Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Blake Newsletter Volume 5 Issue 2



Blake Newsletter
Volume 5 Issue 2
 
Table of Contents
1.   Writing up the family story
2.   yDNA tester from Somerset, England
3.   Family Finder Summary
4.   Return to active Blake research

1.   Writing up the family story
The editor, Elizabeth (Blake) Kipp, has taken a leave of absence to write up her family story. With high hopes of completing back to the 4x great grandparents I am still deep into the collateral lines coming down from my great grandparents. The process when it began on the 12th of December 2015 was simply to write up what I have complete with all the images of documents acquired and photographs. As the days passed it became more and more complicated as I uncovered vast amounts of material that I had set aside for just such a moment. I scanned nearly 1000 pages of letters from my mother to me over a 25 year period which greatly enhanced the family story for future generations of my parents/grandparents. Another 500 pages of letters sent to my grandfather/father from their siblings/cousins in England also proved to add greatly to the stories. The interesting part about my family is that we (my siblings and myself) are the only descendants of our parents and our grandparents making for an hour glass image of these generations as they move both forward and back in time.

2.   yDNA tester from Somerset, England
We now have in our study an individual who has done his yDNA with known roots in Somerset, England. I actually never postulated any possible results for this individual in my mind. As the readers know, I am of the opinion that the Blake surname has arisen in various places in England for reasons totally unknown to me at this moment in time. Finding all the Blake entries on the 1330-1550 England’s Emigrant Database opened my eyes to the possibilities for Blake descendants into the 21st century. I expect a lot of variety and the results do not disappoint. Since this individual belongs to E-L117 haplogroup one is left to consider the possibility that he is a descendant of a member of the Roman Legions who lived in the Balkans. Thank you very much to the individual who has done the test.

3.   Family Finder Summary
I still have not created a publishable summary of the Family Finder Results in the Blake Study. Fourty two members of the group have completed this testing. The individuals who are matching the most are people related to me with one section of them descendant of the Blake family at Upper Clatford/Andover (Hampshire, England). There is a second group that is descendant of Theophilus Blake. There are several groups of two individuals. I shall continue to investigate how I can display these results in a meaningful way.

4.   Return to active Blake research
I shall now be returning to more active research on our Blake one name study as I consider all of you to be part of the adventure of looking at the Blake family around the world. I also hope to start blogging once again with some of my finds on Blake and will continue the transcriptions of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills. I shall continue to publish just two pages unless I receive copy that pertains to our one name study that I believe will interest Blake members.

Elizabeth Kipp, kippeeb@rogers.com
Member: Guild of one name studies, Member #4600

3 comments:

  1. I am very much interested in your research as I have just come across it this week. I am a Blake on the island Kingdom of Tonga and I am still trying to do research on the Blake who came to Tonga around 1837. Your newsletter is so interesting and I would like to read more about it.

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  2. There are Blakes on almost all island groups of the Pacific but most live in Tonga and Fiji. they are all descendants of an Englishman Alexander Blake who came to Tonga on lived on the island of Vava'u around the year 1837. He married a Tongan woman and had 11 children. Seven of these children had offspring and their descendants are spread throughout the Pacific and the world. I would very much like to know where in England Alexander is from and any help from this Blake community would help.

    Thank you very much

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  3. Sorry not to get back before now. I did have a look for your Alexander Blake but it is a common enough name in the Blake family. Do you have any other details? Elizabeth Kipp

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