Continuing on the matches

 As I reread the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter I found a few unclosed brackets and a couple of other tiny items so will fix that. My mind is on my extraction of matches and it shows. Either that or I am nearly 80 and that shows. 

Continued with the match extraction  and the growth will be slow now that I am into page 3 of the matches with 144 extracted into separate files. When page 4 is completed in the extraction process (50 matches to a page) then I will check page 5 and see if it is time to go to 2 segments and 1 segment as I do want to get into the last two siblings match pages. The middle of the month is past and I am heading up to the Blake Newsletter for the first of July. Keeping up the regular work seemed easy in the winter but somewhat difficult in the spring and summer with the garden beckoning although I do not follow that beckoning very often to be sure. The rabbits and other four legged mammals are enjoying the products of my non-attendance for sure. 

Continuing today with the matches extraction and it is raining. Not so bad actually as one really can not easily garden in the rain and my mind can be totally devoted to the matches. 

Drinking my tea now somewhat cold as I was busy working the solitaire puzzles for the day! but is lemon ginger which still tastes really quite good even cool. One of these days I will get back to my green tea but I need to wait until I can manage all of that caffeine. I am a hyperactive person normally and do not need the added caffeine in my bloodstream at the moment - life is busy. 

We are moving along here in Canada with our new way of doing business with the provincial barriers pretty much resolved by the first of July - free trade between provinces with no restrictions will make a huge difference here and some companies are really prospering where the products came up from the United States in that north south pattern that has existed on this continent for thousands of years. But time changes and so must we. Canadians do not generally institute change that is noted on the world scene; we are a helper country for the most part doing the best that we can do to help the peoples of the world when that help is needed. But we are a strong ally to our friends and neighbours which indeed include both hemispheres since we share a border with the European Union through Greenland and with the United States here. I think Prime Minister Carney does bring the strength of Canada together in a way that is good for us as a country. I also think that once Pierre Poilievre returns to the house he too will bring forward the conservative part of this country in a good way supporting the initiatives which both parties (Liberal and Conservative) put forward during the past election and which received 85% of the support of all Canadians voting. The mandate is strong and a party in opposition can do as much good as the party in power in these instances when much change is needed. It is good to see so many First Nations in the house as well and as Premiers in the Provinces/Territories. We need to keep having the voice of the First Nations in our decision making to keep change flowing as quickly as is possible. 

 

 

Last day of cleaning for this week

Today the top floor and then the cleaning will all be accomplished. The weather looks like rain today so perhaps not a walk on the beach which we enjoyed last evening although rain had been promised yesterday but it was still okay to walk after all. 

The Pincombe-Pinkham newsletter was completed and perhaps the next one will have more exciting details as this was merely a summation of items and ideas for where I could obtain needed material for the next chapters to come. 

Continued with the matches and about half way through the third page of 50 matches. Still some new ones although not very many but I am now up to 140 new matches to put into the system. Not all of them will go in but I will put them into my interesting file but not entered so that I can look at them in the future. One feature of the Living DNA bookmark is looking at the chromosome results for everyone in the box which I have not yet looked at very thoroughly other than to note that it was possible. That will be interesting to work with as well. I am pleased with the Living DNA setup as it is a time saver for extracting the information for a set of siblings. Although I am not actually using that to a great degree I could do so and likely as I check the account in the future after this very first go through on my part years after I tested has been most interesting. I could see back when the chromosome browser first came out that I was showing endogamy quite extensively in some of the results and just avoided it at the time as life was pretty busy. 

The weather today does look a little gloomy so will be a good inside work day which is my favourite - gardening is never going to be something that I eagerly go out the door to do. At least I recognize most of the plants that have survived my not recognizing them. The Hosta does dominate the garden as Edward found they were less work for him and occupied a lot of space keeping the weeds down as they are much more aggressive than the smaller weeds. 

The sunflowers are doing well and the rows are very visible now. I think it was a good plan to just turn the garden patch into a sunflower garden. It will be lovely when the flower heads form. The many animals who run through this yard will enjoy the seeds. The larger birds might also nip down and clip off a plant head perhaps. There is a good clear run down into the garden. I shall watch for that as well. The raspberries are doing very well and all this rain will give a lot of berries for sure. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and time for breakfast. I am a bit late today. I was working away on a couple of projects before I went down to make my tea. The time does pass quickly.  

The commitment of time

Cleaning of the basement all accomplished yesterday and today it is the main floor. I shall begin after breakfast as usual and should be all accomplished around 11 or so. The routine of cleaning is so very helpful and the exercise is also very good. 

Yesterday good work on the matches and I have nearly completed the first 200 for the third sibling. A few surprises here and there but for the most part this was smoother going than the first two because many of them are repeats so the page for them is already set up and just have to add in the new result for that sibling. Endogamy though does appear to be seeping through the results and particularly in the Blake line which I anticipated although it is actually the Knight/Butt/Arnold line because Maria Jane Knight married Edward Blake in 1870 at Upper Clatford but also the parents of Edward (Ann (Farmer) Blake and John Blake had 54 grandchildren and hundreds of great grand children but that didn't cause endogamy!

I must get outside though and do some weeding and I also need to finish the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. Perhaps I should tie myself to the Newsletter first thing and get it done. 

Lovely morning at 7:00 a.m. and it is 18 degrees celsius and we are expecting rain and it is always handy to keep everything green. The Air quality at 46 is high for this time of year but is considered to be good.  I do not see rain in the forecast online but time will tell. Certainly it is cloudy. 

Yesterday another lovely walk on the beach and I have to start getting ready to do my driver's license renewal. I only use it to drive to the local grocery store a couple of times a month but I will read the rules book and be ready. I booked my Optometrist appointment and I need to book my Driver's License appointment so will look into that today. Since I will be 80 there is extensive testing I think so will prepare for that. I do not see myself driving other than to the grocery store though. For one thing our roads are still are in disarray with the new train coming and I just do not want that hassle although I do, twice a year, drive to have the tires switched which is the only other time that I drive. Otherwise I just take the bus as it is easy and gets me where I am going without any need to figure out the parking or anything else. 

Cleaning today and the newsletter and the matches and must try to keep that order until the newsletter is completed. 

Drinking my tea and doing my solitaire puzzles. 

Two Thought Provoking Sermons

Yesterday I did attend both Anglican Services - one here at Christ Church and one at St Peters and St James Hereford. Both had two extremely thoughtful sermons which provoked a good deal of thought in my brain throughout the day and this morning I found myself going back to the thinking pattern and contemplating Solomon and his wisdom once again (although the sermons themselves looked at the Trinity but one of the readings in the week was about Solomon and his talk with God). Greed and hate have raised their ugly heads once again in our world and although it has been sitting as an undercurrent for quite a while especially in the case of Iran's hatred of Israel but the Russian desire to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people is also a long lasting plan on their part dating back over the century past. Iran has created three sycophants to carry out their satanic plots against Israel namely Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. This satanic murder of six Palestinians who were helping with the US food distribution group is just the continuing usage of the Gazan peoples as collateral damage in the Iranian war against Israel which has been relentless throughout the last couple of decades. That a people would allow themselves to become willing to be the collateral damage and even allowing their children to be killed in order to satisfy the hatred of the Iranian government for Israel continues to confound the world (why did they not send them to safety!). Palestinians need to destroy Hamas not the other way around - they must stop being willing victims. Then the equally satanic leadership of Russia has destroyed the glory of the Russian people for their extreme sacrifice during the Second World War as they fought night and day to cast off the Nazi invaders in their country. Satanism must be gone from our world - the Iranian leadership and the Russian leadership (and North Korean leadership for that matter); so long as it endures then there will be useless waste of people and property namely the Israelis, the Palestinians and the Ukrainians. The picture is constantly coming into clearer and clearer view of the need of the world to eliminate these satanic peoples so that we can have peace.

More work on the Living DNA matches yesterday and some interesting ones that have three out of four of my grandparent lines appearing to come together in another family (very occasionally generally just two lines). Given my own lack of first cousins, few second cousins but all known to me and hundreds and hundreds of third cousins I do anticipate the possibility. However I always find this a little suspicious but I must remember in England in particular many of my lines became quite large in the 1800s (John Blake and Ann (Farmer) Blake (my 2x great grandparents) had 54 grandchildren many of whom had large families). The Buller families in Birmingham (particularly the daughters marrying into other lines) had a dozen children in some lines. The Knight/Butt families that went to Lancashire in the late 1800s also had large families (again my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents). So it is possible but some of the lengths are quite long but again I do have endogamy in those Knight/Butt lines where two different Knight/Butt lines come together as sticky lengths of chromosomes giving me longer lengths than one would anticipate in third or fourth cousins. The possibility of marriages between my lines is much greater in England than here where the proportion of English descent is smaller and in particular 100% as mine is.  But I will continue with that today along with the cleaning. Basement today and it is already set up to run the Robot vacuum cleaner. I have to establish the perimeter for the vacuum to remain on the rug which I must set up each time and that takes perhaps four minutes give or take. 

Drinking my lemon ginger tea and will do my solitaire puzzles.  

 

Living DNA Results

 I have been intent on the matches but today I noticed my map on Living DNA. In the past I have had a bit of colouring outside of the British Isles but the latest result shows 100% Great Britain and Ireland with 

23.3% from South Central England; my father was born at Eastleigh and his father at Upper Clatford and going back in time about four generations this male line was in Andover and back into Knights Enham (part of Andover) and by yDNA thousands of years in the British Isles which bears the comment from my grandfather - we always lived in the Andover area. But there is a 50% other side of every story in his line with my father's mother born at Kimpton and her line going back to her mother born near Enford, Wiltshire where the Rawlings line is found for a number of generations and then Netheravon, Wiltshire back to Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire. The wives of these men were always from local areas to Enford. My father's father's mother Maria Jane Knight was born at Turnworth Dorset and both sides of this family lived in the areas around Winterborne Stickland, Dorset including the Arnold family at Milton Abbas, Dorset the Molton family at Winterborne Whitchurch, Dorset, the Butt family near and at Winterborne Stickland. 

 14.9% from Lincolnshire was a bit of a surprise actually as I do not have anyone actually born in Lincolnshire.

11.9% from Devon and my mother's father's family were from Bishops Nympton, Devon (and area) going back to the late 1500s. 

11.8% Central England and I am thinking of Leicestershire looking at the map which is the area where my Welsh and Cheatle families lived (the parents of my 2x great grandmother Anne (Welch) Buller born at Longdon by Lichfield, Staffordshire and baptized at Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. My maternal grandmother's grandmother.

 9.7% Southeast England and this includes London and particularly Bermondsey where my Buller and Beard families lived in the 1700s into the early 1800s. My maternal grandmother's father's family. Henry Christopher Buller married Anne Welch at Birmingham in 1838. 

8.1% South England and this area captured above with my Blake family at Andover and my Knight family at Turnworth, Dorset and their areas as mentioned above. 

5.8% East Anglia is a teaser as I do not have anyone from this area.

5.4% Ireland and just family lore about my maternal grandmother's mother being of Irish descent (only  the Republic of Ireland is coloured for this percentage).

4.1% south Yorkshire which is the area of the East Riding of Yorkshire which was home to my Gray family found at Holme in the Wolds and before that Cherry Burton which is close by. 

 3.3% Northumbria which is also a teaser as I do not have anyone from this area but do have my Routledge family from nearby Cumberland.

1.7% Cumbria which does seem very small as my Routledge family were at Oakshaw, Bewcastle  back into the 1500s and likely earlier. This is my maternal grandfather's maternal grandmother's line (Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge was the daughter of Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge. 

I must look at my four siblings to compare their map to mine. 

Yesterday I continued drawing out the matches to a third sibling and did get a bit bogged down with one which I shall quickly resolve today having given it some thought. 

It was a busy day though with grocery shopping and then a walk on the beach which was lovely. It was busy enough but soon will be packed with people enjoying the swimming, boating and picnics on the beach. 

Sunday and two Church Services to attend online. Soon I will do that. The Bible Reading today was about Solomon and one would wish that all the leaders of the world would be wise like Solomon and bring us to a peaceful co-existence where hate no longer rules and no one goes hungry.  

 

What is Freedom?

 Freedom is the right of everyone to exist in this world in a country that supports its citizens unless you are breaking the law. At least that is how I do see it. Under such a system worldwide hunger would disappear unless we are all hungry; hate would disappear and it does need to and respect would be the first and most important rule. The United Nations had all of those desires when it was formed in 1945. But I think the most important part of the United Nations is the ability to stand back and circle the wagons and provide a place where discussion can happen. That is why we formed the United Nations to provide a sounding board for grievances. We all can listen to what each side can say and we need to do that; everyone needs to be at the table that is involved. Only then can we find that peaceful uplifted plain that God wants us to reach. But most importantly blatant aggression whether it be by proxy (Iran using Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis to attack Israel) or by one country (Russia) invading another country (Ukraine) has to stop and retreat has to happen so that there is a forever deterrence to such actions. Then peace can flow like a gentle river but this time Canada has to keep its eyes on military support; it must not diminish. I do like the approach of our Prime Minister Carney and we will see. He is a money manager for sure and that to me is probably the most important item in the government - the careful scrutiny of how the finances are spent. The days of bonuses in government work need to be gone (brought in by Prime Minister Harper). You are paid to do a job in the Federal Service (the personal credit which you obtain especially from a job well done will have to be a sufficient award because that is a place where your value in a service is noted publicly and congratulated); that is a sufficient bonus and if that doesn't work for you there are jobs in private companies that might suit you better. This giving of bonuses can be abused much too easily. More money would remain in government coffers to spend on defense and other items as needed. On the other hand, companies that are awarded contracts and given support by the government owe the Canadian government and the people of Canada and their support for Canadian projects should be first in their minds not making a profit for their shareholders at the expense of Canadian projects. When we help to fund a company they owe Canada first and foremost. 

Good progress yesterday on extracting matches from Living DNA and I now have completed myself and one of my brothers to the end of page 8 of the matches. I do need to look at the three new ones and will do that before I begin the third sibling's matches. I think another couple of weeks or so should complete the process although there is a lot of gardening to do. Still the Pincombe Newsletter is in its stages of development and must spend time on that today. After a lovely walk in the afternoon I cut the front lawn as it did need doing. I am becoming entranced by the wild flowers but eventually the lawn needs to be cut and will try to keep it trim for the rest of the summer. The back lawn will be today; it is another beautiful day. The sunflowers have broken through so we need to weed that as well. The hostas are beautiful this year; huge plants possibly because I left all the wilted greens from last year to rot away and improve the soil. I need to pick up branches from the maple tree at the back as it has shed a few more. 

Another beautiful sunny day; thank you God for the beauty of this day. I was thinking about lifestyle of the two Hemispheres in our world. In the Western Hemisphere where I live the First Peoples lived in unison with nature through the centuries and in the Eastern Hemisphere where my families came from (100% from the British Isles going back many generations) the desire to acquire seemed more important than living in unison with nature but time has been kind and this desire to live in unison with nature has taken a hold in the Eastern Hemisphere where Canadian Beavers are carefully increasing the providing wetlands to help protect the environment. It is wise to look to the ways of the First Nations to make the most of Canada for all of its people. 

Tea drank and now solitaire puzzles and the day begins.  

Down with the Satanists of the world

 I made my first train trip yesterday on the light rail from here to South Keys where I was meeting the train from the airport. My daughter made five trips back and forth in May/June to accomplish a number of items that needed to be done. Normally she has a quiet May after all the marking is done and then out kayaking every day that it is possible just for a brain refresher while getting into her research term. But this year there was just a lot to do culminated by her first PhD student completing her thesis defense and attaining the pinnacle of achievement in her chosen profession - a PhD. She has been on a lot of committees for PhD but this was her student that she was chair of her committee from day one and it was wonderful to see that happening even if from afar. Congratulations to her student for all her hard work. So yesterday I decided to meet her train at South Keys and I had not taken it to date. I walked to the bus as our train is not yet ready to function out this far. Then on to the train after the bus ride and change to the train to the South Keys line and there I was quite quickly actually waiting for the incoming train from the airport. She landed just a few stops before I reached South Keys so the wait there was just a few minutes. Worked very well and look forward to the completion of all the lines crisscrossing our city and out into the country. Ottawa is finally catching up with major world cities with our light rail. The ride was excellent and the views of the city spectacular as we moved along.

But it was a huge day around the world with so many happenings as Iran finally got what is coming to it - after all they killed nearly 100 Canadians (many children, women and men) when the plane they were on returning to Canada was shot down as it left Tehran all those years ago now. Iran is a Satanist country along with their sycophants Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Hamas has just shown their  satanism when they murdered in cold blood the six members of the staff of the food group (Palestinian hires) that the US set up to deliver food in Gaza. Hamas does not realize their time is past; they have spent these last twenty years grooming the population of Gaza to die for their satanic cause and it is ending finally one prays as these people realize there is more to life than hatred of Israel. Hamas is using this fear tactic to try to bring the Palestinians back under their control. It mustn't happen - Hamas must go from Gaza. The Palestinians for three to four generations has been in this hate mode and they murdered Jewish children in the school yards when I was a child. The world needs to be free of Satanism and that includes Russia attacking the free independent country of Ukraine which is into its third year. The Russian ignorance goes on and on and they too are Satanists unless they get rid of Putin and his adherents all of whom are Satanists. There is hope for Russia if they just rid themselves of these ignorant savage satanists that lead their government.  Satan always comes with sick promises hoping to lure away the honest good people of the world. One must be wary. 

Prayers continuing for all the lives lost in the crash of the plane in India yesterday both in the plane and on the ground. How sad for India and the countries that all these people belonged to including one from Canada who will be very missed I am sure.  

Some work done on the matches yesterday and I have begun the process of looking at the matching data between siblings at Living DNA to compare it with the data from Gedmatch and 23 and Me that I have used for phasing in the Past. I have a different population in the Living DNA results - one that better compares to my actual results as I am 100% English descent in the last six generations at least with Scot and Irish working their ways in earlier and in the 1400s French Huguenot some of which show endogamy with my matches which I knew would be there in both sides of my family particularly in the Routledge (Scot Highlander) and the Knight families in the modern era and Blake (two distinct lines back into the 1500s and likely into the 1300s) from earlier times which does show up surprisingly in American colonial lines as a few Blake members came to the American colonies very early on. Having the five siblings makes it a lot easier process and so many 3rd cousins have tested over time. Would love to have more 2nd cousin results but testing is a personal thing so I do not ask anyone particularly to test although I will mention it to them especially if they ask about it. However the endogamy in the lines is very particularly situated and exists back in the 3x great grandparents lines particularly so that the pieces that come down may sometimes be large and sticky with two different Knight pieces coming together in particular.  So the work continues but when I do do the genealogy of the Blake and Pincombe families I want it to be as accurate as possible. I worked pages 5 to 8 of my matches to extract the 2 segments and 1 segment people that I had not yet looked at and I am up to 102 new matches now to insert into my database along with the perhaps 20 existing matches that I updated with the Living DNA results (people who had tested at other companies earlier). Not that many really most of the testers appear to be new tests that are matching us.

I do need to put the revised version of the original Siderfin book into the repositories as I discovered some errors when my eyes had cleared from surgery and I need to upload the Charting book for Siderfin. A few tasks to get caught up on as this time has passed quickly the past year since I completed the books. It is nearly six months since I started writing the Blake and Pincombe books. Today I must finish the Pincombe Newsletter - it is very late this month. Other than that the gardening is constantly in my mind but my love of gardening is very slight - the flowers are lovely but I love wild flowers too and they do not need my help!

Drinking my tea and solitaire games to play. The day is a little late starting but will be a sunny one. Perhaps kayaking and walking - we will see. The air quality is 39 today. It is 11 degrees celsius and it has been a cold June here but that hasn't kept the forest fires down but the rain is finally helping with that. 

 

 

Back to work

It seemed I did not accomplish a lot of work this week just cleaning. But today I return to the Living DNA matches and I will go back to my account and search for 2 segment and 1 segment matches from 5 to 8 and see what I glean from that. I decided I should do it as I have already noticed that there are still some matches I am missing. 

Still not reading the news very closely as life has been incredibly busy. A slow time must be coming as it usually does by July as the heat/dry spell will be upon us. The gardenias started blooming with the rain but they are nearly one month late. My husband Edward commented on the seasons shifting maybe ten years ago as he was truly a gardener in his spare time and noted such items with respect to the blooming of the flowers in particular. The hostas are huge this year no idea why but I did not clear away last years leaves but let them rot in place. I wonder if that improved the soil and encouraged them to grow larger. Interesting. I mostly did it because I thought in the forest no one clears away the prior year's growth; it just rots away and maybe the result is the beautiful forests that we have full of plants and flowers as well as trees. 

A few more items to do around the house and then the cleaning is done for another week. It is soon time to begin again. A never ending cycle for sure but it is part of the tune of my life and I am enjoying it. Just the quiet and the work and the life around me. 

Late playing the solitaire games today and that is next.  

Main floor completed and top floor today for cleaning

 Today the top floor remains to be cleaned. The week is passing quickly. I also worked on the matches completing the first four pages of the sibling that I am working on currently. I will now sort of breeze through a few pages picking up the low number of lengths of chromosome counts and looking at them. 

Also worked on the Pincombe Newsletter and perhaps will complete that today. Time will tell. 

Other than that the smoke does appear to be slightly dissipated today although the count is still high but in the "safe" range. 

Short blog today; not really reading too much on the daily happenings. Life really busy at the moment with the gardening.  

Basement cleaned and main floor next plus 2% GDP for our military this year

The good news yesterday was Prime Minister Carney following through with his commitment to bring Canada's military up to scratch. There will be in this year's expenditures an increase in the spending to a full 2% of GDP.  Thank you Prime Minister Carney. The last good Prime Minister with regard to the military was Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and it went downhill very rapidly when the Liberals dominated the government for most of the time after that except of course when Prime Minister Harper was in power from 2006 to 2015. He had promised money for the military but in his constant desire to balance the budget he let that slip and I shall be forever on my guard watching to make sure that the Conservatives do not do that again. So thank you Prime Minister Carney for this very important announcement. I still say the ultra-wealthy could support the military with ships as a donation or other equipment. I love to hear that the corporations that they represent are doing such good work for Canada. 

 The rhythm of my week does centre around the cleaning as it occupies Monday to Wednesday most weeks although I also do just Monday and Tuesday. It depends on what I want to do mostly. So today is the main floor and I shall begin around 9 or so. 

Yesterday I did spend time on the matches for the brother that least resembles me and I am on the third page of 50 results  and I have now reached 87 new matches. There will be fewer new ones as I work my way forwards through the results of five siblings but on the other hand because of the layout I am missing some of the singleton matches where the results are within the range that interests me (i.e. 20 cM or greater). But a lot more results with the total still quite high because of endogamy in some cases or simply the frequency of my particular grandparent's surnames coming together has a greater chance in England where all of my ancestors were either born or descendant of English born people. Interesting really and the ethnic results for each of the five of us are slightly different (primarily English of course) but the mixture of Scot and Irish is always very surprising but shouldn't be after all they lived (most of them) in those Isles for millennia perhaps. I do have the Question family from France as Huguenots in the latter part of the 1400s but does it actually show up and yes that is the answer it is there as a small percentage in the ethnicity. There is also German and I have no idea which ancestral line has German although tempted to think it is there in the Buller line perhaps. There is also Scandinavian and the Gray family of the East Riding of Yorkshire is perhaps that particular bit of interesting ethnicity (they were tall people I would say by the picture of my great grandmother Grace (Gray) Pincombe). It is the only picture that I have of that family. The Routledge family as Highlanders may also contribute to that Nordic ancestry not sure. 

I wondered if there would be a lot of transfer between the databases for Living DNA from Ancestry, from My Heritage, from FT DNA and from 23 and Me. There is some although people could have just bought new kits as I did for this brother I am looking at right now and myself. At every testing company I wanted to have at least two new kits where you could upload and for most I have more than that. The results are always similar although will shift about somewhat because of the particular data points that are chosen within the chromosomes by a particular company but it is quite small as an effect. The number though of people from my current database that I am adding Living DNA results to is quite small actually. I was surprised and actually it is great as most of the people are living in the British Isles and the results show the endogamy I anticipated with both the Knight family (my great grandmother Maria Jane Knight married Edward Blake at Upper Clatford but introduced this huge line from Dorset into the results) and the Routledge family tended to marry their cousins in Bewcastle giving me endogamy there. They were my first Canadians - the Routledges. Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge was fourteen years of age when she arrived in Canada in 1818 and it would be another fourteen years before she married Robert Gray from Holme in the Wolds, ERY here in Canada. He emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s (I know where he was on the land in 1831 and then he was here marrying Mary Ann at St Pauls in London Ontario, now St Paul's Cathedral (Anglican)!).  

So today the cleaning and more extraction. Great fun! I did start the Pincombe Newsletter yesterday and will also work away at that today. My mind is flighty at the moment but will soon settle. 

Continuing with accessing matching on Living DNA

 I continued yesterday extracting matches from the Living DNA account of my brother least like me and it was quite successful. He would be pleased actually and is I am sure. Doug found the entire business of DNA quite fascinating especially the yDNA of the Blake line to which we belong. Having it recorded somewhere was the aim of the entire process and as long as the databases exist he is recorded in pretty much all of them as I bought tests for everyone of them for him. He was always trying to pay for them but I said it is for a book I will write and he decided that it was a venture for me and agreed to my paying for them. He was a lovely person my brother and I miss him of course but life became very challenging for him. Doug survived a heart attack in his late 30s but lived to be 77 years of age and approaching his 78th birthday. He had his own accounting business (I think in retrospect that he followed our father's designated profession that his parent's preferred but my father decided to be a Master Electrician and have his own company) although eventually had to retire from that due to ill health. He was very active in the Boy Scouts of Canada all of his life from boyhood following once again in my father's footsteps (my father had been Chief Scout of London, Ontario in the 1930s at some point (that knowledge I never really knew until later and I would need to look up the date). During the floods there in the 30s he and my mother were very active in the Scouting/Guiding movement helping to rescue people. 

I do rather like the way that Living DNA has recorded all of the matches details in their charting which you can override using the checkbox to eliminate anything under 7cM. I think it is good to look at all the data although smaller items can often just be the effect of ethnicity with particular pieces of DNA being inherited by most members of different ethnic groups. The ease of capturing all the match material and putting it into the database (I can just eliminate the ones that I actually use but I retain the material so that I can see it every time I look at the account without increasing the length of my recorded information. 

 I will continue with the extraction today although I really must write the Kipp (I keep reminding myself but when I went in and checked I announced in February that there would just be one single issue per year on the 1st of February) and Pincombe newsletters. The Pincombe Newsletter will be short actually as the  the Pincombe Will just an update on the book and where I am heading. 

This is basement cleaning day and I will begin presently. We have smoke once again although when the rain arrives that will take it out of the air (the best scrubbers in the world are rain). 

Breakfast complete and need to do the solitaire puzzles; this day is a little bit of a switch around.  

Pentecost and new life

 I love Pentecost and will always remember my Confirmation in the Anglican Church when I was 11 years of age. I was really rather young; most of the others were one or two years older than I was but there I was being confirmed. I was being confirmed by my school year - I was in Grade 7. I was always too young for everything it appeared so now I am very happy to be old like everyone else my age! But Pentecost was about a gift; a gift of the Holy Spirit. God has given us many things - the world we live in, His son Jesus Christ and now the Holy Spirit. We are reminded every year that this gift is given to us at our Confirmation as we take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Except at 11 I wasn't an adult far from it but it was a wondrous happening when the Bishop placed his hands on my head and the newness of life filled me at that moment. The Service of Confirmation is quite beautiful when one takes on the commitments of our godparents and becomes one's own person. No idea why I felt this so deeply at the time but it led to a life direction I never lost; following the word of God and His commandments. Thank you God for another beautiful Pentecost. 

 Working through the matches and discovered I can move between siblings with the Living DNA system of search but will do not do it excessively at the moment as I am liking working my way through the list of matches (genetic distance) and observing the frequency of particular grandparent results in each sibling. I would miss that if I try to do anything too different. My brother least like me continues to be primarily Pincombe in these matches outnumbering the others 2 to 1 for the most part. Interesting really how one receives the DNA from one's parents. I must work out his percentage of Pincombe in his 23 chromosomes. Interesting though that he received intact the Buller 23rd chromosome from our mother just as she received it from her mother who blended Cheatle with the likely Taylor/Roberts chromosome. This Buller chromosome is very interesting as a singleton and includes the Cheatle from my grandmother's grandmother  as well as the Brockhouse/Lea family. This solid line of ancestry back into Leicestershire is most interesting actually. I will continue with searching out the matches today. I have acquired 72 new matches thus far that will have to be placed into my database from my Living DNA extractions. I have assigned all of the matches to one of six categories (sometimes a match does have two categories as I can not separate them out at this moment in time). 

The smoke continues into today. Tea drank and solitaire games played. Breakfast next but first yoga. 

 

Homebound with smoke

 Staying home with the heavy smoke in the air outside although it is not swirling about yet so not as bad as two years ago but still a danger to those with chronic health conditions like asthma. It just looks hazy outside this morning but the contaminant is very real in the air. At least we got in four trips to the beach before this arrived!

Working on the matches for the brother least like me and they are interesting as overall Pincombe predominates in his matches (19 in total) but he most resembled the Pincombe line of all my siblings tested.  The other three (Buller, Blake and Rawlings) are at seven, eight and nine. We were close as small children and he taught me how to tie my oxfords when I was just four years old; I can remember that as clearly as if it was yesterday. He taught the proper way and then he taught me (when my mother wasn't watching) how to just tie the two loops as it was quicker. He was a lovely person and it was my mother who got us back together on a regular basis asking him and myself to do DNA work on the family as it interested her that we would do that. So we did testing at all the available companies at the time and collecting vast amounts of information on the family lines. He liked to hear about all the discoveries and we met several times a year in London (my home town) to discuss results. He was especially excited by the yDNA results which I said was his contribution to the family since he did not have any children. He liked that. 

Slow going once again with the first matches as a couple of them were just strange as I do not expect the results that occurred. Matches with all four of the grandparents are unlikely to occur in people I do not know and so I put them into my suspicious category although they may sort themselves because of endogamy later. But for the moment I do not trust those results particularly as more than likely endogamy but until I can prove that they remain suspicious. A few in the not sufficient even at that high level because the lengths are too short and although they do not necessarily show endogamy they could but I have the two categories and when I am sorting later I will look at them with those two thoughts in mind. A couple of new and interesting and the bulk of the matches continue to be in the British Isles proper which is not surprising given our genetic history with 100% of our ancestors being either born in England (and died there) or descendant of people all of whom were born in England although Scotland and Ireland do appear to play a role there as well but back into much earlier times in terms of Scotland and Ireland is still somewhat of a mystery although the matches with the 1772 people who went to the Carolinas with the Rev William Martin in the mitochondrial line seem to point to truth in the family lore that my maternal gramdmother's mother was Irish but descendant of Scot Planters in Northern Ireland. However my Irish genetic heritage shows up in the Irish Republic so that is interesting but gradually the proof will out itself likely. 

I did like Prime Minister Carney's comment that he was quite willing to sit Parliament through the summer. Given the present situation I think it would be the perfect solution to getting things done. So we will see how that goes. Pierre Poilievre has also stated his willingness once he is returned to Parliament with the by-election. No comment yet from the Bloc although they are pretty close to Ottawa and nothing yet from the NDP returned to parliament and not sure about the Green Party as I may have missed a few comments yesterday. 

Today continuing with the extraction of matches for the brother least like me and I expect that will be a few days. I must also think about the two newsletters and will try to get them both done this weekend. The books do dominate my thoughts to be honest. But the newsletters have been a regular item for years now and I should keep them up. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and breakfast shortly.  

Shopping

My least liked outing yesterday as we made the rounds of the Farmer's Market (excellent vegetables), then the grocery store and that went pretty smoothly (a list makes that short work), but then we still had two more places to go. The first accomplished of those two and then the latter one we ended up at St Laurent Plaza looking for a particular couple of items although I regretted not just going to Place as it is closer but we found them and 2.5 hours later we were on our way home again caught in Rush Hour traffic. No more shopping for a bit; I really do dislike shopping. 

Some work on the matches on Living DNA and I have now completed the first 4 of 50 pages of matches sorted on genetic distance. There are four sorts which are probably more than adequate but missing the one sort that I really like on the other sites - sorting by the largest single centimorgan result.  But I do like the features on the Living DNA site and I realize that British people who possibly predominate the site it appears to me look at DNA differently from North Americans likely. Because all of my relatives are going to be British descendant with a few slightly different ones but still primarily have some British ancestry my results resemble those of British people more than say American/Canadian but reading the Living DNA site results is different from the other databases as you have a set of Islands (and when I am referring to British in this instance I am including all of those islands in the British Isles which includes the Irish Republic) that has sent people around the world but in general the flow of DNA is fairly constant in the British Isles with incoming variety that gradually works its way into the population and basically disappears into that population over the generations. I went to page 7 of the matches out of curiosity displayed as genetic distance and the second person on this page is primarily of British heritage likely by the surname but that doesn't always hold true and he matches my Pincombe line on both of his shared chromsome lengths (in total he matches four out of five siblings on both and five out of five siblings on just one). So in theory I still have a ways to go before I run out of data that is meaningful to my search. Plus I have only pulled data for one sibling namely myself but there are far fewer singleton matches to any sibling in this database thus far which is different from the other databases where a single sibling sometimes is the only match out of five for individuals that do not have 100% British DNA inheritance. We all, my siblings, have inherited on occasion an unbroken chromosome from one or other of our grandparents and the number of times this has occurred is striking actually looking at five siblings but that is one of my reasons for wanting to also do my great grandparents as we have endogamy in two lines - Routledge (two 3x great grandparents were 2nd cousins once removed in a family line which tended to always marry cousins) and Knight/Butt where a number of siblings in several generations married their cousins (not always first or second) but it does mean that you have sticky pieces that are actually from different lines of a named family but appear to be solidly passed but not in reality when you really look at the passage of material. Further back we have two Blake cousins marrying in the 1500s and again in the mid 1600s thus increasing the lengths of chromosomes passed. Interesting really as in this generation we have all married into entirely different DNA backgrounds although limited to European inheritance which includes early Colonial America with my husband and my son in law with his 95% French ancestry including early Quebec ancestry and a few links to First Nations through the centuries. DNA is really quite fascinating and will be the centerpiece of medical research in the future. 

Politics here in Canada continue to be interesting as the Throne Speech has now passed the house successfully - given the temperature of the electorate anything else would not have been forgiven and would ensure a Liberal majority. Eighty five percent of Canadians voted to follow the platforms of the Liberal and Conservative parties and they were very similar so lets get the job done and stop grandstanding. The new Prime Minister is very interesting in that (unlike earlier ones in this century he does not grandstand but rather follows the team approach which is rewarding - I just need that approach to be economically sound given the last administrations by the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau). On with the show; shovels in the ground and work happening to build this economy back up after the years of free trade with the United States. I actually had no problem with the free trade (life was reasonable) but it decimated our local industries through the years (the Americans who bought them out then went off shore because they didn't want to pay high wages in the United States to their employees in their greed for more money decimating the American economy) and we need to rebuild our economy along with pipelines and other energy needs to create this national energy corridor and free ourselves from any dependence on any country. Canada is a powerhouse of natural resources and human ability - lets get this show on the road. Parliament could consider working through the summer for a change and speed it all up. Who actually gets three months holidays plus every year! If I see that they are working in their ridings then that works or doing research that is valuable use of the money that I pay in taxes but otherwise they could be in Ottawa getting things done. The situation is urgent. 

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next then into DNA research once again. Some exercise breaks and no more shopping - done with that for sure for a few days. Perhaps some gardening if the smoke is gone. It descended last night for a bit. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

It was truly a cleaning day

 Cleaning was pretty much all I accomplished yesterday but done for another week. Doing the main floor and the basement in one day is a challenge but I met it although pretty tired by evening. Went outside to put out the garbage but that was about it. Not really an outdoors person in a city although love being out in the woods especially in Northern Ontario and especially with a 16 foot canoe (cargo type) which I have given away to a lovely family in the north and I imagine them enjoying going down all those lovely rivers in the north. Probably I am past that sort of thing but it was great fun and did help to bring me along in terms of my mental health at the time. Nothing like the wilderness where bears do on occasion appear to be stalking you or just avoiding you not sure which and mostly the latter I suspect unless you interfere between a mother and her young or maybe food. We didn't do either and had no unfortunate encounters in the wild in the eight years that we spent going up to Northern Ontario. 

So today I should continue to think about the two newsletters and get them done. But also I will work on my Living DNA matches. The Buller matches are proving to be most interesting. I have a huge set of matches with Buller on one chromosome which are from all over the world and I have not collected all of them. There are just too many and I have not yet been successful in locating the actual family line there. Other Buller lines went to New Zealand and have been in contact with them as they descend from one of my great grandfather's (Edwin Denner Buller) brothers Clement. Clement had followed Edwin to South Africa to work in the jewellery business for his mother's twin's husband. So an interesting family that Buller line coming down from Henry Christopher Buller and Anne Welch with Henry being the son of Christopher Buller and Mary (Beard) Buller of Bermondsey and Anne being the daughter of William Welch and Sarah (Cheatle) Welch of Birmingham (formerly Welch of Rugeley, Staffordshire and Cheatle of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire).  

 Not really sure why anyone would think of voting against the Throne Speech actually; it was a good plan kindly presented by the King himself to the Parliament and the people of Canada. I think that was the problem with the NDP from the beginning of the Pandemic really they could not see the urgency that existed and became fixated on items that were simply not in the best interest of Canada in terms of money expenditure at the time (the Liberals were definitely bad money managers at that time) and I await the progress with Prime Minister Carney as he has a much more interesting background to bring to the table in terms of management particularly money. Eighty five percent of Canadians voted for Liberal or Conservative and their platforms during the election were very very similar. Not to say that we shouldn't have that type of care available that was being offered to those in need but we need to have the economy to support it and this Throne Speech definitely lays out ideas for that growth in Canada. I think it is a bad time to vote against Canada personally because that is what they would be doing especially if they do it as a block. I can see where the NDP works provincially (although a very poor job in Ontario in the 1990s) but federally I think it just gets in the way of normal progress in terms of a government being defeated when it is time to do that. Too many parties mix the brew up too much; needs to be somewhat more streamlined so that it is effective and if not immediately defeated and the people speak again to elect a government that works. But the punishment for putting this government to election again would be very painful for any opposition party I think. We the people would not appreciate it and it costs a lot of money! Lets get this job done. 

 Tea drank and breakfast next but first Yoga. 

 

 

 

Kayaking first time out this year

 A bit of kayaking as one's muscles need to prepare for this type of expedition but it was enjoyed followed by a walk on the beach. But smoke maybe coming so that will remove that interesting occupation for a bit until it moves on or stays as it did a couple of years ago when it swirled around the backyard in ways I never saw before coming from southwestern Ontario where the effect of forest fires was not felt when I was a child. I do keep thinking when we arrived here in 1975 I was then almost 30 but in many ways I probably was still like a child as I had married young going from my parent's house to my husband's apartment. There was never a time when I was independent really although as a teenager before the knife attack I was more independent than I became after that. So I do tend to think my childhood lasted long into my 20s until the birth of our first child when I was 28. Motherhood wakes you up to reality really. A nice reality for sure but definitely a wake up call. We had a couple of friends here known to us and when we visited them in their carriage home (located just behind where we live now) we decided to buy one especially as the yard was exactly what Edward wanted (lots of room for his garden) plus our daughter was then ready for school (and desperate to go actually) so we signed her up as a tuition student at the Roman Catholic four year old class and she loved it. Had we stayed where we were we would have had to bus her to this area to go to school eventually as there wasn't immersion in the public school system where we were then. Plus we were renting and had always meant to buy a house but just didn't get to it as we had ended up selling our brand new house in southwestern Ontario to move here! But once the decision to stay here was made then we moved on. 

More work on the matches yesterday as I worked my way through the next 50 matches in genetic order. I continued to place them into one of the four (or more if it could not be determined otherwise) grandparent's matchbox or into the insufficient or suspicious matchboxes. Not very many in the suspicious matchboxes as these tend to be a match that looks like all four grandparents which in my case is an absolute no as my father was an only child and my mother's only sibling did not have children. Although it could be possible with small amounts a larger amount greater than 10 cM matched by a perhaps 8 to 10 cM second match in my opinion is unlikely but it is small amounts and could be in a "common" area so they are in a box because they are suspicious! The insufficient are just that the amounts spread over five to six lengths but less than 25 cM are simply too small to determine quickly although referring to the matches within these blocks will be possible if I decide to take that time. But I have plenty of matches and tend to save my time for the larger ones. 

Living DNA is proving to be interesting as there are more Buller matches here than anywhere else on some chromosomes that had scant Buller matches prior to working this data set. I am still just working on my own matches and will continue until I reach a point where it is no longer productive for me to continue probably around 20 centimorgans when I can see that there are only three and up lengths with none of them greater than 10 centimorgans. I have been matchboxing the in common with as well which is helpful. 

I keep reminding myself that I am doing this because of the Blake and Pincombe books as the modern descendants can answer some questions as I work my way through the generations. 

Yesterday top floor cleaned and today will be the main floor and the basement and it is time for breakfast. Tea drank and solitaire puzzles completed. The sun is shinning although temperatures are going to drop again which is interesting as we looked to be having a heat spell once again with rain. The high today is meant to be 31 and the air quality has risen to 45 so smoke may also be on the horizon so no kayaking perhaps but lots to do inside. 

I am also realizing I am now behind in two newsletters so perhaps should spend a little time between cleaning to work on the Kipp (late one month) and the Pincombe Newsletters (due the 1st of June). Where has the month of May gone! 

One hundred matches reviewed and placed into grandparent line for myself

 Yesterday I went through the first 100 matches for my Living DNA data and placed any not yet placed into their appropriate grandparent line(s) for the moment or into a insufficient matchbox label. I will continue that process today. I had to work my data in two different ways to determine the best way to look at the other four sets of sibling data. I have considered simply not regarding data less than 7 cM but a glance at the data and my current phasing chart has proven to be most interesting so I continue looking at everything. I have a large number of new data points for my Buller lines where I had scant data before as there are a lot of testers that I have never seen before. Interesting that so many are Buller actually (Buller 34, Pincombe 23, Rawlings 19, and Blake 16 in a sample set of 100 plus with 21 placed in insufficient size - I move on the the next 50 today from a simple linear review but some already covered by my earlier method) and the chromosomes lengths that are matching are known to be Buller but I simply had less data points before on some of the chromosomes. There is greater variety in the British Isles of my lines perhaps not surprising as most of my known relatives beyond 3rd cousin still live in the British Isles with a few in the United States that are 4th to 5th cousin or larger for the occasional one). My first ancestor to set foot on this continent was George Lywood in 1806 with the 23rd Regiment of Foot at Halifax and the next was my Routledge family in southwestern Ontario in the latter part of 1818 so I am definitely a newbie to this continent. 

Worked in the garden for about an hour or so and have freed up more plants from the weeds. I have lost a few more plants this year but eventually the hardy ones will survive and the less so will simply die off. It is too much for me to maintain as it was. I used to spend about six hours a day out there when Edward took ill keeping it as he had had it but my interest in gardening is pretty low and anyone coming in is going to look at this yard and say swimming pool and activities and the yard will change so my keeping it up for other than myself is a waste of my time. The rhubarb also got to see its way but actually it was fighting back and growing above the weed level but the weeds suck out the goodness of the soil so now they are free to thicken up or whatever. I like a little but not a lot so works for me. The raspberry canes that I planted around the yard are doing well here and there and will let them stay where I placed them. They occupy about 1/3rd of the main garden these days. The sunflower seeds are now all planted and will fill the large upper part of the main garden. Thank goodness. The other part of the garden we will plant all the left over seed and let the mammals enjoy the product of that. Gradually the yard is coming together. Still a small amount of grass to cut and perhaps this week will see that task completed. The mammals are enjoying the large clover and other wild plants. 

The Prime Minister/Premiers Conference seemed to have gone very well with everyone happy except for the Premier of British Columbia who does not want large oil tankers around the north British Columbia coast. Progress forward is perhaps more important at the moment and we can be on guard for inadequate tankers perhaps would be a better solution than banning. We need to get our export business in products that are wanted going in the best environmental way possible but making it possible is very important. I did not hear any complaints from Quebec on an Eastern Pipeline but I may have missed something there but we will see how that goes. The simplest project is a direct pipeline from Alberta to the Atlantic and takes advantage of the ability to export all of the year but thoughts on the use of Hudson Bay also useful but less available year round. 

I think that we who have arrived in the last 400 plus years should not think that North America was under populated and available for population but rather appreciate that the First Nations welcomed us here. History reports (primarily old Spanish documents) that the population at first contact was very large but dwindled as their visits continued - smallpox and other European diseases certainly took their toll on the unexposed First Nations back in the 1500s for sure and mis-understating the amount of transaction from an economic viewpoint and total number of people on this continent is perhaps naive on the part of those of us who have arrived in the last 400 plus years I am left to think.  We can learn a lot from the First Nations who have lived on this continent for thousands of years compared to our mere four hundred plus years. The causes of climate change (although known to be affected by human habitation in this century and the past one in particular) are very complex and their knowledge of such items and many others is very valuable to the over all picture of life on this continent and making it work for all of us. 

An eye opener for me, on just how small the world could be, occurred when we visited Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and saw the carvings of ancient corn stalks in a chapel constructed in the 1440s quite a while before the British/European explorations of the Americas where corn was a crop but unknown to the British/Europeans. Mind you the Norse did have explorations into the northern part of the continent (Newfoundland in particular at L'Anse aux Meadows) earlier and their expeditions to the British Isles are well known prior to the 1440s so that could be a source of the knowledge. 

Today continuing with the matches at Living DNA. Tea drank and solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Continuing extracting Living DNA matches

 Now up to 37 new matches extracted from Living DNA for my kit there (and I actually tested there so a new kit although it was tested eight years ago). I have just been slow to look at these results. What is left to do with my account now is to look at the results - 50 at a time and pay regard to those that have just 1 result or 2 depending upon the amount of cM available as a match. So that will be todays work although I did start my brother that matches me the least yesterday late in the day just to have a quick look at his kit (also a new test there about the same number of years ago). I have watched the matches grow, the development of the chromosome browser but just wasn't doing that for the last four years - collecting matches. 

We went for a long walk at the beach yesterday; absolutely lovely although the wind was very strong along the water's edge but we enjoyed it. We did about 4 kilometres in all around the paths and we got back to the car just as it started to rain. It was the first chance though that we have had to go to the beach. 

Today is the meeting with the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the Provinces/Territories; yesterday the Prime Minister met with the oil executives in Calgary. All of this is work for June which will culminate in Canada doing their trade differently between the provinces and has been needed for quite a long time. Ten years of Liberal government with their extreme emphasis on environmental protection to the detriment of trade and then ten years of Conservative government turning over too much of Canada's support to the oil industry of Alberta were both disadvantageous to Canada overall. Supporting the industry a good idea but not to the detriment of the industrial base in the other provinces/territories. The conservative reaction to the market collapse in 2008 was not helpful in the long run although we did come out of it not too badly and the value of our dollar remaining low has made our exterior trade profitable for us. Definitely the then preceding government - 13 years of Liberal government was extremely detrimental to our military with  not sufficient funding given to them for all that period which continued into the following two decades. That is being remedied immediately as we speak and more to come. All eyes glued to Canada for sure on the part of Canadians. It would be nice to have our highly skilled Canadians all come home to work but the jobs need to be here for them and thus far one can not see that that is happening. 

Prayers for all those affected by the fires across Canada continuing. I went to both of my Church Services yesterday online. The Sermon at Christ Church was particularly memorable and will reread it online today in between research bouts. My mind was full by the time it was completed but this particular individual (a religious scholar) quite captured my thoughts with his very careful selective look at Ascension and the records that exist. I rather found it very interesting. I do like a good sermon based on the scripture and other available writings of the time. 

Tea finished, breakfast finished and solitaire games to play as I finish up my blog for the day.  

Forging ahead with Living DNA results extraction

Getting used to a site is part of the entire process; minimizing the number of times that you look at each item perhaps the most important but it does take a bit of time to get used to each individual site. I have extracted fifteen matches from Living DNA looking at myself and the process will continue today. For the most part I can assign them to one of my four grandparent's lines based on the matches in common and my own phasing of my grandparents done five years ago. In the eleven years since I first phased my grandparents the changes have been fairly minimal primarily cosmetic. A couple of new matches that are interesting particularly in the Buller line. Matches in this line tend to be from the Commonwealth countries although there are also a number of them in the United States as well. In this line I suspect there is a pretty clear division between Buller and Taylor but I do not always have that figured out for every chromosome. For the Pincombe-Rew I have a number of clear distinctions and also for the Blake-Knight looking at my great grandparents. I haven't made an effort yet in the Cotterill?-Rawlings lines although will likely work on that through this process. I have been through 46 matches now in my account and will likely do the first 100 to 125 by advance checking but one never knows for sure until one gets there! Then I will move on to the brother that least matches me as this tends to catch most matches to the five sibling group that constitutes this research study. I will use my account at Find My Past to look at some of these matches as they do have trees now and it is primarily a United Kingdom site but has a worldwide searching ability through their records. 

Prayers continuing for those affected by the fires here in Canada (looking at a map entire areas are in a danger zone). We have had a lot of rain but it has been accompanied by lightning which is a problem in the hot dry season in the west. But as always our Military is helping a great deal with transportation of those forced to evacuate. The firefighters try to preserve the settlements and save as many homes as possible; their hours are long and prayers for them as well and our military personnel aiding all of them. 

Today the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the Provinces/Territories meet to discuss priorities in our move towards abolishing our inter provincial/territorial restrictions between them within Canada and to look at and review projects that will help to increase our usage of Canadian paths to better economic use of our own products and get that process started as soon as possible - shovels in the ground so to speak. The pace is fast but our youth is up to it for sure. This will be their opportunity to shine and gradually assume the responsibilities and benefits of being the wage earners in our country utilizing our own products within our own borders and also producing for trade around the world. 

Sunday and Church at Loughborough and this is home county for my Cheatle family of Leicestershire along with Ashby de la Zouch.  I have a number of very good matches with my 4th and 5th cousins in the Cheatle line. Sarah Cheatle married William Welch 24 Aug 1818 at Longdon by Lichfield Staffordshire although she was baptized at Ashby de la Zouch. They eventually moved to Birmingham and had a restaurant at the corner of Lower Temple Street and Dale End. My Buller family lived close by to the restaurant. I actually corresponded recently with a descendant of the Withers-Welch family and their Welch ancestor  Sarah who was a twin to my 2x great grandmother Anne Welch. As a result of the twinning we are excellent matches much larger than the usual 4th cousins. 

Church livestreamed at my own Church and at Loughborough and will attend both. I do love going to Church and the idea of Church online for old people is a great idea I think (or any age if they want to watch rather than be present or it just works out better for their schedules). As a child I often attended twice on Sunday; once at early communion with my father and later at the morning service where I did teach Sunday School in my teen years. 

Tea finished, solitaire games played and breakfast soon.  

 

Rain beautiful rain

 Poured with rain yesterday evening and the trees show it as they quickly swell up and fill the sky. This year may see all of the view from my window obscured by trees. Still a little sky peeking through but not very much. the air conditioner does not run very much these days probably because of all the trees - they do tend to act as a cooling agent around us. 

Finished all the Gedmatch material and on to Living DNA. Like the other databases you have to work on one sibling at a time and I have decided to start with myself as is pretty usual. I had initially put one large match into the Buller family but I began to wonder as I was sorting but gradually I can see that it does belong there but I actually have no idea who this person is. I did write years ago now which is rare in itself but did not hear back. I have played a little with that data - I am the largest match which isn't unusual in the Buller line but I suspect it is my great grandmother Ellen (Taylor) Buller's line rather than Buller family itself. My Irish mapping appears to be from the Republic of Ireland rather than Northern Ireland which is very interesting but the mt DNA matches with several people who were on the Expedition headed by the Reverend William Martin to the Carolinas from Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1772 matches our line perfectly. So I am suspecting that this Taylor line was originally from Ayrshire/Argyllshire which is the location suggested for our mutations in mtDNA in the Blood of the Isles Database. There are a couple of matches that belong to people who trace back to a smaller migration from Ayrshire/Argyllshire down into the Cumberland area and then on to Birmingham, England. The father though of Ellen Taylor does appear to be Thomas Taylor and her mother Ellen (Roberts) Taylor who married 29 Jun 1857 at St Martin Birmingham. I did have a descendant of this Taylor family write to me on Ancestry so leave that possible connection as likely true with Edwin Denner Buller marrying Ellen Taylor sometime in the 1880s after he was medically repatriated to Birmingham from South Africa as a result of his injuries as a Medic during the First Boer War (he returned in 1882 and was a patient at the hospital in Aston). Still working on that theory actually but this match is quite large a likely 2nd to 3rd cousin or a very large 4th cousin. 

Finally watching the news once again and prayers for all those suffering because of the wild fires in central Canada in particular and all across Canada as Climate Change continues to aggravate the conditions under which fires are able to take such great costs on the Canadian people. 

Time to do solitaire as I got distracted early this morning as I drank my tea and thought about the matches on Living DNA.  

Groceries, the market and another quiet day

 The local market opened last week and we attended this week and found lovely local vegetables there plus the grocery store completed our hunt for food that we wanted. With two of us food is more expensive but we still buy pretty basic preparing everything we eat primarily from scratch. I do not like a lot of salt in my food so eliminates most commercial preparations. Although I would say that salt is a good preservative. It makes an interesting diversion in my year for sure though but I get very little work done this time of year. 

A few more of the Gedmatch matches sorted into my database leaving perhaps  nine still to work on and then I move to Living DNA. There are a lot of matches there for sure and they will likely be heavier on the side of British Isles people testing. Still no more news on the 23 and Me purchase and I am excited to think perhaps we will have person to person matching again. Time will tell. 23 and Me was an extremely good site and I really consider the invasion of that database to be terrorism and hope that the criminals are caught and punished to the full extent of the law. 

Other than that I did absolutely no work at all but the days move quickly as we get prepared for summer. My daughter deep into research these days which is nice to see. Research is the backbone of our existence as a people on this planet and each researcher brings to the table their skill sets and one never really knows which skill set is going to move us ahead each time. 

The Gold Dome is still creating interest around the globe. Considering the chances of a meteor strike always exist working on the dome is in everyone's interest actually. But as usual we have the people who are only interested in dominating the globe trying to destroy the idea. One is left with the impression that they fear the dome but really if you do not attack another country than you have no fear. The world would be better off if everyone was friendly rather than selfish and demanding and in some cases satanic like the Russians and Hamas/Hezbollah/Houthis along with Iran their funder. 

Tea drank, solitaire puzzles completed and just waiting for the fitbit to finish charging to 100% for another five day run. Must get a new one one of these days but it still seems to work well. I am going to look for a new computer though as Windows 10 is going archaic! 

Question Period

Glued to the television watching Question Period and a few thoughts emerged. First of all Prime Minister Carney was a natural I have to admit; he fitted perfectly into Parliament. He allowed his cabinet to answer questions in their pertinent area which is always a bonus I think. We have had a one man show for too long in the Liberal government. 

The subject of the lack of a budget for this short time period was raised but I think realistically when one considers that the Prime Minister is meeting with the Provincial and Territorial Premiers on the 2nd of June to discuss priorities (and summer break quickly follows) it is very difficult to prepare a budget prior to that meeting and it will take a while to decide which roads to follow as we move forward quickly to pipelines and everything else that will encourage industry; break down provincial trade barriers and stave off a recession. So I agree (although fundamentally I believe in a budget) it is not necessary at this time. 

Great job Prime Minister and I am looking forward to Question Period once again although I do tend to do one of my exercises at the time like rowing or running or yoga but I get the words without actually watching.  

A little work on the matches and the cleaning is completed for another week rounding out the day. No work outside; a day off as it is too warm mid day to work outside really and the blackflies can be nasty in the evening. 

 

The Throne Speech

There were a few really good items in the throne speech including becoming part of the European Defense System; we are already part of NORAD here. The only real defense against aggressor nations is to be more armed than they are unfortunately. I have argued for many years now that we need to put more into our military because they are the backbone of our defense system both against natural causes like flooding, fires, whatever but also against aggressive nations. We always need to be ready because aggressors have basically become satanists and the word "no" has no meaning to them. They are selfish ignorant people with no regard for anyone (including their own people) but themselves and their ambitions. 

A few really good takeaways in the Throne Speech included single release for each project; no prolonged haggling over implementing ideas. Of course breaking down the trade barriers between provinces will really help the economy as trade is just a small portion of business in the long run. The more we produce here ourselves the better off we will be. Trade is just a luxury that we enjoy when it happens but our first concern should be local production of all items especially those bought out/closed during NAFTA/CUSMA. Of course companies are welcomed to open up a manufacturing hub here if it works for both of us for that to happen. But really when I was a child everything was mostly made in Canada so we can do that again.  The car industry still up in the air here in Ontario - the tariffs do not work for us and it will hurt the American car companies that have been established here for as much as 100 years in the case of Dodge. We always bought Dodge in my family and we still have a Dodge but if it isn't made here by Canadian workers the resolve of 1965 was that it has to be made in Canada by Canadian workers and Canadian materials to a certain extent. We are a large market especially as owning a car here is a rite of passage to adulthood for sure; get your permanent license now at 18 (was 16) and buy a car and live at home so you can afford it. 

I really appreciated the enthusiasm which the King brought to the reading of the Throne Speech - it was a long read and he did it well with his fluent French. He does make a great King and the ability of him to have been a King earlier meant the loss of the Queen so one has to be happy that the Queen was Queen when she was and appreciate the King when he is King. I rather think William will also be a great King in his own time. He has truly been through the struggles of life from childhood even if his upbringing was wealthy.  

The Gold Dome System is interesting but useless against a heavy barrage it would appear judging from how it has worked for another nation. It can be overcome although one would think that if adequate sensors and defense manipulations can be built into the system it would be 100%. Definitely an interesting idea and joint effort to actually materially produce it would be in the best interests of everyone to keep the costs down. One wonders about its value during an asteroid storm - interesting concept actually. 

 Not much work done on matches yesterday but the lawns are both raked where they have been cut and more to do today. Weeding the garden was another project high on the list and did accomplish some of that. I asked the neighbour of they could cut back their lilac bush which hangs over our fence quite aways this year and we will see if that happens one of these days. A couple of hosta plants just do not get enough sun and are stunted thus far; they only need a little for sure but at the moment they get none! Still more weeding around the flowers to come and will try to get to that today as well. Fingers itching to work on the matches but the garden does tend to take up time in May and June. We want to plant the Sunflowers soon - seven rows I think will be lovely. 

Top floor to clean as I simply can not do two floors in one day and also work outside. So that is the next task after breakfast. Drinking my tea and doing solitaire. Another beautiful sunny day but rain and cooler weather is mentioned.  

 

 

 

The King of Canada

Glued to the Television watching the King's attendance in the Senate and reading the Speech from the Throne. Excellent speech and just collects all of the promises made by Prime Minister Carney during the election period. It will be a hostile public if anyone tries to bring the government down in the near future and a guarantee for a majority Liberal government if anyone succeeds. We do tend to be a punishing electorate if brought to an election prematurely in our opinion. The speech read like a Progressive Conservative speech from the throne actually; one would find it hard to differentiate from such speeches thirty years ago. However, I remain a Conservative supporter for the most part throughout my life. But I am enthusiastic for Prime Minister Carney to be successful; he did get the most support in the election and deserves the opportunity to bring his skill set to the table as it is extremely impressive. One can feel the vibes amongst our allies when he meets with them. They like him very much and that can sometimes be a real asset. 

Completed the review of the Gedmatch matches and they are now ready to enter into my databases and I have done one today already. But it is cleaning day and the main floor and I will be accomplishing that first. The matches are quite interesting and primarily Ancestry so take a little while as I check them in Ancestry as well to see if I can actually place the individuals and have their results for my known file. 

Beautiful day today and has been lovely here for the King's and Queen's visit which was really very well received. Any of the not interested people stayed away as the cheers for them were huge and made me wish I was there to add in my voice but I decided I would watch it on television since I would miss the Speech from the Throne if I went downtown. The King speaks three languages very well English of course, French and German. He also speaks some Gaelic and other languages unknown to me. He is a very well educated person having been the first to graduate from University in his family. I always find the Queen to be perfect at her task of support as she always have been from the first time of knowing the King way back years both either were married. Life doesn't always flow for two people the way they would like but in their case they finally found happiness late in life with each other. 

Back to work; much to do including outdoor work.  

More work on Gedmatch

I have just two left to place into the ready to add to database file in the Gedmatch search. This has gone very well and quickly. The set up of Gedmatch is perfect to look at five siblings in a rapid sort of way. I haven't used it too much in the last four years and it has many upgrades. Because I am solely looking at these five siblings and have my own database setup I have not registered for the Tier1 tools but may do that one of these days as they are very interesting.  At the moment though I am simply gleaning new matches from the past four years in the various sites where I have tested both myself and my one brother and a number of my other siblings have also tested at these sites making for a well rounded set of matches. 

We went shopping and spent a couple of hours at that and then returned and cut the lawns I was sad to do that in some ways as some dandelions were still blooming but they have had a good run through the month and time to get everything neatened up for the coming summer. I want to move Starry Solomon Seals to the back as there is a surplus of them out front. I have one Bleeding Heart to move as well. Lots of weeding to free up the plants to grow and we will plant sunflower seeds (seven rows of them) in the garden. They will be lovely. We will plant any leftover seed in the back behind the raspberries and the rabbits or any other four legged mammal can eat them up as they grow. We may plant tomato plants but we will see.  

Today the cleaning and it begins with the basement this week. Never a dull moment. The kayaks, bicycles are in the garage now and the golfing bags ready for our outings this summer. Life is busy with our research, both of us and rather fun that both of us will be working away on something that interests us very much. I am looking forward to long discussions on AI as I believe it is part of the future but its control must be very tight in order to make the best use of it as well as encouraging our own brains to become more sophisticated in how we deal with the world. Children especially can benefit from having a constant companion with AI that they can instruct and use for their own advancement in knowledge and there are strong safety aspects there as well that can be utilized by them in a world that has so much theft and attempts at theft. 

Tea finished, solitaire games next and then breakfast and start the Robot as it will then be finished when I have eaten. Sounds great and the day begins with sunshine. 

Gedmatch and 22 new matches

 A check through Gedmatch and in total I found 22 new matches - I already have gleaned this database a number of times and a couple of these I passed by the last time for whatever reason. One excellent one that was a surprise - a good Buller match including the X chromosome which I mentioned yesterday. I decided with the first phasing of the grandparents that I was right about one of my siblings having inherited the entire chromosome for Buller although I didn't really have any conclusive evidence; more negative evidence than positive. But this new match provides even further positive evidence that this is a Buller chromosome inherited from my mother intact from her mother. That is the nice thing about the X chromosome; sometimes it is intact from a parent like the X chromosome passed from a father to a daughter and in my case a Rawlings/Cotterill? chromosome intact from his mother Ada Bessie Cotteril (Rawlings) Blake and my paternal grandmother. But finding one on the maternal side is just a gift that keeps on giving in terms of figuring out the line for Buller actually for the tester. I have been able to break that chromosome down into Welch/Cheatle/Buller/Taylor and pretty much all of it taking me back to my 3x great grandparents. 

My eyes have taken this leap ahead once again and the snow in the picture now has an enormous amount of texture and fluffiness. One can only sympathize with a small baby as they learn to see or perhaps they are much quicker because their brain is brand new; no one knows they can not tell us their first year's experience for the most part although both of my children talked quite early and a lot. But when I was working I would always talk to them or read or sing to them so that words were always in their hearing all day long. Their little brains can handle an enormous amount in that first year for sure. But the eyes were a surprise for me because I always thought you were born with fully developed vision and perhaps you are I have no idea but this progress of acquiring depth of vision and clearer vision has been ongoing since the first surgery nearly one year ago now. The second surgery two and a half weeks later completed the task and I have spent the years gaining constantly in my vision. Amazing really. My eyes still do quite fascinate me because I could barely see that blue eye ring before surgery and now when I look it is quite large although the center of my eyes around the pupil remain a speckled brown. So likely I remain brown-eyed as I recall but my close up vision was somewhat limited for whatever reason - it got blurry when I was too close even with my glasses on before the surgery and all of my life.

Today is Sunday; two services once again and I shall soon attend the one at the Cathedral. Last week the sound was poor but it was fun to see the service and I could sing the hymns because I have the bulletin on the website to follow. I did not go to the service in North Yorkshire yet but will a little later. Usually I watch it pretty much first thing but I got working away on the matches and the time flew by and it is nearly time for Church here. 

Tomorrow the King and Queen are coming and I shall watch that on television. Hopefully the weather will be good as I am sure there will be many many people downtown to welcome him especially to his country; it is my English upbringing of course but I do think of him as my King in a more personal way than many perhaps because of that 100% English ancestry (with some Huguenot from the 1400s, Scots from the 1400s and maybe some Irish (still working on that as to whether it is Planters from Ireland during Cromwell). But the Irish in the DNA is actually showing areas in other parts of Ireland mostly. 

 Working through the GEDmatches as I extract mtDNA and any missed material for the other siblings as I collect them one sibling at a time so as not to miss anyone. 

Continuing with match searching

 Yesterday I moved to Gedmath in my pursuit of matches and found only a few really as I do generally check there as Ancestry matches are most likely to be found there but also it appears My Heritage is starting to pick them up as well. One excellent one for a third cousin known to me which proves without a doubt my original phasing of the 23rd chromosome for one of my brothers was absolutely correct as he received intact the Buller length of chromosome intact from my mother and probably just as she received it from her mother. I know that X chromosome the best as I can locate Welch, Cheatle, Buller, and Taylor areas on that chromosome - spectacular really as that takes me back to 3x great grandparent's additions to my DNA. Since my Pincombe line is male it is more difficult to separate out the families although have managed to locate Siderfin and Rew not too badly in the lines mostly with cousin's results although we all inherited a little Pincombe except for one of the test siblings. Mine is also primarily Buller 2/3rds and 1/3rd Pincombe plus I receive an entire Rawlings/Cotterill? chromosome and thus far I have not really separated it out at all. Perhaps I will begin to look at that - time will tell. 

No gardening as it was too wet although always tempting to go out in my rubber boots and rain clothes and pull weeds but I didn't do it. Perhaps today as we have the same weather. At least the King will feel at home here with all the rain but hopefully we have some sun to greet him and during his stay. I think if you are excited he is coming then that is wonderful and not so excited that is your right. But please do not boo him or anything just stay home and let those people who have come to cheer him have their day in the sun. We would do the same for you. I hate booing it is so juvenile. 

So continuing the Gedmatch searches and I am working on the second sibling; three more to go and then move on to Living DNA. I have never really used Living DNA so curious how that will come out actually since all of my people are either born in England (dying here) or lived in England their entire lives and died there except for those of us who were born in Canada. I was born a British Subject but grandfathered in my own right to being a Canadian citizen because I was born here before 1st of January 1947. I have always found that to be very exciting. I have to admit I could be equally happy being a citizen of Turtle Island; we did make mistakes we colonials but we are blessed with the opportunity to correct them as the First Nations are very generous people. It is a lovely word though - Canada. 

Praying that Hamas leaves Gaza  that would be great (and releasing the hostages still held for nearly two years now probably underground; Hamas is definitely Satan) so that the people of Gaza can get the supplies that they need. Hamas is responsible for all of the deaths that have occurred during this war and the difficulties which Gaza is presently facing. 

As I mentioned earlier, Satanic Russia does not understand the meaning of the word no - no you can not have Ukraine; they are their own people with their own land and have a right to exist. Stop committing genocide against the people of Ukraine.

Back to extraction and perhaps I will complete this in a couple of days. Then Living DNA and a quick check of My Heritage as it is now a while since I looked at that database. 

Tea completed, Breakfast eaten. Next weightlifting when I take a break. 

Cleaned out the dead wood in the raspberry patch

A busy day yesterday and I cleaned out the dead wood in the raspberry patch, quite of a bit of it anyway. It was a very severe winter because of the lack of snow cover during the early really cold period. Too bad but they are coming along. I also cleared away some of the weeds as we are going to plant that garden area full of sunflowers as I did find it amusing watching the squirrels collect the heads and take them away. Plus the birds come to peck at the seeds so is very interesting when I do look out the window which is probably not often enough!

I did not achieve the Cardio level selected for me yesterday but that is okay will work at it today. I never had a numerical readout before on the FitBit so am finding it interesting. I think it bases it suggestion on what I have done the day before and if it is cleaning then the cardio level is way above the suggested but once I am not cleaning the cardio level is not going to be as high for sure. Interesting though as an addition to looking at exercise. 

I heard from one of my 2x great grandmother's twin sister's descendants on Ancestry. That was nice as one doesn't actually expect to hear from people who are second cousin or greater as my cousin explained to me in England when I was visiting that second cousins tend to not be that close (we do correspond a little but the time flies so quickly and I am not a faithful correspondent). I should write her again and must make note to do that. It was her brother and I who had corresponded for probably twenty years by the time that my husband and I finally made it to England. I had been there about seven years earlier with my oldest daughter but we just toured London; I was definitely not interested in genealogy in 2001 and really knowing that Ivan lived in Dorset I was not making a trip there which I did tell him in my letter. He had suggested we could meet in London and go to Greenwich but we just didn't get that worked out so I promised I would come again as he wanted to meet me. I said come to Canada but that wasn't in his radar flying all the way to Canada. So it was fun spending a couple of days with him especially as he passed away sadly about two years later when we were coming back once again to spend time in London before going on our European trip to France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and back to France and home. We had thought we might make that trip to Greenwich that he had talked about so my husband and I did do that trip and it was fascinating. I actually do not have any first cousins so second cousins seem quite close to me! But I am glad that she mentioned that.

 So today I have just five matches left from FT DNA to work on and then moving to Gedmatch and then Living DNA and a quick look back at My Heritage and will make sure to keep that one up to date. 

Still cool here for late May and I hope the rain is gone by the time the King and Queen come for the Opening of Parliament. I am quite excited that he is coming although will watch it on television as there will be masses of people downtown. It is an ancient line in truth that sits upon the throne of the United Kingdom. They have returned that earlier bloodline to the throne with the marriage of Charles and Diana and their son William heir to the throne. Exciting really for the people of the United Kingdom and for us since he remains King of Canada as well. I realize that French Canadian descendants feel less attached to this King but I always think of the Norman Conquest of England by the French; that was life way back then and it is now and it is pleasant to have this continuing Head of State I think but then I am only descendant of British lines going back hundreds of years although I do have Huguenot ancestry (French) from the 1400s that came to England in the Somerset area. 

Teatime finished, solitaire games played and about to settle into working on the matches. Perhaps a bit of exercise first and it will be rowing today.

 

Another good working day

Basement cleaned and about an hour outside giving the hostas breathing room as I removed all the plants that are not Hosta around them. They are doing well now and with the roots of the other plants I pulled (but didn't always get the roots) will have lots of food for the coming dry spell! There is still lots to do and the lawn does need cutting. Probably this weekend will see the lawns cut. We are not quite the last ones on the street to cut the lawn but close. I do like the dandelions to bloom for the bees though. My husband is horrified for sure as he would never have let these dandelions live in his lawn. I used to help him pull them up but when the city suggested leaving the grass a bit so the bees could work the dandelion flowers I thought it was a great idea and went right into that thought and there I have stayed. 

I also spent time on matches; not as much as I would have liked but the cleaning does always come first and that was accomplished in good time and is getting easier and easier actually as I organize things into areas that work very well for me. Out of the way so that I do not run into anything and neat so they stay readily where they are put. Fourty more matches to sort from FT DNA and then I think I will move to GedMatch next as I have been going in and out of that file looking at items and there are some new interesting matches there uploaded from Ancestry. The last task will be Living DNA and a quick look at My Heritage to see if there are any new ones there. It took me a long time to extract all the matches from My Heritage and do not want to let that get behind again. Mostly I am using the DNA side of all of these databases and not so much time researching as I am back pre-census in most lines and I have pulled most of the BMB data from the records for my people back into those registers. I seldom use other people's trees other than to locate the likely relationship because of the DNA match. 

Some discussion on the Gold Dome yesterday and I continue with my opinion that it is a very interesting idea and I do think we should be all in on it. For the most part of our existence as a country we have been with the United States in terms of how to protect the continent and this idea continues to be in my mind a worthwhile expenditure of funds if only to halt items falling out of the sky before they do damage especially with so much being up there in terms of space craft and all such things. The new radar system we purchased from Australia will fit right into this scheme. 

The devil stalks our world in main time these days and we must do all we can do to cast the devil and his workers out whether figuratively or literally. God has given us a message that we should love our neighbour as ourself. If someone is not doing that then they are on the wrong side with God. I think one should read love as respect for our neighbours property rights and way of life (so long as it doesn't interfere with anyone for sure from a legal position). A devil free world is a wonderful ambition I think. 

Teatime finished, solitaire games played and it is breakfast time and I am late today. The fresh air and work outside saw me sleep in a bit I guess. It is raining so perhaps not a lot of work outside today although I have one full bag and a partial bag. I would like to fill the partial one as well and there is lots out there to put in it. The Starry Solomon Seal I transplanted last year actually came up and the hosta as well that I transplanted (both of them) and so I want to move more of the Starry Solomon Seal to the back corner as it is a perfect spot for it to grow and multiply. The gooseberry bush also survived the fence building and several other flowers that I had not expected to survive.