Cleaning completed

 Completed the basement cleaning yesterday and then watched a movie on Netflix - Geostorm. Absolutely fantastic movie. I do love watching "space" movies for sure. 

Did not actually accomplish anything yesterday. It should have been a Pencombe day but I had done some work on Sunday on Pencombe so decided not to do very much and take a day off - good for the brain. So I did a couple hours of Latin and played my solitaire games which I love. Answered some email; I do not always answer emails unless they come on my one-name study address. I feel people are either thanking me or sharing something with me about one of my blogs or they might have a query but generally phrase it in such a way that they do not expect an answer unless I know something. I find people who write me emails to be very helpful in that regard since I do get a lot of emails.

Today is a Blake day once again and I will be continuing to work on the Blake Family Chart at the Blake Museum in Bridgwater. Truly these huge charts are a gift now that I understand how one approaches them. They are after all the creation of a family at a particular time and place and very much controlled by the thoughts of that family. Creating a chart in 1690 was a great feat really but already the discussed elements were hundreds of years in the past and especially if you have moved away from the area the clarity of the facts can become somewhat distant. I understand why the caution I received with regard to such items was a good one. Examine in detail and in this generation we have access to so much material from that time frame that was stowed away in the Tower of London, etc. Although accessible not everyone could make the trip to see the original so had to rely on word of mouth. 

So today I see if I can come up with a timeline for the Bellet - Blake marriage and whether there actually are any records for the Bellet family that would help out. There is a record of Robert Blake and his fulling mill at Quemberford which I have already. We are basically looking at six generations and coming up with a time span. The first record is for a Robert le Blake at Quemberford in 1336 where he was a juror in an Inquisition Postmorten at Hungerford Bar the chart says. The Pipe Rolls for the Bishopric of Winchester 1301-1302 do have a le Blak family living just north of Hungerford in Berkshire and they are not there one hundred years later. I have a theory that it is this le Blak family that gradually moves south into Wiltshire. In 1301 there was: John Blak, Alice la Blak (daughter of Richard), Richard le Blak all at Wargrave. At Waltham St Lawrence there was : Hamo Blak, Walter Blak (son of Hamo Blak). So my task is set for the day and I shall see what I find. 

I do have all sorts of abstract records on CD that I have purchased through the years. It is amazing some of the items that have been produced by societies in England and attending Who Do You Think You Are meant I came home with a lot of CDs and books from the various county societies from which I descend - six areas in England actually. My father's father's father's side (all born in England) is Hampshire (Andover area), my father's father's mother's side is Dorset in the Winterborne villages area. Then my father's mother's father (if the priest has the name right on the baptism as she was illegitimate) is Wiltshire around Ludgershall area, my father's mother's mother is Wiltshire in several areas across the north of this county. Then my mother's father's father was from Bishops Nympton, Devon back to the late 1500s (although born at Molland himself) and then North Molton back to the late 1400s (and maybe a seventh location if Herefordshire is the ancestral home), my mother's father's mother's line is (from) the East Riding of Yorkshire - Holme on the Wolds, Cherry Burton, Etton on one side and Bewcastle, Cumberland on the other (but she was my first Canadian born ancestor), my mother's mother's father's side is Birmingham/Staffordshire/Leicestershire and London/Surrey (Bermondsey area) and my mother's mother's mother's side is Birmingham/Shropshire and much further back Northern Ireland possibly and then likely Ayrshire/Argyllshire. So a lot of the UK to cover for sure for some of these lines. 

The day begins with a reddish sunrise and it is zero degrees celsius about normal for mid March but where ever is the snow! It has been a very light winter. Not good actually for the soil. 

Teatime and Latin.