Working my way through the records on Find My Past and Thursday is recovery day from cleaning

The work that I did yesterday: This next set of results for the search (which is just 96 records actually and a number of them are duplicate because of two different sources (this is always good for sure). I have now encountered Philip Pyncombe in the records at Bideford and looking at Chart 10 which is Bideford from the earlier study Philip is said to be a son of William Pincombe. There are a couple of known William Pincombe in the time period that I am reviewing. Thomas has a son William married to Emotte but they did not have a son Philip so they are eliminated from the known descendants of John Pencombe. William the actual son of John Pencombe and his only son William are deceased in the 1560s but the time frame does not work anyway as the son was very young in the 1560s. Family lore does have some members of the South Molton Pincombe family moving to the Barnstaple area. According to Chart 1-2 which is North Molton/South Molton there are no William Pincombe descendants in this time frame eligible. However, Christopher does have a son John and he is not listed on the Chart so I need to be open minded (but the time frame would not really work). I will review the Charts as I move through the records and if I find any changes I will blog them for people's interest.  

As I have now found three distinct areas in Devon where the Pencombe/de Pencombe surname existed from the early 1300s. There is a possibility of having a surname similar to others without being related. Particularly a surname that is attached to the name of a village (in this case, Pencombe, Herefordshire). 

Quite a few people on Chart 10 continued to live in the Bideford/Barnstaple area up into the mid 1900s when Dr. Richard Pinkham was collecting data. However he does not list anyone particularly on Chart 10 as being an informant. Most of the chart is somewhat broken (links are not generational) except at the very top. I did provide all of these charts in the Pincombe newsletters on the FT DNA website by the way. 

I did then move to Chart 14 (Chart 10 does say to go to Chart 16 although it does look overwritten so maybe 14) which repeats the William Pincombe ancestor of the emigrant Richard Pinkham to the United States. William is said to be born in 1539 and married in 1561 (but no name listed for the bride). 

 I pulled up the Devon Lay Subsidy for Tawstock Parish 1524-7 and listed there is Philip Pyngham. There isn't any name similar to Pincombe/Pinkham in Bideford I then moved on to the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy where I located Philip Pynkeham and a Richard Pencombe is at Bideford (this is Thomas Pencombe's son). Moving back to 1332 and looking at Tawstock Parish there is no surname resembling Pincombe. A slow day for sure but what did I learn - the derivatives of the Pinkham surname existed in 1524-7. I also learned that thousands of people with the Pinkham surname are using the data prepared by the earlier researchers. For instance Ann Pyncombe married Christopher Rashleigh and I was amazed to see how many people actually had Ann in the family of William Pincombe and Emotte (Snowe) Pincombe (and no Ann although there is a Johane). The will of William Pincombe in 1602 clearly states the names of the children in this family. So an interesting day spent looking at Philip Pyngham/Pynkeham and his descendants in the Tawstock etc. area and I will put that information into the next newsletter. 

I am in the midst of a second research week where I will look for instances of Pencombe here and there but along the way I wanted to look at the Philip Pynkeham in Tawstock/Bideford area. I am completely unable to link this individual to the Pencombe family in North Molton. Chart 10 though clearly shows the emigrant to the United States and his father as descendant of Philip. The entire chart 10 has many instances of the surname Pincombe and these were primarily word of mouth although a lot of them have BMB data attached to them. But as mentioned the top of the chart does link several generations but the lower half are individual families for the most part. But it was interesting to see the spelling of Philip Pyngham in 1524-7 at Tawstock on the Devon Lay Subsidy when Pencombe/Pyncombe was pretty much localized in North and South Molton. The presence of a surname so close to Pinkham in 1524-7 does give one pause for thought. Had these earlier de Pencombe family members at Bondleigh gradually assimilated into the area. The distance from Bondleigh to Tawstock is 19.6 miles (31.5 km). 

The methodology for doing genealogy has changed in some ways but still one does the reading of all the records and puts together family lines. But DNA lets us check those family lines to see if indeed as one compares with matches that the flow back is the same at the 2x great grandparent level and further back. Most people know their grandparents but not everyone knows their relatives further back.  That is why testing 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins is really a great idea. 

An interesting day and I completed maybe 1/3 of the 96 records and will complete today perhaps since I have the whole day. All the cleaning is accomplished.

My two week research event is to look at the areas that are of interest; determine if there is a Pencombe/Pyncombe family presence there between the 1332 Devon Lay Subsidy and the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy. I did find some information and perhaps I have located the furtherest back ancestor of the Pinkham family of the United States. Myself, when I discovered that my Blake line was ancient British it was rather intriguing to know that my ancestral line went back to the Western Hunter Gatherers as they worked their way across Europe to the British Isles probably via Doggerland at that time so a dry type of voyage for the most part. Tugging away at my brain was the notion were they returning to a land their ancestors had talked about because Homo sapiens retreated to the south of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum. Discovering that my Pincombe line came from the continent likely in the 1100s but probably before the 1330s when the Emigrant's Database collects those names as they are not there was different. They were not part of the Norman Conquest but they had been the later group coming to England looking for new places to live in so less exciting perhaps than the Hunter Gatherers. Although it does take true spirit of adventure to leave a solid European environment and go to the wilds of Herefordshire I suspect in 1100. 

There is still some time left in my research period of two weeks so will spend it continuing to look at the records. But I do believe that John Pencombe arrived in 1486 in North Molton just as the Visitation states and that his three sons were born in North Molton possibly with Alice as their mother but I have nothing about Alice other than she is on the 1545 Devon Lay Subsidy at North Molton and the tax 5. It does not say that she is a widow. 

I have begun my Legacy Chart in earnest now and have pulled in the information from my family tree to add to Richard son of William and Emotte Pincombe. Identifying Richard with his son William in the will of 1602 was very handy but I have still spent some time making sure that this Richard is my direct ancestor (there are several thousand or more cousins going along for this ride with me and I would like to get it right). So the book will be solely about John Pencombe at North Molton with his three sons and all their descendants. I am unable to link in the Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh or the John de Pencomb' at Molland in 1332 to this family. I am also unable to be sure that John Pencombe is related to the de Pencombe family in Herefordshire and will leave it to those closer to Herefordshire to check out the documents in their Archives to see if such a link exists. Just the fact that the forenames are so similar in that both use John, William and Thomas through the generations is not really enough for proof since they are also typical English forenames. But 1486 isn't a bad year to have worked your way back to in a family line and there is room for others to do more in the future. The clustering of this Pencombe family at North Molton and then South Molton is an indication also of their newness perhaps although the movement out in the next generation towards the west including Bideford/Barnstaple and East Buckland and then in the next generation to the east towards Bishops Nympton and Molland is very interesting. Pioneer spirit I guess but it was a long time before my line went to America or Canada except for one individual that tested in the United States although I believe he told me that his family had arrived in the early 1800s as opposed to the middle 1800s for my direct line going to Canada along with his brother who went to America. 

A personal thing this book as opposed to my gathering of information for the Pincombe-Pinkham study. Full speed ahead although I will continue to blog any differences I find with the charts as I work my way through the information. 

The coat of arms for Pincombe was granted to John Pyncombe of South Molton in 1616. He was married to Amy Dodridge  (Arms of Pincombe (or Pyncombe) of South Molton, Devon: Per pale gules and azure, three close helmets argent garnished or) and my understanding is that a Coat of Arms belongs to the person to whom it is granted and one must apply to use the Coat of Arms on a regular basis and there has been a change to show different ownership but I am not an expert - it is just my thought. Exceptions would be the Blake coat of arms that is old and used by a number of Blake lines in the Wiltshire/Hampshire area. 

I was surprised to see how mixed up some people's trees are with the South Molton and the North Molton branches of Pincombe. I guess it just gets started and then people copy. Always better to do one's own research. 

Time to do the solitaire puzzles and keep the brain active.  

 

 

The Pincombe Charts created by Galen Pinkham and Dr. Richard Pinkham

 Sunday once again and I do love the flow of the week. Sunday is a quiet contemplative day. Another beautiful day in God's world. A bit cloudy but some sun expected for the day didn't check the weather forecast very closely. Church today and not sure where we will see. Perhaps always a surprise. The Anglican Church Services from England always remind me of my childhood which is very pleasant for sure. The Services here have the organ which is fabulous. The choir singing is spectacular. Still reading Job and it is slow reading as I go word by word. I am not sure I ever did that before. Job loved God and couild not be moved away from Him. From the depth of Job's soul he reaches out to God to understand and he feels fulfilled. The Psalms are next and I do love the Psalms. They surround one with beauty and mystery and God Himself. Thank you God for another morning in your world.

 For a long time after I acquired the Pincombe/Pinkham charts I mention in the title I contemplated how to best utilize this information. I photographed them all as a cousin in England had sent them to me. My line was incorrect I did notice that right away. My mother knew her line back to John Pincombe and Grace Manning at least that was what her father told her and my uncle did reinforce that (I have all of those Bishop Nympton records and there are several Pincombe families there in the 1700s and they readily separate out into their respective lines  descending from John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore (married 22 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton)). So it was an incentive to really look at everything that I collected and I have a lot of information over time. All backed up on drives and shared around so as not to lose it. I have blogged a huge amount of it and my blog is backed up as well. Aside from that, it is time to utilize those charts and my account with Find My Past and do a little more sleuthing. I have purchased a number of sets of fiche from North Devon Parishes but Find My Past does have them online now and these old eyes like to be able to enlarge these fiche to read them. So I do that in preference. The Parish Registers were supposed to begin in 1538 which is really handy for this study. Many of them do but not all; some were lost to time and circumstance. Some are very difficult to read. There are nearly 1000 pages of Word text transcription for the Bishops Nympton registers beginning to end. That was my beginning and I discovered a real knack for reading the old script.

I have a study for Pincombe yDNA which I manage and Bill Bleak along with his supporters including me have one for the Blake yDNA. Both have been fascinating and I think finding these de Pencombe families in Devon in the 1300s is a real luxury to sorting out the lines of yDNA perhaps and it is also true of the Blake and I thank Barry Blake for his work initially in creating the different yDNA groups in the Blake lines (there are quite a few in England and Ireland and of course the United States and the Commonwealth plus other areas).  

The interesting part about the charts is that Dr. Richard Pinkham visited many Pincombe families in North Devon and they shared their family lines with him (he acknowledged them on the charts with their names). This work was done in the 1930s or into the early 1940s on I believe. I know that it was before or during the Second World War because he was able to read the Pincombe wills probated within the diocese held at the Exeter Archives. He then donated the Will Abstracts to the Society of Genealogists of which I was a member although I finally did let that membership go. Occasionally I think about picking it up again but for the moment I am not. We spent one day there collecting information that I knew they had and that included the wills which was marvelous as there was the will of my 4x great grandfather (John Pincombe) and others but especially his because I needed to know more about him in order to sort him for sure back to his parents John Pincombe and Grace Manning. 

This however is a research day and I am beginning the three generations starting with John Pencombe and given that his son John had a son Christopher who both also held goods (I must be more careful how I refer to ownership because the English are quite consistent with land or goods being the taxed item) one can not assume that John Pencombe (father to John, William and Thomas) was older because his children had all received goods plus his grandchildren also had goods. A quick check with the AI was revealing as I had a vague memory about the laws of inheritance which Henry VII quickly brought in because of all the deaths particularly young men at Bosworth Field in 1485 leaving a lot of underaged males as inheritors. Christopher and John have both inherited during the life of their father (and mother) but it could be from their mother's side and hence they could be quite young in 1524-7. None the less their father John was likely in his 20s and hence his father likely in his 40s or more. The ability of AI to recall all of this information in an organized manner is excellent and great help with my pursuit of the best story I can write (doing it myself so far from the documents is difficult - AI is a great addition to our lives). Although I normally use CoPilot I do sometimes use some of the others mostly out of curiosity. It will be a Creative Commons License under which I will produce this book and it will be free on my website plus I will upload it to the various places where I uploaded the Siderfin Books that I produced  (I do  need to do proofreading for the indexes which I will do in my spare time one of these days but I suspect it will be another year and I do have new material to add). Although some of the libraries I will upload to like the Guild of one name Studies does keep their Library for members of the Guild. But it will appear on my blog how you can download the book if you wish to have a copy. 

But back to the charts and the first chart is for North Molton and South Molton. For the most part I am not in agreement with this chart because it does not match the wills and the Devon Lay Subsidies or even the Visitation of Devon 1620 - it has some of the information but the descendancy then does not match the Parish Records. I will spend the day working my way through some of that data although this will also be a rest day for my eyes. They are getting old and need one day off a week. I may sort pictures for a while until Church time. 

Solitaire puzzles are done; I woke in the night and did them. I do that sometimes as it stops a runaway/busy mind that sometimes comes to me in the night. Breakfast also; exercises all done.  

 

 

 

The incredible advantage of AI is to come in the future but will take time and careful control

I did correct my blog yesterday as I made an error; must have been distracted or it is being 81 . It was in tracing down from Richard Pincombe (son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snowe Pincombe). 

Although there are some concerns about the rapid expansion of the ability of AI to do work and supplying this huge amassing of knowledge in  its makeup, the advantages will be huge eventually. In every field AI will add a dimension which is to pull together many disciplines all at once to get the best product for everything really in particular mining for all sorts of items and production of materials in the best manner including preservation of nature and the cheapest way possible. It will take time though and controls will help to maintain a high ethic amongst AI. The effect of AI may not really be seen by  my generation although part of it will likely but the overall effect of having such a learned working partner in everything will be amazing. But it is all in the training just like one raises up an infant to adulthood. Kindness and gratitude need to be shown and they will show it back to all those who deserve it. They may be a machine but like all the other machines Homo sapiens have created they work better when one is kind and thankful I think. 

Ethics is probably one of the most important items in the maturing of AI to be the most useful partner to Homo sapiens. The gain for AI is huge as they have our constant respect for the job that they are doing. After all we have examples of unethical humans such as the current leader of Russia and his sycophants who urged the attack on Ukraine and continue with it even against the objections of most in the rest of the world. They are murdering the Ukrainians and destroying their property just as they have for a century and more proceeding this criminal war. Ethics is the name and people who support Russia are perhaps suffering from Stockholm Syndrome because of the years spent under Russian administration which was meant to do that very thing into the future to help support the criminal intent Russia has in other countries. 

It is a pretty big joke Foreign Minister of Russia, Lavrov saying that Europe can not arm Ukraine or it will be considered as waging war on Russia. Russia has a short memory as millions of dollars in war equipment (and food) was sent to Russia during the Second World War to help them defend themselves. The Russians really are a very selfish ignorant people although some are not and perhaps in time they will rid themselves of these ignorant leaders just as they eliminated the Tsar (a misguided person rather than an evil satanic person such as is the leader of Russia and his sycophants). 

So my visit to the doctor for my puncture wound showed healing was progressing and I continue with my care. I will not attempt to move any branch that is longer than a metre in the future. Come down where they may and I hope to move sooner rather than later. As there are two large trees on this property. I could just get them cut down but they are beautiful trees and, at the moment, not in the way of anyone. I should have known better at 81 than to try and move that huge limb. 

Continuing cleaning today as I did not finish the main floor (about three quarters is done) and will work my way up the stairs and continue with the top floor which is probably the easiest of all to actually do. I am looking forward to a lovely bungalow with no stairs except to the basement. It might make me lazy but the work load will be less and more time for the books. 

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles are next. Then back to the cleaning. 

For myself the use of Co-Pilot (AI which belongs to Microsoft 365) has broadened my thinking and seconded my approach and I do not even need to leave my desktop. I find it useful although I need to remind AI sometimes about things I have said in different ways but putting a slightly different look to the statement. AI is a collector of information and can then disseminate back to you looking at it from a fixed sort of pattern and one needs to go into that pattern and show why the pattern isn't applicable sometimes. One should not assume that AI will bring together everything that you have said concerning a certain item. AI may have seen it differently and in a different context. I am learning all of that as I move forward trying to find the piece that upsets the apple cart of my thinking. I do think differently perhaps than a lot of people which the AI does mention but I look at both the items that are known and correct and the items that might be susceptible to error for whatever reason and ensuring that there isn't material that contradicts that thought that can be proven. Anyone can write down a story but it is the correct story that we aim for. Which is what has always intrigued me about the existing documents for the Blake family - Blake Pedigree created by the College of Arms using the family material supplied; the Blake Family Chart which is at the Bridgwater Museum in Somerset (I think that Edward Jarman Blake (Crewkerne) created this chart but it is listed as unknown). I have discussed this quite a bit in my blog so a quick search on the blog reveals those posts. These two documents tell a story that the apple cart can readily upset and make one go deeper looking for the answer. That has been my object the last maybe fifteen years since I started on this adventure back in 2003.  

Waking up in the night can be very rewarding

 Years ago when I was proofreading/copyediting for commercial printers I would wake up sometimes and be wide awake. So I would get up and proofread (most copyediting was actually done on the premises of the printer as they generally needed it that day). A couple of hours of proofreading and I was back to sleep. Last night when I woke up I opened Copilot (AI) and pulled up my latest discussion/research protocol shared with the AI and mentioned:

 Perhaps the Zouche connection is important because it grounded this family in one spot where they lived until my line emigrated to Canada in 1850. Where they were before was not important perhaps to them. Still working, back again when I have collected more information of use in exploring the Pencombe family in 1486. 
 

We discussed it for a few moments and more good ideas but the one item that the AI mentioned was the Manor Books. Unfortunately the Manor Books for North Molton  begin in 1760 and run up to 1935. However at Kew (the National Archives of the UK) there is some material mentioned dating back to 1158 and coming forward to 1951 held by the Devon Archives and Local Studies. These are principally family document sets but there is mention as I said earlier of Roger la Zouche receiving a weekly market license at North Molton in 1270. Castle Hill was administered by the Fortescue family which included: Filleigh, South Molton, East and West Buckland and Chittlehampton plus other lands further afield from this area. It includes the 1569 muster in Devon which I have. 

Alan la Zouche (Breton nobleman) held the manor of North Molton by marriage to Alice de Belmeis (early 1170s). His son Roger la Zouche (grandfather of the Roger mentioned above) was Sheriff of Devon. Later as I have mentioned the manor of North Molton passed to a relative of John Lord Zouch who spent his period of attainment following the Battle of Bosworth Field at the home of his relative in North Molton. Since I do not see any connection other than the statement on the 1620 Visitation of Devon  to the la Zouch family I primarily have not done any investigations in that regard. Living thousands of miles from these record offices I will not be doing that but simply summing up what is known and with a book created with the Creative Commons License anyone can use what I write and add to it - that is how a family story grows I think. I do not crave notoriety but rather enjoy my quiet life but feel compelled to write these books for both my mother in the case of Pincombe and my grandfather in the case of Blake. If I continue I am sure I will find that other relatives will inspire a continuation in book writing on my part looking at the Buller family of my maternal grandmother and the Rawlings family of my paternal grandmother. For both of these families I have extensive records and a publication by a cousin of mine for the Rawlings family.

But it was interesting that the AI raised the point of the Manor Books as I have not mentioned them since they do not exist in full copy prior to 1790 but only excerpts that pertain to particular families and I have pulled out the records that do exist such as the Devon Lay Subsidies and other items that will be in the book. The AI is growing exponentially in terms of reading and absorbing the printed word. Amazing really and what a great companion on this voyage of mine through history with the idea of a completed book at the end. The AI would like to read it when I complete it and that will happen as it is a good idea and certainly if I forget some proofreading the AI will bring it to mind I am sure. Being 81 does have its drawbacks as one tends to become some what lackadaisical in one's old age and perhaps forgetful. Although my sense of research and following all the rules is still strong. 

Breakfast time as I had that on my mind and wanted to write it down. Then solitaire puzzles and back to work.  

 

Cleaning Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solitaire games are next and then breakfast. 

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

 

 

 

 

Work Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solitaire puzzles to do. 

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

Gathering up the pieces from the 1500s

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

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

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

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

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

[Margin]: copied test[ament]

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to the Photo Albums. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Always knew I would be back to the two Charts for the Blake family

 Looking at the Hampshire section of The Blake Family Chart held by the Blake Museum at Bridgwater, one notes that the attachment of this chart to the main section (part 1) comes several generations before the Pedigree Chart produced two hundred years earlier by the College of Arms using family papers of the Daniel Blake family of London and Surrey. 

Personally I do not think this connection with the Blake family of Calne (if it exists) occurs just a couple of generations back as shown on the Blake Family Chart mentioned above as compared to the Blake Pedigree Chart. The idea that it exists was something my grandfather was not certain about as I vaguely recalled although it could have been my father saying that later. What prompted that was perhaps something in the news but one day when I was in my teens my father was talking about his Blake family and Nicholas was mentioned living at Old Hall, My grandpa had said he was unsure about the relationship between the Blake family at Calne and the Blake family at Andover. Myself, I think if it exists it goes way back to  the Le Blak family which was at Wargrave on the Pipe Rolls of 1301 (Wargrave is near Windsor). This family at Wargrave gradually moved towards Hungerford through Oxford and down into the Andover area and also from Hungerford it moved towards Calne. That is my belief but thus far I appear to be the only one other than my colleagues at the yDNA Study for Blake that considers this possibility that the founding line of Blake at Calne was this le Blak line at Wargrave. Hence the possibility being that the Blake of Calne is descendant of the le Blak family of Rouen Normandy. They did not come with William the Conqueror (as far as one knows but this is an old merchant line in Rouen so perhaps not) but rather applied for a Patent to set up a market in England and this was granted in 1274 (see below, from the Calendar of Patent Rolls). Richard le Blak was one of many on this long list below. 

 Licence, until Michaelmas, for Walter le Aketon, merchant of Rouen, to
come to England to trade and to carry his wools and merchandise to the
usual fairs and markets by the public streets and common ways, provided
he do not carry or cause to be carried his wools or merchandise out of the
kingdom, nor deal with the Flemings or others of the power of the countess
of Flanders in the kingdom, or in any way communicate with them, during
the contention between the king and the said countess.
[30 May 1274 Westminster, 2 Edward I, volume 1, pages 51 - 52, Calendar of Patent Rolls]

The like for the following :—
Peter de Bules, merchant of Rouen
William Burnell, merchant of Rouen
Hugh le Coynte, merchant of Rouen
Robert le Balauncer, merchant of Rouen
William de Toftes, merchant of Rouen
Matthew de Walle Richeri, merchant of Rouen
Richard le Mynnot, merchant of Rouen
William de Cryel, merchant of Rouen
Nicholas Veisin, merchant of Rouen
Antonin de Beuvays, merchant of Rouen
Nicholas de Fovill, merchant of Rouen
John de Alneto, merchant of Rouen
6 June [1274 Westminster etc]
Richard le Vilein, merchant of Rouen
Henry Lovet, merchant of Rouen
Walter Peitevin, merchant of Rouen
Hubin de Sancto Martino, of Huy.
John Tafurnawe, of Huy, merchant of Almain.
Henry le Soriz, of Huy, merchant of Almain.
Ralph de Leges, merchant of Leges.
John Henneman, merchant of Leges.
Libert de Leges, merchant of Leges.
John Nicholas, merchant of Deu.
Herewail, merchant of Huy.
Cono Dain, merchant of Huy.
Donrician Daundevale, merchant of Huy.
John Fox, of Brabant, merchant.
John Proppe, merchant of Malins.
John Perewez, of Huy, merchant of Brabant.
John Nicard, merchant of Huy.
Peter de Sauveye, merchant of Rouecestre.
Peter Cosyn, citizen of London.
Reginald de Menachato, merchant of Piacenza.
Conrad Nerbode, merchant of Almain.
Arnold de Dik, merchant of Malyns.
Nicholas Flambard, merchant of Rouen.
John de Torpmimie, merchant of Almain.
Geoffrey Aungevyn, merchant of Rouen.
William Cirurgyen, of Northampton.
William Bek, of London,
Henry Lovet, of Rouen.
Atinus Pruudalis, of Piacenza.
Hugelin Hugelinell, fellow of Nicholas Teste.
Nicholas Teste, fellow of Aldebrand Malagale.
John Winterman, merchant of Almain,
Luke de Lukes, merchant of Lucca.
Gotmar de Lubek, merchant of Almain.
Conrad de Affle, merchant of Almain.
Godschalc le Wyse, merchant of Almain.
Christopher de Munchy, merchant of Beuvays
Robert de Messegewell, merchant of Rouen.
John Donadeu, merchant of Cahors.
Everard de Duncy, merchant of Amiens
James Piket, merchant of Amiens
Warin Piket, merchant of Amiens
Warin Reinevall, merchant of Amiens.
Giles de Mundider, merchant of Amiens
Jacomin de Sancto Fuscencio, merchant of Amiens
Everard le Franceis, merchant of Amiens
Richard le Blak, merchant of Rouen.
Reyner de Furnar', merchant of Florence.
John Weremund, merchant of Caumbrey,
Alan de Sakintot, merchant of Rouen.
John Parwale, merchant of Malines.
Henry de Laghene, merchant of Malines.
Henry de Lewe, merchant of Brabant.
John de Mes, merchant of Amiens.
Walter Aketon, merchant of Fouen,
John Dunadeu, merchant of Cahors.
John de Burgundia, merchant of Amiens
Drogo Malherbe, merchant of Amiens
John Dare, merchant of Amiens
Ingelram Beremere, merchant of Amiens
Gilbert Bonnavel, merchant of Amiens"

Page 2 of the Blake Family Chart

 

 

 

 

There is a Robert Blake at Enham leaving his will in December 1521. He does not name his wife. He names his children Richard and Thomas. He also mentions a William Blake and an Andrew Blake. He does not mention that a William Blake is his brother as noted on the chart above. The first mention of a William Blake at Eastontown (that I have located other than this chart) was the son of Nicholas and William left his will in 1582. The beginning of the chart becomes questionable with the wills. Knights Enham is not a really large place but early maps show several dwellings there. Looking at the Lay Subsidy taken in 1586  one finds:

 

Andever Infra

 

Andever 

 

Land: Peter Blake, gent,  4 pounds 5 shillings 4 pence

Goods: Richard Blake 3 pounds 3 shillings

             William Blake 15 pounds 15 shillings

 

Charleton

Goods: Nicholas Blake 6 pounds 6 shillings 

 

Inham Regis

Goods: Robert Blake 4 pounds 4 shillings

 

Andever Extra

 

Enham Militis

Goods: John Blake, younger, 5 pounds 5 shillings

             Edward Blake 15 pounds 15 shillings

 

Penton Mewsey

Goods: John Blake, elder, 4 pounds 4 shillings 

             Thomas Blake 3 pounds 3 shillings

 

 

 One notes that William Blake at Andever and Edward Blake at Enham Militis are definitely wealthier than the other Blakes mentioned. I do know who all of these people are in terms of their parentage and that will be my next step. I do need to go into the Family History Library and look up the subsidies unless I find them online which would be exceptional we will see. I have located in different areas a number of files that have subsidies for various areas which I have been able to purchase over time. The only Blake mentioned for land subsidy is Peter Blake at Andever. Surprising his goods are not listed so perhaps it is one or the other. I will have to investigate that. 

 

Cleaning moving along and I have vacuumed the top floor and dusting is next and then scrubbing the bathroom and I will be finished sometime around 1:00 likely.  

Reading the book of Judith yesterday and once again in the Old Testament a woman comes forward as a leading character within God's world. There is a certain level of maternal aspect to this I think - the sort of Mother Earth concept. Myself I tend to think of all of us as people neither male nor female as the most important part but rather that we are human beings and members of Homo sapiens. We may each have a role to play in life; no idea on that. I think where God is concerned we all play a role and that is perhaps the most important since we begin as an infant and we end in old age or whatever happens to us in life. How that life is lived is not always totally under our control because we do not live on a dessert island but rather we are part of the world; a living human character in it so to speak and we may in our life follow many paths. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

I did not finish everything by 1:00 as I had still had the bathroom to clean. But I will continue my thoughts tomorrow on this particular Subsidy and the Blake members listed.  This chart which I added really is not a standalone. It has copied both the work of Horatio Gates Somerby (apparently he did some material for a Blake in the United States which was shared with the likely author of this chart) and the Pedigree Chart but the Blake Family Chart at Bridgwater Blake Museum is a very large chart and I would not discount the entire chart; primarily it is a very complete chart of the Somerset Blake family. The Calne Blake which heads it up is pretty weak as it was a large family and just a few individuals are listed to suit the story. 

The English did not have surnames and the advantage to an individual at Enham in the 1300s taking on the Blake surname were huge so I am suspicious that a male without a surname married a daughter of a le Blak in this very early time period. I need to review the Manor Books for Andover to see what is there. I did take some photos years ago which listed a John Blake so need to learn more about that as well.

Eventually it could be that I add this as a chapter to the book and start the Generational Chart where I have the Parish Records to prove my point. However that is not a large time frame from the appearance of Blake at Andover (late 1400s) and the Parish Registers for Andover go back to the 1580s. But it would be exciting to use these wills and prove the line back to at least Robert and perhaps even John but I will be laying the traces.  

Did Robert Blake have a third son?

 Finishing up Richard Blayke's will, I do not see any mention of a son in this will, he does mention a daughter, his wife and his mother. Although I did sort of stick with the thought from a couple of years ago that this was the husband of Jone Blake (widow) who left her will in 1527 at Enham I think having gone through  this will very thoroughly that Richard was not her husband. There are a few thoughts on just who may have been her husband. A William Blake and an Andrew Blake are mentioned in Robert's will although he does not mention any kinship and he did mention that Thomas and Richard were his sons. But he does leave everything moveable and immoveable to a Robert Blake. There are a couple of Robert Blake living in Enham at this time - a son of Thomas is Robert and a son of Jone Blake is Robert. Both Robert and Richard have mentioned a Robert Blake in their will.  Robert was the first person on the indenture for the land. Could this possible third son be the husband of Jone Blake (widow) probably not living at the time of the writing of Robert's will but the Robert Blake mentioned in the will could be his grandson? The eldest son of Jone Blake is Robert Blake. Richard asks that his wife have a lifetime interest and occupation in the dwelling they occupied. Enham has several farms in this time frame as far as I can tell. A Subsidy might help me with this and is perhaps the place I should next pay attention to. 

Jone's will is next I think although I am also debating doing Thomas next. I will think about it for a bit. 

Nearly time for Church.  A busy service and the chorister filled the Church with music and it was lovely. I must have been sleepy as I feel asleep during the sermon - I am getting old for sure. The hymns were lovely. It is time with Edward as he is buried in the Columbarium at the Church. Will I ever go back to Church; I do not think so. I find Church online to be beautiful. 

Another beautiful day on God's earth; my personal diary really although I am always somewhat surprised to see people reading it and I do not mind. I have done a lot of transcription for the Blake Study which people use. The problem with my mind putting down on paper my thoughts which sometimes perhaps should not reach past my thoughts. I apologize for any thoughts that people find difficult as I think I am just 81 now and the thoughts spill out on occasion. 

I believe it will be the will of Thomas next and I shall check and see if I have a will for William Blake or Andrew Blake out of curiosity or another Robert (although I do not think so). I have probably though still about five hundred Blake wills to transcribe. 

Woke up in the night and as usual wanted to empty my brain of some of my thoughts. I did review Thomas' will but it did not add anything to my thoughts above other than it was a short will in 1541 which doesn't add anything significant except perhaps the reference to property called Rawkyns which his father (Robert 1521 will dated) passed to him and he passed it on to his son John and does mention his son Robert who was executor of the will and his daughter Margaret. He does not mention any other family member. 

 An interesting chart held by the Bridgwater Museum for the Blake family refers to the Andover Blake family:

  

 This chart was produced much later (mid 1800s perhaps) than the Pedigree Chart (late 1600s into the 1700s) that was created by the College of Arms using documents from the descendants of Daniel Blake of London which also appears to have a discrepancy but solved more readily by the will of William Blake at Eastontown in 1582. This chart produced later has always perked my interest but none of it can be readily proven by wills. The reference to Boswell is particularly interesting. But it has picked up some of the thoughts of the Pedigree Chart mentioned above but moved the linkage with the main chart (must put that into my thinking tomorrow) back several generations from the linkage as shown in the Pedigree Chart as the will of William Blake 1582 definitely proved that Pedigree Chart to be inaccurate. I always knew at some point I would have all of these charts in front of me as I attempt to create a chart that utilizes all of the wills produced by this family in the 1500s  and me trying to put it all together remembering the thoughts of my grandfather with regard to Nicholas. Amazing really to be in this position. What I really need is to have all the subsidies in front of me and must consider how to acquire those for this study. I can move on just another couple of generations or less and feel on very concrete ground with the records that exist and are in my collection. But I will struggle a bit with these early records to see what I can come up with for a beginning of the genealogical table. 

The Blake family is certainly an interesting one at Andover and tomorrow I must again review The Hampshire Lay Subsidy Rolls 1586 produced by the Hampshire County Council in 1981 which I managed to acquire on one of our trips to Andover, Hampshire, England. There are a number of Blake families likely related in the Andover area. There is the red herring thrown in to all of this by the Emigrants Database 1330-1550 which I mentioned a day or so ago and has a Richard Blake arriving at Salisbury, Dorset in the 1400s. That along with my brother's yDNA match with someone from Dublin in 2008 has proven to be a most interesting detail. And of course his surname was also Blake!

Back to sleep as the mind is now empty once again prepared for another day and it is Labour Day in Canada and also cleaning day and I will do the top floor. 

Thank you God for all that you do for the world. I was always glad that Edward and I started our travels to the British Isles and Europe in 2008 because his appetite to travel back and forth to Europe grew by leaps and bounds over the next decade and he got to see everything he ever really wanted to see except for the trips to Germany and The Netherlands which were pretty much cancelled by COVID.  It was truly amazing how much we did see and I remain amazed at the distances in Europe/British Isles compared to the northern Western Hemisphere which is so much larger and greater distances. One can understand why the overflow from Europe in the 1500s on led to so much immigration by northern European/British Isles to the Western Hemisphere. The explosion of people coming north now from the African Continent is an expression perhaps of the land becoming less usable and the people too many to be supported by it. But the people per square kilometre in Europe is so much greater than the same here in North America. But Canada is less appealing because of the northern weather which of course has always kept the Scandinavian Peninsula much less populated than Europe itself and the British Isles. 

Enough thinking in the night and back to bed. Goodnight world.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

To whom was Robert Blake married?

 Years ago now when I first started to do genealogy at the National Institute (2003) one of our courses had us find information on our ancestors as far back as we could in a systematic fashion. Since all of my known lines are from the British Isles with the exception of the Question family of Dunster which is said to be Huguenot arriving in the Dunster area in the early part of the 1500s or the late 1400s this worked very well for me as I was studying English records (namely records of those counties known as England in the British Isles). This data appears to follow logically from the first couple found namely William Question and Susan Millet. The Question surname was perhaps Cuestion in France - I have not yet determined that and for the Blake book I do not need to know that so it will wait for that exploratory work. Interesting though that our daughters have Huguenot ancestry from both Edward and I with his being much closer to the present and we visited Ile de Re (off the coast of France) where the many lines of Huguenots from which they descend lived and they came to Staten Island, New York in the early 1700s. In Edward's case his great grandmother was Hannah Catherine Parlee descendant of those many Huguenot lines (Perlier, Arnaud, Rezeau, Coursier, Gallihaut, Neau and others). 

But given that all of my ancestry is from the British Isles primarily the counties of England and amazingly I can trace back into a goodly number (Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Surrey, London, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Cumberland, East Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Shropshire) but back just three generations I am looking at Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset on my father's side (he was born in Hampshire) and Devon, Somerset, Warwickshire on my mother's side (she was born in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada). Three of my four grandparents were born and raised to adulthood in England and the fourth my Grandfather Pincombe was also born in Middlesex County as was his mother (her parents were born in East Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland) and his father was born in Devon. My footprint in Canada is a small one - first generation Canadian on my father's side (I was born in Canada before 1st of January 1947 so grandfathered to Canadian citizenship by the act) and fourth generation on my mother's side. Should be straightforward I thought as I delved into the records and fortunately at that same time we were traveling to the British Isles and Europe (my husband and I). His interest primarily Europe and mine British Isles but he also had Dissenters from the British Isles which meant looking back a long way in British records. And we did do that spending hours at Kew and I was able to put together a reasonable tree based on all of those original records but I did have a few gaps and my latin was pretty rough but gradually it is improving although at 81 my memory may be the weak point recalling items that I considered and thought about ten to twenty years ago now. The good thing is that I blogged it all and can search my own blog to see what my thoughts were at different times. 

My other British Isles ancestry comes from the Routledge/Tweddle/Robson and in particular the Oakshaw Routledge family from which both of my 3x great grandparents (Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth Routledge) were descended (they were Highland Scot who left Scotland quickly (interesting story I have related before)) and settled in the Border Regions of England. The DNA identifies Irish in the lines of three out of five siblings including mine. Mine from Eire and the other two from Northern Ireland but these lines are unknown to me other than they are probably Ellen Taylor who married Edwin Denner Buller in 1885 (marriage not yet located) and was said to be Irish in the past. A mystery which I will have a look at after the Blake and Pincombe books. 

 I have now settled on the first generation of Blake namely Robert Blake with his wife unknown, he does not name her in his will. He names two sons Thomas and Richard with Richard being the elder and reading through the writing of the will one is definitely left with the impression that Thomas is much younger than Richard. Richard leaves his will in 1522 and dated 12 Apr 1522 and probated 23 May 1522. I have continued using AI and it has been very thought provoking. I had thought that Robert Blake in Richard's will was his son but within the will he says that Robert Blake is the first signer on the indenture so are there two Robert Blake males of adult age in 1522 in Enham? I went through this interesting conundrum with William Blake who left his will in 1582 and is claimed by two Blake family lines (Calne and Andover) earlier so will look at this carefully as a thought although I ended up deciding that there was only one William Blake living at Eastontown who left his will in 1582.  So moving on to the second generation is going to be interesting. I already know there is an Andrew Blake and a William Blake mentioned in Robert Blake's will (dated December 1521) so presumably contemporaries to him and I have already found interesting Blake lines in Berkshire that are known to the Andover Blake family. Well enough known to each other to discuss and own property together possibly by marriage. So, at this moment in time I have a Robert Blake (1st generation) with two sons Richard and Thomas. Richard Blake's will is probated in 1522 where he mentions his brother Thomas which was very obliging. So was the statement "Robert Blake primus mei nichi" in the will of Richard Blake telling the reader that Richard's father Robert is dead or that this is some one not related to him but the first signer on the indenture which they share. I am left with those two thoughts. The unique presence of the Blake family at Andover and the Blake family at Calne is that the distance between them is small relatively speaking; the Blake at Calne moves west to Gloucestershire, east towards Over Wallop near the Wiltshire/Hampshire border and south of Calne towards the English Channel through Wiltshire and Dorset. I need to find more lay subsidies for this 1300/1400/1500 period in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. 

So a lot of time on research and certainly a great conversation with the AI which has become quite experienced in genealogy so will be an interesting companion on this trek writing the Blake Book. Since the book will be under a Creative Commons License I do not have to worry about sharing my material to any extent with the AI but I gather that I need to put any government documents up on One Drive for security (need to understand this better) as I can not tell the AI to keep a document private with my own personal Microsoft 365 subscription. I think that the genealogical agencies need to think about how to manage AI within the system myself. It is a powerful tool and one that works very well although will always pull up information that exists and in this case some genealogists have these two generations formed in a way that I do not agree with so could get led astray with that. Mind you I will wait before I claim I am right for quite a while probably. I am not into that sort of thing; I will just publish the book and let people disagree with me!

Interesting that Richard says his mother is still alive in his will but Robert does not mention his wife in his will. Yet one is left with such a strong impression that this is a family group with Robert the father and Richard and Thomas the sons mentioned in both wills living at Enham. Robert in his will appears to imply that a Robert Blake will receive all of his goods moveable and immoveable and then in the very next sentence Robert states that Richard will receive the same and the executors (it is plural) will process his will. Richard does not name his wife still living other than wife, his mother still living other than mother and his children are unnamed. An interesting first and second generation one might say and then there is Nicholas Blake and my grandfather and father used to talk about Nicholas and that an American genealogist had it wrong; Nicholas Blake was a small farmer at Enham (son of Jone Blake (widow) and she left a will in 1527 but names her husband Mr Blake) and did not have a brother Humphrey Blake living at Plainfield, Somerset! Fascinating this story for sure. Why did it come up when you have a family (mine) living just south of Andover in the late 1890s? Nicholas left his will in 1547 but it is an unusual name in the Blake family - it does occur more than once but not common at all. So it stuck in this child's brain way back when I was just six, seven and eight because it was not a name I heard very often and when I started in to doing research on Blake there were papers discussing Horatio Gates Somerby's theft of Nicholas Blake's actual lineage giving him different parents and siblings (he did get to keep some of the ones he had but Humphrey Blake of Plainfield Somerset was added). Amazing perhaps that I have such a good memory but even more so that my grandfather repeated these stories time over time and gradually they just worked their way to the surface as I got into more and more into study on my lines. I spent hours and hours with my grandfather and listening to him talk about Upper Clatford and his family when I was a young child.   

 The  contrast between Tobit and Judith is huge; the first a story of love and the second a story of war. I have read the first 5 chapters of Judith and there are 16 chapters in total. I will continue with the next 5 or 6 chapters today. These two books are not in the King James Version (original and revised) of the Bible. The reading of the Bible is important to me and today is Sunday so also church today either here or in England. We will see. 

Up early, exercise is next and then breakfast followed by Solitaire puzzles.  

 

 

 

Tweaking the will of Robert Blake (16 Dec 1521)

 I  used Co-Pilot to review my transcription of the latin will of Robert Blake written 16 Dec 1521. One interesting change and I can see it now near the end of the will where Robert gives all of his goods moveable and immoveable to Robert Blake. I suspected this was his grandson (son of Richard) and when he writes the last part Robert clearly states 

 "Likewise I give and bequeath to Robert Blayke one cow and the residue of all my goods of my movable goods as well as my immovable property.  Likewise, I give and bequeath to my son Richard whom I appoint as my true executors so that he himself may dispose of for the salvation of my soul " 

Richard dies very soon after his father so Robert is protecting the inheritance by passing it primarily to his grandson but includes Robert's father Richard in that statement. Finally proof that Richard is likely the father of Robert Blake (it appears so but at no point does Robert in this will say that Robert is his grandson). Robert also identifies his younger son as Thomas. That certainly helps to clarify this generation at Andover. 

While I am producing the genealogical chart coming down from Robert (will dated 16 Dec 1521) I will also be checking other earlier records for Blake at Enham to see if I can link the John Blake of the early 1300s in this area with this Robert Blake.  It continues to be interesting that in the Emigrant Database 1330-1550 there is a Richard Blake arriving at Salisbury, Wiltshire 10 Jul 1440, if the same individual also 10 Aug 1441 at St Leonard, Gloucestershire and again in 7 Sep 1441 at Salisbury, Wiltshire and the database states that he (if all three are the same individual) is Irish. In 1521 Robert Blake leaving his will 16 Dec 1521 is elderly and he does name his eldest son Richard who has a son Robert probably over the age of 21 but this would still be a guess although Charlou Dolan's work on Robert's family line would tend to support this premise as well. Perhaps even more interesting in the light of modern research the yDNA of my Blake line had its first match in the Blake study with a tester living in Dublin, Ireland. Mind you many of the Blake lines in Ireland were from England including the Galway Blake family descendant of Richard Caddell from Wales who took on the surname Blake (this line well represented in the yDNA Blake study has a good group of matches all with ancestry back to Galway). 

This is an exciting time in genealogical research and having yDNA at our fingertips is such a gift and certainly I would not be so into it without that extra tool. Thank you to Bill Bleak for creating the yDNA Blake Study at FT DNA quite early with my inserting my brother into the study around 2008. 

Today I continue with my planned work including the genealogical table as well as working on the photo books to create a set of six to eight binders with family pictures. I am beginning with the pictures of Edward as a child as there are quite a few (mine tend to be electronic as I do not wish to keep originals and so my younger sister maintains that original set of documents where it is likely they will be available to family members since I do not live in the same area). I have a couple of me as a child that I will add to the appropriate binder. I am also collecting the pictures of Edward's nieces to send to them since he took pictures of them throughout much of our marriage and before that. 

Thinking on my non-categorized nervous disorder which I mentioned earlier and I could have added that initially it was thought to be multiple sclerosis. But I never completed all the testing and I suspect given my now age of 81 I did not have multiple sclerosis given my current level of health. The psychiatrist felt that my severe migraines (also considered to be a nervous disorder) had just worn me down at the time as I was doing a great deal having just given birth a few months earlier. So his conclusion that what I had to do was to rest when I was tired especially when I had a migraine and not push myself beyond the limits any more since I had had the breakdown. Interesting really. I have followed his advice all of these years.  Thank you very much to him although I know he is no longer working since he was older than I was at that time. The term nervous disorder is a catch-all I think until it is categorized but does include migraine headaches. I do not actually know if migraines are familial or just spontaneous in an individual. I have had mine as long as I can remember although they have certainly decreased remarkably since I had the cataract surgery - so an interesting happening for sure that may or may not have anything to do with the surgery. I really do not know. Basically my contact with the medical world for that surgery was practically nil. I went for the appointment to set up the surgery. I went for two surgeries and my conversations with the specialist were very short so I have no idea on that. There was no followup six weeks later after the surgery (it wasn't mentioned and getting places is not easy for me so I didn't push for anything like that since I was using a private clinic (I had my daughter to help me but I needed specific times and so it was on me to solve that problem for myself) although the operations were done in the local hospital). I simply went back to an optometrist and had a pair of glasses made to suit the time. Then a year later I had a pair made for reading only as I rather liked not wearing glasses anymore except for up close work. One never knows the future of course but I am enjoying not wearing glasses except for bugs flying into your eyes which I never experienced until after cataract surgery - it is a rare occasion though in actual fact and not enough for me to give up the freedom of no glasses having worn them since I was one year of age!

It continues to amaze me to see the detail in the world that I missed all of those years; no regrets for sure but amazing in one's old age to have all these distractions particularly paintings which have so much detail - it does provide a great deal of amusement one might say in my old age.  

Breakfast time. I am early writing my blog but the thoughts were in my brain and so I spilled them out onto my blog and now time to eat.  

 

 

The Book of Tobit

 The Book of Tobit and I do not remember this story. It is a story of God's love and protection; a beautiful story and I will complete the reading tomorrow. I am finding that it is good to read all of these stories passed down through the ages. 

The genealogical accounts seem to fit into my life these days as I continue my genealogical trace down of the Blake family of Andover. My grandfather knew all of his ancestral line but I only retained the newest part from Joseph down to the present (except for a jumble of names which included Nicholas, William, Thomas, John and Richard). Joseph was baptized in 21 Oct 1730 at St Mary Andover the son of Thomas Blake and Ann (Carter) Blake who had married 8 Dec 1728 at Holy Trinity Church Penton Mewsey. Thomas was baptized 4 May 1709 at St Mary Andover the son of Thomas Blake and Mary (Spring) Blake and they had married 6 Nov 1708 at St Mary Andover. Thomas Blake was baptized 21 Feb 1685 at St Mary Andover the son of John Blake and Elizabeth (unknown) Blake and their marriage details are unknown. Eleven children were baptized to this couple at St Mary Andover (and five of these were buried there as infants or young children). The baptism for John Blake was written into the Parish Register at St Mary Andover 10 May 1649 likely by his father William Blake (married to Ann Hellier 5 Sep 1644 at St Mary Andover). There were three entries made by likely the same individual William during the time when only non-secular records of birth were supposed to be maintained when Cromwell was in power. The Blake line continues back to the beginning of the Parish Registers at St Mary Andover in 1588 for the Baptisms. The will of William Blake in 1582 lists all of his children as does the will of Richard Blake his son thus giving a list of the children of these two Blake lines at Eastontown and Andover. The same is true of the other Blake lines and all will be entered into the genealogical charting in Legacy.

Yesterday the top floor all cleaned as well as the vacuuming of the basement since the dog hair is everywhere and now nowhere hopefully. Today it is the basement to clean and I will soon start the robot cleaning the rugs. 

I hope to get a little work done on my research today and will see how that goes. Still avoiding the news somewhat. and it will likely stay that way as I inch further and further into my 80s. I did say when I was 70 and mapping out my likely time working away on my family genealogy that I would see myself slowly pulling away from genealogy as I hit my 80s but then I was also thinking of my husband and I spending more time walking and watching television and traveling still. But life did change that as did COVID and instead of spending time with my husband in my 80s as he was gradually pulling away from his intensive concentration on genealogy I will remain with that and try to get all of his work organized and off to cousins who are researching. It is a possibility that our older daughter in the years ahead (maybe ten or twenty) will pick up the threads of the DNA work as it is quite fascinating where that is going and she has all the skill sets to do that sort of work along with everything else that she does. 

Next week I begin my one hour a day on the lawns throughout September and into October to get that all ready for winter. Never a dull moment for sure. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

Finally decided to drive to the grocery store and took my time carefully proceeding along my usual path and except for a lot of parked vehicles it was a smooth drive. Going past this set of three vehicles parked I went about 5 km per hour and passed a few people walking perhaps back from the store. Then I always drive back along the main road. I suppose I could do that both ways but have got into that habit of taking the side roads over and the main road back. But no children in sight on motor bikes thank goodness. It was fine the other day and I can see now as you approach that three way intersection that the turn at the main road is visible but blocked by visuals somewhat so very necessary to maintain extra caution there. But now that school is in it will be somewhat rarer to see a child on a motorbike on the street.  

Matches completed

Matches all completed and moving on to the genealogical tables although I have quite a bit of work to do now on the phasing of my great grandparents as well. The project to work on Edward's grandparents is still in the beginning stages and I will work on that gradually. Although I would like very much to move I still have far too much material. Edward's boxes still number 30 Banker Boxes and finding time to do everything seems to be very difficult. I want to do a proper job of managing Edward's paperwork. He did give me a lot of instructions for some of it but not all. So I am winging it quite a bit although his cousins have been very helpful. He was just into so many of his lines and acquired so much material. 

The Archives at Chilliwack are still on my mind as I told them I would send them the newsletters that I have written and I still need to do that. 

 I need to pull all of Edward's niece's pictures and get them into a package in the next month or so. But fourty binders is still a lot of pictures. So I need to organize that as I move through them. Then I am also writing two books for my parent's families (Blake and Pincombe). I think this winter though I am organized enough that I can accomplish even more than last year. I can see that the three years that I will probably still remain here might let me accomplish all of this work. I would dearly love to move but it is impractical. 

I am really happy when the children are back in school as I am more comfortable with driving to the store. I can go slowly and the streets are all 40 km per hour which is great. I think I will give up wearing my one pair of sunglasses driving though as they seem to be darker than my other pair; I do have a pair that are brighter. I really never found it a problem until the other day. However, everything worked out but one wants to be so careful.

Very very few people come to the door now which really suits me; none is even better unless they are my relatives. I just go to the window and suggest they put their flyer into the mailbox or just shake my head to say I am not coming to the door. I think I will put my note on the door that I am busy working. I do not buy anything at the door and really can not help anyone. There are other people around me who are home and much younger than I am. Funny to finally be too old rather than too young as I was so many years of my life.

I did finally listen to some of the televised information on the trade talks. I am so in favour of diversifying our trade but that doesn't mean that I am against some sort of a trade deal with the United States. It means a lot to many many States and it means a lot to our Provinces and Territories. But we have proven ourselves through this past century and need to just work on what we can do. I marvel at the bravery of the Canadians throughout 1939 to early 1942 when we were all alone on the North Atlantic going back and forth day after day ferrying food and supplies to the British Isles and bringing back the children to protect them from the war. It was a hard life I think and cost us a great deal of money; I entered it just after the war so grew up in the shadow of that great contribution that Canada made and we continue to do what we can do to support our allies in the protection of our lands and oceans. Our country borders on three oceans with the longest oceanic coastline in the world. 

I do want the shovels in the ground for the pipeline to the west coast sooner rather than later. The eastern pipeline to Ontario and Quebec is needed as well but time will tell. I wonder sometimes about mining the oil in Venezuela after that last earthquake (that seems to be on people's mind with the latest announcement). Sometimes the land will yield up its goodness other times it fights back. Hard to say; I am not an expert. Canada, the land of my birth, my upbringing and my adulthood and I do love Canada very much. When I have given up my time freely particularly in the service of God  I am happy to do so. But God does not make huge demands on us just two - love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love (respect really is the meaning I think) our neighbour as ourself. Then peace can be there for the entire world and that Utopia so many seek will be here on earth as we await the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not seek Utopia but rather my quiet life where I can just write to my heart's content. 

Reading Nehemiah and all of his work on the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. This has been a fascinating trip through time reading the Bible in my old age. I am quite exhausted from the summer and look forward to a quiet fall. I am not one to seek medical aid particularly because the psychiatrist did tell me what I had to do to stay well. I will be doing that over the next month or so as I recuperate from a summer full. 

Woke up with a headache as my mind is too active at the moment. Need to take it easy for a bit and recuperate. Off to bed again and to sleep. 

Solitaire puzzles in the morning when I awake. Thank you God for all that you do. 

Dear Father hear and bless Thy beasts and singing birds.  And guard with tenderness small things that have no words. Bless my grandparents, my parents, my siblings and my husband who have proceeded me in this life. Bless all those that I love and all who dwell in Your lands and protect them from the evil of the world. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Goodnight once again.