Wrapped in Woollen

When we were in England you see sheep everywhere and I am now working through the burial register for Andover where you had to have an affidavit to prove that your remains were wrapped in woollen (otherwise you paid a fine). The staple of wool in England's economy goes back a long long way and this guaranteed a ready market for wool in the domestic economy.

Nowadays car seats are stuffed with wool thus maintaining this essential domestic use of wool in England. We found it amazing to see how sheep are integrated into the lives of the people of England. They were busy munching on the golf greens where we visited with special gratings so that they could not wander. The feral ponies as well were here and there. The golfers just continue their game through the maze of sheep and ponies quite undaunted. Whilst we had dinner one evening we watched as the sheep ran up and down the hill outside of where we were (we were eating mutton as it turned out!). With such a severe distinction between farmland and city dwelling as we have here in Canada, our children miss out on this natural element of life.

Continuing with the burial register, I have now completed the first of four fiche for the fourth register at Andover(1678 - 1714) and found the burial for Richard Blake. He is a person of interest as there are only two Blake lines at Andover in this time period - mine and his it would appear. I still need to determine if there are private records for Foxcott, Eastonton and some of the other small manors around Andover. But for the moment I am happily working my way through the Andover registers. I know that my line lived in the town of Andover so I would expect to find their records here but not checking everywhere may mean that I miss a clue.

Following the family lore back to Nicholas Blake there are only so many lines since Nicholas had only two sons William and Stephen with Stephen's line appearing to die out early in the 1600s which would negate my following that line. William's line though is very large in the 1500s and early 1600s with one section moving to Surrey in the 1630s and another to London earlier than that. I know mine didn't do that (they were younger sons) but the actual connection from Thomas back to Nicholas is still on the drafting board although the Thomas (baptized 1709 at Andover) to Thomas (baptized 1685) to John to William to William to Richard to William still has good merit but I am also looking at Thomas (baptized 1709) to Thomas (baptized 1671) to John to William to Richard to William (one generation less).

Up to 4068 baptisms at the end of May 1684. In this same time period there were 5791 baptisms so still a positive growth period for Andover. Infant death rate is still high and those that survived childhood often lived to a rather good age. This is a rural area but I think other than London most of the cities in England were not at this time battling pollution from coal burning fireplaces.

I worked on the H11 haplogroup full genetic scan results yesterday and surprisingly the 43 results fall into a rather neat pattern with two major branches - H11a and H11b (the difference being the presence of mutations at 961 and 16293 with H11a having the mutations and H11b not having these mutations but having mutations at 7645 and 13572 (H11a does not have these mutations)). All but three in H11a have the mutation 16293 (mine happens to be one of the ones that has back mutated 16293) which is also interesting. The H11b has one distinct subgrouping (H11b1) with the H11a having six subgroupings H11a1, H11a2, H11a3, H11a4, H11a5, and H11a6. These subgroupings for H11a1 through H11a6 further subdivide into: H11a1a, H11a2a, H11a2a1, H11a2b, H11a3a, H11a5a, H11a5b adding another seven data points. It is still only on 43 samples though so not scientifically sound. However, the divergences within the datapoints between individual samples is there and there are always at least two samples per datapoint. My results would be H11a2a1 which is part of the larger grouping which has the 16293 mutation along with 16092 and 16140. Others within this grouping H11a2 have backmutated 16092 and/or 16140. However with only 43 samples this is not yet scientifically sound and will have to await at least another 60 samples before one could really attach any significance to the charting.

H11 is a rather small haplogroup occuring at roughly 1% within H haplogroup the mother group. It is one of the oldest haplogroups in H with an approximate age of 48000 years. This grouping would have wintered at Ukraina during the last glacial maximum and then moved out from there in likely successive waves across the Scandinavian Peninsula, across eastern Europe through Germany to England to Ireland and also moving south to Greece. There are "resting points" for H11 in all of these locations.

From Ian Logan's website:

H11

The details of the sequences are:

1. Achilli A19.JS AY738958(Italy)

2. Herrnstadt (4)A33.JS mtDNA321(Europe)
3. Herrnstadt (4)A49.JS mtDNA343(Europe)
4. Herrnstadt (6)A22.JS mtDNA493(Europe)

5. Argus A3.JS EF545566

6. FTDNA A26.JS FJ560912

Changes from CRS of:

A263G A750G A1438G A4769G A8860G T14470A A15326G

and allowing for:

-the changes at 309 & 315

- the variable nature of 16519

The Mutation lists are:

1. Achilli A19.JS AY738958(Italy)
T195C T961G T8448C C8898T G13759A C16278T T16311C

2. Herrnstadt (4)A33.JS mtDNA321(Europe)
T961G A982G T8448C C8898T G13759A A14587G

3. Herrnstadt (4)A49.JS mtDNA343(Europe)
T961G T8448C C8898T G13759A

4. Herrnstadt (6)A22.JS mtDNA493(Europe)
T961G T8448C G13759A

5. Argus A3.JS EF545566 (14470)
T195C T961G A3145G T8448C G13759A A14587G T16140C
A16293G T16311C

6. FTDNA A26.JS FJ560912
T195C T961G A3145G T8448C A9204G G13759A A14587G
T16092C T16140C T16311C