Ed and I were on the Radio this morning talking with Robyn Bresnahan host of Ottawa Morning on CBC Radio 1. The topic was the release of the 1921 census and our thoughts on that release. Of course I mentioned finding my maternal grandfather on this census with his family because that was the last census on which I found him. Born in 1872 in Westminster Township, Middlesex County, John Routledge Pincombe had both a very happy and a very sad childhood. Very happy until he was about seven years of age and then the sadness arrived with first his little brother dying as a six month old of influenza, then his maternal grandparents died shortly thereafter, then his mother died when he was fourteen years of age and a year later his sister passed away also from influenza. Although he had a lot of first cousins around him, the loss of his close family stayed with him all his life - a feeling that he passed onto his daughter my mother. My mother was only eight years old when he died - John married when he was already 41 years of age and my maternal grandmother was fourteen years younger than he was. He was very popular in the area in which he lived. He met my grandmother when he was out driving and went through a puddle and splashed her; soaking her completely. She was close to home but he came by later to ask how she was and their acquaintanceship began! But finding him on the census for me was like capturing a little bit of him frozen in time when he was still living. My mother missed him all her life; they were very close. He was a farmer and so always there when she was a little girl and used to walk them to school in the morning when it was possible. I hope my short comment captured how much it does mean to me to see him on the census.
My husband did most of the talking as he is so much more knowledgeable than I on genealogy. I am a late comer to genealogy. It wasn't until 2003 that I became interested in genealogy following an overseas trip with my eldest daughter which included a visit to London, England. I felt so very at home there (and it turned out later that our hotel was just around the corner from where my 2x great grandfather had his butcher shop!) that I suddenly realized that although I did know a great deal about my family (my grandfather and grandmother/parents talked a lot about their families when I was a child); my knowledge only went back so far (I had one grandparent alive from my father's side and one grandparent alive from my mother's side). The hunt was on for those missing ancestors - missing to me. Now ten years later I have been very lucky searching my lines but I did have all those memories planted in my brain by my grandparents and parents.
Back to transcribing Richard Blayke's will. If this turns out to be the father of my Nicholas Blake (born circa late 1480s/early 1490s) then I will have discovered something that my grandfather did not know. That information was lost over time as it was too early for Parish Registers and his wife, then a widow, writing her will did not mention his forename. He could rhyme off his ancestors one by one although I had forgotten the order (he died when I was only eight years of age) he certainly was so right as far back as I could remember and then the rest fell into place with the records.
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