T_FGS mtDNA study group

I spent most of the day sorting the T_FGS study group at FT DNA. We published our paper  and now we are in the process of looking at geographic information for our study members. The first step was to place them into their subgroupings for a couple of reasons - certainly to attract new members who might also be interested in looking at the "resting spot" for their mutations. I have randomly coloured this chart but want to go through and systematically colour the majour groupings so that the descent can be clearly seen in each of the subgroupings.

Although this is not my mtDNA haplogroup personally, it belongs to a family member and we have found it quite interesting in that there are four perfect matches. One of the perfect matches still resides in England with no history of emigration. The furtherest back ancestress in this line is Margaret Carr who was born in 1654 at Newport Rhode Island. Going to the other side of the ocean has proven to be difficult primarily because the name of the mother of Margaret Carr (wife of Robert Carr) is not precisely known although Hannah Hale is generally considered to be her name. No proof has yet been found for this assertion.

Interestingly the family lore for the English match states that they are of Dutch descent  and when I trace this line back I find that they were located in East Anglia in the late 1600s early 1700s. More research will be needed although we continue to hope for more matches to see if we can triangulate a "resting spot" for these mutations.

Fourty three people have joined the project since we published so I am finishing up now by sorting them into their respective subgroupings. Then I shall tackle the colours and add the description for each of the subgroups.

As the H11 haplogroup project grows I look forward to doing the same there actually. But it will be a while yet I suspect.

Transcribing Abbotts Ann Parish Registers

Abbotts Ann Parish Registers - I have completed the first set for baptisms, marriages and burials and moving on with baptisms from 1600 to 1740 I have 393 baptisms up to the end of 1602, 99 marriages to the end of 1598 and 177 burials to the end of 1597. The register to this point in time is legible although poorly written on occasion. As I move forward towards 1700 the register becomes quite difficult to read and this is the particular time period that I would really like to investigate thoroughly. Robert Blake and Elizabeth Russell were certainly at Andover early in their marriage but the substantial period in the early 1700s between children might indicate they baptized children elsewhere and I have located two baptisms in Penton Mewsie likely for this couple finding the others at Abbotts Ann would be most interesting. Determining if the Robert paying subsidy in the 1730s is this Robert would be most helpful as well. I am looking forward now to spending some time at the Hampshire Record Office to see the many documents which they hold and especially wills. I need to prepare a list for the descendant of the Charles Blake line to photograph at Hampshire Record Office and will do that very shortly. That way whenever she has a chance to go she will have the list that might lead to answers for her and other researchers of the Charles Blake line at Abbotts Ann. I had a comment from one researcher querying whether he was illegitimate but I rather think he was not. He is on the same property as Robert Blake was in the 1740s which could indicate a relationship there but more proof would be nice.

Today I would also like to start extracting the Blake entries from the Wiltshire Protestation Returns. I also want to set up a schedule for checking my other surnames probably on a bimonthly basis. I think I will work on the names at the 4x great grandparent level since I have almost all of my lines back that far. I will devote a few hours a day on a continuing schedule so that each name is visited once in the two month period.

King at Upper Clatford
Coleman at Abbotts Ann, Upper Clatford and Goodworth Clatford
Pearce at Abbotts Ann, Collingbourne Kingston
Farmer at Andover, Collingbourne Kingston
Lambden at Andover, Stoke near St Mary Bourne
Knight at Spetisbury, Winterborne Strickland
Ellis at Winterborne Strickland
Vincent at Spetisbury
Butt at Winterborne Strickland, Winterborne Clenstone, Spetisbury
Durnford at Winterborne Strickland, Winterborne Clenstone
Arnold at Winterborne Whitchurch, Milton Abbas
Molton at Winterborne Whitchurch
Rawlings at Enford
Tanner at Tilshead
Dove at Woodford
Morgan at Woodford
Lywood at West Harnahan, Milston, Fugglestone St Peter
Canhan at Fugglestone St Peter
Peck at Milston
Charley at Bishops Nympton, Kentisbury, Coombe Martin
Rowcliffe at Bishops Nympton, South Molton, Merton
Pearse at South Molton
Rew at Selworthy
Moggridge at Selworthy
Siderfin at Selworthy, Cutcombe, Luxborough
Kent at Selworthy, Porlock
Gray at Etton, Holme on the Wolds, Cherry Burton
Hilton at Cherry Burton
Cobb at Lund, Kilnwick
Sproxton at Great Driffield, Lund
Routledge at Bewcastle
Tweddle at Lanercost
Buller at Bermondsey, St Olave
Beard at Bermondsey
Hemsley at Bermondsey
Welch at Rugeley
Brockhouse at Rugeley
Cheatle at Ashby de la Zouch, Castle Donnington
Woodcock at Castle Donnington
Taylor at Birmingham

There are fourty names in total and approximately 60 days in a two month interval. I want to keep weekends free of such searching so that leaves me with about 40 days in a two month interval and falls nicely into one name a day. I think I will keep the order above and begin early in April. I will spend no more than one hour per day unless something unusual becomes apparent. That way I can capture anything new that has appeared in the two month interval. I can set up a research strategy for the next research day on that family and order any items that I might like to have. The first family is King and I would like to spend a little time looking at the King family in the Hampshire Hearth Returns so the first day is planned.

Theophilus Blake

Publishing our article on the Blake family yDNA has proven to be an important step forward urged along by the results of the yDNA received from descendants. Descendants of Jasper Blake (emigrated to Hampton New Hampshire circa 1643) was published by Carlton E Blake in 1980 (Gateway Press Inc. Baltimore MD). Theophilus was said to be the son of Samuel Blake (b 3 Nov 1696) and Ann Sealey and b 20 Feb 1721 at Hampton Falls NH. Many descendants of Theophilus had faithfully linked themselves back on the basis of Carlton E Blake's book. However yDNA studies showed that Theophilus' descendant line did not match the yDNA of his brothers' descendants. The conclusion was a non paternal event. However, history has a way of coming forth with other explanations and in this case there was an indenture found for Theophilus Blake and his wife Margaret dated 15 May 1745. The period of time was for three years each and the indenture was held by Hugh Haney. The "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches" by J Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope and published by Louis H Everts & Co., Philadelphia PA in 1881 lists Theophilus Bleak in the list under East Fallowfield Taxables, 1753. Thomas, son of Theophilus, in his Revolutionary War Pension application stated that he was born 25 Feb 1760 in Pennsylvania. George, son of Theophilus, in his Revolutionary War Pension application stated that he was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1751 and then moved to Virginia when he was young.

The discrepancy in the yDNA then resulted in researchers in this line reworking their information in particular information that had been overlooked and in some cases family lore that Theophilus was himself an emigrant arriving in the 1740s. Especially interesting is a comment on Thomas Chapman's blog: I recently came across a list of men living in Andover, NH in 1783, and it included a Theophilus Blake listed on the same page as familiar names such Samuel Blake, Thomas Blake, William Blake, Samuel Cilley, Benjamin Silley, Jonathon Silley, and Thomas Sleeper. However, I believe there may have been more than one Theophilus.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/h/p/Tom-Chpman/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0061.html



Although the author of the above does link Theophilus Blake back to the Theophilus Blake son of Samuel Blake and Ann Cilley born 20 Feb 1722 in Hampton Falls NH his comment is somewhat prophetic that there may have been more than one Theophilus although I suspect he meant that there was more than one Theophilus Blake born in Hampton Falls.

Work is now ongoing by members of the research group dedicated to the study of Theophilus to discover his actual ancestral roots. We will shortly write up an article to submit to Anglo Celtic Roots as an update to our previous article.

I managed to acquire the Protestation Returns for some of the hundreds of Wiltshire and shortly I will produce a list of Blake men living in 1641-42 in these hundreds. These records are from the Wiltshire Notes and Queries published in the early 1900s which I located at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN.

Blake Family yDNA Study and Theophilus Blake (Bleak)

When we initially wrote up our Revealing the Blake family - a YDNA project, the opinion was that there had been a non paternal event in the Norfolk Blake family with one son having a yDNA different from the other sons in the early 1700s. The finding of an Indenture dated 1745 for Theophilus Blake has brought this thought into question and researchers in this family who had hitherto connected their Theophilus Blake to the Jasper Blake New Hampshire family have disconnected from this line and have instead shown that Theophilus Blake was himself the immigrant from England with his wife Margaret.

We hope to publish an addendum to our article in Anglo Celtic Roots in the near future.

Comment: With the discovery of the record of the Indenture of the Theophilus Bleak and his wife, Margaret to Hugh Haney of Chester County, Pennsylvania that is dated 15 May 1745, a descendant of this family now believe with the most certainty that one can have on genealogical matters that their ancestor is NOT the Theophilus Blake that descends from the line of Jasper Blake III of Hampton, NH. This is supported by several other descendants. There will be more on this to follow.

DNA testing has broken down many presumed relationships of the past where families with the same name; from the same village ended up not being related because they had different haplogroups. Surnames only extend back 1000 years for the most part with many areas not having surnames until the 1400s. Similar/same surnames spontaneously arose in different areas and the Blake surname appears to fall into this category with the name being found all over the British Isles in various places and thus far are found in the I and R haplogroups with several divisions inside of these major haplogroups.

Testing as many Blake members as possible is the aim of the yDNA Blake family project at FT DNA. The patterns that have arisen thus far are most interesting and the addition of more members can only add to the ability of this study to separate out lines. Although the Irish group at the moment seems very widespread, finding intermediary lines may well diminish these differences leading us back to the common ancestor(s) in this area. There are a number of lines in the Wiltshire/Somerset/Hampshire area as well and the study would greatly benefit from more people testing with known ancestry back to the "resting spot" for these groups.

The path of Genealogy

I am distracted by yet another book - Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider. Although this book doesn't appear to have any genealogical content; it is one of my strong interests. How does this book fit into genealogy? It doesn't except for the nagging question that is always there in one's mind especially after you do your mtDNA test. Where did we come from? How far back can we trace ourselves looking at our mtDNA? Creating the "Big Bang" that is believed to have started our atoms on their way towards the fulfilled Homo sapiens that we now represent. Will we evolve further? What new traits can we/will we acquire as the line moves forward in time? With five great grand nephews our family genes move forward in time although with a different surname. I find even yet there isn't that strong desire for grandchildren that so many have by my age. Perhaps when I am 75 I will feel that desire but somehow I doubt it. I tend to just live by the day thanking God for each new morning and trying to accomplish as much in His Name as I can each day. For truly I see my pursuit of genealogy as a task for God as I lovingly transcribe the ancient texts of the Church - Parish Records. It is something that I can do as my part in the Great Quest.

I have discovered a transcription of some of the Hampshire Protestation Returns which was a wonderful find. I shall soon put them into an excel file and see what they might reveal to me in terms of life in the 1641-42 period.  I shall post the applicable ones to my blog for others to share and use in our mutual family research. Likely I shall place the entire file on my webpage. That will take me a little time.

I also want to spend some time on our son-in-law's French Canadian families and in particular a couple of Irish lines. I would like to learn more about them and will do a couple of dedicated research days at Library and Archives Canada. I have found some like minded people using the tree (private) on Ancestry. The more people working on some of these "hidden" lines the better. Just a single Irish family arriving in Quebec in the early 1800s is really difficult to solve I find,. If they came at the time of the famine there are really terrific records but at the end of the 1700s and early 1800s fewer traces to pick up. This gentleman arrived with his children his wife having died in Ireland. Even the spelling of their last name is in dispute.

But I must admit at the moment I am immersed in reading a total of five books. My eyes need a longish rest and so I always find that book reading tends to give me that and keeps me away from the microfiche reader screen and the computer screen.

Genealogy as one's life work

I am distracted a bit at the moment reading a couple of books that have piqued my interest. Occasionally I mull about the reasons for my consuming interest in genealogy. I went from an interest level of zero to 100% in a rather short period of time. Enough interest that I took over 40 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies then based at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. A book sitting on a pile attracted my interest and I am about one half way through the book having begun it this morning.

The book is by Leonard Mlodinow titled The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives. The book caught my eye because it talks about randomness and how events that are random affect our lives. I love the imagery in the introduction which talks about random events being like molecules moving through time and space and how they may accidentally bump into or otherwise affect each other. I see life events as being like that and these "encounters" affect how our life flows.

My own life events that led me to genealogy are one such set of random events. We, my eldest daughter and I, went to Rome for eight days in November 2001 (yes it was an interesting time to fly to Europe and be there in the days following 9/11). This was an organized visit in that we were to attend a specific religious event the invitation for which I obtained via the Anglican newslist to which I belonged. The time we spent in Rome was absolutely wonderful and I appreciate it even more now that we have had our whirlwind tour of Europe where our time in Rome (2 days) was great but can not compare to spending eight days there even with the organized tours that swept us past long lineups. But it was here that for the first time I had a concrete thought about my ancestors and what they might or might not have done in the past. As I stood in front of St Peter's Basilica for the first time I wondered, aloud, whether any of my ancestors had made this pilgrimage to Rome (for that is how I saw it). Later as we traveled to the second city of our European trip (London) I experienced even more profound thoughts on fammily and from that experience (although it took another two years) was borne the desire to learn more about my ancestors. The randomness by which I reached the project that now occupies most of my waking hours (and sometimes my sleeping ones) has constantly amazed me and so this book has entered into my realm of thoughts. The randomness of life events bounces us one way or another like molecules in nature. Trtuly there was only a 50/50 chance that I would turn to Genealogy.

Now that I am nearly half way through the book, I look once again at Genealogy and how it occupies my life - basically all my waking hours are mostly directed towards achieving the maximum number of details possible on my ancestors. Not so much that I may solve all the riddles but that I leave the material thus found in such a fashion that another family researcher can pick my material up and run with it. Solving one's past opens one's eyes to the future in a way that I had not realized before in my life. Not that one can avoid the problems of life; that is highly unlikely but one can see that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. An old philosophy always says that when God closes the door He opens a window so that one does escape but the escape may not always be viewed as success by those who view it. It is an interesting conundrum - what one person may view as failure another may see as great success.

Genealogy is where I have placed the rest of my life's efforts and I am gradually concentrating that interest in to selected surnames - Blake and Pincombe are one-name studies. I have looked at doing one place studies of Winterbourne Clenstone and Turnworth both inb Dorset. I have accumulated a lot of information on these two places and for Winterbourne Clenstone I am the online parish clerk (www.dorsetopc.com). I am gradually moving away from some of the other surnames although will occasionally check for updates and I am considering a fixed schedule for that.

Genealogy as one's life pusuit (after retiring) is a commendable idea. One we have the time to transcribe all the material that until now has been enscounced in libraries and archives and sometimes in one's attic. Two we have a lifetime of training in organizing to put all this material into a useable order. Three we may not need funding to acconmplish all this work if we have a pension (luckily I have my three pensions now - work pension, CPP and OAS). Not a large amount (technically I am below the poverty line) but with two people, my husband and I, we can survive and actually we saved money for travel as well. Although initially I thought I might work and did do so for about two years, I no longer do any genealogy work for other people unless it is part of my own genealogy although I am still the online parish clerk for Bishops Nympton which does involve queries. Eventually I will have everything online and that will then minimize the queries.

But the probability of my now being occupied with genealogy instead of the sewing, knitting, smocking, and other handicrafts that occupied me in my child bearing years was only 50/50 and perhaps considerably less because I was simply uninterested in genealogy. A life event occurred in my case which changed that percentage drastically. As we walked the streets of London, my eldest and I, I had this overwhelming feeling of being at home and yet I had absolutely no idea that my Buller, Beard, Hemsley and other families had also walked these streets and in a number of cases the exact same streets. Leaving after just a short period of time was a wrench - I really wanted to stay longer and feel that sense of belonging. That sense has brought me back twice more and I expect we will go yet another time.

Does one learn a lot when one goes back to the scene of earlier families? On the surface I am sure these places have changed so much that our ancestors would hardly recognize them but on the other hand the visual image I had of Upper Clatford (and in particular the Church) was absolutely clear to me as we approached the church and then were at the Church. That wasn't the same in Bishops Nympton where I did not have any preconceived notions or imagery to go by. However, I suspect that the changes are principally cosmetic and one can still see the place as it was when one takes the time to carefully view the particular area. When we spend our next block of time in England I will have a better idea of the truth of that statement.

Allen County Public Library

A recent visit to the Allen County Public Library allowed me to itemize the books which they hold on the Blake family. I will extract information from them and then note where they have used Somerby's assumptions about the ancestry of the Blake family.

I also collected the 1641-62 Protestations Returns for Wiltshire which I will transcribe and extract the Blake fanmily members from it. There is so much work to do on the Blake family and I want to ensure that I my methodology collects the best sources and then eventually I will start to put some of it together.

I am working on my display at Gene-O-Rama for the Guild of One Name Studies. I want to let people see the value of one name studies work and especially mention my Blake study. There is a large group of Blake families descendant of the Galway Blake line that I would like to interest in yDNA studies.

Abbotts Ann Parish Registers

I have now completed up to 1599 in the Parish Registers of Abbotts Ann. One new Blake entry, a burial for Elizabeth Blake (no details given). Perhaps she is the wife of Robert and mother of Thomas Blake baptized 1 Sep 1568. She was buried 21 Mar 1581 at Abbotts Ann (Thomas would have been 13 years old). This Robert would have been born at least by 1548 +/- 2 years or earlier. There are Robert Blake entries (grandsons of Robert Blake brother to Nicholas Blake) not yet traced down. I do not know anything about the eldest son of Robert Blake (d 1542) who was Robert Blake.

I finished my book on the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (I started a book report blog in this new year although  not too many books yet as this book took a while to read) and have begun the book "The King's Speech." I quite enjoyed the movie and I am going to try to read two books a week. I decided to try and maintain a blog of book reports on my reading. At first it seemed somewhat odd as I have read thousands and thousands of books since I learned to read at the age of three years but then I decided it is never to late to set up such a log. Mostly my books will pertain to genealogy but not always.

I will continue to work on updating my gedcom of my Blake family line. It has proven to be a much more formidable task than I initially anticipated. It was never really my intention to enter all the wills and other details into my family file but I have decided now that that is a good idea. For the families that are not closely related to me I am entering the details into my One Name File for Blake.

Blake family at Andover

John Reid's blog (Anglo-Celtic Connections  http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/ ) discussed Agricultural Labourers and this happens to be a subject that I find most interesting. My great grandfather is listed as an agricultural labourer on the census although my father had said he was a bailiff. My grandfather had said he was an agricultural labourer but was somewhat in charge of the group on the farm. All very confusing to someone raised in Canada where farmers farm their land and hire "threshing gangs" at harvest time although my grandfather who farmed here had a "hired hand" who worked for him permanently and did the sales and purchasing plus managing the workers hired at harvest time. Trying to relate the one system with the other (as one likely has a predilection to do since the known is much easier to work from than the unknown) was a challenge until meeting my cousin in England. He explained that our great grandfather was considered to be quite knowledgeable and highly respected by his employer. That is, of course, always nice to hear about one's ancestors!

What happened to the Blake family at Andover? I think it is a relative thing. They were not large land owners but rather were lease holders on large  (again relative) sections of land with some freeholds (which my 9x great grandfather sold through his adulthood as a source of income). Why did he do that? I find it somewhat mysterious but it begins with the will of his father which had insufficient funds to fulfill the legacies he had written up. When his mother wrote her will each of the children had to refuse the legacy in their father's will in favour of the legacy in their mother's will. Then a year later the eldest son of that family, Richard, died and his widow collected any and all monies owing including the monies owed by the Sedgewick family in far off Massachusetts. Either a very persistent person or a person who needed every penny in order to raise her children (which I suspect to be the case).

At what point did the Blake family cease being Drapers at Andover? I think that would be a really interesting discovery. I am trying to work through the Blake family there logically in the 1500s and 1600s into the 1700s. Extracting all the BMBs is my first step and then I will move to the Manor Books and any directories that exist that early. I am trying not to jump ahead although that is very tempting to start constructing family lines. The census of the 1800s and Free BMD will also answer a lot of questions but only on the Blake family that has already undergone enormous change from the 1500s. I think I need to separate myself (my own interest in my lineage) from the equation and simply look at the Blake lines that are there and whether or not they are related to each other and to the Wiltshire Blake family (as stated in the Pedigree Chart of the Blake family held at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office and discussed earlier in my blog). Seeing William Blake of Andover (gentleman) marry at Winterslow, Wiltshire in 1665 was most interesting in the extracted marriages sent to me by another researcher. Is this my William Blake who was buried at Andover (lived at Foxcott) in 1696? Why does William the older brother of my Thomas (b 1767) live at Andover in the 1790s (as mentioned in the will of John Blake malster of Abbotts Ann)? Did he return to Andover to live with his grandfather Thomas Blake perhaps when his mother remarried in 1781 (he would have been 17 years old then whereas my Thomas would have been 14)? Extracting one's line from the discussion is always very difficult!

Footnote.com and the will of Nicholas Blake (probated 1547)

I hadn't tried Footnote.com before but a lecture at BIFHSGO this morning inspired me to look into this particular website. I added a transcription of Nicholas Blake's will of 1547 and I am curious to see if I will get any comments on this particular document. I will also add the will of Nicholas' mother and that of his eldest son William Blake (d 1582). These three wills include information that permits one to link these three generations very readily. They also offer the strongest proof against Horatio Somerby's data on the Boston Blake family and their antecedents. Finding people who trace back to Nicholas Blake has been an interest of mine ever since my husband purchased a family genealogy for the Blake family authored by Edward Wales Blake. The first two pages of the pedigree intrigued me when I first saw them back in 2003. The line of descent at Andover had a Nicholas Blake and this reminded me of something my grandfather had said over 50 years ago at that time. Trouble was it was a long time ago and I was only eight years old. In the last year of his life he talked mostly about Upper Clatford and used to rhyme off his ancestors. I thought perhaps all old people did that at the time and perhaps some of them actually do. I remembered watching a movie about Abraham and Isaac as a child and Isaac had a stick with rings carved on it and he would recite the generations that went before him. It simply seemed quite reasonable to me as a child that a person might recite their generations and was likely the genealogist waking up in me momentarily but remained dormant until I traveled to England with my eldest daughter in November 2001. Definitely, Nicholas caught my eye in that book and as a newbie I was impressed that this Blake tree went all the way back to Robert de Blakeland of Calne Wiltshire. However, when I tried to collect evidence for this tree I ran into a snag and made all sort of discoveries including wills that disproved the lineage of this book and every other book which is based on Somerby's Blake familyof Boston genealogy.

I thought I would investigate Footnote.com and see if putting up material on that site might generate interest in Nicholas and Andover and the presence of a number of Blake families at Andover in the 1500s/1600s/1700s who may or may not be related. From such interest I am hoping that people will become interested enough to test their yDNA so that the puzzle of Andover and all those Blake families might be solved.

There is an even deeper interest in all of this and it concerns the deep ancestry of the Blake family which already has members in Haplogroups R1a, R1b, I1, I2a, I2b. Obviously these Blake lines do not have common ancestry in thousands and thousands of years. When did they arrive in the British Isles these various haplogroups that bear the Blake surname? How far back into the early history of the British Isles do these Blake roots go? On paper Blake members are found back into the 1100s but yDNA has the potential to probe deeper into the past and I am hoping that our yDNA project at FT DNA will help to reveal some of that deep ancestry.

Blake yDNA study:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/blake/default.aspx?section=yresults

Returning to Abbotts Ann Parish Registers and some stray Blake marriages from another Blake researcher

My foray into the Blake family at Andover the last few days has given me more questions than answers. Producing a gedcom of my family line is the reason for the foray. Have I answered all the questions that I needed to to produce the gedcom? I think I will let it gel for a bit in my mind before I actually do do so plus I still have more entries into the Legacy file before I export the gedcom. I would like it to be as accurate as possible. I dislike putting out information until I am very sure of its correctness. I would rather just have my line sit at Thomas (baptized 21 Feb 1685 at Andover) than link him back to an incorrect attachment. His parents John and Elizabeth are at Andover at least from 1684 on as they baptize and bury their first child (John) in that year. The naming of the children in the Blake family of Andover does not appear to ever be significant. In this case John and Elizabeth named their sons: John, Thomas, John, Richard, William and Joseph. The first John and Richard died young (before three years of age). I find marriages for Thomas (Mary Spring at Andover) and Joseph (Mary Holdway at Penton Mewsey). John and Elizabeth named their daughters: Margaret, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Ann, and Ann. Only Margaret and the second Elizabeth survived beyond early infancy. I never find marriages for these two daughters at Andover or Penton Mewsey.

An interesting set of marriages (Hampshire and Wiltshire parishes) for Blake members from another Blake researcher descendant of the Charles Blake line of Abbotts Ann:

John Blake married Catherine Hollaway June 1739 at Amport, both of Penton Mewsey.

William Blake of Andover married Ann  Brown 1790 at Amport.

John Blake of Grateley married Catherine Wild 1802 at Amport.

William Blake of Monxton married Mary Smith 1802 at Amport

Elizabeth Blake of South Newton married John Smith November 1727 at Laverstock.

Nicholas Blake of Porton married Susanna Chick April 1664 at Allington.

Henry Blake of South Newton married Martha Childe 1674 at Allington.

Richard Blake of West Tytherley married Jane London 1760 at Allington.

John Blake of Idmiston married Mary London 1761 at Allington.

William Blake of Andover gent. married Dorothye Thistlewayte Feb. 1665/6 at Winterslow.

Dorothye Blake Widow Married Richard Lansdowne July 1667 at Winterslow.

Anne Blake of Woodford married Stephen London May 1668 at Winterslow.

Richard Blake of West Tytherley married Elizabeth Kinge Jan. 1694 at Winterslow.

John Blake Married Elizabeth Hartford July 1701 at Salisbury ( St. Thomas) Both of Winterslow.

Richard Blake of Exbury Hants. Widower married Susan Larham Oct. 1812 Salisbury (St. Tomas)

Mary Blake of Milford married George Scamell Stedmond Mar.1701 at Salisbury (St.Martin).

Mary Blake married John Gerard Dec.1707 at Salisbury (St. Martin) both of South Newton.

Elizabeth Blake married William Morris Jan. 1708 at Salisbury (St. Martin) both of Whiteparish.

 I found two marriages very interesting and both William Blake of Andover - the first in 1665/6 at Winterslow as I wonder if William (son of William and Dorothy Blake) married again although I have not yet found a burial for Ann (Hellier) Blake his wife but times are early in that regard. The other marriage in 1790 at Amport of William Blake and Ann Brown since Thomas (my 3x great grandfather)'s brother William lived at Andover in this time period and I have not yet found a marriage or children for him. 

The other marriages will go into my database of Blake marriages and thank you very much to Ernest Blake for these entries. 

As I accumulate information, I need to consider how to display it so that it is available to as many Blake researchers as possible. Barrie Blake's excellent Blake Heritage website contains a vast amount of information but the size of files shouldn't swamp any one person. I shall place these large databases on my website whilst considering other alternatives. I do have webspace at the Guild of one name studies as well that I will utilize.

A second set of marriages from the same Blake researcher:

Elizabeth Blake married William Longland Oct. 1730 at Salisbury St. Martin, both of Wallop.

Elizabeth Blake of Milford married Richard Lovelock of Sparshott Jan. 1761 at Salisbury St. Martin.

Alice Blake of South Newton married Joseph Bourn July 1665 at Idmiston.

William Blake married Sarah Ann London Jun. 1710 both of Porton

William Blake of Clarendon Park married Martha Kinsman of Porton July 1725 at Idmiston.

John Blake married Mary Blake Aug. 1787 both of Boscombe at Idmiston.

John Blake of Shrewton married Ann Newberry Nov. 1770 at Rollestone

Ann Blake of Stover married John Bunkley of Clanden May 1689 at Salisbury St. Edumund.

Katherine Blake of Whiteparish married Benjamin Gale March 1700  at Salisbury St. Edmund.

William Blake of Imber married Hester Henton of Great Cheverell Oct. 1717 at Salisbury St. Edmund.

Mary Blake of Winterslow married John Wooton Sept. 1745 at Salisbury St. Edmund.

Thomas Blake of Idmiston married Elizabeth Olden Dec. 1759 at Boscombe.

Edith Blake married John Batson  1732 both of Purton.

Henry Blake of Homanton married Mary Vincent Jan. 1739 at Britford.

Nicholas Blake of Sarum married Elizabeth Hussey Dec. 1672 at Salisbury Cathedral.

John Blake of Southampton married Alice Parnell Jan. 1712 at Salisbury Cathedral.

William Blake  married Elizabeth Visar July 1707 both of Wraxall ( north).

 

Mary Blake of Devizes married Thomas Power of Bath Feb. 1654/5 at Devizes.

Thomas Blake married Frances Blake Mar. 1631/2 at Salisbury Cathedral.

Y DNA and deep ancestry

I am in the process of writing up an article for our Blake Newsletter (http://blakeheritage.synthasite.com/the-blake-newsletter.php) which will be published 1st of April 2011. It will be the second issue of this first volume. Barrie Blake created the January issue discussing Heraldry (display of ermine) which can be found at the website mentioned above). Heraldry is a very important part of the Blake Family knowledge because coats of arms were used by a number of the different founding lines. I hope that in one of Barrie's newsletters he tells us something about why particular items were chosen for the individual Blake coats of arms. In the case of my line, why the sheafs of wheat. I might think it was because they were landowners but perhaps there is a deeper significance.

In the course of writing up the article on Y DNA and deep ancestry, I have ended up producing two newsletters and will let Barrie choose the one that he feels best suits our newsletter style. The other one I will then put into my blog because it has a lot of links to a European website that I have just been observing and it is incredible for its depth of study on the European lines and their origins.

I plan to return to the Abbotts Ann Parish Registers after completing the newsletter and will also continue working on my gedcom to be put up on the Blake Heritage site. I would like it to be very complete in terms of all the wills that I have transcribed thus far and the BMB records that I have gleaned from the parish registers that I have transcribed.

Carrying on with yesterday's discussion on the various papers, original records that I am examining once again as I work through my additions to my Blake family tree, I mentioned the paper in The American Genealogist written by Paul Reed. He mentioned that "The Robert Blake of Enham, who was Nicholas Blake's uncle is ancestor of Mary Blake, grandmother of the immigrant Shadrack Hapgood. The will of this Robert Blayke was dated 16 Dec 1522 and though no date of probate was attached, it is listed in the year 1522 in the manuscript calendar. He mentioned his son Thomas Blayke, his son Richard Blayke (executor), Andrew Blayke, William Blayke (no specific relationship stated) and Robert Blayke (no relationship stated). The son Richard died the same year as his father. Richard's will, recorded in Latin, was dated 12 April and proved 23 May 1522. He [Richard] mentioned his wife, my brother Thomas Blayke, Robert Blayke my father and my mother."

Shadrack Hapgood was the son of Joanne Scullard and Thomas Hapgood who married  25 Oct 1641 at Andover Hampshire England. Joanna Scullard was the daughter of Shadrack Scullard and Marye Blake who married probably in 1603. Although the IGI lists their marriage as being in Andover (patron entry), there isn't a marriage in the Andover register for this couple. Perhaps they married at Knights Enham as that was Mary's birthplace. The Knights Enham (extant) registers do not begin until later in the 1600s. Mary's parents were first cousins with Nicholas the son of John Blake the younger and Dorothy Blake the daughter of John Blake the elder. Both Johns were sons of Robert Blake (brother to Nicholas Blake (d 1547)). The reference to Mary being a descendant of Robert who left a will in 1522 does not appear to fit the details. Paul Reed says that Robert was an uncle to Nicholas (d 1547) so must also have been an Uncle to Robert the brother of Nicholas and this Robert left a will in 1542. However, has Paul put together a scenario that might shed some light on this family in the early 1500s.

This Robert (d 1522) has a son Thomas and a son Richard (who also died in 1522). The Andrew Blake it is noted has no specific relationship. William and Robert also carry the notation no specific relationship. The puzzle of when the death of Richard occurred relative to his father's is perhaps solved by his comment that the actual will was written in December 1521 although not entered into the calendar until probate perhaps. Richard's death was sudden perhaps whereas his father may have already been ill and perhaps succumbed shortly after his son's death. The interesting part in all of this is Thomas. There is a Thomas who leaves a will at Andover in 1541. If Paul Reed is correct and this Robert is a brother to the father of Nicholas (d 1547) and Robert (d 1542), then we have a second line of Blake which dates back to before 1500 at Andover. The name of the one brother would be Robert and the name of the second brother unknown (but married to Jone who left a will in 1527).

In this same will we have three Blake members with no relationship stated: Andrew, William and Robert. In 1522. Nicholas (d 1547) and Robert (d 1542) are probably adults given the calculations I went through in a blog a couple of weeks ago. Nicholas was possibly born in the late 1480s and Robert a similar time period. I wonder why Paul Reed refers to Robert as an uncle of Nicholas. I do not see anything in this text that proves that Robert was his uncle. On the next page of the article Paul Reed's quotes the will that Jone Blake (mother of Nicholas and Robert) left dated 28 Mar 1527. Nicholas' name is written before Robert so one might assume he is the eldest.

One other piece of information in the paper, mentions that Robert Blake's widow was Matilda or Mawde who died in 1525 leaving a will which no longer survives There is a marriage of Robert Blake to Maude Snell as a patron entry on the IGI. I suspect at this point only the manor records for Knights Enham/Kings Enham can provide the answers I am looking for with regard to any connection between Robert Blake married to Maude Snell and Blake married to Jone . 

Finding that this Robert Blake has sons Richard and Thomas is rather interesting though given that there are wills at Andover for a Richard (d 1522) and a Thomas (d 1541). Wills at Andover in this time period listed in the Hampshire Record Office Catalogue for Blake:

1522B/03  Will of Richard Blake (Blayke) of Knights Enham, Hampshire  1522

1522B/04  Will of Robert Blake (Blayke) of Knights Enham, Hampshire  1522

1528B/06  Will of Joan Blake 'of Enham' [=Knights Enham?], Hampshire, widow  1528

1541U/06  Will of Thomas Blake of Andover, Hampshire  1541

1542B/06  Will of Robert Blake of Enham, Andover, Hampshire  1542

1546B/017  Will of Agnes Blake of Quarley, Hampshire, wife of Harry  1546

1546B/018  Will of Harry Blake of Quarley, Hampshire  1546

1547B/008  Will of Walter Blake of East Tytherley, Hampshire  1547

The first five wills in this list have already been put into family grouping but who are the other three people who left wills in the Andover area in the 1540s? Who is Harry (Henry?) Blake and who is Walter Blake? To really put the family together in the 1500s I think we need to know the origins of these two Blake families as well. As soon as the opportunity arises I shall attempt to get hold of those two wills.

If Paul Reed is correct in naming Robert as an uncle of Nicholas (d 1547) then how early was this family at Knights Enham - again a query that might be best answered by the Manor Records. Do they, as some researchers have in their trees, trace back to Henry Blake married to Margaret Billet at Calne? Is their line second cousin to Robert Blake married to Avis Wallop (and first cousin to his father Robert Blake married to Avice Malwyn)? This is the point at which Somerby created a history for the Blake family at Andover. He claimed that William (brother to Robert Blake married to Avice Malwyn) had sons William and Robert. This Robert would be the Robert married to Maude Snell and one is left to presume that the husband of Jone (d 1527) was William. Looking at this from the naming of children - Nicholas named his eldest son William and Robert named his third son William (first son was Robert and second son was John (the elder)). Nicholas' son William named his eldest son John and his second son William. There was always a William Blake in these lines down to the mid 1600s. The Robert Blake line coming down not so often.

However, Horatio Somerby gave children to William supposed brother of Robert that were incorrect - Nicholas was correct but Humphrey was wrong. The wife of William was not Mary as he stated but would have been Jone who left a will in 1547. This is the beginning of the falsification as the history backwards is verified by the College of Arms Chart and the Visitations. The need to eliminate this falsification is shown by the number of family books that are published by descendants of the Blake family particularly in the United States who lift the information on the parentage of Humphrey from this book attaching it as shown in the book to their own line back to Humphrey. Paul Reed's article is greatly appreciated for bringing that to the attention of Blake researchers. However, he has introduced a new query into the study with his comment that Robert (d 1522) was an uncle to Nicholas. Perhaps I will write a query to TAG, as we are subscribers, which might generate a little discussion now that I have clearly put together his thoughts in my mind at least.

Reviewing Blake articles published in NEHGS and TAG and other items

Putting together a family tree for the Blake family at Andover means looking again at the various articles written about this family. First publication examined is Paul Reed's article in The American Genealogist (TAG), volume 74, pages 15 - 28 published in 1999. A second publication was reviewed written in 1916 in the New England Historic Genealogical Society by Edward Leodore Smith where he has abstracted several Blake wills in this time period and a copy of notarial records prepared in Massachusetts with reference to Joane Sedgewicke (daughter of William Blake and Dorothy Madgwick). The third item is the Pedigree Chart which was produced in 1690 (with additional material added in the early 1700s) by the College of Arms (UK) showing the descent of the Blake family at Calne Wiltshire and linking the family at Eastontown Andover Hampshire to it. This publication is not tainted by Somersby's work and is the oldest compiled genealogical data for the Blake family that I have found thus far. The fourth item includes the Parish Registers for the Andover Registration District which I am slowly transcribing and will eventually put up a chart on my webpage of all the Blake entries found in this Registration District.The fifth item includes the books written by Francis E Blake in the late 1800s on the Blake family of Boston Massachusetts USA which links the Blake Family of Boston back to the Blake family of Somerset. The sixth item includes a number of books written on the Blake families in the United States which have used the incorrect linkage which Horatio Somerby produced tracing the Somerset Blake family back to the Hampshire Blake family and thence to the Wiltshire Blake family. The seventh item but primarily to refute it, the book edited by William H. Whitmore, A Record of the BLAKEs of Somersetshire, specially in the Line of William BLAKE, of Dorchester, Mass., the Emigrant to New England: with One Branch of His Descendants, from the Notes of the Late Horatio G. SOMERBY (Boston, 1881) (Whitmore stated on p. 4 that "[t]he work of the editor, in the main, has been merely to arrange Mr. SOMERBY's pedigrees in paragraph form" - this quote from Reed's article).

With these items in mind, I need to move forward with this tree. I have hesitated to put up my tree for a number of years as I worked through what I considered to be a weak link between William Blake (baptized 1615) to his son John Blake (baptized 1649) to his son Thomas (baptized 1685) to his son Thomas (baptized 1709) and then to his son Joseph (baptized 1730). Up to William Blake from the earliest records of the Blake family at Andover is proved readily by wills, parish records and from Joseph down to my present family is proved by parish records and census. The Parish Records exist at Andover to link the Blake families from the baptism of William Blake in 1615 to the baptism of Joseph Blake in 1730 but there are no wills or other records that clearly link this family from father to son. William (b 1615) did not leave a will when he was buried in 1696 (85 years of age). The priest does not note in his burial that he had been a Clerk (Priest) so I struggled with that for a bit but it was nearly 62 years since he had been a priest and perhaps no one remembered.

All that is known about this William is that he lived at Foxcott at the time of his burial; in an Indenture of 1649 (between Lord Sandys and Nicholas Blake) the lease of the East Fields and West Fields (as they are known) in Andover were sold to Nicholas Blake (cousin of William) and that William had been either living or occupying these fields (at least since they were feoffed to him in the will of his father William Blake, Lynnen Draper 1641; he married Ann Hellier (daughter of Hugh Helyer) in 1644 at Andover; he was at Cambridge University - 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. I finally discovered what Taxor refers to and that is literally how it sounds - he collected taxes. Why does he leave the priesthood after being ordained at Lincoln 16 June 1644? He married Ann Hellier 5 Sep 1644 but their first child is not baptized at Penton (Andover Parish Register) until 9 Aug 1647. Does he leave being the priesthood in favour of becoming tax collector? I need to find records to substantiate that. By 1645 the time of Charles I is rapidly coming to a close and the "Roundheads" under Cromwell are about to take over the Kingdom and turn it into a Republic. Perhaps he did not wish to leave his Church of England for this more Puritan Church and simply walked away from all of it never to return. By the time Charles II was restored to the monarchy in 1660 he would have then been 45 and perhaps he did not wish to take up the priesthood once again. He had his leases to live off of and he certainly seemed to be doing that viz a viz the sale of the West and East Fields to his cousin Nicholas Blake in the Indenture of 1649. Eventually he is at Foxcott which belongs, at this time, to his cousin Joseph Hinxman who was Lord of the Manor. I do not find a burial for Ann Blake (his wife) at Andover; no burial for her at Penton Mewsey but she could have died after him elsewhere. There is a burial for a John Blake in 1706 at Penton Mewsey (the last child of John and Elizabeth Blake was baptized in 1705 at Andover. This John Blake does not leave a will either and if he is William's son then he would have been 57 years of age. His eldest son Thomas would have been 21 years of age and indeed he would die in 1714 at 29 years of age.

The abstract of the documents sent by the notary for Major General Sedgewick are revealing about this family. This is retyped from the Aspinwall Notarial Records (Boston Records Volume 32: A Volume relating to the early history of Boston containing the Aspinwall Notarial Records 1644 to 1651. Compiled by John T Hassam. Printed: Boston Municipal Printing Office 1903).

The entries in the printed Aspinwall Notarial Records, already referred to, read as follows:

"23 (8) 1650 I attested a Copie of a Lre attorney from Jane Blake of Andover to Mr. Wm Twisse to recover what is due from major Robt Sedgwick Dat. 27 Mar 1650" (Notarial Records, p. 332.)

"6 (12) 1650 Recd this 18th of Octob. 1850. of Robt Sedgwick in goods, the sume of three hundd & fourteene pounds seventeene shillings & foure pence sterl. As also one hundd & eighty pounds more in money sterl which is by severall legacies left him unto his wife and children by his father Mr William Blake and by his mother Mrs Dorothie Blake both deceased, & by Mrs Martha Blake deceased, both which sums together is 494 li, 17 s, 4d. The which is do acknowledg to received to and for the use of Mrs Jane Blake of Andover by vertue of a lre of Atturney made by her unto me, & doe hereby acknowledge that the above specifyed summes to be red in full satisfaction of all dues and demands whatsoever either due to Mr Wm Blake of Andover or to Mrs Dorothie Blake his wife both deceased or to Mr Richard Blake deceased & of all dues and demands unto Mrs Jane Blake of Andover executrix unto her husband Mr Richard Blake. I say Recd in full of all accounts and Reckonings the summe of 494 li 17 s 4 d.

Witnes John Thompson                       p William Twisse

Tristram Coffin

"Recd this 16th of Octob. 1650 of Major Robt Sedgwick the summer of fye pounds for Mrs Dorothie Smith being so much to be paid out of the said legacies given to Mrs Sedgwick I say Recd by me

William Twisse"

(Notorial Records, p 371)

A pedigree of the Blakes of "Eston towne," c. Hants, the family to which the father of Joanna (Blake) Sedgwick undoubtedly belonged, may be found in the Visitations of Hampshire, published by the Harleian Society in 1913.

Brookline, Mass. Edward Leodore Smith

The request for recompensation by Jane Blake (wife of Richard Blake deceased 1648) is an interesting one. By now I believe the family is not doing well financially and this request for money from across the ocean right down to five pounds is really rather pointed if not absolutely penny pinching. It, I think, marks the point of digression of this family from the more well to do lines of the family although ultimately many of these family lines also fell on hard times. The reference to the pedigree of the Blake family of Eastontown in the Visitation is somewhat provocative.

Paul Reed in his article in TAG agrees the proof that I also presented that Nicholas does  not have a brother Humphrey that went to Somerset and married Mary Cole. Nicholas is not the son of William necessarily; at the moment his father is unknown. He does bring up a piece of information that is rather interesting. William Blake, yeoman died at Benham Berkshire leaving a will dated 10 June and proved 28 July 1552 that states his son was Anthony who did not prove his majority until 18 May 1571. This William had brothers Richard and John and he had land in Kings Enham. Indeed this William Blake is the son of Robert (brother to Nicholas Blake). One point he makes with which I do not agree - he says the subsidy does not list a William Blake at Andover and this is incorrect. But definitely he is right that the Blake family at Andover in the 1500s is a very complex one with lands at Andover, Kings Enham, Knights Enham, Penton Mewsey and Clatford. There is another section of his paper that I will relate to later as I am still not sure of what he is saying.

The Pedigree Chart for the Blake family of Wiltshire held at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office is another tantalizing clue on the Andover Hampshire Blake family. The Preamble states:

"The genealogie of the ancient and worthy family of BLAGUE, BLAAKE or BLAKE, of great antiquity in the county of Wilts, where they had large possessions in Quemberford, Calne and Hilcot with a fair mansion house called PINHILLS, now the seat of the family, a younger branch whereof transplanted themselves into Hantshire and settling at Easton Town, were owners of that and divers other mannor from whence the BLAKEs of Middlesex, etc. are immediately descended faithfully collected out of the several visitation books of the said counties remaining in the College of Arms and deducted to the issue of Daniel BLAKE of London, Anno 1690"


Clearly a link between the Calne and Andover families (Easton Town lies beside Andover to the east of the city along the London Road) but the question remains were all the Blake families in the Andover area related? The y DNA testing, if it ever catches on, may be the only means of separating out different lines if indeed they are different.

Further discussion including the Parish Registers which have thus far been transcribed in the Andover Registration District to follow.

Blake family tree

My co-associate with the Blake one name study wants me to produce a Blake family tree for my line to put up on the Blake Heritage website. I already have a Blake One Name Study tree that I started a year or so ago when I first started to think about the Blake one name study. I went in and removed all the births after 1920 at the latest but left in marriages even in the 1920s. Having done that the file has 1071 individuals and 309 families.

 In my close family I have followed the female Blake lines down a couple of generations which isn't usual in a one name study but my ancestor Joseph Blake was the son of an only child and he himself ended up as an only child when his brother Thomas died as an infant in 1734. Joseph died at 37 years of age leaving two sons and I have  not yet found any descendants for William the older son and I am descended from Thomas the youngest son (born posthumously five months after his father and older brother Thomas died). That meant that all the descendants of Thomas were fairly closely related to me being at the most fourth cousins.

Having had absolutely no first cousins as a child and few second cousins, third cousins and fourth cousins do not sound that distant to me! Consequently I did follow all these lines at least down to the early 1900s where I was able to do so. Mostly these families have all stayed in England - a few lines (my grandfather (and grandmother and father) and my grandfather's brother notably) came to Canada and at least one line to Australia. I have met a few of the members of these extended families online but not too many. They are widespread around England; the ones with whom I have corresponded. One wonders what a family reunion would be like of all the descendants of Joseph Blake and Joanna King. They are my 4x great grandparents. They number likely in the thousands now.

The idea of an enormous Blake reunion does quite intrigue me as does the Blake one name study once I decided in my mind that it was doable. Part of this ability is of course the work already done by Barrie Blake in Australia and William Bleak in the United States as well as Charlou Dolan in the United States. The three of them have added greatly to the knowledge on the Blake genealogy. I am a newbie to the entire field of genealogy although now that I am entering my eighth year of endeavour I guess not quite so new. I continue to work on the Blake marriages on Free BMD. It is an enormous task and I have just broken the surface thus far. After that the births and then the deaths and the census. That is just England. I have also extracted the 1911 Canadian census for Blake and will soon do the American Census starting at 1930.

I am still contemplating how to order all this information. I think by country perhaps  to start out the naming and then by province/state/county. I have contemplated this earlier but I was thinking only of England at that time but gradually my focus is moving outward to look at the world as that is the intent of a One Name Study.

I am entering all the wills into the chart that will eventually be produced from this Legacy file which I will export as a Gedcom. I want to enter in all the BMD information from the Andover Parish Registers, Upper Clatford Parish Registers and any others that I have transcribed. It will take me a little while but I have decided to concentrate on that for a bit. My eyes needed a change from reading microfiche unfortunately but I shall soon return to Abbotts Ann.

I think the information that goes up on the Andover Hampshire Blake family (which includes Knights Enham, Abbotts Ann, Upper Clatford, as well as Andover itself (and there are other places in the same area which had Blake families living in them)) will be helpful to a lot of researchers.