Well sort of, still working on that change is as good as a rest

 A bit tired today and will try for a nap in a couple of hours. Being 81 is hard work and need to prioritize the necessities for a couple of weeks. This is a fine adjustment period for me and I just have to work my way through it. 

Yesterday more work on the matches and down to just  thirty five to do. They are all interesting and that slows me down just a little bit. I chose most of them because they were unique as I have a lot of matches already. Some of them are fairly large for a person without first cousins and not too many second cousins but six siblings!

I did continue my reading of 1 Chronicles and I am up to Chapter 18. I can see that my time  is not quite so plentiful these days but I will always try to read at least one chapter. Before I started on this quest I was reading the Daily Bible Readings and so at least a chapter a day will fulfill that piece of my life. I am always grateful for the Israeli scholars who were the initial keepers of the word and this passage of so much historical material is a gift to mankind. God is in all the pages as one reads chapter after chapter. The Creator God who desired that all mankind would know Him and love Him as He loves us. Another beautiful day in God's world although last night the thunderstorm was something else. The older dog opened the curtains so that she could watch. I thought she was frightened at first but not actually she was curious about all the lights as was the younger dog. The younger dog has had a very lucky older sister who cuddled her close as an infant and guided her to the adult dog she has now become. God's words in the Bible always remind me that we were asked to take care of the world and all that is in it. Dominion over simply, to me, means being responsible for all the creatures of the world, all the plant life and take the best possible care of the world. 

Today all the cleaning has been accomplished for the week and generally this is my slow day whilst I relax and enjoy the clean house for a couple of days or maybe just one since the dogs are here although I do follow them about and pick up after them. They are very loving dogs to people they know and I am comfortable around them. 

Time to do my Bible Readings before I start my day of work. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. The dogs will soon be asking me to let them out for a bit. Mostly they are indoor dogs or porch dogs although they love a good run.  

A change is as good as a rest

 This old idiom has stood the test of time - A change is as good as a rest. It just takes a little time to get used to the change and at 81 it will probably be a number of days. The dogs have joined me whilst their home is being worked on so to speak - a few changes here and there. It will be fun for me and I already have enjoyed it but I do not get as much work done for sure. They are always in motion which also tends to be true of me. We quickly get used to each other every time that they come. They just want to be loved and that works well as I do love them very much. 

Certainly when my daughter arrives home each time to do her research time and be my live in caregiver instead of my far away caregiver I slip into that role very quickly; seldom takes more than a few minutes. Finally the person is here that will take me hither and yon to pick up items that I only buy a few times a year and help me with paperwork just to make sure that yes I did understand everything that is being changed. Life is always changing - insurance companies update their policies and all such and the like. The City is making changes and they involve my at least knowing that they are. Each time as my daughter's return to her in place work starts to be on my horizon then I must admit I do feel that change and it is not too long before she will retire and return full time but until then I must manage my life although my other daughter is here but she is very very busy as well so I always prepare myself for that change when it comes. The dogs will be with me which is wonderful; they are good for my nerves and we enjoy each other's company. But I can not get much work done when they are as compared to when my daughter is here. 

My daughter has hundreds and hundreds of students (perhaps even more no ideas on that) who have gone through her Metadata classes, Data Science classes, Relational databases, etc, Methodology in research classes that are working all over the United States now over the last nearly twenty years. Many of them write to ask her for references and others keep her up to date on how they are doing. Technology is so very important in every field now but especially in Libraries. It is important for Librarians to know all about the new tools and especially Artificial Intelligence because the youth wants to know all that and often enough libraries even in the smallest places are where they go to ask. Very important for librarians to be knowledgeable on computers and all the skills that come with computers. Lots of librarians come back and do courses in these new advanced studies so that they are able to help the younger students who come into their libraries with the newer methodologies (certifications are possible which doesn't hurt in one's job for sure).  I would have loved to have her here always close by but that was not to be; jobs were not available or in most cases Americans actually got the jobs here and when she was offered a job by an American University she took it and off she went. Her aim was to teach them all the skills that she knew from her years of education, she also worked in industry giving her that special edge I think of having been employed in that workforce (it was actually an American company here) that would eventually hire her students. It is her teaching that is most important to her and one of her research projects has developed out of the need for more technology in the field and she is an expert in that work. The research is primarily with former students and she is helping them to become resourceful and efficient scientists as she is. 

But I digress and my reading of 1 Chronicles continues. This renewal of the earlier Bible chapters was timely for the Israeli people, who had been forcefully and cruelly carried off to Assyria and Babylon far from their homes in Israel and Judah, reinforcing the stories handed down to them from their ancestors; clarifying those stories for them. 

I realized when I was looking for an email from one of my cousins in the United States that it really is a long time since I have corresponded with any of them actually. I see their comments on Facebook sometimes but I have not written to very many although have received emails from them occasionally. 

Must get some more work done. I have corresponded now with the Chilliwack Archives concerning this present issue of the Kipp Newsletter and will try to get that done today. I want the people on that list (Kipp yDNA group) to know that this material is available at that archive although it will take them awhile I am sure to get it into a Fonds for easy access. Such work takes a lot of time especially when it is the research of someone else. 

One item I think is true though; we need to rebuild lost industries (bought out by American companies and they took it offshore to Asia) by creating them again with lots of updates (there are so many industries gone from Canada that were here when I was a child). The youthful mind can come up with all sorts of new and interesting ways to create products (I still need that Canadian made vacuum cleaner!). This time we must always support them and help to keep them from being out competed and/or selling them to American companies. I love the United States but Canada is also meant to be a strong nation and the United States will always have a strong friendly partner sharing this huge border with them. We are meant to be great friends. We have been for a very long time.  

Solitaire puzzles to do and it is cleaning day and today is the basement.  

King Saul and King David remembered

Continuing to read 1 Chronicles and the genealogies of the families continues. This reminder to the exiled Israelis was timely to remind them of who they were and what had happened to them as time has passed and the children and grandchildren of the Israelis carried off to Assyria and Babylon have been born. The great libraries I mentioned a couple of days ago are now flourishing and the stories of so many of the peoples of the world are now written down but still the Bible with its reach far back into the beginnings is a story that resonates through the ages telling of God's love for mankind. The genealogies continue but now the text tells the stories of some of these families including King Saul. That Saul died because he was unfaithful to God is also mentioned. The important items of the history of Israel that the people needed to know to move forward as children of their loving God. Then the story of King David is again written down in 1 Chronicles. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday and today is the main floor. I also managed to get through another set of matches so just thirty eight matches left to put into the databases. Many of these matches are filling tiny holes where no one matched in particular lines. I have very few gaps overall but these matches have come along and they have filled some of them. I like all of the databases but I do have favourites for particular items and as it turns out each of the databases has a particular item that I find most useful which is interesting. 

Collection Day once again and I have one bag of weeds, two containers of recyclables and one garbage can. It feels like a waste to use a white garbage bag in the kitchen which is never full and a green bag to put it out to the street in the garbage can. The green bag is too big to keep in the house although I am considering it because it does seem like a waste to put a white bag into a green bag. Perhaps changes will come to rectify that particular circumstance. 

Just 16 degrees celsius today and the cooling trend has arrived. The birds are starting to flock as they prepare to migrate south and the training of the newly born this summer has begun. The animal and bird life are so methodical and such good parents as they tenderly guide their youth towards adulthood. One exasperated crow was trying to get the young birds into the air again having brought them down from the nest to the ground and finally the bird just ran at them and up they went soaring about. Perhaps they were teasing the adult bird. Hard to tell. 

My work is cut out for me the next few months as I return to downsizing the photo books. It is a huge task with over 40 large binders and that is just the photos from the beginnings of the lives of my husband and I to 2001 (we married in 1966 when Edward was 23 and I was 20). I was very young and Edward more of an adult and we spent the next eight years traveling about following the line of Edward's families as he sought answers about them primarily in the North Eastern United States but also Ontario and Quebec. But we also spent many many weeks with our canoe in the northern Ontario woods following the creeks and rivers as we enjoyed all that nature abounds in in Northern Ontario. It is a fantastic place to be although now it is many many years since we were there. Children arrived and campgrounds with lots of children items like swings and slides and wading pools became our life for a while but back to the woods again as they grew and they too love the outdoors. Now I am old, 81 is old, and have given my kayak to my grandchildren to enjoy and I just walk on the beach and enjoy the fresh air in the summer. 

Time for solitaire puzzles. I  must write the Kipp newsletter today mentioning the items that have gone to Chilliwack Archives for the Kipp family. I also need to write the H11 newsletter although with the new setup that FT DNA has introduced my breaking these lines down further is past tense; they have done a wonderful job but I will check the literature and see if there is anything new to report.  

Reading 1 Chronicles

Very slow reading the genealogies of the families of Israel and Judah in 1 Chronicles. Having such data is amazing really in family lines back to Before the Common Era. As I work on preparing my genealogical charts for the Blake family at Andover, I do marvel over this exceptional set of chapters. Coming down from Joseph who lived at Andover and moved to Upper Clatford is not difficult but going back one has to be very cautious putting together the Blake family at Andover and the areas around Andover. Coming down from the two sons of Jone Blake (widow) at Enham is also a major task although I have the work of Charlou Dolan to assist me in that regard. For the most part we are in agreement but we do have discrepancies between our charts. I am using the wills to keep me on the lines but also the land records. There is more available now then there was even a decade ago. 

Yesterday very busy working on AI with a project; mostly I was watching and learning as my daughter was putting together some work that she needed. The four research projects have kept her very busy this summer and prevented her from teaching metadata which did sadden her as she enjoys teaching. But she needs to rest in the summer as she is free to do her research at that time and give her some time to recharge and back into the fall term once again with two full classes. I am looking forward to her sabbatical which she is starting to plan now. She works very hard all the year really so I like it when she can get out kayaking and just skimming along enjoying the beavers and bird life for an hour or so daily. It is good for her. 

 For me I have a couple of items to resolve and will continue with that today whilst I am cleaning. It is the top floor today and I shall start closer to noon. I can spend the morning working on the matches. 

The day or two of smoke is long ago now and any new smoke is coming out of the far west and not as heavy as that day or two was here in the east. It is rare to have it actually still but that could change as the world continues to heat up without any attempts to trap the carbon which causes the heating. The carbon trapping done here to offset the carbon production from oil fields is effective. Plus we have increased the amount of forest management that we were doing because of the increased risk of wildfire with all the heat and electrical storms. 

One third of the way through August and the days are shorter and the nights are going to start to cool off as there is a cold front moving down from the north. Fall is coming and with it the polar vortex with all that lovely snow. I do love the snow. 

The Houthis continue their trouble making in the Red Sea. Why Iran founded and supports Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis is really a travesty against the world. They ask for a release of the sanctions being levied against them but because of Iran's violence against countries in the Middle East (and they shot down a civilian aircraft headed for Canada) they have shown no effort to curtail and eliminate Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. These terror groups have to be gone; they are ignorant people who do not know how to live in this world and belong on an island somewhere that they can do no harm. Personally I am ambivalent about the Hormuz Strait opening again especially if the countries that used to use it can find alternative methods of shipping. Then it will be just Iran that can not ship oil and that would be a good thing as they only use the money for evil purposes whilst their people starve. 

 Another beautiful day in God's world although it is cloudy but even through the clouds the birds fly, the flowers bloom and the sky is inviting. Thank you God for this day in your world. 

 

The descendant of David

 King Jehoiachin of Judah, David's descendant, was released from prison in Babylon by King Evilmerodach at the beginning of his reign. He was kind to the King of Judah and placed him above the other kings who were with him in Babylon. God's promise continued to be fulfilled that a descendant of David would continue to live even in the Babylonian Exile when the people of Judah were forced to move to Mesopotamia in the Babylonian Empire from Judah. Some of the Israelis remained in Judah on the farms and were not forced to move and they remain to this day. Moving on to 1 Chronicles and I have a wall chart of the ancestors of Jesus on his mother's side. 

Genealogy was not my thing at all through most of my life. It was my cousin (my great grandmother's father Robert Gray had a brother James Gray and this cousin George De Kay was descendant of this line) who wrote to me (he first wrote to my younger sister who declined the offer and suggested me) and asked me to do a Pincombe Profile. It was a surprise and initially I said I really did not have the training to do that but after a couple of emails he persuaded me to take it on. So I did my usual when I know nothing and I took 42 courses from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies which was at St Michaels College, University of Toronto at that time. The item for the book was due in mid to late 2005 and this was spring of 2003 so I had my work cut out for me and I was also still working. However my husband had been doing genealogy for most of his life and I did help him at repositories when he asked me to do so. So I had a little introduction to that although my husband was looking for his colonial American ancestors (and he did find thousands of them as it turned out but he knew that they were early colonial with lots of surprises as it turned out for him). I needed English research from distinct counties in England namely in the case of the Pincombe family from Devon and Somerset and my great grandmother Grace (Gray) Pincombe's family was from the East Riding of Yorkshire. Grace was my first Canadian born ancestor and surprisingly her first cousin was Sir John Carling (which I did always know as a child). George had already produced a book on the Carling Routledge Gray families of London Township. Grace's mother was Mary Elizabeth Ann Routledge and her sister Margaret Routledge had married Thomas Carling. The Routledge family were my first immigrants to Canada in the fall of 1818  coming from Bewcastle, Cumberland, England. Sir John was very involved in politics both before, during and after Confederation. But I digress from my Bible Readings today and will now return to the 1st chapter of 1 Chronicles. 

These books were written for the people of Israel to remember who they were whilst they were away from their lands in Israel living in captivity in Assyria and Babylon. It will be the time of the prophets and we will start to hear about the Messiah to come. The desire to return to Israel (their known home through thousands of years of history) was always in their blood and one can understand that desire especially when one knows the entire history of the Israeli people. It always amazed me as a child that their history had been so lovingly preserved in the Bible. 

My grandfather used to talk about his Blake family having lived in the Andover area for ever; indeed Grandpa and one of his younger brothers were the first of Edward (my great grandfather) Blake's children to leave England and both came to Canada although another brother went to Africa a little later but my knowledge of him is weak as I can not remember my grandfather mentioning him that often. Grandpa talked about his oldest brother who had remained in England and all his sisters. He did write back and forth to them and I have some of those letters. I corresponded with a descendant of Grandpa's youngest brother William namely Ivan Kent who has since passed away. I went to England (my second trip and Edward's first) and spent about half a week with Ivan and we traveled about with his wife to the Andover area and to Barnstaple in Devon and area. He wanted to visit the Atlantic once again and I spent time in Bishops Nympton where the Pincombe family lived from whom my mother was descended. 

 Sunday today and it is a beautiful day following the rain yesterday although still somewhat cloudy. I will go to church in another hour online. God's day is always beautiful and contemplating the luxury of living in this beautiful world for eighty one years crosses my mind every day pretty much. I was born into peace as World War II was over and peace was coming to the world. It was a fragile peace but the wisdom of the Allies was to create the United Nations so that we would have a place in which to argue the events of the world and so we survived the Cold War. This public forum has stood us well through my entire life. I will say that the founding nations more than did their part in bringing together the nations of the world and helping many nations to come back from the absolute horror of the Second World War. It is good to see that these Allies have stayed together bringing in many many other nations over time. There are few areas of the world that are not represented well at the United Nations. No one wins in a war; everyone is a loser because lives are lost; money is used up quickly to provide war materials and the threat of war that annihilates the entire world hangs over us on a daily basis. Living underground for twenty years does not even come close to letting Mother Nature heal the world after a nuclear war. Perhaps one hundred years but providing for so much time underground does not really sound like a reasonable alternative. Peace is the better alternative. We had peace; we should return to it and make the punishment even harder for those who break the peace. Sanctions to absolutely cripple their ability to make war. The Houthis have bombed an oil company in Saudi Arabia - what foolishness. Why do they do that - why did Iran create such monsters to live amongst normal people namely Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Iran needs to change this situation (they created it) and quickly to give the world back its peace. Russia needs to get out of all of Ukraine as it existed prior to 2014 to ease that murderous rampage on the part of Russia against Ukraine. 

Today more work on the matches and gradually the number is decreasing. All of the databases have been adjusted with the newest matches that I have been through. There are still fifty five matches to sort into the various databases and then back to the work at hand which is producing the genealogical chart for Blake and phasing the great grandparents. My work never seems to be done but constantly leads on to a new idea. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.