and had a look at them today and discovered Richard Senior and Richard Junior at Abbotsham (less than 3 miles from Bideford). I was surprised to see Richard still in England actually as the only other Richard is at Chittlehampton but Richard the son of Thomas was buried in 1592 at Bideford. But it was the spelling that really caught my attention. There are a few Protestation Returns on Find My Past but I expect eventually they will all be there. It is a great census of the males over 18 years of age in England where the documents survived. I was lucky to have viewed them when they on the Parliamentary Archives - the original documents. No spelling using Pinkham in this list. I have a lot of   these lists from the different sets of documents prepared over the couple of centuries that let me see who was there in particular times. The time of the Commonwealth is difficult because of how records were collected. The Church was primarily responsible for a lot of record keeping except in this time period. 

Hundred     Parish     Surname     Forename     Suffix    

Shebbear     Abbotsham     Pencomb     Richard     Sen     
Shebbear     Abbotsham     Pencomb     Richard     Jun     
Shebbear     Alwington     Pincombe     Thomas     
    
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     John     Sen     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     John     Jun     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     William     Sen     
Witheridge     Bishops Nympton     Pincombe     William     Jun     
 

South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     Richard         
South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     William     Sen     
South Molton     Chittlehampton     Pincombe     William     Jun     
 

Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcomb     Thomas     
Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcombe     Robert     
Witheridge     Chulmleigh     Pinkcombe     Robert     
    
Fremington     Great Torrington     Pincomb     Roger     
    
North Tawton     High Bickington     Pyncombe     John     
    
South Molton     Knowstone     Pincombe     John  

   
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcomb     Thomas     Sen     
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcombe     Bartholomew     
South Molton     North Molton     Pinckcombe     Thomas     
 

South Molton     Satterleigh     Pincombe     Philip     
South Molton     Satterleigh     Pincombe     Philip       

South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Henry     
South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Robert     
South Molton     South Molton      Pincombe     Robert     
    
South Molton     Warkleigh     Pyncombe     John     

West Budleigh     Poughill     Pyncombe     John     
 

All of these males are 4th or 5th generation who are descendant of John Pencombe (1486).   Not all of them are and my task is to separate them into the likely two different family lines. The Bondleigh Pencombe line and the Northmolton Pencombe line.  Interesting how the spelling of the name moved about over the past century and a half between 1486 and 1641. Even now the spelling is highly variable but the location is good centered around South Molton/North Molton and Barnstaple with a few in between these two areas. 

Part of my task with this couple of days before I return to the Blake book is to see what I can do now with the data I have entered into Legacy from Find My Past although I still need to complete this first set of 245 items. 

The individual who wrote to me from Chittlehampton and sent me pictures (I must find them again) was trying to trace his line (I think it was his mother's and will have a look to see if I can locate that information) back to the early Pincombe family in this area where he lived. In this case in 1641 there is a Richard and a William senior and a William junior. I do not have an opinion on which line actually. Chittlehampton is 5 miles from South Molton,  14 miles from Bideford. 

The plan for this research day is to continue working through the data at Find My Past entering it into Legacy. I have a number of unlinked individuals now. Also I will find that information on Chittlehampton hopefully as I am curious now; it was quite a while ago that we corresponded. He had, I believe, corresponded with Dr Richard Pinkham. 

For once, I am not moving back to the other book because I felt bogged down. In this case I am waiting for the Inheritance Dispute document to see if I can learn anything about the descendants of John Pyncombe at South Molton. Moving forward from the third generation is where I am actually located so a bit ahead of myself with the Protestation Returns but it seemed interesting to look ahead as it is the time that was suggested for Richard Pinkham going to the Royal Colonies in America. 

I do see one sibling for Richard (b 1613) who went to America; Chart 10 - Bideford and Chart 14 - USA lists a George Pincombe married to Margery Shorte 3 Apr 1654 at Bideford and George's birth is listed as 25 April 1615  at Alwington (Find My Past) and the five children of this couple are said to be born at Barnstaple between 1654 and 1665 and they appear to remain in England (and in this area according to the chart). The only George Pyncombe that has been noted in the Find My Past data thus far is the tentative son of William Pencombe (John Pencombe (1486)) and Margret Gregorye bc 1565 North Molton (and George died by 1624 at North Molton). This is based on a William Pencombe did marry a Margret Gregorye at North Molton in 1564 (the AI and I agreed that "tentative" would be the good word to express this possibility). 

Continuing with these items today so I may come back through the day with additions. 

Solitaire puzzles to wake up the brain and then breakfast.  

 Finding a Richard Pincombe, William Pincombe senior and junior at Chittlehampton was a reminder that I have not yet solved the parentage of these two males. I await the Inheritance Dispute document just to prove they are not descendant of the South Molton Pincombe family of John (son of John bc 1500, John (1486)) but the possibility remains that they are descendant of Christopher Pincombe older brother of John (I say he is an older brother because John is not listed with property on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy at South Molton - just John (bc 1500) and Christopher (as an infant perhaps in 1524 since he could  have inherited property in his own name due to the new laws enacted by King Henry VII). I think continuing to pull the data from Find My Past to the end of this first set is the right step forward. 

I did not locate yet the emails from an individual living in Chittlehampton that mentioned he was descended from the Pincombe family. I will continue as I have all my emails back to the beginning in 1995 when I first step up an email account. I will check my blog though to see if I blogged it since the blog goes back to November 2008 when we returned from our research trip with the Palatines to America group that Edward belonged to and it was most successful and we were there I think about eight days in total. Would have to check on that; it was long ago we had just returned from a trip to the British Isles about four  months earlier. 

 I must admit that I wonder if Chittlehampton was a parish that was used by the people of  Filleigh and Molland. The two Williams and a Richard there at Chittlehampton for the Protestation Return just seem to me to belong to Filleigh and Molland. That is tucked into the back of my brain as I try to put all these people in the Protestation Return into Family lines. It was not unusual for people to go to a different parish from their home parish to register for whatever reason. 

 

 

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!