Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Cleaning accomplished and today the last cleaning day

A good working day yesterday and all the planned cleaning was completed. Today it is the top floor and will get started at that around 10. The washing machine parts will go in tomorrow which works very well actually. We went for a lovely walk in the late afternoon and enjoyed the end of the day at the beach. It was a great idea to create the beach at Petrie Island and it is just a drive from here to there. Quite a few people there actually. 

Some work on getting the Living DNA matches into the databases and as I noted when I was extracting them; some of them are very interesting. Areas not really covered well have good lengths due to the much greater percentage of my lines in the British Isles. Have many many second, third and four Pincombe cousins results which have provided a means to separate them quickly into MRCA shared with me likely although some lengths are obviously quite old in this family line and can not be so precisely placed and that is also good. But autosomal does not generally give you that much beyond fifth cousin unless you have endogamy. Then the relationship can be quite ancient. The Buller results are also most interesting as a number of chromosomes where I did not have a Buller match are coming through with these matches. 

We made potato salad to go with our cold chicken thighs (cooked in the oven earlier) and a lettuce salad. It was a lovely dinner. I do so like a cold dinner in the summer. Wrapped up in a round of bread really an excellent way to end the day. I had my usual peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch and my cooked breakfast in the morning. My meals are much more varied in the summer with so much vegetable that can be purchased at the Farmer's Market. But I do not mind my chicken stew, egg and salmon meals all winter with the vegetables tending to be stored crop from late December to mid May. It is easier to manage the stored crop in the winter for sure. 

I have heard from my American cousins a few times through this past six months and life is not easy for them either through this trade crisis. It is nice that we have a new Prime Minister and parliament to work on the issue and likely we will end up with the mentioned tariff but it will encourage our native industries to flourish once again as we build our energy corridor and increase our dependence on the products of other provinces going east and west instead of buying from the south. It is a shame because it was working so very well it appeared but one cannot tell other countries how to manage their trade but must just carry on and regain our lost industries during free trade. It gives our youth lots of opportunities to create and our businesses that were province restricted the ability to sell all across Canada. We have doubled in size since I was a child and so we are a much larger purchasing unit and just have to seek new markets around the world that want to buy our goods and we will have some new items entering into our system as well. The friendship bond between the United States and Canadian peoples is not broken but the trading may well be gone forever for the most part and that is really up to American companies. 

Sad about the auto industry really as their setup was sound and worked but we will not buy cars that are made elsewhere to any great extent and so a great era in American cars may end; time will tell it really depends on the car companies in actual fact and whether they want to lose a 41 million population base. They could incorporate in Canada and break their close business ties with their American companies but it will be expensive because of the supply chains built up during the Auto Pact over the past sixty years. We always bought Dodge - my entire family and there are many other families that have had their favourite American car manufacturer. 

A beautiful day today and it was cool first thing - unusual for July actually but will not complain. We are well over half way through and our usual drought did not happen. One wonders if an Ice Age will come once again as Climate Change can be very forceful - Mother Nature will attempt to protect the earth from the abuses of modern industrialization and it is a wait and see game. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and must do breakfast. Late today.  

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, July 21, 2025

Monday once again and it is cleaning day

Yesterday's soloist was absolutely superb once again; the wonderful choristers who provide the solos and the support for the singing at Church is greatly appreciated by this on-line church goer. I also went to the service in London, England and I do love it when the older Books of Common Prayer are utilized at Mattins.  

Yesterday was a shredding day in the afternoon outside in the fresh air. We went through four large grocery bags of correspondence and shredded 99% of it. It was all scanned and the originals are not of value once scanned. I do not know if anyone will ever read any of that correspondence regarding mostly the Kipp and the Force families but Edward has recorded everything in his online Family Tree originally on World Connect but added to his website after Ancestry purchased World Connect. It is likely also on Ancestry (and certainly is in my account) as that was their purpose in purchasing World Connect.  That was about a four hour stint shredding all of that material that we got done. There is likely another couple of days of shredding to go actually. 

Hopefully the parts for the washing machine will come in today for installation tomorrow. I do hope this works and I am sure the contractor will have told me if the actual motor was worn out after just five short years of my using it! But the washer bin did agitate and rotate after the belt was temporarily restored so we will see how that goes. The intent was to install on Tuesday. Otherwise it is off to the laundromat to wash clothes likely. 

Today is the large cleaning day so the basement and main floor. I will get started at that around 9 setting the robot vacuum to work on the basement rugs.Keeping it up week after week does seem to work very well for me. It is good exercise and with all the down sizing I can manage the cleaning not too badly although it is exhausting on the large cleaning day for sure. 

Worked on the matches and found another incongruency between Gedmatch/23 and Me/FT DNA/My Heritage and Living DNA. But really it is just the areas that are tested by these companies and not truly an incongruency. The larger number of samples of cousins testing in the British Isles makes a huge difference although the databases of these other companies are very large they do tend to be a far more mixed population than the British Isles. One particular area on Chromosome 13 I have not had a Buller match there until now and it painted a slightly altered picture in terms of crossover although just minor movement but it does explain some matches that extended past the crossover. 

My mother certainly did send me on an interesting journey with all the Pincombe matches that have arisen particularly in the Living DNA although I already had a lot of matches for the five siblings in Canada, the United States and other Commonwealth countries. Perhaps one of the greatest Citizen scientists projects in this century, the useage of DNA in family genealogy but also understanding migration around the world. 

Today another smoke day although clearing up into tomorrow. Global warming is such a problem for the polar countries like Canada. I do think though that the latest news that tariffs are here to stay on Canada is probably pretty accurate as we are not going to give up our Supply Management practices - we want to maintain our family farms and are not going to flood our market with foreign produce that we already have ourselves. We allow a certain percentage of dairy into the country because it is interesting to have really good cheeses like from Wisconsin. Plus the percentage quota on dairy has not been exceeded and resulted in tariff by us on anyone. 41 million people eat a lot of cheese and there are cheeses from many dairy countries in the world in our marketplaces. But I do not believe in uncontrolled Free Trade since it just destroys the business of smaller countries by undercutting the prices here and buying the companies out and then closing them down (and these same greedy companies then did not want to pay decent wages and took it offshore and undermined their own industrial base); we have already seen that happen here in the past century.  We need to rebuild our lost industries. 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next.  

 

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Sunday in God's world

 Raining today and are they God's tears on a world that has so much violence in it. Some Homo sapiens could do a lot better to rid the world of violence - Russia, Iran and its sycophants (Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis). Other warring groups are signing truces and vowing to do better. The rain this year has been excessive as has the violence. God our Creator lives in the Heavens where order not chaos rule the day. 

Can a people maintain a lifestyle of quiet life in a modern world? That really is the question. One is left with the thought that only if you can protect what you have otherwise you are run over I suspect. Greed predominates and Canada is full of natural resources wanted/needed by many many countries of the world. We survive best by providing for sale such resources ready to go; the idea of the Energy Corridor running across Canada making it possible for us to sell on all of our coasts is a good plan but implementing it needs to satisfy everyone with 85% of Canadians voting for that very thing. Was the Bloc only voting against change because they think it protects Quebec? The greatest protection for Quebec is being part of Canada as the idea of knowing more than one language continues to be a strong part of the Canadian pattern. My daughter, as a young child, wanted to learn the First Nations language but I did tell her there are very many and you need to choose one or more if the opportunity presents itself. Life didn't present the opportunity for her to learn any in this time frame although now she has studied in English, French, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. I think our young people are much more flexible even then in my day and more than willing to take on more than one language in their life when opportunity presents itself.  

Sunday today and two Church Services to attend once again - one here and one from London, England. I thought I might pull more weeds from the laneway bricks today but the rain may curtail that. It is half done now and does always look lovely when completed. 

Thank you God for the beauty of the earth and would that mankind directed their efforts towards preserving that earth for the generations to come. 

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next. 

I had an email looking for the Landkey Parish Register files that I published in the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. However I was only interested in Landkey up to the mid 1700s so nothing beyond that and those registers as published in the newsletter contain   Baptisms 1602-1766, Marriages 1602-1755, Burials 1602-1763. I will try to get an email reply done but time does escape this nearly 80 year old!

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Finally, sweeping the front porch, patio and weeding down the laneway

 I finally got to sweeping the front porch and patio, weeding between the bricks and pulling weeds here and there in the front garden. I also started to work down the bricks along the laneway. It will take a bit of time to get that all done but then it will look lovely for a few days until the weeds grow again - hardy little things! A large bag of weeds and big branches that came down in the wind went out to the street for Collection Day. I just happened to walk to the back of the yard and discovered these large branches from the maple tree on the ground so that too is all cleared away. My daughter weeded the sunflowers although left enough weed that hopefully the rabbit will eat that instead of the sunflowers which are getting tougher stems and leaves now so less appealing. Next year, if we are still here, we will fence it at the beginning so that all the seeds get to grow. It was meant to be a large block of sunflowers. 

Some weeding in the back yard but not a great deal. The one side looks much as Edward last set it up but the other side, deteriorated greatly from last year, and putting in the new fences did not particularly help that. But as I approach 80 I am satisfied that I am at least keeping the grass cut with my daughter's help. I am not a gardener at the best of times but rather I just helped Edward through the 54.5 years of our marriage. All of us would have liked to have had him survive but life doesn't always flow the way we would like. 

Completed Chromosome 1 and there are a few very minor changes in the cross over points - a couple of them were very close together and the new results from Living DNA shows that these are shared crossover points for two siblings which makes it much neater. Two cross over points are somewhat ambiguous but the rest are within a couple of numbers of the original numbers obtained using 23 and Me data along with Gedmatch. I continue with just two crossover points on this longest chromosome.  I did discover that the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center states that it is typical to have 2-3 crossover points per chromosome during meiosis. It does look like 2 to 3 is the average for Homo sapiens on individual chromosomes. DNAeXplained mentions that Chromosome 1 has three crossovers 27% of the time. So that was interesting as well. With five sibling results I found that to be between 2 and 5 crossovers on Chromosome 1. In total for five siblings 40 chromosomes out of a total of 5x2x22 chromosomes were inherited without a crossover which will be verified by this work. That is 18% of the chromosomes inherited from our parents were passed unchanged from their parents. DNAeXplained mentions that 94% of offspring will inherit between 4 and 12 chromosomes that have no crossover points (i.e. inherited from a single grandparent). The 40 is an average between these two numbers 4 and 12 but slightly on the low side so that is also very interesting. Homo sapiens is refreshed each generation by the exchange of genes and it would appear that on average most meiotic events occur in an average exchange of chromosomal material at conception. 

We have much to learn about DNA and in general the best process is the natural process. However if people are willing to pay for it correction can be made for mitochondrial disease and eliminating harmful sections of DNA in order to produce a viable offspring. Do I believe in this? coming out of science background I cannot deny that benefits are perhaps available to people but we need a generation of testing to ensure that we do not upset the natural process which is always the best. What happens naturally in nature is generally the most forward way to move. Lifestyle has far more to do with a successful life than anything else but there are diseases that can curtail life for those unfortunate babies born with mitochondrial disease or other non-life supporting disabilities. But one must remember that Einstein did not speak until he was ten years of age - he had nothing to say that he valued up to that point presumably. So one must be careful how one judges the forward movement of children in learning. That is why AI is useless as a teacher but can be utilized under the control of researchers in a systematic manner to enable a much further reach into the literature in a much shorter period of time.  But skill and craftsmanship will always be better than AI which is really only a computer that we set up to serve a purpose. 

Today will be more work on the laneway perhaps; time will tell. Definitely I have plans to work on my matches and get them into the databases (chromosome 1 was just a feeler as to what might be there in this new data). Yesterday was weight lifting as the extra exercise so today is rowing for sure and whatever else comes to mind as the day flows forward. 

Drinking my tea having put away the items in the dishwasher and the first set of yoga-stretching exercises are completed. The next set just before breakfast again primarily walking and yoga along with one set of 100 jumping jacks. The day continues and I must get on with it. Solitaire puzzles are next for a bit of a brain teaser. 

One of these new style light fixtures wore out and we have four of them that are wired in (Edward loved all the new things for sure!). That is not really practical so will replace with screw in type fixtures over the next little bit. I need to go to the store and pick something out and find someone to do the work. I could do it but will do the right thing and employ someone locally if I can find someone. The washing machine will hopefully be repaired on Tuesday and today is Saturday and looks to be a lovely day. We had a good time kayaking and walking yesterday after working in the garden.  

 

 

Friday, July 18, 2025

Canada in its quest to rebuild its economic identity

When 85% of Canadians voted to support the Conservative and Liberal platforms this year which also elected the Liberal Party and Mark Carney as Prime Minister we had a purpose and that was to rebuild our economic identity lost during the long years of Free Trade. I do not think even once that Canada complained about Free trade. We should have resisted our Canadian companies being taken over and nothing being made here anymore hardly that was totally Canadian. But life was hard after the Second World War as we recovered in mind and soul. I can remember all of that and the flood of immigrants who came to Canada (and life is making itself like that again as floods of people want to come here) but gradually we entered into hum of reality after the Second World War and people prospered and the Free Trade deals were created. Was it our fault that the companies (generally American) that bought out Canadian companies then turned to Asia and produced their products there? No not really it was just finance but the punishment is huge now for us. The recovery of Canada is on the edge and needs help to move forward. Everyone pulling together but can one hang back and say no we just want it as it was. Is that even safe? the hordes are at the gates so to speak - internally there are those who would overthrow this beautiful democracy that has been created and turn it into a dictatorship run by the ultra rich it would appear. The ultra rich does not want to pay proper wages or provide care for people. They just want the profits from their companies or investments. They are selfish because they do not have a history of caring for the peoples of their land - they have no idea how that works (not part of their upbringing I guess) as they can see lots of people straining to come here and so there will always be replacements. Individually they do not need any of those who are not ultra rich because they can see replacements all over the world. Nothing is safe unless we, the public of Canada, take a stand and do what needs to be done to re-create our industries and build that energy corridor that will make us self-sufficient to the end of time. 

What prompted my thought? It was my washing machine just five years old and it needs repairs like a new belt to drive the washing drum and a hose because it leaks! I lived in a family of nine people and one washing machine ran for most of the time that I lived in that house. Now I do not abuse my washing machine - I treat it with tender loving care. It shouldn't have broken down in just five years. Well I can leave that with faulty workmanship where the belt is concerned and poor setup where the hose is concerned likely. We bought it just at the start of the COVID shutdown and it took two months to get it. The person who came to install it (and I did pay for that) did basically nothing; I had to install the dryer vent myself because he didn't like the setup. As it turned out my daughter's husband and her father in law finished the task as I was missing one item and it was perfectly installed with no effort. I paid to have it installed and I would never buy from that company again. They were irresponsible and took no care. I did have a warranty with them but it did expire a year ago. Well that is getting managed although I was tempted to just buy a new machine as I hate having all that trouble but really would I just be in the same state in five years but by then for sure I will have moved. It is just a small price a washing machine really less than one thousand dollars but the nuisance level is huge. We need to get back to where we build things and they are well built! Once this is fixed it will be a great machine once again. 

I do understand the desire to have life remain as it is without any interference; no one wanting to build roads or interfere in the forest area in order to create this energy corridor. Wab Kinew has it right though; we need to move forward as fast as possible and having a full service port on Hudson Bay is an excellent idea and would provide a means to get oil and canned gas to British Isles/European markets as well as western on a much more immediate basis.  We are limited by winter months though when Hudson Bay is frozen over. I also think the Pipeline to the eastern areas of Canada is a must so that we do not import our own oil back refined which we sold at a discount and pay far more to bring it back. Plus we can have an Atlantic Port as well for easier access during the long winter months. 

I continued yesterday working on Chromosome 1. As the longest chromosome it is a good starting point since I have already been through the angst of creating phasing diagrams. I think my chromosome one is very unusual as I inherited the entire Blake Chromosome intact from my father which he of course received from his father and it would have been a combination of his two grandparents and indeed on this chromosome I have a mixture of Known Knight and Blake. I only have two crossover points which  give me a length of Pincombe surrounded by two lengths of Buller. As chance would have it I have two know Buller cousins to collaborate on the second Buller length, no one known to collaborate on the Pincombe or the first Buller length. The Blake though is well represented with cousins descended from Ellis Knight and his wife Eleanor (Knight) Knight (likely 2nd cousins and my 3x great grandparents) covering the lengths from nearly the beginning of the chromosome to the end with some cutouts that are matching a cousin with whom I share the MRCA of Edward Blake and Maria Jane (Knight) Blake (my great grandparents). The Buller is particularly strong and all descendant of cousins with the MRCA of Henry Christopher Buller and Anne (Welch) Buller (my 2x great grandparents). It does make my chromosome 1 a rather perfect base for the five siblings. The Living DNA is giving me slightly different points of crossover but varying by very little in actual fact (the companies choose their testing point and they can vary here and there). Since this is not an exact science that I am using for the crossover but rather just the first two/three digits of the crossover point, one could perhaps one day be more precise since the actual values are known to nine digits or less for those under 100,000,000 centimorgans. It will be an interesting week working through the 22 chromosomes provided. 

Today I shall go out and fill a bag and hopefully sweep as the debris from the tree out front is collecting. Edward has a blower but I find it a bit heavy to carry about so a broom suits me well!

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next. Beautiful out today as I put the garbage out early this morning as it is Collection Day. Time passes onward and waits for no one; we must keep running to stay caught up because not doing so exposes us to far more hazard than just keeping going as fast as we can. God the Creator made the world for all of us and we really must learn to live together and move forward together like Tecumseh and Brock all those many years ago and bring Canada to their economic might in the world. Because we will just be over run if we do not.  

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Downsizing and a couple of new tasks

 Downsizing is great but a new task emerged which I had not considered before now. In our trips to the Northern United States in particular over the last fifty years we visited a lot of graveyards deep into the woods on occasion and took pictures of the gravestones of Edward's ancestors. There are two binders of these pictures (not actually part of the 40 plus binders that are under current survey) and I have resolved to put them into a *.pdf file and publish them as ancestral photos of gravestones and I think his index tells where they are located (hopefully). A smallish project really as just two binders but it has a greater likelihood of happening. What to do with the binders when I have completed the task? I could ask the OGS Library if they want them and will probably do that but the actual images are all scanned and in the backups so do not need to keep these printed pictures at all. 

So another task to do but it could be a diversion whilst I work on the cross-over points using the Living DNA data for the five siblings. I did begin with that yesterday and have Chromosome 1 completed as coming directly from the Living DNA data. I will work with this data somewhat as it is influenced, I think, by the points that have been selected by this company as testing points for DNA matching. Where there are very small gaps in particular I can ignore those as cross-over points as they are likely just a product of the methodology used for the actual running of samples. I note that it shows up quite strongly in just one sibling. The problem areas that I found with the original phasing is showing up quite consistently in these new match results and were truly ambiguous so that was good to find as well. 

I do want to get together the journal that I still contribute to the OGS Library along with some family newsletters and get them to the library. It is hard to believe that it is a year since I last took them a box of items. What I thought was a real stack is really just a few items actually as it included a box which turns out to be a bankerbox full of back-ups that we need to review and discard if they are backed up adequately in the present. These backups go back to the last century! 

Edward was very consistent in backing up all of his material from a very early time in the life of computers but then he did work with electronic messaging systems almost from his arrival at CISTI where he worked for 30 years. When he was there, retired in 2004,  it was a busy place heavily involved in research but then Prime Minister Harper sold the library to the United States which was pretty weird at the time and remains pretty weird. Why would anyone sell or close up libraries as he did - it will be forever a black mark against him trying to destroy research and gag researchers preventing them from attending particularly foreign conferences. Life moves forward always and if you do not like the research perhaps one should examine why that is rather than suffocating research. 

The oil industry must survive the perils of research the same as all other industries have overtime. Research perfects the system to make it better, safer and more economical. It was such items that cost the Conservative Party their control of government  in Canada. A return to the Progressive Conservative fundamentals is what is needed in order for them to win again - I am after all a Conservative but a great believer in science and its value in the human sphere. Attacking the Prime Minister on a personal level continues to be a no-go for me unless he is breaking the law. I do not care what stocks he owns if they are in a blind trust. Obviously the man is not stupid and does know where his money is likely invested. I haven't seen anything yet that I do not like that he is doing. He is walking a very fine tightrope dealing with this tariff issue and I was accepting of his saying that likely there will be a tariff in the end on Canadians exports to the United States that are not covered by CUSMA but we can do a claw-back on American imports just the same to match. Farm management is never up for change because we will protect our family farms! I mean putting tariffs on us at the time was unkind (which is basically a very weak comment on my part) considering the close and honest relationship between us and stripping shelves here of American products was just a tit for tat and continues thus.  That is life and the government coffers here need money to manage projects which are huge to come in this country once acceptance is gained by all involved parties (we let our local industries go over the past fourty years but now we can re-invent them and build this country to be the great powerhouse it will be). Roll up the sleeves and lets get to work building this energy corridor that 85% of Canadians voted for. Re-invent the industries that were destroyed by free trade over the past fourty years and get our youth working at meaningful work not sitting behind a desk staring at computers. The Americans will always be our friends though and for some of us our cousins!

So today is another research day. Yesterday I completed the fifth sibling's extractions from the Living DNA site. There are 230 new files to put into my databases and I have completed the first couple of them yesterday.  I have one new folder that will include all of those files that demonstrated endogamy and have already built the file structure for that as they will primarily be part of the Knight family (my great grandmother (wife of Edward Blake) and includes a number of family lines - Knight, Arnold, Butt, Ellis, and a couple of other ones where blocks of data are composed of sticky pieces of DNA coming down from these ancestors and looking like just one grandparent but are in reality coming down from several different great great great grandparents and can be readily distinguished and separated. These particular matches will not form part of the larger system that I use looking at new matches but rather just to illustrate the areas where endogamy is occurring and lets me slot these matches into the correct family line coming down from those 3x great grandparents. 

The smoke  slowly dissipating with Air Quality now at 69 which is still above good but not too bad. It is just 23 degrees celsius but feels like 28 degrees celsius apparently and rain is coming likely as the humidity is 94%. 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next and then breakfast.  

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

A moment in time

 My moment in time this year was the passing of my younger brother (just 17.5 months younger actually) and we were very close as young children. I used to take his hand and we would go for walks before I went off to school (Kindergarten) and then slowly but surely the strong friendship disappeared as we grew up and went our separate ways (me primarily as I married at 20 and then we moved 700 kilometres away when I was 29). We just lost touch although I did phone him through the years but we drifted apart as well. We got back together for a bit when my older brother and I started doing the family DNA and he asked John to be part of that. He was enthusiastic at the beginning but it did wane unfortunately but it was a good joining item for us to get back together at least on the phone. However, time always moves forward in a daily eventful way and we are better for it actually. Leaving the past behind (good or bad) is better for us although the memories are lovely of the good times with my siblings. 

I did start to read the manual for driving in Ontario and it no longer is a one day read I discovered unless one kept at it all day! The booklet that I had when I learned to drive, a wonderful instructor for sure and he gave me a copy of the booklet that I needed to know (he said) from cover to cover and I did take that literally and had it memorized by the next week! For me driving was something I had wanted to do but no one dared to go anywhere in a car with me because my vision was impaired although corrected somewhat with my lenses which were very thick and imposing I suspect on anyone who actually looked at them. After all a student ophthalmologist told me I would be blind when I was 20 and I was all of six years of age at the time. I did take that seriously at the time and learned braille! But at 20 I could still see although my sight was always one of my weak points. My grandmother had taught me to read when I was three years of age because she felt that I needed something that would get me to sit down for more than a minute at a time and it was successful to the extent that I would hide away in my attic bedroom and read all summer long until my mother rooted me out to play!

Moments in time are special and I must admit I would love to go back to my hometown one of these days and visit the graves of my parents/grandparents and brothers (three of them gone now) sadly missed but yet they were ill and one must accept that illness restricts in one's old age. And so life moves on as it always does but the memories of my brothers will always be with me. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday I am content to say although I was pretty beat by the end of the day. But even though I could have more help I need to be able to manage these things on my own until I cannot at least that is my humble opinion. It is good exercise for sure for both the body and the mind. 

We still have smoke although it is coming down and hopefully will pass the next couple of days so that we can get out for long kayaks and walks once again. The yard needs clearing up. A huge branch came down whilst we were away and it was surprising as it was still a live branch rather than a dead one. Perhaps a big storm no ideas on that. Cleared it away partially and will get it broken up for the garbage pickup this week. The grass is starting to look like it needs cutting. There is always weeding to do but the sunflowers that survived being eaten as seeds and young plants are coming up nicely. The rabbit is mostly nibbling at the tender young shoots of weeds and leaving the thicker sunflower leaves alone which is great. 

Today some work on the matches I suspect. I have not yet gotten back to the Latin documents I was working on at the time that John passed away but will get to that as well. I generally do my Latin Duolingo lessons every day along with my French Duolingo lessons. Back to German in the fall likely. That is just sort of a maintenance thing; I learned German at University (mostly scientific) and perhaps I will use my German but probably not. Edward and I were re-learning our German in a more colloquial way in preparation for our trip to Germany in 2020 that we did not take because he was ill and COVID cancelled it anyway. Working at the German reminds me of our time spent together relearning our German. 

Up early drinking my tea and will perhaps have a nap and then breakfast and on to the matches and a day of exercise inside pretty much I expect.  

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Preparing for License Renewal

I shall start reading the  Official Ministry of Transportation Driver's Handbook today just to sharpen up my memory of the rules. I only need my license to drive to the grocery store and back in actuality as I do not go out of my area on the roads anymore. I am too busy and I hate shopping so have no need to go anywhere actually except for food which I can have delivered. However, I will go and renew my driver's license as it is handy to have. Who knows I might have to drive someone to the hospital or something like that in an emergency but for the most part at nearly 80 emergency is a word in my past for sure. 

Today is the second cleaning day and it is an all day affair for the most part although I take breaks. The main floor and the basement get the cleaning today. Yesterday went very well and was accomplished primarily in the morning. Today is another day of the heat wave and at 7:00 a.m. it was 19 degrees celsius and at 7:45 it is now 21 degrees celsius and brilliant sunshine. I have the windows all covered with drapes etc at the back where the sun shines in. The air conditioner is working well and set at 24 degrees celsius although it doesn't come on very often generally mostly the dehumidifier runs. 

Still have moving on the brain and gearing myself up to downsizing once again for this move. No idea when I will move but the where is gradually coming into view although I doubt that I will have a clear thought on that before next spring. But move I need to do as this house is too much work for me. 

No work done on the extraction of matches and probably not today either but back to that tomorrow likely. I would like to complete the last sibling's extractions so that I can start entering them into the database. I will also be paying attention to the endogamy and recording that on a separate database now that I have a clearer picture of the involved chromosomes where we all inherited from the Knight-Arnold-Butt families and how they break down into these family lines. The Routledge is actually more difficult and I may not yet have adequate information although the number of matches with Routledge has increased exponentially with the Living DNA results which is not surprising as most of those cousins are still in England with just Thomas Routledge and his wife Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge coming to Canada in the late summer/early fall of 1818 and my first Canadian colonials with their daughter (married a Gray and they are my 2x great grandparents) also born in England with them along with their other eight children (one daughter already married came with her husband and children as well). However the footprint of this family is not that large in that most of the sons never married (and had no children) with just one son marrying and he and his wife had nine children and all three daughters married where the bulk of the descendants continue into my generation although the one son who married was the father of seven sons and two daughters so quite a few descendants in the Routledge surname there. But primarily the relatives remained in England. 

I would really have liked to have seen the session in Parliament last much longer this year (surely a couple of weeks off in the summer is adequate given the present situation) and some movement towards the energy corridor right across Canada. However, I am still willing to give the Prime Minister a break (a honeymoon) so to speak and I think that the news sources should do the same after all what they write is read especially on line and we must continue our trend of support (85% of Canadians voted for the platforms put forward by the major two parties Conservative and Liberal) for the government to get the job done. Internal trade seems to be coming together with the hurdles between the provinces coming down and it is what we buy and sell everyday in our country that is most important - trade is a luxury; nice to have when it works for us but otherwise the internal sales in a country are the most important. 

The weekend plus at the cottage was good for me. Left me a bit disorganized as we had to shop more than once for groceries and with our downsizing had taken items to Salvation Army as well as mailing boxes to cousins of Edward's material so quick trips here and there in my socks and shoes with a dress. It must have looked very 1950s for sure! 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next. Then yoga and breakfast.  

 

Monday, July 14, 2025

Excellent Sermon yesterday at Church

 The Service at Christ Church Cathedral online was very interesting and the Sermon thought provoking. I like the way that the sermon flowed. We are into the quiet time of the year in the Season of Pentecost (old name Trinity). No choirs only a soloist and they have been spectacular these weeks. Thank you to them for their dedication to the service. 

Spent the afternoon, since it was a rainy one, cleaning out the large closet and reordering everything for ease in downsizing. One big box for our niece of some items which will mean more to her than us because it was part of her childhood since she lived with her grandmother (Edward's mother). There is still so much of Edward's material that we once again sorted through and made a complete box (we hope) of all the Kipp material for the family in southwestern Ontario (Oxford and Brant Counties) and then in Chilliwack British Columbia. I need to find an archives that will take the single Banker's Box as the material has been published in a book and do not want to see the original images lost.  

Two binders of gravestones as well for Edward's American Colonial ancestors. Our trips down into the Northern United States in the East were many (usually five or six times a year) to visit the various graveyards generally on the way to Family Reunions or Genealogical meetings meant that we were able to go to many graveyards that we otherwise would not have visited. There are also copies of gravestones in local cemeteries in southwestern Ontario. I need to check and see if the OGS Library will take this material along with a small package of UEL material that he collected to use for his talks. Since that is a duplicate of original material though there isn't any loss there of material if I am unable to donate it. We also gathered up another load for Salvation Army including the Christmas Tree which is too large for me and a box of decorations - I suspect they sell such things. It will be just in time for this year's Christmas for someone wanting to have that at a lower price. 

Cleaning day as well so will work on sending letters about the material in between bouts of cleaning. This is the top floor once again and with the big closet already done it will be less work this time. I will clean out my closet I think this next Sunday. I have pretty much stuck to online material for my studies so just have one big box of material that is printed. 

There is smoke out there today; the perennial hazard of living in a heavily wooded country (40% of our land area is forest and that is almost 10% of the world's forests). Nearly 40% of our land mass is Arctic and northern as well. Just under 80% of the population of Canada lives within 160 kilometres of the Canada-US border although there is still a good portion outside of that perimeter including nearly 200,000 above the Arctic Circle. But we are a fairly  mobile population with huge movements north all year long for various reasons. 

Time to make tea; I am a bit late today I guess but decided to write my blog first.  

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Do we actually need external trade; that is the question?

 Pipelines are what we need and distribution for liquid gas to sell internally ( no more importing of our own oil back refined). Building materials are needed here to house all the people. More internal production of items we actually need like refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, clothing and less importing of these items. Back to when we produced everything we needed pretty much because we can eat turnip, cabbage, carrots all winter since we store up so much and we have plenty of protein product from the fish in the waters to the meat on the land and the products of such cultivation - cheese and other protein sources. Still stored carrots in the store here; not as nice as last fall but they are edible and they are Canadian. Invest in Canada if you are Canadian; we are a powerhouse. Trade is just a luxury item and like all luxury items not really needed just interesting. But we need to concentrate on re-inventing our industries lost during free trade. Our youth has the opportunity to reinvent these many products as they look for work to do that is meaningful. 

Always interested in being in the wooded areas of Canada. One must always be on one's toes and safeguard any fires so that we minimize wildfire to storms. As always that is the main cause of wildfire. Surrounded by the bush for miles has this very ethereal effect really on one's brain as you sit out in the middle of a lake first thing in the morning and just smell the air, listen to the birds and it is a truly memorable experience that wakens the brain cells and re-energizes these old bones for sure and blisters the fingers kayaking. Kayaking all alone on an empty lake is a beautiful experience and communion with God. God put us on this earth to care for it; nurture it and not destroy it. He put us on this earth to use our brains to ensure that the best life can be obtained by all; Jesus reinforced that message when he told us the two great commandments - Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love (respect I read) our neighbour as ourself at all times and in all places (are you listening Russia and Hamas (the Houthis, Hezbollah and their supplier Iran)). This world can not survive given the ability to destroy it held by ignorant people (are you listening Russia) if these ignorant people do not withdraw back into their borders. God loves the world and World War II taught us that as He watches and He waits; He does not act. Peace has to come on the terms that He set and sent Jesus (His son) to tell us. When will the world wake up! Armageddon was World War II but we survive by the Grace of God and now it is our job to continue the work of all that youth that died on the battlefields of Europe in pursuit of freedom. Does mankind never learn; one wonders. 

Sunday and it is Ordinary time (the Trinity for Christians) as the summer wears itself away and already the darkness descends earlier day after day as we head towards fall. The richness of the fields as we drove to the cottage was beautiful to see. Lots of stored vegetables for the winter once again. Lots of cattle out in the fields also storing up for their consumption next winter. Still no shovels in the ground that I can see and we do need to move on this economic powerhouse idea put forward by both the Liberal and the Conservative parties - 85% of us voted for that and we all need it to happen sooner rather than later. 

Back to work on the books and the other items I continue to think about but do not accomplish to any degree. At the moment I am engrossed in the extraction of the remaining data from the last sibling as I work my way towards the rephasing of my grandparents with 100% British data which should prove interesting and already I can see where it will resolve the few conflicts that I had with the earlier data. Then on to the great grandparents and writing the books on the Pincombe family of North Molton, Devon, England and perhaps Pencombe, Herefordshire, England and Blake of Andover, Hampshire, England. When those are done then I move to the Buller family of Bermondsey, Surrey, England and Birmingham, Warwickshire, England (and are they descendant of the Buller family of Cornwall) and the Rawlin[g]s family of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England and Collingbourne Dulcis, Wiltshire, England. Along the way I am picking up my French once again to get back to my son in law's French Canadian families from various places in France although several of them concentrated in the south east near Ile de Ré where my husband's Huguenots lived before coming to Staten Island, American Colonies in the early 1700s. 

Today though will be Church online and I look forward to that. 

Then some weeding this afternoon if it does not rain when I am wanting to do that! 

Prayers for those who died in the Texas floods and continuing prayers as the hunt for survivors continues.  


Saturday, July 12, 2025

Back from the cottage

 Spent a couple of days at the cottage  and it was lovely - spent most of it kayaking and swimming. Home again and lots to do here for sure. I must get to work on the laneway border and other weeding plus sweeping the front patio and porch. The birds have been busy eating the raspberries, currants and gooseberries. I am sure they are enjoying that tremendously. 

Another busy day tomorrow and it is also Sunday so Church online.  

Prayers continuing for all the people who died in the floods in Texas and prayers continuing as they search for survivors.  

 

Friday, July 11, 2025

Hamas is at a crossroads

Hamas does not serve a useful purpose in the world at this time. They are a terrorist group with no respect for the Israeli peoples indeed they have stated they wish to destroy them. They are satanists and have held some of the original 250 plus hostages for more than 2.5 years including the deceased. They could at this time release all hostages and get out of Gaza. They do nothing for the people of Gaza and indeed use them as victims dead and alive in their ruthless  desire to eliminate the Israeli people. More people die everyday in Gaza because they do not release the hostages immediately and unconditionally. 

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Continuing with the matches

On page 8 of the matches now and they are primarily 2 segments with a few 1 segment so will be doing the entire page it does appear although half or more will likely just be placed into the grandparent line or in some cases two grandparents lines as either or or simply insufficient data. As one reaches toward the end of this project in terms of extraction, impatience does enter in just a little but squashed it and moved on. Must be patient working my way through these last 50. Then the task of assigning them into the different files and there are  225 new files. Also back to the other testing companies to check out any new matches and then on to phasing of the grandparents once again but most importantly I hope to phase the great grandparents as a result of all the work at Living DNA since this population most represents my lines going back in that I am 100% English going back many many generations until I reach my Scot lines, my Huguenot lines, my unknown lines that appear to be Scandinavian/Germanic but they are way back with the Huguenot having a known date around 1480 and my Scot around 1400 before they came to England. Is there Irish in there or is it just English lines that went to Ireland and then came back again - all five of us show some Irish as a percentage and that includes at Living DNA. 

Shopping yesterday for essentials - batteries for the smoke detectors (will install them today), lights for the rangehood over the stove (one was burned out), watermelon lozenges (this dental appliance dries out my mouth), and some food. That completed it and we were done in about 2 hours. It always takes such a long time to do everything. Lots of rain this July so not a lot of kayaking or walking outside. Unusual not to be in a drought situation actually. 

Prayers continuing for all those who died in the floods in Texas (how sad so many children) and prayers continuing as the search for survivors continues (last noted was 170 people still missing in one county alone). Our American neighbours and cousins in my case have so many natural disasters during a year. Their lives have been very difficult this year. 

Yesterday we also took four boxes of CDs and one stack of records to Salvation Army. Hope they sell well for them - Edward would like that. They were his collections and I want to keep everything but I need to move. This house is too big for me and there are so many families looking for this price range of house and so the downsizing will continue once again until I am able to move. It has been a lovely family home for us and Edward never wanted to leave it really. He loved that huge garden but his need for a pacemaker way back in 2012 meant that he could no longer maintain it as he wanted to although the pacemaker did help but my lifestyle changed rapidly from one of writing to one of gardening. I am not good at it and do not get the joy out of it that he did but I do try to keep the lawns cut and the weeds down somewhat and let his flowers continue to bloom year after year. 

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next to do. Another day of intermittent exercise and working on the matches extraction.  

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

One's pension

The majority of one's pension (unless you never worked) is money earned by you and invested by you. The only give away amount by the federal government is the OAS (and if you worked you have helped to produce this as well since when you worked you supported the Old Age Security (OAS) for the old in your generation). But in general it is money that is surplus to what you have earned and saved for retirement through your life. The TFSA (created by the Conservative Government in 2009 and this is a really good idea) is perhaps the best tool yet in the retirement toolkit and should be utilized if you are able from the age of 18 years on - instead of buying cigarettes and other junk put it into the TFSA for your enjoyment in retirement. You can invest inside of the TFSA and one of the really good ideas that Pierre Poilievre put forward was a bonus amount on top of the current $7000 per year that you can put into the TFSA if you invest in Canadian projects. Being able to put away $10,000 a year from the age of 18 to the age of 70 (and not counting the interest accrued) is $520,000 (the interest would potentially make this much much larger over a period of 52 years giving you a nest egg that is not taxed when you take it out). So we need to ensure that our pension money is directed towards Canadian projects to really make this growing Canada aspect work. This isn't for us, the old, this is for the future and a down payment on the success of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren who live here. 

Prayers continuing for those who died in the floods in Texas and prayers continuing for the missing still the count is at 160 with over 100 dead. How incredibly sad that so many of them are children. 

Cleaning all accomplished and the Fit Bit tells you so much about how you spent your day amazingly. For instance I definitely over did it cleaning and so my sleep was somewhat disturbed as too much exercise can do that but the compromise gives me three days of cleaning which is just too time consuming and so I continue knowing that the overwork will be noted in my restless sleep and move on. 

Today continuing with the collection of matches for the final sibling and I continue on page 6 of the matches at Living DNA. I suspect that I will only do to page 7 as there are fewer matches for this sibling. A couple of interesting ones yesterday in the Blake line. There is a length on one chromosome that tends to be there for every Blake result in the Andover line. Interesting to see how far back it will go as there is a group of Americans who have tested on Living DNA with this particular length. As the knowledge of DNA grows individual lengths will become interesting and our understanding of the health and well-being of people will be greatly enhanced. DNA does not control how we live our life medically speaking but rather life-style but good genes from the beginning are also an asset so long as one has a good life-style which must include a good amount of exercise and maintaining a good weight for your age and size. 

I am dropping into 23 and Me most days to see if there will be any changes in how we can look at our results since I have access to my own and two of my brothers (I will never regret spending the money to test at so many places in particular my one brother who was my co-investigator in all of this). 

The 21st century will be exciting although at the moment it is totally clogged by financial happenings out of the control of most countries. In being benevolent following the Second World War some of our economies became warped one might say and lop-sided and we do need to restore ours to that system where we produce many things locally because external trade (although it can be a game changer for some people and even for some countries where their product level is high in valuable products) is not the most important item in a country but rather that it can produce what it needs in order to be the most productive for themselves - external trade is a bonus. 

 Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next on the list. Then breakfast. This day is beginning late for sure. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

On to cleaning day two

Yesterday cleaning day one all accomplished with one extra my daughter cleaned out the large closet where most of my husband's boxes are stored and so that is dust free once again. It is a large task and I am thankful that she took time out of her research to do that for me. I always mean to do it but she is stronger for sure. So the top floor all completed. 

Still in my mind this idea of moving and it is more concrete than it has been for quite a while. But still it will not be before spring likely; spring would be a nice time as that is when I am the most likely to overdo it in the garden although I noticed this year I didn't do that. I am just not a gardener but one side of the yard looks pretty much as Edward had kept it; the other side for some reason was badly eroded by the fence building and it was an area mostly used for gardening tomatoes, peppers and herbs so there was a lot of bare ground there anyway and weeds will always fill it. The spring flowers came up not quite as plentiful as they too suffered from the erosion but they did bloom; some of them. What will a new place look like? It will be smaller (one floor possibly, a bungalow) out of the city and with a small lot although woods would be fine. It will be near a waterway for kayaking. But primarily it will be smaller and hence I must continue to downsize although furniture wise I have downsized a great deal so it is the boxes and the 40 albums of pictures and more boxes. That is a process I will begin this summer as well. I will strip out all but the family pictures. I will collect up all the pictures of Edward's nieces and their families to send to them. That should reduce the size of the binders considerably and perhaps by as much as one half. I am actually aiming for ten binders of family pictures from the mid 1960s when we met to 2000 when the switch was made to digital and no more printing. So one binder for four years and since the early years have fewer pictures it will likely be one binder for every two to three years and then perhaps one binder from the mid 1960s to just before the mid 1970s when there are considerably fewer pictures.  So there is a plan in motion once again for downsizing. This house could be home to a nice sized family perhaps with the four bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. Edward maintained it very well and I helped him with painting so it could be a move-in fairly quickly and just the basement perhaps to do work on. Edward never wanted to really finish the basement and it is roughed in so easy to move forward to doing more with that. The backyard is huge and nice for children although so many spend time on their computers now. I would have put a pool in and that would be a good choice to get children outside for sure! But other than that an easy move in I suspect. That is important I think. I hope to find the same once we get looking. All my stuff fits into my one room concept that I have pretty much maintained now since I retired. I am not attached to the dishes and everything that belonged to my mother or my grandmothers is in two glass fronted bookcases but there is still a lot of Edward's collections with the coffee mugs and his mother's dishes. But I already told my daughter they are hers and do not think about them. 

Yesterday I completed page five of the matches and will work on six today starting once again with 1 segment and working my way up - gradually as I work through these matches the four or five dwindle away and some are just tagged insufficient data or nothing at all. This sibling has fewer matches so the task may be completed sooner than I think. The singleton matches with five siblings are always a surprise but sometimes one or the other of us inherits a length of chromosome that no one else does. I generally collect those matches down to a slightly smaller level just out of interest. 

The rain was heavy again yesterday which is unusual for July but the ground will not mind; the sunflowers are growing quickly now and above the weeds. But the weeds have helped to keep the rabbit from eating up all the sunflowers. If we are still here next year we will fence it again while the sunflowers grow. 

Tea still a bit hot and will move on to solitaire puzzles. Then the cleaning can begin.  

Prayers for those lost in the floods in Texas, how sad to lose so many children. Prayers for the recovery effort. I have many Buller cousins in Texas (no longer with the surname but we share 2 and 3 x great grandparents).  

God moves around the world and looks at all of it and he must be weeping for those little ones. I still think that World War II was meant to be Armageddon but by the grace of God and our determination we came through that and so now we are on our own into an unplotted future perhaps. I have no idea but the winds of God still blow through the trees, through the cities and across the oceans. Our path must always be forward as Jesus taught us loving our neighbour as ourself (I think love is respect) and finding that uplifted plain of peace where there is no war and mankind lives to make the world a better place for all. God bless the world and all who live in it. Greed, envy, and hate must disappear from our world. 

 

Monday, July 7, 2025

Blake Newsletter, Volume 14, Issue 3, 2025 is published on the website

The latest issue of the Blake Newsletter is published on the website. Again there isn't really a story in this one, mostly data and a short discussion of yDNA as mentioned yesterday. I did not draw any conclusions but merely stated the facts. More data is needed to really come to a concrete decision with regard to the East Anglia group. However, it was very enlightening and the results not unexpected given the settlement of this area of the British Islands being strongly related to Danish emigration. However drawing conclusions would be premature.

Attended Church yesterday and it was an interesting sermon once again; time escaped me and I will watch the service from Essex in my break time today. Amazing how busy life can be for this nearly 80 year old. There is never a dull moment for sure. 

Prayers for the lives lost in the floods in Texas and prayers for those still missing. How sad that so many of them are young children at a Christian Children's Camp.  

Yesterday heavy rain and it does look like more today but is not raining at the moment but very grey out. An unusual July with so much rain but does save having to water the sunflowers that have managed not to be eaten by the rabbit. 

Did think more about moving and I can see this is not an immediate thing but rather I am looking further into the future. For one thing my daughter who spends her research time with me loves the East End of the city where she has lived since just before she turned four years of age. Although she has memories of the other house where we lived they are vague and long ago. 

For myself, I did do a little more work on page 5 of the matches extracting 1 segment and 2 segment matches into my file where I didn't already have them. More on that today in between cleaning. I am back to Monday once again and it is the top floor that will be cleaned today. 

Yesterday was the first time that I worked on downsizing once again. I went through the Allen material and checked to see what was there and then wrote to the Allen family member that has been my contact person and verified that they would still like to have the material which Edward had taken to a meeting back in 2019. They are collecting up Allen material and I will now pass this box to them along with a letter showing the line of possession of the items from this same area to Edward's mother and then to Edward and now back to them once again. Many of the items are quite old and there are a number of tintypes including one that is special to me somewhat as it reminds me very much of my oldest daughter at 14 years of age (the tintype is of Edward's maternal grandmother Margaret Evelyn Allen who died 11 Apr 1914 at 34 years of age when Edward's mother was only seven years of age. The striking resemblance to my oldest daughter was amazing actually when I saw the tintype when Edward decided in 2008 to unpack his mother's hope chest that she had left to him when she passed away in 2000. His finds were especially poignant to him as there were pictures of himself with his father which he had never remembered seeing and for me to see a tintype of a child born in 1880 that looked exactly like my eldest daughter and was her great grandmother (mind you I could see the similarity in Edward's mother as well). Life can sometimes be amazing for sure. But the material belongs to the history of the Allen family which was very large with Margaret being the youngest child of eleven children. Her parents were James C Allen (son of Isaac Allen and Rebecca Crouse) and Hannah Catherine Parlee (daughter of John Casey Parlee and Margaret Folkins). The lineage very interesting and primarily New Amsterdam/New York families with Huguenot, Dutch, and English ancestry (dissenters primarily that went to The Netherlands first before going to New Amsterdam). All traced back into the 1600s by Edward and part of his nearly 70,000 member tree on his website. Edward corresponded with cousins all over the United States and Canada often spending a couple of hours a day responding on the email to comments and queries. 

So next Sunday the project is to prepare the Kipp family material (early Oxford, Ontario) family that migrated to Chilliwack, British Columbia in the mid 1800s to see if one of the Archives would like to have all of these early original pictures. I think there are two boxes that I need to work on and that will likely take me several weeks to list everything in the boxes. It does take the idea of moving for me to get back to working on all of this material. I suppose in my mind I do not really want to break it up but I must in order to properly preserve it. Genealogy is an interesting past time and one that I avoided very successfully for most of my life but in 2003 I took up the challenge by my cousin to produce the Pincombe profile for his book on Westminster Township. No one, especially me, would have ever thought that over twenty years I would be so deeply entrenched in genealogy but without DNA I doubt I would ever have proceeded so far into the studies. For Edward, it was being part of the Ontario Genealogical Society that interested him primarily I think until the overwhelming picture of his own ancestry did flow forth as he studied his lines. It was truly amazing the history in his lines that had been lost during migrations from the United States into Ontario beginning in 1800 and continuing in his lines right up into the late 1820s. Gordon Riddle inviting him to go to the meetings with him was his initial introduction to the Ontario Genealogical Society back in the early 1980s.  

For myself I must continue extracting the matches from Living DNA and once completed work them into my databases and then begin the task (along with collecting anything new in the other genealogical testing sites) of working on the re-phasing of my grandparents and then moving to the phasing of my great grandparents. A task of love one might say but the love between my grandfather and my grandmother was strong and it has been easy for me to move away from anything that I thought about doing before I retired to this work for sure. It does keep the brain stimulated especially my latin learning which continues but I do need to move towards ancient latin and that will happen this fall I believe. 

Solitaire puzzles completed, tea drank and it is breakfast time and then cleaning.  

 

 

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Sunday and Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

We are into Ordinary Time in the Church Year - that quiet time in the Church Year when the Choirs step back and we are into summer time. The hymns tend to be the beloved ones of the Church without the choir to lead us but we know the tunes well. The Bible Readings are history lessons for the most part as we work our way through the Christian Church as it spread out from the Holy Land but particularly Paul who was Roman and so the shift was gradual towards Rome and the Papacy formation. Christianity would travel to all the far reaches of Europe moving beyond that to the British Isles although historically Anglicanism finds its roots in the Christian Celtic Church with its roots back prior to the arrival of Augustine sent from Rome to bring Christianity to the British Isles. 

Taking the word of God to all the corners of the earth was the pledge of Christianity and also Islam as it formed and now with the advent of Internet the possibilities are endless really as purveyors of the knowledge of God around the world. Prayers that hate and greed will pass from our world and that a good life can become much more evenly spread around the world when aggression totally disappears from our world. 

Yesterday was a busy day and some accomplishment on the last sibling's results as I completed page 4 of the matches and now I move into the system of extraction using 1 segment, then 2 segments and 3 segments and moving quickly through the larger ones as they will be primarily inadequate data (without a good deal of work and the size doesn't justify it). Then on to the task of re-phasing the grandparents using the Living DNA results primarily (but also the others that I have collected in this year) and the known cousin's results. Then once completed I can move to the great grandparents which is my main aim in collecting Living DNA data for sure since it contains all those interesting incidents of endogamy in my family lines.  

I am back to really thinking about selling the house - it is too large for me and it would make room for another family to come to this area (it is four bedrooms and one and a half baths). The backyard is 180 feet deep (60 metres). The laneway is a good size although single parking only (two or three cars) but you can park in front of this house as well. So we will see how it all goes. I am back to more downsizing although mostly everything that I would not take with me to a smaller place is gone. The Light Rail will be completed this fall which gets rids of all that mess that has been around us these past few years. The training stage is ongoing and the opening of the stations out to Trim from Blair will soon be happening (not sure if that is all at once or station by station). Initially the thought was station by station. The change to the neighborhood is huge with round-a-bouts replacing the crossing lights and realignment of bus stops. The road itself newly paved and accesses to the highway greatly improved. The schools are very handy to this area including both Separate and Public Elementary and High Schools. The Light Rail to Universities and Colleges very frequent making the trips into and out of the downtown really quite easy.

 Off to Petrie last evening for a kayak and me walking. It is a lovely walk and I enjoy my three times around the 0.8 km oval. The weather was beautiful last evening and the beach was packed with people and the walk pretty busy as well. I tend to be passing everyone as I am walking alone and fast generally which I prefer. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and my breakfast is late today. Church soon. 

 

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Lawns all cut

The lawns are all cut once again and that was a huge amount of work yesterday. July tends to be dry and hot so not a lot of growing for a few weeks perhaps time will tell. Some weeding but still more to do there. Everything done that I wanted to accomplish except for sweeping the front porch and patio and weeding the patio bricks. Perhaps I will accomplish that next week along with other weeding. The hostas though are really effective in keeping the weeds down. Not being a gardener by nature all of this is new knowledge that I probably did not really want to acquire very badly! Moving is always bright and fresh in my mind and one of these days that will happen all in its own time. 

Some work on the matches but not very much perhaps a little more today. This last sibling will be more work because I have left a number of the likely endogamy in abeyance waiting to make a decision on whether to include all of that information in the database or not. What do I gain from doing that as I have some good matches in the Knight/Arnold/Butt/Ellis lines? That is really the purpose in all of that to collect data that I do not have and reinforce what I do but if what I have is adequate then the reinforcement just seems like extraneous work. 

Another warm day although just 15 degrees celsius at 7:00 a.m. The house was cool last evening and I do not think the air conditioning came on at all yesterday although the dehumidifier does as it is humid a bit. Humidity is new to this area to last decade or so but it was very humid some days in southwestern Ontario when I was a child. 

Lots of discussion on the forward movement of our national energy project and looking forward to new work being done there. Canada is a huge country and our population is supporting that forward growth for sure with 85% of the people voting for this forward motion setting us up as a powerhouse by the end of this century. When one is nearly 80 though I guess my thoughts tend to be shorter term although not actually; it is fun to think about what this world will be like at 2100. It has so much potential to be a wonderful welcoming place but always ready to defend itself against aggression. I wonder some days how the Rohingyas are doing.  Their struggle has been long and silent in many ways but much more traumatic than anywhere else in the world except perhaps Ukraine. They have led an honest upright life not trying to take away from anyone just living their lives as best as they are able. They have accepted an unfair loss of their lands and moving on to just have a better life. They would be good candidates to live in Canada really more so than people who hate. Haters we do not need. 

The Prime Minister continues to be calm and collected in his dealings with both the provinces and externally. I think that calmness is good for Canada and yet he is forceful in protecting us. The increase in expenditure for the military is long awaited and will stand us in good stead and it is a great employer of people as well. 

Drinking tea and solitaire games are next. Then yoga and breakfast. I will decide today on the one section of the Blake Newsletter - whether I leave it in or remove it. One of the new Y-700 tests is a perfect match with another in the East Anglia data and the country report has one an American and one from the UK. It remains still not enough data really to make a strong statement but it is interesting because the Blake family of East Anglia was said to be the ancestral line of Blake that went to the American colonies and settled in Hampton, New Hampshire around 1650.  There is another Y-700 test in that set of data as well but it does not match. However, I do believe there are a couple of distinct Blake lines in the Norfolk/Suffolk/London area in the 1300s which may account for the difference. Genealogy is interesting but sometimes one must be slower rather than quicker expressing any concrete ideas on lineage but recording the data is very important. 

Friday, July 4, 2025

A huge shopping day

Yesterday was a huge shopping day although I started off the day picking raspberries mid morning. Not too many yet but they are coming along nicely. The birds have eaten about 50% of the red currants which they love it would appear along with the gooseberries. I should pick them but really watching them enjoy eating the little red and purple berries is much more fun as these are pretty seedy berries and mostly just good for making juice for various dishes or making jellies which I do not eat. Although I made hundreds of jars of jam (and perhaps even more) through the years I do not have a sweet tooth and it was my husband mostly who ate all that sugar so when I went back to work outside the home in 1994 I stopped making jams and jellies for the most part as it wasn't actually good for him to have all that sugar as he was by then in his early 50s. I didn't tell him that I just said I wasn't a martyr and could not maintain that sort of life style when I worked full time! 

But off to the market for the newest vegetables in our area (these outdoor markets are wonderful that the farmers set up around the city) and then picking up some items at a specialty food store that I am fond of (namely frozen Canadian blueberries) but a few other goodies and then to the grocery store where I had a huge load to buy this week. By the time I reach the grocery store I am a bit tired; my nearly 80 years are showing. When I am on my own then I spread out any trips but my daughter drives me and has a busy schedule with her research and so I just fit into the pattern. Plus I just shop occasionally on my own for sure; I am not a shopper. Then out to buy some other items once all the food was stored away that were perishable. Our shopping all accomplished we had a lovely meal of fresh meatballs (made by our hands), a lovely potato salad also made by us and fresh asparagus (likely the last meal of that locally). Along with fresh vegetables on the side it was a perfect meal. 

In the morning I worked on the matches and Page 2 is nearly complete and will work on Page 3 today. I am at 210 new matches to work into the database once I get through all of this data collecting. Many of these are significant because they demonstrate the endogamy I knew was there but needed a solid concentration of my British cousins to really see it well. This sibling is more like me with an even number of results from the four grandparent lines rather than a heavy double percentage of Pincombe matches to the other three. I did not inherit nearly as much Pincombe as the rest although this sibling did actually just proportionally they fell different from the others. There are more individual matches to this sibling which I also knew from the other testing companies. But in general we are all good matches with each other and well within the range given for siblings. I am picking up quite a few of the suspicious ones which were mostly endogamy with so many lengths of chromosome between six and twelve centimorgans with many of the samples having one length of six to nine and one of twelve to fifteen along with four to five between four and six centimorgans. This collection of up to 70 centimorgans on occasion could be seen to be Blake but having all five sets together to look at helped to marrow it down to one of the great grandparent lines a little easier. That is the thought with all this new data that I am using all the companies phase our great grandparents in a meaningful proveable way. 

I did pull some weeds as I was picking raspberries and that is something I need to do a little more of to let the flowers have room to flower this year. On the one side no problem the hostas take over most of the ground and the weeds are minimized but on the other the weeds just keep coming back - they are hardy for sure. The lawns need cutting and today looks good for that - sunny but not too warm just 14 degrees celsius at 7 a.m.

I must admit to being a bit impatient to see shovels in the ground for the pipelines and ports and more industry being created here in Canada but it all does take time and our trade is going well between provinces getting that set up. I am looking forward to seeing more foods from the provinces on the shelves in the stores. Canada is a huge country with lots of ability to do well and unleashing it will take a bit of time for sure.  I still think that the American car companies should just incorporate their businesses as Canadian here and break their ties with their American businesses other than the sharing that can exist between compatible industries. That way they will continue to produce cars for sale here in Canada and we do buy a lot of cars. Since our car (Dodge Caravan) has just over 30,000 km in five years I obviously do not represent most of Canadians but in our younger days we generally put 15,000 to 20,000 km per year on our car. But I scarcely drive it on my own just the grocery store and to the garage to change the tires twice a year and have the usual oil changes and the like done to it. But there are a lot of young people in Canada and it is really a rite of passage here to get your driver's license at 18 now (used to be 16 for a permanent license but times have changed and one does need to ensure that one thoughts are always on careful driving on the roads) and then buy a car and still live at home and go to school. The laneways are full of cars for every house. But it is the choice of the American manufacturers for sure; the Auto Pact has cost particularly Ontario taxpayers a lot of money these past sixty plus years and even if they leave it will continue to cost us money because of promises made. We do tend to be a punishing lot Canadians and will not generally purchase foreign cars but only cars made in Canada with Canadian materials. At 41 million we are a large market  to lose for sure. 

Drinking my lemon ginger tea (one of these days back to green tea but I do not need the caffeine at the moment!) and on to solitaire puzzles. Then yoga and breakfast and the lawns! 

I did complete the Blake Newsletter but still debating the small writeup on the new Big Y-700 results in the East Anglia group. I will probably release it early next week.  

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Some research, some shopping

A busy day that saw some research accomplished and some shopping accomplished. I am looking for a new desktop computer as Windows 10 draws it last breaths. I want basically what I have now but with Windows 11 and we toured about looking at various computers. I have a couple of months to decide. I do not need a new monitor nor do I need any of the other attachments as I bought a new keyboard (this is the third one now since the original that came with the computer. We will see what comes with them these days given that my tablet came without a power pack to fit into a socket! I will be even more questioning this time than the last. 

So onto the second page of matches with the fifth sibling and a little work on the Blake Newsletter. Still not completed but soon hopefully and perhaps today it is going to rain. Raspberries to pick as well and the sunflowers are doing well; that is the only item that we planted this year. There is just too much shadow in the back yard to have a good garden. 

Discussing the books in our coffee break I am still in the midst of Blake and Pincombe and will be for another two to three years I anticipate (I am coming up on one year in January although I did pretty much set it aside until now when I am beginning the generational tables coming down. The starting point for Blake is fairly easy although I would be exciting to start in the 1300s it will likely be the 1500s. The starting point for Pincombe not so easy as I need to make a decision on whether to write up the Pencombe family in Herefordshire as known to me and then this likely family of Pencombe coming with John Lord Zouch to North Molton in 1486 (perhaps as an accompaniment chosen by the King I am suspecting rather than as a loyal retainer). Given that John Pencombe received land at North Molton one is tempted to think that the King was the one who was involved in that rather than John Lord Zouch who was attainted. It does give a different sort of look to John Pencombe than I had formerly. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles to do and then breakfast but first yoga.  

Happy July 4th to my American cousins.  

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Canada Strong

 It was beautiful to watch Canada Strong on the Hill yesterday. The young people came out in droves in both the capacity of audience and the show leaders. The Prime Minister is dearly loved by the populace; he just fits into the scene so perfectly. It was very pleasant to have the Duke of Edinburgh at our Canada Day as well - a beautiful touch for sure and he brought good wishes from the King. The King is lucky with his support from these two siblings - Princess Anne and Prince Edward. They do him great service and especially here in Canada yesterday. Thank you to the King for sure. The Governor General did a magnificent task in her capacity as well and much appreciated. 

I was happy to sit at home and watch it all on the television. I will always remember my grandfather watching the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He was so intent; full of information about the service as the hours passed and he never left that set really nor did I for the most part although just seven years of age I could tell by the way my grandfather was so glued to that TV that this was a momentous happening in our world and so it was. Elizabeth II became one of the most celebrated women in the world and loved by many. 

Canada Strong and with our population now at 41 million we will succeed and support our population and this huge landmass preserving it for the future as well as the present so that all the world may benefit from the goodness of Canada. The bombing of the fireworks carried on well past ten o'clock last night but we had a lot to celebrate as we have made it through these past six months together and supportive of each other. The few with their separation ideas are just that a few; Canada needs all of her people to be the great nation she is to become. When the Founders of Confederation bought Rupert's Land with Canadian taxpayer money it was for a purpose; to unite all of the royal colonies now provinces of the new Canada (Turtle Island) and to provide a link to British Columbia far off on the Pacific Coast and we did it and for a young nation to build the railroad coast to coast we did well. Thank you to the Founders and all those hard working people who actually did the work on the railroad that made it so. 

Yesterday matching for the fifth sibling and then the task will be complete; just have to maintain it by checking in on matches regularly. I like the setup on Living DNA and the ease with which you can move between siblings in matches. I like the ability to quickly copy all of the data into my spreadsheet but others also do have that ability. And of course with my 100% British inheritance of DNA having so many UK testers is really great. The endogamy that I knew existed is very clear there with a number of people matching in the over 50 cM range with so many little pieces all of them looking like Knight/Arnold/Butt/Ellis or Routledge/Routledge and there are some Blake in there that are interesting for sure. But that endogamy is a long way back although there are a couple of stubborn chromosomes that make their way through the generations. 

The Blake Newsletter still in the writing process; yesterday didn't seem like a day to do that and so will return to it today along with extraction of matches. Cleaning all accomplished for another week. Back to walking and kayaking. A lovely summer and July is probably going to be a very warm month. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and breakfast is next but first yoga.  

 

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada day, land of my birth and the home in my heart, I will always love Canada to the depth of my soul. The daily Bible Reading again caught my thoughts first thing this morning. The reading from  Colossians 3: 1-17 but the part that most remains with me after reading:

Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts. And be grateful. Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him.

These words were written two thousand years ago in a world that was different and yet so very alike our own. The words were directed at a small group of people in actual fact but read by the millions as the years have passed. Greed and Hate still dominate in this world and must be gone for us to have peace. As the centuries have passed the Christian religion developed in some areas of the world; in other areas it was Islam and still others different ideas dominated but always with the love of the Creator in mind it does appear as we read the ancient signs left by peoples and the stories passed down in the different areas of the world. 

 To Canada, land of the free and our desire is that it always should be. The land of the First Peoples and we are grateful to them for accepting us to live in the lands of their forebearers. May we ever live together loving the country of Canada (Turtle Island to the First Peoples) and forever embrace their love of the land and take it to ourselves - to protect and nurture this land the Creator has given to us.  The land is what is important; we must care for it and cultivate it and protect it. 

Yesterday cleaning of the top floor completed and today it is the main floor and the basement. Like the birds in the air we clean the space around us to make living easier and simpler.  

 I completed the fourth siblings matching extracting and started into the fifth sibling's matches. No surprises as we continue to have as our best match outside of our family circle a young man in New Zealand. His large match is a result of endogamy in the Knight lines that we both carry as we share Ellis Knight and his wife Eleanor (Knight) Knight (my 3x great grandparents) and John Blake and his wife Ann (Farmer) Blake (my 2x great grandparents). The path is an interesting one for sure but it is his shared matches that point the way it would appear. His wife first wrote to me more than ten years ago now but the actual individual that is the father of this young man remains as likely rather than absolute. Life can be strange. With my father an only child ( these matches are on the paternal side) and my grandfather coming to Canada in 1913 with his wife and my father and none of them ever returning to England the relationship had to be sought elsewhere and endogamy rules the waves one might say. Where it occurs surprises in length follow. 

So today more cleaning and more extracting as I work my way towards the project of re-phasing my grandparents using this new data from Living DNA along with the file of Known matches with 2nd, 3rd and fourth cousins although principally 2nd and 3rd cousins. I do know there are a couple of inconsistencies that I keep track of to perhaps solve with this new set of data. Time will tell.

 I look forward to shovels in the ground to build pipelines and ports to deliver the oil to the world, our industries bought up/closed by free trade once again developing and flourishing. We are a different country from the 1960s when the Auto Pact was first signed and then in the 1980s when Free Trade began; we are nearly twice as large and we are like a new country on this day of our birth as the Dominion of Canada now stretching from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean surrounded on all three sides by the oceans of the world. God Bless Canada. Forever free.