Blake one name study - wills and yDNA

The Blake one name study will continue to look at wills and civil registration principally along with the yDNA study that is ongoing.

Today, I set up a new haplogroup in the yDNA study for T-M70 which is said to be of Asian origin moving to West Africa and Europe. I do not yet know enough about haplogroup T to say what kind of  a timeline is associated with this particular haplogroup. My principal interest is in the Blake surname of the British Isles and I have extended that to include the le Blake/le Blak family found in Rouen, Normandy. But the yDNA study should capture the Blake surname as it appears on a worldwide basis. Hence the new classification in the yDNA study. There are three new members whose results are ongoing.

Although the results are falling nicely into particular groupings (established by the very excellent work of Barrie Blake), I hesitate to draw any inference from these results as to deep ancestry until there are a sufficient number in each grouping. I am not yet sure what would be a sufficient number but the literature is certainly producing a wide array of ideas on origins. Eventually I will look at this particular aspect of the study.

The Wills of the Blake family yet remaining to be transcribed I will begin tomorrow. I will do them alphabetically just for ease of recording for me. Since I am finding my eyes have had quite a bit of transcription the last six months I will only work at that for a couple of hours per day letting me return to Civil Registration and complete my excel flat file of the counties. Probably it will be next winter before I begin to draw the Blake families out of the 1841-1911 census.

I would also like to begin to look at the Blake family in Canada and the United States as they are closest to me. Again I need to draw them out of the census and other published records.

The great thing is that the snow has melted almost all away. The sad thing is that our fence which was taken down by a motorist last October is not yet repaired. We have a temporary fence in place but look forward to a more permanent fence on our yard which faces a four lane road at the back. Hopefully the rest of the motor cars will stay on the road and not careen into the fences. Since the speed limit is only 60 km there is no excuse for going 80 or 90 especially given we have two elementary schools on this particular road.

However, the snow passing means gardening will soon begin and my genealogy time cut in half.