Blake Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 3 (published 5 Jul 2012)

Blake Newsletter  Volume 1, Issue 3 (published 5 Jul 2012)

yDNA Blake study

The July Newsletter will review a few changes to the Blake one name study. Firstly, I have become co-administrator of the Blake yDNA project and hope to be able to help all the members of the project solve at least that part of their genealogy.  The word "solve" is perhaps a bit deceptive. The various members of the project belong to a number of different haplogroups including R1b, R1a, I1, I2b1, and I2b2a.  These were divided into groups by Barrie Blake and many of them were given a likely ancestry. His work on the yDNA study has been much appreciated. His marvelous website Blake Heritage was enjoyed by many many people. Barrie decided to step down as one of the administrators of the yDNA project a short while ago. He will be sadly missed.

I have made a few revisions to the website for the yDNA study. I have placed my own line into a category known as British Isles Ancestry simply because the other member of the group has Irish ancestry and at this point in time it is not possible to say whether the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) was Irish or English or so far back that his ethnicity would be British Isles and not a particular demographic unit.
A new member of the group has lengthy English ancestry and has been placed into Group E. His particular haplogroup is the one that most commonly occurs in England with 70 to 75% of English males having this particular haplogroup.

Groups B and D continue as before. The I1 haplogroup is also an ancient British Isles group and R1a1 is very likely to be Danish/Scandinavian as this haplogroup is commonest further east in Europe.
Group C has attracted a lot of attention and the active research group looking at Theophilus Blake as their ancestor has been very busy acquiring more and more documentation on this family line. The haplogroup is, like I2a2b, an old British Isles group found in very low percentages in the British Isles. I am tempted to rename this group to BRITISH ANCESTRY (2) and will discuss that with the group. There isn't anything to indicate that this is a family line coming out of the counties of England. A more recent result also has the I2b1 haplogroup but differs sufficiently on 12 markers that I will await his further 25 markers before commenting on his place in the study.

The three groups labeled IRISH ANCESTRY are attracting my attention at the moment. Some of the members have listed England as their furtherest back ancestry and I wish to investigate with them if they have any documented trail to lead them back to England as mentioned in their profile.
The J group lists Germany as the ancestral location.

I continue to actively encourage individuals who write to me to test their yDNA if it is possible.
Comments and suggestions are always welcomed. I hope to launch the Blake one name study website using The Next Generation Software (TNG) in the next month. I plan on it being interactive and capable of utilizing gedcoms with sources added to the site by members.

I plan to have the Heraldic Visitations as word text on the site as they can be most helpful to people looking at Blake lines in England. The Heraldic Visitations were quite literally tours of inspection by the Bishop and others to determine the right of individuals to bear coats of arms. These were published after transcription from the original writings and include the heraldic crests. Barrie Blake had a fabulous collection on his website which he had created.