Today the top floor and then my cleaning binge is complete. It is 6 degrees celsius and will be another sunny day. The plants are literally jumping out of the ground and the primrose has entered into its most beautiful state likely all summer as it is being crowded out by Starry Solomon's Seal. I need to transplant some of that somewhere else but just haven't done it. Gardening, at my best, is not really my thing but I am trying to maintain at least the front garden and let the back be mostly grass. The dogs will like that when they come.
Yesterday I did get in a little time on Edward Blake's administration. He must have died suddenly as he did not leave a will which leaves one to suspect he may have been younger rather than older. I did not learn anything else new except his mother owed him 300 pounds which he hoped to get back. With his mother still alive she is either very old or he was fairly young as this is 1644. But some people lived a long time back then surprisingly. But the hazards were fewer if you did not travel for sure. Especially in England as this is now just under 600 years since the Norman Invasion and life has evolved in England in that time frame. The French have probably forgotten that they invaded England, conquered England and replaced the local British monarchy with Norman Kings who have now disappeared and been replaced by at this time the Commonwealth but Charles II and James II will return and they are descendant of the Scots just as Queen Elizabeth II was (her mother was a Scot). Charles III is really a King of the Isles as he carries a lot of English/Scot blood for sure and his son William will carry even more as Diana was very much a child of English descent. Which brings me back to the Blake family. Diana was descendant of the Blake family of Calne through a female line coming down and I have recited that before (although I suspect this is a Norman family). But there is also another Blake line which was at Finckley not far from Andover and Thomas Blake there was descendant of the Blake family of Andover (which I suspect descend from Western Hunter Gatherer so very much a son of the Isles) and Thomas was at least an 11x great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales. What I set out to show was that this Blake family at Andover acquired their surname likely by marriage to a Blake female (why else would you pick the surname Blake I am thinking?; even by 1300 it was a very well known surname in England). Would have loved to have had my grandfather's opinion on that actually but there was no thought of Diana becoming the consort of the Prince of Wales way back in the early 1950s when my grandfather was still living. The Prince of Wales was technically Charles son of Queen Elizabeth but not yet officially created. That happened in his teens at Caernarfon Castle in Wales. Is that my main reason for doing Blake? No, I am doing it because I want to ensure that Nicholas is in the correct lineage and not in the lineage that was created by Horatio Gates Somerby an American Genealogist. The other part is purely accidental and results from the Blake Pedigree Chart which Daniel Blake of London (descendant of the Andover Blake line) asked the Royal College to create using information that does not fit the actual records (namely concerns William son of Nicholas!). Interesting that really the first incidence of the errors were spotted by a Blake researcher in Somerset (another Edward) who likely produced another Blake Family Chart found in the Blake Museum in Bridgwater (it is anonymous). These two charts (and a couple of others that are helpful) provide much of the "arguing" information that I have used in my blogs (plus my own family lore). Is there anyone else looking at this? Lately there has been at least one journal article by a couple of genealogists on the problems of using Nicholas (and William) incorrectly in these charts. So no big thunderous thoughts on this but rather carrying on the thoughts of my grandfather (and father although he was less interested in pursuing the idea of correcting it) into this century all the way from the late 18th century when the thoughts of Horatio Gates Somerby were picked up by many many Blake descendants in the United States. Blake as an extant surname in my lines disappears with my brothers (not one of the four had a son). However there are many many male Blake descendants of Thomas Blake and Sarah (Coleman) Blake who married in 1792 in Upper Clatford! So not a problem really. And what else do I have to do with my time at the age of nearly 80? Well there is also the Pincombe book which I am working away at as well although it has been Blake concentrating in my blogs at the moment.
Politics and the wars. I will try to stay away from them and pray for an appropriate solution so that the deaths stop and commerce can once again flow around the world in a somewhat orderly fashion. The Israeli children will get to sleep at night and go to school without feeling threatened which in the long run is the desire of many many peoples in the world. I would also like to see the Palestinians work their land and create industries and make Gaza work instead of harbouring generation after generation a hatred for Israel. I feel the same way about Ukraine - they should have peace and their land. Hopefully India and Pakistan can get along or at least not fight. We will be rescued here in Canada from our slow but sure loss of industry and restored to our industrial base as it existed before Free Trade. But yet Free Trade can also be a good thing; one just has to protect one's local industries. But I still see trade as a luxury item; our first need is to tear the provincial barriers down and get trade flowing east to west and back again (including the pipeline). Refine our own oil and not pay to have that done and returned to us. The money in our coffers once again and we will re-arm and be the militaristic country that we were at the end of the Second World War - it was a good thing. The most powerful way to find peace is to be able to defend oneself against the Nazis of the world that keep emerging time after time.
Time to do my solitaire and drink my tea and then complete my cleaning.
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