Andover Parish Registers - 22

I continued working on the Andover Parish Registers and finished up to 1619 with a total of 1362 entries in my burial database. This is the good part with a lovely script hand although the letters are 1600s style. A number of Blake entries that I missed when I read through the fiche - I really need to transcribe them to get everything out of them. It is so easy to miss a name when you are just quickly reading on a fiche reader.

I also managed to do 30 sets of data in my proofreading as I would like to complete this task by next weekend. I need to do a little work on it after that and then we can start doing our analysis.

We had a bike ride this morning (14.2 kilometres) and it was a stiff cold wind blowing which resulted in tiny hail by afternoon. Fortunately it wasn't heavy enough to do any damage to our new plants.

I made our favourite Macaroni casserole for dinner - it takes about 20 minutes to prepare and then cooks in the oven for 25 minutes. It used 400 ml of cheese (mixture of old and medium) and some Romano just to give it a nippy taste. I make a white sauce with lots of onions (I love onions!).

Tomorrow we have a meeting to look at the summer genealogy camp and I shall continue on the parish registers and proofreading.

Andover Parish Registers - 21

I worked on the Andover Parish Registers again today and the burial register specifically. I am up to June 1611 now and into the lovely script instead of the tiny writing. There are now 1045 burials in the register and I expect there will be around 2500 or more in the burial register by 1633. There was a "pest" in the village of Andover beginning in August 1603 as recorded in the register. It waged for about two years before it disappeared as quickly as it arrived. The death rate was quite high and especially amongst the elderly (i.e. widows). I have found a few Blake entries hidden in the small writing that I hadn't noticed before so shall set about seeing if I am able to place them in the family lines.

Geocities is closing down at the end of this year and that was where my webpages were located since Rogers is our IP. My husband decided to create a domain name for us - kipp-blake-families.ca and we have now transferred all of our files over to the new domain. I will put a note on my Rogers webpage to let people know that I have moved. I will not update that page but will now only update the new domain. We had thought about having our own domain for quite a while so this will be quite nice. We also will have some email addresses that work with the domain name. At some point we may move and our rogers may not be the best IP then so it would be good to have permanent email addresses.

We spent the afternoon at the Cumberland Museum as it was an open house day for them. It was quite interesting and I learned a few new facts. We walked about 10 km all told today and we were quite tired. On the way home we picked up the dogs and brought them over for a run and walk around the block which they always enjoy. Then we watched "All creatures great and small" for the first three issues of the second season. We just have the last four issues to watch now for the second season and I have ordered in the third and fourth seasons. That is all that our library carries. There are still Seasons 5 to 7 so shall have to think about that for a bit.

I also proofread another 20 entries in the DNA database. I still have 150 to read. It is quite slow going and I am not finding very many errors. It feels more like you are accomplishing something when you find errors!

Tomorrow I shall continue with the registers and try to reach 1615 or so as there will be pages after the lovely script that will be hard to read I am sure :) Also I will continue proofreading. I am trying for 20 to 30 a day which should see me done in 5 to 7 days. I also need to make my list of wills that I want to order from Hampshire. I never quite got around to it as I got distracted by the Hinxman wills on the PCC list.

Andover Parish Registers - 20

The Andover Parish Registers continued to be my subject of interest and I completed up to the end of 1603. Really hard reading and the last six months an enormous number of deaths from a "pest" which was written in the margin. There are 726 burials in the database now.

I have another four of five pages of really tiny writing to read and then I am into very nice writing for a few pages which will be very helpful.

We took the dogs for a walk today in the rain but they really enjoyed it and then we towelled them down.

I spent a little time proofreading my DNA data and have 100 done - another 170 to do. The data continues to look more and more interesting.

The last video has come in "All Creatures Great and Small" and we will pick it up tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will continue working on the Andover Parish Registers and proofreading my DNA data.

Andover Parish Registers - 19

Again a portion of my day was spent on the Andover Parish Registers and continuing with the burial portion of the first register for Andover Parish Church. I completed to the end of 1600 with a total of 578 burials. Although the writing is sometimes hard to decipher the pages are, for the most part, fairly intact although missing some on the edges on occasion. I found one burial for a son of Richard Blake with the letters ..ater and I am still trying to decide the name of this child as I do not have him listed for Richard (William, Nicholas)'s children. There are other Richard Blake's though and he could well be the child of another Richard although I only find one Richard in this time frame baptizing children at Andover. I would have thought the letters would be .....arde for Edwarde as that is generally the name that is given to the son of Richards that died young.

We went for a long walk (about 4 kilometres) in between the rain drops - it rained slightly at the beginning and just started in again at the end. A cool day here but perfect for planting and that is what my husband spent his day doing. The flowers will be lovely.

We also picked up the other two videos for the All Creatures Great and Small Second Season and just waiting now on the first video for the season which I had to order from another library. Hopefully it will come in by the weekend.

Perhaps we will watch a couple of JAG issues this evening.

Tomorrow I will continue with the burial register and see how much I can accomplish. I have thirty three years left to do and I appear to be able to accomplish about four years a day so I am looking at about eight days perhaps to finish. If the reading improves it will take me less time and assuredly there is a portion coming that will be easier to read I hope!

Andover Parish Registers - 18

I continued working on the Andover Parish Registers - burials from the first register and I have completed up to December 1596 which is a total of 369 burials from 1586 to 1596. Fortunately I have been able to use my baptismal register when some of the names are difficult to read for comparison. The burial register will prove to be extremely handy as I work through my family lines at Andover.

Other than that this was a quiet day and we took a long walk in the evening. Usually we would go earlier but it rained all day so we waited to see if there would be a decrease (and there wasn't so we headed out anyway for a pleasant 2 kilometre walk).

Tomorrow I will continue with the burial register for Andover but I expect it will take me at least a week to complete up to 1633 and then the first register is complete.

Andover Parish Registers - 18

I continued with the Andover Parish Registers working on the burial register of the 1st Register. I reached July 1590 with 145 burials now in my database. I found the burial of my 11x great grandmother Elizabeth Blake. I would love to know her maiden name and perhaps one day I will find that. However with her birth likely 1515 to 1520 that will be difficult I expect.

We found All Creatures Great and Small Season II and watched two of the issues. There are six tapes with three issues so a total of 18 issues in a season. There are seven seasons in total.

A quick trip to buy a camera strap and a tiny tripod which is a surprise for me for Christmas - I know that I will enjoy having it.

Tomorrow I will continue with the Andover Parish Registers working on the burials. This will likely be as many entries as the baptisms - possibly well over 2500 up to 1633 so a fairly long task to complete. The next register should be very very interesting although I want to have this register as well.

Andover Parish Registers - 17

I completed the Marriages portion of the first register for Andover and there were are a total of 632 marriages from the initial entry in 1587 to 1633. There are 887 names for marriages on the IGI for Andover in the time period 1613 +/- 20 years and 184 names between 1588 and 1592 and 32 in 1587. That is a total of 1103 names and roughly dividing by 2 gives the number of marriages (a number of these entries have only one or the other name in a marriage though in actual fact) as 552 so my 632 would seem to be quite reasonable. I could do a count on the number of marriages where I have only one name and that could well give me the same final count. I will do that in one of my spare moments!

I started the burial register portion of the first register and have completed to March 1587, the register started on 1 January 1586. There are a total of 55 burials thus far. I am using the other two charts to help me with the surnames as even in this short period of 40 years family names have changed in their spelling and some families have disappeared with new ones arriving. 20 of the 55 burials are children or infants (not specified in this early register). However the names of the parents are given which is very handy. I do not have any deaths for the Blake family in this time period which is as expected.

We celebrated my older daughter's birthday yesterday with a barbeque. It is nice to have the entire family together and we sat around and looked at picture albums.

Today we will have a look and see which of the series for "All Creatures Great and Small" are available at the Public Library. We have the first season but would like to see the other five seasons. I tried to buy them but can not afford the price right now so will borrow them from the library since they appear to have all of them.

Still watching JAG and have completed Seasons 1 and 2 and working on Season 3. Earlier we did watch Seasons 4 and 5 but will redo them. We bought Season 6 so just need 7 to 10 (7 and 8 are available in the store).

Today I shall continue working on the burial register and I will also watch the other load of laundry. We have managed to hang them outside consistently since the end of March. We hope to do so until the end of October since that saves on our electricity usage and helps the environment. Plus it probably saves us a few pennies on our bill!

Andover Parish Registers - 16

Another day of Andover Parish Registers and I continued with the marriages completing up to October 1625. The last couple of pages have been particularly difficult and there isn't any improvement to the end of this first register for the marriages. None the less I now have 515 marriages (a number of them partial with only the groom or the bride). I have managed though to find some of the old families that lived in this area represented which is quite handy as I work on my Blake, Madgwick, Spring lines. I still need to order the Blake wills but wanted to have a look at these early registers to see exactly which ones might be helpful to me.

Today, my youngest daughter ran her first marathon and she finished. That completed our family event for the Ottawa Race Weekend. The three of us spend the entire year getting ready (as time is available) for this one weekend event although my daughters run/walk at other events throughout the year I only do the one event.

Other than that the day was a beautiful one in terms of weather not too dreadfully hot although some found it quite warm to run the 42 kilometres and it was warmer than yesterday.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the marriages (there are seven pages left) for Andover. Then I can start the burials and I hope to learn quite a bit about the Blake family in early Andover. Burial registers are not on the IGI to any extent (infant burials are sometimes extracted) so this will be all new information for about 70 to 80% of the entries. Often enough in the older registers the priest recorded the name of the father if a child or the name of the spouse which is extremely helpful. Also location may be recorded thus permitting me to determine the particular family of the same surname.

10K

Yesterday my day was somewhat dominated by babysitting the "grand" dogs and doing the 10K in the Ottawa Race Weekend. Both were successful. The boys were especially good yesterday and we all enjoyed a barbeque at the end of the day - the dogs especially enjoying their portion of beef!

I also worked on the marriage register for Andover and completed up to the end of 1608. This part of the register is quite eaten away unfortunately but none the less I was able to extract information that will be handy. There were several Blake marriages that are in my line including William Blake marrying Dorothy Magick (Madgewick), his sister Dorothy marrying Peter Burmingham, his sister Elizabeth marrying John Hopgood and his sister Joane Blake marrying Richard Bailie. It is amazing really finding all four of these marriages intact! The remainder of his siblings who married were between 1610 and 1620.

Today I shall continue with the marriages and I am starting into the very nicely written part of the register although parts continue to be chewed away. I can see at a quick glance the marriage of William's sister Elenor to Joseph Hinxman.

Andover Parish Registers - 15

I spent about half of a day on the Andover Parish Registers today. I completed the marriages up to 30 August 1605 with a total of 290 marriages now recorded. This is the early part of the register and there are large chunks missing from some of the pages. I am finding the Blake marriages that interest me but the 2nd parish register will be the one that I will be keenly looking at as well as the third one. They bring me up to the early 1700s. These records simply verify the material that I have already collected from the IGI. The priest is noting the parish for these individuals if it isn't Andover which is always very nice and sometimes fathers are mentioned.

We went and picked up our race kits for the 10K tomorrow. I hope to beat last year's time so we will see how I do with that. The shirts are black this year with pink trim. Our race is at 6:30 p.m. so no heat of the day and actually it is only supposed to be 18 degrees celsius here tomorrow so will be a little on the cool side which is always a nice way to have it.

My husband and I went and bought 40 bags of black earth to put into the gardens. We also got a couple of hanging plants which will be very pleasant this summer. I love flowers outside and I am not so keen on them inside although I like lots of green plants inside.

I also spent several hours proofreading our DNA project. I can do about 25 at a time and after that my eyes start to water - it is partly looking at the screen and partly concentration. I have excellent concentration but after a couple of hours the brain needs a break (approaching 64 years is perhaps a small part of that :)).

Tomorrow I shall continue with the parish register for Andover and more proofreading of our DNA project. I would like to finish the marriages up to 1634 by the end of next week. Time will tell but I know that the registers improve dramatically in a little while! That keeps me reading the really difficult parts that are almost impossible to analyze. As well we have the 10K to do in the evening. Probably I will not do a 15 K bike ride tomorrow!

Andover Parish Registers - 14

Andover Parish Registers occupied my day today and I have completed the marriages up to November 1594. The marriages are slower going since I have to read two different names for each entry. Sometimes I am getting father's names which is very very handy and an occasional parish when they are not both from Andover. The marriages tend to concentrate in the spring after Lent and then in the late fall into the winter. Thus far only a couple of Blake marriages. Unfortunately the registers begin just about ten years too late to catch all the marriages of the William Blake family.

Ancestry invited me to be an Expert Provider in their new scheme of providing genealogical services. I filled in the form and setup my page but I would like to just earn enough to pay my subscription and any books, etc. that I would like to purchase. I have closed my business and I am retired so it is too awkward to do more than that. We will see if they can "barter" with me. I am not sure but North America is the home of bartering!

We went to see Angels and Demons and the movie was every bit as exciting as the trailers promised. The scenes of Rome are absolutely fantastic and the Pantheon especially memorable. My daughter and I stood there in November 2001 although it was much brighter in the movie. The Piazza Navona and the Fountain of the Four Rivers was fascinating to see again so closeup.

We did a practice walk for the 10K on Saturday. We are ready to take it on. We would like to beat last year's time.

Tomorrow I will continue with the first Parish Register of marriages at Andover.

Andover Parish Registers - 13

Today I completed the baptisms in the first register of St Michael Parish Church, Andover, Hampshire, England - 2518 baptisms. I started the marriages also beginning in 1587 and I have entered 34 marriages. Again I am hoping to find all the Blake marriages and although these are on the IGI the priest does, on occasion, mention the location and in the case of the Blake family that is very very helpful to me.

Tomorrow is our eldest daughter's birthday so we went off shopping for what she wanted which was a new digital camera. She has usually been the inheritor of my husband's hand me downs but this past year my husband bought our youngest a digital camera that she wanted for Christmas and our eldest mentioned that the two hand me downs have now given out so she has only her cell phone (which actually takes really good pictures) so that will be our birthday present to her for this year. We found a neat little case and the 11th season of MASH to go with it. I know she will enjoy them. She has sent us absolutely marvelous pictures from Long Island - snow on Jones Beach and beautiful images of Manhattan in all the seasons.

Tomorrow I will continue to work on the marriages from the Andover Parish Registers. I also want to spend some time on my Genuki webpages for Hampshire. I have a number of entries from people for the Church database. I think I may add my baptisms to the Andover webpage. Usually I proofread them but that would make this an even more enormous task. People will write to me to query items and I will let them help me proofread them.

Gatineau Preservation Centre

Today I was most fortunate to have a tour of the Gatineau Preservation Centre, Library and Archives Canada. Perhaps the item that I found the most interesting was a rather fascinating incubator looking restoration device that can be used to create a very high humidity in order to open up old documents like indentures which were of skin and often had many seals attached to them. Being able to flatten out these documents whicha re often folded up three or four times lengthwise and the same widthwise without cracking them is such a marvelous tool. Having been able to look at some of these old documents in libraries without such a tool really showed me how valuable this tool is to preserve our national heritage as one could then digitize the document and place it into a secure holding so that there would not be a need for it to be handled more than necessary in the future. There were so many other items that were equally fascinating and it is marvelous to see that this new building will house our national memory well into the future although there will be a need for expansion and new buildings as our memory continues to grow at a rapid pace with the introduction of internet and the ability for everyone to create a memory.

I also worked some more on the Andover Parish Registers and completed another page which doesn't seem like very much but my day passed very quickly. I am also training to do the 10K on Saturday which does tend to eat into my day. I have now completed 2440 baptisms which brings me to July 1633. There are just three pages left and I will hopefully complete them tomorrow.

Andover Parish Registers - 12

Finally back to the Andover Parish Registers and I completed to January 1632 today which is a total of 2412 baptisms in the database. There are four pages left to complete the baptisms (to 1634) and then the marriages follow and after that the burials.

Spent a little of the day with the "grand" dogs and they are always happy to see us. We enjoy them as well.

I also want to work on transcribing the Foxcott documents that I have as well as ordering some more wills from the Hampshire Record Office. There are a couple that may prove to be very interesting in the Blake Story. Having more or less set aside the Blake family a couple of years ago I am rather enjoying looking at them in a new light. Although I have taken 42 courses in genealogy it really isn't until you are out there digging at the information that you really come to understand all the theory that you learn. It allows me to jump from record series to record series as I tease out the available data on my ancestors.

Tomorrow back to baptisms and the Foxcott documents.

Blake and Hinxman Families - 5

Today I did not accomplish anything on the computer at all other than to read my emails.

I did think about the Blake/Hinxman families and had a note back from a Hinxman researcher in Nova Scotia. She can only trace back to her ancestor who was in the British military and arrived in Nova Scotia in the late 1700s. This is too late for the Hinxman family that I have been researching. The Hinxman family basically disappears from Andover area in the late 1600s early 1700s and is then found in Wiltshire at West Deane (there is one reference to East Dean in the Hampshire Hearth Tax Assessment of 1665 for Edward Hinchman). I wonder if it is the same Hinxman family. I also wonder why they disappeared. Joseph was Lord of the Manor of Foxcott (several Josephs actually (father, son and grandson) from the early 1600s to the early 1700s. I actually have a few documents from the late 1600s into the early 1700s that I need to transcribe that may give me the answer to this question.

William Blake (b 1615) died at Foxcott and I am fairly sure that it is him since he was living there the last twenty years of his life. He is listed by his mother in her will as a Clerk and I put his earlier information from Cambridge on my blog a few days ago. I have not yet found him as a priest at any church though and certainly in the 1660s and 1670s he appeared to be farming the lands that his father left him. It is possible that he did both but I haven't found the Church yet. He and Ann Hillier had a very small family and as I am working on the Andover Parish Registers I hope to find her burial. They appear to have had just the three children (or possibly four) - two sons and two daughters - William (b 1647), John (b 1649 - he appears to have married Elizabeth about 1684), Dorothy (b 1655) and a fourth daughter that I need to investigate.

Tomorrow I hope to get back to the Parish Registers for a bit just to see if I can accomplish the baptisms to the end of the first register and then start on the marriages and burials from that first register.

Ancestry

I am a happy Ancestry user having been a member for about 5 years now. I went to their site not long after I started taking my courses to have a look and without even doing the trial for two weeks I signed up. The first evening that I used it I found my 2x greatgrandparents (John Pincombe and Elizabeth Rew Pincombe and their five children arriving in the Port of New York on 7 Jan 1851. Boy was I happy! I had been trying to find them on immigration lists. Once the ship's lists project between Ancestry and Library and Archives Canada was digitized I found my father and his parents and my grandmother Pincombe. The English census have also been great although I subscribed to Origins in those days and found my grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents on there actually before I found them on Ancestry. I also located all of my grandmother's siblings who went to the United States on the American census for 1920 and 1930 making it a really handy tool that could look at families in my lifetime that I have known.

I have put my tree up on Ancestry (private) so that I can utilize their search engines and I usually go in every once in a while and look at their hints for family members. I was up to 142 people again so I went in and worked at that yesterday. I discovered that another member had put up images of parish registers for my Butt family which was absolutely wonderful. I thought the only way I was going to get to look at the original Dorset records for Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Clenstone, Milton Abbas and Winterborne Houghton was to go to Dorchester, Dorset myself. Verification of those records was gratefully received. Once I open up my one name study trees on Ancestry to public view I may consider adding in the images for those particular individuals in the one name study.

I continued looking at the Blake family even going so far as to look at all the Blake entries on ancestry for Hampshire in various census. There are 994 in 1851, 1034 in 1861, 1134 in 1871, 1434 in 1881, 1231 in 1891, 1282 in 1901 and 294 in 1911. Given that that was too many to look at I then decided to look at Andover itself as birth place yielding 24 in 1851, 43 in 1861, 25 in 1871, 42 in 1881, 47 in 1891, 44 in 1901 and 24 in 1911. There could be spelling errors as I did an exact search only. This may be the way to look at Blake families from 1841 to 1911 in Hampshire and I will think about extracting the information on the various families. A search of the 1911 census for Blake in the United Kingdom revealed over 18800 entries. I was surprised to find only 294 in 1911 in Hampshire.

Today I will continue looking at the Blake and Hinxman families from the viewpoint of historical records. I want to check the Visitations for Hinxman families as I have never done that.

Blake and Hinxman families - 4

I posted a request to the Hampshire Newsgroup:

Is anyone researching the Hinxman family of Andover?

I have Elener Blake marrying Joseph Hinxman 10 Dec 1610 and she is the daughter of Richard Blake and Joan Blake (married by 1585). Also I have Elizabeth Hinxman (sister to Joseph) daughter of William Hinxman marrying a ? Blake and their children were Thomas Blake and Elizabeth (Blake) (Monke) Kidgell. I can trace Elizabeth Kidgell down through her son Richard and then his daughter Sarah married a John Gilbert. Their son John had a daughter Jane who married Charles Blake 11 Jan 1761 at Abbotts Ann.

What I am looking for is the forename of the Blake that Elizabeth Hinxman married. Their son Thomas is a merchant at the City of Oxford in 1688 when Elizabeth's will is written. Her grandsons are: Thomas Blake, Peter Monk and William Monk at the time of her death. Richard Kidgell is born after this date. All grandchildren are less than 21 years of age.

Any Hinxman researchers out there? Thank you.

No responses yet. I do not think very many people are researching the Hinxman family. There is a Hinxman study at the Guild of One Name Studies but he is only contactable by a snail mail address and likely I will write to him. He lives in Wiltshire. The Hinxman family is principally found around West Deane and East Deane in the 1800s.

I have continued investigating the Blake family looking at the IGI for any clues on William Blake Clerk. He graduated from Cambridge in 1633

Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900

Name: William Blake
College: ST CATHARINE'S
Entered: Michs. 1633
More Information: Matric. pens from ST CATHARINE'S, Michs. 1633. Of Hampshire. B.A. 1637-8; M.A. 1641. Fellow, 1638. Taxor, 1645. Ord. deacon (Peterb.) June 5, 1642; priest (Lincoln) June 16, 1644.

This would appear to be William as I can not find him at Oxford.

He is known to have married Ann Hellier 5 Sep 1644 at Andover. He is mentioned in both his fathers and his mothers wills. In his mothers his title of Clerk is used. His father (will dated 17 November 1641 and probated 18 August 1642 is just before he completed his MA possibly and he was not yet ordained (5 June 1642 is his ordination). He was ordained at Lincoln 16 June 1644 and I searched the Lincoln county on the IGI for baptisms for any children born to William and Ann Blake between 1644 and 1650. I did not find any. It would appear that they are back at Andover by 1647. This being the time period when Charles I was arrested (1647), tried (1649) and beheaded (30 January 1649) moving back to his home turf may have appeared to be a practical thing to do. I have absolutely no idea but the will of his mother Dorothy written 13 Oct 1647 does not mention his being other than nearby. Likely he was ordained at Lincoln Cathedral and simply returned to Hampshire. I do not know if he was a priest at a particular Church.

When he died in 1696 the priest only noted that he died at Foxcott. It does leave a lot of questions and finding his will or one for his wife would be very very handy.

I will continue working away at the Blake family. My husband and I spent a little time on an article to be sent to Families on his Schultz family (in particular Wilhelm Schultz his great grandfather). We had rather good luck both of us at Salt Lake City as he discovered the baptism for his great grandfather (we went there with the knowledge that he may have been baptized at Brohm). He verified that indeed Georgina (Schultz) Schmidt was his sister and found Wilhelm's parents and their marriage as well as the baptisms of both of these individuals. He also traced back through the records and found the father and grandfather of his great grandfather's father. Moving the family back three generations was a real feat at Salt Lake City. It would be nice to do the same thing for his great grandmother who has the much rarer name of Neumann.

Blake and Hinxman families - 3

I spent most of the day once again looking at the Blake families of Andover, Abbotts Ann and Upper Clatford amongst others. I had received a file of Blake wills that was 64 pages and I reduced it to 18 pages as I do not want to look at Wiltshire Blake wills at the moment. The Wiltshire Blake family moved south towards Christchurch and are found all along that line between Calne and Southampton with many of them in the New Forest and areas around the New Forest. However by the late 1700s I can not be quite so sure that they are not Blake family members from Andover and so I have to be cautious as I eliminate them from the list during and after this time period.

Did I learn anything new? Well by going through the list I know who has left a will now and some of them will be very interesting although may or may not help me with my quest which is basically to find more information for the linkage from Thomas (b 1709) to Thomas (b 1685) to John (b 1649) to William (b 1615). Is this a legitimate linkage? That is basically what I am looking at. There may possibly be a will for William that wasn't probated until 1702 (he died in 1696). This is unheard of so will pursue that will in any case.

Tomorrow I will continue looking at the Blake family. Now that my shoulder is much improved I can work ten hours a day easily. I want to get started writing papers. I have submitted one in the last month and hope to start doing one a month. I would like to carry on until I have published all the nifty things that I have found. I am glad that I enjoy working with other people and helping them to accomplish their work.

Blake and Hinxman Families - 2

I continued looking at the wills for the Blake and Hinxman families yesterday and comparing with the family tree that I have constructed for the Blake and Hinxman lines at Andover. Locating John Blake who died in 1796 at Abbotts Ann is part of that puzzle. Possibly he was married in Andover 9 Jun 1747 to Mary Dowling. Having located this marriage on the IGI I will investigate the Dowling family. A cursory glance reveals a Mary Dowling baptized at Upper Clatford 24 Nov 1728 with parents George Dowling and Ane. There is a George Doling married to Anne Lashley 4 Aug 1717 at Abbotts Ann. Needless to say all of these places are very close together and in the will of John Blake he remembers the Church at Upper Clatford as well as the Church at Abbotts Ann. Perhaps one more check back on this Dowling family in the IGI. There is a George Dowling (son of William and Alise Dowling) baptized at Goodworth Clatford 24 Nov 1695. There are three William Dowling marriages so that is the end of that thought on the IGI for the moment. None of these marriages leads to a Blake connection though. Looking at John Blake with a wife baptized 1728, I searched the IGI for a John Blake baptized 1720 + or - 10 years. There are no "extracted" entries for a baptism of a John Blake in the Andover area between 1710 and 1730. There are two patron entries that are interesting - Andover and Penton Mewsey. The Penton Mewsey family I do have some data on and this is a Blake family that were maltsters. Interesting thinking and will draw out some information from the registers to look at some of these possibilities - I have the registers for Abbotts Ann, Penton Mewsey and I am in the midst transcribing the registers for Andover. Likely I will let this sit for a bit until I reach this time period with the Andover Register. What I was looking for was a link between the King family at Upper Clatford and the Blake family at Abbotts Ann because they remember each other's children in their wills.

Few people have worked on the Hinxman family thus far. My correspondent on the Blake family and one descendant of the Jane Hinxman/Samuel Noyse family appear to be the only two on ancestry. There is on World Connect, however, a rather large listing of the Noyse family although the Noyse family at Andover does not appear to be linked into the rather extensive listings of the Noyse families in England. But no information on the Hinxman family. The Hinxman family is quite small on the census (less than 50 on 1841, 1851 and 1861) and mostly at West Deane Wiltshire. I do not actually think my answers lie with this family now that I have looked at their wills since they do not mention William Blake or his descendants. Ellener mentions only her brothers Peter and Nicholas and her two sisters married to Bayley and Savage. By the time of her will in the 1650s William and John have both died (her brothers), her sisters Elizabeth Hapgood (deceased) and Dorothy Burmington (not mentioned). Richard her brother is not mentioned although still known to be alive. None of her siblings children are mentioned. This has its pros and cons - not mentioning william's children doesn't mean that the links do not exist but on the other hand, a listing of these children in someone's will would be very handy - William b 1647, John b 1649.

One interesting fact is known that there were three Blake children all born between 1709 and 1717 (likely) who appeared to be linked in some way. My ancestor Thomas was baptized in 1709 at Andover and appears to be the only son of Thomas Blake and Mary Spring. John Blake who died in 1796 at Abbotts Ann was likely born in this time interval (he likely married in 1747 so could have been born as late as 1725 or 1726 but he was already established as a maltster and that might have been a challenge at a youngish age). Charles Blake (the other key to the puzzle of John Blake Maltster at Abbotts Ann's Will in 1792) married Mary Prince in 1737 at Abbotts Ann. The Prince family were landowners. the father of Charles Blake is also unknown and he was likely born by no latter than 1717. Edward Blake at Abbotts Ann has the longest history at Abbotts Ann but is not the father of either of these two since his children are baptized in the 1750s at Abbotts Ann. I need to look at Edward Blake and see if I can link him back to one of the Blake lines at Andover.

John Blake is the only one of the three men (John Blake, Charles Blake and my Thomas Blake) still alive when he wrote his will in 1792 but he remembers the child of Charles (also Charles) and the grandchildren of these two men. He does not, however, give anything to the second family of Charles (his first wife was Jane Gilbert whom I discussed earlier and her connection back to the Blake family). The Elizabeth Blake who is the ancestor of Jane Gilbert and whose mother was Elizabeth Hinxman is another clue in the puzzle. Finding the marriage of Elizabeth Hinxman to an unknown Blake would be most helpful as she is the mother of Thomas and Elizabeth Blake. Elizabeth married a Monk and then a Kidgell and it is from the Kidgell line that the Gilbert connection emerges. Not remembering the second set of children is quite significant I think and points back to the Gilbert connection as being the more important link to John Blake. But what is the link for my Thomas Blake? His mother Joanna King's father Thomas King remembers the daughter of John Blake in his will. But looking at John Blake's wife Mary Dowling who was actually baptized at Upper Clatford (John remembers the Church at Upper Clatford in his will) I do not find any link to the King family since Thomas King married Mary Carter. There does not appear to be a linkage there. Ann Blake (sister to Thomas Blake at Upper Clatford) appears to be keeping house for John Blake at Abbotts Ann but I wouldn't think that that would be a sufficient reason to remember her two brothers.

More things to ponder as I work my way back. I haven't really touched the Blake family for a long time but the contact from another Blake researcher has inspired me once again to look deeper at all the information and see what kind of linkages that I can find and especially I would like more evidence for the connection from William (b 1615) to John (b 1649) to Thomas (b 1685) to Thomas (b 1709). All baptisms at Andover and the registers appear to logically link these families but I am only up to the early 1630s for my line by line transcription. Surprises may lie in wait for me in this line.

Today I shall continue transcribing some of my records that I am finding to be most interesting and I want to read all the material that the other researcher has sent to me. I will construct more family trees on paper as visualizing the information is easiest for me on a large floor chart.

Blake and Hinxman families

I am continuing to try and sort out the Blake and Hinxman families at Andover, Kings Enham, Knights Enham, Eastontown amongst others.

With the will of Elizabeth Blake (signed 11 June 1688 and probated in 1689), I now have a connection that is helpful with my Blake family one hundred years later. Elizabeth Blake is the widow of Blake and the mother of Thomas Blake (merchant at Oxford, Oxfordshire) and Elizabeth Kidgell (married to John Kidgell) and the mother of William Monk and Peter Monk (earlier marriage to unknown Monk). John and Elizabeth will have a son Richard who has a daughter Sarah who married John Gilbert. Their son John Gilbert had a daughter Jane who married Charles Blake. This is the Blake family mentioned in John Blake (malster Abbotts Ann d 1796)'s will and receiving his personal effects. Elizabeth Blake also says that her kinsmen are William Hinxman and Nicholas Hinxman and these two men are the sons of Joseph Hinxman and Elliner Blake. I am collecting evidence looking at showing that Elizabeth Blake was born Elizabeth Hinxman and was a cousin to the children of Joseph Hinxman and Elliner Blake.

Elizabeth's son Thomas is a merchant at the City of Oxford and he has a son Thomas that is less than 21 years of age. I do not know Elizabeth's husband's name other than he is a Blake. The relationship between Elizabeth and William and Nicholas Hinxman is quite tantilizing. Are they her cousins? Is she the daughter of William Hinxman brother to Joseph Hinxman. Which Blake did she marry? Her son lives at the City of Oxford and is a merchant - I wonder if he is a mercer or draper? I shall continue to look at the relevant wills. At 3.50 pounds (UK) I now own about 100 wills or more.

Hinxman Wills

I continued working on wills for the Blake family or related lines. Elliner Blake was the daughter of Richard Blake (brother to my William Blake bc 1587)and she married Joseph Hinxman. Elliner Hinxman left her will dated 1657 and probated 1659. This will can be downloaded from the National Archives website for only 3.50 British pounds (about $6.38 Canadian). It certainly makes for interesting reading as she mentions her brother Peter, her sisters Jane Bayly and Margaret Savage, her brother Nicholas and her cousin Peter Blake. Both of her parents had the surname Blake with her father's father being William and her mother's father being Robert.

I am just now typing the will having spent a few hours transcribing it by hand. Usually I transcribe on the computer but I decided that my arm muscles could use a little work and printing tiny letters certainly gives the muscles a workout. I think I shall do that from now on.

I am also reading "The Tribes of Britain. Who are we? and where do we come from? by David Miles. It is a heavy read but absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend it. I always find these books fascinating because all of my ancestors (as far back as I have been able to trace) were born in England or their parents/grandparents were (I have only three Canadian born ancestors - my mother, her father and his mother). Hence all these stories people elect to write about the British make for very interesting reading for me because I am a part of that story.

Tomorrow I shall continue working on wills but also on my husband's presentation to the OGS in June. I am starting to think about my talk in September and I need to contact the other speaker just to let her know what I am thinking of doing and ensuring it fits in with her three talks on a similar vein.

Hinxman and Blake Wills

I have now completely transcribed the will of Nicolas Blake who died before 20 June 1547 with will dated 31 May 1547 at Enham Hampshire England.

Test[at]or Nicolas Blake

1    In the name of God amen In the yere of our Lord god a Thousand fyve hundred
2    Fourtie and sevyn and the last day of May I Nicolas Blake of the p[ar]ishe of Enh[a]m in the Dioc[ese] of Wynchest[e]r
3    being sicke of body but of good and p[er]fite remembrance make and ordeyn this my last will and testament
4    in maner and fourme folowing First I Bequith my soule to almightie god to oure Blessed Lady and to all the
5    Blessed company of heaven. And my body to be buried w[i]t[h]in the Church of Saint Michaell Th[e ]archangell Item
6    I geve to the Trinite Church of Wynchester vj d Item I geve to the church of Andever oon quarter of whete
7    It[e]m I give to Enh[a]m Church a quarter of wheat Item I geve and bequeth to Will[ia]m Blake my eldest sonne
8    the halfe of the Farme of Andever of my Lord Sandys holding which Robert Boswell occupyeth Also I geve
9    and bequeth to the said Will[ia]m the Tenement in Kings Enham of my Lord Sandys holding w[i]t[h] all the La[m]mes
10    lande lying in Andever feld that the said William nowe occupieth and holdith Also I geve to the said Will[ia]m
11    Blake my sonne my Leasse of the Tenement of the Lord Sandys called the olde hall w[i]t[h] all the app[ur]ten[an]cs ther unto
12    belonginge or lying in Knyghts Enh[a]m Also I geve to the said William Blake my free holde in Knyights Enh[a]m w[i]t[h] all
13    the appurten[an]cs there unto belonging Item I geve and bequeth to Edmund Blake my sonne the Leasse of the
14    Farme of Andever called Semers Farme w[i]t[h] all the appurten[an]cs ther[e ]unto belonging and walworth of my
15    Lord Sandys holding And a leasse of a Tenement in Kyngs Enh[a]m which is John Catts gentilman holde w[i]t[h]
16    all the appurten[an]cs ther[e ]unto belonging Also I geve to the said Edmund my sonne my freeholde in Andever
17    with seven acres and a half of arable land that Thomas Wescombe now holdeth with all the rest of myn[e]
18    erable lands grains pastures and com[m]ons of pastures of what nature kynde name and degre soever they be
19    which I do holde and kepe of any man[ner] at the making of this my last wille and testament Also I wille that
20    the forsaid Thomas Wescombe shal[l ]have the forsaid house that he dwelleth in for the terms of thurtie yeres
21    next folowing paying yerely therfor and to agree w[i]t[h] Margaret Blake my wife and Edmund Blake my son[ne]
22    Item I geve to Elizabeth Blake my daughter one hundreth of shepe and Twentie poundes of money at the day of
23    her mariage and her apparill. Item I give and bequeth to Alice my daughter twentie shepe and fyve quarters of
24    barley to be delivered at Michelmas next commyng Item I give to Sir Thomas Upton my curate to pray for my soule
25    and all Christ[ai]n soules x s. Also yf that it fortune Edmund Blake my sonne to dye before he be of lawfull age Then I wille
26    that my freholde w[i]t[h] all the other leases geven and bequethed by me to the said Edmond to remayn to William Blake
27    my sonne his heires and assignes And the goods to remayne to Alice Goodwyn and Elizabeth Blake my daughters equally
28    to be devided betwixt them And if it fortune the said Alice and Elizabeth to dye Then I will the said goodes to be devided
29    betwene the children of William Blake my son Provided also I will that Margaret Blake my wife shall have and
30    kepe all my free landes tenements holds leases with all th[e ]appurtenancs to them belonging which I doe holde of any man[ne]r
31    of man[ner] at the making of this my last will and testament during the terme of her life The residue of my goods and
32    c[h]attalls not gevyn or bequethed I geve and bequeth to Margaret Blake my wife and Edmunde Blake my sonne
33    whom I make and ordeyn myn executors of this my last will and testament Also I make and ordeyn William
34    Hopkins and Willi[a]m Aldred my Overseers of this my last will and testament for to se it p[er]formed according to
35    my mynde above specified Witnesse to this Sir Thomas Upton Curate Stevyn Smyth Will[ia]m Blake w[i]t[h] other
36         Probatum fuit test[ament]um suprascripti defuncti h[ab]entis etc xxth die mensis Juinij Anno D[o]m[in]o Mill[es]imo quingen[tesimo]
37    xlvij [1547] Coram d[o]m[in]o apud London aucto[ritate] d[o]m[in]o n[ost]ri Regis etc Iurament[o] Margarete Relicte executoris in h[uius]mo[d]i test[ament]o no[m]i[n]at[i] In persona
38    Stephe[n] Smyth procur[atoris] sui in hac p[ar]te Ac approbatum et insinuatum Com[m]issa fuit admi[ni]stracio o[mn]i[u]m et singulorom bonorum Jurium
39    Et creditorum d[i]c[t]i defuncti prefat[o] executrici In p[er]sona die proc[urato]ris De b[e]n[e] et fidel[ite]r admi[ni]strando Ac de pleno et fideli In[venta]rio secondo die post
40    festum s[an]c[t]e Anne prox[imum] futur[um] exhibend[o] necnon de plano et vero compoto reddend[o] Ad s[an]c[t]a dei Ev[a]ngelia in debit iuris forma jurat
41    Reservata po[tes]tate Edmund Blake executori etiam in h[uius]mo[d]i test[ament]o no[m]i[n]at cum venerit etc


I have continued thinking about the Blake family and downloaded Ellener Blake Hinxman (sister to Richard3 Blake (William2 Blake, Nicholas1 Blake's will which does link her to her brother Peter and two sisters Jone Bayley and Margaret Savage. The will is written in 1657 so her brothers William and Richard are dead her sister Joanne Sedgewick is in America, her other sisters are not mentioned nor does she mention her other brother. No nieces or nephews are mentioned (unfortunately!). I have transcribed the first page and working on the second one. Although Ellener married into the wealthy Hinxman family and her daughters married into equally wealthy families the status of this family is about to be diminished in the next generation - possibly very large families although one grandson appears to be deeply in debt to his father.

Today I will continue transcribing the Hinxman will and do some goggling before I download anymore to see what I can learn. I found one Noyse will on line that explains about the debt of the son (grandson to Ellener Blake Hinxman above).

Will of Nicholas Blake - 1547

I was so excited with my find yesterday on the National Archives (UK) site that I missed writing up my blog. The Will of Nicholas Blake of Ellingham appeared on the Documents on Line and I decided to download it because it was dated 1547. After receiving the document (2 pages) I discovered that it was actually Nicholas Blake of Enham. The Enham was quite sprawled and could easily be thought to be Ell[ing]ham. However, I recognized the Church of Saint Michael and all Angels at Andover and quite a few references to Andover and then the prize was his wife Margaret and his eldest son William, second son Edmund and daughters Elizabeth and Alice. What a gem! Now I just need to acquire the wills of Robert d 1522 and Richard d 1522 at Knights Enham. I also want to order the will of Jone Blake d 1527, of Joan Blake d 1631 and I want to sort through and see what else might be useful as I will order six items from the Hampshire Record Office.

Other than that we took the dogs for a walk around noon and they had such fun. They were so excited that they literally ran us to the park (about four blocks) and then we ran most of the way around the pond in the park (about 2 kilometres). Good exercise for us!

Today I shall continue working on Nicholas' will and I want to read Tribes of Britain. I also have set aside a couple of hours for Latin study. I will use the Postmortem of Francis Baildon to practice the skills!

Babysitting

Today was a babysitting day for our two "grand" dogs and they were very good. We tired them out though and they were fast asleep on the couch when we left them at their home this evening. They ran up and down the yard for several hours and then we did a 2K walk around the block. By 3:30 though they were looking for their parents and missing them. Probably because they were tired!

I didn't accomplish much in the way of genealogy although I did manage to get some more BMB data up for several places on the Genuki Hampshire webpages. I still have more to do. One of the contributors wanted very much to have them on Genuki so I obliged. I was involved slightly in the setup of the OPC Hampshire website and they have a lot of material up now including my Knights Enham transcription.

I took the Siderfin family tree down from the Ancestry website and I need to put that up again. I have revised it somewhat and it needed to be replaced.

Tomorrow more time on the Blake family as I want to order the wills that I am needing and I also want to spend some time on the paper documents that I purchased some time ago (over one year ago!).

Andover Parish Registers - 11

Today I was back transcribing the Andover Parish Registers and I completed up to September 1631 which is a total of 2320 baptisms. There are six pages left to complete the baptisms in the first register. It has been a worthwhile venture to transcribe these records as the priest has (in almost all cases) put the place of residence in the baptism of Blake children. I have five locations in total - Eastontown, Knights Enham, Enham Regis, Woodhouse and Andover. I have a good idea of who lives at each place through the 1500s and 1600s but they often have the same forename so having the children identified to location is an absolute necessity. There are 38 baptisms for Blake thus far.

Today was laundry day and we have now hung our clothes on the line outside for six weeks. We like to hang them out anyway but it is good to be conserving the electricity.

Other than that my accomplishments were low today although we did go for a 10K bike ride. Need to add that onto my total for virtually walking across Canada and I am still in British Columbia but I am getting closer and closer to the Alberta border. Perhaps I will reach it by the middle of June.

Tomorrow I shall be busy with a couple of other projects but I am pleased at my progress with the Andover Parish Records. I think that I will do Upper Clatford next.

Blake family of Andover Hampshire

I ended up not doing any transcription today. We had a meeting that occupied most of the day but in the evening I decided to look once again at the wills of William Blake and Dorothy (Madgwicke) Blake the parents of William Blake (b 1615). I have finally sorted out the children and I rather think that Margaret (their daughter) was likely born around 1607 rather than the 1622 date suggested in the IGI. Her father refers to his son in law Josias Terry in his 1641 will (Josias is the husband of Margaret). The tendency is to address the children in birth order and Margaret is always mentioned before Joanne and Ann her two younger married sisters (and Dorothy is likely the eldest). There isn't a baptism for Margaret or Dorothy and the baptism of 1622 belongs to the youngest daughter Martha.

Once I get into the burial registers I will discover when Sara died perhaps - the other daughter of William and Dorothy. Also I may find William's burial (his will was dated 8 Nov 1641 with probate in 1642.

Tomorrow I shall work on the parish register transcriptions and have a look at my latin as I really need to get up to scratch with my latin.

Andover Parish Registers - 10

I continued with the Andover Parish Registers for another day along with a whole lot of shopping that took me away from looking at any other material. I have now completed up to July of 1628 and that is a total of 2100 baptisms. I continue to find interesting comments that are helpful - the priest is naming the location for some of the baptisms and often enough they are for the Blake family. Separating these lines is the way forward for me looking at this family. I still have a lot of transcription to do which includes Upper Clatford where my direct line Blake ancestors are found after 1757. I know that the Blake family of Andover was also there before 1700 and that Peter Blake younger brother to William (b 1615) was at Upper Clatford. It will be interesting sorting it all out. The Manor papers for Upper clatford list a John Blake in the 1500s.

Our shopping list was long today and we spent nearly four hours shopping in total. We are finding the JAG series (television) to be most interesting and we are trying to find Season 6 for sale (we have Seasons 1 - 5). It is very well done and tends to have absolutely fabulous scenery.

Tomorrow I shall continue to work on the Andover Registers. I would like to complete the baptisms in the next couple of days and then I shall set it aside for a couple of weeks before I work on the marriages and burials. I have a number of other items that I need to work on. That includes my latin lessons. I am behind in them and really need to improve my latin skills so that I can read some of these old documents that I brought back from Salt Lake City. That will be my next pursuit.

Andover Parish Registers - 9

Today, I completed the first fiche of the first register and started on the second fiche which is really a surprise as the bottom row turned out to be very difficult and badly eaten. I am now up to 1998 baptisms as of November 1626. A couple of answers to queries in this last set of transcriptions as I found that the Nicholas Blake baptized at Andover is the son of William Blake at Eastontown. Other Blake baptisms are equally interesting in this time period as it turns out.

I also joined Library Thingy as a lifetime member. I can now continue entering my books into the database as I had reached 190 and at 200 you have to join. I am really pleased with this program as it will give me a *.csv file that I can bring into Excel or Access and prepare distinct files by subject matter having all the pertinent bibliographic information already entered.

Our car is finally back and it has been a pricey spring - $1500 in the US to fix the car and another $800 when we returned and now $1500. We were going to buy a new one but we haven't decided what to buy yet. Perhaps this one will run another year now! Then we can decide. We usually buy Dodge.

Tomorrow I shall continue working on the Andover Parish Registers. Although I do want to get back to working on wills and manor records that I have for this area of Hampshire. I am busy learning Latin so that I can transcribe the manor records with a good deal more accuracy.