Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 27 February 2009

I completed the marriages 1813-1837 in the Bishops Nympton Parish Register fiche. I have also built a small file of the marriages from the Banns that were available in the 1870s and 1880s. I will gradually fill in the marriages using the baptisms and the census for Bishops Nympton. Since all are recorded in the Registration District of South Molton from 1837 on it will be a slow process.

Yesterday was a rainy day and we stayed in most of the day. Today is bright sunny and cold (minus 21 celsius) but we will likely go out since the warm weather yesterday has done a good job of clearing away the loose snow and ice. Our snow continues to compact down and will be a really good watering for the ground when spring comes - as it surely will in another month or so!

Today I shall work on the Burials for Bishops Nympton and a seven page report on burials in the Church and Churchyard and the rights of the incumbent to control this process. It has been interesting reading thus far as I have now transcribed five of the seven pages. The handwriting is quite good although a little small and I have missed a few words. I will go back later and redo when I am proofreading. It is an interesting excursion into British Legalese and Ecclesiastical Courts prior to 1850 in England - written in 1841. There are five fiche for the burials bringing them up to the mid 1980s and I will be able to find all of my relatives' burials that I am currently missing for Bishops Nympton.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 26 February 2009

I completed the baptisms for Bishops Nympton; what a nice feeling to have that done. I considered not doing from 1920 on since I will not give out this information but ultimately I plan to send the file to the Church and to the Devon Record Office so it might as well be complete. The last thirty years there are all the sponsors to enter as well but no more Pincombes after the 1930s. I have this vague memory of knowing that the Gunn family were on the old property when I saw it so that surprised me.
My mother must have mentioned that. They continued to correspond back and forth between here and Devon well into the 1900s but the Second World War appears to have ended that correspondence. When my grandfather died in 1925 (my mother was eight years old) that ended that correspondence betwen my family.

Today we had the children and their dogs over for dinner and it was a fun meal. I took the puppy outside so that the older dog could share in the meal towards the end. I am always finished first. I made a homemade pumpkin pie which turned out very very well - melted in your mouth. /

Then tonight my daughter and I did YOGA by Skype so that we are doing it together. Skype is a marvelous tool.

I have managed 10,000 steps most days although lagged behind a little yesterday so need to make that up tomorrow as I managed to do 11,000 today. I like to keep up my 10,000 a day that I did all the time that I was working (I have worn a pedometer now for about ten years).

Tomorrow I shall work on the marriages from 1813 to 1837. I prepared an excel file of the Banns and checked them against Free BMD yesterday evening. All but four the the Banns actually resulted in Weddings but it is for a short time only - 1870s and 1880s. I will use the census and the baptisms to see if I can determine marriages that might have occurred at Bishops Nympton. Free BMd only provides the Registration District of South Molton and there are a lot of villages included in that Registration District. When the burials are done then I need to extract the tax records for Bishops Nympton and then eventually acquire the Manor Records. Still a lot to do for the Village and perhaps I will eventually do a one place study looking at all the families and tracing them down, determining their place of residence and their occupation - a major paper eventually.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 25 February 2009

I have now completed the baptisms up to the middle of 1949. I had expected to see a large increase during the war but that did not occur. Just following the war still small numbers but as I approach 1950 there is a small increase in the number of baptisms. There are just 27 pages left to complete in the baptisms and I may get that finished tomorrow. That is just 249 more baptisms to record to the end of 1983. Then I will work on the marriages and following that five fiche for the burials. During the war a lot of new names in the village and now four years later some of the names are still there and a lot of older names are missing. I shall have to do a search on the Commonwealth Graves Commission to see if I can draw out the people with Bishops Nympton as their birthplace and I can prepare a Memorial Page. The only danger in that is leaving someone out so I shall have to think about it a bit. Perhaps I will write the parish priest with my list and he can tell me if it is incomplete. I suspect they probably have memorial plaques in the Church. When we go back I shall make an appointment to view the Church as we missed doing that this time.

I used the elliptical exercise machine today for once around the track. I should like to work my way up to four times around the track. It would be good exercise for me. I am varying my exercise routine these days by doing aerobics, joga and then the elliptical machine. I do my shoulder exercises every day as I do not ever want to have a frozen shoulder again. I think my shoulder has probably healed but I think it is worth following the therapy lessons the rest of my days.

Tomorrow I shall continue with the baptisms and hopefully complete that fiche. Our children are coming for dinner and I want to make a pumpkin pie but that doesn't take too much time. We still have to plan dinner but probably we will use our George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. It really does an excellent job. Actually I cooked pancakes on it yesterday and they were really tasty.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 24 February 2009

Baptisms up to the middle of 1925 are now complete in my file and I added in the maiden names of the mother from free BMD in brackets. I will eventually extract the marriages from Free BMD but it isn't particularly easy to do that since the Registration District is South Molton which includes a number of villages. With the baptisms and the census though I can extract a lot of them just to fill in the time period from 1837 to the present for my online parish clerk duties.

I was proofreading my husband's syllabus for the OGS conference and finished that off this afternoon. It is mostly text supplied by others so not a lot of first time typing to check on. I have decided now to speak about a few good samples of family connections with DNA both yDNA and mtDNA in my 25 minute talk. I have new information on some lines and a couple of new lines that are quite interesting. Really DNA is just another tool to use to match together family lines and a very effective one at that.

We had pancakes and bacon for Shrove Tuesday plus cheese cake and fresh raspberries or fresh pineapple - I took the fresh pineapple and it was quite delicious.

Tomorrow I will continue working on the Bishops Nympton Register - I hope to finish about half of the last fiche for baptisms and then complete all of that on Thursday. Then I can do the marriages which involves cutting and typing in the relevant information for each couple. There is one fiche (60 images) with three marriages to an image so about 180 marriages to enter. I found the earlier marriages and banns to be slow and expect this will take me a few days to complete. Then the burials are eight to a page like the baptisms but less information so may actually be quicker. There are five fiche with 60 images to a fiche so 2400 baptisms to enter. I am looking forward to doing the burials as I am missing a few burial dates for my ancestors in the 1813 to late 1900s period.

Bishops Nympton Parish Reigster - 23 February 2009

The baptisms are now complete up to 1897 for Bishops Nympton. They continue to decline although some years there are more than others. Definitely new names in the village now and the old farms that were in the Pincombe family all have new owners including the Manning family which is interesting given that Grace Manning married John Pincombe in 1725. Almost all of the children have a middle name these days as well. The new priest uses a lot of short forms which saves on typing - he refers to the name of the abode which again is very very handy. His spelling has become less creative as he gets to know all the people in the area.

We took the dogs for a walk today and they loved leaping about in the fresh snow. The puppy especially loves a good walk. His legs are becoming stronger every day so the walk really helps him with that. The older dog manages very well also and can keep up to the younger pup quite well.

Then we were off skating on the canal and the ice was quite good. We skated for over 5 km today and the wind was brisk and cold. I am sure I will feel it tomorrow!

Tomorrow I shall continue with the baptisms and should complete the second last fiche which brings me up to 1923. Then the last fiche of baptisms to do and next I will do the marriages from 1813 to 1837. The last five fiche are the burials which I am most interested to see in this time period (1813 to the late 1900s) as I still am missing burials for some of my family members. I have read the fiche through but I always find that simply isn't good enough - if I transcribe then I find everything. Once I complete Bishops Nympton then I shall go back and do Rose Ash, Molland and Merton all in Devon. Along with a few more images to transcribe for Devon that I took at Salt Lake City, my transcription will be somewhat complete. However, I still have all the Tax CDs for Devon that I have purchased plus the Lady Day Tax and the lists produced by the Friends of the Devon Archives (and Genuki) to draw out information on my family lines. I have done some but I want to do a very [precise viewing of all of this information) so that I know what I want to look at the next time we go to Salt Lake City.

When we go back to England in 2011 then I want to spend my time visiting all the places that our ancestors lived in. I will spend some time in Dorchester Record Office because I can not buy the fiche for Dorset and in Carlisle Record Office for the same reason. I want to go to Birmingham Public Library to view their records (possibly three days there) but for the most part we will tour about England stopping in the areas that we want an indepth view. Travelling through North Devon last spring was a wonderful experience and I shall be forever grateful to my cousin and his better half for taking us. Just on that one day we saw so very very much and I shall always remember the 12 foot high hedges going back into the Bucklands (West and East).

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 22 February 2009

Today, I completed the baptisms for Bishops Nympton up to 1880. The railway must have been coming through at this time as there are quite a few railway workers living in Bishops Nympton and the number of baptisms took a dramatic rise for a couple of years but the decline is now continuing. I completed Fiche 10 which is 1880 and Fiche 11 ends in 1923. I also have Fiche 12 and it brings me up into the latter part of the 1900s. Then I will begin the marriages from 1813 to 1837 (I was not able to purchase the marriage fiche beyond 1837). The last five fiche are burials from 1813 to the latter part of the 1900s. At that point I will have completed my transcription (word for word) of the Bishops Nympton Parish Relgisters. I have already started to proofread and build an excel file. Although I can search the word file the excel file allows me to sort the data in interesting ways.

Another snowfall and we just cleared away that lovely load of white fluffy stuff. Fortunately the warmer spell has shrunk the piles down somewhat but they are a solid mass of ice for the most part now and we will not likely see the end to them until at least mid April but it does water the ground very well as it melts so that we seldom have to water our lawns until mid Summer.

I spent some time working my way through my hampers of material, knitting wool and crochet cotton. I threw out uncompleted items that do not interest me any longer (not too much!) and had a good look at all the material. I believe I have three lengths for suits which should be nice.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 21 February 2009

I completed Bishops Nympton Parish Register up to 1872 for baptisms. The priest died in 1871 and was replaced by O L O'Neill, MA and he has some interesting ways to spell the surnames of the local inhabitants! He continues recording the actual locations of the families which is very helpful.

We attended the Opera today - La Rondine by Puccini - HD streamed from the Met in New York City. Excellent opera.

A lovely walk after the Opera and that brought me up to 10,000 steps for the day. Off to do my Yoga now.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 20 February 2009

I completed the Baptisms for Bishops Nympton up to 1868. They continue to slowly decrease in number with a few new families moving into the area. In particular the farms are being taken over by others - Park where my Robert Pincombe farmed has seen three different owners in ten years.

I prepared the Roster for Lenten Blessings but do not have sufficient people yet. Likely people will gradually sign up for the different dates that is what happened with the Advent Blessings. I have only signed up for two and will likely do more.

I spent part of the day going through all my sewing notions and organizing them. We went out and purchased two three tier plastic drawer sets and I now have everything organized so that I can now begin to sew again. I just have to think of projects for the material that I have at hand. As well I want to sort through my knitting needles so that I can start to organize some knitting as I sit and watch movies with my husband in the day.

We had thought to go to Europe this fall but I rather think we will wait another year or so. I do not feel a strong desire to go this year after all. I have been thinking about some of the things that I would like to do around the house.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 19 February 2009

I completed up to 1858 in the baptisms for Bishops Nympton Parish Register today. The priest continues to be most accurate in location and that is helpful although by this time my Pincombe family has left Bishops Nympton and indeed there are no longer any Pincombe families there after 250 years of living there. Some families that were there in the 1500s still remain in Bishops Nympton but many have moved on to other places or their surnames have daughtered out. I can think of a few cases where the last daughter of the house married into newer families and these are now the surnames that predominate.

The days are passing very quickly and I also need to do the Roster for Lenten Blessings for Anglican List. I shall work on that this evening and send it on to the list. I do not have very many volunteers unfortunately.

My daughter is slowly getting better. Just unlucky as she did have her flu shot. It doesn't guarantee 100% protection that is for sure but I think it is helpful.

Today President Obama came to Ottawa for a visit and he was very well welcomed which was nice to see. We didn't go down as we tend to watch everything on the Television (front seat always!).

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 18 February 2009

Baptisms for Bishops Nympton are now complete up to 1850. The priest continues to record the actual place of residency and it is interesting to see the families that lived at Park where Robert and Elizabeth Pincombe lived and at Week. We didn't travel the back road to Park when we were visiting as the road is very windy and I suspect it would have been an hour round trip.

I spent a little time checked a DVD out that is soon going to be for sale - Ottawa Branch News. It will be an excellent addition to anyone's library that hasn't been in the branch all these years. A lot of good articles have been published through the years about people in the area. I am still debating how to go about publishing the lists of patients seen at the original General Hospital in the 1850s. The lists are quite lengthy and would give a very interesting cross sectional view of the population that was in the area during this time. I need to contact the copyright holders of the microfiche although they did give it to the Ottawa Archives but in order to publish anything extensively I would need their permission. It would make an interesting series in the Ottawa Branch News for a number of issues.

I need to work on the Lanercost Protestation Returns to send them in for publication in the Cumbria Journal. I want to write a short background and then it is ready to go. I notice that they do publish a lot of lists. I also have now finished a first read of the other Protestation Wards in the Eskdale Ward but I didn't get the impression that the editor of the journal would like to publish more than Lanercost.

Snow is falling today in Ottawa and we are meant to get 20 centimetres - it will cover up the perfectly dreadful looking snowhills that predominate these days. President Obama comes tomorrow and it would be nice to see the capital looking spiffy all covered with a fresh coat of white snow. I do not know if he has ever been to Canada. It will be interesting to watch his time here on TV. I tend to do that almost all the time now - we rarely go to events.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 17 February 2009

I completed the baptisms for Bishops Nympton up to 1842 including the portion already done which needed a few "editing" comments as I have become much more specific with my transcribing over the last five years. The new Priest Joseph Thorne is very good at naming the farm or house where the family lived which can be really helpful.

Yesterday we went to Heritage Day at City Hall and it was very well done. I spent a little time behind the OGS table answering a few questions and had two queries about my speaking on DNA in the future at groups. I said yes but not until next year. We are really busy the rest of this year already.

My daughter took ill last evening and wasn't in time to cancel her class so went and taught - very difficult to be ill when you are on your own in another country. She is sleeping it off - probably a flu bug although she did have the flu shot. It was said though that the flu shot wasn't going to cover everything so I guess she found the "everything" that wasn't covered. Rotten luck but fortunately only one class to teach this week as it is a catch up week because of Monday holidays so fortunate that way.

This morning I am working once again on the Bishops Nympton Baptismal Register. I would like to complete the registers for baptism this week (another 3 fiche) and then the marriages 1813 to 1837 because I couldn't purchase the fiche for 1837 on. Then the burials another five fiche to complete and I will have everything transcribed. The fiche I am working on I still have more than 3 rows so a fair amount of work to do. It is fairly quick though as all forms.

Today I need to produce my one page for Gene-O-Rama lecture on DNA. Still thinking about that but will probably just do a couple of family studies in the 25 minutes and then take questions.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 16 February 2009

I continued with the Bishops Nympton Parish Register and have completed the baptisms up to the end of 1824 (three more years (12 pages) until I reach my small block already completed from 1827 to 1837). These are forms now so the information is quite standard although sometimes the priest does name the actual farm that the family lived on - I found my Pincombe line at Park which is where they lived when the four youngest children were born. They lived at West Wood when the four older children were born including my ancestor.

We went skating on the Canal (8 km although we only skated 4.8 km) today and it was a very pleasant day to do so. This is a holiday in Ontario - Family Day so the canal was fairly busy.

I started reading another one of my Christmas books - "The First Human" by Ann Gibbons. Lots of background and I have read the first chapter only. It is interesting reading all of these books in light of the latest revelations with mtDNA and yDNA. Both the maternal and paternal line in my family are fairly unusual making geographic location possible for the mtDNA and somewhat of a mystery for the yDNA although it appears to be a very old English DNA possibly Neolithic. The best matches though are found in the Balkans (9/12) and Poland. But the markers appear to fit in with this very very early branch of I2a as there are others who, like us, do not have any absolute matches.

I am still thinking about my lecture and what I will say. It is just 25 minutes so I will not be saying a great deal. I have to decide if it will be elementary or just a strict look at some family lines. It is difficult to decide although I think I will just do a few family lines since that will interest people who have tested and people who are thinking about testing. This will be my last lecture as I find that it simply takes up too much time being involved with lectures and writing for other people. I want to concentrate on my own research now.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 15 February 2009

Back to Bishops Nympton Parish Register which is the first one that I started to transcribe about four years ago. It was slow going at the beginning but I have now completed up to 1812 for absolutely everything that I purchased from the Devon Record Office. I completed the Banns today and they actually go up to 1885 which was a surprise - there are a number of gaps in the 1800s but they are quite complete up to about 1820 from 1755 with one period missing 1795 to 1804. I am now working on the baptisms from 1813 on. I have done 1827 to 1837 so need to reach 1827 and then do 1837 practically up to the present. I have 50 pages to do to reach 1827. I find out an amazing amount on my families whilst transcribing. Since Devon did their own microfilming of these registers though I will not publish them as they are under copyright to them. Eventually when I have proofread everything I will send a copy to the Registry Office - my bit as the daughter of English emigrants.

Certainly my grandfather remained British to his dying day since he had only been lent to the Railroad here and was to have returned in 1922 to England to his job there. But the loss of manpower was enormous here in the 1st World War and they asked him to stay on and then on longer and eventually he retired here in 1943 after 30 years of service here and he already had 15 years of service with the Southern Railway in England. He loved to talk about England but half of his family died during the 1st and 2nd World Wars and then his wife died here so the incentive to go back home was quite low by 1943. There were five of us grandchildren by 1947 and when I really remember him by 1949 he just simply enjoyed being with us and keeping us in line! He described Upper Clatford to me so many times that when I went there I recognized some of the places from his description including the house where he grew up (likely!). There is just one of the three row houses left now but it appears to be the one that he grew up in (his grandparents lived right next door) with his 11 siblings although they ranged in birth year from 1872 to 1894 so that the oldest ones were already gone when the youngest arrived and two died as small children.

For my Devon ancestors I have less vivid stories because they came third hand. My ancestors left Bishops Nympton (actually Molland but that is another story) in 1850 (November 20) and arrived in New York City 7 January 1851. My great grandfather was just 14 years old when he came on to Canada in March 1851 but he shared the stories of Devon with his only son who then retold the stories to my mother (his only daughter). Of course my grandfather also knew his grandfather very well as he lived to be 86 years old and died in 1894 when Grandpa Pincombe was 22 years old. 2x great grandmother Pincombe was more of a mystery but I finally solved that one as she died when my Grandfather was only six years old. She was actually from Somerset which was part of the mystery.

Later today we went babysitting the Chihuahua (our son in law to be's dog) and he was so happy to see us as the others were going to take the puppy for his training lessons. The Puppy is now bigger than the Chihuahua but they are getting along better and better. The Puppy takes cues from the older dog and more so each day. We went for a long walk although it was a windchill of minus 15 degrees celsius. We stayed on the sunny side of the street which helped.

Tomorrow I shall continue with the Bishops Nympton Parish Registers as I would like to complete them by the end of February or by mid March (Baptisms go to the early 1990s, Marriages only until 1837, Burials also to the 1990s). By 1900 though there are few baptisms and few burials per year. Then I can continue the proofreading and transfer of the word document to an excel file to make lookups easier when people write to ask me about Bishops Nympton (although it is easy to search on the word file). I want to be able to sort on last names to look at my various lines through the five hundred years. I am still contemplating a one place study and Bishops Nympton would be one of my thoughts although I am still thinking of Upper Clatford. I have more documentation on Bishops Nympton but more verbal stories of Upper Clatford. It will be a hard decision and on the other hand perhaps I could do both. Then there is Turnworth Dorset about which my father told me a great deal because he visited his great grandfather there as a child every summer until he died in 1912. Turnworth is a remarkable place as we discovered when we visited last spring. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

Landkey Parish Registers - 14 February 2009

Finished the Landkey Parish Registers today and that is baptisms complete to 1766 in baptisms (total 1921), marriages to 1755 (total 889) and burials to 1763 (total 1762). Surprisingly the last few years the infant mortality has been quite a bit lower (around 10%).

I decided to work on the Banns for Bishops Nympton to complete them (I have one more fiche to do to bring me up to 1812). I have the first row done and I am working on the second row. I will try to complete the Banns by early next week and then move on to the baptisms for Bishops Nympton. I have a gap from 1813 to July 1827. Then I have all baptisms completed to October 1837. I will fill in that gap first and then work on the burials from 1812 to 1837 and after that the marriages. After 1837 I only have baptisms and burials as I could not purchase the marriage registers in Devon after Civil Registration began. However, I just glanced at the rest of the Banns and see that they appear to be complete right up to the late 1800s so may be handy for lookups. I have completed up to 1788 (188 sets of banns since 1754). There are 351 Banns registry entries (i.e. 163 to go!). I completed 75 today so about two days work to complete the Banns.

We walked up to the Drug Store (about 1 km) this morning and it was a fresh brisk walk. This was Valentine's Day and we went out for dinner at noon. Then a nice 2 km walk later in the afternoon.

I signed up for the Ottawa Race Weekend - this is my fourth year to do the 10K. My eldest daughter and I do that together. We generally start our practice in the early spring.

Landkey Parish Registers - 13 February 2009

Continuing with the Landkey Parish Registers, the priest is only recording the baptisms and burials now and about two pages at a time to each. Both baptisms and burials are increasingly slightly. There are fewer infant burials but still about 35% of all births end in early death by 2 to 3 years of age. 1860 baptisms up to the end of 1760. I am on the last row of images of the last fiche and the last year is 1764 for baptisms. There are a couple of Memorandums that the priest wrote which should make interesting reading.

Requests for information on the Siderfin family are coming in once again. They are usually for the descendants of Thomas Siderfin (b 1777) and possibly the youngest brother of my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth. I can not prove the link but the name is so unusual it is hard to believe that they are not all related.

We looked after the dogs overnight and that was a big job. It has quite convinced me that I would not like to have a dog. They are a lot of work and especially puppies need about one year of training.

I have put on 140,000 steps on my pedometer since the beginning of February. It has certainly been a busy month although that is just over 10,000 steps per day. 10,000 steps per day is the recommended number of steps that an adult should do in one day for good health. I am following the Trans Canada Trail online and gradually crossing Canada figuratively. I think it will take me a couple of years to travel the Trans Canada Trail as it isn't direct.

I am thrilled that my daughter's thesis is now complete and into her committee. The end is in sight for her. Job hunting will occupy her for the next few months and then moving. Life is hard for young people these days of tough economic times.

Landkey Parish Registers - 11 February 2009

I completed the Parish Registers transcription for Landkey up to 1756 today with the marriages stopping at 1755 (the priest is now using the new form and I did not purchase those fiche yet). Up to 1755 there are 889 marriages recorded by the priest and interestingly there are 1141 marriages in the IGI from 1602 to 1837. That surprises me as it would appear that there are only 252 marriages from 1756 to 1837. Mind you, I have found a number of marriages that were difficult to transcribe or accidentally missed on the IGI (perhaps 30 or 40 since one entire year of 10 marriages is missing) but it would appear that there was a substantial reduction in the number of marriages from the mid 1700s to 1837. By 1756 there are 1815 baptisms and 1688 burials. There has been a steadily increasing number of burials the last ten years again but the population is aging after the enormous loss of life during the plague. The number of marriages and baptisms is steadily decreasing for this small village.

This was a washing day so have spent a few hours on that. Plus I helped take the dogs for a walk which they loved. It is a warmer day here and the snowpack has gone down a little (mostly it will turn into a solid ice layer underneath the soft fluffy stuff!

Tomorrow I need to work on my presentation and continue with the Landkey Parish Register. I only have about 15 pages left to work on so would like to finish this week. I need to decide which set to work on next. The Rose Ash parish is very tempting and will likely win out over the others. I also need to organize my next purchase of parish registers.

Landkey Parish Registers - 10 February 2009

Another day on Landkey Parish Registers and I am complete up to 1747 with bits of 1748 and 1749 done on marriages and baptisms. The new priest's handwriting is quite clear so that is lucky and I am getting used to one page for baptisms, one for marriages and one for burials. One just has to work one's way through it all. There are by the end of 1747 1722 baptisms, 853 marriages and 1583 burials. A number of items have been missed on the IGI and the occasional error creeps in but on the whole the IGI is quite good for Landkey.

We were to have a heavy ice storm today but we were lucky as the storm passed to the north and south of us - that doesn't happen often! However, we will have the rain event tomorrow which will compact the snow ensuring that it will be with us into early May simply because it takes so long to melt when it is so compacted. It is very white and crisp looking outside today but quite dull.

Tomorrow I need to work on my presentation to send my notes in for the brochure. The days pass so quickly but my health has improved quite a bit over the past six months. It will be nice to wind my self-employment business down as well to give me more time to work on my own projects. Richard Pincombe has appeared at Swimbridge and I wonder if he is a son of Hugh Pincombe the younger or a cousin. I shall have to investigate him. There was a Richard Pincombe at Bishops Nympton who would have been a 2nd or 3rd cousin - I shall work away on that.

Landkey Parish Registers - 9 February 2009

Continuing on with the Landkey Parish Registers and perhaps I will complete them this week. The interim priest has now been replaced by a permanent priest and his style is to use one page for baptisms, one for marriages and one for burials so that creates a change in my style of working. However I managed to find a good stopping spot at 1738 which means I just have to pick up a few marriages at the bottom of one page for 1739 and then at the bottom of the next page the burials for 1739 and then skip the first few lines of the next page and I am at baptisms for 1739. Surprisingly it did not take me that long to complete the ten years today but it is partly because there are not that many entries per year. There are now 1647 baptisms, 787 marriages and 1500 burials. I found Hugh Pincombe's burial as senior so his son is still alive in 1731 which is good to know.

We went snowshoeing this morning for about 1.5 hours and about 9000 steps! It was hardgoing but pleasant to be out on such a nice sunny day although cold. One works up quite a bit of heat going on snowshoes so no danger of freezing. The puppy was sliding along on the ice and scarcely broke his stride. He wasn't troubled at all by the sliding. He tried to use his claws to grip but he still isn't strong enough for that. We walked about 1.5 kilometres and that tires him out a little. He still sleeps quite a bit although he is quite strong for a pup. The other dog is more used to this type of weather and he is quite strong. He is very independently minded and keeps up a good pace.

I am still working on my presentation and need to send my husband, the editor, my "blurb" for the brochure. I will do that tomorrow.

Landkey Parish Registers - 8 February 2008

A successful day for the Parish Registers as I have now reached and completed 1728 for Landkey. There are now 1559 baptisms, 719 marriages, and 1406 burials. Since there are still 110 years of records on the IGI for this parish there must have been a decline in population as there are only 1141 marriages in the IGI (mind you some of the marriages in the Parish Register are not in the IGI).

I am also working on my DNA presentation and deciding which families to include. It is only 30 minutes and I want to leave five minutes for questions so will likely eliminate a number of slides by the date. At the moment I have about one hundred which is far too many. I will likely settle for 25 to 30 slides.

We also have been dog sitting today and the puppy has really grown. His legs are literally lengthening daily making his rather large body from his young puppy days look much thinner and leaner. We took them for a 1 km walk today although there were a lot of puddles to pick him up over as he doesn't realize he needs to miss them like the older dog does. He tries to copy him but he is actually taller and heavier than the older dog now and will be about twice his size when he is an adult.

The Pincombe family is appearing in the register once again as the children of Hugh Pincombe marry. Since this is the family at Swimbridge that has answered a question in my mind about them. Linking them back to Bishops Nympton has been most successful and also to Wilmot Pincombe who would have been a first cousin once removed to Hugh. I think that Sarah's surname is possibly Lang because her parents were Matthew and Grace - the first son and the first daughter of Hugh and Sarah were named Matthew and Grace. The other sons are William, John and Hugh with a daughter Elizabeth. Just a thought and perhaps in time I will be able to find her surname.

Landkey Parish Registers - 7 February 2009

I have now completed the Landkey Parish Registers up to 1721 and the priest, Rev William Beare, for the last 30 years has passed away and a new priest is in charge of the parish. His handwriting is very fine and consequently has not survived quite as well as the last priest. These next 30 years are going to be more difficult. There are now 1502 baptisms, 691 marriages and 1332 burials.

Continuing to work on my writing articles as well and need to finish those off this weekend. Then I can get back to doing some of "my" work that I want to do. I decided that 2008 would be the last year for me to run my business of publishing. It takes a lot of time to do the bookkeeping at year end and I have so many other things that I would like to do.

An interesting project was discussed on the Devon list dealing with Bradworthy and the note that 100 people emigrated from this small village and the OPC for the village (she lives in Devon) has sent out a call for the stories of these people so that she can build a file about the people who left, where they went, their descendants, etc. It is a really interesting idea. I would like to do a one place study but I am still trying to decide if I will do Upper Clatford Hampshire or Bishops Nympton Devon. My father's family was from Hampshire and my mother's family from Devon.

Landkey Parish Registers - 6 February 2009

Continued with the Landkey Parish Registers and completed up to 1715. The number of Baptisms continues to be small but also the burials. There are a lot of marriages considering the size of the parish but most of them are from outside. There are now 1432 baptisms, 655 marriages and 1280 burials. It is interesting to compare with the International Genealogical Index where there are 3282 baptisms between 1602 and 1837 and 1141 marriages between 1602 and 1837. There are a number of baptisms missing from the IGI in particular the Southwood and the Wilkey family are, for some reason, missing from the early registers.

I suggested doing the Lenten Blessings for the Anglican List as a Blog and the owner of the List liked the idea. I am glad of that as I think it will be a nice way to display the Blessings in the future. One can just scroll back and find the one that especially interested them.

We took the dogs for two walks today and the puppy is getting to be better and better at walking instead of running - it is natural to a Sheltie to run. It will take him a while to moderate his tempo for a friendly walk instead of a good run.

Landkey Parish Registers - 6 February 2009

Another very busy day and also a fairly cold day for February here in Ottawa (minus 20 degrees celsius and not warming up much at all). Completed up to 1707 yesterday in the Parish Registers for Landkey. There are now 1367 baptisms, 590 marriages and 1210 burials. The priest (William Beare) continues to record the location of the events if other than Landkey and the home parish of the participants if not Landkey - very helpful information as I now find that the Pincombe family is at Swimbridge rather than Landkey itself.

We usually help with the Computer Room at Gene-O-Rama and spent a short time discussing what types of records we would bring this year. I shall have to spend a couple of hours thinking about that. It is good advertisement for the various CDs that we have collected over the years - personally I have more of a tendency to buy CDs if I can see that it will be useful to me in my research.

Time to request volunteers for Lenten Blessings on the Anglican List where I prepare the roster of volunteers. It has been a long standing custom to have these Blessings (going back about twelve years now).

Landkey Parish Registers - 4 February 2009

Spent a little time on the Landkey Parish Registers and completed up to 1705. There are now 1353 baptisms, 575 marriages and 1189 burials. Although there are not a lot of new baptisms there are not a lot of new burials either. The Plague has passed through and disappeared fortunately for this small village. The priest continues to add in interesting details about the locations of the individuals that he mentions in the parish register. No more baptisms for this priest so suspect that their one and only child was their son who died as an infant.

Still working on my husband's articles plus my presentation. I need to submit a background for the conference brochure so need to have a good idea on what I will be speaking about other than the more general "Family Studies and DNA." I have decided to concentrate on my own family line Blake, my husband's Schultz line as his cousin has recently done his yDNA and it proved to be a surprise since this family emigrated from Prussia and we thought it might be I or perhaps R1a but it is definitely R1b with no exact matches but one 11/12 match with the same surname. Also I will speak about the Pincombe one name study since I now have two samples and the Mead family which continues to be interesting. For mtDNA I will take about the geographic potential with doing a FGS.

I completed the book report on Bryan Sykes' three DNA books - The Seven Daughters of Eve, Adam's Curse and Saxons, Viking and Celts. All three are a most interesting read although there is now some debate on the historical content they remain a fascinating first read for anyone looking at doing their DNA study. I am also busy writing up an article on Salt Lake City preparation.

Article writing

I am behind on my articles for the next issue of my husband's journal that he edits for the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I have spent the last two days working away at that as well as catching up on some other computer work that I needed to do.

The days and weeks pass very quickly and surprisingly for a snowy Ottawa. I stayed home for 16 years proofreading and copyediting freelance when the girls were small and got used to just working away every day at home. I have settled back into that mind set!

Back to the Landkey Parish Registers Thursday or Friday. I have a number of items that I need to work on for other projects. I think as I passed the date for the marriage of Hugh Pincombe and Sarah my interest was starting to wane a little! I do want to finish though up to 1750 to see if there are any other Pincombe burials.

Landkey Parish Registers - 1 February 2009

Another busy day and I have completed to the end of 1703 in the Parish Registers for Landkey. There are now 1327 baptisms, 564 marriages and 1166 burials. I will continue tomorrow working on the Parish Registers but February will see me quite busy with a number of items that will slow me down likely. I have had a good run though the last couple of weeks.

We cleared away snow once again and the piles are getting higher and higher. We still have all of February and March is sometimes our heaviest snow month as the weather is milder. One wonders where we will stack it all but we still have the front patio which we have kept clear up until now. We will start stacking it there now with the snowblower.

Took the dogs for a run today and they enjoyed that. Next winter the youngest one will be able to manage the deeper snow as he will be full grown. Already he can run up and down the stairs easily (just a week ago he was still too small to go down the stairs). He is learning quickly and very obedient. We quite enjoy him.

Tomorrow I need to continue working on my presentation for the end of March. The time is certainly passing quickly. The good news is that the buses are running again in Ottawa.