Completed the main floor yesterday and worked on the Chromosome 11 matches. Again reviewing the crossover points already established for the five siblings against the Living DNA data. A few changes (never more than 1 or maybe 2 but usually pretty much the same) based on the matches and the visuals provided in Living DNA. Every company has their own set of markers that they test and that can also create slight differences between their results. This is not an exact science for sure although a time may come when it will be. My Heritage is going into a more complete genetic scan and I may yet do that and store it there. I never know if someone might want to take this on as a project in their retirement years and want to have everything in condition to pass it on. It has been fun. I was sorry my mother wasn't here to enjoy the Pincombe results; as she would have very much. She would have also enjoyed the Buller results as they have been fantastic. I have no idea what my father might have thought as he passed in 1998 and really I visited him and spent entire days but he was not really that interested in anything specific. He had been to a certain extent when I was a child because I can remember him mentioning items. Not like my Grandfather Blake who was a veritable book of information on his Blake family and for that matter he knew a great deal about his Knight family (his mother) but again my father did talk about visiting his grandparents in Goodworth Clatford where they moved when Edward Blake retired, his great grandfather Samuel Knight in the New Forest as a child and visiting with the Rawlings as well. Grandpa had a solid interest in history and especially in Nicholas Blake who had this lovely small farm at Knights Enham in the period after his father died in 1522 until he died in 1547. It was his son William who became somewhat prosperous one is left to think although not hugely wealthy I would say having transcribed his will and those that preceded and followed him. William had a huge family.
It was the American genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby who grabbed hold of Nicholas out of the past in the mid 1800s; gave him a new brother from Somerset and all sorts of made up stories (a marriage into a wealthy family (beware of that one)). It resulted likely in letters from America to Blake names in Andover; no idea on that actually (but the timing would be right and I have a vague memory of that actually). I did find it somewhat astounding that a person from the 1500s would actually be remembered in the late 1800s when I recalled that in my 60s! What I remember is that he would say that what they were asking and saying about Nicholas was incorrect. The reality is also very interesting actually - this Blake family is fascinating to follow. And so I am doing what he wanted to do but didn't time was not on his side once he thought about doing it. Perhaps it was because he found the book too late on the Blake family of Galway, Ireland (he was probably in his mid 70s then (I just turned 8 when he passed at 78)). But then writing a family book did not come to me until I decided to revise the Siderfin Book during COVID! I was involved in producing books/articles during my career. But he did have time to fill my head with all his stories (he didn't want us to think we were part of the Irish Blake family since we were not). Which brings me back to my older brother that I tested at all the DNA companies. He thought Grandpa had said the reverse about the Irish Blake family but I was sure I was right. That came out in our discussions about mother wanting us to do the DNA of the family. I think it was planned on Grandpa's part as he started out teaching me in my memory to recite the Kings and Queens of England which really has nothing to do with the story of the Blake family. But it was something that I knew about - that we had a King at that time (King George VI) and I knew there had been Kings and Queens in England for a very very long time. I can actually still sort of rhyme them off if I get myself started! (later I added in their dates of reign as I did love to memorize). But then we moved on to memorizing other things although I was never really aware that I was doing that with our family history. I was too young. I just thought I was listening to my Grandpa whom I loved dearly. He could tell me the same story many times and I would listen to it like it was the first time he told me. Grandpa himself had been born during the reign of Queen Victoria, continuing to live through the reigns of King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and lived to see the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on the television which absolutely thrilled him. Perhaps because he worked on the railway he did visit London where one of his sisters lived and was familiar with the central part (my father spent time in London as a child and when my eldest daughter and I toured Windsor Castle that did bring back some of the things my father had said when he was in London. When first my eldest daughter and I went in 2001 I had a sort of picture in my mind of that central part and later when Edward and I were there in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2016 we walked the streets of the City of London (and Westminster to a certain extent as well as Bermondsey on the southside of the Thames where my Buller/Beard families lived)) seeing the entire inner city (and putting in 18,000 to 20,000 steps per day). Edward was excited to tour Buckingham Palace and I sort of felt like I was intruding on someone's family home to be honest. I am not into touring people's houses; I prefer to tour the great churches and we did do a lot of that I am very happy to say in our tours.
I am more than half way through the Chromosome 11 matches. Again I have picked up a few that I had not entered into the Known file for the chromosome matches. In this case there are Rawlings matches known to me along with the other three grandparents. About the same coverage as Chromosome 12 except an increase in Rawlings and a slight decrease in Buller. Pincombe generally covers the entire set of 5 siblings and Blake about the same perhaps 2/3rds. But I still have quite a few matches left to look at so we will see. All of the cross over points have been verified. Only one significant change from 76 to 79. It doesn't really alter anything but finding that large a difference is interesting. In general any changes tend to be just 1 and is generally an increase because I am looking at the entire number so past the 500 mark becomes the higher number and it works very well actually when it does occur. I could have looked at that earlier but did stick to a general review but this has been more specific with the Living DNA results (the discrepancies that I noted whilst collecting matches after phasing my grandparents have all been reviewed thus far in my run through the chromosomes from 22 to 11 and corrected as per my thoughts at those times when I noted the inconsistency.
I appear to be on schedule although I am behind with the Photo Books but my only schedule is to have them complete by Christmas so I will just one of these days sit myself down and tell myself to work on the Photo Books and dedicate a few days in a row for a few weeks on end and get that done. Once I am into the indexes that Edward prepared which is perhaps in one more photo book's time then it will be a much easier task. It is very difficult to take apart some one else's work that meant a lot to them. But to save the idea of this set of Photo Books (presently at 40 books and these are large books) to tell the story of Edward's family I need to downsize it and remove the pictures that are part of Edward's enjoyment of his time being more public in family history but do not mean anything to the family that was closest to him since they were not there (well I was but I too have a time stamp for sure!).
Moving on and I have eaten a slice of my banana bread once again (thinly buttered) and drank my tea so time for solitaire puzzles before breakfast at 8:00 it is nearly 7:00. Then set the robot going to vacuum the rugs and the cleaning of the basement will begin. Still avoiding the news; we need to re-establish the lost industry from the years of free trade (our youth will eventually do that but they need help with it). Spending 75 million dollars on ads in the United States could set up one of those industries but I keep it to myself except perhaps for my blog obviously. We need to build the road, build a pipeline to the east (principally to Ontario since Quebec will likely never want a pipeline (they do have the St Lawrence that can be used to ship oil to the Maritimes (not the fastest way and not even the safest but it can be done))). Plus the Maritimes has it own oil which they could refine and use. We need to restore industries and move ahead in order to keep ourselves afloat in this world. We can do it; stop wasting money; throwing money at it never works (that is usually a Liberal habit!). Starting out small never hurts; companies grow but do not sell them off to foreign countries, keep them Canadian!
No comments:
Post a Comment