Nearing 10,000 baptisms at Andover

Today I will reach the milestone of 10,000 baptisms at Andover - currently I have 9985 baptisms to the end of September 1731. The writing was fairly straightforward and I was able to move through the pages as quickly as I can type them until I reached 1728 and the new priest/clerk is not quite as proficient a writer as the last one. This will slow me down but I will still reach 10,000 today and likely beyond. I am really keen to complete this parish register and I will then switch to Penton Mewsey to have an indepth look at the Blake families there and I can best accomplish that by transcribing the registers that I have on hand. I will proofread Penton Mewsey right away and submit it to the OPC Hampshire site. There are only five fiche which makes it a lot easier to proofread than Andover with so many fiche (and so many surnames that I need to carefully verify before submitting them to the webpages).

New families have moved in during the 1720s although most of the older families are still there. There is a rather consistent population at Andover and I will extract a list of the families that have been there over 100 years in the registers very shortly. It is now 140 years since the beginning of the registers at St Marys Andover.

John Blake and Mary Clerk marry in this Register and have two children baptized at Andover thus far. I am not sure of the parents of this John but their first son was named Robert so suspect he is from the Robert line. One question I have as I work through this register - do they have a son John who marries Mary King at Abbotts Ann? Mary King is from Upper Clatford and it is through this line that I think my Thomas Blake inherits in John Blake's will. It is not a close association when I compare it to the Charles Blake family. Also Thomas King (father of Joanna wife of Joseph Blake - my ancestors) remembers John Blake of Abbots Ann's daughter Mary in his will. Sorting out these families would be very nice. I know that John Blake who marries at Abbotts Ann was not born there. The Robert Blake family at Andover were malsters and John Blake at Abbots Ann was a maltster. Very interesting as I move my way through and obviously one of these days I must get to the Abbots Ann Parish Registers as well.

I am no longer doing Guest Editor for Anglo Celtic Roots - Chris MacPhail has decided to continue as Editor into the future. It was with a bit of relief that I received that email this afternoon. There is so much that I want to do with all of my research tools that I have purchased that taking on Anglo Celtic Roots (was a spontaneous thought) even as Guest Editor would have used up some of that time otherwise directed towards transcription.

I will however produce the newsletter with the rep for Western Canada for the GOONS. I can insert some of my useful lists into that and encourage others to do the same. They would then be available to all the members of the Guild. Time to retrench although I would have done the journal I am actually glad not to be so committed.