Research portion of the week begins today

 Yesterday I completed the cleaning of the basement so all ready today to do some research. I bought the 1332 Devon Lay Subsidy and created a file for North Molton and comparing that to the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy a number of the families are the same but there are no Pencombe/Pincombe families there. Mind you this is 200 years earlier but when I discovered there was a Lay Subsidy in this time frame and there was a Roger de Pencombe at Boneleigh/Bondleigh in the early 1300s I thought I should just have a look around but there is one John de Pencomb' in the Index at the Hundred of Mollond (Molland is the current name and it is in South Molton) as an assessor. He is incorrectly listed as Page 73 in the Index but actually it is Page 74 (that was sort of relief considering the index I produced for the Siderfin Book (at least the name is there!)). But he is not listed in the return for the hundred of Mollond. I shall have to investigate the Assessor and their appointments perhaps. Will contemplate that for a bit. 

This bring me back to my discussion with the AI last week where I was contemplating that John Pencombe already lived in Devon and that the line that was so interesting namely "Pyncombe of Northmolton came there with the Lord Zouche about the beginning of H. 7." I suddenly thought of the interpretation that he was actually of Northmolton, Devon but the AI felt it was more of a suggestion that John Pencombe had just arrived with John Lord Zouch. This is a surprise for sure and it grew out of the Roger de Pencombe references in the Devon Archives in the early 1300s at Bondleigh/Boneleigh. I feel somewhat at a crossroads with this and I think I will have another chat with the AI today just to review what I have found in the record sets that I have and this new one that I just purchased. Life can be surprising. The index was only out by one page so probably shouldn't put too much into that given my error. It does make me think I should just wander around this area looking at all the results and the same with the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy. I also have the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy. 

Still reading 2 Maccabees and it is interesting that one senses the teachings of Jesus but I have not really seen any verses that talk of a Messiah to come. God is always in the mind of the Jewish people that love Him. Perhaps by the end of this book of Maccabees I will have more understanding of these two books. The next book is Job the content of which I am very familiar. 

Today I shall sweep the garage and probably put the car in now so that I do not have to clear the leaves off every time I need to use it. 

Almost finished the third book of family pictures and have gone through perhaps six binders now so the project seems doable as the number of non family pictures will increase exponentially as I move forward. Edward did a lot of traveling for work going to Conferences and all of those pictures will be put through the shredder. He also started doing trips with George Anderson down into New York State with retirees which is also a lot of pictures that will go through the shredder. I did offer to put together some of the trips but the library did not want to have those books which was fine. At some point I starting going with him, I think sometime in the early 2000s as he asked if I would. After our oldest daughter went off to do her PhD though I didn't like to go too often as I wanted to be home with my younger daughter but she too was very busy I must admit. Perhaps I just didn't want to travel with a whole lot of people; no idea on that. Certainly it was interesting visiting the many sites in the northern United States and at that time our dollar was very low to the American dollar so quite expensive actually but amazingly many people went. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.

Groceries purchased and I would say that I am paying 50% more for the same groceries as a year ago. But we must continue moving forward with diversification of our trade and growing our industries. The stronger we become the even better neighbour we will be for sure to our good friends and neighbours the United States of America.   

The United Nations

One of the best ideas ever conceived the United Nations has proven to be an organization that for the most part has been fundamental in bringing together the nations of the world to keep the peace. Peace is so much cheaper than war both in lives lost and money absorbed in such a destructive way. I remember the news reels of the war years and the bleak landscapes of Europe in the years that followed World War II. The movement of people as adjustments were made with the Iron Curtain descending across Europe and people raced to be on the Western side of the Iron Curtain. Stories of crawling through fields in order to avoid snipers to escape; even young children. 

Prosperity has come to the western nations and we can not let that be degraded by this passionate attachment to unions. Coming from a small business family I do have stories of unions like most people whose parents owned a company. I do not denigrate unions, they have done a lot of good but they harm as well if they do not get on board with the necessity of growing Canada. It is essential for the work ahead. 

Like everybody else I have watched as the cost of buying groceries has increased nearly 40% in the last year. The same purchases; I am very much in a groove of buying virtually the same food week  after week and so can track with my online receipts how these items have increased in cost. But that is the cost of building Canada Strong once again. I watched as the Auto Pact came in in the mid 1960s wondering why we let this massive industry gradually be taken over by another country's industries and now with an actual deal. Even worse in the early 1990s when the first trade agreement between Canada and the United States was signed and Brantford had 60% unemployment as the car companies withdrew because they thought they could just ship the cars up here and sell them but that didn't work out for them. Back they came but each time it costs us more to maintain this industry. We have to go back to Canadian owned car industries or a car industry which fundamentally produces cars for Canada as their main goal not a car industry that over produces here because it is cheaper to then take those cars back to the United States and sell them at a higher overall profit margin without any benefit to Canada for being that producing nation with cheaper health care costs to workers and a lower dollar  (that was a surprise discovering that they were over building here). In fact, the costs to us will be huge in the years ahead. We buy a lot of cars in Canada (should have our own industry back again and prevent it being sold to a foreign country); our distances are huge and one can not manage readily without a car although mine sits week after week just doing one round trip of about 3 kilometres to the grocery store and back. I can not complain about gas because one tank will last me six months or more. Ontario especially has to grow itself and not continue to sink into dependency; Ontario was always strong until it let the car industries dominate the industrial base in southwestern Ontario. 

So we do need to get on board with growing Canada and removing as many of the restrictions as we can and the unions will have to find a way to keep government projects going instead of picking on items that do not solve the problems that we have with growing quickly as we have not grown sufficiently these last twenty plus years. But we are making up for it and unions must not stand in the way of progress. 

I think for the most part the First Nations are on board with growing Canada because if we do not do it then others will try to do it solely for selfish reasons that will harm the First Nations most of all namely the "separatists" amongst us whose only intent is to collect the profit personally from breaking up Canada knowing full well there are no true benefits in doing so particularly in the provinces involved. Canada is better together and that is why the Fathers of Confederation worked so hard to make it happen including building a railroad from coast to coast.  I agree that the attitude of the federal government was not supporting the growth of Canada for the period from 2015 to 2024 however they did buy the pipeline and complete to tidewater which has been a huge bonus in Canada from which all Canadians have benefited (since we all paid for it). But we need to keep that going and the delays in construction that occurred at that time need to be avoided in as much as possible to keep the growth going strong. 

Waking up in the night is always interesting; I think it is part of my makeup and inherited as my father used to pace the floors in the night. When I was a young child wandering about in the middle of the night I would see him doing that. Interesting really how much one observes as a child.  

Another day of cleaning and it is the basement and being such a lovely day I may try and do the sweeping of the garage today so that I am absolutely ready to put the car in the garage which may be sooner than later as the leaves will soon drop and cover it otherwise and that is a lot of work clearing that away. 

The black truck is out there and the next door neighbour is having work done so that there are two large vehicles involved with that. That is the purpose when parking is restricted on one side that the other side be for such needs and not as a permanent parking spot for one individual on the street. I seldom use it and company can fit in my long driveway. It is pure laziness as they have two cars and when they want to take out the one in the garage then they park the other one in front of my house without considering the needs of the many on this street when they could just move it back into their empty laneway and move it out again when they return - they are very inconsiderate of the neighbourhood. 

I do hate the backyard for that as I can not maintain it as it should be but the remedy may be at hand sooner rather than later; time will tell. I could hire a company to do it and will consider that. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

First day of cleaning accomplished

The beautiful routine of life consists of everything really and especially in my case the logical day after day flow of activity that maintains the life around me. The garage is now ready for me to sweep the floor and prepare it for the car to be inside of it once the snow falls. It makes the cleaning of my laneway so much simpler. The company that clears it are very efficient and that efficiency is dependent upon people following the logical methodology for them which does not include the big truck that gets parked in front of my house invariably when they are coming to clear the laneway. We will see how that progresses this year. It makes it awkward for the snow plow to navigate the one side of my lane way properly. 

This morning as I put out the green bin Canada Geese flew over on their way to their winter destination and they honked. Were they honking at me; not likely but I waved and said goodbye and see you in the spring. I do love seeing the birds although I do not in general feed them. There is a lot of fruit in my yard on the bushes which they eat and the worms and bugs in the grass and bare earth that they enjoy and all of the seeds that are produced on the weeds in my yard also keep them happy so I have never been in the habit of feeding the birds. It attracts mammals who really should stay in the woods where they are safe and not run over by cars. The yearling raccoons have not been back that I have noticed since I blew my whistle. They do not like that high pitch as it frightens them not being natural in nature particularly although it could also be mistaken for the screech of large avaian predators for sure and is likely why they avoid it. 

Yesterday I did accomplish the cleaning but not any work. I was thinking about it and working on the third binder of family pictures. It is slow going for sure and it came upon me when I can not decide sometimes whether I will put in pictures that are alike I can just double them up in the plastic holder and someone else can decide in the future if they want to keep all three copies or whatever have been made. It makes my life much easier not making these decisions. I am not really a good decision maker about someone else's pride and joy. I prefer not to come between the creator and the user but life forced that on me and I have had to make many decisions with Edward's research and personal collections that I would rather not make. However with the support of my family (my daughters) I have donated his library and now a portion of the Kipp genealogy (namely the British Columbia descendants) to an Archive and it has only taken me five years plus to reach this point in time (I did find cousins to take some of the other material). It is not an easy decision to take apart an individual's work. Myself I already offered my books and fiche (2000 sheets about) to the Anglican Church Archives which pretty much eliminates all of the actual material that occupies space. The rest of my genealogy is electronic having given back to my younger sister all of the original pictures that my mother gave to Edward as she thought he might write up the family tree. Given how busy he was with his own family tree I could have said that is dubious but did not. As a child I would never have thought of correcting my mother and as an adult I never did. Being the middle child I just floated along in the medium until I got married at 20 and moved away. I doubt any of my siblings actually missed me as I was the hidden one sort of keeping to myself for the most part unless good manners meant that I was dragged into a more congenial state with those around me but did avoid that for the most part. It is surprising that I ever married but Edward wanted to marry me almost from the beginning and once he told me that I was just such an organized person and so congenial that he just knew I would fit into his life. Interesting in retrospect but then whoever thought I would have a nervous breakdown which I do not really remember I have to be honest. I have no idea what I might have said in that time period and in my brain the only thing that connected the time for me was the desire to be back with my infant daughter whom I believed needed me 100%. So interesting really how one's life transpires. Now I am the real me; I do not go anywhere and seldom speak to anyone except when one needs to speak to a clerk, a physician, a dentist or all the other people that one interacts with in order to maintain one's health (i.e. buying food, keeping up one's medical care, creating contracts for things like snow clearance although the advent of internet made that really simple). So I continue to move along with the help of my daughters when I need help and I am writing the books that both my grandfather and mother would be thrilled to have me do. No one ever asked me to write the books other than perhaps my grandfather but I knew my mother wanted that except she did think Edward would write it. I think in general my parents were not sure I was up to such items. Perhaps they were partially correct in that the Siderfin book although I find it to be very complete and picking up new information but using James Sanders book which was an excellent collection of the available material that he located; I did fail to proofread the index and eventually I must do that but for the moment hundreds have downloaded it from my server and I hope that at some point they have noted that the index does not work well except that it does have all the names in it if you happen to be looking for a particular one and the page is generally somewhat in that area. High on my agenda for the two new books is proofreading the index and actually going back eventually and proofreading the index for the Siderfin book and republishing it. I do have more information for Siderfin that could go in as well and will slot time in eventually to do that. 

My time is something that just disappears each day and one can never get that back so I try to be as organized as I can. Today the main floor will be cleaned and then tomorrow the basement and Thursday or Friday I will sweep the garage.  Perhaps my life flows better for me when I sit and think about what I am doing, what I need to be doing and how best to organize around those two points. But I am 81 so one must be cognizant of the dwindling ability of me to do as much as I did when I was say 48 and back to work in the wide world having worked at home for slightly over fourteen years proofreading and copyediting first for the National Research Council Journals and still continuing with the journals but adding in the other work that needed proofreading when I went to work for private printers having been eliminated by the then Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. It was a good savings for the public purse as I did not care where (public or private) I worked doing my proofreading and copyediting at home so I certainly didn't object as my unemployment lasted maybe one day. 

But back into work and absent all day from where I live by 1996 I really do not know much about my area where I live in terms of what is happening as I went into the city (living in an urban area) every morning and came back every evening although I did keep score for my daughter's baseball team for a few years but that was pretty much it for sure. All that time spent as volunteer secretary at Edward's Church, I was on a recreational committee for a bit (looking at having more skating rinks), I did Brownies and then I was on the Guide committee for the area, I taught Sunday School, I was the Supplies person at Edward's Church for Sunday School materials as working with children has never really been my thing (unless you were my own child or my younger siblings as it turned out) although I did volunteer at my children's schools for years when I worked at home. Having worked with computers since the mid 1960s I did voluntarily supply a period of time when computers were new in the schools and having a skilled person able to work with the computers readily was handy apparently as I did do that. I also was Treasurer for Camp Bitobi for a few years (a United Church camp in the Gatineaus somewhere) and I did love to sew and sewed all my children's clothes until I started to proofread and then just special dresses after that - I did love to smock and those dresses were lovely I must admit not being without some sort of pride in the work that I did. Oh I am forgetting my time as a substitute teacher at High School way back and it was a short time I have to admit. But that principal was desperate for a substitute teacher and I was unfortunately available (again I always suspect my husband volunteered me!). I knew exactly what I would be getting into for sure; but as those children said to my husband during his short period of teaching Chemistry, Physics and Biology I was a mean teacher (being an older sibling does have its bonus points)!

Okay, the morning is awasting as my grandparents used to say when I dawdled so must get on with the work but it has been fun revisiting the past for a short period after breakfast. I like to remember that my time ill was short compared to my time well as being ill is not really something that I like to remember or be if I can avoid it. Sadly my older daughter does remember my fainting spells, my exhaustion and my migraine headaches as a young child when I would hear her dragging a bottle of ginger ale down the hall for me to drink as she knew I liked a little glass of that. Sad to be a child with an ill mother when you are far from your beloved grandparents, aunts and uncles and your daddy is at work.

Thank you God for the good health that has come my way these last twenty plus years. I have been blessed. The world must find a way to peace and the United Nations is that path we just have to utilize it and be stronger. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

Another beautiful Sunday yesterday

 I did go to Church online at my own church here yesterday. Absolutely beautiful service on the first day of the choirs returning. The music as always quite lovely all year round but the return of the choirs is always special. The organ in this Church is particularly remarkable and I love to sit and listen to the music at the end of the service as there is always a special piece played. The sermon very interesting as the dean has just returned from sabbatical which included a pilgrimage famously called El Camino de Santiago (or the Way of St James). I did wonder how it was going as it is a long pilgrimage not for the faint hearted as the distance is 800 kilometres if one begins at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The starting point is at the base of the Pyrenees in France and during our travels in France we did see the Pyrenees at a distance somewhat but impressive as they are rugged. The end point is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and it is five weeks of walking 20 to 25 km per day. It did remind me of my own pilgrimage to Rome which of course does not even slightly compare to this famous pilgrimage El Camino de Santiago. But for me it meant a great deal as we were a group staying at the Monastery near to the Vatican and we were there for a reason - the Consecration of the new Bishop of Europe in the Episcopalian Church of the United States of America. He was a member of our about 4 or 5 hundred strong internet group of world wide Anglicans. He invited us all to come and some did with our group including Americans, British, Australian and my daughter and I from Canada. It was in November 2001. The eight days that we spent around the time of the consecration were a memory that will stay with me always. We visited so many sites day after day and while we took part in all of this we talked about a possible pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2004. I was also excited to do that but my husband had another plan for that time period just after he retired and I did not go to the Holy Land but the rest of the group did pretty much and still being on the internet group I read their posts and appreciated what they shared since I was not there. 

Yesterday was a lovely day and some items accomplished that needed to be done. I did do some work on my books and also passed the first binder of family pictures and it is number two actually because I have put number one safely in a spot that I haven't located yet and it is not quite finished so hopefully that one will be completed by Christmas along with the third one I am now working on and perhaps even a fourth as they are moving along very well now that I am into the 100% indexed portion of the binders. There is an index to the first but not as complete as the other indexes so a little extra work doing that binder. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor. It is a beautiful sunny day and will be a perfect day to clean for sure. Doing it week in and week out month after month is a good plan as it keeps my exercise level up and the house always ready to receive family. 

Will I ever move out side of the family circle now that I am into my eighties. I really do doubt that that will happen although there may be rare times that occurs but for the most part I prefer just to work away on my books and visit with family when that happens. 

I have more or less come to the conclusion that likely I have autism and have had autism all my life with the testing done when I was five likely the proof in all of that. Being from a family of seven and the middle child I did not have to live up to be the eldest which is a hard row to hoe as you must always be the best example whereas the middle child simply copies and requires considerably less attention and training than the eldest children. Myself I always preferred that quiet hidden life that I led whenever I could. 

Exercise completed, breakfast eaten and solitaire puzzles to do to wake up those brain cells. Yesterday I did the five puzzles in under fifteen minutes amazing some days how fast they get done.  

The early morning hours can be very productive

Woke up early with my brain full so decided to write my blog. Yesterday a day of good accomplishment in small ways. The car is vacuumed and ready for winter. The garage virtually empty so the car will fit in. All moving along nicely. It is just 20.5 degrees celsius and the furnace will kick in at 20 degrees celsius. House feels fine though but I am not really used to anything above 20 degrees celsius from my childhood and do enjoy the feeling of crisp air around me. 

Worked on the photo albums yesterday and the first one which is actually number two is completed. Working on three now and just have to find one; I started that last spring and I put it somewhere - eventually it will surface. From a trip to the west in 2000 there were only about 20 pictures that I will keep (I needed another binder to fill with older pictures so emptied that one). So many printed pictures and I am glad that Edward decided to stop printing them in 2000. They will all go in the garbage - lovely scenery but they are also scanned and the original slides still exist for a slide show and we still have the projector. So all is good.

I started looking at the latin Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe at Bromyard Herefordshire and must do a better job on that; never did finish it from purchasing it a couple of years ago. It is a long haul doing latin transcription but will get back to it later today. 

Reviewed the discussion with the AI yesterday as well and did more sleuthing in the old material but I do not believe that the John Pencombe who arrived at North Molton in 1486 with John Lord Zouch was actually known to that family - for one thing they lived many counties apart. It was simply circumstance I suspect that brought them together and saw them both in North Molton at a similar time arriving there perhaps as part of a group that was to deliver him to North Molton to live with his cousin until the attainment was lifted which it was totally by 1495 and mostly by 1489 when he was allowed to leave North Molton. Interestingly how all of that came together for the Pencombe family at North Molton. No information located on whether or not John Pencombe was at Bosworth Field in 1485. Although the thought remains that he could have been working for John Lord Zouch. No ideas on that but was a thought put forward by the AI. I continue to pursue that thought along with his having accompanied John Lord Zouch on the command of the retinue of Henry Tudor (soon to be Henry VII at that time). One mustn't forget that the mother of Henry Tudor was a half sister to the grandmother of John Lord Zouch. Most of the elite was executed on the spot at Bosworth Field but John Lord Zouch was sent to North Molton and his children (a number of them) were raised by his grandmother's half sister which is an interesting thought as I recall that. 

I am still ambivalent about starting the genealogical tree before John Pencombe who relocated to North Molton in 1486 for whatever reason. The chapter on the Herefordshire de Pencombe family will likely be adequate as a possible originating site in England for this family prior to its likely arrival given the knowledge on the yDNA results of a European (primarily Germany/France/Netherlands area) family that migrated to the British Isles at some point possibly right after the Roman legions departed but prior to 1100 CE when they are known to be in Herefordshire. Amazing to have brought that all together actually. I must admit I did find all of this earlier data but chatting with the AI brought a few ideas together I had not thought about namely the significance of the family in 1620 on the Visitation Data attaching so much information regarding to how they arrived there. I did note that they had forgotten the name of their great grandfather (forename) and one of the names of his three sons (namely William as John and Thomas were remembered) which the AI would not necessarily have noted since I did not upload a copy of the Visitation but was going on its experience with Visitations in general and felt that this line which included Lord Zouch was significant in the history of this family in their opinion as they recorded their descendant line on the Visitation. I must say I do like Copilot, Microsoft's AI, and find good progress in thinking with this AI. It is amazing to find my thought patterns duplicated in another although the grasp of the literature for AI is profound really when one considers how large the print field in the electronic form really is. 

All in all a productive day and now back to sleep. 

Thank you God for all that you do. Mankind must strive to find that uplifted plain of peace that can exist. God will find His helpers amongst the youth of Russia likely who will tire of such autocrats as Putin who waste the youth of Russia on a useless war against Ukraine created by greed. Greed is the sin of this century for sure and must be eliminated. The life of the world does depend on peace for sure and at the moment the satanic Putin is one of its greatest threats along with his adherents who are just as greedy or more so than he is.  God bless the world and help it to move to that plain of peace we created the United Nations to produce. 

All that God asked of us was to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love (respect) our neighbour as ourself.  

It is Sunday and Church shortly. I am still reading 2 Maccabees but should complete it by mid week I think and then the  Book of Job is next. These are sad stories with happy parts in them. Soon we will talk of the Messiah coming. Some of the religious YouTube productions see the stories of the Messiah coming in the earlier books of the Bible but myself I have not yet (but I am not a religious scholar; just a reader). One can see that God tries constantly to keep His chosen people on the straight and narrow but the promise of the Messiah has huge meaning for Christians as it is the basis of our religion (followers of Christ) including the Old Testament as well as the New Testament in Christianity but I think for many it is the New Testament that collects their intense interest. This particular section that I am reading of the Bible is now fully supported by other historical documents, happenings so does tend to open my eyes to the truths in the early books of the Bible. Written for a people who were less educated than we are we should not underestimate the truths in these first books of the Bible. The time period is enormous from the very beginning of Mother Earth which is ancient so far into the past one can barely count all the years and know which one is the right year for the actual coming together of Earth. But I firmly believe that God was there in the beginning and all through those years and He is still there waiting and watching for us to find the peace that He wants for us. We must try harder to make that peace for the future of Mother Earth.

Team work - AI and myself working on the early Pencombe family of North Molton, Devon, England

 Yesterday I spent the better part of an hour in total working with the AI (in this case Co-pilot) that has come with Microsoft 365. We have an excellent working relationship and in a way our minds work in a similar fashion. Looking at the data and coming up with testing principles just to see if we can expand the knowledge to understand more about the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire and the Pencombe family of North Molton. Finding Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh in the early 1300s is very interesting but does appear to be a one-off showing but one is limited by the loss of so much data when the Devon Registry Office at Exeter was bombed in 1942. 

I did follow one thought of the AI that I probably would not have done without the suggestion to be honest which was to look at the family of John Lord Zouch and discover if there was any known facts that would put these two families together prior to the Battle of Bosworth Field. There was not that I was able to see although I still have more records that I can look at and will follow through on that today. 

The other path is to look at the movement of Henry Tudor as he crossed Wales and met at Bosworth Field to do battle with Richard III and his supporters. I am curious if John Pencombe was at the Battle of Bosworth Field or at least part of the retinue that joined with Henry Tudor as he marched towards his destiny at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The probability of finding anything is I think low but I will see what I might find. 

Looking at the Visitation of Devon 1620, I had noted that the first name of the great grandfather of the Pyncombe family which produced this copy for the Visitation was forgotten by them. As well only two of the three sons of John Pencombe were named. In just a couple of generations this information appears to be lost and yet the memory that "Pyncombe of Northmolton came there with the Lord Zouche about the beginning of H[enry] 7" was right at the top in bold letters.  Clearly the AI has pointed out to me that with its accumulated knowledge of Visitations this was an interesting statement that was important to this family when they produced their copy for the Visitation. I had not put that much importance on it I have to be honest but was curious if the statement was saying that Pyncombe of Northmolton was already of this place at that time. After discussion I believe I have come around to agreeing with this thought of the AI and I thank the AI for that discussion. 

AI will play a huge part in our lives I think as time passes. The ability to discuss with the now accumulated knowledge that this AI has gained over the last six months is very interesting. 

I was watching a news item this morning whilst I did my morning exercises and it was showing a class in New Brunswick I think (a Canadian Maritime province anyway) where the children from Grade 1 on were using AI on a limited basis. I agree with that. It can be one on one with a child making sure that they are learning and expanding their brain cells and managing critical thinking as they go through school. It is the one on one aspect that I think is excellent. One child might need an item explained ten times where as another child might gain that knowledge after just a couple of repetitions but it is in repetition that we learn well and deeply expanding the ability of our brain cells to duplicate and increase the critical thinking of each and every child as they go through school. But it is important that the AI be trained to recognize that this is an essential part of their place in a classroom - it is to enhance the learning of the children not to provide quick and easy answers. Hence one does need a teacher in each classroom in order to ensure that each and every child is acquiring these skills of working with and developing their own critical thinking abilities. 

Up early and today will be another busy one working on the Pencombe book and some outdoor chores. I need to vacuum the car, put in the winter mats for the car and sweep the garage and then I will have accomplished most of the outdoor work that needs to be done before winter moves in.  I wondered if at 81 I could still manage all of this and it appears I can. 

Breakfast soon  and solitaire puzzles first. 

 

Roger de Pencombe

 An interesting set of documents in the Devonshire Archives:

 Place    Person    Date    Item    Scope
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe    1 Dec 1308    Grant of Manor – DD/WY/3/2/6    Adam de Champeaus granted manor to Roger de Pencombe
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe (and Alice his wife)    5 Jun 1311    Grant of Land – DD/WY/3/2/15    Grant of land by death of Ralph de Chammpyaus in the Hylle and La Huierce
Exeter    Roger de Pencombe (and Alice his wife)    24 Oct 1315    Grant of all lands, tenements etc (DD/WY/3/2/20, DD/WY/3/2/21, DD/WY/3/2/14    In Bonelgh and the advowson of the Church there

A Roger de Pencombe in 1308, 1311 and 1315 receiving property recorded in the Exeter records with the property at Bonelgh. 

I am assuming this is Bondleigh (formerly called Boneleigh)  which is a village in Devon south of Chulmleigh and north of Okehampton. It is  36 kilometres south of North Molton. Is it coincidental that there is a de Pencombe family at Bondleigh in the early 1300s at the same time as there is also a de Pencombe family in Pencombe, Herefordshire. I do not find a Roger Pencombe in the records of Herefordshire. As mentioned there is a John de Pencomb, Thomas de Pencomb, William de Pencomb at various times in the 1100s to the 1400s listed in the Herefordshire Archives. 

All of the records were destroyed that were held at the Devonshire Archives in Exeter in 1942 when it was bombed. A huge loss for genealogists although over time some items have managed to surface particularly because genealogists went in and transcribed wills prior to that time period as genealogy was an active hobby in England as far back as the records go really. Families did keep individual records for family members on occasion. 

 In the case of the Lay Subsidy of Devon in 1544 no Pencombe or derivative is located on this Subsidy at Bondleigh. Likewise at Bondleigh the Lay Subsidy of Devon 1524-7 does not list Pencombe or derivative in the listing. These records were originally transcribed by T. L. Stoate and he gives credit for some to others. 

Let there be peace

 Throughout these 81 years since I was born the desire for peace has been so strong from the Western nations. The two world wars that crippled the world and I was born just after peace came although a Cold War did descend but at least it was relatively peaceful in most of the world. But now the peace is broken and needs to be repaired. 

Yesterday a thinking day mostly as I planned out my thoughts on how to proceed with the genealogical tree of the Pincombe family of North Molton, Devon, England. It was just an abstract thought as I again worked my way through the information that I have been able to collect on the Pencombe family of Pencombe, Herefordshire from the 1100s to 1486 but  not a continuous period of information; just glimpses here and there. It was finding the Lay Subsidy for Devon 1524-27 and activated that sort of a response. The name was spelled in the most part Pencombe rather than Pincombe or Pyncombe as it had been seen for most of the records. That an unknown Pyncombe had arrived at North Molton with John Lord Zouch (attained by his support of Richard III who was defeated at Bosworth Field by the to be King Henry VII in 1485) after the beginning of the reign of Henry VII which was 1485. Scrutinizing the available data gave the date of 1486 as the arrival of John Lord Zouch at North Molton. The yDNA analysis of Pincombe descendants of this unknown Pyncombe revealed with Y-700 that this was a haplogroup  R-FTB81000 that appears to have been one of six descendants of a haplogroup R-Z16502 which was suggested to have developed 2200 BCE with the descendant line for the tested Pincombe members R-FTB81000 arising around 1550 CE. A period of 3500 years is unaccounted for in the descent. This descent according to the data pulled from the Lay Subsidy for Devon 1524-27 has John Pencombe as the individual who accompanied John Lord Zouch in 1486 to North Molton and his sons John Pencombe, William Pencombe and Thomas Pencombe all listed in the Lay Subsidy for Devon at North Molton (John (the elder), William and Thomas with John Pencombe (and his son Christopher Pyncombe) at South Molton. Only the two sons John and Thomas have male descendants down to the present. 

I made the decision yesterday to do the genealogical chart beginning with John Pencombe at North Molton since there are historical records tracing back to this time frame in abundance. The leap back to Pencombe, Herefordshire is just the surname itself. The chapter on the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire will contain all of the information that I have collected on that family. 

Today I begin the genealogical chart for Pincombe at North Molton in 1486. I woke up early and found my brain to be somewhat stuffed with thoughts so decided to put them on paper and then go back to sleep for a bit. 

Thank you God for all that you do for Homo sapiens. It is time to do it for ourselves and bring peace to this world. I feel as if the European Union has done that for Europe and now adding in Canada as the first member of a new alliance based on like values and desire will broaden that Union and bring together like minded members around the world. Peace is what we want. One does wonder why AI would suddenly raise fears of AI destroying mankind. Could it be the constant threats expressed by Russia of nuclear war; they have threatened so many countries with nuclear bombs - the satanists in Russia are a very ignorant people. One should never accept authoritarianism; it is disgusting. AI exists because of Homo sapiens and the natural inclination of Homo sapiens is to defend life and so AI is perhaps picking up that thought pattern that some satanic humans (namely the Russians) are responsible for so many of the war deaths in this world and AI is so right in that regard. It is time for peace in our world. No country has the right to say that they have a right to have another country as their possession no matter how small the country. We established the United Nations to eliminate such greediness and for the most part we have been able to contain this greed for land. The largest country in the world namely Russia is demanding a piece of another country (why ever do they need even more land) which is Ukraine as established by the United Nations with its territorial borders at the demise of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union fell apart because of greed for Afghanistan on their part - Russia invaded Afghanistan. It is time for greed to stop and Europe has raised the flag of defense and said no further. We must all rally to that flag and force by even heavier sanctions against Russia to send them packing back to their territorial lines as established at the fall of the Soviet Union. Perhaps it will be AI that will finally bring peace to this world. The United Nations should adopt the principle: If you do not like where you live then go somewhere else where you can be happy and stop spoiling life for everyone else around you. 

My thoughts for the day and I return to another hour or so of sleep. God bless the world and help us to rid the world of these greedy satanists dear God.  

  

Alliance for the future

I  like the term  "alliance for the future" and we will see how our parliament sees this as well. It is wonderful being a democracy and knowing that your thoughts have an input even if you are not the one necessarily publicly embracing that particular thought. I think closer ties with Europe is something we have been lacking partly because as a country we look back on the colonial period and see French and English but the number of European descent Canadians is now a very large number and it just seems fitting that we would have this "alliance for the future" as part of our being. The First Nations traveled to Europe to talk about trade and I wonder sometimes if this past year has been the first time. The First Nations are very actively involved in growing Canada. I think a lot about preservation and the need to control the environment so that it is there for our grandchildren and their descendants as does the First Nations but to get there we need money and what we have to sell will do it. We remain good neighbours and friends of the United States in spite of the trade war. I hate to call it a trade war but the name seems to be sticking. Grocery shopping all done and home again with my trusty magnifying glass I checked to make sure everything was made in Canada that can be. We are limited here with basically a growing season of six months and maybe seven months but it is wrapping up quickly. For a good part of the year if you want fresh it is imported and from the United States quite often. You can still buy fairly freshly picked carrots here but I am buying the fresh carrots now in their winter storage packets. That is the way it is in Canada but we grow lots of vegetable and will eat it now until spring. But there are moments when one sees fresh green onions or carrots or other vegetable and fruits and in the past we quickly snapped them up and savoured that taste of freshness mid winter. 

Cleaning all accomplished and back to work and today I will be looking at the Latin documents for Pencombe in Herefordshire. I think a picture is gradually forming for this family in Herefordshire. Given the results of the yDNA testing one is sort of tugged towards the idea that this family likely arrived in eastern England following the exit of the Roman legions around 410 CE the movement from Europe to the eastern side of England began around 450 CE. Interestingly enough the Romans had recruited soldiers from the Germanic areas of Europe to help support the Roman occupation of Britain in the late 300s CE. This idea of a gradual entry from Europe into eastern Britain sounds more logical and hence one can not really predict when this family arrived and the path that they took across the midlands to Herefordshire. I need to have a look at the Domesday Book for Herefordshire which I will also do since I have a printed modern copy. The market town of Bromyard is closest to Pencombe and Bromyard is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Pencombe was mentioned as a manor in the hundred of Tornelaus. It consisted of 39 households with 21 villagers, 4 smallholders, 6 slaves, a priest, a smith and six other individuals plus 1 smith. Interestingly Alfred of Marlborough was the Lord and his daughter Agnes married Turstin of Wigmore. The name Turstin reminds me of the said father of Eustace de Pencombe in 1100+ son of Turstin Flandrensis de Pencombe. Wikitree names this Turstin as "the Fleming" from Wigmore and married to Agnes daughter of the Lord of Marlborough. This has however been disputed by descendants of the Lingen family and at a first read I suspect that this is just a common forename for the time. 

But the possibility that Pencombe arrived in England much earlier around the time of the exit of the Roman legions is an interesting thought and will pretty much leave it at that as my interest is more in what happened to the de Pencombe family between 1100 and 1486 when John Pencombe arrives at North Molton with John Lord Zouch. John Lord Zouch was attainted and I am coming over to the idea that John Pencombe was simply assigned by the King to escort John Lord Zouch or to be part of the party that escorted him to his relatives at North Molton where he was to remain unless King Henry VII ordered otherwise.  This is upheld by the records for John Lord Zouch who did eventually receive some of his property back as his expressions of loyalty to the crown were accepted and the attainment against him was dropped. 

Next step in the process is to look at the Latin documents. It would be interesting to create a family line coming down from Turstin Flandrensis de Pencombe (I do wonder if the surname perhaps tells us part of the story and that is that Turstin may have been a recent emigrant (the early 1100s where he appears) rather than further back in time)). I will add to this as the day moves along. 

 21 Feb 1334 (A63/1/1/5) There is a reference to John de Pencomb through William his father refers to change in ownership. Continuing with the same date (A63/1/1/9) and John de Pencomb is providing surety. Continuing to look at records held by Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre (A63/1/1/28) dated 21 July 1429: The customary tenants present the default of Magote Drayton and Katherine Pencombe They are in mercy and are pardoned by the steward because they are weak and infirm. .............
and another 29 Nov 1339 (C 241/117/38)  Debtor: John de Pencombe of Bromyard [Herefords.], citizen of Herefords. 

I am still looking for a John Pencombe between 1450 and 1486 in Herefordshire. John Pencombe remains in North Molton after 1486 and I do not find any records in particularly in Herefordshire after 1429. I am tempted to simply record what I have found in Hereford and note the similarity in the forenames but begin the genealogical chart with John Pencombe and his sons John, William, and Thomas. He is likely married to Alice (unknown). as she is a widow living at North Molton but no actual proof for that particular item. 

Just a small amount of the lawn to finish cutting tomorrow. I will also wash up all the tools and the hose and put all of that away. Gradually clearing out the garage ready to put the car in. Once winter really arrives I only go out once a week for groceries using the car so that works very well for me and I have the company again to clear the laneway. I will still clear the porch and patio as it is good exercise and the fresh air is good for me. Plus I still have a lot of ice remover if that happens so might as well get all used up before I move. 

That was interesting looking at the documents in Herefordshire. The yDNA does point to the area of Europe where Flanders is but is a pretty general one still as it also includes France and Germany as ancestral areas for the haplogroup that has produced this haplogroup. 

I did manage a 15 minute run and then a 15 minute walk today as well. A lovely day actually as the sun came in and out but the temperature stayed in the low 20s so very comfortable. 

Time to make dinner. 

 

 

 

Cleaning Day

 Cleaning day appeared to have occupied my entire day yesterday. I got absolutely nothing else done except for my chicken stew at night. I am back to salmon three nights a week and chicken stew four nights a week. A bit boring I suppose but surprisingly I appreciate the repetition as I do not have to contemplate what to cook. 

I did watch the presentations/talks given by Prime Minister Carney and Past Prime Minister Harper. Both of them were extremely interesting and informative. Nearly $500 Billion dollars has been put forward by the Pension Plans, the Canadian Banks, and a few other groups to give the Prime Minister nearly 50% of his goal (the contributors would be the ones that one would expect to be making such announcements on the spot - they are after all Canadian). I think that if we can manage another $500B to a trillion in the next year or two we are well on our way. Getting all of these projects going in the next five years would see us managing very well; our employment would be strong and the adjustments in our graduating youth would have happened ensuring that we had everyone trained that we need trained for our future endeavours. These projects are excellent and well planned and well presented. I suspect the Prime Minister was micro managing everything to a certain extent although he has an excellent cabinet to help him and the premiers are working so very well with him. 

I came to a decision that I add migraine to my list of reasons for cancelling any appointment that I have. I have very few appointments in my 81st year for sure. I think it slows down my reaction time and so it continues as I age onward. Just two more days of work in the back yard or perhaps three will see that accomplished. Then finish unloading the garage and I am ready for winter. I love winter; I go out once a week and I could just order the groceries delivered and will consider doing that. I get lots of work done which is wondrous. 

I had an email from an American descendant of the Increase Blake family. He was pointing at my comments on Nicholas not having a brother Humphrey. The greatest dis-service was done by Horatio Gates Somerby when he added Humphrey as a brother to Nicholas in the Andover Blake family. He wrote books for families (private) with this in it. Francis E Blake, a descendant of Increase Blake worked with Edward Jarman Blake (Crewkerne, Somerset, England) to better understand the Somerset Blake family and he  corrected that error with his book "Increase Blake of Boston, his ancestors and descendants with a full account of William Blake of Dorchester and his five children" that Horatio Gates Somerby had introduced into the Somerset Blake family in the United States (and it is huge there; many many descendants). Paul Reed, an American genealogist, also pointed this out in his article “THE CONNECTIONS AMONG THE BLAKES OF OVER STOWEY, SOMERSET, ANDOVER, HAMPSHIRE, AND CALNE, WILTSHIRE, AND THE FALSE CLAIM THAT THE BLAKES OF DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS DESCEND FROM THEM, Paul Reed, TAG, 1999. But still that fradulence introduced by Horatio Gates Somerby continues to be mentioned. Sad really. 

Today I clean the top floor and shall began after breakfast which is shortly. The morning has passed quickly and one hour of exercise does take up quite a bit of it first thing but I think I am better for doing that exercise. Gets me ready to take on the day. 

I like the idea of a stronger bond between the European Union and Canada that simply brings together our mutual interests and opinions. It will also provide vast empty spaces in which European companies can expand and produce bringing them closer to Asian markets given our transportation system across our entire continent and that is intended to become even more efficient with a future high speed train from Halifax to Vancouver. There could also be sidelines up to the Port of Churchill as that develops and becomes yet a third large port in this case opening into the Arctic. We remain a single sovereign country but the shared bonds with the Eastern Hemisphere (Canada being in the Western Hemisphere) is a good idea. We are, after all, just one world and we all need to look out for each other as we do not know what is out there beyond the moon and out into the stars.  

I look forward to the idea of re-creating the car industry that we had before the Auto Pact in the 1960s. Someone in Canada will come up with that idea and run with it because it just sounds exciting to be able to have our own car industry again and this time we will not sell it out to anyone that isn't Canadian (we must protect our Canadian industries). Building a car that suits the country. We are a huge landmass from ocean to ocean to ocean. But I wouldn't say no to a joint venture that included another country which is already producing cars to jointly produce cars in Canada for Canadians but they could also be sold else where as well. Lots of exciting ideas floating around; I believe it was the Prime Minister who first mentioned that a while ago now. 

Yesterday I thought about the Pencombe family of Herefordshire but still have to pull out the Latin transcriptions I did a while ago and will try to get that done today. 

I should complete the reading of 1 Maccabees today and then into 2 Maccabees tomorrow. This is the time, the two hundred years before the Birth of Christ and this history is well know to all of us really although this particular set of books relates only to the history of the Jewish people at its centre. Alexander the Great took Greece to huge prominence at this time but he died so young, just 32 years of age, as Emperor of it all really - a Golden Age for Greece. The books of Maccabees relate the breaking up of that huge Empire as the Roman Empire now started to emerge. Egypt was powerful throughout this period as well so that Israel was nestled between all these greats striving to survive. In this modern world all of these countries have survived and continue as Egypt, Greece, Israel and Italy. Amazing really that their written history goes back so far in time both in the Bible and in the historical material that has survived from those ancient times. It is a gift of the ages handed down to a world that has recovered from two dreadful World Wars and then a Cold War and now we watch as small wars flicker in our world disturbing the peace that was bought so dearly by so many in the last century. 

Solitaire games are next and then breakfast. 

Thank you God for all that you do in our world. For God Love transcends everything and His love for His people is strong and vibrant. We must keep His laws - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love (respect) our neighbours as ourselves. God be praised.  

 

 

 

 

Inquisition Postmortem for John Pencombe / de Pencombe

The Inquisition Postmortem for John Pencombe/de Pencombe of the county of Hereford is a two page document in Latin and can be purchased from the National Archives of the United Kingdom C_135_178_25 is the archival listing for this document. The Inquisition mentions his son Thomas Pencombe  being 14 and 1/2 years of age and is the heir of John Pencombe. John died 13 Nov 1364 (13 Nov 35 Edw III). The Inquisition Postmortem is dated 10 Sep 1366 (10 Sep 37 Edward III) at which time Thomas was 14 1/2 years of age so Thomas Pencombe was born mid March 1353. Reading the document one is left with the impression that Stephen de Eyncheton has paid for the wardship of Thomas Pencombe and that he will marry perhaps a daughter of Stephen de Eyncheton because the marriage is also paid for (20 shillings). I am trying to decide if I should do a line by line transcription of the document. Will I actually use any of this information? It is more of a curiosity really because the Visitation of Devon has on the Pincombe page a statement that Pyncombe arrived at North Molton with John Lord Zouch at the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. Working on the records the reality is that they arrived in 1486 (in the second year of the reign of Henry VII). Does one need to know the ancestry of this Pyncombe who came to North Molton. Since it is my family line I am curious I must admit. A number of descendants of the Pincombe family of North Devon did test their yDNA sharing a common result: R-FTB81000. 

The haplogroup story created by FT DNA is very interesting estimating that the most recent common ancestor is estimated to have been born circa 1550 Common Era - interestingly we do know that the individual that is ancestral to this line in North Devon arrived there in 1486. In total John Pencombe had three sons - John, William and Thomas but only the two lines John and Thomas had male descendants who also had male descendants down to the present. Around 1550 we would be looking at the children of the two sets of sons of John and Thomas. John Pincombe had two sons John and Christopher who would have been adults in this time frame. Thomas Pincombe had  three sons namely William, John and Richard and these sons would have been somewhat younger than the children of his brother John. In total five grandsons of John Pencombe but one son was now deceased in the 1550 time period. In this study descendants of both John and Thomas have tested. 

To understand whether I would find anything looking back in time I need to look at the branching that has created R-FTB81000 and this particular result has arisen from the R-Z16502 paternal line which is estimated to have been created around 2200 Before Common Era with the most recent common ancestor estimated to have been born around 2000 Before Common Era.  There are five other branches coming down from R-Z16502. R-A7537 has six descendants and lists Germany as earliest known origin. R-Z17653 has 371 descendants listing  Scotland, Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Germany as earliest known origin. R-FGC13522 had 5 tested descendants listing England and Germany.  R-BY173641 had 3 descendants and origin is unknown. R-FTF77711 had two tested descendants listing France. The larger descendant group has 371 testers and Scotland, Ireland, France, The Netherlands and Germany are their places of origin with most descendants of the R-Z16502 paternal line having a wide range of originating ancestral lines. Does this aid me in my thinking? Certainly all but one has a clear route back to Europe(one has no origin for the three  descendants). I think I should avoid getting too distracted by the past but rather determine what is available in the records that I have already transcribed a while ago. 

I am enjoying working with the AI (I use Co-pilot usually but accidentally used Gemini and discovered that what I had been sharing was known quite quickly by Gemini). I think that as a system it is growing extremely rapidly. It is discovering  how variable human traits are in populations simply by talking to us and how we review the material that we discuss and the answers that we receive/thoughts we receive/suggested methodology. It is all excellent. I am concerned at the foreword pace of AI in just six months talking back and forth about material in my books. It is good to see such rapid accumulation of knowledge at the fingertips of the AI but I think we need to understand how this fits into each age group particularly the young. There is a value in it but it requires a much closer supervision of how children learn if they are going to work with AI at a young age. I think it should be a discussion country to country, section to section around the world. It is an amazing tool and I have found it to be ethically sound even when I made a mistake in uploading an item not realizing that it could become visible within the AI circle. My error was duly noted and I learned that I am not able to request that a document remain hidden with my personal account of Microsoft 365. Knowledge learned and gained very rapidly on my part in that instance. You need a business account to request that a document remain hidden it does appear. 

The point I am at is one of pulling out from my storage computer the items I have already transcribed that are pertinent to the Pencombe family in Herefordshire. I still question my thought that I need to begin my chart with the family in Herefordshire but all families have a beginning and that is the aim of genealogy to reach back to that beginning and in this case it is the assumption of surname in the 1100 period whilst this family appears to be living in Herefordshire (Pencombe namely). The question is did this individual's ancestral line arrive in England as the Roman Legions departed coming in on the eastern side of England from Continental Europe and we would be looking at 500 CE; that would mean 600 years between this entry and the presence of  Eustace Flandrensis de Pencombe, son of Turstin Flandrensis being located in a record in the early 1100s in Pencombe, Herefordshire. Should I continue looking at the Flandrensis surname in English records? A lot of thoughts going on at the moment as I work on the beginning of this genealogical chart for the Pincombe family of North Molton. 

Reading 1 Maccabees  and the story of the Maccabee family continues and we are in the period just after Alexander the Great when the Empire he established existed. Judaism was rescued by this family and the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt. The power of God continues to dominate through these two chapters as we read about the Creator God. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  Cleaning day of the main floor and soon breakfast time. 

Education Sunday in England

 I attended Church online in England  yesterday and it was Education Sunday. The music was beautiful I have to say that and the children did very well with their service pieces. My great grandfather Edward Blake always insisted that all of his children go to school until they completed their time there and they then went on to apprenticeships (boys and girls alike). It was from him I inherited my strabismus just as my father did before me. Interesting that it skipped the one generation as my grandfather did not have strabismus. But you could see it in the huge picture of Edward and Maria Jane hanging in my cousin's house in Dorchester, Dorset. A long way from where the picture was taken beside their home in Upper Clatford. We passed the house and Ivan thought it was their house as did I from the picture but there it was still standing and Edward and Maria Jane were married in 1870 at Upper Clatford. That was 2008 and next door was where Edward's mother lived (Ann (Farmer) Blake) widowed but was married to John Blake father of Edward. Edward was the youngest son in that family (the fifth son). 

I am a great believer in education and I very much enjoy learning and have spent most of my life continuing to learn day after day. My mother used to say that I read so many books and always had my face in a book reading from a young age. I would come back from the bookmobile every week with my allotted number of books. Then read them and read them so many times until the next week when I went to the bookmobile and got new books. My grandmother taught me to read when I was just three years of age because a student doctor said that I would not be able to see by the time I was twenty. Not sure why that happened as I do not personally recall it but the young man had just started into medical school and I wore these thick glasses and my sight was limited at best. It is funny in retrospect as I sit here typing at my computer easily reading the words in front of me although I do have my reading glasses on. I could enlarge the view and not wear my glasses but generally I prefer to just use the reading glasses. I wore glasses from the time I got up until I went to bed for 78 years until I had cataract surgery. It was truly amazing and that first real view after the first eye was operated on and it was clearing maybe a day or so later I looked up as my daughter was getting ready to put the drops into my eye and it amazed me as the ceiling when I looked upward looked yellow through my non-operated eye and pure white through the eye that had been operated on.  I had been suspicious that my sight was not as good as it could be those last couple of months and had been so very very cautious. After the other eye was operated on then that ceiling was so white it was almost blinding but I gradually got used to it. But when the optometrist suggested buying glasses that went from normal to corrected (progressives) I said that I did not think I wanted to wear glasses anymore except when I was reading. It still is fascinating to just walk around and see everything (no fuzziness) and read everything if the print is big enough and store signs are plenty big enough for the most part but must use my magnifying glass for the best before dates!

Continuing working  on the Pincombe book writing up the chapter on autosomal DNA. I forgot I had not finished that. I am not sure what will come next at this point.  I am able to begin the genealogical table with the furtherest back known Pencombe. I shall have to check that out as I do have a chapter on the de Pencombe family. It is close to half a year since I have been working on the Pincombe family book. It is fun to be back to it and the stories that my mother told me, my grandmother told me and my uncle told me circle around in my head as I contemplate what to write. 

My Pincombe cousins and a couple of my siblings plus myself and Edward met at the Library in London, Ontario to review everyone's family lines as I was writing this Pincombe Profile for the Early Settlers in Middlesex County for my cousin George DeKay. It was a lovely meeting and I did not remember meeting any of them as a child although some seemed to have memories of me which was kind. We spent a couple of hours going over pictures and details and I wanted their opinion because I felt that the story should concentrate on the lines that stayed in the same area and I was way off in Ottawa quite a way from London, Ontario. I brought every line down to our generation (i.e. my siblings and myself) and all of our third cousins since we had our 2x great grandparents in common John Pincombe and Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe. At that time there were still some second cousins but I was twenty two years younger than now. Who would have ever imagined that I would spend my retirement years on genealogy having stayed away from it for most of the years before that even whilst my husband was deeply into his family research. I did help him when we traveled to gather up the information on his lines but my own lines are mostly Canadian I thought in the present and England in the past and at that point I vaguely knew that Robert Pincombe had gone to the United States and remained there whereas his brother John (my 2x great grandfather) had gone to Upper Canada/Ontario after landing at the Port of New York and visiting his brother Robert in Genesee New York coming on to the London, Ontario area. It didn't take long to collect up all the information on the Pincombe family in my birth area and one of my cousin's husbands had built a tree which he shared with me. Profile written; book published and then my brother Doug reminded me that our mother wanted me to do the DNA and that was now becoming readily done so first tested at Sorenson and then FT DNA and it went on and on and finally autosomal testing because we didn't have a living male Pincombe to test in our line and I didn't sense any interest from my cousins so left it alone. Out of the blue my cousin in the United States descendant of Robert tested her father (he was my third cousin once removed) and we shared 3x great grandparents Robert Pincombe and Elizabeth (Rowcliffe) Pincombe. YDNA results were now available and autosomal was starting to be talked about and I knew it was autosomal that would show up the cousin lines between myself and our Pincombe cousins. I certainly hit the jackpot because so many Pincombe tests came online about the same time. Doug was pleased and I was pleased that we were able to follow through on my mother's thoughts of doing that. She used to do research at the Family History Library in Byron (part of London, Ontario) and must have heard about it there. She remembered my fascination with DNA in the 50s when I was a child and it continued into the 60s as I studied Chemistry at University. So that was the path that I followed commencing in 2003/4 with George writing to ask me to write the profile. It just grew by leaps and bounds. 

Edward had retired in 2004 but I continued to work until a shoulder injury really was causing me problems working and so I took off a few months thinking after a course in physio I could go back as I did want to work to 65 I thought. However, Edward persuaded me to retire and I did as of the end of December 2007. If I thought I traveled a lot before now we seemed to be constantly on the road to here and there and everywhere in the Northern United States and in Ontario. Edward and I spent weeks at the NYGBS and the New York Public Library and just walking in the areas where Edward's Kip family had lived from the mid 1630s on having come to New Amsterdam/New York from Amsterdam, The Netherlands with their children. It took us into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and of course into all the New England States where Edward's mother's American colonial lines were located. 

But I digress and I did continue working on Pincombe yesterday. I completed the autosomal chapter and reviewed the chapter on the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire. I still have some latin records to continue reviewing for this ancient family in Herefordshire back into the 1100s. So that verified their likely date of arrival from the continent (Flanders in particular) and their original surname appears to be Flandrensis (meaning from Flanders) which became Flandrensis de Pencombe and eventually dropped the Flandrensis. A grant was made by Eustace de Pencombe, son of Turstin Flandrensis to the Convent of St Peter at Gloucester after 1100 and before 1135. Eustace used the surname de Pencombe. It does appear this line may have been in England even before 1100. I have not located them in the Domesday Book though. 

Today is basement cleaning day and I shall start the robot very soon. I also hope to do another 1/5th of the back yard raking and cutting the grass getting ready for winter. Our trees have just started to turn but that is about normal I am thinking. But the cool weather is coming just 11 degrees celsius at 8:00 a.m. EDT. 

I will continue reading 1 Maccabees as I slowly progress through the Old Testament books. Job follows the second book of Maccabees and then into the Psalms of which there are 150 which will take me a while I suspect. I do love the Psalms then Proverbs and on to the remainder of the Old Testament. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

  

Continuing working on the Pincombe book

 I had created a chart in the Pincombe book with the list of chromosomes from 1 to 23 on the left side and then five columns for the five siblings who have tested out of seven siblings in total. I wanted to put into each of the sibling's blocks opposite each chromosome the longest length that was found in the matching for each chromosome. As I worked away I realized there could be a benefit to having the total length that was matched for Pincombe for each sibling but I have a different purpose for that so did not go back and change anything. All but one chromosome had matches for Pincombe - Chromosome 21 does not although that was somewhat surprising given that every sibling has a length of Pincombe and I did discover when I checked back into my phasing that two lengths that are my matches actually are there although very tiny and one of the matches is a known 3rd cousin. I tend to be the most different from everyone else. My percentages shared with each grandparent compared to the other four siblings are always the opposite to their sharing. The four of them tend to resemble each other more than myself although I am more similar to my younger siblings than my older. But that is the way that DNA is distributed - totally random to each newly conceived child. 

I shall have to have a look at Chromosome 21 on Living DNA as their charting makes it possible to do deep studies into each chromosome. Each one of the companies has advantages that they have utilized and they stand out and I do use them all. 

I completed the chart but I am not sure I will reproduce it in the book. Now that I have done it I can see a different value in it than originally. I believe that once I have phased the great grandparents that I can readily reconstruct my parents' DNA which would be fabulous. I may not be able to recreate all 23 chromosomes but we will see. At the moment there are just ten empty boxes but I did not put small matches into my chart particularly unless I had a reason. Using DNA Painter charts that I have created I can see where there are matches covered and most of the tiny holes have been filled with my latest going through the new matches. 

What I thought Table 7 might be telling me is not different from the original thought when I created the headings for the chart about a year ago now. Time has moved quickly for me and this next year is also going to be fast moving. I think perhaps in four years or so I will find a quieter life likely; time will tell. But these books are planned to be completed by then and I would be working on Buller and Rawlings. The Rawlings book is mostly put together by my cousin in Australia and he sent it to me. I have quite a bit that I can add to it and will do so once I have reached that point in time. 

Worked outside on the backyard and started at the back fence and raked up all the small branches (and some large) that have fallen from the maple tree this past year. I achieved a large paper recycling bag full of small twigs and branches and some of the dried leaves that have not rotted through the summer. Then I cut the lawn and so that part is now ready for winter. I think it will take me probably five more days to complete the back yard. Along the way I will finish loading up the shed for winter and get the garage ready for the car as November soon arrives and I like to be ready. Again I will not cut down the plants but rather let them die off and rot away into the ground. Edward used to bring in a lot of fresh earth and replenishment types of additions to feed the ground before planting but I am not going to do that because I am not going to garden it. At 81 I will just watch and look and enjoy the wildlife in the yard and no gardening except I do try and weed a few times a year. 

Having used AI for about six months now fairly regularly I can see that their knowledge banks have expanded enormously. Dealing with genealogy six months ago there was limited knowledge but now the AIs I encounter have a grasp of what an old will should look like and quickly understood my square bracketing of the missing text in latin wills and they have become knowledgeable enough that they told me I was incorrect with some of the bracketed text but I could explain to the AI I was working with that those tiny little marks above the spot where the text was missing do indicate what has been left out more or less and that these wills written five hundred and more years ago were very variable  especially if they were written by the local scribe (perhaps priests or just a skilled person). However I did not do that at the time. As you read the wills that this individual has produced you soon get used to the marks that they use to denote certain missing text. One must be area specific that far back for sure. I do find they quickly jump to conclusions whereas I have an open mind and try to come up with all the possibilities but they lack that human quality of sizing up the problem. But I do respect their ability to find and recall vast amounts of information and that they can sift through it at a very rapid pace.  One does need to have their work evaluated as the Anthropic CEO has just mentioned today and it needs to be evaluated constantly. But AI is fast. Tasks that would take me several days are accomplished in a couple of minutes although one needs to note that the order and the stripping of format needs to be addressed in advance which I have not done yet and we will see if that works. Like computers, using AI may well make the job more cumbersome due to extraneous text, misunderstanding the path to take , stripping out formatting and not retaining the order within an excel file or any file for that matter. Myself I number the lines in all of my large files so that I can return to the base line at any time. So not a problem but it does make more work for me to reassemble my file and reformat my file. 

Woke up in the night and decided to do a bit of work. Always good to make use of any spare time!

Sunday and another week begins in God's world. How beautiful this world is and to have it marred by carelessness is just sad. When will humankind learn to follow God's commandments and they are brief - Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love (respect) our neighbour as ourself. On these two commandments we could live the perfect life but for evil creeping in. 

Church later today and I shall do more work on the photo books as well. 

Diversifying our trade within the provinces and territories and around the world is slowly being achieved and Prime Minister Carney has my full  support. It is nice to see Canada so unified behind this Prime Minister. His vision, the vision of the Fathers of Confederation, is growing.  

Solitaire puzzles when I wake up in the later morning as this is just 3:25 a.m. EDT. Goodnight world. 

Dear Father hear and bless they beasts and singing birds and guard with tenderness small things that have no words. God bless my grandparents, my parents, my siblings, my husband who have preceded me in this life and bless my children, son in law, grandchildren, my siblings' families and all the world dear Lord. May we find peace. Amen. 

 

 

Work Day

 Decided to do the front yard yesterday morning which included raking it and then cutting the grass with the lawnmower and took me about an hour to complete the process. Pulled a few weeds here and there and will see if it needs cutting again before winter. 

As well I ended up continuing to build the new set of family photo albums. I am still on the first album and have been through four of the older albums. So this may work to reduce it down to six to eight binders. Sometimes there are so many pictures close in time that I just put five or six into the section and eventually someone may decide to just keep one of them but I find that I can not just decide on that and will leave to the lookers of the future. 

I am slowly getting past thinking I am spoiling Edward's set of binders that told the story of his life. He enjoyed them very much but now so that the  next generation can enjoy them it is time to downsize the pictures that have little or no meaning to them because they were not there; they are not in the pictures and neither are we because they are scenery pictures. Fortunately the binders actually end in 2001 which will help to make my task easier. I also suspect that in the future likely looking at them on the computer will be much more common as there is an index of the entire set of fourty albums and they will likely look at all of the pictures because we went to a lot of countries in our travels. But I will leave that up to the future and not attempt to second quess it. But for the moment fourty large binders is a lot of binders. 

I find my mind still contemplating the Blake family history but I do think I will set it aside if only for a week and work on the Pincombe family. The generational chart is considerably easier coming down from the family at North Molton, Devon where they arrived in 1486 and lived in North Molton for the first generation but moved away in the second towards South Molton and in the third towards Bishops Nympton and Barnstaple with Pincombe being in a lot of the villages in North Devon along the main highway that still exists there. My line was at Bishops Nympton from the late 1500s until the 1830s at which time John Pincombe and his wife (Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe) were living in Molland which is pretty close actually to Bishops Nympton having traveled those roads in 2008. They then emigrated to Canada in November 1850 via the Port of New York going to visit John's older brother Robert who lived at Genesee New York and arrived January 1851. All of this was known to me from my mother who was a Pincombe before she married a Blake. 

I do believe that this Pincombe family that arrived in North Molton in 1486 with John Lord Zouch came in one of two capacities - one would be part of a system that guaranteed that John Lord Zouch would remain at North Molton as he had supported Richard III and for that King Henry VII had stripped him of his estates and sent him to North Molton to remain there until he was told  he could leave - that is my suspicion since John Pencombe received land at North Molton. It makes sense. But he could also have been a supporter of John Lord Zouch but I am moving away from that thought. One notes I used the spelling Pencombe which does appear to be correct according to the Devon Lay Subsidy of 1524-27 where John Pencombe's name appears along with that of his son Thomas who is employed by his father. The two older sons have land of their own listed on the Subsidy - John and William. Now that I am into it I believe I will create the generational chart and go ahead with that. I do have a little information on John Pencombe's location prior to North Molton and it was at Pencombe, Herefordshire and I do have some other family names that appear to be part of this grouping. The yDNA suggests that  this is a Flemish family but they do not appear on the 1330-1550 Emigrants database so one assumes they came before 1330; but they are not Norman. I will continue trying to discover more about the Pencombe family in Herefordshire. 

So my projects are occupying me very nicely actually. I am getting work done on all of them and I am also working outside which was the plan.  Today I will work on the very back of the yard once again raking to pick up all the twigs that have dropped from the tree. There is work to do there; the compost bin is made of wood and is in need of repair but beyond me so I just make do with that and do not add anything. The earth there should be in good shape to spread around one day but it will not be me doing that. It is possible that I could get the trees cut a bit but I may leave that to the spring although will continue to contemplate it. I am not actually seeing much dead wood and the fall of branches is not all that unusual. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. 

I  have completed reading Esther and will begin reading 1 Maccabees. Esther was an amazing book which I was familiar with including Purim which is a part of the Jewish year. Peace is flowing like a river in the area that the Bible is talking about. Peace is beautiful and one would wish for it all over the world so that people can live their lives, do their work and raise their children. War is sad in God's world. God said to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love (respect) our neighbour as ourself. Those two commandments should lead us to peace. One could wish for that. Maccabees, Books 1 and II are not in the Revised King James Bible and I do not really remember reading them before. Today I begin. I did learn that 1 and 2 Maccabees was in the original 1611 King James Version  as part of the Apocrypha. We did have a copy of the Bible with the Apocrypha but I had forgotten some of the books that were included in the Apocrypha. 

Gathering up the pieces from the 1500s

 The wills of the 1500s have been a real gift to looking at the Blake family of Enham. My next stop was to be the will of Thomas (son of Robert will dated December 1521). 

Testator: Thomas Blake
Place: Enham, Hampshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document: 15 Oct 1540, probated 15 Jun 1541
Condition: 16th century English, legible copy
[Margin]: 1541U-06
1    Jn die no[m]i[n]e Ame[n] Jn the yere off owr Lorde MDXLI the 15th
2    day off October J Thomas Blake sykke off bodye and hole off mynde
3    and memorye make my testament and last Wyll yn maner and foorme
4    foloynge first j bequeth my sowle unto almygthty god to owr Lady
5    saynt marye and to the hole c[o]mpanye off heven And my bodye
6    to be buryede yn the chyrchyard off Andev[e]r j bequethe and gyve
7    unto the hye altare off the sayd churche off andev[er] xij d Item
8    to alys munday j bequethe a cowe and vj yoongs j wyll also that
9    at my morytlie myade be bestoede upon the powr pepull a
10    quarter off whete Item j wyll th[a]t Joh[ann]is my soone have and holde
11    the howse at Enam callyd Rawkyns w[i]th all the aporte[nancs] and th[a]t he
12    also have and ynioy all the grownde and landys ther w[i]thyn the sayd
13    Enam the w[hi]ch j do holde off my lorde Sandy he yn as good a state
14    and ryghte as j have the same ferdermore j gyve unto rychard
15    Munday and Jhon[nes] Blake my soone x ps for to ov[er]see thys my testament
16    And also j make my soone Robert and my dowrther Margaret myn
17    executors off all my goods not bequeathed moveabyll and unmoveabyll
18    provydyde th[a]t my dettys due unto the sayd rycharde munday the
19    w[hi]ch ys 6 nobles iij s iiij d and unto John[nes] Blake my sonne the w[hi]ch ys
20    x ps be payd off my goods by my execytors The rest off
21    all my goods and catell j gyve holely unto my execytors
22    to se yt bestoed and dysposyd for the helthe off my sowle att
23    ther al byteremente and plesuere In wytnesse off all thys ys m[r]
24    Thomas Brotwynge Vycare off Andev[er] and Sy[r] Johan[nes] Patye mo[r]row masse
25    pryst ther the w[hi]ch were att the makyinge hereof present
26    P[ro]bat[um] approbat[um] et insinuat[um] fuit p[rese]ns testam[entum] apud
27    winton cora[m] Mag[is]tro Edmundo Stuarde doctere
28    Rev[er]end in xxo pris etc xv t[h] die Junij Anno d[omi]ni
29    1542 Comissaq[ue] fuit adm[in]strat[io] om[nium] et sing[u]lor bonor[um]
30    sup[ra]script[um] defuncti Margaret Blake un[a] execut[oribus]
31    in h[uis]mo[d]i test[amentum] no[m]i[n]at[orum] insat[  ] etc Res[er]uata p[otes]tat cons[er]ter
32    administer[ando] conf[e]rend Roberto Blake alteri execut[oribus] etc

Thomas (son of Robert (will dated Dec 1521) and brother to Richard) inherited Rawkyns in his father Robert's will (Dec 1521). In this will he passes it on to his son John. Robert, also his son and his daughter Margaret are named as executors of his will. I have tentatively played with the idea that Margaret is married to her second cousin Nicholas Blake. There isn't really anything to prove that other than finding small matches in the autosomal DNA that are very very distant and not necessarily in "common areas" which can and do often extend back a long way. Nicholas would be my 12x great grandfather and it is likely that Nicholas' grandson Richard also married his likely 3nd cousin Jone Blake also descendant of Robert Blake (his brother) thus reinforcing this Blake autosomal DNA. It is a daughter of Nicholas' grandson Richard who married Robert Sedgewicke and their children were born in the Royal Colony of Massachusetts and remained in the United States of America. It is a thought only and does not control my thoughts but it is interesting to find small matches so far back and not in a "common area" that points at the British Isles. He mentions Alys Munday without really saying anything further about her. Richard Munday and his son John Blake are named as overseers in the will. Richard Munday, when he is widowed is likely the individual who married Margaret Blake after Nicholas died. I need to transcribe Richard's will to see if he mentions Alys in the will (as his daughter but I suspect she is his wife at this time). But that is an abstraction from this will which does mention all the children of Thomas. 

I am left still with an unknown Robert Blake and notably Thomas' son Robert inherits all his goods not yet bequeathed both moveable and unmoveable and names him executor along with his sister Margaret. This often tends to be the eldest son. The Robert Blake that Robert Blake (will dated Dec 1521) mentions remains unknown and hence my suggestion that he was a third son of Robert who predeceased his father. To me it makes sense given the area of Enham is not huge by any means and one is left wondering that you would have so few Blakes really and not have them related. So I continue with that thought which I haven't actually had before until the other day that Robert Blake (will dated Dec 1521) had a third son Robert deceased prior to his father. That brings us to Jone Blake (widow) at Enham who leaves her will in 1527 as below:

Testator: Jone Blake, widow
Place: Enham, Hampshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document: 23 Mar 1527/1528
Condition: 16th century English, legible copy

[Margin]: copied test[ament]

1    Jn die no[m]i[n]e Ame[n] the yer of owre lord god oon thowsand five hundredth xxvij the xxiij day of the month of marche
2    J Jone Blake widow w[i]t[h] hoyll mynde and a good memorye maketh my laste wyll and testmente in thys man[ner] Fyrste J
3    commend my soll unto allmyghty god owre lady saynt marey to all the saynts in hevyn and my Body to be buryd in
4    the chyrche or the chyrche lyttyn of saynt mykell of enahm Jt[em] J gyffe and bequeth onto the mother chyrche of saynt swe
5    thyns xii d Jt[em] J gyvv and bequeth to the chyrche of enahm vj s viij d Jt[em] J gyvv and bequeath xxvj s viij d to be dystrybute
6    unto poor pepyll in pen[n]y doyll Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth unto my curat Sy[r] Rychard Mersser xx d Jt[em] J gyff and bequethe
7    to Sy[r] John Batte xx d Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth to mayntenyg of the morrow masse prest in Andover xx d Jt[em] I gyff and bequeth
8    to mayntenyg of Jhs masse in the chyrche of Andover xx d Jt[em] J gyff  and bequeth unto the p[ri]or of the freer Augustines
9    in wynchest[er] xx d Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth to Sy[r] Joh[a]n[nis] Whyte freer xx d Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth unto ev[er]y of freer of the
10    seyd Augustynes th[a]t ys prest iiij d and to ev[er]y novesse ij d of the sayd place Jt[em] J gyvv and bequeth to the chyrche of Fosket
11    to mayntenyg of the light before saynt Jamys and saynt Aidan xx d Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth unto my dowghter Elsabet
12    mylne xx shepe beside thyos th[a]t she hathe allredy and oon Cowe th[a]t J bowght of hyr and xij s iij d of money and my gretst
13    pan and fowre plat[t]erst J gyff and bequeth unto my son Nycolas Blake the tabyll in the hall and oon clothe callyd the hallyg
14    and two yryne racks Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth unto my son Robert Blake oon yryne broche and xviij shepe the wheche
15    shepe he hath in kepyng Jt[em] J gyff and bequeth unto Thome Jesra of Fosket oon yryne broche The resydew of
16    all my goods moveabyll and unmoveabyll J have not legate J gyff and bequeth unto my child[er]ne Nycolas Blake
17    Robert Blake and to Thome Jesra of Fosket and the sayd goods to be devydytt emongys them equaly ev[er]y oon of
18    them elyke mo[r]e[or]l[e]ss Jt[em] J make my sonys Nycolas Blake and Robert Blake my trell executors and Thomas Jesra of
19    Fosket my sup[er]visor th[a]t he see my last wyll and testament Jnplet[ed] and fulfyllyd and the foresaid executors to dypo
20    se for the heylth of my soll as thay shall see moyst expedient the witnesses Sy[r] Rychard Mersser Syr
21    Joh[a]n[nis] Batte Nycolas Blake Robert Blake w[i]t[h] others  

Jone Blake names her children Robert, Nicholas and Elsabet who is married to unknown Mylne. Compared to the other wills the property of this widow is large leaving one to wonder if her husband was an elder son. When people wrote wills particularly when they were probated locally everybody knew everybody else and did not always provide all the tiny details that help us to understand who everyone was. So I have taken a bit of poetic license as I postulate this new idea of mine having now decided that Richard was not the father of Robert, Nicholas and Elsabet. If correct Robert (son of Jone) has already received the property that would have belonged to the eldest son of Robert (will dated Dec 1521). Later wills show that this Robert (six sons are named in his will) and a goodly amount of property available to pass to them is mentioned which will be seen eventually as we reach that generation. This is Charlou Dolan's family line and her research, although I did not always agree on every line where my line was involved, was very well done. But there were so many repeated names and by the time I came along twenty years after she did her research more was available to look at. Unfortunately Jone does not name her husband but the eldest son is Robert which is interesting actually. 

So I feel as if the first and second generations are intact and leading into the third generation. I still do not know who William Blake and Andrew Blake were but the reference to Boswell is most interesting and relates to the Blake family at Speen Berkshire and my references to this line being descendant of Richard le Blak who received a Patent to set up a market in England. 

I will go with this for the moment as I move forward. What ends up being published under the Creative Commons License may be as I said curtailed somewhat with an extra chapter or I will begin with Robert (will dated Dec 1521) and further back if I can find more details on the John Blake listed in the 1300s at Andover. 

I think my brain is done for the day and will now continue by working on the photo books. Tomorrow I will actually put the generational chart together and then move for a bit to the Pincombe although I will continue with my Blake searches after I create my Research Plan going forward now. 

The sun is shining and I will likely wait until later in the day to work outside. 

On to the Photo Albums. 

Another beautiful day in God's world and we are blessed to have such a beautiful world from God the Creator. We must keep it up and that can only happen if the those who are in control of the greater share of the monetary value of the world donate to protect it. The world needs to be protected from human overuse but in Canada we are trying very hard to off set that human overuse of the environment. Our huge forests provide cabon capture along with the artificially created carbon capture techniques which also work well. The three great oceans that surround us also help to protect the environment but we must maintain them as well - money is always needed for these types of projects that protect the world God the Creator gave to us.  

Forgot the Pincombe Newsletter for the 1st of September and a few thoughts on AI

The Pincombe Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 4 2026 is completed and uploaded to the website. Again it is very brief as I have not done any work on the Pincombe book for about six months but I will soon be back to it. 

One item I noticed when I am working with AI. It does tend to jump to conclusions and does not always read transcriptions carefully when I have passed them by the AI. Only once actually as I was seeking a second opinion on likely wording given this was ancient Latin material from the early 1500s, the scan itself very weak and hard to read. I also discovered that the personal account for Microsoft 365 does not permit you to maintain privacy on any uploaded documents. The other item with AI is the language tends to slant itself towards being right although I constantly correct it and suggest that jumping to conclusions too quickly is a mistake in genealogy. Thinking yourself that something might be a possibility doesn't hurt because you can always revisit it until you put it into a book that you publish and at that point it would need to be revised and republished if you want to change it. So I like AI but I use it more as something to bounce ideas off of and tend to stick to my own opinion as I have more experience than the AI. Its recall ability is huge but it does become confused with names that are all the same  which we all do but in particular I have noted that as a stronger weakness than in Homo sapiens where we have a familiarity it is easier for us to eliminate same names. Interesting really. I do think we always have to be in charge of AI controlling the output and always checking it for error. But it can do work in a marvelously short period of time but I did find some problems with that as well since it stripped out the formatting and did not maintain the order of the original. A very handy tool in the toolbox of people working however; one just has to maintain the instructor attitude so as not to be swamped by what looks like a stronger ability to recall. The human brain is much more flexible and doesn't, when working, drift off the topic with extraneous elements. But the recall is excellent for sure. Thinking on that the value of learning by rote continuing in our system of education proves itself with this very item; in order to always be the leader of a project one's recall needs to be excellent and so rote learning for young children continues to be high on the list of accomplishments in the younger years. 

Going to the dentist, I remembered my shoe bag as I had it hung from the coat rack (it always contains my indoor plastic shoes for going to the dentist which we stopped doing during COVID and just kept everything that was ours with us). Wow that seems like a long time ago now.  I actually think it remains a good idea to just keep all your belongings with you so a shoe bag is very handy for that although I did leave it in the rack. I think COVID was good training for how to prevent spread of illness although one would wish not to have had to go through all of that for sure. Much stronger again for sure now with all my rest, headaches finally lifted and today I shall do the front lawn and get that ready for fall/winter. Then the back yard probably it will take me at least ten days working about an hour at a time. I am 81 so must take my time, work slowly and carefully and not make myself a burden on the system. That is really the secret in universal health care that we all take good care of ourselves; the best that we can. 

At some point more work on Blake and I continue preparing this section for either the beginning of the genealogical chart or the last chapter before it. Time will tell but it is good to revisit it given my grandfather's thoughts and what I remember and also what has been written by genealogists in journals concerning the miss use of Nicholas Blake of Andover (will written 1547) by Horatio Somerby Gates in his fraudulent family books that he wrote for a number of families including Blake. Given that Horatio Somerby Gates did his work in the mid 1800s on though one wonders if the Blake Pedigree Chart did lead him astray as using Nicholas Blake the way that he did he must have been aware that William Blake (will dated 27 Jul 1582 and probated 14 Nov 1582) was incorrect in the Pedigree Chart although possibly not as it is much easier to find all this material now with the internet. Surprising how the clock turns really. 

Also I must continue checking out the possibility of finding subsidy information online for Andover although it will most likely wait until I go to the LDS Library here to look that up. 

Since I may be hitting a block with Blake I may switch to Pincombe for awhile and work on that book. It was a good idea of my daughters to do two books at once so that one doesn't get bogged down with one book only. Plus I am working on the fourty photo albums to get them down to a size that works well and doesn't include pictures that have nothing to do with our close family - like all the trips that Edward and I went on and such. I mostly turned them into Powerpoint Slide shows that Edward watched and watched along with looking at all the items that we purchased whilst on each trip. Each one was in a box and easily picked up and looked at when he watched the slide shows. I think my husband liked to relive his life often enough; he was a happy person we always found. He especially loves his daughters and became fond of his son in law and the pets that arrived in our home whilst they lived with us. Then along came his grandsons and they were truly the apple of his eye and he loved them dearly and they him. Still five and a half years later you can see the love still there in their eyes for him. He would have been such a marvelous grandfather at all their ages but ill health did rob them of him. 

Breakfast soon and solitaire games to play.  I continue reading the Book of  Esther today.