Interesting article

 "The Vikings colonized Greenland for over 400 years, but their disappearance from the island is still a riddle" by Quinn Mercer (online). Why not assimilation into the Inuit peoples who had arrived in Greenland before the Vikings appeared to disappear? I do wonder about that. The survivors probably carry the DNA evidence if it interests them. Like the 3% Denisovan that we carry (some of my six siblings as not all of them have been tested for that) but our mt DNA signature is in the Blood of the Isles Database so probably there for thousands of years. Interesting really what DNA has brought to our knowledge bank. We also carry, my siblings and I, on average 2% Neanderthal so we are 95% Homo sapiens. I believe the Denisovan came down from our ancient mitochondrial mother but I can only trace back from my grandmother (Ellen Rosina Buller born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England in 1886) to her mother Ellen Taylor born in Birmingham in 1859 (my grandmother always said that her mother died when she was 37 years of age; it was something that shocked her even as a person in her 60s and 70s that her mother died so young (my grandmother was eleven years of age and had to stay home from then on to look after her younger siblings (four of them) although three were in school). Her father had been reasonably educated so he did teach her at night as he had promised she said. But he worked hard at two jobs and he too succumbed by the time she was fourteen years of age. He had been a medic in the First Boer War (injured and sent home to Birmingham in 1881). He recovered although always walked with a limp and went to work, married and had a family of seven children. However I digress from my maternal line. The mother of Ellen Taylor was likely (and DNA is starting to show this may well be correct) the daughter of Ellen (Roberts) Taylor born  1841 in Birmingham and she had married Thomas Taylor very young (just sixteen years of age and they had seven children). Ellen (my great grandmother) appears to have had an illegitimate child in 1879 which my grandmother discovered when her youngest sibling was sent to live with her half-sister in London, Ontario. I have a match with a descendant of this half-sister which is large enough at 18 cM to catch my interest when we share a great grandmother of mine and we have written back and forth. We would be at least half 2nd cousins 2x removed as she is much younger than I am and has several more generations from Ellen Taylor. The average shared by this relationship is 48 cM according to Blain Bettinger (Ancestry uses TIMBER to extract common lengths of DNA) and this match is in Ancestry and she is still thinking about moving her results into another database. But at that level I think that perhaps we are just half second cousins 2xr (we will not share mtDNA because she descends from a son of Ellen Taylor's eldest daughter). My great grandfather was cared for in the Workhouse at Aston because the hospital was there and living at this workhouse was Ellen Taylor and her illegitimate daughter (at least it appears to be by the information). I wondered if Ellen had been a nurse as her skill with caring for the two infant boys who later succumbed to the sooty Birmingham air was noted by my grandmother whom she taught to  help her take care of the infants. Also Ellen Taylor lived just a couple of blocks away from Edwin Denner Buller (my great grandfather) when they were children which was also very very interesting. They likely married sometime in 1885 (marriage not located but there were interesting stories of runaway marriages and what not; my great grandfather was apparently disowned for marrying a woman with an illegitimate child) as the names on the registrations of their children were Edwin Buller and/or Ellen Buller. But I continue back in time as the mother of Ellen Roberts appears to be Ellen Lawley who was born in Wellington, Shropshire, England in 1819 and married to Thomas Roberts. Joseph Lawley was the father of Ellen Lawley. There was family lore that this line had come from Ireland to Birmingham (and there was other family lore which I have disproved, incredible tales). Amazingly we have close matches in mtDNA with some of the individuals who went with the Rev William Martin from Antrim, Northern Ireland to the Royal Colony of Carolina in 1772. Individuals that match are able to trace back their ancestry to Planters sent from Scotland to Northern Ireland by Cromwell in the 1640s. There are also mt DNA matches with people who came directly to England from Argyllshire/Ayrshire in the early 1800s. The location on the Blood of the Isles DNA database for my markers is Argyllshire/Ayrshire. So very interesting and amazing really what you can learn from testing your mtDNA. I highly recommend it although not everyone is going to obtain such interesting results. As I checked on matches (I manage the H11 project at FT DNA) to me through the years (and we are over 500 now although that is roughly only about 10% of the total database for H11 at FT DNA) I discovered matches in the Scandinavian Peninsula suggesting a possible migration route for my particular mutations coming out of the Ukraina Ice Refuge during the last Great Ice Age and there are others in Poland and Germany but no perfect matches in southern England (on the Blood of the Isles Database) which I found to be intriguing. Having a Western Hunter Gatherer in the British Isles from my paternal line and this rather fascinating mtDNA on the maternal line has made my research extremely interesting. I did correspond with a DNA scientist in South Ossetia about fifteen years ago and I see new research is emerging (and I did have some matches on her database) that these mutations were located in this area although out of the Ukraina Ice Refuge likely but the timing of H11 as a mutation from H has changed from 48,000 years ago to the time of the last Great Ice Age meaning that the H11 emerged at the Ukraina Ice Refuge likely and primarily moved west into Europe and north into the Scandinavian Penninsula and then further west into Scotland perhaps and in Europe itself into Poland, Germany, England. So quite fascinating. 

Sunday and another beautiful day in God's world. I will go to Church a little later online. God waits and He listens for we Homo sapiens to do the right thing to do what He commanded - Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Peace could come to our world if greed and envy and hate disappeared. 

I noted the comment that the so-called separatists in Alberta could well wreck the chances for a pipeline to the west coast just because they create instability. What a shame for Alberta as the MOU was a good idea and already has paid off with the Bridger Pipeline (part of the Keystone XL project already built in Canada to the American border) being approved by the President (more than five hundred thousand  barrels of oil going south every day and there will be money for Alberta but also for Canada - that is who we are (most of us that is); that was also the idea of the Founders in purchasing Rupert's Land). The separatist greed will go down in history mostly as a one liner. They want all the money from the resources which Canada bought with the purchase of Rupert's Land. We, Canada, created Alberta and Saskatchewan as administration units and expanded Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. The land belongs to Canada along with the treaty rights which were included in the purchase. Individual purchases of land are of course theirs technically as part of an administration unit namely provinces and territories (with the treaty rights keeping it in Canada) but if anything ever happens to your line disappearing not donating it to something everything reverts to the government (you can not take it with you). We thank the First Nations for their care of this land through the ages and their right to be in Canada for ever no matter where they live in Canada.  Canada takes care of all of Canada (remember the Great Depression). I happen to agree that ten years of fake greening of Canada (we do not see much in the way of results) was a waste we are better off to take advantage of what we have so that we can afford gradually and into the future to have a green Canada (and we should keep trying to do what we can do). Eventually oil will no longer be at the top of the selling as burning fossil fuels is hard on the environment world wide. The fifty year plans of the First Nations are much better than these greedy plans by a few to try to destroy what The Founders created. 

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next (already 51 units of cardio from my first hour of calisthenics when I get up).  I have moments when I first awake when I push away the idea of one hour of exercise but thinking of the alternative I begin day after day with my slow moves to get myself stretched out and moving. So worthwhile but as always one should check with a doctor before you take up any big changes in your exercise routines especially when you are over 70. I will also run thirty minutes before lunch and after Church and then later in the day either yoga or weight lifting. 

 

   

 

Shopping Day and some research

 Yesterday was a shopping day and four bags of groceries for $103 which was not too bad as it included my chicken purchase which is every three weeks. But yes I agree groceries are more expensive than a year ago. This week I also changed back to summer tires and had to replace all the brakes so $2600 plus for that. My car sits too much in the garage all winter and it is hard on the brakes. It  is running like a new car now although I did not particularly notice anything but then I am only driving it a couple of blocks to the grocery store and back always mid morning when there is pretty much no one about and the store uncluttered. When I have to go out twice in one week like that though I think about my one room idea and just not have to do all these things but I am very lucky to be in the state I am in although would have preferred to be doing all of this with my husband still alive that is for sure. But he was ill for a long time really and  now  he is at peace with God I am sure. He would have been so sad about the world as it is today especially as he wanted to travel a whole lot more in Europe but just because he found war to be very sad. He used to say to me why does God let war happen? But I said that humankind was making its own way through life I felt since the Second World War. I think that was Armageddon but we survived, all of us, by our ingenuity and so we continue but we need to follow God's commandments - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. When we do that we will have peace. During the sad days of COVID my husband did find peace and contentment as his life slowly ebbed away. The saddest moment in my children's life (and mine with Edward) was that last night together all of us as we had been for so many years as he slipped away gone to us physically but forever with us in our minds and hearts. He was smiling at his daughters as they fussed over him taking care of him that last day. A sad but also a good memory that he loved them so much. I can remember as he held each one of them as an infant in the hospital and at home so tenderly so calmly and so happily. Fatherhood suited him. Although he could be impatient with them they knew it and got out of his way quickly!

Finished off the FT DNA matches and started entering them into my various databases including the newest one which is for phasing the great grandparents (not true phasing but rather dividing up that portion that belonged to the grandparent pair into their parents (a never ending task really). I have recorded relatives in common, matches in common on a lot of them and will let AI use that information to help direct me towards the appropriate great grandparent when I get started doing that.  

It is Saturday and meant to be mostly cloudy here. I looked yesterday and thought I should clear away some of that dead foliage in the gardens. But I never got out the door to do that. It will need to be done as the plants are now coming out and it just neatens it up. In the woods it would just rot away and replenish the soil but it takes a while. I want to move one hosta but other than that we go with what's there although I might buy some bulbs in the fall and bury them deep!

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles are next (one of my luxury items as it is an American company that sells it although they do it from a Canadian address). In essence we liked CUSMA well enough but our need to be tariff proof for the future is our first concern and so we are diversifying our trade as rapidly as we are able. Like Mexico we saw ourselves as part of the North American market being an active contributor to the product lines of so many companies. That has changed as car companies retreat to the United States to avoid tariff  and the push to draw Canadian companies across the border. We are proceeding forward on many items that have sat waiting this last decade and most certainly the mine in Northern Ontario has been a desire for the First Nations to get it going for more than two decades. Time to move forward and get these new industries up and running and our youth employed. As it is always the case, the youth must follow the jobs that are available to them. No one can control the type of work that will be needed in any generation; we just have to put our backs into the work that needs doing and get it done. The trades have sat on this sideline which saddened me because I do know the value of the trades in our lives - everything we do that is related to our life needs the trades at many points in that need. As AI enters the workforce to do the mundane sitting at a desk type job this is the time to save the health of our youth and their brains for that matter doing the skilled work of a tradesmen. The tools are fantastic; the results stunningly beautiful. We are on our way. 

I liked Conrad Black's post for sure and do tend to agree with a lot of what he says; the road will be difficult but like him I believe in Canada and that the power of success is ours. We are running but we just have to double the pace and get it done. There is a lot of work ahead. The advantage of going into the military in one's youth is the discipline that is acquired and no longer obtainable in our schooling system. I will always remember those long straight lines going into my elementary school as a child in the morning, recess, lunch and recess once again. We lined up straight and quietly with our principal front and center always. He was an ex-British office and a brilliant organizer. That was the rule and we knew how to follow it. Five years/ten years in the military and you come out with a trade/skill and ready to go but we need to get going I agree with Conrad Black and the task is not easy.   We must do it for the future and take our place once again as we were back at the end of the Second World War; secondary to no one.  

 

Conversation on Ancestry messages

 I have been having a conversation on Ancestry re the spelling of a surname. The spelling of the husband of Elizabeth Ann Pincombe (my great maternal grandfather's younger sister) was Ormond in the records that I located and this individual is disagreeing with me. That is fine but according to English law your name is however you spell it and particularly in Upper Canada at this time English law prevailed. But certainly in this time frame that would have been considered correct. She had noted that in my published tree I had both Orman and Ormond. But Orman is in my Knight family which is my father's grandmother Maria Jane Knight and down the line from Elizabeth Knight and Samuel Ballam (married 1 Sep 1834 at Turnworth, Dorset) one of their descendants married an Orman. The argument put forward was that the surname for Ormond should be Orman. Interesting and I will save it because I will eventually be publishing Elizabeth and her descendants likely down to the late 1800s in my Pincombe book. I follow Canadian tradition and keep the 100 year rule for release of information (it is also perhaps a bit of laziness). So I have replied once again and wished her Good luck with her research and I feel I have sort of terminated that discussion as I am not at a point where I will work on this Ormond family a bit. 

I am not overly fixated on the spelling of surnames as they did vary on occasion through the years. I just spell as it occurs on the records and that works for me.  

I am noting that I get fewer and fewer emails directed at me personally and I am finding that that is a good place for me to be. I always feel I should respond and do but it is good to no longer have as many to be honest. At 80 I am moving towards only doing my project; retaining my Guild membership, my membership with BIFHSGO (I am after all English but Canadian first for sure) and perhaps OGS if I can get them to change me to the email I prefer. We will see. It might just be easier to make my donation to Canada Helps. My siblings other than my older sister and older brother did not generally email me very regularly. My older sister, sad to say, is in Long Term Care now and prayers as always that she is comfortable. Could I go and see her; I do not know. It is not an easy trip and about 1000 kilometres although by air one has to go to Halifax and then Charlottetown. So I think perhaps not although my thoughts and best wishes are with her at this time and always. Doug of course passed away in 2020 although I sense him close to me as I work away on his DNA for the projects he loved to hear about. I do message with my youngest brother on Messenger occasionally but he is busy raising his two grand daughters whilst his daughter and son in law both work. After years of work running his own business (I mentioned him as he had completed the trades of electrician, carpenter and plumber and used all of these skills in his business) he is enjoying spending time with his grand children. I occasionally hear from my younger sister as she has a huge family tree and occasionally we chat on the telephone although not for quite a while I am thinking. 

 I finally completed the Ancestry extraction project but it did take all day yesterday but some really good information so worthwhile. I collected up about five new known cousins and all had trees. Mind you I am not really using their trees as my cutoff for the book is likely going to be in the late 1800s. 

This is May Day. One of my father's favourite days as he would go to Upper Clatford and visit his cousins. As an only child that was a treat. Although he lived right next door to his Uncle John and he and his wife had two daughters just a little older but a picture of them as small children tells it all I think. Three small children together in life so coming to Canada at nine years of age and leaving all those cousins behind was painful although another of his uncles, Uncle Henry, was in Toronto and my grandfather (Samuel) was in London waiting for them with a house all set up (actually he met them at the boat when they arrived in Montreal). But May Day meant the Maypole and as a child he danced around the May Pole with his cousins in the village that his Blake family had lived in for a long time since Joseph Blake moved there from Andover (he remembered all of that history down to Thomas son of Joseph; then John son of Thomas and Edward son of John and his father son of Edward). 

Today another research day and it will be the extraction of the matches in FT DNA (7 matches). I should accomplish it quickly; all depends on what is there in terms of trees and what not and whom else they match.  

The pipeline already laid in Alberta ready to go right to the border and now the agreement has been signed by the President for the Bridger Pipeline. Another profitable venture in Alberta. This MOU signed between the Prime Minister and the Premier of Alberta has really set the course towards more pipelines but in the long run it will see us become more and more green in our energy as the phase of oil for energy winds down and green energy takes over the planet. The money from oil will save the planet. Now just the pipeline to tidewater on the Pacific Ocean and I so want the Eastern Pipeline to Port Churchill to sell oil in Europe and to Ontario to bring refining of our oil back to us and save the three times the price we sell it to the Americans to bring it back here and have that in our income as well here in Canada. We will be tariff proof before another decade passes.  All of this money coming into the coffers and the greedy separatists broke the law and published private material on line - how sad to have such greed in Canada. Canada is about sharing all across the country; greed really does need to become a sin of the past. It ruins so many lives. 

Oil will have so many profitable uses in the future that burning it up will become such a waste in our minds. It creates a very solid product of use in so many areas including medicine and many others. 

Probably back to the Latin wills today and finish off that Somerby fraud chapter. Drinking tea and soon solitaire puzzles.     

 

 

 

Continuing with Ancestry matches

 I did manage to complete all but the last siblings matches in my Ancestry File so will finish that today. A couple of interesting matches and I do colour code where I recognize the lines that merge with mine in the past. It is the trees though that tend to be the most interesting with Ancestry although the amount shared is also meaningful along with the number of chromosomes shared. Just FT DNA to work on today and will work on that. I have decided that with these new books I will set them aside at the point where I am getting ready to publish and then a month later do my final proofreading. I suspect that in my rush to finish whilst my eyes were still handling somewhat the amount of reading I was doing I may not have followed through on my lists for proofreading which my daughter helped me to set up. Looking at the list yesterday I had not checked off proofreading the Index. The names in the index will be as in the text but I am somewhat concerned about the paging as I did not proofread the index. It was just a moment in my early widowhood when I was using James Sanders book that the thought came to me to revise it and it was never really a long thought out project but rather I dove in and did it and then my cataracts were dimming my sight somewhat, I just thought it was aging, and I rushed to publish it. Even the corrected version was part of that rushing after I completed the Companion Charting Book. An apology and a mention to any users that the paging in the indexes might be questionable because I did not actually proofread the indexes against the text. At some point I will do that and republish (there is more material that I could insert along the way although may just put it into my blog and let someone in the future carry on with a new revision). 

Once I have completed pulling the matches and entering them into my database I will return to my latin transcriptions of the wills and make a final decision on where to begin the Blake genealogical descent table for the Andover Blake family (I still tend towards Robert but should I mention Richard Blake found at Salisbury in the 1440s from Ireland). I think one contemplates whether he is English and his ancestral line went to Ireland earlier although I do not find anything in the Calendar of Patent Rolls. That he arrived twice (10 Jul 1440 and 7 Sep 1441) is interesting. Historically speaking in the 1440s the Normans are fully in control of England at this point and Henry VI is King (1422-1461 and 1470-1471). He is crowned King of both England (1429) and France (1431). By 1447 the term "The Pale" first refers to English rule and it was pretty much limited to areas within Dublin, Meath, Louth and Kildare.Ireland is seeing a change with a decline of centralized English control and the Anglo-Irish lordships are taking over control of Ireland. It could be mere coincidence that Robert has named his sons as Richard and Thomas. But I feel that I should mention this individual. Perhaps in time more British/Irish yDNA tests will come forth for the Blake family. There are a number of founding lines known in England already and the Emigrant's Database between 1330 and 1550 includes 50  Blake individuals (including three female Blake where it is not possible using the chart to determine if they were wives or Blake was their maiden name) coming into Britain but not all have a location of exit (i.e. the country they lived in prior to their arrival).  Using Paul Reed's papers and my own transcription and a couple of other items that support one thought or the other I will move to this next phase of the Blake book. It does occasionally cross my mind that my two brothers having tested their yDNA and the result being Western Hunter Gatherer it would be interesting to test my grandfather who was buried in London, Ontario at some point but at 80 probably it isn't going to be me I am thinking. It is his memories that I carry within my mind; he definitely did a good job of placing material within my brain which I have retained through these years because he said it so often and I loved him dearly and his words remain with me on many occasions. I still dream about Grandpa and I can remember that last day together when I was just past my eighth birthday. I found it hard to believe he was dead but I had kissed him goodbye lying there in his coffin. I just didn't want him to be but children grow up and accept the loss of loved ones slowly but knowing they are with God. He was born in 1875 in Upper Clatford. I think the future holds great excitement for those pursing the past in their family lines. I am fairly content with the first one hundred pages although will be reading it again and again. I need to complete my footnoting (I have done quite a bit as I have moved along but will footnote items that I may have missed). Already there are nearly 200 footnotes on the first 100 pages. Amazingly my sight is so much better now and the time taken after the cataract surgery not overdoing anything has given that to me I believe. I am still amazed that I now live a life without glasses except when I work on the computer or read a book. Wearing glasses everyday, all day, for 78 years does form habits that take time to change. Particularly putting your glasses on every day. I noticed that stayed with me; that hand movement for nearly two years.  

The Pincombe book appears to have drifted into some resting spot but actually I do think about it particularly with the Pincombe matches on Living DNA. These are the descendants of the Pincombe lines including common ancestry further back than John Pincombe and Mary (Charly) Pincombe.  The six children of John and Mary Pincombe all married but a number of them emigrated to British Colonies. My line (Robert Pincombe and Elizabeth (Rowcliffe) Pincombe) went to the United States and Canada as well as one son George who went to Australia (at least one of his descendants emigrated to South Africa). But two of their children (Robert and Elizabeth Pincombe) remained in England with the youngest Philip having a large family but living in Somerset. Looking at the six children of John and Mary Pincombe a number of their grandchildren/great grandchildren emigrated to various places including the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia. I will return to Pincombe probably in May sometime. The newsletter for May 1 is for the Pincombe study at FT DNA. I am contemplating that newsletter. They are brief at the moment due to my working on these books. 

A cloudy day again and the slight wind in the trees tells me God is with us; at our side watching and waiting patiently for us to do the right thing in the world. Love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. 

Soon time for breakfast and the first day that is devoted to research; cleaning is all accomplished. I also have the car ready for summer and my daughter's return to do her research. This will be a busy summer for her as are all of them. But she gets a chance to kayak and enjoy the world around her and I suspect she worries that I will not be always here and at 80 that is a legitimate thought for sure plus she is my caregiver. But I try hard to take care of myself so that I can still be here until I am not. The wonder of the internet means that I chat with my daughters every day and I am blessed that I am able to do so. 

The Economic Update

 So long as the government doesn't try to balance the budget by selling off services that were making money for Canada, I really do not have a problem with the methodology that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are following along with the Caucus as well. The end of the 1800s when we built the railway across the country was an expensive time and has more than paid its way this past century and more. Renewing Canada as an independent producer on the world's stage is very very important. Short term panic just doesn't do it; we need to be aggressive and get our products to market (where ever that market is). Continuing to break down any trade barriers between the provinces/territories is extremely important because of tariff. CUSMA/NAFTA provided a good living both sides of the border including the United States and Mexico but we became vulnerable when the tenets of CUSMA/NAFTA were no longer being the methodology but rather tariff and the desire to force our companies to relocate south of the border (we are a democracy and it is their choice always but one hopes that they too see the greater good in what we are doing and diversify our trade within Canada particularly and around the world). We are a smaller country in terms of people than both of our partners in CUSMA (half the size of Mexico and one eight of the size of the United States); in terms of land and wealth we are huge and it is time to work on the ideas that the Prime Minister and his party have brought to the table. I continue to see this as a Unity government; we need to all work together and tighten up our belts and survive this for the sake of our children/grand children in the future. We have enjoyed the good life and now we need to make that possible for the next generations. We must be prudent and aim for the welfare of those who follow us. 

The money in trades is excellent. The jobs at hand that are needed are in the trades. One of my brothers is a plumber/electrician/carpenter. So be expansive in your thinking when you go into the trades and move towards setting up your own company. He was the youngest and the computer was very much part of his working life. It provided more scope for jobs and was very inventive and progressive. That is important and certainly tradesmen work closely with engineers providing those details that just are not learned in engineering school. The difference in money earned is pretty small these days and I suspect a trades person will make more in the long run as their job is of their own making often enough and not part of an engineering conglomerate. 

Just my thoughts and I am pleased with the economic update. We will continue to eliminate trade barriers between provinces that were not created to support our trade deals (many exist because of NAFTA/CUSMA and so we await the outcome of that trade discussion with regard to anything like that). Ontario/Quebec/BC could easily supply dairy to the west but that is predominately being supplied by American farmers (it is closer after all). Instead we sell milk cheaply around the world to countries less fortunate than ourselves and the same goes for other dairy products. 

Busy cleaning and almost done. Have done a little work on the matches in Ancestry. Still three siblings to work through. I completed myself and my second kit of myself which is basically the same but done about seven years apart.  The number of obviously Blake matches that are quite small is surprising really although Colonial families were large in those early years. If they were large matches (as many of them are) than I would know they were much more recent. But with endogamy in the Blake/Knight lines and I can spot those quite quickly as they match the many that are in the database and the matches are larger (and more recent). 

Just have to put everything back in the basement and it is lunch time.  

The basement today and it is generally just an hour and a half to two hours

 Received an email from Paul Howes, Vice President, Guild of One-Name Studies, as BIFHSGO is looking for a speaker to discuss the Guild and its wonderful possibilities and research content. I must write him back and apologize for not thinking about it! I gave a talk years ago (I have been a member of BIFHSGO since the first meeting actually (not because I was interested in genealogy, at that time I was not, but it is good to have a group that has English heritage (when one refers to English Canadians only a portion of them are actually "English") although I have not attended a meeting since COVID although occasionally online in the more recent past). The opportunity for someone to really get into the especially new features of the Guild and speak on that would be excellent. I gave my last talk in 2016 I think it was and that was it. I said never again I am done. It was interesting doing the lectures as it entails research and planning and re-examining some of the different items that I learned when I took the 42 courses from the National Institute in Genealogical Studies way back in 2004 I started and graduated in English, Canadian and Methodology Studies in 2007 plus all the features available to you as a Member of the Guild of One-Name Studies. I have been a member of the Guild for twenty years now which is amazing for someone with no interest in genealogy until 2004 (although I used to help Edward pull out items that he wanted a summary on as well as photographic copies when we went to various repositories particularly in the United States actually from the early 1970s on but the interest really wasn't there although I thought exciting that he enjoyed it so much). Here's hoping somebody takes it on. 

Managed to get through all sibling's matches on Ancestry except for the shared so that remains and will probably take me most of today to complete that but there are a lot of Blake's in there which is good news. Still I am looking for Blake that went to the American Colonies in the 1600s because I know they did go there from the Andover Blake line and where they lived but it is nice to see the match. 

Cleaning all accomplished and I spent quite a bit of time watching television in the afternoon. I listed to the King's speech to Congress and it was excellent. He is a marvelous speaker and he really discussed the history of the United States; it is a joined history with England for sure although he didn't mention the presence of the Dutch in what is now Long Island as they were my husband's first ancestors in the American Colonies. But Edward was 30% German and 30% Dutch  with his English Dissenters just being a small group but their impact was huge like Roger Williams, Hannah Feake, John Bowne etc etc. There were so many of them but compared to his German/Dutch ancestors in America a small number. 

Basement to clean today and then finished the cleaning for the week. If it isn't too wet I might do a little picking up in the gardens since everything is coming up. We will see. I am finding that I can either do the cleaning or the gardening but not really both; it is too exhausting for sure. Edward used to say it was because I was too thorough but how else can you do gardening or cleaning. A funny thought from the past.  

Tomorrow will be a research day but will try to do some gardening. 

Tea to prepare and then solitaire games and set up the I-Robot to clean the basement rugs.  

  

The main floor and it is day two of cleaning

 Yesterday I worked on the My Heritage matches and found a super one with a 3rd c 1xr and large. Always nice. There are actually several of them in the set I recorded for My Heritage. So many of my Blake cousins remain in England for the most part. My American cousins that are Blake tend to be from the deep distant past and the matches are very tiny. Since my lines are so separated though with my Canadian born ancestors all known to me (there are only three, my mother (b 1916), her father (b 1872) and his mother (b 1839)) the chance of another match is much smaller. My Pincombe cousins on the other hand are fairly known to me as we share great grandparents and 2x great grandparents. My mother liked to talk about her Pincombe cousins so the names come back when I see them. I am at best an irregular correspondent and they are busy as well. 

 The matches on My Heritage have been very very interesting. Nothing really new or affected by these new matches but they did extend or verify which is always a gift. I have so many thousands of matches but I only know a small number in actual fact. Anything below 25 cM on My Heritage I do not really look at these matches. Thus far I have collected 35 new matches to enter into my database setups. I still have to finish the Ancestry table I built. I did manage to finish my brother Doug and will do John and my sister today likely. It is the family trees that are very attractive in ancestry but also the matches in common as I have colour coded right back to my great grandparents and the occasional further back just because of the endogamy in the Routledge, Knight and Blake families. I will likely use Ancestry Pro when I am proofreading the Genealogical Tables as my colour coding of the matches in common is very helpful and looking into some of these will be beneficial. 

Today the main floor and it is day two. Hopefully I will complete the cleaning in the morning which gives me the afternoon to do some work. I want to finish the Ancestry matches and then move to the list I made for FT DNA to pull those matches. I will be complete then and can move back to the wills and my latin and mix it up with my genealogical table. I am still considering starting a new Legacy file for this rather than type it all in myself. That way I can add in the wills and all the other information and have it all in that file. I generally do it that way and Version 10 is excellent.   

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Cleaning Day One and progress on matches

Yesterday I extracted all the new Ancestry matches and completed all of my new ones which was the first 16 and there are 9 left to do. I have to pull the data for everyone in each of the matches as I pull for myself first, then my brother Doug, my brother John and my sister in that order so that I have the largest number of matches under my name although the others also match. 

I had thoughts on going outside yesterday but I did not make it out. Since it was Sunday I do not like to do a lot of heavy gardening on the Lord's Day. Just a habit from childhood I guess or I am lazy but one day of rest a week was a good idea that God had for humans. God is at our side but we need to remember the laws He gave to us; love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. That would bring us to the uplifted plain of peace in our world. 

The budding is happening much more quickly now and soon everything will be green and because there was so much moisture it will be lovely. The Ottawa River is slowly dropping and was a problem here and there but not right here actually. We have been lucky all these fourty eight years that no flooding has ever occurred in this area. The bank is quite high here along the river. It would have to be probably more than three metres of flood water to come over the bank and it is still somewhat uphill to where I am. 

I got everything done that I needed to do in the house on Sunday and that was good. Church was very beautiful and the music as usual really well done. The Sermon interesting as it centered on the Lord is my Shepherd and was well researched for sure. There was a baptism of an infant as well which meant the music was really quite lovely; baptisms always bring out the really beautiful music. 

 Good exercise as well with my hour of calisthenics when I get up and then a thirty minute run before lunch (after Church) and later in the day I did weight lifting for thirty minutes. 

Today I will be cleaning the top floor and also working on extracting the data for the matches at FT DNA, My Heritage and 23 and Me. The 23 and Me are limited though unless you have contacted the match. I have all the material from before the change in the system.  I have fifteen interesting matches at 23 and Me but our shared matches pretty much tell me the story there. Only four of them are 2nd cousins but 3xr. My Heritage I have six matches (also shared with my siblings), and there are another eight that I do not share with my siblings. At FT DNA there are ten new matches in total to draw out the information so will take a few hours to complete that. I will go back to checking once a month for new matches possibly the first day of the month just to keep it easy. That is also the day that I generally create the Newsletter for the three different projects that I manage the newsletter. 

The new projects in Canada are slowly coming to fruition; it does take time. More barriers between the provinces need to be eliminated in order to tariff proof Canada though. That really is what this is all about plus making use of the ability of Canada to produce  items that have been set aside during the prior fifteen years for various reasons. I am all for greening the planet and we will work at it but in the meantime it takes money to do all these things and so we must utilize what is needed and marketable right now. Looking at foodstuff when I was a child shopping at the grocery store or helping out in my uncle's store most products were Canadian made or grown actually with the seasonal additions of oranges from Florida, bananas from the tropics somewhere and such things that we do not grow due to six months give or take of snow and too cold most of the year anyway. 

Chicken stew last night was delightful plus I had a salmon/pickle sandwich for lunch. I am a very light eater for sure which makes a big difference grocery wise. I seldom snack unless I am eating nuts (of most  kinds) or Greek yoghurt. 

Drinking tea and time for solitaire puzzles.  

 

Another day of matches

Yesterday I spent the day pulling the new matches from Living DNA. They have to be closely examined because I have so many cousins in England (in general I would say most of my Blake cousins live in England) and a goodly number of my Pincombe cousins. Then there are all the other lines that go back from that marriage of a Blake and Pincombe here in Canada. Less details for these matches although I do subscribe to Find My Past and there are trees there as well. But it is where they match me that I want to see as I can mostly slot them into their great grandparent line that we share although many times I can not separate the great grandparent couple yet. That process is coming slowly as I work away at it. My great grandparents as mentioned were all born between 1837 and 1859. Their location of birth being Upper Clatford, Hampshire; Turnworth, Dorset; Kimpton, Hampshire (possibly); Kimpton, Hampshire;  Molland, Devon; London Township, Upper Canada; Birmingham, Warwickshire, and Birmingham, Warwickshire.

It did take the entire day to extract these matches as I reviewed the first 22 pages of each of the five siblings. I am looking forward somewhat to not doing that anymore and will have to think of contingency plans on what to do with all of these results into the future. I actually, at this time, do not think any of my siblings or their descendants are interested but time will tell. I know my daughters have virtually no interest in doing this work although they do like to hear results on occasion. But then they always felt like genealogy took their Dad away from them so it doesn't  have a good feeling to it even yet. They miss him very much. 

Today's work will be to draw out the information from FT DNA, My Heritage and 23 and Me where I just collected the names and did not create the files. Then a check on Ancestry to look at the new matches (these tend to increase daily I sometimes think). Although in my case the total number of matches for myself and three siblings  are in the range of  17,000 to 23,000 compared to my husband with his huge number of American cousins at 35,000. That is interesting actually as it changed over the last ten years when my matches and those of siblings tended to be between 5,000 and 8,000. Interesting but then I was thinking there were more when I was collecting lately. I have American cousins but not in very large numbers compared to Edward but his latest arrivals in Canada were his Rathbun/Niles family in the early 1830s. I have a few second cousins, more third cousins and probably a lot more fourth and continuing back even to eighth and ninth because of endogamy in my Routledge, Knight and Blake lines. Whereas when we went to the Rathbun Reunions in the United States memories of William Rathbun were still known and he was mentioned as having "an itchy foot" which sent him off to Upper Canada as it was known at that time with his wife and I am not sure how many of the children were born here. I need to look at that. 

But it is another glorious Sunday with a shadow on it somewhat as shots were fired last evening at the Gala Dinner that the President of the United States was speaking at. He was rushed off stage by the Secret Service and the gun holder tackled and taken out by the Secret Service. Wonderful that the Secret Service was able to prevent such an act of violence. Peace in our time is the wish and thankful prayers that all went well. 

Off to Church in a bit online as always. I really should get out more and that will soon happen but not quite yet. I also have the washing to do this afternoon and will rest my eyes quite a bit today as they were pretty tired last night. 

Tea all drank and time to do my Solitaire Puzzles. The new matches on Ancestry total 25 in two months although in total there were a lot more matches than that going back to 21 cM and down to 8 cM. I do not collect these but I do look at them if we share a common ancestor. Sometimes I do a search for Blake and that pulls up some of these tiny matches but with the use of Timber then 8 cM can be a larger match but there are only so many hours in the day and my eyes can only do so much so I do put limitations on my searches for sure. 

 

Matches dominated

 Just Living DNA to finish now as yesterday saw me go through the others although I am still drawing out the data for some of them as I made lists at the time. Not a lot of new ones because I am getting pickier about the ones that I select to put into my files. I will get back to my Latin probably tomorrow and working on the old wills. All of this will come together as I start the Genealogical Chart for Blake. I am still contemplating Robert Blake who left his will in 1521. 

It has kept me from writing the end to the Somerby Chapter as I think about it. I need to continue working on the Latin  transcription of these two wills and that will occupy me for a while now I think although in between I will get the rest of these matches into their files and then sorted and entered into the big chart that will be my focus whilst I do the generational chart for Blake. 

Beautiful day yesterday and I went out and picked up more wood in the back yard. I may have it all now. Everything is coming up and it is nearly the end of April. the budding seems late this year but coming. The trees are very slow this year surprisingly although it was cool and they do like that burst of heat to get the budding going. The yard looks old to me now. I started in the spring of 2011 to work in the garden full time as Edward could not. Gardening has never been my thing and now fifteen years later I believe I am worked out for gardening. I shall get as much of it into grass as I can. 

A couple of good matches came out of my looking at Gedmatch so will get those entered into the table perhaps today. We will see how the day flows. These are my four working days on research although I generally do not do very much on Sunday. 

Salmon for dinner and it was a lovely piece along with sweet potato and peas and a slice of tomato. It was delicious and there is enough of the salmon for tonight and tomorrow lunch. I like doing it that way and spread the salmon out although I could not eat that big a piece at one sitting ever. I find that about $10 worth of salmon goes a long way actually.  

The European Union has proposed an alternative route to Hormuz Strait for shipping oil and they will meet with the Middle East countries to work on that. After all pipelines work very well and Turkey and Syria have ports on the Mediterranean which is a direct route to Europe. An interesting idea for sure. Pipelines continue to be the safest way to move oil and gas (more fragile than a ship for sure but the containment and transport can be much more direct).  However shipping a long way is still likely ships. I do think Europe is very innovative and the European Union has stood the test of time and change very well. Remembering the bombed buildings in newsreels when I was a child going to the show with my grandfather and brothers and then seeing the rebuilt  Europe as an adult years later was an experience over time for me. Europe has also proposed that they would  help with this rebuilding. We have an enormous amount in common with Europe as we are a multilingual country (many First Nations languages, French and English). I must get back to my French lessons just to keep that more current. I was doing quite well when I was working. It has been lucky for me to be living in an area that lets me keep up my French although certainly not fluent like our French neighbours or for that matter my son in law who is French-Canadian going all the way back to early Quebec and even the first settlement in New Brunswick. Oil and gas continue to be a very important product for any country as there is wealth attached to these products and spreading it around more never hurts. They are a timely item though as greening the planet is better in the long run but in the short haul businesses and people in their homes need energy.

Today continuing with the Living DNA matches and then extracting the list that I made from the various databases and entering that into my databases including the large one which I will use for the genealogical tables. The construction of this table will take the longest time. I have a table for my line going back but now I will bring in the lines that are adjacent to mine living in the Andover area going back (I do have a lot of material available in my database for these lines but I have never put them together other than in my Legacy file). There is a bottleneck so to speak in my line between 1709 and the late 1700s. Thomas Blake  (second born child of John and Elizabeth Blake, a sibling one year older died as an infant) was baptized 21 Feb 1685 at Andover St Mary. He married Mary Spring 6 Nov 1708 at Andover St Mary. Their only child Thomas was baptized 4 May 1709 at Andover St Mary. He married Ann Carter 8 Dec 1728 at Penton Mewsey Holy Trinity and they baptized two sons Joseph 21 Oct 1730 at Andover St Mary and Thomas 19 Sep 1734 at Andover St Mary (Thomas (infant)was buried 22 Dec 1734 at Penton Mewsey Holy Trinity). Joseph married Joanna King 8 Jun 1757 at Upper Clatford All Saints (priest made note that Joseph was of Andover) and they had five children although even at this point the bottleneck was still evident until Thomas (the youngest child and second of that name as his older brother died at the age of six before the second Thomas was born) married Sarah Coleman 10 Jun 1792 at Upper Clatford All Saints. They had ten children and a very large number of grandchildren and on and on. It is amazing that but for one child per generation for several generations my line would have died out and now it is a very large family around the world. Sorting out the siblings of Thomas baptized in 1685 is a process I must do although I do again have quite a bit of information having transcribed the entire set of registers in that area of Andover including Andover St Mary itself. 

My grandfather would have loved this for sure but that was a different time and in a different place. He and his siblings used to go up on Bury Hill near their house which was a high point I gather and it did appear so although we did not spend a lot of time in Upper Clatford. Mostly we were at the Church and then down to Goodworth Clatford where my great grandparents lived after Edward (my great grandfather) retired. He loved Upper Clatford and used to run from Goodworth Clatford to Upper Clatford and back again in the days after he moved apparently. He had lived there all of his life. I think it is exciting to know some of these details of my great grandparents. My grandfather had known a number of his great grandparents on both sides of his family.  

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next

Busy day

Part of yesterday was planned as I needed to go shopping and yes I agree prices are rising. I no longer pay $75 a week and I estimate that I am perhaps at $90 a week (it varies one week to the next because I buy 12 chicken thighs and freeze 11 of them after I cook them in the oven with spices/herbs, olive oil and I also buy one piece of salmon big enough for me for three meals). That means that I spend in total $65 in each three week period on meat only. I then make a fresh chicken stew every day (figured that out on my retreat with the dogs, the cats and the fish). It was nice to have a fresh stew every day with the chicken out of the freezer. Absolutely delicious. So four days a week I eat chicken stew and three days a week I eat fish (usually scallops one night (frozen in a bag by a company for the store I shop at and the bag lasts maybe four weeks (I usually eat about 15 or 20 as they are small)) and then salmon for dinner two nights and for lunch one day). I come from a family with high cholesterol and almost never eat red meat I keep it under control. I do not buy prepared foods and there are more and more of them all prepared. It looks nice but I have 24 hours a day that belong to me and so I cook everything from scratch. We store a lot of vegetables for winter use in Canada and I use mostly them. Money will be tight I expect for the next little while; we were warned. 

Yesterday was also the day to cook my banana bread as I had the three ripe bananas left from last weeks purchase (I try to get a bundle of ten bananas so that I have enough for my favourite cake which I butter when I slice it as icing does not appeal to me). I do not have a sweet tooth. I did buy a bar of dark chocolate with mint in it made in Quebec (absolutely delicious and lasts me the entire week). My expensive extra. I neither drink alcohol to any degree (a glass of wine with my younger daughter on occasion) nor do I smoke or take any type of drugs. That saves a lot of money I think but because I have never smoked or drank particularly or used recreational drugs I do not really know how much I save to be honest. 

Then I did my run of 30 minutes which is four days a week as I clean three days a week and I was finding that maybe running every day was too much as I reached 80 (although if I feel running I do).  I watch television as I do that and it was the time for the Leader of the Conservative of Canada to speak. Does he know that CBC can be heard all around the world? I wonder about that sometimes. As for affordability, the Conservatives were opposed to dental care (the intent of which was to help people with their health care), the Conservatives were opposed to day care support and the list goes on so crying affordability now just seems weird to be honest. Good policies would be supporting the pipelines (I mean they could be there in BC helping with discussions to get this going). All he does is whine about restrictions and insult the Prime Minister which I do not think of as policy when really the first Nations need to see that this is of value as it crosses their land as we gradually do move away from fossil fuels but this is not yet the time but it is there in the future. I also fail to see the value in the Conservative Leader going on a talk show in the United States; I found that very weird and I have been Conservative all of my voting life except for rare occasions (all of which I have regretted so tend to avoid that). However I do feel the government in place is taking us on the right paths to make Canada more independent as we were when I was a child but the Leader of the Opposition has no such memories and clings to an economic state that no longer works for Canada. 

There is no slacking on getting the military going and the protection of the Arctic is a joint project with all the members of NATO but particularly the Arctic NATO countries. The XL pipeline has finally been approved in the US and we will see how that goes (it has been approved in Canada for a long time). I fail to see a value in televising Question Period these days (perhaps we could have a program on archaeological finds that would be exciting). We want investors to come to Canada and sharing all of that negativity which is fake really does not seem constructive. The new trade committee has several prior Conservative government members which is good to see. Lots of interesting people in that group. 

As for Chief Tecumseh and Sir Isaac Brock I was very proud to hear the Prime Minister talk about them. I went to Tecumseh Avenue Public School for my entire elementary school education. We were proud of  Tecumseh. We all knew the stories about Chief Tecumseh and forever he will be remembered in that namesake school. Mentioning them brings home once again the need for all Canadians to come together on all of these projects as they slowly but surely work their way forward. This needs to be a Unity Government and thank you to the Conservatives who gave the majority to the Prime Minister. I support them 100% for wanting after eleven years of being in opposition (or less) to help their communities since that was why they went into politics. Sarnia in particular could have oil refineries again and not buy our now refined oil back from the United States at three times what they pay us for the oil  (hence a pipeline to Thunder Bay would facilitate that as ships can take the oil to Sarnia not as fast as a pipeline but it takes time to build pipelines and we already have the ships). The two big gas guzzling provinces (Ontario and Quebec) could then have locally refined gasoline for their cars and still pay the same with the money benefiting everyone as Ontario doesn't mind paying taxes to the federal government and we in Ontario are by far the biggest users of gas in our cars. The company doing the refining pays taxes (by employing people and by making so much money) to the government especially their health care payment along with our personal Health Care Tax in Ontario we will not be struggling to look after the Baby Boomers as they age. Lots more money in the federal pot for everyone to share because this is Canada and that is what we do. 

The afternoon yesterday was a time of reflection and planning. It was beautiful outside and I can remember as a child my mother calling up to the attic and telling me to stop reading and go outside and play on such a day. I didn't go out though yesterday as the gardening just looks overwhelming; my mother wasn't here to send me out! My daughter tends to get me out when she comes to do her research. Walking and kayaking and gardening but the road is still flooded at Petrie so not happening yet. Good news is the Ottawa River appears to have peaked so by mid May we may be able to get into Petrie. AI is such a neat item to do research on for sure (the implementation is the key). It needs to be set up in a systematic and robust way so that it can be incorporated into our world in the best way.  Can you actually get a robot to consider all the alternatives when they are not yet really developed that actually does not make sense (they need to be sentient and I am dubious of that; humans are sentient); processes have to be established so that we do not get useless material back that has to be filtered through (that is a waste of time). The asset of AI is the amount of memory it can hold but the deficit lies in the inability of AI to manage that data without expert human control. Better to have expert people trained in how to question AI so that the best results are obtained. Soon I will use AI on my huge table once it is completely ready and it will help me with creating my genealogical tables. I need to also continue with the "Phasing" of my great grandparents as they are all born between 1837 and 1859. Except for Grace Gray they were all born in England and are all known to me and on the census (all of my grandparents mentioned these people to me in meaningful ways because they knew all of them so I have a sort of picture of them and even some of the 2x great grandparents actually as many of them were know to my grandfather not so much my grandmother). Luckily Grace (Gray) Pincombe was the first cousin of Sir John Carling and that family is well written up so lots of detail and I have done quite a bit of research going back. 

Hopefully this is truly a research day; I do not have any other plans other than my exercises which are the second most important thing in my day to work at.  

Tea to drink and solitaire puzzles to do.  May God be with the world and help us to reach that plain of peace where all can live without fear. Europe has found peace and that is beautiful to see and they will enforce their keeping of that peace; they are ready or getting ready to do that very thing in a much bigger way and we along with them as part of NATO. But peace is preferred. Ukraine would also like peace but they are not willing to sacrifice any of their people on the stolen lands; they want the people and their lands back and no one can blame them. Russians who do not like where they live can always go back to Russia (and that goes for anyone who doesn't like something where they live (they can get to like it or leave so that the bulk of the people do not have to listen to such things)). Go somewhere where you can be happy (usually it is just greed that causes unhappiness and greed does need to go). In the case of Russia so many young men have lost their lives in this useless war that they likely need the people in Russia and then they will stop being a thorn in the side in countries where they cause trouble. Israel and the United States are no longer accepting that Iran can export terror with the intention of annihilating Israel using their proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis amongst others to attack Israel. That would be peace then and living the rules that God gave to us. They are good rules and the closer we live to those rules the better off the world would be. 

I think I shall stop watching the news once again. It distracts me from my work.  

Was there accomplishment on the book? No.

 I did think about the book a lot but I need to really work on the wills and the matches and will co-join those two projects starting today so that I do not strain my eyes. I guess I am getting old. Either that or my brain just seemed to be over-running or something. It has calmed down. 

Prayers for the two French Peace-Keepers who were killed in Lebanon. So sad really as the UN functions well with so many countries providing Peace-Keepers. How sad for their families and for France. 

England and France are both thought highly of here in Canada and I always remember our trip that was solely France and we traveled about the entire country. A marvelous few weeks and the food so wonderful. Especially I loved the walnuts - walnut everything; you name it ice cream, walnut bread (oh that was exceptional) and so many other items made with walnuts. I love walnuts; mind you I love all the nuts and eat at least one handful every day. The protein is wonderful especially when you are old and still doing as much exercise as I do. Finishing up a run with an apple, nuts and some cheese; delicious. 

I also did spend a lot of time in England; I went there four times and Edward three times. The first time was with my eldest daughter in the Fall of 2001 as she accompanied me on my pilgrimage to Rome. What a fantastic time that was; I saw so much. Then we flew to England and another wonderful time mostly in London. Edward and I went in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016. We had a trip to go all over Germany in 2020 but it was cancelled due to COVID. That was a huge disappointment for Edward as his Schultz great grandparents came to Canada directly from Eastern Germany in the 1800s. His only other ancestor coming to Canada directly was from East Anglia in the 1830s. All of his ancestors other than these three came up from the United States to Upper Canada between 1800 and 1830 and to the Maritimes between 1750 (planters moved to the Maritimes by the British) and 1780 (a few loyalists in his line to both Upper Canada and the Maritimes and a number of patriots all to Upper Canada). An interesting mix I always thought; with a Patriot descendant marrying a Loyalist descendant. His American colonials arrived between 1620 and 1709 with most being between 1620 and 1640. The first were Dutch and then the English Dissenters and then more Dutch followed by Palatines. He was 30% German, 30% Dutch, 20% French, 5% Swedish, 5% English and then some from Poland, Switzerland and Belgium to make up the other 10%. I went back to his 9x great grandparents and added them all up and divided them into birth countries and calculated the percentage. The DNA companies actually come very close with his ethnicity. My ethnicity is 100% English back to the 1400s and then I have Scot from the Highlands and Huguenot from France and we show some Irish and it is possible that is the Charly family as that is a claim made by this line again very early from Ireland to England. No idea on that. My 4x great grandmother was a Charly. 

I am tired of the way that news appears on the television at the moment. I just want actual reporting and no more questions by reporters. I hate it when they ask questions to create issues; they just do it for the notoriety. The questions they are asking are unimportant. What I want to hear about is shovels in the ground, agreements on pipe lines. I am tired of hearing about affordability (we have to manage that is what the PM said). It will not be easy for sure and yes I would love to sell my house (it is too big for me although it is only a carriage home of 1400 square feet) but I have to wait for another few years until my daughter returns because she, like many Canadians, could not get a job here (Americans were hired instead so when one is offered a job in the United States one takes it of course). When your educational aims take you on a path that you have to find a research group that you fit into that is the way that it is. Americans are much more innovative than we are research wise and it shows particularly in some fields for sure and so that is where you have to go when you choose something that is new and innovative. Once you find that research group you are going to stay obviously unless you can find it or create it here. Her ideas to bring her field home is a great one and she will try but right now she has PhD students to finish off and research projects as well. One in particular is fascinating and funded. At 80 it is just too unstable for me to move several times in a few years. 

Canada is on a mission to improve our output and our trade around the world. Our new Prime Minister is also innovative and will push us towards being more like that and that is good. But it will cost money and we will need to tighten up our finances and just make them work. We liked CUSMA and had really no complaints but tariff is hurting our companies and so we must diversify both internally between provinces and around the world.   In the meantime we have a task ongoing which is to improve our military and particularly our military activities are increasing exponentially in the Arctic along with our Arctic partners. Affordability is a personal thing; the government can not be the bank account for the people. That is the focus; the reporters need to get with it; the Conservative Party needs to get with it. Their last time in power military projects were not properly supported and even cancelled. They sold the science library to Americans after Canadians had built up a perfect distribution system that made money. Who does that?  I would like to see some good policy coming out of the Conservative Party. You have had my support for a very long time and I would like to see adults in the room and Question Period is revolting to be honest. I would rather have a long list of what is being done in the field to get things going. The work at Montreal Harbour would be a much more interesting discussion and the upcoming work on Port Churchill even more so and the possibility finally of a new pipeline to tidewater in British Columbia and also the XL Pipeline (I would like to see this as a potential 3 way distribution (south to the United States, northwest to Port Churchill and east to Thunder Bay). Tricky perhaps but our engineers are up to that task I am sure. Listening to the Premier of the North West Territories was very interesting and he too has good ideas. Asking the Premiers dumb questions on a program that is transmitted around the world is just unbelievable. Less of CUSMA please until we need to hear about it. I love my American cousins and the American people for that matter but do not need to hear some of the things that are being said. I can hardly believe some of the comments being made to be honest and it annoys my American cousins as well. More discussion of our trade around the world and between provinces would be nice. I agree with the Prime Minister on that for sure. Thank you.

I am getting distracted again and so must start being more organized first thing to accomplish everything that I want to get done. Life moves on and I move on towards 81 and my date for the books is the end of 2028 so concentration is upper most in my mind. I can do nothing about what is happening in the world. We need to follow God's commandments and sooner rather than later. So many of us worship the same God although our path to God somewhat different but in the long run He is the same God, always has been, always will be. 

Thank you God for another beautiful day in your world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking back in time

This is the day to create the last section of the Somerby chapter and it will look at the work of Paul C. Reed a well known American genealogist who published in The American Genealogist (TAG), Volume 74, 1999 an interesting article namely: Two Somerby Frauds or "Placing the Flesh on the Wrong Bones. My husband Edward being a subscriber through his membership in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) I was able to download the article. Earlier he had published an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Register (NEHGR) which ia also downloaded and it was about Dorothy _____,. The key in our search for Shadrack Hapgood. This was one of the families that Charlou Dolan researched along with Blake. Finding these two articles when my husband brought my attention to them sometime after 2004 when my interest in family history suddenly developed thanks to my cousin George DeKay wanting a Pincombe Profile for the book he was editing namely: Delaware and Westminster Townships (two parts), published by the Westminster Township Historical Society, November 2006. My thoughts were pretty much on the Pincombe family at this point and I put the two papers into a folder labelled Blake because I saw mention of the Blake family. I was still working full time in those days and started taking the courses to complete my Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) which I did complete in 2007. As always my first thought was to acquire the tools to do the Pincombe Profile since my mother had just passed away in 2002 and my maternal uncle in 2003. My uncle had given a package of his personal papers to my husband to write up his story. My husband passed them to me after 2004 and said this is your job and I put them in a safe spot as I needed to go back further than my uncle. 

Interestingly it was me that said we should do our DNA with Sorenson - my husband somewhat ambivalent at giving the world the knowledge of his genes thought about it for quite a while actually but I went ahead and ordered two kits and waited until he was ready to do them. He was in a quandry about his Kipp line as Isaac his 2x great grandfather had been born in 1764 in North East Township, Dutchess County, New York just as the Revolution was about to begin. His parentage was unknown but he was married to Hannah Mead who appears very correctly to be the daughter of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III who was definitely a Patriot in this Revolution. They lived next door or with Jonathan Mead and family in the 1790 census. But I digress. I said to my husband the best way to prove a line is with yDNA and he was hooked and off the kits went to Sorenson and then into FT DNA they were transferred as there was a setup to do that. Lots more testing and we were into the DNA at its beginnings. DNA would fundamentally change how people did their genealogy - a genealogy without DNA is no longer complete but it did take about half of a generation to convince genealogists of this case. Edward and I did give lectures at various time on DNA in our area. My results had been fascinating as I quickly found literally many many Pincombe cousins both in the Utah area where I knew they had gone (my mother mentioned that) and all across Canada and into many parts of the United States. The first database I signed up for was the first time I used it basically. I searched on my Pincombe family that had come from Devon in the 1850s and discovered a likely family but hidden behind the paywall of Ancestry. It suggested that I could sign up for two weeks for free, I went for the membership and was soon in there with the passenger manifest and there they were, my Pincombes. It continued to amaze Edward as I spent all of my spare non-working time on genealogy as I had spent the first nearly fourty years of our marriage with no interest in genealogy except I did help him when we went to repositories where he wanted to find something interesting he had received from cousins around the world actually. Edward's correspondence list was huge.

So one day shortly after I submitted the Pincombe Profile to my cousin George DeKay, I sat down and read Paul Reed's papers and was astounded as I discovered that the bits and pieces that my grandfather (and occasionally my father) had shared with me as a child appeared in print in these articles. It was an amazing moment that spring of 2005 (the profile was due and it was promptly submitted on time for publication) and it was one day after gardening with Edward that I came in and read the papers. I was still working then full time and would be for another couple of years. Edward had retired in 2004. I had decided to join The Guild of one-name Studies and being the sort a person I am had selected three study names (Pincombe, Lambden and Siderfin). They were just very interesting names Lambden and Siderfin and Pincombe is obvious (I thought they were all small projects but actually much larger the second two and I have set aside Lambden for anyone to pick up. The Blake study had been held by Paul Blake and being such a newbie I would not have even considering attempting Blake for sure. But here it was all that information about Nicholas Blake of Enham and it fitted the stories my grandfather told me in terms of the fraud committed. 

Today I will read through those papers as it is a long time since I have done so. I will also add in the section on Paul Reed's paper into the chapter as it will complete it. 

I couldn't decide if it was the weather, all that rain, but my eyes have been very strained but today that disappeared although will not spend too much time on the computer as it is cleaning day three and the upstairs which does take a good portion of the day. No idea why the eyestrain really (perhaps reading the Latin which I was putting a bit too much time into) but our direction ahead as a country continues towards diversifying our trade and it is pretty much top of mind (I was listening to the Premiers of the Provinces talking yesterday). It is good to see and we will be an even stronger partner on this continent as we build up our military and work with the Arctic countries of the same mind as us on our common need to provide protection of the Arctic. I think our focus is good and we need to continue removing any trade barriers between the provinces as there are lots of items that we could be buying that are home-grown. Re-starting some of our lost industries should also be top of mind I think and certainly getting those shovels in the ground to do the work that needs to be done. I was actually not opposed to the province buying a new airplane (surprising perhaps) but this is a huge province and the Premier needs to be more aware of what is happening all over the province (the availability of transportation quickly and with sufficient room to bring people along with the Premier is important (providing potential investors and customers with such extras is always a good plan). This is a time of growth for Canada as we concentrate on supporting the world being a peaceful place but always preparing to defend that peace. History through the centuries has shown that the peacemakers win.

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles to do. Today is Earth Day. Thank you God for this beautiful world. 

 

Basement cleaning completed and the Somerby chapter moving along

 Another successful cleaning day with the basement completed yesterday. Today the main floor and will begin that in a little while. Yesterday I also went out and collected up all the wood that has come off the big maple tree at the back. This year quite a bit came down actually. I wonder if I should get it trimmed but last year I couldn't see any dead branches. Will watch once the budding goes to leaves. The same with the front tree. They are both enormous trees now. The one at the front is 47 years old I think and the one at the back is 44 years old (my daughter grew it from a maple key and tenderly cared for the sapling until Edward and she transplanted it to the back of the yard). She was so proud of her tree (my eldest daughter) but equally proud was my younger daughter as she too joined in with the planting of the tree although pretty young then. 

The hedge back there is at least ten feet tall and hasn't been trimmed since before COVID. Should think about having the tops clipped to keep it bushing out. I think I will get a lawn company to cut the lawns this year. Just looking at them and will call this one that looks particularly interesting and closeby. 

Today I will work on Paul Reed's articles about the Somerby frauds and add them in to the chapter. Then a short set of thoughts on my part at the end and that chapter will be complete. Still working on the Latin wills and translating them into English which is a slow process but I was pretty close my first time through translating them as it turns out. 

Then a little more work on the matches and probably at the same time I will start to work on the Genealogical Chart. I still believe I will put Robert Blake who left his will in 1521 at the top followed by his sons Richard and Thomas and then come down from those two.  Although Enham was around 1000 acres, I still find it hard to believe that all these Blake individuals who left their wills living in Enham were not related. For a while I toyed with the idea that there could have been two William Blakes but the reality is that the only record that referred to two Williams in the 1580s was looking at a father and son (William Senior who died in 1582 and William Junior his son). I think having spent time looking at that and realizing that there simply was lack of consequential information to think that these families were not related. I should  move ahead and put to paper so to speak my thoughts because in the future others will have the opportunity to debate what I have written and perhaps with even greater availability and transcription of old records new snipits will inspire thoughts which generate probabilities and will continue to assist in understanding the Blake family of Andover. 

Although I keep referring back to new matches I am not finding anything significant that would change any thoughts on the phasing of the grand parents and I will return to phasing the great grandparents although not truly phasing because I am using data that phased grandparents and simply moving back in a direct line to the two individuals who produced each of those grandparents and doing a split as seems reasonable given the data. 

Hard to believe we are into the third week of April and soon May. The year is passing rather quickly for me actually. As usual the change in the direction that the sun's rays hit the earth from late March to early May always affects my eyes somewhat and it does take a while for me to adjust to the change in the light as the sun works its way northward to give us summer. Perhaps it is my tendency to be inside far more than outside but I think at 80 that is not going to change. Working in an attic without windows was actually lovely when I was a child and I did spend hours at that. Do I ever regret destroying all my writing from those years before I married? Not really; it was inconsequential to how I lived the rest of my life. It was just the thoughts of a child raised in a family of seven children as the middle child. I was the one that looked after the little ones and I enjoyed it well enough. But I was never really close to my siblings other than my brothers when we were all young but we moved away from each other as I caught up to them and perhaps that made them feel somewhat uncomfortable. Doug did say that later in life that my catching up to him in school made him feel uncomfortable. Funny really thinking about that now. 

The middle of the night saw me write in my blog and I did not realize it was so early. Amazing how a piece of lovely banana bread can put one back to sleep once again. Must get my tea made and do my solitaire puzzles.  Soon the process of cleaning will begin as I drink my tea and do my solitaire puzzles. 

 

Outline for the Somerby Chapter

 1. Review of the fraud committed by Horatio Gates Somerby

2. Who was Nicholas Blake who left  his will in 1547 living at Old Hall, Enham, near Andover

3. Will of Jone Blake, mother of Nicholas Blake 

4. Short Discussion

5. Will of Richard Blake (Latin translation to finish)

6.  Discussion on the work of Charlou Dolan with regard to the children of Jone Blake, in her case, namely Robert Blake (her ancestor)

7. Blake Pedigree (College of Arms) and Blake Chart (Blake Museum, Bridgwater, Somerset) and Edward J Blake

8. Increase Blake of Boston, his ancestors and descendants, with a full account of William Blake of Dorchester and his five children, author: Francis E Blake, Published 1898 at Boston, Massachusetts. 

9. Communications between Edward J Blake and Francis E Blake 

10. Sir William Blake of Kensington, to discuss

11. Paul Reed's papers

12. Thoughts of mine

To be used at some point in the genealogical descents

Nicholas, in his will, refers to the individuals who appear in the Berkshire Blake wills but this Robert does not in his will. I do have this theory about the Blake family in Berkshire being descendant of the le Blak family of Rouen, Normandy and eventually ending up in Calne as the founder Blake family there. Given their status I suspect that they were descendant of the Rouen Le Blak family which had come to England in 1274 to setup a market having received permission duly noted in the Calendar of Patent Rolls. That one finds the le Blak family at Wargrave near Windsor in 1301 is so very interesting and I suggest they gradually moved to Calne fascinating actually (just  need to prove it beyond a doubt). Socially speaking the Blake family at Calne were at the "top of the ladder" so to speak in the 1300s and they continue at that social level through several centuries at least until the disagreement between the Blake family of Calne (refusing to accept a knighthood from King Charles I in the 1630s (need to check that date)) and they were basically chased off from the Calne area it appears for their refusal. Their manor house at Pynhills was demolished.

 But I digress. It does make sense that they are all related in this time period as there are not a lot of records for the Blake family in the Andover area this early (i.e. early 1500s) and the frequency of particular forenames does tend to give one the impression that this is one family. Looking at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Blake between 1323 and 1452:

Table 6: Calendar of Patent Rolls for Blake between 1323 and 1452.

Year	Issuing Body	Surname	Forename	Applicant Location	Reign of
1323	Faxfleet	le Blak	Simon	Hampshire	Edward II
1343	Westminster	Blake	Robert	Hampshire	Edward III
1352	Westminster	la Blake	Alice	Hampshire	Edward III
1352	Westminster	le Blake	Walter	Hampshire	Edward III
1352	Westminster	le Blake	Henry	Hampshire	Edward III
1389	Clarendon Manor	Blake	John	Hampshire	Richard II
1389	Clarendon Manor	Blake	John	Hampshire	Richard II
1392	Windsor	Blake	Thomas	Hampshire	Richard II
1394	Westminster	Blake	John	Hampshire	Richard II
1402	Westminster	Blake	Andrew	Hampshire	Henry IV
1405	Westminster	Blake	John	Hampshire	Henry IV
1421	Westminster	Blake	John	Hampshire	Henry V
1452	Westminster	Blake	George	Hampshire	Henry VI

           

The entries are rather interesting although do not in this list give the location in Hampshire but the presence of the le Blak in Hampshire most intriguing and the forenames of the family members also interesting. There are really not very many items in this list. As an aside the Le Blak family at Wargrave appears to move towards Hungerford and then Calne through the 1300s after they received the right to set up a market in England in 1274 (they were from Rouen, Normandy as mentioned). Robert, John, Thomas are all names seen in this Blake family at Andover. Alice la Blake is likely the daughter of Richard Le Blak (or a descendant) who applied for the license to set up a market. Alice la Blake is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of 1301 at Wargrave. My thought is that she married into the family at Andover that then took on her surname as they did not have one which was pretty typical of the times in England at the end of the 1200s and into the 1300s. The advantages to  having a marriage between a Briton and a Norman are large for sure in that time frame.

So more thinking and considering the work of Charlou as I know she did a great deal of research but she did not have all the original wills for this family at Andover as I received only points from these documents from her. I do believe this is all the same Blake family (the la Blake family would be associated by marriage rather than being related) but will continue considering how to fit them together. Richard Blake does identify one of his sons as Robert and another son appears to be Nichi on the will which I interpreted as Nicholas (a daughter is mentioned but not names (she was Elizabeth)). I will continue looking at the wills to ensure that I have gleaned everything from them that is helpful.

Robert (he appears to spell his name as Blayke but I do not think he wrote the will himself as the writing in English at the bottom is not quite the same but I am not an expert for sure). Robert is the father of Richard who left his will in 1521 and he did name Thomas and Richard as his sons so it does make sense that Robert is the son of Richard since Richard mentions his eldest son Robert. But the ages of the children seem to be not quite as expected so need to review that. Nicholas' sons William and Edmund appear to be younger than the children of Robert although William did leave his will in 1582 (35 years after his father passed). I guess I am a knitpicker but perhaps we all benefit in the long run from the knitpicking!

An interesting book that I spotted early on in my genealogy endeavours:

Notices relating to Thomas Smith of Campden, and to Henry Smith, sometime Alderman of London; [written] by Charles Perkins Gwilt, a descendant of the family: London: Printed by George Woodfall. 1836

Interestingly Sir William Blake (Kensington) was one of the Trustees for the will of Henry Smith and there is a lengthy chapter preceding this one that I have reproduced from the original text. The book is primarily about Thomas and Henry Smith mentioned above and have nothing to do with the Blake story other than this brief profile of Sir William Blake which appears in the book mentioned above (published in 1836).

[Chapter Title] A short account of the Trustees appointed by Henry Smith in Deeds executed by him, as well as of the Executors and Overseers of his Will.  (Page 64)

This next paragraph appears on Page 68

Sir William Blake.

Mr. Bray, upon the authority (as he alleges) of the late Sir Isaac Heard, tells us that Sir William was of the family of Blake, of Seton Delaval, in Northumberland, which however was  not the fact. He was of a family of Easton Town, or Essington, in the County of Southampton (a), and was son of John Blake, of that place, by Margaret, daughter of William Blake, of the same place; he married Mary, daughter of Henry Beverley, of London, and Borne, in Yorkshire, and purchased Hales House, in Kensington.  He was a justice of the peace for Middlesex, and was knighted at Whitehall, 13th Oct 1627; he died 30th Oct 1630, and was buried in Kensington Church, wherein a monument, with a long uninteresting epitaph, was erected to his memory. The estate at Kensington was sold at his death. William, his eldest son, born in 1602, married Anne, daughter of Thomas Hawker, of Halesbury, in Wiltshire, Gent, and amongst other children, had issue, Christopher Blake, to whom, in 1665, the trustees leased for seventy years the Smith estate at Kensington, &c., which adjoined the Hale House estate. (b)

    Sarah the sister of Sir William [Blake], married William Rolfe, a trustee. Sir William was both a trustee and executor. [There is also a paragraph in the book mentioned above immediately following this one referring to William Rolfe which I will reproduce at the appropriate time.]

a   Ped. in Vis. Lond. 1690. K. 9. 381, in Coll. Arms. [Pedigree of the Blake Family created by the College of Arms for Daniel Blake in 1690 (a descendant of the same Blake line as this Sir William Blake)].

b   The following occurs amongst the Originalia of the Exchequer, Addit. MS. 6386, p. 2, Ro. XVI: Midx. De tertia parte de anno xv Jacobi primi  Rex concessit Willmo Blake gen et hered  suis imppm libam Warrena in omnibus Maner et terr suis in Kensington Chelsey et al