When I first took on the Blake study in 2011 at the Guild of one-name Studies, I knew it would be a lot of work. At that time I did not clearly establish the gains that I hoped to produce from the project. Now eight years later these gains are starting to firm up and will continue to do so likely.
1. Produce a set of transcribed PCC wills for the Blake family with comments where I am able to find pertinent research materials to add to the transcription. I also have over a thousand wills from county record offices that I have been and will continue adding in as I work on each county.
2. Produce a Probate Index (initially I did have thoughts on this but the Guild of one-name studies started up a Probate Index and I have contributed over 4000 lines to the Index for Blake and other surnames) which will include an all-name index and a hypertext link to the pertinent will blogged on my site. Eventually I will have to rethink this but should not be too difficult to do a fix on the hypertext link back to the information now contained in the blog using pdfs.
3. Produce a set of Blake marriages from the registrations held by the GRO (index available on Free BMD). The Marriage Challenge facility at the Guild has been very helpful in that regard. I have on hand nearly 6000 marriages that have been acquired through these Challenges and I highly recommend to everyone asking me about benefits of the Guild that this is a very large one particularly if you do not live in England and have ready access to these records. Eventually I will produce files of the marriages, perhaps by Registration District, that I will blog with the information on the Blake individual in the marriage unless the marriage partner is a person of interest to my family research in which case I will add in any information that I have. There are nearly 30,000 marriages from 1837 to 1911 and I tend to concentrate on these marriages although do collect from the period after 1911 when the Marriage Challenge includes that information.
4. Produce a list of Blake families found on the 1939 Register. This is a new thought and I have not decided how to go about this particular index.
5. Extract information on the Blake families from the earliest records up to the mid 1500s. I have blogged information that I have accumulated thus far. I may try, as time permits, to produce an index of this material again using hypertext links but I may do this on my website since I am starting from scratch with this idea. I have hundreds of Blake records from this time period that I photographed at Kew in my visits there.
6. I will continue to respond to all Blake requests (had two yesterday actually where I was able to assist the individuals). I have had a number of emails over this past week that have had attachments of unknown source (often with Blake above the hypertext link and rather weird email addresses). I write back and request information on the attachment. I do not get a response to this request which is rather strange to be honest.
7. A number of people do not agree with my thoughts on the early Blake families and certainly I appreciate any and all comments. I tend not to be outlandish in my thoughts looking strictly at the records that exist.
8. My own line of Blake was known to me since childhood. My grandfather Samuel Blake (born at Upper Clatford, Hampshire) talked a great deal about his Blake family. I was only eight years of age when he died but do realize that he was trying to get me (and perhaps us my siblings would have to speak for themselves) to remember the line back. He realized that living in Canada we would lose that knowledge of our ancestry. As I worked my way back I remembered the names right back to Joseph very well and then the rest was a mixed up memory of Johns, Thomas, William but I did recall Nicholas. With that information in hand and wills that were particularly helpful I appear to have taken this Blake line back to its roots at Knights Enham in the mid 1500s. I do have copies of the Andover Manor Records and Blake is clearly visible in these records back into the early 1300s.
My aim with this study at the Guild was not so much as to look at my own family but Blake in general and how it arose in England and where it arose initially and indeed in the long run how far back can I actually trace my Blake line. Since our yDNA line (kindly tested by my brothers), belongs to the "Deer Hunters" this line has been in the British Isles perhaps as much as 12 thousand years although most say 8 thousand years. My grandfather believed his family had always been in the area in which he grew up and that appears to hold in the records. However, he was quite clear that we are not related to the Somerset Blake family best remembered by their famous son Lord High Admiral Robert Blake nor are we related he thought to the Blake family at Pinhills/Calne/Quemberford. In the male line I think he is absolutely correct with regard to the Somerset Blake family but our ancient ancestor Richard Blake married a Jone Blake with Jone being of unknown lineage although some place her as having been descendant of the Calne Blake family. That is another interest of mine that rides along for the trip into the past.
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