Graphing Blake marriages by Registration District

Having now completed about 1/6 of the Registration Districts for Blake marriages, I have played a little with graphing the results. I have a number of ideas on how I want to look at this data. Registration districts in Bedfordshire and overlapping areas:

The number of marriages can be read from the y axis. This set of registration districts cover Bedfordshire plus overlapping areas where Registration Districts are in more than one county. The increase/decrease/no change in population within particular Registration Districts can also be noted if Blake is consistent with the general population.

Another graph depicting Registration Districts in Berkshire

There is an even increase in marriages again if Blake is consistent with the usual population numbers as well in this set of Registration Districts which include Berkshire and surrounding areas. Eventually I want to look also at the entire set of Registration Districts per decade and in this case looking at the group that I have completed thus far and comparing the 1st decade (1841 - 1850) with the second decade 1851 - 1860).

Historically Blake was found in the Wiltshire/Somerset/Hampshire area in the 1400s, in Norfolk/Suffolk in the 1400s, and several parts of Ireland in the 1400s I am still determining. In my mind I am always working forwards from the past and backwards from the present looking at Blake.

The profiler developed by the University of London Spatial Scientists group (Paul Longley, Alex Singleton, Pablo Mateos) yields the following rather interesting look at Blake worldwide:

The highest density of Blake members is found in Australia.

Country                                          FPM
AUSTRALIA                                546.24
IRELAND                                     519.41
UNITED KINGDOM                   475.47
NEW-ZEALAND                         391.15
UNITED STATES                        274.12
CANADA                                     257.19
SPAIN                                              4.82
BELGIUM                                       4.59
SWITZERLAND                             3.83
DENMARK                                     3.74

In the chart above also from the Profiler website (http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/Default.aspx ) the top ten countries in the world are listed with the frequency per million in the particular country of the Blake surname. Canada 6th in the world for prevalence of the Blake surname. I predict that close to 75% of the Blake members found in Canada are of Irish descent and as I collect the census for Blake in Canada I shall be able to prove or disprove that prediction. I know my own line from Upper Clatford/Andover Hampshire is very very small. Thus far all members of that line are known to me.

The American Blake family on the other hand is quite varied with ancestry going back to the Norfolk/Suffolk Blake family, the Somerset Blake family, the Irish Blake family. Collecting their census is also within my scope of collection over the next few years.

Will I become a leading expert on the Blake family? I think that is a while down the road; I will acquire a lot of enormous databases on the Blake family worldwide. Linking them is a thought that I do have. I already know by the yDNA studies that I am looking at eight distinct lines and there will be more.

Today I shall return to transcribing Pincombe wills as well. I would like to try to do one a day until they are complete. Then I shall start the Blake wills. The first that I transcribed for John Blake maltster at Abbotts Ann (1796 probate) is on my webpage. Since it contains my ancestor's name I completed the transcription and made it available to the many researchers of the Charles Blake family (Charles Blake married Mary Prince at Abbotts Ann circa 1737 and an earlier researcher placed Charles into the family of Thomas Blake and Mary Spring. However, there isn't a baptism for Charles at Andover where Thomas and Mary lived; only one child Thomas baptized 4 May 1709. In my blog there are entries tagged with "Russell" which if searched yields a number of posts that discuss possibilities on the parentage of Charles and how he links to John Blake maltster. Indeed I am related to John Blake maltster but thus far I only know of the connection through the King family. John Blake was married to Mary King sister of Joanna King who married Joseph Blake at Upper Clatford (my 4x great grandparents Blake).