Blake in Ireland

The 8/12 match for I2a2 at the Blake yDNA research study has now listed Ireland as his ancestor's location (furtherest back known). That is always interesting! I can trace my line back in the Andover area to the early 1500s/late 1400s depending on when Nicholas was born. This is the closest match that I have ever found for my line. I wish I could correspond with this person but that hasn't become available yet. Having the same surname is most interesting. One of the differences is likely peculiar to my specific line leaving me with three fast moving markers where I would expect to find changes. If this person has a long history in Ireland then family lore that has a descendant of Richard Blaque alias Blaake going to Ireland in the 1200s becomes most interesting. That is a separation of at least 22 generations so that three differences is not all that great given the ones that do match. Patient waiting may yet give answers to this Blake family line. The paper is now published in the Anglo Celtic Roots. My husband has heard a few comments on the paper but so far no impact on the study itself. I am rather hoping that the 20 to 30 Blake members who have tested at FT DNA and are not currently members of our project might join. I suspect a lot of them are descended from the Irish Blake lines in the project but one never knows.

I am continuing with the Andover Parish Registers and have now reached April 1707 with 7850 baptisms from the beginning of the registers in 1588. This particular set of baptisms is not in the IGI. My line does not appear in the IGI but the Upper Clatford baptisms are in the BVRI II. Once I have proofread the Andover Registers I will submit them to the OPC Hampshire webpages.