Continuing 2 Kings and Elijah is introduced

The history of Israel continues in 1 Kings and the peoples of Israel and their kings continue to stray to the right and the left not following the commandments of God but rather those of the gods of the nations around them. Elijah has now entered the story but again I am reading word by word without thinking of what I know comes in the later books of the Bible. I completed 1 Kings and will begin 2 Kings tomorrow. God's punishment continues as He waits for the obedience which he has commanded. We do see elements of it in 1 Kings where obedience to God comes before self on the part of some of the leaders. Elijah is a man of God and very important. 

Cleaning day top floor all accomplished and today it is the main floor and I shall start in a while. Good rain thus far over the past couple of weeks and more to come this week. Unfortunately it may be accompanied by lightning but hopefully the rain will be heavy and put out wild fire started by lightning. Into August now with day 4 and the cooling trend will soon make itself felt although we can have warm days in September.  

More work on the matches and I have completed the first eight pages and will probably look at the next three pages which will take me most of this week probably and then I can enter the new material into my database and September should see me putting more time into the Generational Blake Chart and eventually the Pincombe Chart. I hope to finish by the end of 2028 and look to be on a good schedule. Time will tell. I still have the corrections to the Index of the Siderfin Book on the backplate and will not forget to do that eventually. It may get slotted in as a something different to do as I move along. I also want to continue phasing Edward's grandparents but that is still pretty much on the back burner. Although I have the records of a dozen of his close cousins to help with that. It is hard to believe that he did all of that work thirteen years ago now collecting up the data of his cousins from DNA testing. Only a couple did not do the testing but a dozen is a lot of cousins for sure and on all sides of the family. 

I still did not locate the Allen pictures. I thought they were in the archival box marked Allen but that turned out to be incorrect. I have since found some copies of those originals but not the originals. But there are still about ten boxes of his research to go through. 

I will begin the envelopes in a couple of weeks with the pictures of Edward's birth family namely pictures of his brother, wife, and two children and their children that Edward took through the years beginning in 1961. Since Edward and his brother generally appeared together in pictures I will keep all of those for the early pages of the first binder.  I hope to complete this task in the Fall and send them in December to Edward's nieces. 

At that point I can move on to the collections of information that Edward scanned or photographed and burn them to DVDs and I still have to write to the OGS Ottawa Branch Library to see if they are interested in setting up a Fonds for his research. The section that I sent to Chilliwack Archives dealt with British Columbia Kipp and the material that E Harvey Kipp sent to and brought to Edward back in the 1970s. It seemed appropriate to return it to this area particularly after the correspondence between the Archivist and myself. 

Soon time to start the cleaning and Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

David saves Saul's life a second time.

 The meaning of David saving Saul a second time points to the value David places on Saul having been anointed by God. God made it possible for David to come right up to where Saul lay sleeping and to take his spear and water bottle and leave without waking anyone. But David did not believe that Saul would ever stop hunting him to kill him and Chapter 27 sees David seeking asylum in Gath. An interesting story within the last chapters of 1 Samuel. David in pursuing the raiders of his home in Ziklag had left behind 200 of his soldiers to manage the baggage as the other 400 moved quickly without encumbrance to overtake the raiders and rescue the people of Ziklag who had been taken prisoner. David was successful and when they returned to the 200 guarding the baggage the 400 said they would not share the spoils of war but David said that they would share with the 200 guarding the baggage so that all benefited that were part of the company. Another battle was ongoing between the Philistines and the Israelis and Saul was wounded and asked his armor-bearer to take his life but he refused and Saul took his own life. In this battle Saul and his three sons perished including Jonathan. This continues to be an historical record of the times of the Kings of Israel and their neighbours. 

The Church Service did not come up on Youtube so I went to Christ Church at West Wimbledom which is southwest of London, England. A lovely church service very reminiscent of my Home Church of St Andrew Memorial in London, Ontario. There are a number of Anglican Services online although I generally attend my now Home Church of Christ Church Cathedral online. The possibility that I will ever attend in person is pretty much nil although in the back of my mind it is one of my backup thoughts with regard to how my life goes. I prefer the solitude of my life except that includes my family as and when I am with them. Soon the dogs will come and stay with me for two weeks. 

Working away on the 23 and Me matches and extracting that information on new matches in the last couple of years. There are several very good matches known to me by their cousin matches which I already have. Thus far they are primarily Rawlings which reveals to me some areas on the chromosomes that are Rawlings rather than Cotterill including some X Chromosome matches always very interesting and one new one is the longest that I have for Rawlings. Tempting as always to write but probably I will not. Mostly these matches are people living in England at this time. 

Yesterday was a very busy day as we had an item to return, kayaking and a walk to do and then grocery shopping and finished up the day with clothes washing - two loads in all.  Today has a slight promise of rain and some sun and we will see how the days goes. 

Still looking for the Allen material and I wonder if I have to go through all of those boxes to find the pictures. Strange really as Edward was very organized but by 2019 he was finding it harder and harder to work away at these items. He mostly watched the television and found being house bound because of COVID coming very soon after the end of 2019 really intolerable. He loved to be out and about mostly shopping. Edward loved to shop. He was very good for the economy. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

David and Jonathan

David and Jonathan, the Bible Book (1 Samuel) that taught us about love between people; a love that saved a life. Jonathan the son of King Saul and David the son of Jesse shared a love of God the Creator and believed in Him. At least I read it that way. It is a beautiful book of the Bible which talks about this brotherly love between the two young men. David is now married to Jonathan's sister Michal who also loves David dearly. The two children of Saul risked much to save David. 

That the Messiah will come is still not visible as I read; it will be as I know when the prophets to come start talking about the Promised Messiah from God. 

Yesterday I completed for the most part the moving of the rooms and I am pleased with the result. I have one extraneous box looking at me and I will sort through it today. It is a brand new Bankers Box so likely we put it together and now I need to make decisions on its contents. I was also looking for the material on the Allen family. I had an Archival Box labeled "Allen" but it didn't have in it what I thought it might so I was back at square one and then I found the binder that listed contents as Kipp/Link/Allen but it too came up with very little. But then I thought about the one box that we put together but I haven't looked at the five business bags that we put into it. It is labeled latest research and that is how Edward managed his research by family line putting in the material that he wanted to work with on various trips here and there. He put into these business bags (from conferences) the different family items he was working on and today I shall also have a look in those bags to see if there is a devoted Allen bag as it was one of the last trips that we made before COVID to meet with Edward's Allen's cousins. It was two trips - one to Gravenhurst in Northern Ontario and another to Belleville I think along the 401 in south eastern Ontario. 

My work is cut out for me today and those two boxes will occupy me for the rest of the morning. I need to do this whilst I am still able and then I can get back to writing my books in the fall and winter. I do so look forward to all that snow on the ground for days and weeks on end. I get so much work done at that time. A note on the door asking people to please not disturb me as I am writing and soon the letter carrier will no longer deliver mail as well since we are going to postal mailboxes. I still prefer the idea of virtual mailboxes - it would be the making of Canada Post as there could be all sorts of spin offs from that when people want printed copy they can pay both to have the job printed and to have it delivered to their home. Canada Post offers the best delivery service in Canada; they are good at it. The monies would keep Canada Post solvent instead of always having shortfalls. 

Exercises all completed first thing this morning with a cardio load of 35 and 1 hour of exercise. It was a good spread of times in each zone - light 19%, moderate 37%, vigorous 39% and peak 5%. Today I will run for 30 minutes a little later and perhaps some weightlifting. Time will tell. 

Canada continues to point itself towards diversification of trade; breaking down any remaining provincial barriers to trade and increasing our defense spending. The pipelines are finally a go and I am very happy about that as well as the mines that are in the works/in thought process or just waiting to be thought about. The Gordie Howe Bridge got its official opening day in Windsor and everybody is happy. The extra 320 million in cost is likely financing the debt a longer period than planned. Extra maintenance for sure. 

Conrad Black's editorial today very well written as always. Thank you to him for so concisely producing a lecture that everyone can benefit from reading. The United States is our great friend and neighbour but we can and will stand on our own as we did at the end of the Second World War and well into the 1960s. We need to get back to that sort of strong defense ability, independence and break down those provincial barriers. I hear there are now British Columbia cherries on the market but haven't seen them here yet. I continue to support 100% Prime Minister Carney's ideas on how to increase our defense and diversify our trade around the world. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. 

Continuing reading Judges

Judges is primarily a book about the individuals who followed Joshua as a leader generally appointed by God but not as effective as Joshua. Israel did not follow the covenant and take over all the lands of the designated Promised Lands. Instead they lived side by side with a number of different kingdoms and over time they forgot the stories of their ancestors and inter married into these other cultures taking up their worship of some gods namely Baal. A number of people became Judges but still the Israelites did not follow the word of God. So God permitted first of all the Midianites to oppress the Israeli people and the Israeli people called out to God to help them and an angel reminded them that they had not continued to honour God for delivering them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land where they had stopped listening to God and followed the ways of the people who were not Israeli. The Judge appointed by God was Gideon. War followed and the land had rest for forty years with Gideon as their Judge.  But the decay was setting in and Gideon died with the Israelis returning to worshiping other gods namely Baal and forgot God who had rescued the Israeli people from their enemies. God's anger seems to have changed somewhat and He responds when asked to help. I do not believe I ever really understood the Book of Judges. I must read it noticing that the corruption continues and each time it becomes worse. There are many Judges. 

Yesterday was a smoke day and we spent it indoors. It was somewhat visible in the trees but the heavy rain seemed to wash it away. The bad smoke days of a couple of years ago have not returned again because of better management of the forests these past couple of years. The period of dense swirling smoke has certainly diminished. So long as the nations who primarily create the global warming do nothing about it Canada and other northern nations this time of year including Canada, Russia and the State of Alaska (United States) will continue to suffer from lightning strikes that create forest fires because of the very large boreal forests that exist in these countries (that includes the northern states like Minnesota to the south of Canada). However, some countries are working very hard to offset the items that create global warming. But with 555 fires burning in the United States and 658 fires burning in Canada that is a lot of smoke. Also the permafrost is melting at a rapid pace as the northern areas are warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world.  That is bad news. 

Sunday today and Church after a while. I also want to work on the Allen pictures and get them bundled up and sent off to the Allen family which is collecting up all of this material. It would be sad to have these original images lost from the pertinent families. I have given all of my original pictures to my younger sister to retain for the family as she is in an area much closer to everyone. 

Other than that the days move along and work is slowly getting done. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. 

Yes, the submarine purchase is moving forward

 Picking the proposal from German (and Norway as they also have the same subs) has a huge advantage for NATO and Canada. The crews of the three countries can train together and we are all part of NATO. We will be working together in the Arctic and having the same submarine is an enormous advantage. When I was a child Canada had the largest Navy of all the countries at the end of the Second World War and it continued thus for quite a while. London, Ontario was a military city with Wolsley Barracks being the home for the 1st and 2nd RCR and the 48th Highlanders. They were the largest employer in London when I was a child. We even had Sea Cadets along with Army and Air Force cadets for the young people looking towards being in the military or just for the training which is always excellent. 

Thank you Prime Minister Carney for pushing this ahead month after month. It has been such a long time coming as it was in the 1980s that proper expenditures were made for the military although there could have been more even back then. 

Also thankyou to Premier Ford and Premier Smith of Alberta for the announcement on the plans to have an Eastern oil Pipeline to Sarnia. It is really better than Thunder Bay and then by the St Lawrence Seaway as a pipeline is the safest and fastest way to move oil.  Oil refined once again in Sarnia after all these years is such a perfect idea. Probably it will be a bit before that happens but just talking about it is such a good start. 

Parcels mailed off to the Archives at Canada Post and just under $100 in total for the two boxes. Edward would be pleased that we remembered to do that. It took me a while to get it organized but I am back into that once again as the Allen box should go next week and then work on the Family photo binders (40 of them) down to six to eight and all of the pictures of Edward's nieces and their families will be removed, labeled and an index prepared as the girls were very young when we married and might not remember all of the events. 

Must get back to Chromosome 1 once again and see what I can come up with but busy right now on other things. In the winter I will have more time. 

 

Rain again but the ground can still absorb a lot more

Another rainy day with thunder storms expected and the sky looks very cloudy. Just  17 degrees celsius this morning. Friday as well and this will be a good working day. I tend to find that Thursday is not a day of big accomplishment although we made a few decisions on the house layout that we will follow through with the next couple of weeks. It will make working easier. 

 Contacted the Chilliwack Archives and they will take the box of BC Kipp material so will get started on preparing that material for shipment to them. Although Edward and I worked together quite a bit on genealogy I do not know anything about the Kipp family, do not actually know any members of the Kipp family other than Edward's nieces and wanted to ensure that this material was not lost as the year's pass. I will ask the Archives if instead of discarding any duplicates that they have in their collection they could ask the members of the family that have donated to their archives in Chilliwack (who still live there) if they would like any of the items that are duplicated in their holdings. 

One other item to prepare this summer is the Allen material which Edward took to Gravenhurst back in 2019 when he went to meet with some of his cousins. It was a long trip and the first time that I had even been driving in this area north of North Bay. We did take a bus trip that ended in Moose Factory and included a train ride back in 2011 which we greatly enjoyed but other than that our time in Northern Ontario was principally in the Wawa area and further west and north from there canoeing in the backwoods in our early twenties primarily. 

Just noting as I brought my tea up that this was the tenth time that I climbed up and down the stairs today already. I also did my usual yoga and calisthenics for an hour first thing with a cardio load of 35. Already 3000 steps on the FitBit so 1/4 of the way to my goal of 12,000 although generally I run higher than that around 15,000 steps per day.  I am trying to review what I have done on a regular basis to keep my memory in the present very active. I suspect that might be why older people remember things better from long ago than the present items simply because their active memory in the present just isn't utilized as much as when you were younger. 

I was always taught to be respectful of our politicians as they give up  their private life (and I certainly relish mine and protect it as much as I can) to work for Canada. I am getting tired of the constant criticism which is actually becoming quite unjustified in the current political climate. This picking apart of every word expressed is becoming quite boring and useless. 

We must be patient; it takes time to create and we must be ready to grab all the possibilities to make Canada the country that the founders wanted and planned for in the 1860s-1910s. Their ideas were huge and they paid off and now it is our turn to make the same sacrifices to bring to fruition the promise of Canada. We do not have to be lesser than what we can be; but it will take time and sacrifice. We have lived through two World Wars that decimated our young people but yet we managed to continue to grow and prosper and we still can especially as our youth is straining at the yoke to be that powerhouse of the future. 

So today continuing with my work project as I did not actually touch that yesterday. We went shopping and the day disappeared rapidly but there is now 6 metres of linen towelling to turn into eight tea towels and will get that going. All that needs to be done is the hemming and the sewing machine is waiting. I made tea towels from this very same linen toweling 50 plus years ago and the last of the dozen are pretty thin and really only good for rags one might say. It will be nice to have new tea towels. They will shrink when they are washed and will take a few washings to make them really useable. But it will be fun to do. 

I wondered if we would find tea toweling and there was actually quite a bit of choice. Not cheap by any means as it is now $19.00 a metre and I vaguely recall 29 cents a yard way back in those days. I made a dozen then and there are two left. 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

I am not totally absorbed in cleaning

 It isn't that I am overly absorbed in cleaning but rather I hate to have to rush about at the last minute cleaning. If I am always basically ready then life is easier. Plus it is good exercise and spread out over time which doesn't hurt when you are older either. So today is the basement and another week of cleaning is done. 

I do wonder sometimes if Edward had not gone off to the Ottawa Branch meetings of the OGS with Gordon Riddle if he would have gotten so involved with that group. I am not sure how long Gordon kept going actually. Edward would  never  have gone without his suggestion and invitation actually as he didn't go in  London all the time we lived there but we did lots of genealogy traveling to the United States and all around where he lived as a child once we bought a car. That really changed Edward's life having a car (the advantages of a wife working I used to say). The Ottawa Branch of OGS and being Treasurer at Orleans United and singing in the Choir there were his principal interests other than his children (he even helped out with the Macoun Field Club when our eldest was keen on that) as non work activities. Mind you it was nice seeing him enjoy the Ottawa Branch so much the few times I went until he wanted me to drive him there much later after I took on the task of the Pincombe Profile. He especially enjoyed being part of Gene-O-Rama. 

Before we moved here all of his genealogical work had been on his own with us traveling down into the States before the children were born on a pretty regular basis looking for items and he did attend some meetings at local genealogical groups there way back then. But once he retired we were back at that once again for sure. I think that might be the fun part of genealogy is going to all those interesting historical buildings - I found it quite fascinating. Not the genealogy that was much later like after 2003 when my cousin George DeKay got me to write the Pincombe Profile he wanted for the book he was publishing. 

Gordon and Edward still corresponded back and forth after the Riddle family moved away from Orleans (Edward had an amazing number of correspondents and those letters were hard to write when I wrote many of them after he passed away about 50 or 60 or so) that he had corresponded with for over fourty years and more in some cases. When we went west it was to Edward's closest relatives - his nieces and mostly the Schultz family events and the Allen family events which were in  northern Ontario (although we did not go north until 2019 although Edward did with a cousin of his as I vaguely recall) and just around the Kingston (also 2019) area and we would pop into London to see my family and then just my siblings after my parents passed away. 

I practically never think about when I was going back to do my masters and a little surprise entered our lives. We were all enriched by the arrival of our youngest for sure and we closed in as a family for quite a while after that (perhaps as much as three or four years) although I was still too busy being a volunteer secretary at Edward's Church plus all my proofreading and copyediting for local printers and I was also treasurer for Camp Bitobi I think for about three years sometime later in that period. But my eldest daughter was old enough by then to babysit although we didn't go out a lot; didn't interest me particularly actually. Edward did love to be around people. Trips down  memory lane for sure. 

I did work on the Ancestry matches and should finish that today and then check Gedmatch to see if there are any new matches in there. I  do like Gedmatch; it is well setup and I used to always pay for the extras but I do not have time to use the extras so do not at the moment. If I was to find that I had a really good set of leads on something I would. 

It still intrigues me this match with Blake at South Newton. The wills there go back into the 1500s and 1600s and I did transcribe them but without really taking it all in. I will reread them one of these days as I have a set of ancient results for Blake both in the early colonies of America and in the British Isles. I need to do trees for those families in the areas around Calne now that I have had this very fascinating match. I rather think that I am looking at a likely marriage between an individual at Enham without a surname and a daughter of a Blake since surnames were uncommon in England until after the arrival of the Normans in 1066. Since it was fashionable to do so English families did acquire and use surnames certainly by the 1400s into the 1500s but also as early as the 1200s/1300s when I am contemplating that such a marriage took place since I have seen Blake records in the Andover Manor records in the early part of the 1300s. I did not see any earlier than that. 

The Blake families in the 1200s are in distinct areas in England as seen in the Calendar of Patent Rolls and I have done a number of charts a while ago now but can be seen in the index in my blog.  

Day is moving on and I must get the robot working and then I take over with  my dusting and washing and the cleaning is done for the week. How nice. 

Forgot to make my tea and must do that and then do my solitaire puzzles whilst the robot works.  

Sunday is always anticipated and this one will be full of prayers

 Prayers continuing for the murdered children and adults in British Columbia but also for the recovery of those still in hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. Time has stood still just a little here whilst we think about the loss of eight beautiful people and the wounded some continuing to fight for their very life in the hospitals. God be with them and I would pray that God will keep the murdered little ones wrapped in His loving arms. Their lives ripped away from them so cruelly. 

Church today online as always and last weeks hymns were quite beautiful actually. I always wonder what hymns will be sung perhaps because I was in the choir as a child and loved singing. I did sing "The Lord is my Shepherd" one time but I do not remember why or exactly when other than it was not winter. I was absolutely petrified but when I got up to sing I was fine and I sang it to God I remember that. I never did it again but it was a gift my grandmother said that I had for God. My youngest daughter was around eight I think when she sang a solo at Edward's United Church; much younger than I was. She was nervous and asked me to sit right up at the front so that she could look at me and not be nervous. Actually she did very well and I think she hardly glanced at me. That was a while ago now but it was something my husband and my daughters did together. Sometimes they would say I should join the choir but I said I am not really United Church I am an Anglican and I just do not really want to do that and they understood even at their young age. I  just enjoyed watching all of them sing - Edward and his daughters. They are so much like him and they greatly adored him as he adored them. 

It was something special for him to have the girls be so like him although he would occasionally say I think they look like you too but the reality is that they look like Edward's family not mine (when one tested her atDNA for him as a surprise one Christmas he was thrilled as he didn't have anyone close to him that tested). My oldest daughter looks so very much like Edward's mother now although it wasn't noticeable when she was younger so much but then I did not know Edward's family until we were married. We came from different places in Ontario (I know virtually nothing about Edward's families other than the research that I helped him to do as I never lived in that area) and so I would not have noticed anything in particular but certainly now when my daughter is coming to the age that my mother in law was when I first met her I can see the strong similarity. A picture of Edward's great grandmother as a child that I saw years and years after we were married (I think perhaps I first saw it after Edward's mother died and he brought a lot of her keepsakes back when we went to the funeral). This picture is of Hannah Catherine Parlee (descendant of French Huguenots who went to Staten Island in the early 1700s) at the age of fourteen it says on a paper copy Edward made from the tintype and she is the exact image of my eldest daughter at the age of fourteen. Amazing really but the logic is there because the X chromosome that was passed to Edward from his mother goes to his daughter unchanged and this was his mother's grandmother. She received an X chromosome from her mother Margaret Evelyn Allen that came from her mother Hannah Catherine Parlee. Edward inherited more than 50% of his X chromosome from his mother as Allen so interesting how the genes flow. 

 Later after Church I shall work on the matches and I have just a few Ls left (eight actually) and then on to the Ms and there are nineteen of them. I am progressing and about half way now through this set of 250 matches which has reduced to 239 as I have rejected eleven of them. A few interesting insights from this work yesterday that have permitted me to do a little more separating out of Blake and Knight. The Pincombe and Gray in this chromosome are a bit more stubborn to separate but I think once I start with my sorting that these will slide into place as I look at all the chromosomes since I am not flitting back and forth between the chromosomes. 

A beautiful sunny day and it is minus 17 degrees celsius and we got our first Gold at the Olympics and we are in fourteenth place worldwide (the placement is by the number of gold medals).  Norway is dominating the Winter Olympics and in first place. Italy is in second place and very often the home country does do very well when the Olympics are in their own country. The United States is in third place and they generally do very very well in the Olympics whether it be summer or winter Olympics. There are still lots more to win for sure. I am always rooting for Canada and we are doing great; we have a huge team and so much enthusiasm. 

Tea all drank and time to do my solitaire puzzles.  

 

 

Blake Newsletter, Volume 14, Issue 3, 2025 is published on the website

The latest issue of the Blake Newsletter is published on the website. Again there isn't really a story in this one, mostly data and a short discussion of yDNA as mentioned yesterday. I did not draw any conclusions but merely stated the facts. More data is needed to really come to a concrete decision with regard to the East Anglia group. However, it was very enlightening and the results not unexpected given the settlement of this area of the British Islands being strongly related to Danish emigration. However drawing conclusions would be premature.

Attended Church yesterday and it was an interesting sermon once again; time escaped me and I will watch the service from Essex in my break time today. Amazing how busy life can be for this nearly 80 year old. There is never a dull moment for sure. 

Prayers for the lives lost in the floods in Texas and prayers for those still missing. How sad that so many of them are young children at a Christian Children's Camp.  

Yesterday heavy rain and it does look like more today but is not raining at the moment but very grey out. An unusual July with so much rain but does save having to water the sunflowers that have managed not to be eaten by the rabbit. 

Did think more about moving and I can see this is not an immediate thing but rather I am looking further into the future. For one thing my daughter who spends her research time with me loves the East End of the city where she has lived since just before she turned four years of age. Although she has memories of the other house where we lived they are vague and long ago. 

For myself, I did do a little more work on page 5 of the matches extracting 1 segment and 2 segment matches into my file where I didn't already have them. More on that today in between cleaning. I am back to Monday once again and it is the top floor that will be cleaned today. 

Yesterday was the first time that I worked on downsizing once again. I went through the Allen material and checked to see what was there and then wrote to the Allen family member that has been my contact person and verified that they would still like to have the material which Edward had taken to a meeting back in 2019. They are collecting up Allen material and I will now pass this box to them along with a letter showing the line of possession of the items from this same area to Edward's mother and then to Edward and now back to them once again. Many of the items are quite old and there are a number of tintypes including one that is special to me somewhat as it reminds me very much of my oldest daughter at 14 years of age (the tintype is of Edward's maternal grandmother Margaret Evelyn Allen who died 11 Apr 1914 at 34 years of age when Edward's mother was only seven years of age. The striking resemblance to my oldest daughter was amazing actually when I saw the tintype when Edward decided in 2008 to unpack his mother's hope chest that she had left to him when she passed away in 2000. His finds were especially poignant to him as there were pictures of himself with his father which he had never remembered seeing and for me to see a tintype of a child born in 1880 that looked exactly like my eldest daughter and was her great grandmother (mind you I could see the similarity in Edward's mother as well). Life can sometimes be amazing for sure. But the material belongs to the history of the Allen family which was very large with Margaret being the youngest child of eleven children. Her parents were James C Allen (son of Isaac Allen and Rebecca Crouse) and Hannah Catherine Parlee (daughter of John Casey Parlee and Margaret Folkins). The lineage very interesting and primarily New Amsterdam/New York families with Huguenot, Dutch, and English ancestry (dissenters primarily that went to The Netherlands first before going to New Amsterdam). All traced back into the 1600s by Edward and part of his nearly 70,000 member tree on his website. Edward corresponded with cousins all over the United States and Canada often spending a couple of hours a day responding on the email to comments and queries. 

So next Sunday the project is to prepare the Kipp family material (early Oxford, Ontario) family that migrated to Chilliwack, British Columbia in the mid 1800s to see if one of the Archives would like to have all of these early original pictures. I think there are two boxes that I need to work on and that will likely take me several weeks to list everything in the boxes. It does take the idea of moving for me to get back to working on all of this material. I suppose in my mind I do not really want to break it up but I must in order to properly preserve it. Genealogy is an interesting past time and one that I avoided very successfully for most of my life but in 2003 I took up the challenge by my cousin to produce the Pincombe profile for his book on Westminster Township. No one, especially me, would have ever thought that over twenty years I would be so deeply entrenched in genealogy but without DNA I doubt I would ever have proceeded so far into the studies. For Edward, it was being part of the Ontario Genealogical Society that interested him primarily I think until the overwhelming picture of his own ancestry did flow forth as he studied his lines. It was truly amazing the history in his lines that had been lost during migrations from the United States into Ontario beginning in 1800 and continuing in his lines right up into the late 1820s. Gordon Riddle inviting him to go to the meetings with him was his initial introduction to the Ontario Genealogical Society back in the early 1980s.  

For myself I must continue extracting the matches from Living DNA and once completed work them into my databases and then begin the task (along with collecting anything new in the other genealogical testing sites) of working on the re-phasing of my grandparents and then moving to the phasing of my great grandparents. A task of love one might say but the love between my grandfather and my grandmother was strong and it has been easy for me to move away from anything that I thought about doing before I retired to this work for sure. It does keep the brain stimulated especially my latin learning which continues but I do need to move towards ancient latin and that will happen this fall I believe. 

Solitaire puzzles completed, tea drank and it is breakfast time and then cleaning.  

 

 

Bible Reading - seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine; Genesis 41

 I always found the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the King of Egypt very interesting. Genesis as the first book of the Bible takes us  a long way back in history and forward. Those early times of the history of man when he walked and talked with God are an important memory. I think we should always learn from the memories passed on to us. Why was this particular story important in our memory bank. I think because the availability of food is the most important thing in our lives; we must eat to live. Any massive waste of food is unacceptable in our modern lives. There are too many of us for any country to be permitted to destroy thousands of pounds of food because the Nazi leaders of that country are unable to smash into another country murdering and assaulting their people. It is the two year old in every human being wanting what is not theirs and striking back when they do not succeed. We must always defend ourselves from such butchery and treachery. I think the Bible Story reminds us that the most human need is food. 

Yesterday was a milestone as Edward's Schultz cousins came and picked up eight boxes of material both for themselves and for Edward's niece which was much appreciated. Two of the boxes are fired plates of birds that Edward enjoyed very much and I suggested that at the next Schultz picnic they could be shared amongst his cousins in his memory and it was rewarding to me that this might be able to happen. Edward would have liked that I am sure. Also the two Kipp family Bibles and one Schultz Family Bible (in German) are now in their hands and I will leave the distribution up to them. I do not want such original items to be lost on my watch. Three old teapots that belonged to Edward's mother's mother and her mother and mother in law will go to his niece as again I do not like to see them lost in the shuffle. A banker box of family pictures also for Edward's nieces and there will be more for them to have of their childhood and that of their father (Edward's brother). Then two boxes of Edward's research on the local Ontario Kipp family all of which is scanned but I still have a lot of pictures just not enough time to separate them into family groupings yet. A lot of them are also Kipp but can easily travel through the mail in the prepaid boxes (a great addition to Canada Post for sure). Eight boxes gone; it is such a relief for me. Just one small box for the Amateur Radio Club - more manuals for all that equipment and some other items and a box for the United Empire Loyalist and our summer of sorting and moving forward will end. Next summer already planned and the ground work will happen through this winter. The house feels lighter once again but still so much stuff that needs to find a home where it will fit a purpose. The one item still to be completed is items for the Salvation Army to resell and we will get that together this next week. I think there will be several bags once again. 

Today is cleaning day and a little reorganizing as the number of boxes continues to shrink. We are dealing with about eleven boxes now but other than the research boxes for the Kipp family of Chilliwack BC (early settlers in that area) and the NB Loyalist families - Allen, Parlee and Folkins which I hope to place in those province's archives the research boxes are nearly all sorted and have a new home. The Kip-Kipp Newsletter will be a two pager in the future discussing the yDNA results from the Y-700 test on Edward's sample, the autosomal results but not likely the mitochondrial results because women's surnames were not fixed until lately. 

Must get my tea and do my solitaire games. The day is early but there is as always a lot to do. Perhaps I will get a little transcription of the Siderfin document done in my break times.

Headline today - Moscow announces "appropriate response" to West's "indirect war"

Russia is not living in the real world; their lines of communication are so blocked that they do not see that they are the problem. They need to stop attacking Ukraine; get their armies out of Ukraine and the world can go back to doing what needs to be done which is mainly and primarily cleaning up the environment. Russia (the Nazis Putin and his enablers) lives in some sort of a dark age where reason no longer predominates in their culture but just greed - greed for land, greed for products and hatred of the west. Russia does need to start seeing the real world where people just want peace and a better environment. By the bombing that Russia does they threaten both world peace and the environment.  Considering the amount of material that was poured into Russia during the Second World War to help them fight the Nazis it is absolutely ridiculous that they would attack Ukraine for the same ugly reasons that the Nazis started the Second World War. The waiting game is still on; we will be ready when Russia tries to break out and start a Third World War. A Russian rocket has struck Zaporizhzhia; that is lunacy. 

Continuing with the redistribution of Edward's research and all of the Link material has now been transferred. The next set of data is for Schultz and Kipp-Schultz as well as some items to Edward's niece and the Princeton Museum. Wonderful cousins of Edwards are going to pick that material up from us and take it back to where it needs to go. Much appreciated as I am not doing that drive although I have offered to mail it. But some objects are very fragile and would be better in a car for sure. All that I am left with now is a box for the United Empire Loyalists and need to determine where to send all that material so will contact the two groups that Edward belonged to and see if they can decide. There is also a box of manuals and other items for the Amateur Radio group that Edward belonged to and I have someone picking that up as well. That would complete this summer's redistribution projects and next summer we will work on the original images of the Allen-Parlee-Folkins families and the Kipp families of BC to see if the repositories in New Brunswick and British Columbia would accept those two sets of data. 

I have a large box of scanning to do which I will work at this winter in between writing. The other boxes are the story of our family so to speak and we will need to manage that for ourselves and it occupies 40 plus large binders in terms of printed images. Two boxes of film and slides and other photographic discs through the years. It is a relief on my mind to have handled all this material in a fashion that does see it go to other interested people. Genealogy is definitely something you have to be interested in doing; I never really did get that interest. My one-name studies (although sort of like genealogy) are more of a deep search into the past rather than a modern look at how the family has evolved. My younger sister does that and has a great tree built of the family to which I do refer actually for anything recent. 

The Bible Readings this week have been about Joseph and his sibling rivalry which led to his being sold by some of his brothers and taken to Egypt. The exciting story of all of that is to come; a time when God walked and talked with mankind. But his guidance has been given and we must learn to follow the words that Jesus brought to us in order to achieve that peace that we so desire. 

Russia has shown us that that we must be prepared to fight back and fight back with all our might if they ever do break out into Europe. There can be no peace in our world unless Russia is corralled within their own borders as established at the end of the Soviet Union. Putin it appears is incapable of rising above his stupidity and getting out of Ukraine. Greed is a dreadful thing and a sin.

Breakfast soon. 

Ongoing Projects

It seems like an ideal time to list the projects that I have set aside or am currently working on as summer approaches. This year I plan to try and work in some of my studies whilst also gardening. 

1. Siderfin Book

2. Newsletters - Blake, Pincombe and H11 (will do the back issues to eventually publish) plus Kipp with my daughter's help

3 County books for the Blake Wills. Some counties are complete for PCC wills and I could publish them on my website. 

4. County books for the Buller Wills. Some counties are complete for PCC wills and I could publish them on my website. 

5. Revision of George DeKay's book although I would find it difficult to do this one alone. I could strip out the parts that are my line perhaps. Will contemplate that. George is the reason that I do genealogy as I resisted doing it for many years except when Edward asked for my assistance. George wanted a Pincombe Profile for the Westminster and Delaware History Book of which he was editor. That along with the introduction of personal DNA motivated me and 42 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies showed me the path. Here I am nearly 20 years later and I do little else.

6. Phasing of my great grandparents and adding in the new matches to the phasing of my grandparents (already 25 new matches since I did this work in November)

7. Gathering up the Allen material and finding a home for that with Edward's cousins. His maternal grandmother was an Allen. He never knew her as she died when his mother was only eight years of age

8. Gathering up the pictures of Edward's brother Allen's family to give to his nieces

9. Working on the Kipp material to see if the Archives would like to have this material (many original pictures of the Kipp family)

10. Returning to the transcription of the Blake wills (I still have at least 1500 to transcribe)

11. Potential Pincombe and Blake books. The Pincombe book would do the deep past and come up to the present. The Blake book would look only at the Andover Blake family as I believe that given my brother's yDNA as ancient to the British Isles (8,000 to 12,000 years ago) the Blake surname was acquired probably in the late 1200s early 1300s by this family (likely marriage to a female with the Blake surname, handy that just across the border in Oxford there was such a family likely from Normandy!) with a known daughter Ann la Blake (daughter of Richard le Blak likely of Rouen, Normandy). I first see the name John Blak[e] in the Manor Books of Andover in the early 1300s. 

12. If in some dream world I am still as active a person when all of this is done (I see maybe ten years of work above) I would like to work on the Rawlings and Buller families (my paternal and maternal grandmothers). I do do a little work on Buller as I have quite a large number of cousins who have tested their DNA and my 2x great grandmother Ann (Welch) Buller had a twin sister. Both of these families were huge (around a dozen children each) and the number of descendants matching me like 3rd cousins is quite large and they are all over the British Commonwealth and the United States of America. The Rawlings is also a fascinating family with so many interesting lines marrying into that already have one name studies like Lywood (my 3x great grandfather George Lywood was at Waterloo in 1815).

I shall have to contemplate what I may have left out. Dawn is breaking in the east and another cloudy day for us at minus 6 degrees celsius. Not too much melting today perhaps. Again the refrains of "This is the day the Lord hath made" swirl in my brain as I greet another day in God's Kingdom. As I have puzzled all my life, what is the duty that I must fulfill in this world. Life is always a mystery; one never knows what is around the corner. I am happy to see the First Nations taking a much more prominent role in our country. They know the land and can help to lead us forward to a better life for all the peoples of Canada. It is the land which created us and the land which sustains us and so we must protect that land with every ounce of our ability. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. Glory to Ukraine.I listened to the address of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last evening. She too is a powerful speaker and a credit to Europe and a fierce supporter of Ukraine. Next stop for her is meeting with President Biden in America. China continues to carry responsibility for how this situation will flow. History is waiting and we can only sit on the sidelines and wait. Power isn't about owning it is about doing the best for the world and her people. We do not know what awaits us beyond our earth but we must be unified in our protection of the earth and all her peoples. No one can be an aggressor in this modern world post-COVID. We must all be caretakers of our world. That is the task that God assigned to us.

On to breakfast and the day.

DNA and Surname Studies

I gave a Google Hangout on Saturday for The Surname Society on DNA and Surname Studies and promised to share it with my blog. I belong to both The Guild of One-Name Studies and The Surname Society. My world wide one-name studies are at the Guild and my localized one name studies are at The Surname Society.

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/TSS-Hangout-25Jul2015-DNA%20and%20Surname%20Studies.pptx

Slide 1
Title Page (PLCGS is an acronym for Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies which I obtained from The National Institute for Genealogical Studies which was based at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Information Studies when I graduated in 2007 in English and Canadian Studies).

Slide 2
List of Useful books for DNA and Surname Studies

Slide 3
I find this useful to add as I want people to realize what they may learn from DNA testing and how one should approach this rather novel and progressive way of looking at your genealogy. Personally it was the advent of DNA testing (and my cousin's prompting as he wanted a profile of my emigrant Pincombe family for a local history book) that really brought me into genealogy as I felt that I could actually prove my ancestry.

Slide 4
Useful abbreviations

Slide 5
I like all the testing companies that I have used. I do not have any actual preference as they have all served the purpose that I had in mind when I tested at them.

Slide 6
Getting into the nitty-gritty now, I suggest that if anyone wants to join a project that you manage you should let them unless they really do not carry the surname that you are looking for at all or do not belong to the particular haplogroup of which you are administrator/co-administrator.

Slide 7
My summary of the talk to follow. The first six slides were a warmup to get into the topic itself. From this point the slides assume some knowledge of the different types of DNA although I do give a brief overlook.

Slide 8
List of the DNA that I am going to look at and for the moment is the DNA tested by the companies at which I have tested either myself or my brother.

Slide 9
Y DNA or the Male line in one's ancestry. Our father may be known (as in my case) or unknown to us but the Y DNA which the sons of any particular male carry traces his line back generation upon generation to the first individual who carried that exact genetic signature (although a few mutations could have crept in through the centuries).

Slide 10
Autosomal DNA which is contributed to by all our ancestors although they may not all show up in the resultant set that we receive because that is the luck of the draw one might say. I believe that autosomal DNA is now coming into its own and is quite important in DNA projects.

Slide 11
X chromosome is the mate to the Y chromosome in males and females receive an X chromosome from each parent. In males there are a limited number of people who will match you because your X chromosome is solely from your mother so is entirely her side of the family and excludes her father's father's line. but does include her father's mother's line since that is the exact chromosome which he has passed to his daughters. Perhaps not useful for Surname Studies but could prove interesting on occasion when sorting through matches.

Slide 12
Mitochondrial DNA probably has very little use in Surname Studies but I do mention one and that is geographic location for emigrant ancestors. Really not pertinent if you already know where your ancestors lived but in the case of people whose ancestors emigrated in the 1600s (or long before that actually when one looks at the First Peoples to the Western Hemisphere) as a married couple the mitochondrial DNA might point to a location where the particular haplogroup subclade is found.

Slide 13
Case Studies to be examined include my husband's Kipp/Kip one name study and two of my one name studies Pincombe and Blake.

Slide 14
My husband has been running his KIPP/KIP study at FT DNA for over six years now. His purpose was to find the genetic signature for this rather interesting family. His own line goes back to his 2x great grandfather Isaac KIPP who was born in 1764 likely at Northeast Town in Dutchess County where he is found on the census with his wife Hannah in 1790 living next to or with his father in law Jonathan Mead. Was this KIPP family the New Amsterdam family from the late 1630s (emigrated from Amsterdam Holland) or was it one of the KIPP families that was naturalized in the 1750s coming from the Germanic States. These two groups are the ancestors of many of the KIPP/KIP families in North America.

Slide 15
I then discussed the KIPP study and the members and that the study determined that this was not a singleton surname by the Y DNA results.

Slide 16
A list of the first 12 markers found for the New Amsterdam family and the significance of DYS426 being 13 in this family grouping thus separating this KIPP/KIP family from the other KIPP families in North America. There are differences in CDYa/b which it is hoped will permit separation of the three sons of the original emigrant or perhaps sons of those sons. That is still being worked on as this part of the study slowly grows.

Slide 17
 I summarized the comments above noting that one of the other study groups has similar results in the first 12 markers except for the significant DYS426 which is 12 in that family but they also have other differences which results in a Genetic Distance of 6 or 7 on 37 markers. Hence they are not the same family in a genealogical timeframe. My husband has done a lot of research on Dutch records now and has determined that at least prior to 1600 (and not sure how far back before that time) this family lived in the border area of Denmark/Netherlands/Germany although in the territory known as The Netherlands at that time.

Slide 18
One of my pet recommendations to anyone in a surname group that I am involved with is to encourage them to join the relevant haplogroup project for their surname. The administrators of the Haplogroup projects have been very aggressive in putting together fantastic phylogenetic charts of their members and I include an image that I wasn't able to show yesterday due to technical problems at my end.

This particular chart is for my Blake line (Blayke) and note that CTS4122+ separates my Blayke from Blake beside it. The interesting part of all of this is that my grandfather worked with the ancestor of this tester in the Train Yards at Eastleigh and they wondered if they were related. Probably not in a thousand years one might suspect. But interesting to see how the administrators are putting together their information into charts into a genealogical timeframe.

Slide 19
A second case study and this one for my PINCOMBE/PINKHAM one name study. This slide talks about some of the people who have tested and how these results looked. As a result of the first two items I decided to set the Y DNA study aside for several years. The third bullet item brought it back to life again and the fourth bullet item provides a short historical reference to a will that I have transcribed and how it might work into the story of bullet three.


Slide 20
This is my PINCOMBE family tree from my grandfather back to his furtherest back known ancestor (lived at North Molton, Devon). The black arrow marks the most recent common ancestor for the PINCOMBE tester in Australia and myself. John PINCOMBE (b 1808 Bishops Nympton, Devon) is my emigrant ancestor.

Slide 21
I talked about the problems that I had with this PINCOMBE/PINKHAM single surname study. Mostly it is the small group of testers and no matches. My history of this family is known back to about 1485 but the other testers are looking at the latter part of the 1600s for their furtherest back ancestor. I found some interesting earlier history for the PENCOMBE (spelling used by the earliest PINCOMBE at North Molton, Devon) family in Herefordshire in the 1300s. At the time of the mismatch I also noted that the surname PINKHAM was found in Devon/Cornwall earlier than 1485.

Slide 22
My PINCOMBE/PINKHAM study was an inherited one from an earlier researcher to whom I am not
related as far as I know. The earlier study had been deposited at the Society of Genealogists, London, England, UK and the original researcher Dr Richard PINKHAM (Gloucestershire) had begun this study prior to WWII when he first collected his information including abstracting the wills at the Devon Record Office (bombed in WWII and all records destroyed). I do not want to undo 50+ years of research; I do not mind incorporating new material into the existing study. So I adopted a wait and see attitude as my method of resolving the conflict mentioned in Slide 19.

Slide 23
Resolving such a difficulty may not occur very quickly and there are several other ways to look at a study anyway so I continued (and still continue) collecting documental evidence for the PINCOMBE/PINKHAM family. I blog about the Pincombe family and with my own success with Family Finder and PINCOMBE/PINKHAM really encourage any female PINCOMBE/PINKHAM to test with Family Finder and join the project. Then luck enters into the equation and the match in Sweden is certainly very very interesting especially as his haplogroup is not very common in Sweden (more common in the British Isles).

Slide 24
Autosomal DNA has played a role in the PINCOMBE/PINKHAM study as I have two different matches one with a known fourth cousin and one with a known third cousin once removed with our common ancestor being in the PINCOMBE family. I mention that finding a descendant of the John PINCOMBE and Johane BLACKMOORE family would add greatly to the study and prove this line although the paper proof is probably more than adequate (I have transcribed the entire set of parish registers at Bishops Nympton) the DNA verification is always exciting as well.

Slide 25
The BLAKE/BLEAK study is the final case study in this presentation looking at Y DNA principally with a little autosomal mentioned. The actual Y DNA study is administered by Bill BLEAK although I am a co-administrator along with two others. This study although begun in 2004 is still in its infancy. Interesting results are coming out of it but more testers are needed. With such a large surname 50+ testers is not enough to really draw a lot of conclusions. I publish the Blake Newsletter four times a year and report on the DNA progress of the study there.

Slide 26
A little background on the Blake one name study.

Slide 27
This Case Study looks at the descendants of a group of families - PARLEE/ALLEN/FOLKINS and I mention GedMatch as being a good site to enter your results and collect your matches by surname if possible or at least by matches.

Slide 28
More on the PARLEE/ALLEN/FOLKINS families and they descend from United Empire Loyalists brought to New Brunswick by the British following the American Revolution. I propose that as you put known cousins into the Chromosome Browser start marking portions of the Chromosome as belonging to a particular surname if possible. As you acquire more and more members it may be possible to find particular areas that are specific to a surname and then when unknown but likely related people join you can predict their lineage by their matches. An interesting way to look at surname projects I think.

Slide 29
Talked about mitochondrial DNA project and I am involved in two - the T haplogroup project and the H11 project. both at FT DNA.

Slide 30
H11 Haplogroup phylogenetic chart (build of February 2014). I have over 100 members in my study with their full genetic scan and a couple of these subclades appear to belong to particular areas in Europe (Europe includes both East and West). My own haplogroup H11a2a1 appears to be NorthWestern Europe and primarily the British Isles). The haplogroup H11a2a2 is primarily an Eastern European group. H11b1 appears to be mostly Eastern Europe extending into Central Europe.

Slide 31
Mitochondrial DNA is not really useful in Surname studies except perhaps that a location of an emigrant couple might be discovered.

Slide 32
X chromosome studies is again the least useful in Surname Studies. Males have limited matches so might prove useful on occasion.

Slide 33
Quick review of the benefits and drawbacks to Y DNA studies although I think that testing your paternal line is absolutely essential and any drawbacks are really very unimportant. How to attract members is always a problem but publicizing your study is the best means.

Slide 34
A query slide with my email but I should mention my knowledge of DNA is limited to the above.

Slide 35
List of suggested books and I do own them all and find each of them to be most useful.

Slide 36
Thank you for reading this far!

Will of James Blake, Yeoman, Honiton Devon - The National Archives PROB 11/1817/22, probated 8 Jun 1833

James Blake is the testator living at Honiton and he mentions his daughter Mary married to William Allen and his daughter Betsy (deceased) married to Nathaniel Bishop. [Perhaps a return to normalcy on my part as I am back to transcribing wills!]

Marriage of Mary Blake and William Allin celebrated 19 Jan 1806 at Honiton on Otter, Devon.

Marriage of Betsy Blake and Nathaniel Bishop celebrated 12 Aug 1804 at Honiton on Otter, Devon. Children of Nathaniel and Betsy named in the will: Eliza married to John Husey, Nathaniel Bishop, Margaret married to John Barrett and James Blake Bishop. Marriages found in Family Search ((Family Search M05114-1).

Eliza Bishop married John Browne Hussey 13 May 1828 at Honiton on Otter
Margaret Bishop married John Barrett 17 Jan 1832 at Honiton on Otter
Nathaniel Bishop married Matilda Bustard 3 Jul 1834 at Honiton on Otter
James Blake Bishop married Elizabeth Notley 20 Oct 1835 at Honiton on Otter

I did find an online website (sources not listed unless you register) for the Nathaniel Bishop/Betsy Blake family providing a few details. Namely: http://www.familycentral.net/index/family.cfm?ref1=6284:133&ref2=6284:134

Betsy Blake is listed as the daughter of James Blake and Isabella Kitchen. She was baptized 25 Jan 1781 at Honiton. Her grandparents were listed as William and Elizabeth Blake and James and Aquila Kitchen. The children of William and Elizabeth Blake as listed as Mary Blake (b 6 May 1750), Elizabeth Blake (b 8 Sep 1751), James Blake (b 14 Oct 1753), Thomas Michel Blake (b 2 May 1756), William Blake (b 28 May 1758), Jane Blake (b 25 May 1760 and 13 Mar 1763). The children of Nathaniel Bishop and Betsy Blake are listed as Eliza (b 21 Aug 1804 at Honiton), Nathaniel Bishop (b 15 Dec 1807 at Honiton), Margaret (b 19 Jan 1810 at Honiton) and James Blake Bishop (b 25 Mar 1811 at Honiton with his marriage to Elizabeth Notley added 20 Oct 1835 at Honiton).

This information gives a possible age for James Blake (b 14 Oct 1753) and will probated 8 Jun 1833 with his last Codicil written (2)1 May 1833 giving him a likely age of 80 years of age. William his father would have likely been born by 1730 and is possibly the William Blake who married Elizabeth Michell and is especially given that one of the children of William and Elizabeth was named Thomas Michel Blake. The marriage took place 29 Jan 1748 at Ottery Saint Mary, Devon which is only six miles southwest of Honiton. Unfortunately there aren’t any wills for William Blake at the PCC for this area of Devon nor did I find one on the Devon Genuki Consolidated Wills.

Interesting information on this Blake line at Honiton and likely Ottery Saint Mary.

Page two of the will was blurred somewhat at the top and difficult to read. Perhaps in the future I will try to read once again but for the moment the gist of the will is sufficient and no names are missing.


Chopping Knife Inn is one of the lost pubs of Devon. It was built by 1774 and then known as The Rolling Pin with the name The Chopping Knife becoming the usual name by 1843 (and obviously by 1833 as James mentions it in his will). The website for Lost Pubs Project: http://closedpubs.co.uk/devon/honiton_choppingknife.html . There is a coin depicted for this pub on the webpage which reads White (perhaps the White family were later occupying this inn).

Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 9 Jul 2013
Source: The National Archives, PROB 11/1817/22
Testator: James Blake
Place: Honiton, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document: 21 Aug 1832, probated 8 Jun 1833
Condition: 19th century English, legible copy

[Margin]: James
[Margin]: Blake
[Margin]: 18

1    This is the last Will and Testament of me
2    James Blake of Honiton in the County of Devon yeoman First I give and devise unto
3    Sarah the daughter of Nathaniel Bishop of Honiton aforesaid Innkeeper the sum of
4    thirty pounds of lawful Money of Great Britain to be paid by my Executors hereinafter
5    named when she shall attain the age of twenty one years I give and bequeath unto my
6    daughter Mary the wife of William Allen all my household goods and Furniture now in
7    my occupation and also I give devise and bequeath unto my said daughter Mary the
8    wife of the said William Allen all that Messuage or Tenement situate in Honiton
9    aforesaid called the Chopping knife Inn with the Garden Fields and appurtenances hereto
10    belonging now in the occupation of Hannah Oak as Tenant thereof and the said Field
11    called Bakers Plot in the occupation of Benjamin Trim as Tenant thereof To hold
12    the same with the appurtenances thereto belonging immediately after my decease unto
13    my said daughter Mary her executors administrators and assigns for and during all
14    my Estate and Interest therein to and for her own use and benefit I give devise and
15    bequeath unto the said Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker of Buckewell in the
16    said County Feltmonger two hundred and seventy pounds Stock now three and half per
17    cent Consols Upon Trust that they the said Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker or
18    the survivor of them his executors administrators and assigns do and shall pay and apply
19    the Interest dividends and produce thereof from time to time to the same shall
20    become due and payable unto the proper hands of my said daughter Mary the wife of
21    the said William Allen for her sole and separate use for and during the term of her
22    natural life, the same to be independent of her said husband and not to be subject or liable
    [Page 2]
23    to his debts control contracts engagements and the receipt and receipts of my said daughter
24    Mary shall be good and sufficient discharge and discharge to the person and persons who
25    shall pay the same ______________________
26    do ____ such receipt or receipts as shall be _______ be received
27    provided and I do hereby declare that ______ my said daughter Mary the wife of the
28    said William Allen shall ______ after my death ____ of any Monies to put
29    herself ______ in the said sum or _____ for her wants or necessities should so
30    require the same I do hereby authorize and empower my said Trustees or the survivor
31    of them his Executors or administrators should they think it right and necessary so to be
32    and they should consider it would be for her benefit notwithstanding my said limitation
33    to her for her natural life only to sell out and dispose of all or any part of the said two
34    hundred and seventy pounds stock third and half per cent consols and to pay the same to
35    my said daughter Mary the wife of the said William Allen to and for her own use and
36    benefit and after the decease of my said daughter Mary Upon trust that the said
37    Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker or the survivor of them his executors or
38    administrators shall and do stand possessed of said interests in whatever should remain
39    of the said two hundred and seventy pounds Stock three and half per cent Consols In trust
40    for all and every the children of my said daughter Mary who shall be living at the
41    time of her decease and do and shall divide and pay the same equally between them
42    share and share alike at their respective ages of twenty one years if more than one
43    and if there shall be but one Child then to such only one his or their executors
44    administrators and assigns at the age aforesaid and as to for and concerning all the
45    Residue and Remainder of my Goods Chattels and other Monies and Securities
46    for Money personal Estate and Effects whatsoever and of what nature or kind soever the
47    same may be not by me hereinbefore given and bequeathed my debts legacy and funeral
48    expences being first paid thereout and I do hereby charge the same with the payment
49    thereof I give and bequeath the same unto the said Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker their
50    executors administrators and assigns upon such trusts nevertheless as hereinafter
51    mentioned expressed and declared that is to say upon trust that they the said Nathaniel
52    Bishop and Henry Hawker or the survivor of them his executors or administrators
53    do and shall after payment of the before mentioned legacy and my debts and funeral
54    expences do and shall account for and pay and apply all such Monies equally between my
55    Grandchildren Eliza the wife of John Hussey Nathaniel Bishop Margaret the wife of
56    John Barrett and James Blake Bishop the children of my late deceased daughter Betsy
57    Bishop to and for his her and their own use and benefit his her and their executors
58    administrators and assigns as soon as convenient to my said Trustees after my decease
59    provided also and my will is and I do hereby direct that my said Trustees or the survivor
60    of them his executors or administrators shall not be answerable or accountable for the
61    receipts acts disbursements or default of the other of them or for any more of the
62    trust Monies then shall come to his or their hand or hands respectively but each of them for
63    his own receipts acts disbursements and defaults only and also that they my said trustees
64    and the survivor of them his executors or administrators shall by with and out of
65    my said trust estate and effects be reimbursed satisfied and paid all costs charges damages
66    and expences which they or either of them shall or may pay bear sustain be at or
67    put into in or about the execution of the trusts hereby in them reposed or of their
68    lawful acting therein and I do hereby make nominate constitute and appoint the said
69    Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker Executors of this my will hereby revoking
70    all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made and do declare this only to be my
71    last Will and Testament In Witness whereof I have to this my last Will and Testament
72    contained in three sheets of paper to the first and second sheet thereof set my hand
73    and to the last my hand and seal this twenty first day of August in the year of our Lord
74    one thousand eight hundred and thirty two James Blake Signed
75    Sealed published and declared by the said James Blake the Testator as and for and to
76    be his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed
77    our names as witnesses thereto in the presence of the said Testator and of each other
78    Thos Maunder Sophia Maunder
79    This
    [Page 3]
80    This is a Codicil to the last Will and Testament of me James Blake of
81    Honiton in the County of Devon Yeoman bearing date the twenty first day of May one
82    thousand eight hundred and thirty three and which I desire may be annexed to and
83    considered and taken as part thereof whereas I have in and by my said will given and
84    bequeathed unto Nathaniel Bishop Henry Hawker two hundred and seventy pounds
85    stock now three and half per cent consols Upon trust as therein mentioned for my daughter
86    Mary the wife of William Allen Now I do hereby revoke the said bequest as given as
87    aforesaid and instead thereof I do hereby give devise and bequeath unto the said
88    Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker two hundred pounds Stock now three and half
89    per cent consols upon the same trusts to and for my said daughter Mary the wife of
90    William Allen and to and for the same purposes as declared in and by my said will
91    respecting the said sum of two hundred and seventy pounds Stock now three and half
92    per cent consols hereby by this codicil revoked and I do hereby confirm in every other
93    respect my said will In witness whereof I the said James Blake have to this Codicil
94    set my hand and seal the day and year first above written James Blake
95    Signed sealed published and declared by the said Testator James Blake as and for a
96    Codicil to be annexed to this last Will and Testament and to be taken as part thereof in
97    the presence of us who have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto in the presence
98    of the said Testator and of each other Thos Maunder Sophia Maunder
99    Proved at London with a Codicil 8th June 1833 before the Judges by the
100    oaths of Nathaniel Bishop and Henry Hawker the Executors to whom admon was
101    granted being first sworn by Commission duly to adm[inister]

Sir Francis Baildon and his nine page will

I transcribed the will of Sir Francis Baildon when I was first learning paleography. It was an enormous challenge for me at the time but I struggled through it five years ago. The last few days I have redone my transcription and I am amazed on the one hand that I did so well at the time and astounded, on the other hand, at my errors!

My husband has an interest in this will as one of his ancestors was Daniel Belding who married Elizabeth Foote 10 Nov 1670 at Hartford Connecticut (CT). Their daughter Sarah (born 15 Mar 1682 at Hatfield CT) married Benjamin Burt 19 Oct 1702 at Deerfield Massachusetts (MA).  During the raid on Deerfield of 1704 they were taken to Montréal and their first son was born there (Sarah was seven months pregnant for that trek through the snows of winter - it must have been a frightening experience). They were repatriated and on the return voyage their son (my husband's ancestor) Seaborn was born ( 4 Jul 1706 at sea). Continuing to come down Seaborn married Susannah Lobdell but the date and place of marriage are not known to me. Their son Benjamin Burt married Rebecca (surname unknown) and their daughter Sarah was born Jan 1771 at Ridgefield CT. We visited the cemetery at Ridgefield but couldn't find their gravestone (it was a dreary wet day and we couldn't find it; must return one day). Sarah married Philip Crouse 8 Apr 1791 at Queensbury New Brunswick (this is my husband's loyalist line). Their daughter Rebecca Crouse married Isaac Allen (another loyalist line) 8 Apr 1816 at Keswick New Brunswick. Their last child James C Allen was his great grandfather (born 24 Dec 1832 at Millstream New Brunswick). James Allen married Hannah Catherine Parlee (another loyalist line) 17 Jul 1856 at Burford Canada West (now Ontario). Their youngest daughter Margaret Evelyn Allen was born 3 Nov 1880 in McLean Township Ontario and she married Horace Lorenzo Link (loyalist line that came directly to Ontario in the early 1780s) 25 Nov 1903 at Audrey North West Territories (now Saskatchewan). His mother was born in Saskatchewan but they returned to Ontario when she was six weeks old in 1906.

That traces the line down from Daniel Belding and to work backwards now the parents of Daniel Belding were William Belding and Thomasine Sherwood who married at Wethersfield CT. The father of this William was said to be Richard Baldon (Balydon/Baildon) married to Margaret Ackrenden 9 Dec 1622 at Heptonstall West Yorkshire Riding (England). The possible father of this Richard Baildon was Sir Francis Baildon and mother was Margaret Goodrick who were themselves married at Ribston Manor West Yorkshire riding.

This is where the two questions enter. I found a book online "Concerning some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Royal Denison Belden and Olive Cadwell Belden by Jessie Perry Van Zile Belden. Printed for private circulation by J. B. Lippincott Company Philadelphia 1898. An interesting book in light of the articles published lately concerning the impossibility that Richard Baildon was the son of Sir Francis Baildon. Further on from this is the difficulty with William the supposed son of Richard born in America. In this book the only two sons mentioned are Samuel and Thomas. This appears to be another debate within the articles published on the Baildon family. Was William a son of Richard Bayldon? The one comment in the book mentioned earlier in this paragraph that catches my eye is on page 72 of this book (can be downloaded from Internet Archive) where I quote a quote from William Poley Baildon, F.S.A. and he was a member of the Council of the Archaeological Society of Yorkshire. The question that might remain in my mind is who was William Paley Baildon. Looking at the publication, William Paley was a barrister and had been collecting information on the family for twenty years searching through parish registers, court records, etc in Yorkshire. He created the pedigrees that are in the book.  The quote follows:

"There is only one family of Bayldon; all persons bearing that name by inheritance must have sprung from the Yorkshire manor of that name. Richard Bayldon, son of Sir Francis Bayldon of Kippax, baptized May 26, 1591, was the only Richard, so far as I know, who would have had money to spend in the purchase of land, as Richard of Wethersfield did."

Now that doesn't prove that this Richard is the son of Sir Francis Baildon. Once I am happy with the transcription of the will (my husband will put that on his blog) than I will proceed to work on the Postmortem Inquisition that he also purchased from the National Archives. Certainly the will leaves one breathless with the extent of this man's holdings but also as I transcribed it I realized the tremendous responsibility placed on his children to carry out his many transactions and to follow through with his legacies. All of this to begin five years after the death of Sir Francis Baildon. His death was in 1623 so the duties would have begun to fall on Richard in 1628 presumably. The actual value of the estates of Sir Francis Baildon at his death does not appear to be as substantial as they appear on the will. His debts were large apparently and so the children would have had to bear this debt along with their legacies and balance it all out. This Richard had also made application to leave England in 1613 so perhaps felt with the dissension around him concerning King and Parliament and the responsibilities of the estate of his father that he might do better in America. I think that attributing this Richard to Lawrence Baildon when no baptism exists is perhaps questionable and that is the tone of later researchers in this family.

When next we are at Kew, I shall try to spend some time looking at all the Baildon material there to see if a stronger case could be made for Richard Baildon at Wethersfield being the son of Sir Francis Baildon. I will also look at the other Baildon families in Yorkshire although we have read through the Heptonstall Parish Registers. Always though one must bear in mind that the tendency in the 1800s was to try to link back to an illustrious family in Europe and that tainted many of the genealogical studies of colonial families produced in the United States in that time period. Plus there is still the query about William being the son of Richard; the name Baildon is uncommon and Belding/Belden equally uncommon. However, I shall not delve into this mystery as it is my husband's mystery and not mine! I just transcribed the will and that is my big part in the Baildon mysteries.

Andover Poor Law Rate

Images from Salt Lake City are of interest as well in this time frame for the Parish Registers (1620, 1669, 1673) and are rather interesting with regard to the Blake family.

1620 Andover Blake Mr. Peter Blake for Perwel
late Mr. William Blake 0 6 0
1620 Andover Blake Mr. Richard Blake 0 2 0
1620 Andover Blake Mr. Peter Blake 1 2 3
1669 Andover Blake Mr. Peter Blake 2 8 9
1669 Andover Blake Mr. Rob[er]te Blake 0 3 2
1669 Woodhouse Richard Clarke for Widd Blake 0 4 6
1669 Enham Regis Blake Mrs. Eliz: Blake 0 8 4
1669 Enham Regis Blake Mrs. Joane Blake Widd 0 19 6
1669 Hatherden Blake Mr. Edward Blake 0 ? 2
1673 Andover Blake Mr. Peter Blake 0 3 9
1673 Andover Blake Mr. Robert Blake 0 0 4

William Blake is suspiciously absent (Clerk, son of William and Dorothy Blake who gradually through the 1600s sold off any property that he had). William dies at Foxcott (owned by the Hinxman family and William's uncle Joseph was Lord of the Manor). His son John is not mentioned although he does appear on the Poll book in 1710. He does not have the title Mr. nor does his father when he is buried. The Manor books would probably answer some questions on this family. Was he ill? I do not find a death yet for his wife Ann Hellier Blake (father Hugh Helyer). His older son William appears to have died young. The only daughter Bridget I need to check the records to see if I actually found anything for her. When I transcribe I do not always check each individual entry as I record it because I will be going back to them!

Continuing with the Parish Register I have now completed to May 1703 in the baptisms with a total of 7504 from the beginning of the Registers. The number has silently crept up to this level as I now realize I have an enormous number of entries for some family lines - Blake of course, Hopgood, Hinxman, Allen, Watters, Hawkince (Hawkins), Long and I must make a list of the families that have been in the registers for more than one hundred years as that would be quite interesting. This is still a rather small town judging from the number of baptisms. The growth spurt is to come for Andover.

Farley family

I received a contact on Genes Reunited for the Farley family. Mary Ann Blake (sister to my great grandfather Edward Blake) married David Farley June quarter 1853 at Andover Hampshire. Mary Ann was baptized 2 Oct 1831 at Upper Clatford. They had nine children including George Farley who married Edith Pearce. George was born March quarter 1855 at Andover. Their daughter Muriel was grandmother to the person who contacted me. My contact's father Richard is my third cousin. Mostly I find fourth cousins so this was quite an exciting contact. Since I do not have any first cousins and few second cousins a third cousin seems very close although probably not to most third cousins :)

The contact is fairly new to genealogy and can not add anything to my Blake quest although being "on the spot" so to speak there is a potential of her learning a great deal about the family and I hope she keeps me tuned for any advancements. I can at least provide information on what is known for sure.

Today is a canning day - we will make chili sauce which is a five hour marathon but tastes delicious at the end. All that work for seven or eight jars! The elderberry jelly turned out very well though and it is the first time that we have made elderberry jelly - usually pies or the birds eat them all!

We worked on the Schultz family the last couple of days. We are making up a new chart with all the discoveries of this past year. That is our primary need at the moment to complete that and prepare for a visit to the Archives of Ontario, Queensville and Baysville to visit the local cemeteries there and look around a little to see where the Abbes, Link, and Allen families lived in these areas. My husband's mother was a Link and her grandfather's mother was Mary Ann Abbes (a newly found ancestress).