Looking out my workroom window at 6:54 am there is a slightly reddish glow on the horizon and it is Sunday - Church on You-Tube once again. The Fourth Sunday in Advent and Christmas continues to be a much loved time for me. The birth of Jesus and His gifts to our world have been with us through more than 2000 years. As I look back in time in my own family and read their wills (some written in their own hand) I can feel the continuity. The love of God and Jesus His Son before the break with Rome and after. My Blake line seemed reluctant to leave Rome but the Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth their rightful Queen went against their belief and so they became adherents to the Church with Elizabeth as its Head and they moved on (but the desire for one Church remained certainly with my grandfather and father). My grandfather used to talk about Nicholas Blake and Old Hall - interesting when I did find the path back to Nicholas Blake and Old Hall. He could recite the line all the way back but I could only remember back to Thomas and then Joseph but was hazy on the names before that other than knowing there were more Thomas, more John and more William and then there was Nicholas (and a Richard which I had forgotten) way back there and that name stuck in my mind. My father reinforced that when he too mentioned Nicholas Blake and Old Hall. And so at Christmas time I remember Nicholas Blake and all his descendants and there are many. I have published the line coming down from Joseph Blake (he was the first known to me that lived at Upper Clatford where my grandfather and his eleven siblings lived as children with their parents Edward Blake and Maria Jane (Knight) Blake).
The red glow is reaching ever upward through the stark branches of the trees still laden with the heavy snowfall of the last few days. We walked around the large block and it was so lovely to be out in the fresh air yesterday. A little family time now and then back to work once again (me too as I work away on my historical research into my parent's surnames). Like most physicians though my youngest will be working when needed - health issues arise and need care.
May the Royal Family enjoy their holidays; they have earned them working hard for all the peoples of the United Kingdom. I shall listen to the Christmas Message from King Charles III - will mark it on my calendar. Those who support the King, Prince of Wales are to be commended for their task is long days and many appointments/activities with the support of their wives. They are devoted to success for all the peoples of the United Kingdom not just their own pocket. There really isn't anything wrong with formality - it is comfortable.
This Christmas we are giving each other a book that we really want and will spend part of the day reading our new books - mine is going to be Robert S Gottfried's Epidemic Disease in Fifteenth Century England: The Medical Response and the Demographic Consequences. "The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe" was a fantastic read.
Finished Chromosome 22 yesterday and a new set of matches revealed a little more depth into my Pincombe line. It is a chromosome though that has insufficient matches to break down the Buller line and of course the father of my paternal grandmother remains a mystery although circumstantial evidence exists but no known matches (it really needs to be a half second or half third cousin). It is an interesting chromosome though as the Blake and Knight families have a clear separation. The Pincombe and Gray lines also clearly separate. On to Chromosome 21.
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