Another week of cleaning accomplished and today a research day. I did absolutely nothing yesterday on research. It was a busy day.
Today though, unless it rains, will see me outside working in the garden for some time. But I also want to do some research and will continue adding the newest DNA matches into my various databases. There are still 36 matches to file away. So far the matches have been as interesting as I thought they might be. I skipped over quite a few because they did not add anything to the thousands of matches I have already in my databases.
Phasing the great grandparents is going to be an interesting item to work on although I will continue writing the Blake book as I do that. I want to spend some time on the early Latin wills line by line just to see if anything has been missed. Working on documents written by your ancestors five hundred years ago is amazing and challenging. Were these people just like my grandfather or grandmother as I search back into my own past thinking of their thought pattern? My grandfather talked in particular about his grandparents and great grandparents as he did know one of the great grandparents personally and they had all died between 1808 and 1886 with most of them dying between 1840 and 1886. In the case of his mother's grandparents she knew all but her paternal grandfather very well since they all lived in the same area and closeby each other. In the case of his father's grandparents he was not quite as lucky in that regard with only one of them living after he was born but his mother who lived to the age of 89 was right next door when her son's young family was growing up and a widow and memories of my grandfather's grandmother Blake were very clear when he talked about her. So I do spend some time contemplating what my grandfather used to say about his family. The Blake family lived in Upper Clatford and the Knights lived in Turnworth but he did spend time there perhaps because his eldest sister lived with their grandparents until she married. She is found on the census at nine years of age with them. Samuel Knight and his wife Louisa (Butt) Knight had eleven children (my great grandmother was their eldest) but only four of them lived past infancy. Their only surviving son Henry married Catherine Crankshaw 25 Dec 1878 at Chorley, Lancashire. They had just one child Samuel who along with his wife Rose Anna Yates emigrated to Canada where all their children were born in the early 1900s. My father never mentioned if he met any of these cousins (3rd) but I have corresponded with a number of them. They lived in Saskatchewan. So I need to prod this brain of mine and find the references so to speak that bring this information back to me.
Even though I am first generation Canadian with deep roots in the British Isles going back many centuries (indeed my Blake line carries Western Hunter Gatherer yDNA some of the earliest in the British Isles after the Ice Age which rendered life there impossible) my citizenship is Canadian (as a young child I was granfathered in along with everyone else born in Canada before the 1st of January 1947). I have no rights in England other than those that might come to me as a member of the Commonwealth but pretty limited and the same is true for people coming to Canada (with the exception of Jay's Treaty of 1794 which permits the First Nations peoples to travel back and forth across the border between Canada and the United States readily). When I first went to England back in 2001 I was so excited to actually be in the island. When it was our turn at Customs my daughter quickly said who she was and why she had come and then it was my turn and I said who I was but pondered why had I come (this was my first international travel outside of North America). I said my father was born here and three of my grandparents and mumbled on a bit (I can remember saying all of that) and he looked at me kindly and asked me again why I came (which I successfully answered with a detailed mention of what we were doing travel wise, where we were staying and when we were leaving). That told me that my very long ancestry in the British Isles has no meaning because I do not live there (in this world we are all an organized people because that is how it works best). He was right and I really appreciated his patience with me.
I did get the H11 Newsletter published and online. I generally for the first of May keep thinking year after year it is the Pincombe Newsletter but it is not; it is due 1st of June and I need to start thinking about that. The yDNA project for Pincombe/Pinkham has two distinct lines. The one points back to Western Hunter Gather and the other points to the Continent (Flemish likely). My line is the Flemish which I believe used the spelling Pencombe which is initially found at North Molton in the early 1500s and the notation on the Visitation for Pincombe in 1620 carries the note "Pyncombe of Northmolton came there with the Lord Zouch about the beginning of H 7" and that refers to King Henry VII who defeated Richard III King of England at Bosworth Field in 1485 and became the King of England (Henry VII). John Lord Zouch was on the side of Richard III and was attainted, stripped of his civil rights and properties. He had relatives in Northmolton where he was received and I am becoming of the much stronger opinion that perhaps John Pencombe who accompanied him to Northmolton was his jailer rather than one of his retinue under attainment with him. Mostly because John Pencombe received land at North Molton. More reading of the early records might provide that answer.
So a few items to work on this month along with the gardening. All this traveling by the Prime Minister and those who accompany him in several capacities as these tend to be the opportunity to showcase Canadian industry around the world. Mostly I am not watching the news or reading the news unless it is archaeological or about DNA. The Prime Minister has things in hand along with his Cabinet. I am hoping that the Opposition will find a way to help to support getting our young employed in the trades and in the military. There are jobs and these jobs are all fantastic right at the greatest changes in research and development and not sitting at a desk inputting data which an AI will soon do much faster and with greater efficiency. Grab hold of these exciting opportunities and every elected and those wanting to be elected should be out there in their constituency helping this to happen.
Time to do the Solitaire Puzzles.
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