Ancestry matches and Pencombe

 I did work on the Pencombe family in Herefordshire and Devonshire for a few hours pulling out the data and adding it to the chapter. I contemplated ordering one document but did not do so yet. Prepared an interesting table also for the chapter. Then I decided to move to the Ancestry matches that I made up into a chart yesterday. With four people tested there are a lot of matches in four months since I last did the same - 36 matches in total. They tend to be well mixed in the four lines actually so always something interesting to look at for each line. The larger ones tend to be paternal which could be surprising as my father was an only child and we did not have any first cousins. But on my mother's side her brother did not have any children and her father was the only surviving child (although he did have a half-sister (so half second cousins there). I got through all of the matches once and now I just need to check to see if there are any matches less than 20 cM which will not show up in the 4th -6th cousin range. With the use of TIMBER the overall size of the match can be reduced by as much as 50% so I do tend to collect right to the 20 cM and the extras just to see if all of the siblings are matching an individual or just one or two or three. 

Good exercise day and completed everything plus adding in my ten flights of stairs (not continuous as I must go up and down and then up again and down but it does appear to be good exercise). I got the idea from visiting the museum the other weekend. I wasn't tired doing all the stairs but did rather realize how good the exercise was. 

Today finish the ancestry table and think about the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter which is due tomorrow; plus write it likely as I have ideas in mind. Then work on the le Blak family chapter. Funny that I am at that point in both books of looking at the mediaeval family period but perhaps not surprising because I am working somewhat in tandem although the two families are considerably different. 

We had our flash freeze and now at -13 celsius after a high yesterday of +14 celsius. Since I did not actually go outside I have not particularly noticed the change except the furnace did not run very often until the freeze came. 

Early morning exercises completed and I have a second cup of tea to drink with my Latin which is next. 

Another day in God's world and the Lenten Readings have been fabulous. They actually talk a lot about the time of Israel in the Bible which was so coincidental I think.

Basement Cleaning completed on to the work week

 I must say greed continues to amaze me. Sometimes I feel greedy for living on in this house which is too big for me but not really that big a house. I think when the greedy genes were handed out I didn't get any particularly but there are somethings that I was greedy about in my years past. For instance I preferred not to share any of my family time with non family. I mean I could do Bible Studies and things like that but to actually become a person who regularly became involved in social activities; no not a chance I wasn't giving up my time with my children if it was avoidable. Of course I did work except when I was convalescing after my breakdown so my time was limited. I did give a lot of time to Church for a bit but I was volunteered at Ed's United Church (before that I was a sort of volunteer secretary at the local Anglican Church). It did let me be behind a table so that I was somewhat isolated (my preferred state) except when they had a question since I was the volunteer secretary and when the opportunity came to not be that volunteer I took it and ran! They were going to hire someone; offered me the job but I said no as I was already employed proofreading. It was a relief to no longer do the bulletin, receive notices on my phone for the bulletin etc, have people drop by randomly. Plus I really didn't have to talk to anyone anymore although I did teach Sunday School setting up a two year old class but my Anglican ways did get me into a little difficulty on occasion. I had the children saying prayers on their knees because they copied me. But my youngest loved that class. 

I have been delving into world issues in my blog since Russia invaded Ukraine.  I must say I do find Putin to be rather ignorant. He says if NATO sends troops to Ukraine then that is war but he hires people from Nepal and India to be non combatants and puts them in the front lines to be killed first before Russians (their people are complaining for themselves because their people are being killed not because of Russia's illegal war (this is Whiteaphobia/Caucasiaphobia by the way); the non-white areas of the world have little interest in this "European conflict" as they tend to see us (European/UK people and their descendants) as the problem in the world (all of us)). I was glad to see Saudi Arabia taking the lead on helping Ukraine with POW exchange though; kudos to them. Obviously the way to do this is to let Ukraine hire people to fight (use the frozen Russia assets to pay them). Does Putin not think through what he says? Leave Ukraine Russia (all of it); perhaps in a couple of years we will forgive and forget (we are like that). The Russian people must be getting tired of all of this but fear predominates likely (and we see images of them being hauled away to jail) and they do little for the most part at the moment. But one never knows what is lurking in the Russian back yard. The oligarchs rob the people blind and keep them like serfs; what is the difference between the Tsar and Putin. The Tsar (who was not enlightened enough to keep his place) was a descendant of Peter the Great; Putin is just a usurper of the life that Russians wanted for themselves; he is really useless to them. 

So today is a Pencombe day and I shall continue on the Postmortem Inquisition and have a look at some of the old books to see what I can find for Roger de Pencombe perhaps alias  Flandrensis. The name Roger de Pencombe is in the Devon records at Bondleigh and in the Herefordshire records at Pencombe in the similar time frame. Interesting as I had it in my mind that perhaps this line was older in the British Isles than it may have been; it may not have preceded William the Conqueror but rather arrived like Richard le Blak as being given rights to set up markets and things like that. Interesting really. I need to find the original surname as Flandrensis just means from Flanders. But then the yDNA is not Hunter-Gatherer; not as ancient as that. March will be the month to dawdle through all of this both the Le Blak family of Berkshire/Wiltshire and the Pencombe family of Herefordshire.

So on to the day. Latin first and it is going very well. Having a yearly package really is nice so you do not have to concern yourself with "hearts" and the loss of them if you make mistakes (you have to do Duolingo to get that). I have actually accumulated 2211 gems in my 46 days back (I use my gems to send XP boosts to my daughter who is doing Latin with me). I think I did about this many days in the summer during the forest fires. But now my mind is on the task and I am finding it easier to keep up and not get bogged down. Finishing off the Siderfin Book was a lot of effort. I hardly ever think about the book now actually. I assume anyone who wanted it has it and it is still available on my website as a free download.

Yoga and jumping jacks. Teatime and Latin. Then on to breakfast; it is a working day (brain working instead of cleaning).

Cleaning accomplished but not much else

Cleaning all accomplished and that was the two floors - lucky this house is small because I am getting older. Although at this point in time I can still manage everything fairly readily. I also cleared away the fresh snow fall; we are really welcoming it this February. Sometimes by February it can seem never ending but this year our snowfall has been very light and not one day below minus 20 degrees celsius yet. One wonders what March will bring. I would call this a London winter. And it is the first London winter that I have experienced in 49 years amazingly!

Today is the basement cleaning and the cleaning will then be all accomplished. Back to work so to speak.

I thought about Blake yesterday but actually did not do anything on the book. I need to start gathering data on the lines that I have not traced down. Most of them stayed in England with the exception of  the Sedgwicke family - Joanne Blake married Major General Roberte Sedgwicke 9 Jan 1634 at Andover. However Joanne returned to England perhaps after her husband died in Jamaica in 1656 and died at Stepney in London in 1667. Her children remained in Charlestown, Massachusetts Royal Colony and I actually have Blake matches (atDNA) with descendants of this family which is surprising although they are small but sometimes you can have this stubborn piece of Blake that just keeps on going (the matches are pretty much with all four of us who tested at Ancestry). There are in this direct path a couple of Blake-Blake marriages deep in the past (Nicholas Blake likely married his first cousin Margaret Blake (daughter of Thomas Blake, son of Robert his grandfather). I also propose that the original surname itself came from the marriage of a person without a surname (likely John) with a daughter of Richard le Blak when Richard le Blak was still living in Berkshire. Very ancient really and I do not see any matches with known descendants of the Blake family of Calne in my line although Jone Blake is an unknown The grandparents of Joanne Blake were Richard Blake and Jone (Blake) Blake perhaps providing that double lot of Blake gene pool that sends a duplicating portion of Blake genes down the line so to speak. Not sure why this Blake line did not really leave England until the late 1890s and into the 1900s (mine came to Canada in 1913 making me first generation Canadian on my father's side and fourth generation Canadian on my mother's side). My father used to talk about a relative. who went out west, had come to Canada before he did (he was actually my grandfather's first cousin and not his uncle but a first cousin once removed. I did assume Blake but actually his surname was Knight and I have since been in contact with some of his descendants as we match on 23 and Me actually. But the Blake family moved away from the Andover area itself but not out of the country particularly. There are still Blake families in the Andover area descendant of John Blake and Ann (Farmer) Blake and I have quite a few matches on the various databases since we have tested at 23 and Me, Ancestry, BritainsDNA, Ethnoancestry, FT DNA, Living DNA, My Heritage, National Genographic and Sorenson Genomics, The amount of data quite overwhelms these days and I have greatly restricted my collection of it. At least two of us has tested at all of these databases and in total five siblings have tested yielding tons of data for sure. Of value to only us really but I think for the most part the really interesting matching is between the five of us; I am least like any of them and the shared atDNA is amazingly spread from the least that full siblings can share to being quite similar. DNA is fun actually. It is possibly the best part of surname studies but then it was DNA that really brought me in after I had done the Profile for my cousin of the Pincombe family in Westminster Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.

On to the day; I slept in slightly and it is already 7:30 a.m.

Back to basics

A bit of work yesterday with a surprise find of a Roger de Pencombe in the early 1300s at  Bondleigh Devon which is south of the North Molton area near Crediton. That does change the picture perhaps although it is the only record of Roger de Pencombe that I do find in Devon but I also located a Roger de Pencombe in Herefordshire Archives records. Is he related to Eustache de Pencombe and part of the family mentioned in yesterday's post (Turstin Flandrensis (of Flanders)) mentioned in the records of the Convent of St Peter and the monks at Gloucester?

Should I continue this trip back through time when I do not have positive proof that the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire is the Pencombe family found at North Devon on the 1524 Lay Subsidy? Probably I am early in this book and thinking of how James Sanders looked at earlier material and recorded it I am probably not amiss to continue in this vein until I find a reason not to do so. 

Up early today, sun not yet risen; the Psalms of Ian White playing softly as I begin another day in God's world. I think the watershed of COVID is still working its way through the lives of the people of the world. There is a violent element in the world that was missing before COVID; we were more reluctant to get involved in anything that "smelled" like war skirting around the possibility rather than actually looking into the dark eyes of the Devil sort of thing. Is Putin the Devil? looks like it actually. He is unable to control his most base instincts to commit murder in order to get what he wants - the war in Ukraine is the best example for sure but even his own people can not escape his wrath nor the volunteers from East Asia either who are put in harm's way to save the Russian troops. What makes a person like that? Greed mostly I think. As we (NATO) face off against this tyrant one wonders what the end will look like. My mother used to say that - during the Second World War people talked about what the end of all of that would look like. There is a companionship in war time that just isn't there in peace time; in peace time everyone is too busy catching up on what they could not do in war time. Praying for peace but preparing for war was a truth that I grew up with and it is still pertinent today in this world covered by the clouds of pollution both physical and mental. 

This is a Blake day actually and I am looking at the le Blak family chapter still. I did write to suggest that the original Blake wills should be kept because of a possible connection with the Royal Family as the Andover Blake line is one of the ancestors of Diana, Princess of Wales in her 12th generation. It is about 800 wills for Blake in total which would be a box full and probably they could be thinned out as I would say as many as half of them are easily assigned to particular Blake lines without much effort. The remaining though could be carefully catalogued as an historical collection for her Fonds. Diana brought a great deal to her position as the wife of the Prince of Wales but forgot that the role itself was the job and although beloved by the British people unlike most females in Britain she had to take second place to her husband as he was the one who would have to bear the responsibility of being King as he is doing most effectively. Perhaps the biggest gift that Diana has given to the world is her son William who, like his father, fits perfectly into the role which she too helped to prepare him for as a child. He too will be an exceptional King I think. 

Onto the day I have managed to put in half of an hour thinking about the books that I am writing mostly. I think I can dawdle in the deep past for a month or so and then make a decision on whether that is the best route or just move on. 

Teatime.

The Benefice of Trelawny - Church Service this Sunday

The Service today was traveling about The Benefice of Trelawny and visiting some of the Churches there with the choirs. The Churchs: St Marnarch Lanreath, St Nun Pelynt, St Saviour Polruan, St Wyllow Lanteglos, St Tallanus Talland, St Ildierna Lansallos and  St John Bodinnick. The hymns were perfect; all my favourites. I feel akin to these people perhaps because I have three grandparents born in England and my father and just my one little line in Canada - my mother, her father and his mother. All the rest came to Canada from England (six different areas - Devon/Somerset, Hampshire/Dorset/Wiltshire, London/Surrey, East Riding of Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Warwickshire/Shropshire/Staffordshire/Leicestershire). I come from all over England and yet just a small part of each area.

We traveled through this area on our last trip to the British Isles which saw us visit all of the main islands and the Orkneys. We finished up in Cornwall the last few days and it is beautiful. Land's End will always be clearly in my memory because I hiked out as far as I could go. My father often talked about coming from Southampton along the south coast of England and they stopped to see Blarney Castle before heading out into the Atlantic with their next stop Quebec City. He was just nine years of age when he came to Canada with his mother (his father had come six months earlier to set up a house for them) and it was with sadness that he left behind all of his grandparents and even great grandparents. He was an only child venturing into a brand new life. The only plus perhaps was his Uncle that he knew well lived in Toronto (he moved there in 1911). He came to love Canada as if he was born here although like my grandfather he did mention his Blake line back in England plus he corresponded with his aunts and uncles and cousins through the years. But I digress, my father was born at Eastleigh and his father at Upper Clatford and my father's mother at Kimpton. 

The service is wonderful (available on YouTube) with references to John Wesley's preaching. John Wesley remained an Anglican but his ideas created the Wesleyan Methodist Church. One of my 3x great grandfathers Charles Butt was a Wesleyan preacher according to one account I found on Family Search. I never did verify that at all but it was interesting to see that. He too remained an Anglican. Charles was baptized 25 Dec 1801 at Winterborne Stickland, Dorset and was buried 7 Dec 1886 at Turnworth and remembered by my Grandfather because the two of them went walking and carved their initials in a tree when Charles was 80 and my grandfather was six years of age (so I suspect the carving was done by Charles!). 

Simply amazing having all of these services online. I suppose I could go but COVID gave me new ideas on how to worship God and so I switched my tithe somewhat around to give more to the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund and less to the General Account so that Anglicanism can flow around the world because it is such an ancient Church and has so much in common with the Indigenous peoples of the world because Churches of the British Isles descend from those earlier Celtic Faiths and before that the Indigenous Faith that I am sure merged with the Celtic at some point in the very deep past. Church is the most constant part of our lives as it is with us at our baptism just after we are born and as we prepare for our eventual death in our old age if God so wills.

Continuing with the Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe

 Thus far the precis of the Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe provided by British History Online is very faithful. But I still want to continue transcribing it just in case. Plus it is good practice for my latin which is coming along. I am also thinking about other documents that might aid in my quest. First of all there is logic. The name Pencombe is uncommon and really found only in Herefordshire in this time period. Along with the name of the place, Pencombe is a surname for a smallish family it would appear. 

 Doing a new search at the Devon Record Office was rather illuminating actually:

https://swheritage.org.uk/devon-archives/               
               
Place    Person    Date    Item    Scope
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe and Alice his wife, grant of all lands, tenemenets etc.     24 Oct 1315    DD/WY/3/2/20, DD/WY/3/2/21, DD/WY/3/2/14    grant of all lands, tenemenets etc.  In Bonelgh and the advowson of the Church there
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe and Alice his wife    5 Jun 1311    DD/WY/3/2/15    Grant of land by death of Ralph de Chammpyaus in the Hylle and La Huierce
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe    1 Dec 1308    DD/WY/3/2/6    Adam de Champeaus granted manor to Roger de Pencombe

I do not believe I have ever seen these particular items for a Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh. Bondleigh is 22 miles (about 35 kilometres) from North Molton and is south of that area closer to Crediton. That is amazing but it is a while since I search the Devon Record Office. It is dealing with the advowson at the Church in Bondleigh but he is also there in documents in 1308 and 1311 when he was granted a manor there. I shall have to have a look around Bondleigh and see if there was a continuation of this family there.

Looking at the Domesday Book for Herefordshire:

Pencombe was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Tornelaus and the county of Herefordshire.

It had a recorded population of 39 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in Domesday.

Land of Alfred of Marlborough
Households

    Households: 21 villagers. 4 smallholders. 6 slaves. 1 priest. 6 other population. 1 smiths.

Land and resources

    Ploughland: 3 lord's plough teams. 20 men's plough teams.
    Other resources: 1 mill, value 5 shillings. 1 church.

Valuation

    Annual value to lord: 10 pounds in 1086; 14 pounds in 1066.

Owners

    Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Alfred of Marlborough.
    Lord in 1086: (Agnes) daughter of Alfred of Marlborough.
    Lord in 1066: Alfred of Marlborough.

I did find a reference to a Eustace de Pencombe during the reign of Henry I. 

Grant by Eustace, 1 son of Turstin Flandrensis (of Flanders), to the Convent of St. Peter and the monks at Gloucester, at the request of his mother Agnes, of one hide called Sudenhale in Pencombe (Co. Hereford). Witnesses : Turstin Flandrensis his brother, William priest of the township, William of the stable, Wimund, Roger de Kaillewi, 2 Roger Castel and Ralph dapifer (steward). (No date.)

Notes: 

1 Otherwise known as Eustace de Pencombe. Hist, et Cart. St. Petri, Clone, vol. i. pp. 124, 286.

2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 286 : " Rogerus Cailli." The name is also Cayleway occasionally.

Interesting implication that this surname Pencombe was taken by Eustace Flandrensis living in Pencombe during the time of Henry I (1100-1135). This information found on Page 229 , Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for 1914. Edited by Rev G H West, DD, ARIRA, Volume XXXVII  in the Chapter "Early deeds relating to St Peter's Abbey, Gloiucester (page 221). (Internet Archive). 

The Terminal SNP for this line appears to be R-FT88-1000. In my Chapter on yDNA I have suggested that this is a likely French line and the inplication of this text for an Eustace de Pencombe is that the line is present at Pencombe in Herefordshire during the time of Henry I (1100-1135) which is much earlier than the 1300s that I have been looking at. 

The trek continues and remains quite fascinating. Linking this line to the line in North Molton may still be a challenge but if it is the only presence of this line in England that does make it rather interesting. 

Today is Sunday and Church on You-Tube. 

One continues to hope for the best for our world - that the wars produced by Russia against Ukraine (two years ago yesterday it began) and the barbaric attack by the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza against the Israeli people on 7th October 2023 resulting in war between Israel and Hamas will soon come to a completion with Russia returning to its borders as determined in 1991 following their disastrous war in Afghanistan and Hamas leaving Gaza so that rebuilding can begin and a new life for the Palestinians where they create a country that will support their population for the necessities of life instead of being a charity supported by the United Nations. That should be the aim of any peoples to be self-supporting and creating their own domestic product not living off the charity of nations generation after generation. 

Thank you God for the bounty of the earth and I pray that all will till the soil, utilize our talents for good and produce a life for our families. We should be moving forward in time to a better world for all not living in a barbaric past where greed predominated.

Woke up today with a new thought - Whiteaphobia

 The world (just some of course) suffers from Whiteaphobia - Caucasiaphobia. I need to find the right word. But it is real and we are under the microscope 24/7. It never really lets up and it produces events that make us look bad because of this hatred directed at white people (we can feel it you know even when you smile). As a child I never actually saw anyone who did not look like me except in books. So I did know there were different races in the world; I just lived in a restricted world. At some point in that period between eight and ten years of age I saw my first person that was Native American; the first person that was Chinese and the first person that was African (it was a while before I realized that not all Africans were Black). I thought it was like picture books coming to life and it was wondrous actually. I always knew from a young age that Jesus was not white like me; he was more likely Arab just as the wisemen were more likely black or olive skinned. The Anglican Church I went to was quite specific about that; at least Archdeacon Abraham was. 

So why do I think that some of the world suffers from Whiteaphobia? One, some of the world has made us a scapegoat and we have been chosen for that at the moment. Two, we were involved in enslaving people as the latest group at least some people say that but we continue to see Africans enslaving Africans as they have for many centuries (some white Caucasian people simply took advantage of that ability to their shame actually). Three, we are prosperous overall but that is not entirely true other "races" of people are quite wealthy. Four, we are an easy target because we have acquired this tendency to accept the blame for the misdeeds of our ancestors. The world must rid itself of whiteaphobia just like it needs to get rid of anti-semitism and Islamaphobia and a few other phobias. Including what characterizes a male and what characterizes a female. We are just people (all Homo sapiens) and I imagine that most of animalia has peopleaphobia for a good reason we are killing them off just by our daily habits of living. 

My great thought for the day and whiteaphobia will become my new term for dealing with people who attack us for being prosperous, forgiving and generous but absolutely immoveable with regard to the protection of the State of Israel. The United Nations has declared in favour of "ancient" populations almost from the start of its existence particularly cramming it down the throats of the Caucasians who ventured around the world and made all sorts of land claims (the "white" people in North America and in truth Canada did not do well after becoming the Dominion of Canada but we are trying very hard to do better). What is more ancient than the Jewish peoples of Israel - they have been hounded for thousands of years; forced off their lands many times and finally in the last century six million of them were murdered just for being Jewish. The United Nations must also declare the Jewish people to be an "ancient" peoples and clarify the lands that technically belong to them. Like the other "ancient" peoples their lands have been occupied by many peoples through the centuries and one doesn't see them causing conflict like Hamas has created purely for the benefit of trying to legitimize terrorism but rather the Jewish people accepted Israel and moved on with it.  Colonial rights and squatter rights do not come before "ancient" land rights; that has been made clear by the populations of the world represented in the United Nations. 

I think everyone should be in the United Nations including the North Koreans although they like Hamas are just greedy and threatening peoples with no regard for the rule of law. We must get along. 

Ipperwash (Ontario, Canada) is a good example of land returned to the First Nations finally by 2020 because it was specific to their history and culture and had never been ceded and they asked politely for it back.  That took much too long and cost a life (Anthony "Dudley" George, Ojibwa (Anishinaabeg)) and we need to do better and as the First Peoples continue to walk with us and us with them down this path of Canadian history that we share I applaud their dedication to making Canada the best place it can be. 

Colonials do bring good to a country; the gene pool is greatly expanded and is healthier for all cultures. New methodologies can improve the lives of people and give them opportunities not there before. But we need to always walk together aiming to make this world a better place. 

Thank you God for the gift of the Polar Bear to our world and may they survive this huge change in their lives caused by Climate Change. 

Another thought as I was running. Certainly the attitude of the world towards the war Russia is inflicting on Ukraine might be an example. Ukraine could definitely be thought of as a "white" sovereign state and probably a lot of people see Russia as a "white"sovereign state as both lie in Eastern Europe where Europe is generally regarded as Caucasian although I am sure one finds many different races. But the donation of lethal support for Ukraine worldwide is concentrated coming from Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and the United States (primarily NATO). That may well say it all in terms of Whiteaphobia/ Caucasiaphobia (those who are not do not see that they are involved in the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine and just continue as they were because they do not care what happens to white people perhaps). I also think Canada is coming closer and closer to our NATO goal of 2% with all these donations to the war effort in Ukraine. We also need to get the NORAD installations modernized and where are our new ships for the north?

Work on LeBlak continues

 The Le Blak family in England is interesting. They are known to be Norman French by the Calender of Patent Rolls entries. The DNA of members of the Blake yDNA group that I help manage points towards the anticipated I1 haplogroup for this family but no one has a perfect trail back to the Blake family of Calne. Wills of the Calne family are very revealing and I have mostly transcribed all of them and blogged them through the years. Hence I decided given the charts that have been produced for Blake that include a portion of the Andover Blake family I should add a chapter to my book on this family and put all the "proofs" on the table so to speak. 

There is a request for opinions by the National Archives of the UK concerning old wills and I believe I shall write today to mention that with the controversy over Blake I think all Blake original wills should be retained into the future although the scans are more than adequate for me but to put to rest any thoughts of the original not being reproduced correctly it would be a wise move especially given the publication of the book "The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, for Twelve generations" by Richard K Evans (published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society 2007). One of her 12th generation ancestors is a descendant of the Blake family at Andover. That ancestor did leave a will as did his great grandfather William Blake of Eastontown son of Nicholas Blake which is clearly detailed in the will of William. That will be one of today's projects. The archives did mention they would keep famous wills and other historically significant wills. The heir to the throne, Prince William, Prince of Wales, would appear to carry the ancient Hunter-Gatherer ancestry passed to him by his mother (of course it is very ancient but the very thought that William carries such a blood line is amazing really and he is truly a son of the British Isles from its very founding by ancient peoples. The fraudulent work of Horatio Gates Somerby regarding Nicholas Blake at Old Hall, Enham, has influenced American genealogy for over a century and must be corrected. Another of my aims and I have my grandfather's memory of the discussions that must have occurred following the publication of a book purported to be from the papers of Horatio Gates Somerby in 1881. I propose that this book and more likely the effect of this book on thousands of American descendants of Blake families are greatly influenced by his fraudulent work and the original Blake wills (and associated and I could prepare a list but not in time for their deadline).should be retained for a longer period as they affect the ancestry of the Royal House.

Other than that the day will be a busy one anyway. Up early before sunrise and as always it is a beautiful time in God's world. Lenten is special as we Christians spend it contemplating the gift of Jesus to the world, his death and his resurrection. 

Instead of locking people out

I have been saying for a while that I do not understand why all the people wanting a ceasefire do not do more for the actual people of Gaza. The Muslim population of Canada has huge resources and could have brought a couple of thousand children to Canada from Gaza to protect them from the horrors of war but all they do is complain at us; spoil our Christmas and now tell MPs they are not welcome in their mosques. Israel was attacked; they have the right to defend themselves and Hamas says they will do it again and again. There are still over 100 hostages held in Gaza that the International Court of Justice said must be immediately released unconditionally. That hasn't happened and why do I never hear the people complaining at us say to Hamas - release the hostages. I do not know how many of you went out into the streets of Canada to celebrate the barbaric butchery committed by Hamas against the babies, children, women and men, elderly on the 7th of October last but that was a hate crime bordering on terrorism because it supported a terrorist group. 

I was very pleased to see the judge in my home town of London, Ontario declare that the attack on the  Afzaal family is terrorism. That such a disgusting act happened in my home town is a sorrow to me. But the person complaining on TV and demanding a cease fire in Gaza never even said their name; did he remember it? We would all like a cease fire in Gaza but most of all we want those hostages returned immediately. The deal was that they would get their medication; they did not. Where is the support for these people - the hostages? 

I say to you again. Ask Egypt and the Canadian government for permission to bring a couple of hundred thousand little ones from Gaza to protect and take care of them until Gaza is rebuilt. You can afford it; you have built huge mosques. We do not need to know anything about the little ones between 2 and 8 years of age except you need to have their DNA done and that of their mothers to prove the children on return. Do your part in helping; complaining doesn't help. Tell Hamas to release the hostages immediately and unconditionally. 

Asking Canada to renew funding to UNRWA is an insult to the ability of the Gazan people to put their own food on the table and to Israel which suffered more than 1200 deaths because of some members of that group. Already so many Hamas terrorists in UNRWA exposed for their part in the barbaric murderous rage through Israel on the 7th October last, we can not in all honesty continue to support this group. Gaza has been supported through more than three generations by UN funding; it makes no sense when there are beautiful farms producing all kind of food just across the border in Israel - the same could be done with Gaza I assume, surely the land is not that different; never been there. It is an insult to continue to supply people with all their needs when they are perfectly capable of producing what they need themselves. They just need support to get it going. Obviously the best country to help them is Israel. Bring the children here to Canada (if Egypt and Canada will let you of course; no ideas on that but we did take in children from England during World War II) - the little ones only as they require virtually no screening except for a DNA test by the mother and for the child to match them up later - the bigger children can work to help their parents work on getting their lands into an appropriate format to bring the little children back. What a strange way to raise children; totally dependent on the United Nations for the very food they eat through so many generations.

Working on the Inquisition Postmortem

 A busy day that saw me go to get groceries (salmon for dinner with mashed sweet potato sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan cheese and mixed vegetable on the side). Lovely meal. Lots of exercise as well. Took me seven tries to get the car into the garage. I am not overly good at that although I used to do it a lot better with a larger van; getting old I guess.

Worked on the Inquisition Postmortem and I do not think it has much more than the transcription in British History Online but I wanted to be sure. A few more documents to order and must get that going so that I can learn more about the Pencombe family in Herefordshire. 

Three Latin sessions today and the learning curve is advancing nicely. I actually recognize the endings now in the document. I know a lot of the words because they are all legal terms with which I am familiar but it was the endings that I didn't know as I never declined latin words. Speaking Latin is different for me although some of the hymns that we sang when I was a child in the choir were in Latin but with Duolingo you get that added feature. Looking forward to starting French in the Fall. My ability to read French is still very good but my speaking is dreadful. 

Today is a Blake day and I shall work on the le Blak family. I do have quite a bit of material. Plus I have the pictures of Rouen Cathedral where a Richard le Blak has an effigy but I do not know if he is buried there. When you look at the list from Rouen of people granted the right to set up a market in England it is lengthy with 22 from Rouen, 13 from Amiens, 8 from Almain, 5 from Huy, 4 from Malins/Malyns/Malines, 3 from Leges, 3 from Brabant, 2 from Cahors, 2 from Placenza, 1 each from Deu, Lucca, Florence, Caumbrey and Beuvays. Then interestingly enough 2 from London, one each from Rouecester, Northampton and two are associates not linked to a town but a person. There are 73 on the list in total. Presumably the ones internal to England in the list were considered to be non-English perhaps not sure. But one of the individals from London has the surname Bek which I found interesting. Most of the merchants though are from France - I thought there would were be more from Normandy but close by is Amiens. 

Time for tea and Latin. The morning advances quickly. 

Generally I like to avoid social conservative issues just because I can see no reason for them in the political life of our country. But this latest bit that is being spouted by the Conservative Leader has very bad vibes. Not all women (biologically born) are beautiful (at least do not fit that beautiful perfect look some people have in their minds) and when you enact a legislation that basically limits the use of public facilities to single genders of birth then you leave these women who are not quite so beautiful to everyone except perhaps their friends and family open to abuse in those washrooms or public areas by "catty women" (and sorry they do exist) just because they do not fit into that narrow criteria of beauty. So leave it Conservatives; stay out of social conservative issues. It is a waste of the English language. It will blow up in your face. What happened to all the financial issues? Can you think of any that you could work on instead of this? And I do not even understand all this gender business to be honest but I think people should just be allowed to live their life unless they are injuring/defrauding/whatever other people. 

I will share an interesting test we all took as a family once. It was online I think or it might have actually been a set of questions on paper. My daughters probably remember I have forgotten exactly where we found that (perhaps Readers Digest now that I think about it). It was a set of questions headed by "How Male are you?". I wasn't going to do it because I just think such things are ridiculous personally not to insult anyone but we all did it. Concentration on gender to me is a personality restricting way to look at life. Anyway we all took that test and much to my husband's shock I tested the most male of all of us with him next  and then my daughters. But clearly environment plays a huge role in how you do things - I grew up with two brothers older than me and  two younger with three of them being closer in age to myself. I think, at the time of taking the test, I thought it was very funny but  not surprising. My husband thought it was very deeply flawed because he couldn't see that I had any male characteristics. Probably well hidden (my mother would have certainly corrected any of that) but I think it really showed when he took ill and was so sad about his garden because he couldn't do the work so I did it; I moved many wheelbarrows of dirt from the lane way to the back of yard. I manually dug the garden because I wasn't strong enough to use the gas driven rototiller and every day I was out there at 6:30 to 7:00 a.m. and worked for five hours straight planting, weeding whatever to make that garden look like he loved it to look. I am not a gardener but to me that is more of a male tendency to just put your back to it and get it done; no whining no saying it can't be done. Then the other thing that really shows up when it doesn't do what you want it to do you use brutal force (few women use brutal force) like moving big rocks out of the garden that suddenly appear and such things. I think that we have lost sight of just how loose gender really is because of small families where females tend to be quite female and males quite male but not always. People can become the reverse of what they physically are because of surroundings perhaps no ideas on that really. I would not like to ever get into gender issues personally although I do think it is very important to let children be children and not encumber them with changes that affect their entire life until they can make an adult decision that will satisfy them. For a biological woman not being able to have children because of medical changes made and the same for a biological male undergoing changes that restrict his ability to have children - it simply isn't fair to them in the long run to let them convince themselves they need this before they really know what they are giving up. Anyway just thought I would share it for what it is worth.

Lenten Bible Study

I have taken part in and also led Lenten Bible Studies. This year I receive into my InBox a very special resource sent to me by the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund. It is called "Seeding Health." Every day in Lent I will receive this file and I have to say that it is a perfect Bible Study for me this time. We are talking about the plagues in Egypt when the Pharaoh refused to let the Israelis (Jewish people) return to their home. It is quite beautiful actually and today's prayer especially meaningful:

Creator God,

even though we have seen

the consequences of our actions

in extinctions, extreme weather,

and destroyed ecosystems,

we harden our hearts and there is no health in us. 

Forgive us we pray, and give us the vision

to see a path that leads to the healing of your world.

Amen. 

 

We must do something about Creation. We owe it the children of today and tomorrow. More than anything else in the world they should grow up in a world that has all of nature like we did. 

Not enough doctors

 While I cleaned yesterday I continued to think about 3 million Ontarians not having a family doctor. When we were young there was a doctor on every corner nearly it seemed in the suburbs. They mostly had their offices in their homes in those days but everything has become so much more advanced toolwise that one needs an office in an area where everything is very accessible and close to hospitals too. Most of the patients were children for sure; the growing up days of the baby boomers. Although I was born just at war's end I went to school with children born during the war because I skipped a year ahead from 3 to 5. But we could see that huge group coming along behind us.  

Life was harder for doctors way back then; my husband's uncle was a family doctor and he died relatively young (in his 60s I think). His hours were very long and his patient load quite heavy as he was outside of the city in a small town (not a huge change for physicians in rural areas except the hospitals are better equipped than in the 50s for sure). But now the family physicians in the city are experiencing these enormous case loads and long hours plus the cost of maintaining an office is very large. So Edward did make an effort when Gordon asked him to go to the Ottawa Branch Meeting of the OGS way back in the early 80s with him. It wasn't something that we ever did; Edward and I. We liked astronomy and were members of the RASC in London and then again here when we first arrived along with the Ottawa Field Naturalists Society. My parents visited right away and took us off to the local Anglican Church (not surprising!) although I had already found it but I knew Edward wanted a United Church. Gordon and Edward did seem to enjoy the meetings of the Ottawa Branch and for the next fourty years that pretty much occupied Edward's spare time (although he was pretty involved in his United Church as Treasurer and singing in the Choir as well!). 

Personally I do better in didactic situations not social; I tend to find social situations to be a nightmare to be honest. I was volunteer secretary at Edward's Church (I didn't actually volunteer). The bonus was I was behind a table and could mostly be away from people and just be helpful if needed. After all religion was part of my very being which I knew very well and I had my own deep seated Anglicanism as my support in time of trial. But I had promised to go to Edward's Church with our daughter. Learning Edward's ancestry of dissenters opened my eyes actually and let me see my Anglican Church through Edward's eyes; not that I agreed with him (my faith is very different from his approach to faith although towards the end of his life he did come to see that my faith was a strength that he could hang on to); I do not think I have a Protestant bone in my body; Catholic through and through. With people like Roger Williams, John Bowne, Hannah Feake, Elizabeth Fones, Anne Winthrop, Rev Obadiah Holmes etc. (the reach back into history in his line was formidable in terms of the talent that was there coming down to him and it expressed itself in him as a scientist although the opportunities (unless one went to the United States) were not overly available at that time. He just really wanted to stay in Canada although as we traveled more and more to the United States one could see that he was rethinking some of that and was very supportive of any such thoughts in our children (although they prefer Canada as well but one has to go where the opportunities are for sure as is the case of my older daughter). One could also see where he got his Protestantism from (I was amazed at all the dissenters in his tree actually as he moved back in time)! But I do believe that families should worship together and whatever works for them is great (I am pretty much a wishy washy person and go with the flow unless I have a strong opinion which does occur but I could be a closet Anglican (still went to early Church at the local Anglican Church for a number of years) and in a way I am back in that closet again except I have You-Tube Services!). For Edward I think he felt the need (plus he did go to the United Church when we first met and I did go to Metropolitan United with him in London when we lived there) as we moved through parenthood and he was following in his father's footsteps (he was only two when he died) and being treasurer and in the choir; it was definitely good for his view of himself to seek that association out I think. Edward was a strong person actually; very capable and really quite brilliant and along with his classmates Canada definitely failed them back in the 70s by not hiring their own students first to academic positions in the universities. Edward's father was also an elder but that is no longer quite the same in the United Church. My maternal uncle was also an elder actually as well as being involved with the Missions and Services in the United Church in both London and Toronto. Plus Edward's father was a farmer and Edward did love his hobby of tilling the soil. I had not thought to do any writing up of Edward's work because he felt he had done all that he wanted to do. But I could go back to reprinting items on his blog I am thinking from his many talks. I was doing that but then got back into my own one name studies. But perhaps that would be a good idea and I would be more relaxed about any missing ideas that he expressed but did not write up on his website. A contemplative day I guess as I move forward in my own research but thinking of ways to keep Edward's research in the present. Most of his American ancestors came to Canada as settlers in 1800 and after. The latest one was in the 1820s - William Rathbun - at the annual reunion of that family he learned that William was said to have "an itchy foot!" which was really something quite stunning to learn from the members of the American family actually. William was remembered and that was 150 years later perhaps.

Although the girls did try hard to be with him for his genealogy endeavours it wasn't easy to be young in so many graveyards but they did their best including writing it all down for him from the stones that he selected. When he received his Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for all of his volunteer work but especially his genealogical work they were pleased to see that all that work that he did was rewarded.  

I am very busy working away on the books for my mother and my grandfather. As a member of the Guild of one-name studies we have a newsgroup that keeps us attached as a group and people often share ideas and thoughts. We were into mediaeval tracing the other day and that is basically where I am at with both of these books at the moment. It is exciting times in England between 1200 and 1500 and then you start to see more wills, the parish registers and land documents but there is still a surprising amount of material to pursue before 1500 although it is in Latin and so I continue learning Latin and it is amazing how much I am able to do with it. Published genealogies and Pedigrees can be somewhat suspicious and we did discuss that. It is hard to undo what has been in print for hundreds of years but correct the errors of Horatio Gates Somerby I will do and a few other items which simply do not make sense. But the Somerby work is the greatest problem because it has been copied so many times especially by Blake descendants in America.

For the next book after these two, I know my grandmother had no interest in writing a book on the Buller family but I may give it a go when Blake and Pencombe/Pincombe are done. She loved her father and mother very much (mother died when she was 11; three years before her father). But his injuries in the First Boer War made life difficult for him although he tried very hard she said. Her mother was just 37 years old and her father was 49 years old. So it would be interesting to put her family into words. They are in fact very interesting. My family would likely enjoy having all of that encapsulated into a book.

What would the second book be? I could consider Rawlings but one of my cousins in Australia has done a lot of work on that as well as our mutual cousin (he has his MBE apparently) who wrote me maybe a dozen years ago now and said who is Ada on the 1881 census with William Rawlins and his wife Elizabeth (Lywood) Rawlins (her grandparents actually who apparently didn't mind taking in their illegitimate granddaughter!)?  I had mentioned my grandmother Edith Bessie (Taylor) Blake aka Ada Bessie Cotterill Rawlings in a post that he saw and that began a detailed correspondence over nearly a decade so I think I should leave Rawlins to them. Although I do have a good writeup on my paternal grandmother already (about 120 pages actually). I will have to think of which surname to work on next. I am not that interested in collecting cousins, my sister does an excellent job on that. For me it is the deep ancestry that yDNA and mtDNA leads me to and the surname trail back into the past. Although I never really did any genealogy all those years that Edward did, I appear to be spending my retirement (was going to knit baby clothes for packages to the north; and some sewing as well) doing an entirely different thing than I had intended. 2003 was definitely a watershed year in my life when George DeKay (my cousin) asked me to write the Pincombe Profile. 

I shall have to think about a second book to write at the same time as Buller. - there are some interesting choices like Cheatle which is a Leicestershire name and pretty much only there until the 1800s. A Cheatle married a Welch and produced the wife of Henry Christopher Buller. Lawley in Shropshire is another one still on my grandmother's side (the name appears to have originated in Ireland and I do know there is a percentage of Irish as several of my siblings have between 11 and 18% Irish). Why did they come to Shropshire in the mid 1700s? One wonders that. But with my searching over the past twenty years I have encountered a number of these families written up and because we corresponded our line is included. Interesting to contemplate.

The cleaning all accomplished yesterday and on to Pencombe today. Exercise (I do think I am an addict) but then one of the first things that I did when we were in the process of moving here was to take a break from moving in and walk around the large block  (no sidewalks then and the road was incomplete) with my three year old. I decided that was going to be the greatest thing having that 2 km trek to do every day until my little one was off to school (and me to work or school to do my masters!). What a treat I thought. That was April of 1978; we moved here on the 26th of April. Some friends from London lived closeby (yes we did have friends when we moved here) and that was when we noticed these carriage houses (they also had one). I fell in love with it immediately and we have been here ever since (not  much ambition where houses are concerned; Edward traveled a lot then and it was just a comfortable size for me to look after when he wasn't there). I no longer do the walk around as my daughters do not think it is good for me to go alone and to be honest I agree (older people should not wander around alone but COVID did show us how much exercise we could create in our own homes and yards). I have my treadmill, my stationery bicycle, weights, yoga mat and runners so I can do it all inside or in the backyard and can walk/ski around outside when they are here. Teatime and Latin next. Then on to breakfast. 

My own English ancestry (grandchildren can inherit between 0 and 25%; and I am not sure that my grandchildren inherited very much of my English ancestry; the youngest perhaps as he has autism but mostly he reminds me of his mother (he has an enormous resemblance to her) but occasionally I get a glimpse of my brothers there; just rarely)). My English ancestry sinks rapidly into the past having merged with Edward's 9th and 10th generation mostly European and maybe 5 to 10% British Isles ancestry; then Edward's 8th and 9th early American colonial ancestry in our children and now with our grandchildren French Canadian ancestry merges in back into the early days of Quebec and our son in law's family has found First Nations ancestry in their lines (I do want to get back into that research as well! never enough time) so way back into thousands of years ago on this continent for at least one line. Amazing really when you think about it. Which reminds me that is exciting naming Louis Riel as the first Premier of Manitoba. We are, in my lifetime, seeing The First Nations and the settlers walking together just as Tecumseh and Brock walked together. Our Governor General Mary Simon brings the long history of her Inuit peoples to her capacity as the King's representative in Canada and she does it so very well. With three grandparents born and raised in England and a father born there I am likely going to be a royalist supporter for sure! Will we always have a King? I think having a Head of State that isn't political is better myself. Politics can be such a downer sometimes. Although Conservative most of my life; I have voted Liberal the last ten years. But frugality in government is needed; better management of money but that is also on the companies that do work for the government. Do not cheat; do the job or resign from it if you cannot do it - let someone else do it. COVID was a difficult time; decisions had to be made quickly. Things had to be cobbled together to get efficiency but cleaning it up should be a process begun in the past. Part of the problem is the negativity in Parliament. Get the job done; work together instead of trying to score points. I am not impressed by point scoring. I am impressed by good government; good management of money. And I continue to blame all of the parties for celebrating a Nazi  in Parliament. You do so much mud slinging surely you could have caught that before it happened. Stop concentrating on belittling Justin Trudeau; he has done the job for ten years and quite well actually. He was absolutely perfect during COVID. He brought his citizens home from around the world without really any problems. He organized that very well in terms of filing income tax for instance. I have to be honest it surprised me; Liberals can not generally be counted on to be efficient. That is the Conservative strength generally but Social Conservatism is dead in the water for me. I will not support it. Jesus said to love your neighbour as yourself and those words come from God. The prefatory of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with "We believe in the supremacy of God and the rule of law." God has many terms including The Great Spirit, Creator. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms represents the best wishes of a people for a government that supports all the people. 

Must get to work; the day moves onwards.

 

 

Cleaning the main part of the house

I always love the Bible Reading from Genesis 17:17 - 18:15. It is the story of a miracle. The miracle of birth in old age. I was not old when my first child was born, just 28 years of age and it was a miracle for me for sure. Having already miscarried once, having this second chance was so sweet. She was beautiful with her bright blue eyes and blond hair and looked exactly like her father as she lifted her eyebrows and looked at me. What a treat. Having miscarried a second time when she was only two years of age, I had planned to return to school when she settled into school (was already marking for the professor for whom I would work and do my masters). However, Mother Nature surprised me once again with a baby this time at 36 years of age and I was thrilled once again to hold that little treasure in my arms. She too had blue eyes and had a strong look of her father with his very pale skin. Another treasure for the family. That was so very long ago now as I reach towards 78.5 years of age. Much has happened in the years since. I think what is most in my mind, is the twelve years here that I worked in either the medical school/the hospital/health canada but always close to the medical field,  is just how important in life medicine is. There are millions of people in Ontario who do not have a family doctor. That is so sad. Although doctors do not generally become your friends they do relate to you on the basis of a friend/close cohort person who looks after your needs (albeit for money (we all have to eat and care for our families) but also for the love of medicine) and these people are special especially family doctors. Family medicine is by far the best of all the specialties. For my husband his friendship with his cousin here was important and when his cousin wrote to him shortly after the birth of his first grandchild to share the news Edward was in the process of asking his many second cousins to test their atDNA for him so he asked him as well although he wasn't a second cousin (perhaps third not sure) but it just seemed to extend that family feeling he told me. (Actually I agreed with him very much on that as one of my many reasons for testing my next older brother was he never had any children and I said he was doing his bit for the family with putting his DNA into a database.) Sadly Edward did not hear from Gordon Riddle after that and life was very busy with traveling (and Edward got hundreds of emails into his account every week and I guess it passed his mind at the time). Plus six cousins had tested for him and he was busy sorting all of that material and proving his lines; something he so enjoyed doing. It was six years later before we heard that his cousin had sadly died in a biking accident. Edward did rather mourn him I remember and grieved for a while after hearing that news.

 Today is the second cleaning day and then that week's work is accomplished. Went for groceries yesterday and discovered that the grocery store was closed for Family Day - never noticed that before actually. All I really needed was milk and bread and the drug store was open fortunately otherwise it would have been milk powder for my breakfast cereal. I could just shop once a month as I buy mostly frozen stuff so that lasts me an entire month. I mostly eat fish or chicken and both freeze very well. Plus I freeze tofu in chunks which make a great dinner. Roast the cubes in the oven (after shaking them up in oil and corn starch) and cook up long grain brown rice and add peas to that at the end. Cook up some frozen broccoli on the side. Mix the rice and peas with the roasted tofu and it is delicious. Never had it before like that but it is one of my staples now and I could easily eat that three times a week or more but I do lack imagination in food for myself. I used to cook so many different things before I went back to work. Then Edward took over the cooking and he discovered he loved doing that so I let him.  I just helped.

Finished a new series (for me) on Netflix "Alien Worlds" and it was excellent. I found it quite interesting. I was so excited by Sputnik in 1957 (12 years old) that I really  just wanted to go into space too when I was older. That stayed around for quite a while as my first thought but the qualifications to be an astronaut eliminated me right away with my poor eyesight when I was in my early teens; it was a good thought though and I have paid attention to everything to do with space ever since. I suppose of all my dreams that was the one that stayed with me for the longest time and every show that has space in it captures that vitality of childhood which would have sent me into space!

Not  much done yesterday in terms of working on the Pencombe book. Slow going with the Inquisition Postmortem and I spent some extra time on my Latin lessons on Duolingo. I am really finding this a great way to learn a language. Probably no work today as this is the large cleaning day soon to begin; just finishing off my tea.

Latin completed and I am becoming much more familiar with the speaking than I was my last time through in the summer. I needed the quiet time of winter and not the busy time of fall cleanup to really get into this work. It is like being a student once again but then I think we are always students. There is always something to learn in every day and a day is lost when there is no learning. 

God in your wisdom look down upon us and help us to be better citizens of the world. To not be so selfish. To be good citizens of the planet.

Basement cleaning today and the Pencombe book

The basement to clean today and I will work on the transcription of the Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe of Herefordshire. Yesterday was a lovely day with lots of white snow falling everywhere. We are back to winter! The tour around the countryside of England with the YouTube online service for the Church of England continues to be an amazing happening just at the time when my own Church only has a few services online. Worked out very well. I am enjoying visiting all of these lovely Churches online and being part of their service. One of the tours we ended up at York Minster just at the time that the service was beginning. Our bus was just parked outside and the service was shorter than the planned tour we were taking on foot so I stayed for the Service. My Gray family was from the East Riding of Yorkshire (Holme on the Wolds and Etton) so felt right at home and it was a wonderful happening. One never knows what sorts of opportunities will come your way when you are on a tour. Being able to appreciate the stained glass in this Church was something I could only  have dreamed about doing but there I was doing so. It is definitely a not to be missed if one tours York. As soon as we had the tour schedule we would sit and go through it day by day along with the location of the hotel to see if there was anything we could look at when we arrived back at the hotel each day and before dinner. Generally there was an hour or two spare. We made some great finds in this time period. 

I had an email from a Buller descendant in New Zealand asking if I had figured out my line yet. Actually I know that my 3x great grandfather was Christopher Buller (married to Mary Beard) and that he had s Slop Shop on Tooley Street (he was listed as a sail maker) and imagine my surprise as we passed over London Bridge and found Tooley Street on the other side straight away. We walked the streets of Bermondsey where this family lived (Long Lane amongst other streets). We also visited Bermondsey St Mary Magdalene where the children were all baptized. Christopher though attended St Olave (Church is gone as is the graveyard to make room for the extension to the approaches to London Bridge). But the names of Christopher's parents are still unknown to me but there was another Buller family in Bermondsey at this time. I just haven't had time to look at that. Buller is next after Blake and Pincombe. My great grandfather Edwin was a medic in the First Boer War, injured and sent home in 1882 and that was Birmingham where he was born. 

 Another snowy day in Ottawa. It is Family Day in Ontario. The Bible Reading today is God's promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that has certainly come to pass. The day moves on and I must get to the cleaning but first teatime and breakfast.

 

Yesterday was a good day for Blake

I decided to add a new chapter "The Le Blak family early history in England." I came across this Blake line purely by accident when I was searching the Calender of Patent Rolls. This family's name gradually becomes Blake and I believe it is the ancestors of the Blake family at Calne. I decided to add it as there were occasions when members of this family married into the Blake family at Andover. In light of the ancestry of the Blake family at Andover (providing my grandfather's line has  no breaks and given the Hunter Gatherer results it does appear to be continuous from the deep past in this area) and the wills of the 1500s for Blake in this area and into Berkshire/Wiltshire this link has proven to be quite interesting. A permit to set up a wool market in England was given to Richard le Blak  in 1274 and if the Pipe Rolls of 1301-2 are this same individual and I suspect it to be true as it does not appear to be a common surname in Normandy in this time frame given the long list that was granted for Normandy. There were thirteen earlier records than the 1274 for Richard le Blak of Rouen, Normandy.

Year    Month    Day    Patent Issued    Surname    Forename    Home location
1305    3    20    Westminster    le Blake    Henry    Dorsetshire
1305    3    20    Westminster    le Blak    Robert    Dorsetshire
1315    7    12    Westminster    le Blake    John    Berkshire
1323    7    24    Faxfleet    le Blak    Simon    Hampshire
1340    9    18    Andover    le Blake    John    Berkshire
1340    9    18    Andover    le Blake    Roger    Berkshire
1343    5    16    Westminster    Blake    Robert    Hampshire
1352    11    26    Westminster    la Blake    Alice    Hampshire
1352    11    26    Westminster    le Blake    Walter    Hampshire
1352    11    26    Westminster    le Blake    Henry    Hampshire
1355    11    12    Woodstock    Blake    Adam    Wiltshire
1357    10    21    Westminster    Blake    Robert    Wiltshire
1365    10    18    Westminster    Blake    Robert    Wiltshire
1386    1    28    Westminster    Blake    John    Wiltshire
1386    2    12    Westminster    Blake    Robert    Wiltshire
1389    9    15    Clarendon manor    Blake    John    Hampshire
 

Relating these to the Emigrants Database 1330-1550 does not reveal any possibilities as the earliest Blake recorded is 1406, a Peter Blake with no location of residence given. So presumably all of these patents were issued to Blake individuals that were either English or too early for the type of recording that yielded the Emigrants Database. Not being an expert on early British history (but learning as I go) I do find this to be quite fascinating how many of these names actually appear on the Pipe Rolls in 1301-2. I think they are showing the movement of this family into Wiltshire actually out of the Waltham area of Berkshire although still found at Speen, Berkshire in the 1500s. 

Adding this chapter is very much an after thought mostly because I do think that there were marriages between the daughters of this le Blak family with individuals in Hampshire who did not have a surname and the Blake surname was adopted by them in this early 1300s period. Proving it is another thing but gradually the evidence may make itself shown. 

Latin completed, time for my run. Then breakfast. The day begins. Sunday once again and Church on YouTube.

Prayers for Israel, Ukraine and the people of Gaza especially the children who are not involved in Hamas assaulting their neighbour, committing barbaric acts that resulted in the murder of 1200 Israelis on the 7th October last. Although the International Court of Justice has demanded the immediate unconditional release of all the remaining hostages Hamas has not done so but clings to some sort of a barbaric era thought to be long gone from our world. 

Prayers for the repose of the soul of Alexei Navalny; the world will truly miss him and remember him centuries from now as the Russian patriot that he was.  We will honour him for ever. 

Church on YouTube was celebrated at St Peter and St Paul Rustington, West Sussex. In our travels we were not in West Sussex although not too far away as we returned from the Isle of Wight near Gosport, Hampshire. We finished the service with the wondrous hymn of the Church "Great is Our Faithfulness." 

Minimal work on the computer today; giving my eyes a rest. 

 

 

Back to Blake and the Pipe Rolls of 1301-2 in the Bishopric of Winchester

 Good accomplishment on my Latin lessons yesterday and a good first start on the Inquisition Postmortem. It will take a while. This document is very old but readable although the difference between the parchment colouring and the lettering is not huge. But I have made a start. Amazing how much difference a couple of hundred years makes in a document's look as the last Inquisition Postmortem I did was from the mid 1500s. 

Late today writing my blog as my day changes with the shifting of the running to the first thing in the morning which is working very well. When I was young I used to run first thing in the morning about 1.3 kilometres. It was a great way to start the day. One's life does change as one ages but generally it is said that we return to the ways of our childhood perhaps because it was fun and in our old age we are simply looking for ways to benefit our ego I suppose. Doing the things that we can do as well as we can do them. It is likely good for the old. 

Today is a Blake day and I continue with the story I was building on Nicholas Blake and just why he was mentioned so much at a time when both my grandfather and father were influenced enough by this memory that they recalled it and passed it on. Perhaps through the years they often spoke of this mistake in Blake American genealogies just because they were British. No ideas on that. It also could be a number of Americans came to find Old Hall which by the time my great grandfather was a child (he was born in 1845) was pretty much a pile of rocks so to speak (my grandfather said that he heard that from his grandmother as his grandfather had died before he was born). I have no idea what that would look like beyond a pile of rocks as I see them here. It perhaps had more meaning than that - no idea as we did not visit that area when we were there. Ivan too had heard of Nicholas and Old Hall so perhaps that discussion passed on there as well as he actually lived in England and spent the war years as a young child in Upper Clatford away from the coast. He spent them with his Great Aunt Sarah (sister to his grandfather and mine). It was Sarah who carried on many of the letters back and forth between my grandfather and herself. Her first husband was killed in the First World War leaving her with her only child actually a son. Sarah returned to Upper Clatford with her young son and taught school. I am still learning about all of that. I have not yet discovered when Maria Jane (Knight) Blake (my great grandmother) died for sure. I have at least eleven certificates for deaths of a Maria Blake/Mary Blake and there are more but I finally decided to wait on that for a bit. I may now look into it more deeply. This book I am writing on the Blake family is primarily for the consumption of my own birth family. But I may prepare one for more general circulation just to continue with the aim of correcting the mistakes of Horatio Gates Somerby. Not all the Blakes in the British Isles are related that is for sure. Just one look at the yDNA Blake study tells you that.  There are five or six distinct groups actually including the Hunter Gatherer group that my brothers are in which includes a couple of lines in Hampshire. Having located several different family lines (different surnames) that shares a similar path on Y-700 close by, relatively speaking, to Andover at Basingstoke one can see that the Hunter Gatherer population of the British Isles survived the coming of agriculturalists to these islands remaining virtually, perhaps, in the exact same area they had lived in for a long time. This discussion that the Hunter Gatherers were wiped out by the agriculturalists in Scandinavia is rather interesting actually - why they survive in one place and not in another! Luck perhaps; no ideas on that.

My focus at the moment is Blake in Andover in the early 1300s as early in my career in family studies (or genealogy if you must) I did see an entry in Latin (which I did not read at that time) that included the surname Blake and I believe I photographed it so will need to locate that. Too much of a newbie then to realize what I had in my sights! I need to refind that entry and look again at the Pipe Rolls of Berkshire where the le Blak family is found and the Blake families in Berkshire who left their wills in the 1500s mentioning the Blake family at Andover. I do not think there is any mystery in the le Blake family as I rather think they descend from Richard le Blake who was granted a Patent to set up a market in England whilst he was still living in his native Rouen, Normandy (1272). Why would he choose Berkshire? Protected from the Vikings perhaps? beautiful farming country there? He was told he could go there perhaps? I have not yet discovered why he was at  Waltham, Berkshire. But I do think they gradually moved south to the Hungerford area and then into Wiltshire and eventually are the ancestors of the Blake Family at Calne. For one thing the yDNA results for individuals who believe they are descendant of the Blake family at Calne tend to be I1 which is anticipated for a group that came from Rouen, Normandy and that northern coastal area of France. I have no idea if they came with William, Duke of Normandy aka William the Conqueror and William I of England. But definitely the Patent Roll which granted Richard le Blak the right to set up a market was granted in 1272. Coincidence or logical the Richard le Blak at Wargrave is a good candidate for this Richard who received the Patent to set up a market. In that I have given myself two years to work on some of these puzzles I think I may find some good proofs for this line. They were well educated as they served in Parliament in these early years after this time and they had all sorts of advantages in knowledge that let them set up industries like the fulling mill of Robert Blake at Quemberford. But I do not have a strong interest in this line although it is highly possible that the Blake line at Andover followed the marriage of a John (no surname I suspect) marrying a daughter of Richard le Blak and his taking her surname because she had one! Anyway interesting thought but is it provable?

The Pipe Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester 1301 - 2 (Hampshire Record Series Volume 14) (ISBN: 1859751083 / 1-85975-108-3)

The Pipe Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester 1409-10
Mark Page (editor)
Published by Hampshire County Council, Winchester, first edition, "Hampshire Record" series, volume XVI, 1999
ISBN 10: 1859752845 / ISBN 13: 9781859752845 Place                                Surname    Forename       

Date
Wargrave                        Blak          John              1301-2
Havant                             Blak         Laurence       1301-2
Wargrave                         Blak, la    Alice              1301-2  (daughter of Richard le Blak)
Wargrave                         Blak, le    Richard          1301-2
Merdon                            Blak, le    Thomas          1301-2
Waltham St Lawrence     Blak          Hamo             1301-2
Waltham St Lawrence     Blak          Walter            1301-2 (son of Hamo Blak)
Staplegrove                     Blake, le    William         1301-2


Bishops Sutton               Blake          Emma            1409-10
Holway                          Blake           John               1409-10
Soke                               Blake          William          1409-10

Wargrave is a hundred in Berkshire at this time period and includes the parishes of Waltham St Lawrence, Warfield and Wargrave. It is 35 miles NE of Andover just to place it into the context of the Blake family at Andover.

Havant is near Portsmouth and so 33 miles SE of Andover.

Merdon included the present parish of Hursley. Hursley is slightly south west of Winchester and 14 miles SSE of Andover.

Staplegrove remains somewhat of a mystery as one tends to think of Somersetshire with this village name.

Bishops Sutton is to the east of Winchester and 18 miles ESE of Andover.

Holway is again a Somersetshire name.

Soke is a mystery.

Nevertheless, exciting finding so many different Blak/le Blak/Blake names in 1301-2 in Hampshire and areas around Hampshire. This is the point where I am at as I work backwards in time towards the furtherest back that one finds Blake mentioned in English records. It is really quite fascinating and my grandfather was right that the story of Blake is very interesting.

Tea finished and on to work as it is nearly time to lift weights. The morning passes quickly.

Alexei Navalny rumoured to have died in a harsh cruel prison in Russia

Not the original title of my blog today but watching television while I was running and discovered that Alexei Navalny is rumoured to have died in the harsh cruel prison in which he was forced to live simply for leading the opposition to the Satanic Nazi Putin who has taken his country to war in Ukraine resulting in the deaths of many Ukrainians and many Russians. What a waste of youthful lives that could be giving their country so much more. He was jailed for being extreme; not for any criminal offense simply for being extreme (in western talk that is for simply stating his opinion and campaigning against the Satanic Nazi Putin). What a sad day for Russia. My prayers for his family for whom this is the worst possible outcome for their son, husband and father.

Today begins the transcription of the Inquisition Postmortem for  John Pencombe or de Pencombe of Herefordshire, recorded 37 Edw III in two digital images. Fortunately these are both small as my Latin only goes so far and it will take me a while to transcribe these two documents. I know that John had a son Thomas from the records. I suspect that the John Pencombe found on the Lay Subsidy in 1524 is a  grandson of this Thomas. The  name is unusual and the Visitation of Devon 1620 states that Pyncombe came to North Molton with Lord Zouch near the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. The last place history sees Lord Zouch is the Battle of Bosworth Field 22 Aug 1485 in Leicestershire just south of Market Bosworth. Why was John Pencombe with Lord Zouch? It is a question for the ages surely. Given that the attainment was lifted less than a year after being imposed on John Lord Zouch it is perhaps likely that John was part  of the retinue of John Lord Zouch who stayed with him to the end of the Battle and his reward for helping him was land in North Molton. No idea on that but history has them both in North Molton at the same time just after the beginning of the reign of King Henry VII. 

But first my Latin lessons to get my brain in tune to tackle the Inquisition Postmortem. I think it is in Latin I did not yet look. That would be sort of funny but I need the Latin for many other documents that I have for the Pincombe family of north-west Devon. 

Snow fell; what a treat and about ten centimetres. Already all cleared away and ready for the next snowfall. I do love the snow. I should go skiing but it is minus  six and somehow it is just very nice and warm inside for these 78.5 year old bones that have osteoporosis. 

Teatime and on to the day. Breakfast completed right after the fourty minute run.

Blake continuing

Mary is the last of the ancestors of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales that carried the Blake surname. Her marriage 20 Feb 1653 at St Paul's Church, Convent Garden, London marks the change of her surname to Newland and the rest of her ancestry is well known. Mary's parents were Thomas Blake born at or near Eastontown near Andover and Dorothy Mayowe. But Thomas lived and died at Finkley, Hampshire (which is close to where Eastontown was).

William (d 1582) was I think the only "large" landowner in the Andover Blake family (his will of 1582 is extensive). For instance my ancestor Richard was a draper in the City of Andover with the 50 pounds which he was left in the will of William (1582). Younger sons did not always do even that well. Thinking about it and searching through documents is yielding some good thoughts and information that blends with it. I do suspect that William was married twice just by the way his will reads. But it would have been too early for the Parish Registers.

A quick search of the Hampshire Archives yielded a couple of interesting items and one in 1602 which is the bargain and sale of a tenement called Smithers in East Enham, Andover (this is close to so-called Eastontown). This lists William Blake of East Town, Hants (William Blake junior (son of William d 1582)) as one of the individuals involved. Going in deeper this leads to a later case mentioning that the lands formerly belonged to Nicholas Blake.

Today was meant to be a Pencombe day but I decided my eyes just needed a little longer rest before I did the Inquisition Postmortem. So I have watched the Ash Wednesday Service on the TV and dawdled about with some of this Blake material.

Mind  you in the overall picture does it actually matter whether you descend in the male or the female line of a family. I also think that people achieve what they achieve. My great grandmother's cousin Sir John Carling was a very active busy person at the time of Canada's founding and he certainly deserved to be rewarded and remembered for all of that work.

As well, although I did publish the Siderfin Book widely I do not intend to publish the Blake book in the same manner. Correcting Somerby's errors on Nicholas Blake is my prime object and taking the family backwards and forwards in time the other aim. The author who wrote "The Ancestry of Diana Princess of Wales for Twelve Generations" already recorded his thoughts - Richard K. Evans. I was simply enhancing on them.  Amazingly this Andover line  is an ancient Hunter-Gatherer line that successfully like the Terry family and several others in the North Hampshire area around Andover/Basingstoke survived in that area for thousands of years and share a good run on the SNP line way into the past showing ancient relationship.  It is fascinating and my grandfather's insistence that his line was always at Andover most interesting. I think in the future these Hunter Gatherer lines will be very important. They were the explorers; the ones who dared to follow the wild animals to the edges of the known earth. What drove them? Why didn't they stay in the Levant and become farmers?

The Pincombe book though I will publish widely. The study that I inherited included both the Pincombe and the Pinkham families of Devon. The Pincombe family in the early 1700s started to use the Pinkham spelling in some of the lines (no idea why). Tomorrow Pencombe again and the Inquisition Postmortem.

Back to the Blake family of Andover

The entire day was spent on the Blake family of Andover. I continued pondering why my grandfather and father mentioned Nicholas of Old Hall. My grandfather could recite all the way back to Nicholas and actually beyond but this memory of an eight year old did over time lose direction and scramble some of that. It was mostly missing him and not wanting to think about him and thinking about the things he especially taught me did bring back the sadness of losing him.  Nowadays one would write it all down but memory was relied on heavily in those days still and one just didn't forget perhaps. But time passes and fortunately as I worked my way back the memory seemed to fit with the results amazingly! 

Looking at the cause of this renewed thought about Nicholas in the last twenty years in the 1800s and the early 1900s I checked the dates for Horatio Gates Somerby and he lived from 1805 to 1872. In 1881 a book was published "A Record of the Blakes of Somersetshire, Especially in the line of William Blake, of Dorchester, Massachusetts The Emigrant to New England: With one branch of his descendants from the notes of the late Horatio G Somerby." Actually this was published posthumously by W.H.W. So who was his ghost writer? I have not yet discovered that. This originally was a private publication which was produced for a particular Blake family by Horatio Gates Somerby and this family permitted the publication after the death of Somerby. Interesting really. At some point it gathered interest and many people with the Blake surname were able to trace back through their American lines and discovered Humphrey Blake who was the first well known Somerset Blake. And, most importantly, for this narrative said to be the brother of Nicholas Blake of Andover with both of these men said to be the sons of a William Blake and his wife Mary Coles. Mary said to be the daughter of Humphrey Coles of Somersetshire. The pedigree that leads to this William is also somewhat false or unknown coming down from the Calne Blake family but that is another story. Concentrating on this William said to be married to Mary Coles and have a son Nicholas of Old Hall, Eastonton, Hampshire and Humphrey (said to have moved to Over Stowey, Somerset). Nicholas does leave his will dated 31 May 1547 and probated 20 June 1547 and he is married to Margaret and has sons William and Edmund and daughters Elizabeth and Alice. However he also mentions his brother Robert and these two men are known to be the sons of Jone Blake who left her will as a widow dated 23 Mar 1527 appearing to still live at Enham, Hampshire. She mentions her son Nycolas Blake, her son Robert Blake and her daughter Elsabet Mylne. Her religious donations are to the Church at Enham. No mention of a son Humphrey and of course her name is Jone not Mary. 

At this moment in time more and more Americans were interested in finding their ancestral locations and perhaps the traffic to Andover, Hampshire in this quest had increased enough that it came to the notice of the Blake family there which resulted in discussion amongst those families which lead to the name of Nicholas known to have lived at Old Hall (which by then was a pile of rubble according to my great grandfather when he was a child). It did strike me as I was working my way back from my line at Upper Clatford that something must have caused this family to attach so much importance to Nicholas Blake at Old Hall. Joseph Blake did live in Andover before he married Joanna King at Upper Clatford (recorded by the priest in the Marriage lines) and his older son William returned to live at Andover but I have never investigated that actually so will have a look as time passes. My line comes down from the youngest son Thomas born posthumously several months after his father and older brother Thomas died. I wondered why Thomas and not Joseph for his name actually but a mother might select her baby's name over her husband's name - I can see that. There wasn't anyone from the Blake family (other than her other children) to encourage calling the baby Joseph. Both of Joseph's parents were dead and his only sibling, a brother Thomas was also deceased. Joseph's father Thomas was an only child and also deceased. So very interesting really and does provide a likely reason for the interest in Nicholas at Old Hall in the latter part of the 1800s after the publication of the above mentioned book in memory of Horatio Gates Somerby!

On to the day and I continue working and sorting the William Blake entries and I pulled out the Blake entries in The Hampshire Lay Subsidy Rolls, 1586, edited by C.R. Davy in 1981, Hampshire County Council. I purchased this book at Upper Clatford All Saints Church when we visited there in 2008. I actually threw out clothes so that I could get all my book purchases in on the return trip. I had had good suggestions on how to pack for a one month trip to England and really did appreciate that notion. It was a gradual thing throwing out clothes as we traveled the length and breadth of the British Isles that lovely spring of 2008. My husband was rather shocked as I never really throw anything out until it is absolutely unwearable. It always reminds me of my jumper actually that was given away when I was eight and I have always sort of clung to my clothes until there literally was no wear left. 

Hundred    Tithing    Abode    Year    Surname    Forename    Suffix    Type    Amount   
Andever    Knights Enham    Enham Militis    1586    Blake    Edward        G    15/15
Andever    Knights Enham    Enham Militis    1586    Blake    John    younger    G    5/5
Andever    Andever Extra    Penton Mewsy    1586    Blake    John    elder    G    4/4
Andever    Andever Extra    Penton Mewsy    1586    Blake    Thomas        G    3/3
Andever    Andever Extra    Charleton    1586    Blake    Nicholas        G    6/6
Andever    Andever Infra    Andever    1586    Blake    Peter    gent    L    4/5/4
Andever    Andever Infra    Andever    1586    Blake    Richard        G    3/3
Andever    Andever Infra    Andever    1586    Blake    William        G    15/15
Andever    Thorngate    West Titherly    1586    Blake    Richard        G    3/3
Andever    Thornegate    West Titherly    1586    Blake    Tristram        G    3/3
Andever    Andever Infra    Enham Regis    1586    Blake    Robert        G    4/4 

Buddlesgate    Fawley    Houghton    1586    Blake    John        G    3/3
Buddlesgate    Fawley    Sparshott    1586    Blake    John        G    6/6
Kingsclere    Pastroe    Coombe    1586    Blake    John        G    4/4

New Forest    Christchurch    Walampton and Sharprickes    1586    Blake    Richard        G    3/3
New Forest    Christchurch    Walampton and Sharprickes    1586    Blake    Thomas        G    3/3
New Forest    Christchurch    Bure    1586    Blake    widow        G    3/3
New Forest    Christchurch    Bure    1586    Blake    Henry        G    5/5      

I did attend the Ash Wednesday Service online but it was earlier in the day and a Roman Catholic Service in the United States on You-Tube. Evening is always going to be late for me as I like to not fall asleep watching the service. But one of the gifts of Internet is this ability to find a Church Service whenever you want. It is wonderful.   They addressed the online worshipers to make them feel part of the service. It was very like the Anglican Service without all the music. I watched the Anglican Service this afternoon.