Andover Parish Registers - 6

The parish registers for Andover continued to occupy my day and I have completed to the end of 1613 which is 1288 baptisms. I am starting to get quite familiar with the names and thus far all of my Andover names date back to the beginning of the registers. The Blake family here is relatively small (the general thought that I had on the Hampshire List was that it was full of Blake names) with two distinct lines in this time period. However, I have now discovered not quite so distinct as my 10 x great grandparents - Richard Blake and Jone Blake - shared the same great grandparents Blake making them second cousins. There is a possibility that Richard's mother was also a Blake and I will continue to investigate that. I have already experienced the wonders of many lines in one family with my Routledge 3x great grandparents - of their four parents three have the Routledge surname and it continues thus on the way back. Certainly makes for easier tracing of a family line!

I did a practice walk for the 10K in the Ottawa marathon at the end of May and managed 1 km per 7 minutes walking. I would like to get that closer to 6.5 minutes per kilometre and we shall see. It is the beginning that controls the overall trend and sometimes you get trapped at the beginning and can not get free of the large group to get your pace.

We biked 12 kilometres later in the day and it was quite warm but a really good ride. I am doing exercise by measure so that I do not overdo it. I tend to do that and eventually get exhausted and ill. Instead I shall use my 64 years of insight and observe a little more carefully that I am overdoing my exercise routines since I tend to be a bit of an exercise fiend.

Tommorrow I shall continue on with the transcription of the Andover parish register although I will have the dogs all day. We will have a great day although rain is promised but the dogs are happy here and will have the run of the yard when it isn't raining. I have 49 pages remaining of baptisms (I have completed 29 pages) and then there are 27 pages of marriages and 63 pages of burials. I am into neat script now and the pages no longer look eaten. The writing is a bit small but with close attention I am managing to read the old writing. The priest is no longer recording the place of residence except on occasion but is noting the status which can be quite helpful. For instance I have three Robert Blake in this time period, one is a yeoman, one is a victualler and one is a gent. I know which one is which and I am thus able to separate the births out quite well.