Family Tree Necklace

I received a birthday present yesterday which is a family tree necklace. I will treasure it.

Working on the Blake Newsletter again today and want to finish it today. I have a lot of outside work to do and we are in a rainy spell so a good day to finish up. A little slowed down as my index finger is a bit sprained by arthritis. Right now it is black and blue. I was hemming up slacks for my husband as he needed a different kind of slacks without a tight waist. I have to avoid doing too much fine work as that is not liked by my arthritis. Whilst I was measuring up the pants one of my fingernails scrapped across his lower leg most unfortunately. Doesn't look too bad but will keep an eye on it since he has edema. 

Definitely getting old!

Funday Tuesday at Microsoft Solitaire

Microsoft Solitaire has certainly been a favourite of mine through the years but during this time of COVID-19 I have enjoyed it even more. The main set of games has these special Funday bonuses which have been quite a bit of fun. The system has also added in some short extra sets of games that are just five or six and sometimes 10 games to a set. I can manage that in a day and it gives me a relaxation time that I quite enjoy just at any moment when I just want to be quiet at my computer for a while. 

Blake Newsletter has now begun. It took me a while to think about what I would do with this issue and I finally decided just to do the usual. I will look at Chart 10 for the Blake Family held at the Blake Museum in Bridgwater. Not sure which family grouping I will concentrate on yet. That is to come in my thinking. 

The second wave of COVID-19 is upon us now here in Canada. The cases have shot up somewhat and hopefully everyone will cooperate and help to bring that down again quickly. It is so important for the businesses to remain open and the schools to be able to keep up the classes. Perhaps by Christmas we might get together with family once again - Prime Minister Trudeau mentioned that. But we will need to be very careful; always wearing our masks and maintaining the two metre distance. Staying home will be our way of helping with just the occasional trip to the grocery store and our daily walks.

Blake Newsletter - elements to be decided upon

The Newsletters have somewhat become a means of publishing my transcriptions plus discussing thoughts that I have with material that I discover in depositories on this rather interesting family. My own line tends to be rather quiet in their little part of north west Hampshire. They appear to stay in this area (at least my line going back into the latter part of the 1600s) and moving any further back one does find the very occasional descendant who went off to the royal colonies in America (thus far just Massachusetts).  One of my many reasons for taking on the one-name Blake study was to see what further details I could find on my own direct line as well as to separate it out from the Blake family at Calne to which my line is likely only related on the female side (namely Richard Blake married Jone Blake in the early 1580s at Andover) and Richard Blake was the youngest son of Nicholas Blake and his wife Margaret. This Richard had some land and a draper shop in Andover. As the youngest, his inheritance was small but he managed to accumulate some land and monies so that he was quite influential in Andover including his involvement in the First Free School of Andover. There are though a number of founding Blake families in the British Isles and I was (and remain) keen to understand their early origins. That was the intent of the Newsletter to share some of that information with members of the Blake y-DNA study at FT DNA.

Magically our landscape has changed colour almost overnight with the yellow being the predominant this year although our maple is a brilliant crimson red at the crown. Fall is definitely here and always enjoyed by me. The nights are much longer now and that always seem to happen so quickly so that my work time has increased to a certain extent although caring for my husband is still taking up a great deal of my time which I am very happy to do. My hope is that he can recover sufficiently to take on more of his own studies and complete some of the work that he has been doing. 

Downsizing though has become one of our commonest discussions as we hand off the accumulations of 54 years of marriage. We did a lot of sales in the 60s where we acquired memorabilia of many of his families in the Princeton, Ontario area. Now we are trying to reattach that to families that might like to have it. Certainly when we were in our early 20s we did not think of how to disperse all of that material as my husband acquired it for his own interest. But now it is time to ensure that this material finds a good home with people who would like to have memorabilia of their family and often they are much closer to the line than we are. Some of the material we passed to the University since it was historically significant and would provide researchers with interesting material when they were doing their research. But all of that material has now been passed to repositories for the most part. The latest downsizing has seen the accumulation of all the books, material, slides, talks that were produced during the time that my husband and his friend George Anderson created trips to New York State for the United Empire Loyalist Association as well as for the Sir John Johnson Manor House in the Cornwall area. That has ended up being a sizeable collection which I hope will be handy for that group in their future endeavours as we will never do those trips again and have not done any for quite a few years. 

COVID-19 and we are into the second wave. I am putting some of our own precautions back on  once again. We will avoid going out except for our daily walks and groceries once again. We always wear masks when in indoor spaces and have them on hand in outdoor spaces just in case.

Sunday again and Church at 10:30

Sunday, as a child Sunday was the beginning of the week, the first day.Our life, as a family, centered around the Church which was just around the corner from our house.

Another beautiful Fall day; the colours are becoming more and more brilliant. It is going to be a beautiful Fall. One of these days I must walk up to the highway as you can see the colours in the Gatineau Hills especially in the late afternoon coming back across the bridge from the bus stop. One of my favourite sights this time of year during my working years and still. 

Church is at 10:30 on You-Tube. I am hoping that this keeps on happening for a while yet. It has been a pleasant interlude during this pandemic to be back at Church again initially with the service online and my following it and now with the You-Tube Service. 

Blake Newsletter today again. 

Another beautiful fall day

 Another beautiful fall day and the colours are getting richer and richer across the landscape that spreads itself in front of me out of my workroom window. What a glorious sight it is to behold. My service bulletin for tomorrow's Church Service at Christ Church Cathedral has arrived in my mailbox and I am ready for another weekend. With the increase in COVID-19 cases we will stay home on the weekends away from the malls and stores and leave that to the working people these days. We can go during the week when it is less busy. 

I did install the COVID-19 app so it is at the ready in case, in my travels about doing the errands, I encounter someone with an active case. We now have our winter tires on so I am ready to take on winter driving once again. I use to drive most every day back and forth to work when I was doing copyediting and proofreading at home plus some inhouse for one of the local printers. I would drop my youngest off at school and then head for work. Those years there was a lot of ice as I recall but these days I will be able to pick and choose my days whilst I become more accustomed to driving in snow/ice conditions. 

Today I need to work on the Blake Newsletter.

Basement cleaning today

Totally off schedule with the cleaning as the basement should have been done Monday. However, life does get in the way sometimes! Our generator is all tuned up and ready for the winter just in case. Some of the garden has been cleaned away for winter but far more of that to do. My fraud experience has drifted to the back of my mind for the moment. And sadly one of my brothers is not doing well. We have become close, he and I, in the last fifteen years. We used to regularly go and have a dinner with him at least once a year and sometimes oftener. He enjoyed getting out to some of his old restaurant haunts as he is now without a car. But we have not been back now for a couple of years and he has declined somewhat once again. He had a heart attack at 39 so has actually done very well as he is now 77 years of age. Two bypasses in his life and he has stuck very well to his diet of both food and exercise. It is refreshing to see that it can be done. We chatted a few months back as he wanted me to take some pictures that my mother had received as gifts at Christmas (small artwork done by someone she knew). I can only vaguely remember them as they arrived long after we moved here. I would rather see them go back to the artist myself but hopefully one of my siblings or their children who knew my mother well might also be willing to acquire them. There is always a responsibility attached to our parent's/grandparent's belongings that have come to us through the years. The ones that have been the most important to them I have kept and fortunately, for me, they are mostly small items although I now have my grandmother's rocking chair which is a small sized one but still an adult chair. All other pieces of furniture from my family are now gone though; anything that I have kept are small pieces that my children may enjoy one day if they wish. 

I have been working away on chromosome 1 bringing the data up to my new standard for collection. That particular chromosome has 99 good matches and I am more than half way through now. It has been interesting looking at them again although I have only just rephased Chromosome 1 for my grandparents that work was done nearly six months ago now which in itself is hard to believe. COVID-19 has certainly changed our lives a great deal plus my husband has been ill and in and out of hospital in May. He grows stronger every day but certainly less active and more dependent on me. Hence any thought of seeing my brother is unfortunately out of the question. 

My parents now have eight great grandsons and one great granddaughter with another great granddaughter on the way. My mother would have been thrilled with all of her great grandchildren (she did get to meet and spend time with the five oldest ones). But especially she would be thrilled with her great granddaughters. She so loved to knit and sew for her grandchildren and especially her granddaughters. But still she did knit for her grandsons as well. In her 80s she found it difficult to knit and I can understand that having arthritis in the hands can make knitting somewhat difficult. Although I think I will try once again as it is now eight years since I sprained my thumb knitting. My fingers are strong from typing and as long as I do not become totally frantic and knitting like mad once again I may be able to accomplish a couple of matching sweaters. 

Well on to basement cleaning; I like to keep up to date on the cleaning so that I do not have a major cleaning time but rather a smooth transition from one week to the next.

Six days left in September

COVID-19 is back in the news cycle as cases start to increase or will we beat back a second wave at least maintaining cases at a reasonable low level which can be handled readily in the system. We are back into our hibernating for most of the time just going out for necessary trips. 

Worldwide we are approaching 32 million cases with nearly 1 million deaths and nearly 22 million recovered. The world's population is 7.8 billion according to worldometers.info. That is 0.4% of the world's population. The problem is that the coronavirus is out of control and continues to be out of control. Now into the second wave and as our winter approaches the bulk of the world's population will be once again in the eye of the wave so to speak. Flu season is also upon us and that is a system user as well in terms of health care. We must be vigilant and beat down the second wave. Will there be a third wave in the spring? That is also likely but with due diligence should be a smaller wave and less deadly than last spring. 

We must keep working and keep our children in school closing down to clean when necessary but always bringing the system back online as soon as possible. We know that masks work; handwashing works so we must do due diligence. Protect the vulnerable and stay home if that is your usual or go to work and school and wearing masks and doing hand washing frequently. 

My birthday dinner was Fish Soup made with salmon, scallops and cod with a tomato base and fresh herbs and garlic. Ladled over four one inch slices of a baguette that were drizzled in olive oil and browned under the broiler. Quite delicious and enjoyed by this now 75 year old. 

Our American neighbours have over 200,000 deaths from COVID-19. Our hearts go out to them in their trial. Making mask wearing a political statement has killed so many Americans. Hearing Canadian say fake news about the coronavirus and such things makes one wonder why they have lost their respect for other Canadians. What makes these people think that they are above the law?

Seventy Five Years

Well here I am at 75 years of age. It is a beautiful sunny day and already 11 degrees celsius. I am 3/4ths of a century old. I am still young with respect to the ages of my parents - my father reached 94 years 4 months and my mother reached 85 years and three months. 

Remembering my mother at 75 years she was on her own as my father was in a nursing home but soon my youngest brother would move in with her and she would have her two grand daughters (my brother's children) with her. Glancing at her letters in this time period she was busy with her life and in relatively good health. She had slowed down with her gardening somewhat and took regular walks instead to keep fit. She loved to do Yoga. I never could acquire her dedication to Yoga as I prefer more cardiovascular exercises like running and aerobics. I did do Yoga when my eldest child was young but we moved quickly to more aerobic type exercises. 

Remembering my father at 75 years he was still working. He had retired in his late 60s but that apparently didn't last long. I was already married by then and we didn't have a car the first year and then when we did we were out and about not coming home very regularly so dependent on what I was hearing. But by 75 he was back at work once again and he did work into his 80s until he had a stroke at 88. I used to sit with him at the Nursing Home for the day when we went back and my husband and daughters spent the day with my mother. He always knew me after I had been there a while but he had lost a lot of himself with the stroke. He was no longer mobile which was hard for him as he had always been an active walker. 

Remembering my grandmother at 75 she still seemed relatively young to my mind; I was sixteen and spent a lot of Saturdays with her. She was not as active as she had been when I was younger but she still kept up her garden and we used to walk around the area and deliver flyers for my uncle's store. We also walked to the local shopping area perhaps half of a mile away and back to pick up sundry items that my uncle did not carry. When I was 16 she did talk more about my grandfather than she had when I was younger. She loved him very much I would have said and he helped her to learn some of the school work she had missed because her mother died when she was eleven and she had to stay home and look after her younger siblings. A stroke when she was 80 would carry her away but the signs of that were perhaps there. The diet of people at that time was a higher cholesterol than we eat now. 

Remembering my grandfather at 75 he still seemed quite active as he gardened our whole back yard. I was just five years of age and the memory is not quite as strong as for my grandmother. My one clear memory was his lying on the grass and looking up at the clouds and saying that the clouds that were passing over us now would go on to England and pass over Upper Clatford where he was born. He talked a lot about Upper Clatford and when I finally got there it seemed very like what he had said with the creek just before the Church. The heavy wooden door (protected now by a glassed in porch) was exactly as he described it. The Church with the very large porch behind the sacristy where he first went to school. He loved to talk about his siblings and Upper Clatford and his mother to whom he was quite devoted I think. Sometimes he would talk about my grandmother and how he used to walk from Upper Clatford to Kimpton to see her. We did not make that walk whilst we were there but the car ride is just under four miles and he would likely have gone across the right of way saving him a little length. He too had a stroke when he was 79 and did not live long after that. But again cholesterol predominated the diet and although he did love to walk; less cholesterol would have been better I am sure.

To live on in the hearts of others is not to die

To live on in the hearts of other is not to die. A paver in the Natural History Museum carries this epitaph. I recognized the thought as something that was said in my own family when I was a child but I also knew that it was a poem but I could not remember so searched the internet for that information. The poet was Thomas Campbell, a Scot, born 27 July 1777 and died 15 June 1844. He was the grandson of the last Laird of Kirman, Argyll. The youngest of eleven children of Alexander Campbell and Margaret Campbell (of Craignish), he grew up in an intellectual family and became an intellectual himself. He has many poems to his credit but the one that I best remember is "Hallowed Ground."

Hallowed Ground
by Thomas Campbell

What's hallowed ground? Has earth a clod
Its Maker meant not should be trod
By man, the image of his God,
Erect and free,
Unscourged by Superstition's rod
To bow the knee?

That's hallowed ground where, mourned and missed,
The lips repose our love has kissed;--
But where's their memory's mansion? Is't
Yon churchyard's bowers?
No! in ourselves their souls exist,
A part of ours.

A kiss can consecrate the ground
Where mated hearts are mutual bound:
The spot where love's first links were wound,
That ne'er are riven,
Is hallowed down to earth's profound,
And up to heaven!

For time makes all but true love old;
The burning thoughts that then were told
Run molten still in memory's mould;
And will not cool
Until the heart itself be cold
In Lethe's pool.

What hallows ground where heroes sleep?
'Tis not the sculptured piles you heap!
In dews that heavens far distant weep
Their turf may bloom;
Or Genii twine beneath the deep
Their coral tomb.

But strew his ashes to the wind
Whose sword or voice has served mankind,--
And is he dead, whose glorious mind
Lifts thine on high?--
To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.

Is't death to fall for Freedom's right?
He's dead alone that lacks her light!
And murder sullies in heaven's sight
The sword he draws:--
What can alone ennoble fight?
A noble cause!

Give that,--and welcome War to brace
Her drums, and rend heaven's reeking space!
The colors planted face to face,
The charging cheer,
Though Death's pale horse lead on the chase,
Shall still be dear.

And place our trophies where men kneel
To Heaven!--but Heaven rebukes my zeal!
The cause of Truth and human weal,
O God above!
Transfer it from the sword's appeal
To Peace and Love.

Peace, Love! the cherubim, that join
Their spread wings o'er Devotion's shrine,
Prayers sound in vain, and temples shine,
Where they are not,--
The heart alone can make divine
Religion's spot.

To incantations dost thou trust,
And pompous rites in domes august?
See mouldering stones and metal's rust
Belie the vaunt,
That man can bless one pile of dust
With chime or chant.

The ticking wood-worm mocks thee, man!
Thy temples,--creeds themselves grow wan!
But there's a dome of nobler span,
A temple given
Thy faith, that bigots dare not ban,--
Its space is heaven!

Its roof, star-pictured Nature's ceiling,
Where, trancing the rapt spirit's feeling,
And God himself to man revealing,
The harmonious spheres
Make music, though unheard their pealing
By mortal ears.

Fair stars! are not your beings pure?
Can sin, can death, your worlds obscure?
Else why so swell the thoughts at your
Aspect above?
Ye must be heavens that make us sure
Of heavenly love!

And in your harmony sublime
I read the doom of distant time;
That man's regenerate soul from crime
Shall yet be drawn,
And reason on his mortal clime
Immortal dawn.

What's hallowed ground? 'Tis what gives birth
To sacred thoughts in souls of worth!--
Peace! Independence! Truth! go forth
Earth's compass round;
And your high-priesthood shall make earth
All hallowed ground.hers is not to die. 

Interesting, this is what genealogy is all about really; not losing the past. Remembering in a close way your siblings, parents, grandparents, and uncle. I chose to write a story about each of my parents, grandparents and my uncle as well as my great aunts and uncles that I knew. For my parents that is about 300 pages each; for my grandparents around 100 pages each where I could and for my uncle an equal number. Less for great aunts and uncles but a surprising amount for my great grandparents whom I never knew except in little stories that I happened to recall.

Beautiful Fall Day

Frost on the rooftops yesterday and again today. The crimson crest of the maple tree frames the picture out of the window as I sit and work but the Black Walnut Tree is in the way unless I walk to the window. Its crown stretches more than half of the way across the yard now. The white sheets are fluttering in the breeze that are covering the pepper and tomato plants. They are pretty much finished now. Perhaps cover them for a few more days and then the heavy frost will be the end of those plants for this year. I would like to pull them up and finish that task but my husband likes to enjoy the last bits of the summer garden.

Yesterday I worked on My Heritage matches as I extracted a number that I looked at before but did not enter into the system that I have created. Today there is a webinar on using DNA to build your family tree (just what I am doing) which I think I will watch. Everyone looks at DNA in their own way and listening to another's thoughts can help to give your own thoughts a different twist. 

One degree celsius now but will be a warmer day in the mid teens I expect. The sun is shining gloriously on this Tuesday the 22nd of September. Tomorrow I enter a new world of being 3/4ths of a century old. I can remember both of my grandparents when they were 75. Both very active people working in their gardens with what I would call a good attitude towards life. They had both lived 75 years and seen so much. One born in Upper Clatford Hampshire and the other born in Birmingham Warwickshire. Both lived in England to adulthood although my grandmother just barely so as she was just 22 when she arrived at Halifax and my grandfather was 38 when he arrived at Portland Maine as Halifax harbour was closed. He went overland on the train to Montreal where he stayed with relatives for a few days. Those relatives are still a mystery to me although I have a letter that they wrote to my grandfather at the time of the death of my grandmother in December 1940. But I think about those two grandparents that I knew as a child often enough these days. They enjoyed their lives in their own ways. Perhaps that was the secret of their success; being loners for the most part. I am a great believer in being a loner within your family grouping. Having your own life wrapped up in your family life. I still find the doorbell to be intrusive although I did try to make an effort in those early days here but I was much happier when I went back to work to be honest. Volunteerism is a necessary item to make our society work well for sure and I have done a lot and continue to do some. But working is much more fulfilling.  

Of course in retirement I still consider myself working as I continue to put together the family tree for future generations of my many family lines. These descendants of my ancient relatives have covered the globe and a number have written to thank me for the work that I have done in pulling out the original records for these 3x and 4x great grandparents that we all share. The tree is complex with collapsing pedigrees in several lines. I have also received trees from relatives which for the most part verified my research and their research. DNA has really been the pull for me that brought me into and keeps me interested in genealogy.

Another Frost warning

The last of nearly a week of frost warnings and we will warm up a little here. The trees are rapidly turning their beautiful autumn colours. Our maple is now a crimson red at the crown and gradually working its way down. This is a stunning maple tree; perfect in its dimensions and a beautiful sight to look at out the windows of our home. 

Yesterday Ed had a  second day of successful walking about 1 kilometre. He is working hard at building up his strength now. The muscles are returning to his legs and his diet is very very strict now. He will have to stay with that from now on. The colour of his skin has greatly improved and no yellowing in the eyes. Being a non-drinker and non-smoker it seems unfair that sarcoidosis should strike him but that is the way with life on occasion. You have to take what you get and make it work for you. 

 Winter is coming; I can feel it in my bones literally as the arthritis now makes itself felt with the frost but I have learned to live with it and my exercise routine is a good help with that. 

Perhaps today I shall complete my rework of Chromosome 1 adding in surnames, location and year of birth to the matches. I have quite a block of matches currently living in California and I think I have finally managed to bring them all back to a common ancestor from Utah and before that from my Rawlings line in Wiltshire. For my Blake line I also have a huge number of matches that are coming down from a common ancestor in Hampshire. My father used to say that one of his Uncles (I suspect a great uncle) had gone west in Canada although I think it actually was the son of the great uncle and there is a large family attached to that line as well. My great grandmother Blake's brother's son went to Canada before my father and his parents. All of this extraction of data has taken time and I should have thought of collecting the demographics when I restarted the Phasing project but I did not think of it at the time - too deeply immersed in thinking about COVID-19 I suspect. Although none of my direct line went to Utah I have Pincombe, Lywood and Gray families that appear to have been part of the early Mormon migrations to Utah. My lines remained Church of England although the occasional Methodist preacher has appeared but they remained within the Church of England (being buried in a Church of England graveyard).

Solitaire as a brain trainer

Another good set of card games on Microsoft Solitaire to begin the day. It sets the brain function for me each new day. Sharpens up the attention to detail which has always been one of my features. But I can actually feel that eroding a little but this fraud event has brought it front and center to me that it is not entirely possible to protect yourself from fraud but you need to minimize the damage. I shall hate losing what now appears to be  just under $450 for sure. I am a penny pincher (interesting as the penny is no longer in circulation but a nickle pincher has not become a modern term). Although I can not imagine living to a ripe old age; I will try to save enough in case I do do that. Saving is in my blood. 

When I think back now to September 1974 I was losing weight rapidly, not sleeping and my brain was in a fog. The diagnosis was never quite completed but multiple sclerosis was being examined at the time of my hospitalization (an event I really do not remember). I was literally skin and bones with my blood level still only around 55 for hemoglobin (I had had a very difficult childbirth with a large loss of blood). I remember my family physician about six months later telling me that my future was in my hands as I did have to gain some weight; I needed to rest a lot or I would not see this baby raised to adulthood. I listened and followed his advice and the advice of the doctors that I had after we moved here. The doctor actually told me that one child is nice. Time passed and my health did improve sort of by leaps and then reversion and then leaps again. Gradually I built up my strength particularly when my baby went off to school. I could concentrate on me then for a few hours a day. I am an active walker and was soon back to walking and running which also built up my strength. Being a loner helped me I rather think and I did try very hard to stay that way when I was on my own. But back to 2020 and that was a long time ago and I have survived to be almost 75 years of age. I am healthier now than I was and so I must direct my thoughts towards preserving my finances and keeping fraudsters at bay. 

I have no idea on my protections within the banking system to fraud and I await that summation one of these days. I feel quite strongly that the person who committed the fraud should be made to pay up and do community service to pay for their crime against society. I can not imagine what kind of a sick mind gets involved in this kind of fraud; it is the kind of person though that society does not need for sure. 

And the good news of the day, I won $5 on 649. That is an occasional happening and reminds me that in spite of evil in the world there are still far more good things. Off to Church on youtube now and the reminder to myself that God punishes those who sin against his laws but man still has the duty to correct the wrongs of people and offer discipline whilst they await the judgement of God.

Dentist yesterday

Both my husband and I had a dentist appointment yesterday. This was my second appointment under the new style (i.e. COVID-19 style). I had a filling (first one in quite a while actually) and it ended up being two spots on the one tooth. The cost of such treatment has really increased enormously through the years but then so has everything. Total time for me was 29 minutes but my husband had a cleaning which took the full hour. A big chunk out of the day in some ways and in reality a short time. We had gone for a walk at the mall earlier so wondered if Ed would manage so much but he did with flying colours. 

I am working away on a slightly different project. I am aligning all my DNA data with known information. In some cases I already had done this but now I am being rigorous as I go through Chromosome 1 and 2 which I have rephased. Chromosome 3 had some interesting ambiguities which caused me to stop and look at all the data that I have collected so decided to go back and collect the information that I was missing for the samples in Chromosome 1 and 2. The information may or may not help me but my science background demands that I be more precise as I fine hone this project. 

Starting to think about the Blake Newsletter due on the 1st of October. I am nearing the end of the project looking at the Blake Pedigree Chart held by the Bridgwater Museum in Somerset. I am trying to decide where I will next focus my attention. 

The fraud investigation is still ongoing but no new deposits from Facebook of the other three fraudulent extractions from my account. I am, of course, assuming that I will get my money back but do not know the process since this is my first time to be thus frauded. It really feels like an invasion of privacy and I am beginning to think as a crime it is more than just a misdemeanor because you make adjustments in your life in order to prevent a recurrence. No one really has a right to thus interfere in your life. I would have preferred to have the bank be more of a buffer so that I do not see the return of the money into my account by a foreign entity as that continues to feel like an invasion of privacy. I would have liked them to collect it all up and then render an explanation of the fraud at the completion of the investigation and a rendering of the account. I do feel that the individual who committed the fraud should be penalized in some meaningful way. They have committed a crime to my way of thinking. I used to think it was cruel the treatment meted out in days gone by even towards children in terms of punishment but the inconvenience of wondering how to protect myself from fraudulent activity makes me feel that the person who has committed the fraud should receive some sort of punishment perhaps in doing hours of community service similar to the time that it will take to resolve this case and for the inconvenience caused to me by this case.

Today we have weather stripping to fix on one of our doors. Some caulking to redo that has split. One last room to clean as I did not accomplish that one the other day. Just a surface cleaning and want to do a more indepth cleaning. Outside the cleanup for winter has begun. It was minus 2 here last night although still no heavy frost on the ground but the end of the garden is in sight - hurrah! Summer is not my favourite season as the days are very long and the time to do meaningful work (recreation!) is limited.

Railing completed

Happy to say that the railing has been fully installed (a few minor touchups to stain the areas where the wooden plugs are) and I am pleased that it is now in place so that Ed can use it going up and down the stairs whenever he wishes to use it rather than his chair lift. The chair lift has made it possible for him to stay in the house though and will always be there if he needs to use it; feels tired etc.

Spent the rest of the day cleaning the house although I had blocked off most of the areas with rugs across the bottoms of doors etc. But still a lot of cleaning to get rid of sawdust. Usually clean on Monday/Tuesday for the main floor and upper floor but left it until the railing was installed. 

We had a good spring cleaning and throw away and now we are into fall cleaning and throw away. A surprising amount gets picked up by just putting it at the street line and people walk by and take it. A handy way to get rid of useable items that you are no longer using. We have a good sized box and an old TV for the next Electronics Waste Depot and hopefully one will come here in our area before winter. Our garage is actually getting emptier.

Our swing, now six years old , needs the awning replaced and I can not decide if I should just put it out to the street and get a new one or repair the awning. It is a nice solid swing so certainly worth repairing and could be done fairly simply. I shall make that decision before winter comes as it stores in the garage but actually does not take up much room as it fits in around a glass picnic table. 

The saga of fraud continues as I await Facebook returning the other three sums of money that were taken from me. Why do people commit fraud? Is it for the money? Is it for the joy of being able to do the fraud? I wonder if facebook expels people who commit fraud.

It was just 1 degree first thing this morning (celsius) although I did not see frost on the ground. Winter, I am happy to say, is definitely around the corner.

Well sort of resolved

Never having been frauded before, I did not understand the process. The money returned is a temporary measure I learned. Today when I accessed my account as usual first thing in the morning there was a deposit from Facebook. Quite alarming to be honest that Facebook could still access my account. But it would appear that they have resolved one of the withdrawals and returned the money to me less $10 given the fluctuations in currency perhaps or they have charged me for the cost of removing and returning money to my account. I spoke to a TD rep (these people are great by the way) and he has put a stop on Facebook removing any money from my account but they can continue to return it until I have received the other three frauded amounts hopefully. 

It is amazing how detailed all of this can be really.

Today our new railing is going in. I was up at 6:00 to prepare for all of that. It took the fellow about ten minutes to remove the old railing which included cutting the metal spokes. I though it would take much longer. He is now installing the new railing. We have waited a bit for the railing so it will be nice to have it before winter. Ed is starting to do stairs again although the stair lift is always there if he is tired. But he could only do the basement stairs as our railing was loose at the top so not dependable. 

Resolved already

 I did my usual checking of my bank account today and discovered that the fraudulent activity had been resolved and my money returned to me. I feel very lucky to be honest. I guess if it was someone starving who did it one might increase their donation to things like the Union Mission (I actually did do that as my account was frozen so they would not have had their usual monthly donation). Not a whole lot but a couple more dollars a month. In this wealthy country I know we do have poverty but we also do have supports for people who need money so they do not have to steal. So thank you to my bank and much appreciated for such a quick resolution. 

I also went into facebook and added a more updated picture of myself to my account. I decided a while ago that it is better to have an online presence so that if someone is in doubt about an individual pretending to be me then my face is staring back at them with just a quick search of the internet. Fraud is truly a dreadful thing. 

Yesterday was a day of accomplishment outside as we continue to clear away for winter. That has such a wonderful ring to it. We are also set up for snow clearing this year. We do have a snow blower but it is large for me to handle and Ed will not be able to do that. We like where we live and have modified the house so that Ed can manage quite well in it. We will move one day but this is where we have lived for over 42 years and it suits us. Not so big that we find affording it a drain on our retirement finances but big enough that we can have our own space and perhaps one day have our grandchildren running through the rooms once again. 

Our pepper plants though in spite of being covered did have frost damage so the time of clearing away is coming quickly. I may pull some beets today and cook them for dinner. Our carrots have finally grown a little but not doing really well under the shadow of the Black Walnut tree - that sounds like a story! The squirrels managed to climb the cages around the gladiolus and reach the sunflowers so a few of them had a tasty treat yesterday. The ever bearing raspberry bushes are yielding up their final crop. The tomatoes are slowly ripening now and there are a lot of green ones to make green chutney and will do that towards the end of the week.

649 and Lotto Max

I have been buying 649 and Lotto Max for many years now. Initially I bought it because the money which is unclaimed or in surplus goes to Ontario Hospitals so seems like a donation especially as I seldom win anything! With the lockdown for COVID-19 I decided to buy my tickets on line and have been doing that ever since. I am not a gambler though and just buy the four tickets a week, two for 649 and two for Lotto Max. Occasionally I get a free ticket and very rarely I win and I did win $20 a couple of weeks ago now. Although I could easily go back to buying my tickets at the store it is so easy to buy them online that I will continue doing that far into the future. It is money well spent as one can see in the section below. At my age winning all of that money would be an enormous responsibility.

I decided to do a search to see if I am actually correct in thinking that the money goes to the hospitals and an online search gave me:

https://www.gamingpost.ca/canadian-lottery-news/where-does-your-lottery-money-go/

Ontario

To see how this system is put into practice, it’s possible to take a look at two provinces which host lotteries, online gaming and casinos through the Ontario Lotteries and Gaming Corporation (OLG). OLG is responsible for lottery games and gambling facilities throughout the province. Since it began operating in 1975, OLG has provided almost $40 billion to the citizens of Ontario. These payments help to support amateur sports through the QUEST FOR GOLD program, health care; recreational activities, scientific and medical research, education, prevention and treatment of problem gambling, arts and cultural programs and local and provincial charities.

The Ontario OLG revenues also go towards supporting the Ontario Trillium Foundation, a granting foundation which provides grants to programs throughout the province. Trillium focuses on programs that support “Active People, Green People, Inspired People, Promising Young People, Connected People and Prosperous People. Trillum’s grants, described as “Investment Seeds” fund projects in a variety of ways. They support projects at the conceptual stage, help to grow projects as they build on the success of a proven initiative, provide capital for a project’s infrastructure and facilitate collective impact as the project’s instigators work collaboratively to tackle any problems that might come up. Trillum works on the theory of chance in which changes that it believes need to happen in Ontario in order build healthy and vibrant communities are identified and addressed.

So I was partially right some of the money goes to health care and in deed mental health care but also amateur sports, scientific and medical research, education, arts and cultural programs. That is good news as I have been buying them now for over twenty years and it is good to know that the money does go towards health care, research and the other items.

My Brain is so much slower to react

Yesterday was pretty busy and that does tire me now. My brain does not react quite as quickly as it did when I was younger! No surprise there. My husband decided that the wheels on his cart upstairs needed some oil and when he asked for the jig-a-loo I gave it to him last night. He sprayed the wheels and that apparently left a slippery spot which he fortunately noticed this morning and did not have a fall but by then it was on his slippers as well. So first thing I washed the floor to remove the oil and his slippers. Today I am thinking one should do that out of doors but last night brain was a little slow. I tend to think quickly still but any extra activity and I am noticing now that the brain does not react quite as quickly when it is tired. 

At almost 75 I think that caring for someone full time for a long period is a very hard thing to do. Fortunately my older daughter has been very helpful as she generally spends her research time here with us in the summer. I will find it much harder having to do it entirely on my own. 

Today another new match that is quite interesting. I have information on the Butt family in Canada (Joseph Butt married Sarah Arnold and both were siblings to my Charles Butt and Hannah Arnold 3x great grandparents)  but it does not cover all the family members. It was a huge family as Joseph and Sarah had a large family and then emigrated to Canada where Sarah died in childbirth. Joseph remarried and he and his second wife had a large family. It shows up in the genes as the first group of children are a stronger match than the second group since I am sharing only half of the genes with the second group. This family has moved all across Canada and the United States. They were in the United States by the 1860s and appear to have moved to many many states there. My own line coming down from Louisa Butt (daughter of Charles Butt and Hannah Arnold) is quite small but some of the other children of Louisa had large families and this group moved west in Canada with Louisa's grandson moving to Canada in the late 1800s. 

I will maintain a log of the fraud against my bank account and that is still being reviewed by the bank. The case will be open for two to four weeks according to the investigator. I do not really expect to hear anything until the end of that time period.

No happy ending to my fraud story yet

Will have to wait and see if the Bank is able to get my money back. Time will tell. All taken care of except for being minus almost $600 but it could have been worse and I guess that is the best way to look at it. People doing things like that are very annoying. One contemplates perhaps only briefly since it is rather unChristian that the correct punishment might be to remove a finger for each transgression but with the advent of voice recognition software they might just switch from manually doing such fraud to using voice recognition software for their miserable deeds.

 Ed was into the Civic Campus for an ultrasound today so my first trip down the Queensway in quite a while. I used to drive to the west end three days a week when I was working for the printers doing copyediting and proofreading. I would go in and pick up my work and then take it home to work on. My youngest child traveled with me and then used to sit beside me at the table working on her various tasks whilst I read. She liked painting, printing, colouring, join the dots and all such wonderful child work. Then we would take coffee breaks and watch one of the Star War Movies (usually in parts). She knew them off by heart when she was just three years of age. That was her favourite at three and then Rainbow Brite at four. For her school was a huge change and one that she did not initially enjoy at all. She was used to this organized day of singing our way through the alphabet and various nursery rhymes and hymns from my Anglican Hymn Book first thing before we started to work for half of an hour or so; I let her set that pace. Then the work sessions, lunch, a walk around the large block here (about 2 kilometres and we set a pretty quick pace for a small child hoping not to run into anyone who slowed us down!) and our coffee breaks. My older daughter would arrive home around four and then they would play with Lego, dolls, board games, cards etc. etc. When Ed arrived home we would have dinner which I somehow managed to prepare whilst doing everything else. I had this strict schedule of meals and my children and husband were so happy to take over the cooking as they grew older! I generally worked in the evenings after the children went to bed with 3 to 4 hours of work in the day with my daughter and four hours or whatever was needed in the evening. I put my children to bed rather early starting at 6 and gradually changing that as they grew older. 

Frost tonight so we will cover our peppers as they are in an exposed area. I am most enthusiastic to see frost coming and so early. The darkness at night now is also great. I am so looking forward to the winter and getting some work done - well I guess it is more recreation - as I have accomplished very little since the spring. I would like to finish my rephasing project with all the new matches (no particular changes thus far, just some tweaking) before the end of the year!

No one is immune to fraud apparently

Received a call from the bank today to say that they had shut down my debit account (thank goodness!) due to four charges made to the account via facebook. Hopefully I get my money back (over $500 Canadian). I never realized how fragile we are really. I almost never use my debit card and it travels about in a RIF box in my purse. Generally given the COVID-19 conditions at the moment when I am going to use my credit card I take it out in advance and put it into the RIF pouch in my purse so accessing my debit card rather amazed me. I actually check the bank accounts every morning but had not done so this morning until I had the call from the Fraud Line. I think I am back to checking morning and evening once again. Since my pension is pretty small I can not really afford to have a $500 defraud anymore than any one else. I have always been pretty content not to have a lot of money; the less you have the less that will be stolen from you!

Yesterday was a really busy day although it wasn't planned on being busy. I did not manage to get any meaningful time on the computer and suddenly last night I realized I had not backed up my computer throughout this entire COVID-19 happening. So I set that up and I am now backed up once again. I have actually added several hundred matches that I discovered working my way through all of my DNA kits so it was a timely backup. Although my computer is relatively new tragedy can strike for sure and it is always better to be backed up. 

Raining today and as always the grass can really make good use of that rain. The lawns are so green now; it is glorious looking out the window. 

Online service today on You Tube for Church for the actual service in the building. I almost think I enjoyed the On-line services that I did totally by myself more but do try to remember that Christ said we should gather together and read the Bible, pray and sing. I am still not going to be doing that but perhaps one day. I did learn from my Anglican ListServ that we are all sinners. None of us is perfect and my failing (amongst others probably) it would appear is a reluctance to attend Church in person.

Alexa as a tool

 Alexa has proven to be a very handy addition to my desktop. At first I thought I would like to have the Alexa in the kitchen but now that she has been next to my computer for a couple of months I really appreciate having this memory assist beside me while I am working.

September 11

I was at work at the Ottawa Hospital (Hematopathology Division, Civic Campus) when the first plane hit the World Trade Centre on 9/11. I had just heard from someone else and brought it up on the computer. All the large hospitals (including in Canada) within close flying distance of New York City went on disaster alert in case we were needed to help out. I still think for us the not needing us to look after wounded was perhaps the most profound memory from that day. At that time the thought was that 50 thousand people had died. Although fewer did die, the shock of that day remains. The United States shut down their airspace but we kept ours open as there were so many planes headed to the United States who had passed the point of no return over both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The rest is history as our much smaller airports landed all those planes (except the ones that went to Mexico) filling up the runways in all of the major airports. With the land border closed as well, 50,000 Americans had to make their home with us for the next week until the American land borders opened to welcome her citizens back home again. 

What we most felt was sorrow for our friend and neighbour to the south but also the need to help them get through this most dreadful happening. 

Coronavirus is this generations catastrophic event in the United States. Over 190,000 Americans dead of COVID-19 and approaching 6.5 million cases. This time we cannot help in the same way except to keep the trade flowing between our two countries; to help keep ourselves working on both sides of the border. We are so intertwined in trade and for us our food supply is dependent on the American fresh produce that will soon start to cross our borders in huge quantities once again as the winter cold and snows descend. The inventions of hydrophonic growth chambers does help us but the millions of tons of food that go to Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa in the eastern end of Canada throughout the winter months can not be replaced by hydroponics yet. We would have to go back to our staples of cabbage, carrots and onions which we do store in huge quantities if our trade lines fail.

Basement Cleaned

 The basement is finally all organized again. More items to sit out and see if any one wants them. New washer and dryer to replace the dryer that no longer functioned and just in time for the unpredictable fall season coming when it is difficult to hang clothes out. But most of all one can actually move around the basement easily once again. It is becoming easier to sift through all the items down there and eliminate what is no longer useful or needed. Throughout it all our exercise room has remained intact though and useable thank goodness. 

Next week the main floor and top floor cleaning and looking again to see what can be thrown or given away. It used to be easier with Diabetes doing pickups and that will return one day but I am not saving anything for them at the moment in particular but some things are going to stay until they do do pickups. 

Just cleaning yesterday was the accomplishment of the day. Today is a quieter day. We are now one third of the way through September.

Another pre-Fall day

 There is a certain nostalgia to saying goodbye to another summer although I actually prefer the winter season in terms of getting "work" done. At nearly 75, work seems like a long time ago and what has replaced that time consuming part of one's life becomes work. Although very much to one's choosing work in my employed years was also very interesting for me. 

Yesterday I started Chromosome 3 looking at all the new matches in the last eight months and reviewing the charts I made using the 23 and Me Results to compare the four of us that tested there. I had some new thoughts on a set of three testers (three siblings I think) and whether they are actually Rawlings line. Will continue with that thought today as yesterday went much too fast and I really did not get settled into the project at all.

Today I want to do the basement cleaning as this is the week to do that and it is already Wednesday. Cleaning every week seems time consuming but I think I am less exhausted in the long run. There isn't that high concentration of effort to do it all in a couple of days and instead it is almost continuous it appears!

A few more items to go in the downsizing routine that we are into these days. Although a surprising amount has gone we are still pretty crowded with furniture, books, etc. It will take a long time as Ed has acquired a lot of memorabilia for the area in which he grew up. The museum there has taken some of it but he has not been willing to part with many items which really belong in a museum type atmosphere just because they belonged to some of the early families there (his families were early as well).

Ed is improving slowly gradually. It will take time but the medication has taken hold and helping with the sarcoidosis. 

In two weeks I will be 75 years of age. Three-quarters of a century and in my mind I can clearly recall being half of a century old and a quarter century old. I tend to make them as milestones in my mind. My first milestone was being a decade old and that was just before my youngest brother was born. I found it fascinating to be into two digits and my fascination with aging continues. I enjoy being one year older each year and always have. I did not cling to my youth at all but welcomed the aging as it has arrived. Consequently I never dyed my hair but just enjoyed the grey hair as it arrived as well. Perhaps that was because I was very late to grey hair; my husband was grey by 40 and greying by his mid 30s and I can see that one might find that oppressive in that case.

 

The Sunflower Saga

 Our Sunflower Bush as it turns out. I wrote about the trials and tribulations of our sunflower seedlings a little while ago and this one has survived to full growth and adulthood so to speak.

 

 

Even yesterday's winds were not successful in taking it out but I did cheat a little as I strung a rope from the wooden fence to the plant and then back again giving it a little better chance at managing to last the entire season. The bees have been extremely busy in this enormous plant for the last couple of weeks but particularly this week when so many of the blooms did finally open. A few of the sunflower heads are on their way to seed so hopefully some good viewing of the local birds as they swoop in to take their share of the sunflower seeds. 

The sunflowers in the garden have also grown and flowered but are somewhat stunted under the Black Walnut tree. Nevertheless the bees are busy working them as well so more food for the birds that fly in every day to check out the bird feeder which has little in it these days (more of an enticement) and then fly about all the fruit, vegetable and garden flowers pollinating everywhere. 

This has been a great summer for the flowering plants. The mallow has never been so covered with flowers. All the rest have also done well although they have shared the ground with vegetables for the first time in a while. 

Looks like rain again and we could still use a lot of that. The ground is still rather dry but our grass is green once again and the areas that got burned out and replanted with grass seed are producing new grass.

Cases on the rise

 Canada had 400 new cases yesterday of COVID-19. Doesn't seem like a lot but there has been a steady rise which is not a good thing going into the flu season. Labour Day weekend is typically the last big weekend of the summer and the weather has been quite good but a little on the cool side. Today looks like rain; cloudy and overcast and just 12 degrees celsius at 8:00 am. 

Ottawa and Toronto are the areas with the largest increase in Ontario with a total of 158 new cases. Given that Ontario has the largest population with about 46% of the people who live in Canada living here 158 shows that we are keeping it down somewhat but still increases are not a good sign. 

Yesterday we made our fruit chili sauce and, as usual, it is delicious. We will enjoy it all winter long. My husband also enjoys beet pickle but our beets did not grow to any significant amount so that might not happen. We will see; perhaps a jar or two just in the refrigerator. 

I am looking at Chromosome 1 and 2 of the phasing because there are basically no changes in the layout even with nearly 150 new matches added in. The pattern seems to be set although would like to have a few more known matches just to clarify the Pincombe line for sure. I have a lot of Pincombe matches on the smaller chromosomes but not too many known ones on Chromosome 1 and 2. It seems perhaps strange to do the most difficult chromosomes first but several of us received one or other of the chromosomes from our parents without many crossovers making it easier to look at the matches. I decided to collect the Clusters from My Heritage and then paint them using DNA Painter and that was an interesting experiment. I do have some good known Blake matches on the first two chromosomes and given that I have  many matches for my known five hundred plus third cousins on my Blake side alone (and I still have to pull out the data on three of my great grandfather's siblings!) the Blake phasing is looking quite good. The Rawling data includes matches to the father of my paternal grandmother and my suspicions on his identity have become much more focused these days. For the Buller line, I again have known matches, not as many as I would like to have. A number of them are on ancestry and perhaps one of these days they might take their results into FT DNA or My Heritage which would reveal that information. Some are in Gedmatch but their relationship is not close enough unfortunately. 

Another busy day as we start to think of winter. It is pouring with rain now and as always the garden likes to soak that up.

The First Full Week in September Begins

 Sunday again and Church online once again. I could do online Church for ever I think. Even some of the hymns are favourites of mine which is rather lucky given the sheer number of hymns that could be used. There is a new Dean of the Cathedral today. This will be the first onsite service but also on You-Tube. I will go with You-Tube and I hope that they continue to publish on You-Tube. 

Soon I will begin the process of making the Fruit Chili Sauce. In a way it is a labour of love as it is a sauce that we all enjoy and it brings back all the wonderful memories of our lives together both without and with children and then alone once again. 

Fruit Chili Sauce

 With the single digit temperature at night (Alexa is showing the temperature here in Orleans at 7 degrees celsius this morning), the need to make our winter cache of Fruit Chili Sauce has become apparent. Yesterday we went and bought all the ingredients. In the past we did grow them all but that is a while ago now. It is a major creation taking about three hours to prepare the raw sauce and then another three hours to simmer it down to about eight pint jars of delicious sauce. We have made this for 54 years now and it is Ed's grandmother's recipe. My mother always made a mustard sauce that had been her grandmothers and for years I also made that but haven't done it since I no longer did my proofreading and copyediting at home and went out to work in 1994. That seems like an age ago now almost half of our married life. I worked for eight years before our first child was born and then I was home a few years and started doing proofreading and copyediting. I have been retired for twelve years now. I tore my rotator cuff  and finally retired as I simply could not keep working at that time. Hard to believe the work that I do now with that shoulder but it did completely heal I am happy to say. As has my knee from my fall last year. I have been very lucky in that regard. 

Slowly working my way through the chromosomes once again; I have redone the phasing of Chromosome 1 (and there actually were no changes but new matches helped to work on the one set of data that isn't in 23 and Me. Chromosome 2 also looks to be staying the same but I am once again adding in new data especially known data. It is surprising how accurate some small matches can be and others where I know how we match do have the occasional small match which does not fit at all with the known data. Obviously a duplicate ancestor way into the past who managed to pass on a small segment through the eons unchanged!

I started this task in February 2020 but life very much got in the way and I had to keep putting it down for other more needy reasons.

Another busy day with 24, 625 steps already at 8:45 p.m.

I spent the day cleaning and shopping and then a couple of exercise periods which brought me to 24,625 steps on my FitBit. I really do like this FitBit. The extras provide me with an interesting look at my sleep apnea and my tendency to be rather hyperactive. At nearly 75, I probably never dreamt that I would be so active now although my maternal grandmother was a very active person who loved to walk. She walked several miles every day just for the joy of walking. Her father had been injured during the First Boer War and she did talk about him walking with a cane and having a limp. He always sounded like a fascinating person as he used to work at two jobs every day making a pleasant life for his family but he died of pneumonia leaving them orphaned as his wife had died two years earlier of pneumonia. It was not hard to locate her parents on the census or in the grave yard where they were both buried in Birmingham. Finding their death registrations also proved to be very straight forward as I knew the year when each one of them died. It must have been sad to lose parents when you are 11 and 14 years of age but she never actually showed the effects of that great loss. She seemed to just stride through life and I always tried to be like her. Just move on and do the best that you can. 

A wonderful woman and I felt her loss deeply when I was just twenty one years old and married for just over half of a year. It was a profound loss in my early adulthood which kept me pretty close to her memory for a long time. It was a time when I really learned to love solitude when I was alone as I could feel her around me and in my soul. It was a good feeling actually. 

Now I am the old one with the arthritis which she suffered with although she didn't give in. She just kept walking and gardening and cleaning and keeping as active as she could. It was good advice that I took to heart when my time with arthritis arrived.

Our 54th Wedding Anniversary

 Ed and I have been married for 54 years today. We have so many pictures of our life together. We are so lucky that we have done so much traveling especially from 2008 to 2016 when we traveled back to the homes of our ancestors in the British Isles (me and some of Ed's ancestors) and Europe (Ed's ancestors and I have discovered some Huguenots who came to England in the 1500s or earlier). There was no way to know that travel would become so limited now both for health reasons (Ed) and because of COVID-19. Thanks be to God for directing our minds towards traveling. 

For over 30 years we have traveled back to the areas in the United States where Ed's colonial ancestors lived and discovered his completely lost heritage. These settlers arrived in Canada from 1800 on with a number of them coming in the 1820s and 1830s. His Loyalist ancestors came to the Maritimes for the most part although a few did come to Eastern Ontario in the 1780s. 

He now has some immigrant ancestor stories of his people coming to the American Colonies as Dissenters which were totally lost over time. They make exciting reading and include many well-known religious leaders in the Baptist and Quaker faiths. We attended a 250 year reunion for John Bowne and Hannah Feake in New York a number of years ago which was very well attended with people coming from all over the United States and a few from Canada. 

 

Our Wedding Day and this is a picture of Ed and I with my maternal grandmother. I spent a day every weekend with her since I was quite young. I helped her with her garden and eventually I helped her with cleaning her house. We talked and spent much time looking at the booklets that she brought back from England when she visited there in 1939. All lost to time unfortunately.

Back to phasing

 Spent part of the day reworking the phasing of my grandparents. Then a bit of shopping and today we made meatballs in tomato sauce for dinner along with an orzo salad which included tomatoes, parsley, garlic chives. A lot of tomatoes but they will soon not be local so enjoying them while we can.

We will make our Chili Sauce on Labour Day. We have been making Chili Sauce for 54 years Ed and I. It has tomatoes, onions, peppers, peaches, pears plus vinegar, sugar, pickling salt and spices. Then boil it down for about three hours and then bottle (we usually get about eight bottles to enjoy in the winter).

Unpredictable weather today

 Busy day today as the sun goes in and out from behind the clouds. 

Published the Pincombe-Pinkham newsletter volume 5 issue 4 2020 on the project website with FT DNA. Next time I will try to talk a little about the yDNA project. For some people the results appeared to be somewhat unexpected as many people thought this was a singleton family whose spelling had drifted somewhat. I actually think it may be a family with three founders (or possibly more) and will talk about that in December in Volume 6. 

I have found that this idea of doing newsletters for my three projects has been a great idea. It lets me get my transcriptions out there so that they are freely accessible to people that would be most interested. People can still ask me questions about them but they are hidden behind a firewall which is the usual restriction on transcriptions from my understanding. I do not publish original images of crown documents as they are copyright protected for ever. I do seek permission for other documents that I have acquired to publish them but generally do not publish original documents other than what earlier researchers have produced. 

I actually managed to get back into my phasing project of my grandparents and I would like, once I have been through all the records that I have busily collected throughout this pandemic, will try to go to great grandparents so eight colours and trying to decide if I will keep the colour idea for each grandparents and simply used one dark colour and one lighter colour of the same for each set of great grandparents. 

This day September 1 COVID-19 cases in the United States are at 6,118,204 confirmed (36,832 more than yesterday), 186,348 deaths (470 more than yesterday) and 3,218,565 recovered (16,108 more than yesterday). It is six months now that we have watched our American neighbours suffering and so many deaths. It is so hard to believe as their CDC has been such a powerful organization unfettered by the whims of the political fray. We will continue to mourn for our American neighbours. I must check again to see how my second cousins are doing. They have been Americans now for over a century.