Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible

I think perhaps I was trying to read too much into the Book of Judges. When I read the Concordance summary of Judges it tells me that the historical content of the Book is the most important. It related the time between the conquest of Canaan and the foundation of the monarchy. Moving on to the Book of Ruth which is one of my favourite books of the Bible. This also continues the historical narrative between the conquest of Canaan and the foundation of the Monarchy as Ruth's son Obed was the father of Jesse who was the father of David. The story of Ruth has resounded through the ages as she supported her widowed mother in law left without her two sons and no grandchildren, Ruth being widowed as a young woman. She was a Moabite so not Jewish but she became the grandmother of David. Tomorrow I begin 1 Samuel. 

Worked on the matches that are new yesterday and a couple of interesting ones. Two in particular were X-chromosome matches taking my one brother and myself back to Sarah (Cheatle) Welch who was baptized in 1795 at Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. This is the Buller line (males only have 1X chromosome and it comes from our mother) and I have a number of strong known Buller matches that support this particular length and I now have a longer one than I had earlier in this area. I can see the Buller lengths in the X chromosome of my four siblings and myself and fairly readily separate this entire set of X chromosomes from my mother into Buller/Welch from her mother and Gray from her father which takes me back in the paternal line of her father to my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge, her daughter Elizabeth Mary Ann (Routledge) Gray and her daughter Grace (Gray) Pincombe (this was a blended Gray-Routledge X Chromosome). This X chromosome had been passed from Grace to her son John Routledge Pincombe and intact to my mother Helen Louise (Pincombe) Blake. My one brother received his singleton X chromosome from my mother  all Buller (Buller from our maternal grandmother who received it from her father Edwin Denner Buller which was intact from his mother Sarah (Cheatle) Welch) whereas my maternal X chromosome from my mother was 2/3rds Buller and 1/3rd Gray. Interesting to have this much data very often. 

The main floor is all cleaned now and just the basement to do but will do that tomorrow. Today is a work day and looking forward to that sort of pause in the cleaning week. 

Exercises finished a while ago now with a cardio load of 35 and already this week I have completed 38% of the amount of cardio that the AI decided to set me up with and I thought it was too much but last week I actually did 99% of it. AI also placed my amount of sleep desired at 8 hours instead of my usual and preferred 7 hours. I think 7 hours is enough myself however I am no longer using the AI Coach routine (part of the free six month package that came with the FitBit) as I found it to be interesting but not something I had time to stop and look at. I do like the FitBit though and certainly the AI has good ideas if one is looking for that. 

We continue on our path to become a global energy power and diversify our trade so that it is not concentrated going to one country mostly although we do trade with Mexico as well within that deal and we are increasing trade with them as well. Trade is gradually reducing with our neighbour to the south and now down to 70%. Ideally I think we could try for 50% as that would then supply the needed items from us according to the American Ambassador to Canada. Then the other 50% would be around the world and in return we would buy interesting items that we have heard about but we weren't seeing them on our grocery shelves/store shelves. We do need to protect our dairy though as we have lost so many of our industries to the United States during Free Trade (mostly closed down but some were bought up and transferred to the United States (they took them offshore from the United States to Asia and caused a problem with their economy) but definitely we do not want to lose our very good farms. Also we need to make more money to help with our fires caused by Climate Change as that is the big driver of all these fires primarily set by lightning. Since we are not one of the large polluters in terms of Climate Change and we continue being careful to use carbon collection as much as is possible.  Our youth could bring back a lot of those industries like small motor type products and even a home grown car industry might be interesting but we do like the American cars. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

The weather took a nosedive in temperature

Woke up in the night and it is 8 degrees celsius after temperatures in the high 20s but it is still May and the weather can be cool sometimes but I think the changes are much greater from highs to lows than in my youth. The weather is not as predictable and a low of 2 degrees celsius is predicted. However the house is still at 24 degrees celsius so will leave the system as it is (air conditioning is on but the temperature in the house is unlikely to go below 23 or 22 by morning). Always nice to have some cooling for sure after a warm spell.  

It was good that the Prime Minister met with the Premier of British Columbia. They needed to chat about items for sure as Alberta has been dominating the news for a few weeks but the pipeline is starting to feel real and it will be a good boost for Canada and help with this retreading of our economy as it grows around the world and less dependent upon our neighbour the United States.  But still it benefits both of us to trade with our closest friend and neighbour as it is an easy transport from one to the other. 

But I do like to see us standing on our own and in unison with the First Nations. Our path forward is together into the future the First Nations and the people of Canada - the best will happen to Canada with such a partnership. 

Back to bed; woke up for a bit but sleepy again. It will soon be dawn as the sun rises early in the late spring as we work our way towards the longest day. 

Will likely add to this when I wake later. No work done yesterday but hopefully some today as this is the first research day following the cleaning.  

A beautiful sunny day has erupted and that is great. The trees are pretty much in full leaf now although the tree at the front is the slowest. I am checking it for dead branches and will have a company come and trim them out once the tree is fully open. The maple tree at the back looks great and I think all the dead wood fell off in the winter as I hauled great amounts to the front to break them up and put them out for recycling. Since the bags were at least 30 pounds and two went out that was a lot of wood plus the long thick lengths that I had cleaned off went as well. I do not need big walking sticks which is something they are good for as I recall Edward making several good stout ones for all the walking that we did in our youth. 

Today finish off the seven matches still to do and then get to work on that great grandparent phasing table. It will be interesting. I have now purchased Microsoft 365 and will use copilot to work on this file in coordination with the matches file which contains a couple of thousand individual excel files that have matches in common entered into their individual files. We will see the power of AI at work saving me hours of time comparing different matches and sorting out some of the ones that have not yet broken into the great grandparent lines of Blake, Knight, Cotterill (and I may have narrowed this down actually we will see), Rawlings, Pincombe, Gray, Buller, Taylor. The fun begins so to speak but actually the logical path back in these eight lines all of whom appear on the British Census of the 1800s except for Grace Gray who was my first Canadian born ancestor in 1839 (her parents Robert Gray of Holme on the Wold, East Riding of Yorkshire and Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge of Bewcastle, Cumberland. Margaret Routledge (Elizabeth Mary Ann's oldest sister) married  Thomas Carling in London Township in 1820 and they were the parents of Sir John Carling (Grace Gray's first cousin) who was the Minister of Agriculture amongst other duties during his political career in Canada. Amazingly really to have so few Canadian born ancestors (Grace's son John Robert Pincombe and his daughter Helen Louise (Pincombe) Blake  (my mother)). Working on the great grandparents in terms of relationships gives me greater depth into the past as I work on my books in this case it is the Blake and Pincombe books but time may be mine and permit me to also do the Buller book of my maternal grandmother and the Rawlings book of my paternal grandmother. It is unlikely that I would ever do a Taylor book (wife of Buller) or the Cotterill book (father of my paternal grandmother). But I would continue moving backwards in time selecting two books at a time and working away on them so long as that is practical for me. 

Exercises completed and breakfast eaten so moving on to the Solitaire Puzzles as this is a mixed up day because I had a lovely walk in the middle of the night when I woke up and wrote the first part of this blog for the day.  

 

Busy day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surprise snowfall overnight

I missed the weather report that said snow and woke up today hearing the laneway being cleared by the company and realizing my black box was not far enough away although it was on the grass next door as I am hoping to get it emptied this week. Went out and moved it and cleaned out the snow and added some more so that it is about 3/4s full now. When the newspaper was delivered we didn't have any problem filling it but that is a long time ago. 

Just the sidewalks to clear and they will be around later to do that. This is southwestern Ontario snow as I call it; moist and great for making snowmen not our usual dry snow that does pack well on a hot sunny day but otherwise is pretty light and devoid of a lot of moisture. The trees all have a dusting of snow and look quite beautiful through the window of my workroom. Winter is lovely; I do love winter the best but a lot of the reason is all that solitude and time to work. Edward did not enjoy the solitude as much as I did and was out and about doing all his projects with me accompanying when he asked. He was so involved in so many things especially when he retired. For him, I think, being retired was sleeping in which he loved to do. That and just all that time to do anything that he wanted to do and his genealogical endeavours paid off big time for him in terms of unknown family to him but so well known to the world - Roger Williams, Hannah (Peak) Bowne, even the Royal Governor of Massachusetts and so many others. 

It was incredible that so much was lost. He found it amazing that I knew all of my ancestral stories but my first ancestor did not arrive here until 1818 and it was Thomas Routledge and his wife Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge with their eight children, son in law and several grand children. They were joined in 1832 (still proving) by Robert Gray who married their daughter Mary Elizabeth Ann Routledge in 1835 at St Paul's now St Paul's Cathedral in London, Ontario. Unknown to each other but they did come from neighbouring counties sort of (Routledge from Bewcastle, Cumberland and Gray from Holme on the Wolds, East Riding of Yorkshire). Their daughter Grace Gray (my first born Canadian ancestor)  married the next new arrival in my family line namely William Robert Pincombe from Molland, Devon who was one of the children of John Pincombe (Bishops Nympton, Devon) and Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe (Bratton near Minehead, Somerset). The only surviving child of Grace and William Robert was my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe and my second born Canadian ancestor. John married Ellen Rosina (Buller) Pincombe (Birmingham, Warwickshire) who had arrived in Canada in 1908 and their daughter Helen Louise (Pincombe) Blake was my third born Canadian ancestor. My father arrived in 1913 with his parents Samuel George Blake (Upper Clatford, Hampshire) and Edith Bessie (Taylor) Blake  (Kimpton, Hampshire, aka Ada Bessie Cotteril (Rawlings) Blake). So I am fourth generation Canadian on my mother's side and first generation Canadian on my father's side. Since I was born before 1 Jan 1947 I was initially a British Subject but grandfathered to Canadian Citizen as I was born here in Ontario, Canada and hence forever more a Canadian citizen no longer a British Subject. I did find that fascinating as a child. Probably many times a year as a child those emigration stories were talked about and all the names were familiar to me. 

But life was different for Edward's families in those days in the 1600s/1700s and a lot of time was just spent surviving I suspect so that the stories simply did not pass down through the families. Well educated many of Edward's ancestors were but they had to turn to the plow to grow food for their very existence and that was hard tiring work so that at the end of the day there just perhaps wasn't time to talk about life as it had been. The Dissenters paid a huge price for their dissent for sure but the gain was huge and my husband would have been celebrated by his ancestors I am sure as he made the kind of accomplishments made generations earlier by his ancestors in learning. His first ancestors arrived from Amsterdam to New Amsterdam now New York in the early 1600s so his first footpaths on this Western Hemisphere were his Dutch and French (Huguenot - it appears that dissenters attract each other) ancestors followed quickly by his German (Palatines and in a way they too were dissenters) and Swedish ancestors with his small number in actual fact of English ancestors (all dissenters initially) arriving between the 1630s and the 1660s primarily and to Massachusetts for the most part. Edward certainly had his own opinions and the genes were definitely there for that. 

A trip down memory lane does work very well to get the brain moving in the morning. It reminds me why I am doing all of this work - my mother wanted to write a book about her Pincombe family and my grandfather a book about his Blake family and so here I am in 2026 writing the books. My memory serves me well very often and both of these individuals (my mother and my paternal grandfather) repeated themselves many many times. In a family of seven children that is not surprising that repetition would be a pretty constant item on the menu. 

For myself I look back and I think why would they choose only Pincombe or Blake and of course it was the name that they were born with and so their thoughts centered on that surname. My mother also remembered the surnames of her grandparents and great grandparents but also included in that mass of data were family lore which I still investigate when paperwork becomes available that I have not seen but family lore does not always lead you to the correct place but then these stories were repeated to her and sometimes the repetition doesn't always follow exactly the same line of thought I have discovered. The intent though is interesting and I do like to not miss any possible leads when I am missing information. So I search those brain cells of mine for any tidbits that sit there dormant for sixty or seventy years or more and pull them out and look at them. I have a very lucky memory it appears as just little bits of conversation (tagged in a way by the manner in which my brain works where particular words cause a flood of memory). Yesterday I started writing once again in the Pincombe book and will continue with that today along with working on my lovely new file as I input the new information, if I do as I am being very selective. Mostly I am looking for anything that could upset the apple cart which is important for me to find that now rather than later!

Tea all drank and time to do the solitaire puzzles to really wake up that brain. The laneway is cleared and now the snow shovellers have come and gone and the path out is clear once again although I am not going anywhere. It is Saturday and I prefer not to be on the roads on the weekend. I stick to school times for my outings as there is very little traffic especially walking traffic!

 

 

And another Tuesday also a working day

Yesterday the basement cleaning went very well and was accomplished in good time. I even had a 25 minute run before lunch. This is just running around my indoor track so to speak (I have created it with so much furniture gone now). I can see why people did not always have so much furniture in years gone by - the space is wonderful. I did grow up in a house that was post-bankrupt when money was tight but my father had time to read to us which was lovely (that was after my grandfather died I think). I used to read to my grandfather and he loved that. I can not really remember if he read to me perhaps he did but the memory is lost to time. But  he loved it when I read to him. But mostly he liked to talk and tell me all about Upper Clatford (and other places in England that he had been in but mostly he talked about Upper Clatford and not Eastleigh where my father was born). Sometimes he talked about Eastleigh but not a lot. 

I have completed the R's now in the matches and into the S's and there are perhaps 34 matches left to do. I am just guessing because I did not count them and there is just one page of matches to go so about right. It may take the two days though that are ahead of me for cleaning. Today is the main floor and I will not run today. It is more work to do the main floor because I do the vacuuming, the scrubbing and the dusting. It takes about three hours or slightly more in total. But it is finished when it is finished. 

My fingers are itching to get at the file now to sort it to suit myself and see how many great grandparents I can successfully pull out of it. I know that Gray and Knight are fairly clear and if it isn't Gray or Knight then it is Pincombe or Blake but it has to be definitive to make that call. The Buller is sticking out not too badly as well and again the same justification if it isn't Buller then it is Taylor. Rawlings I have quite a few matches and if it isn't Rawlings then it is my Grandmother's father said to be George Cotterill but I remain on the sidelines on that one. I will simply have separated out that individual where it is possible and await a good match to really determine that. It may not be in my lifetime. 

The Olympics is going very well with lots of winners. I like that actually when many countries win a medal. It is a powerful message for the athlete to take home to the people in their country (any medal is a powerful message).  Sixth four percent of the medals have been awarded so still quite a bit to go. Twenty six countries have won at least one medal. A lot of cheering when the athletes come home even if they did not win they competed and that is the most important part I think. I used to sit and watch for the entire time period but life is busy and I do want to get the books written and so I just check in every once in a while when I am doing my ten to fifteen minute walk every hour. The FitBit buzzes me to tell me if I have not yet done my 250 steps for the hour and up I get and do the 250 for that hour and the 250 for the next hour except I notice generally that I have been sitting a long time and so up I get and often I do do the 250 at the beginning of the hour! Exercise is wonderful especially for the young but the old benefit too. As I look around me I think anyone under 55 is still young  really. Then I see 56 to 75/79 as middle age and old is definitely hitting 80. Somehow you feel the difference. Perhaps it is the necessity of redoing the driver's license although it was just the eye test after all that brings the age of 80 home to you. 

 The Buller family is huge I am discovering and a lot of that hugeness is actually in a cousin family not my Buller line. One might say that the Welch family is huge (Henry Christopher Buller married Ann Welch and she had a twin sister who like her sister Ann had a very large family (between them twenty four children)). The number of grandchildren was huge and it continued through the generations as I have so many cousins who match me on this Buller line of mine and for them it is a different surname but we all share the Welch (but William Welch and Sarah Cheatle (our most recent common ancestor were my 3x great grandparents and so are not in that level where I am separating out the eight members (namely the great grandparents of whom there are eight). The Taylor line (Edwin Denner Buller married Ellen Taylor) is considerably smaller which is a surprise although it appears to have this huge Irish branch so still working on that but it is likely the Irish portion that is found in all of my siblings including myself. The only confusing part in that is my portion tends to be from the Irish Republic (Eire) and their portion from Northern Ireland. All in how you inherit the DNA and I am the most different from all of them - if there is a place to differ than I do although I also have the usual amount shared although it is on the lower side rather than being strongly related to each other. 

Time moves onward and my tea cup is empty and I need to do my Solitaire Puzzles. Had a great time playing Sudoku last evening with I think four of five games. Sometimes I do that. I love the thought process; it completely occupies the brain as you look from square to square and length to length to find that one item that will unlock all of those numbers and there you with a complete nine square Sudoku neatly arranged and finished. No flashing of light but I still miss doing my sixteen games of Spider every week. I did it from its inception as a new challenge until I stopped. I hope to return to it one day when my eyes have adjusted to sparkling. One never knows. Breakfast and then cleaning follows. Generally I begin around nine o'clock.  

I had a request for Rathbun/Rathburn information the other day from one of Edward's likely cousins in the United States but we did not go to the graveyards in Pennsylvania (that was planned but did not happen as COVID did) and I could not answer her question. It is sad to write that Edward has passed away; that sadness remains as I did really want him to be 90 like he wanted to be. It is not a morbid sadness he would not want that but rather a genuine sense that he had missed out on turning 90.  I wrote and thanked her for her kindness in her note back when I let her know that Edward had passed and I did not have an answer. 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tea all drank and time to do my solitaire puzzles.  

 

 

Chromosome 3 completed

 A whirlwind day and the completion of Chromosome 3 made it a successful day. Plus I realized that I had finally thought through a methodology that would work for the photo albums. I will work with the indexes and create a full index of all the family photos and then create the photo books. The hard copy pictures that are not in the photo albums (7 or 8) will be shredded. That will be thousands of pictures I think. There are so many but remaining is a fully scanned set of pictures by date that fits into the indexes and the original slides prior to the digital cameras. It does sound much easier for me to take on except the eye work will be heavy but I can work away at that in batches not quite so long as working on the photo albums which are more of a physical work job plus mental it would appear. 

So today I begin Chromosome 2 and it has 116 matches with 20 known cousins. These cousins relate to my great grandparent lines with two Rawlings,  four Buller, four Pincombe, two Gray, four Knight and four Blake. I do not have any known Cotterill or Taylor lines. The spread is excellent across the chromosome with just a few breaks where it is unknown. That doesn't mean it will be fast because I will be downloading Relatives in common, Matches shared etc depending on the nomenclature of the various databases. 

I am deciding when I will begin the extraction of Edward's matches from the various databases using the same methodology as I have used. I did collect more information which at the time seemed superfluous but in the long run was a good idea. It will be a large task although I already extracted them into a list for Edward which I can use as a reference point to aid me along the path. 

 Sunday again and it is hard to believe how fast the weeks pass. I have my chicken all ready to make my chicken stew and that sounds delicious. Generally I eat chicken for four days and then fish or eggs for three days. It works well and my expenditure of time on planning meals is very short. My grocery list is ready for the next trip to the store but I want to scrub my refrigerator first this time. I like to clean it in the winter when it is less full. Although I wipe any spills when they happen generally but getting out the shelves and drawers really lets me give it a good cleaning. 

Church later this morning and I do enjoy going to Church very much online. I wonder sometimes if I ever will go back to in house worship and time will tell. We are meant to gather as Christians in our Churches and celebrate the gifts of God. It is  my constant omission for quite a while now (since before COVID for sure). Edward loved the music of the choirs and the organ at my Church although he did prefer his own United Church but certainly the draw of the music and the organ was very strong for him. 

Parliament back in and will watch Question Period next week. It is a time of hard work here in Canada as we work to make ourselves Tariff Proof. It is coming along but lots more to do. We need good jobs for our young people and I am hoping that they leap into creating new companies within Canada to make items like vacuum cleaners and other small appliances that we no longer make here. There are lots of new ideas on how to create and make things and it is the youth that will do that. What they see on their video games they need to now create in real life. They can do it; they are clever and well educated - creative thinking is what is needed to create items that exist digitally but give them that extra creativity to make them better, quieter, more efficient and Canadian. Go Canada Go. 

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles are next to wake up the brain.  

A good working day on Chromosome 3

 This chromosome will take a couple of days more likely because I had to repair a difficulty with it when I re-phased the grandparents DNA. Still a couple of the matches needed a deeper look at them before I could assign them and I am collecting Relatives in common this time as I work my way through. I am about one third of the way working on the F's. 

A lot happening with the Conservative Convention but I have not re-established my membership in the Conservative Party. I generally vote Conservative but I decided long ago that I would not be a member of a political party anymore. 

The meeting with the Prime Minister and the Premiers was most interesting and everyone on the same page these days for the most part. We need to grow Canada for the generations to follow in a way that is sustainable and not influenced by the changes in administration in other countries. Self-sufficient we actually are so long as we do not mind eating stored vegetables all winter once the fresh run out type of thing but our greenhouses are also doing a good job of giving us some fresh vegetable. But I leave all of that up to the leaders; my musing is just thinking out loud to myself. There are much more able people than me running the government. 

I think today will be the day that I get back to working on the photo albums. Perhaps try to do an hour here and an hour there just to get back into it. I did find it to be somewhat disturbing taking apart something created that covered the life of my husband pretty much from the earliest times of his life but mostly from the time that we knew each other until he passed away. He scanned all of the pictures and they are all in files so he probably realized that as time passed the binders would decrease. I just had to accept that and I have. Phasing  his grandparents will be a nice addition to the work that he did on his lines. 

Although I thought I had looked at all of these matches when I rephased the grandparents I rather think that I just passed through some of them since they were not of value to me. This time every file is being carefully examined for extra details to assist in phasing the great grandparents. So I am finding some interesting items that I missed the first time through not that they alter the grandparents; they do not that was why I passed them by but they do have a role to play with the great grandparents. Mostly I have collected 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins so looking back to 3x great grandparents at the limit but some of these were 5th and 6th cousins and even further on occasion when endogamy influences the matching. These are definitely the matches I want to regard carefully because they will help to separate Buller from Taylor and Rawlings from Cotterill, even Pincombe from Gray (and as I have learned this especially is showing up in this chromosome where the known Pincombe occupies perhaps half of the total but now I can see the Gray (and Routledge) match extending backward through time where I hadn't really noticed it before). Separating Blake and Knight is generally straightforward as I have many many matches but still some are still in the unsure column. 

Today streaks of cloud in the sky and it is minus 21 degrees celsius and another cold day promised. We have been in the deep freeze now into the second week. Generally it last several weeks to a month but it has been a couple of years since we experienced it. All in how the systems move about and right now the polar vortex is being dragged down from the high Arctic into Canada and parts of the United States. But the snowfalls have been excellent and generally when it is so cold not so much snow. So that has been a bonus this cold spell to help fill up the lakes and rivers with good fresh water. 

I think when people trade with us they do see us as a source of fresh water for the future as Climate Change dominates the landscape of the world around us. Climate Change has occurred many times in the past and because records do not exist that far back we do not know if it was because of very very active volcanic eruptions which we are now duplicating with our industrial output or wildfire which cleans out the forest and is needed for some plants to regenerate. So Climate Change is real in archaeological records but the cause of it not known to us other than in our own generation. Looking into the very deep past may help us with our quest to handle Climate Change. 

Collection Day and it is the large collection day which includes garbage. I am putting out one sole white plastic bag which is perhaps one third full in a large green bag. I would like to just put out the white plastic bag but I think it has to be in a green bag for them to take it (I tried it and it was left). Perhaps there will be a change now with so much more being recycled (flexible plastic like bags and freezer containers, etc used to dominate my garbage can but not any more with the new pickup rules). Either that or make smaller green bags perhaps; we will see how that flows. But it has taken me six weeks to collect up one third of a bag so amazing really when you think about it. All the rest is recycling except for the power tool from my old vacuum which I had forgotten to place out until now. That is the end of the old vacuum. The ShopVac is doing a great job whilst I wait for vacuums to be made in Canada once again. Since I am 80 it probably doesn't matter what I do others will do differently I am sure.

Drinking my tea and about to do the solitaire puzzles. Yesterdays most difficult one was a challenge you really had to watch very carefully every single solitary move. It is fun to be challenged with these puzzles first thing getting my brain warmed up for work for the day. One hour of exercise also already done and a snack to tide me over until I eat my breakfast.  

Another successful cleaning day

 Day two finished for cleaning this week and today it is the basement. The robot will soon do its task of vacuuming the rugs. Another beautiful day in God's world. It is minus 23 degrees celsius with a beautiful golden sun rising in the east. Day is actually predicted to reach minus nine degrees celsius so we will see if there is a slight warming trend coming to the Ottawa Valley. It has been a cold week and a blustery week with lots of snow. Wonderful for the spring melt for sure saturating this great land deep into the roots of the mighty trees that dominate our landscape. When one flies into Ottawa you can only see trees for miles and miles and then suddenly there is a city right in front of you. The frozen Ottawa River will soon enough swell up with all of that fresh water flowing into it from the lakes and the streams that feed it. But in the meantime lots of more snow falling to the ground to refresh the land after the drought of last summer. The United States too is benefiting from all of this cold and heavy snow as it should help to swell up their rivers in the west. The loss of life during these difficult snow periods is sad though. 

Parliament back in and I watched question period. Sometimes I think that people forget that Prime Minister Carney carries a lot of Irish blood and the Irish are fighters for sure (he has excellent debating skills and always includes the members of his party (it is nice not to have a one man show)). I think it will be an exciting session of Parliament given that the leader of the Conservative Party is in his background French and they are also fighters (he too lets the members of his caucus play a role in parliament). Out of all this arguing will come a better plan for Canada and diversification of our trade. The President of the United States did say he wanted the countries of the Western Hemisphere to be successful and that is what we are taking from his direction - a move to make Canada even more successful. It is interesting that the leaders of the two main parties are not "English." Their style of governing is not English at all; one can see the roots of their Irish heritage and their French heritage. I would have to check but I think this may be the first time that at least one of the main leaders of our government do not have an English heritage. Sometimes I think people become confused when one talks about English Canadians - for most of them the only thing English about them is their language - they are not English English as I call  myself on occasion. But first of all I am Canadian and proud to be one. I think there is a beauty in all the countries of the world. Something exciting offers itself when a country has an individuality that people recognize immediately and it makes the world more exciting; more interesting. Peace in our time is the aim and one just needs to follow God's words to us - love your neighbour as yourself. 

 Worked on Chromosome 4 yesterday and it is evolving nicely. A huge number of matches on a good length are all from the Gray-Routledge family. These ancestral lines are from the East Riding of Yorkshire (Gray) and Cumberland (Routledge). But each of them are eventually as one travels back in time likely Viking (Gray) and definitely Highlander Scot (Routledge). England is truly a mix of many European lines due to the estimated one kilometre of ice that sat on the British Isles during the Last Ice Age. Nothing would have survived from the period before that Ice Age. But I often wonder if the Western Hunter Gatherers who made their way to the British Isles 8,000 to 12,000 years ago had been there before and were returning to their homeland. My grandfather always talked about his family being in England for ever and the y signature of this family is Western Hunter Gatherer and said to be amongst the earliest of the inhabitants of the British Isles. He always said he was English not Irish and I concentrated on that and then suddenly the best match on the yDNA lived in Dublin, Ireland. It still makes me chuckle but around the Andover area running towards Basingstoke there are a number of families who have tested their yDNA and they all belong to this group of ancient Western Hunter Gatherers so one can easily believe that what he said was the truth that he knew; his family had always lived in the Andover area. With the coming of the Normans in 1066 life changed and one had to eventually acquire a surname. I contemplated that for a long time and finally as I searched out Blake working with Bill Bleak on the Blake yDNA study at FT DNA I started to contemplate why so many Blake lines in England - why would they choose the same surname? The discovery of the Emigrants Database was very revealing (1330 - 1550) showing just under fourty individuals coming from the Continent and other parts of the British Isles not designated as English into England (there was a lot of traveling between Ireland and England in this time frame and if one reads the Calendar of Patent Rolls people were sent there and returned to England so one can not judge the country of origin within the British Isles using this set of documents). But the thought continued in my brain why would a farmer working his land at Enham choose the surname Blake when it was already used so much (the British are a very independent people so I can not imagine that an ancestor of mine would do that unless there was a reason)? I think the logic that I have brought to this discussion in my brain that an individual would have seen an advantage in marrying a Norman and why not use that surname works in an interesting way. It certainly wouldn't hurt them and the advantages were probably there for them to do so. Hence I began to look at all of my accumulated information differently and the Blake families of Berkshire and the Blake family at Andover did have an association of some sort in the mid 1500s that doesn't state a relationship it simply implies it by mentioning each other in their wills. After all anyone reading the will at that time would have known these individuals were related. Anyway an interesting thought on my part especially given the tendency of people (particularly indigenous peoples) to say they have lived in a place forever. As nothing has occurred to change my mind in that regard these past five years or more I continue in that vein. Plus it suits the accumulated information on the Blake family in England which points out inconsistencies within the data that can readily be answered by time passing and memory blurring the exact time and place of events. 

I continue to correspond with the individual who wrote to me from Upper Clatford. Her surname Kennedy is interesting because my 2x great grandmother Mary (Routledge) Gray had a sister Grace who married  George Arthur Kennedy 14 Jun 1810 at Lanercost, Cumberland. This family came to Canada in 1818 with Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge. And so I have Kennedy cousins. However it is not an unusual surname and found also in Ireland as well as Scotland. I need to reply to her email and will do that today. 

Also I will continue with Chromosome 4 and I have just under 30 matches still to do. I have only a couple that I can not sort away from Pincombe or Blake but that may happen as well. Otherwise I will just ignore them - I have plenty of matches and it doesn't matter in the long term. Then just three chromosomes to do and my task of extraction is complete except I must now go back and look once again at the databases to see what has accumulated in the past few months. I occasionally glance at them and nothing huge has come in but there are some interesting ones that I will look at. Time is passing quickly and I have been at my computer for over an hour which I tend not to do but rather get up and walk for ten minutes every hour. 

 Tea is finished and I need to do the solitaire puzzles. Walk first.  

 

First day of cleaning completed

 Yesterday the cleaning went very well and I was completely finished by noon. Then I went out and cleared the porch and patio of snow and the top of the laneway. The company had cleared the laneway although I do redo it because there had been perhaps another couple of centimetres - it was quick though. The city did not plow the street so no end of the laneway fill up yet but probably soon enough but the company will clear that. I really hire them for that very thing - clearing the end of the laneway after the city plow comes through and of course for big dumps of snow in the laneway. 

Continuing working on Chromosome 4 and I did have a Eureka moment when I discovered that several good lengths of the Pincombe was actually Routledge so from the Gray great grandparent. There are a lot of matches (many of them early colonial American which didn't surprise me actually as many dissenters came from Scotland to the colonies in America). I am perhaps half way through the matches probably more on the lean side of that but close enough. I will continue working on the matches today. 

I had an interesting email from an individual in Upper Clatford. I had thought that my one place studies for Upper Clatford and Bishops Nympton had been removed but discovered that they are still there. I have not added to them in years because of my husband's illnesses. I had to give up a lot of items in order to stay with the things that I could accomplish which included items for Edward that he wanted me to do. Upper Clatford was the home of my great grandparents Edward Blake and Maria Jane (Knight) Blake. Maria was born at Turnworth nr Blandford in Dorset and as far as I can tell she lived there until her late teens and then I find her in Upper Clatford marrying Edward Blake 29 Oct 1870 at All Saints Parish Church. This is a beautiful old Church which we visited in 2008 with my second cousin Ivan Kent (grandson of the youngest son of Edward and Maria). 

 https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/18252/ 

My Blake line began in Upper Clatford (possibly for the second time as there was an earlier Blake family in Upper Clatford according to the Parish Registers and I believe this family was descendant of Robert Blake's line a brother to Nicholas Blake (the ancestor of my line in as much as I am able to discover plus the word of mouth of my grandfather talking about Nicholas Blake and the fraudulent Genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby misusing information on Nicholas in his rendition of the Blake family). Joseph Blake (the priest recorded that he was of Andover) married Joanna King 8 Jun 1757 at All Saints Upper Clatford. Their mothers both of Andover and both of the Carter families there. Whether or not they were related I have not yet fully determined. One of Joanna's sisters, namely Mary (the eldest) married  John Blake, a malster/brewer at Abbotts Ann, and the will of this John Blake mentions Thomas Blake (son of Joseph and Joanna (King) Blake) as his nephew along with Thomas' siblings. This John Blake at Abbotts Ann is also a likely descendant of the Robert Blake line. But I digress from the subject matter. 

Along with some interesting information on Upper Clatford, the writer sent me a will which she had transcribed and it belonged to a William King and was dated 22nd Jan 1590 (old style I assume). She thought perhaps it was my ancestor. I am not actually sure of that. I do know that Thomas King (who left a will 29 Sep 1762 in which he brings together his Blake grandchildren from his two daughters). Thomas, in his will never mentions his daughters (who are still living) but leaves his farm and possessions to his son in law Joseph Blake. It amazed me actually. His daughter Joanna does remarry as her husband dies rather young and it is the farmer next door (a widower) Thomas Collins. A most fascinating story actually. Was Thomas King descendant of this William King - I actually have transcribed a lot of the King wills in this area (including this one) and I have not yet firmly settled on any of them as the father or line of Thomas King. But it could be that continuing discussion with the writer would perhaps help to shape that narrative. This William King has a son Thomas mentioned in his will but it is 150 plus years later. Since he has a large number of sons though it is possible that one of these lines farmed at Upper Clatford. 

Time is so difficult to find for such individual items not associated with the Blake and Pincombe books so must guard against getting distracted. But definitely it was interesting to hear that so much is being done to look at the early history of Upper Clatford - a perfectly lovely little village nestled just south of Andover below the main London highway. Our first trip past this area revealed many farms and just eight years later that same passage along the London road revealed field after field of  solar panels as England becomes green energy.

 So today I continue with the cleaning and it is the main floor. I am a little late today I got distracted by my blog and the emails of yesterday. Drinking my tea and will do my solitaire puzzles. Then breakfast. I now do both of my exercise periods in one time period beginning with waking up basically and it takes about an hour to complete all of the exercises but I find that I am very awake and feel quite refreshed to begin the day so did move to that. The cardio load is 48 with 88 zone minutes recorded. My suggested cardio load for the day is 57 to 92. I will vastly exceed that on a cleaning day which happens every week. I am pleased with the FitBit though and this is a new one for Christmas from my daughter and family. Primarily I use it to ensure that I do walk 12,000 steps a day minimum and usually it is closer to 16,000. I think it is healthy to do so. It also reminds me to eat when I see the calories that I have burned as the day passes. I am not a foodie and eating is something I just out of habit more than a strong desire for food. I have favourite dishes and generally eat then consistently week after week. My husband's was a foodie and I must admit all those years of varied meals was interesting but now in widowhood I tend towards my childhood style of living which was to eat the same thing most days and that was easy in a family of nine people (two parents and seven children). I am an exercise fanatic for sure. Edward enjoyed it that I loved to do so much exercise as he was also keen on a busy life style which included lots of walking, biking, skiing, swimming etc. etc. Now in old age I have retreated back to my busy style of life of my teen years before we married (I was just 20 years of age and he was 23 years of age). 

 

 

As I have been saying

Canada, in order to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of the Fathers of Confederation, must diversify its trade and make Canada economically sound on its own. That is what I have been saying for a while now quietly to myself on my blog and they said it loudly back in the 1800s. It was good to hear the Prime Minister say the same; we need it and we can have it but it will be hard work. The same hard work that put a railroad across a country that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans,  5,500 plus kilometres from Cape Spear, Newfoundland to the Pacific in British Columbia. The Trans Canada Highway 7,800 kilometres winds across Canada; we need a four lane highway across the north in the province of Ontario which must get done and sooner rather than later as much of it is only two lines plus a passing lane. This road is twice as busy this past year and the widening is needed and I hope to see shovels in the ground in the spring all across the province. Surely we can accomplish quickly, in Ontario, this tiny bit of road when one compares what our ancestors did over a hundred years ago building a railway from ocean to ocean. 

The auto-workers could become road builders for a time until we have that road done but retraining is more important for sure (we can not live in the past; the future is there for us to grab hold of and run with it). I can think of lots of additions to small engine items with AI coming in and in our present Buy Canadian we would pick them up very quickly. Re-training is what has to happen though; industries come and go and we have to move with the times.  My husband trained for eight years (undergraduate, postgraduate to his PhD) to be a scientist but after a two year stint as a Post doc he went back and did a library degree and got a job. Sometimes one just has to retrain and off you go into a new job. On the other hand we need to bring back the production of washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, stoves, vacuum cleaners and dish washers from the United States - our industries were out competed and closed during free trade and now CUSMA brings these items to us across the border. We could build our own (needed just as much as cars and the same type of  work just smaller) as we did before Free Trade (another good industry (small engine) to create as everyone buys them and the opportunity to improve what we are buying now is huge thus making it interesting).  I am wondering if this Chinese EV catches on if the auto industry building Chinese EVs for Canadians will end up in British Columbia since that is much closer to China. 49,000 cars is really just a drop in the bucket. A small city of 70,000 buying one or two per household (or more) would swallow up all those cars in just one buying spree. I think it is exciting to have this opportunity especially for our youth to have a less expensive car that is also electric (there will still be room for Stellantis to do so as they mentioned they still plan to do EVs here). Plus the tariff easement on canola and other items is great that was gained. Being Tariff proof is very important. Then again a home grown auto industry can also be there; just takes money. 

We share a huge border with our friend and neighbour the United States and will always be friends but we need to be Tariff Proof and that forces us to concentrate on growing Canadian industry by increasing our home production back to the sort of levels and types before Free Trade - our youth needs jobs. 

Writing back and forth with my many cousins these days in the United States looking at our mutual matches. Worked away at the matches and just three left to do. They went very smoothly into the great grandparents lines for the most part. Chromosome 6 was a gem for sure. 

I will start Chromosome 5 today and there are 94 matches with nine known cousins covering three of the grandparent lines. Pincombe is particularly well covered for this chromosome and all are descendant of the Pincombe line none are descendant of the Gray line. The known Blake are all from the Knight line. The known Buller are all from the Buller line. This chromosome could be a challenge as it does not have any known from five of the eight great grandparents (Blake, Rawlings, Cotterill, Gray, Taylor). A quick glance though does tell me I may have been a bit remiss in collecting up the Known so will perhaps have a look at that before I begin. 

Tea drank and must do my solitaire puzzles and then begin on my research.  

Heavy snowfall

 We are having a heavy snowfall but only 10 cm predicted but at the moment it is fairly thick coming down although not so much that the distance vision is limited. Just a lovely white snowfall on this beautiful world that the Creator produced and gave to us at a later time to protect and cherish.

Yesterday finished the cleaning and worked on the matches for chromosome 7. This one is very interesting as there is a length that is inherited by pretty much all of my close cousins that I have found testing all the way back to John Pincombe and Mary Charly who married at Bishops Nympton, Devon  8 Nov 1767. Their six children with their descendants are the progenitors of many of the Pincombe families in the Bishops Nympton area. Although John had a brother William (both sons of John Pincombe and Grace Manning who married 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton) William's only child, a son, William died at the age of 21 (his parents William Pincombe married Grace Smyth 13 Jun 1758 at North Molton). John and William also had a sister Grace who married John Butcher 31 Mar 1755 at Bishops Nympton But I have yet to trace their two surviving daughters beyond their baptism (another daughter and only son died as infants/young children). John (married to Grace Manning) was the only son of William Pincombe and Mary Vicary who married 17 Jun 1685 at Bishops Nympton. The only other sibling was Joan who was buried in 1726 at Bishops Nympton. This William traces back to John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore who married 25 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton and of their other five children Thomas married Christian (unknown) and their single surviving child John Pincombe married Catharine Bryer at Bishops Nympton 3 Nov 1732 and their five children are the other Pincombe grouping in the Bishops Nympton area and are the progenitors of many of the Pincombe families also in the Bishops Nympton area. Another son of John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore, Hugh married Sarah (unknown) likely at Swimbridge, Devon and the Pincombe families found in the Landkey, Devon area are their descendants. Working through this Chromosome 7 I may spot some of the descendants of these lines in the Living DNA matches or others that I have not noted before. 

There does look to be a potential for a lot of snow if it keeps up at the present rate. Although I have had fun skiing I am pretty tired from all that fun and will be putting the skis away for the rest of the month or two. It is not something that I generally would go out on my own and do at 80 years of age. Although I could go around the backyard but I have not done a lot of research these past couple of weeks and need to get back to that. Plus I really do enjoy my research just as I enjoy skiing and there is a time and place for everything especially at this age for sure.  

Continuing with Chromosome 7 today and I am about one quarter of the way through the matches. Thus far I have separated out Rawlings, Blake, Knight, Cotterill (coming down from my 4x great grandparents), and Pincombe. Half of my great grandparents in the first quarter of matches is  not too bad. I am not likely to locate Taylor from the Buller/Taylor grandparents and perhaps not Cotterill from the possible father of my paternal grandmother but likely Gray is a possibility. 

Drinking tea and must move to the solitaire puzzles and then begin my extractions of data.  

Cleaning day one

 Today the top floor will be cleaned and continuing on Chromosome 8. I spent a little time looking at this set of matches that look like either Pincombe or Blake. Most of them are dating back into the early colonial days in America which does tend to make me think of the Blake/Knight family. Few of them go back into the 1600s but I have results for two individuals that are definitely Blake/Knight. The others triangulate with each other and one set is Pincombe. Having reached that stage I will continue today with a couple that I have not yet found in Ancestry (loaded their results into Gedmatch). A few also transferred to My Heritage giving a little help there with the triangulation. Looking at DNA Painter in this area of Chromosome 8 namely 76 cM to 120 cM this is not a common pile-up area so is specific to this family and given the endogamy in the Knight family not surprising and also in the Routledge family (Routledge married Gray and Gray married Pincombe) a pile-up would not be unexpected particularly if that pile-up is in the American Colonies dating back into the 1600s/1700s with their trees. The Knight family in particular were found in Newfoundland, Canada in these early years with the fishing fleets. Continuing with that type of thinking today but do hope to complete Chromosome 8 today. It didn't really effect anything having this group as Pincombe or Blake until I moved to phasing the great grandparents and now it becomes more interesting to do that. 

Went to Church online yesterday and the choirs are back which is always lovely music. It reminds me of Edward deciding that he would attend my Anglican Church because I had attended his United Church as he had asked whilst our children were young. He did love the music at the Cathedral and choosing the Columbarium for his internment just seemed right although eventually I anticipate that he will be buried at Beechwood or whatever cemetery our children choose. I am very much of the mind that funerals/graveyards are for the living to say goodby to their loved ones. 

We had a lot of snow and it was plowed away by the company. More snow today and into the week but then it is January and we are in the very midst of winter with some of the heaviest snow generally coming in late February or early March. Canadians go south this time of year although some are staying home but I still think quite a few are going as the warm beaches of Florida are very inviting. I certainly enjoyed my three trips to Florida but I also love the winter and would miss it for sure if I lived elsewhere. 

A new query which stems from the Blake Newsletter came in regarding I-M253 which I will take time to think about as it concerns a London line that is unknown beyond a 3x great grandparent. The Blake family itself is huge and has quite a few founding lines even within the British Isles itself as well as Continental - the 1330-1550 Emigration Database for the British Isles shows many Blake lines coming from the Continent into England in this time period but primarily into the London area. By the late 1400s the Blake family at Andover appears in a number of records and my search backwards is to find the documents for this family in the 1300s. Before that I do not think this line that I descend from used a surname and likely elected to use the surname of the wife in an early marriage - proving that will be difficult and perhaps not in my lifetime. But it does make sense rather than assuming that an individual farming at Knights Enham suddenly decided to use the surname Blake which was already being used by a number of families in England (many of whom were not originally common to the British Isles) who likely came from the continent following the Norman Invasion in 1066. Since these families were prosperous probably attracted to the British Isles by the Normans that is the suspicion but proving such things is difficult. Plus I have no intention of dealing with that early family history in any line but my own for the most part  but will include the le Blak family of Rouen, Normandy that appears to be related/have dealings with the Andover Blake family in the 1500s in such a way that one is led to speculate that at an earlier time they were closely related but probably in the female line on the part of the Andover Blake family. That is my hypothesis and I continue looking for information to clarify/prove such an hypothesis. Within the Blake yDNA study at FT DNA there are a number of groups with a leader inside of the group so I tend to just let them correspond with each other and not complicate the situation by getting involved in that. 

This research was made considerably easier to look at following the marriage of the then Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) and Lady Diana Spencer and became the Princess of Wales (although I had absolutely no interest in genealogy but my husband was deeply into that and he is related to Diana, Princess of Wales through the Work family some of whom had moved to the American colonies. Diana's proven line back to the le Blak family of Calne along with the publication of a book of her genealogy which traces her back to the Andover Blake family has proven to be most interesting actually and will likely create research interest in the years to come in that her son William will eventually be King of England with the line descending to George his son eventually and his descendants. That will clearly place the Blake line of Calne as ancestral to the King of England and it appears the Blake line of Andover. The Andover line being the more ancient to the British Isles if I am correct and the yDNA of this line appears to be an ancient Western Hunter-Gatherer arriving in the British Isles following the Last Ice Age and suggested to be between 12,000 to 8,000 years ago and dubbed the "Deer-Hunters" by Ethnoancestry (interestingly my grandfather constantly mentioned that his Blake line was very ancient to the area in which he grew up namely Andover, Hampshire, England). His knowledge of the Blake family was extensive as he could rhyme off all of his male ancestors way back to Nicholas and further but being only just eight and not writing it all down I just remember the names really well that stuck out in the line so to speak. My father also mentioned Nicholas and it stemmed from a discussion I often have within my blog on Nicholas. I was surprised to find 14 matches on Chromo 2 yDNA test when I tested my brother there as ancient lines back into Western Hunter-Gatherer are not common in the databases although going into the British Isles group I did find a number of lines close by this area in Hampshire including one large family group in the Barnstaple area. The le Blak line I hypothesize is from Rouen, Normandy coming to England after receiving a patent to set up a market in 1274 (Calendar of Patent Rolls). This is a large grouping in the yDNA Blake group at FT DNA and one would expect quite a range of matches given the time period this group was in Rouen, Normandy and coming to England in the late 1200s. 

Tea all drank and Solitaire Puzzles to do. The day moves quickly and it will soon be breakfast time and then cleaning.  

 

 

 

 

Offline for a bit

Being offline is always an interesting experience; one is off the grid so to speak and it leaves you feeling independent of the world for a moment in time. But always close to God; God is in our heart and our mind and always with us in this world that He created. The winds were strong last night; you could hear them even over the sound of the game that my daughter and I were playing on the big screen. We are at Chapter 23 I think it was and there are 37 Chapters. I am looking forward to it being completed; I like finished tasks that is my way. Have I enjoyed it; it is has been interesting but I feel lost in it because I do not know the direction or the path but perhaps that is good sometimes to not know the ending. One must work through the various levels building and creating and one feels happy when each level is achieved which is like life really and so the games perhaps teach our young about life. There are pitfalls and there are successes and one learns from both. 

The Blake Newsletter is published and viewable. It was the usual chattering on my part about the Andover Blake Book but an email from a Blake descendant of the Mayo Blake family was part of the discussion. There is a truth in DNA that no one can deny and I think that that is part of our path in life that God has set us on. We are going to know the very truths of everything and then perhaps we can find peace in our world. Does truth lead to peace? I think it can if that is what is desired. When greed for money and possessions is prominent can peace exist. I think when the consuming desire for wealth and riches passes from our world then we can have peace. All of us are equal on this earth and all of us inherit this earth at our birth; that is what the Creator said and we must follow His commandment that we love our neighbour as ourself and that is truly the path to peace. 

Good work on Chromosome 8 yesterday although I am still ambivalent about this set of Blake or Pincombe matches extending from 78,043,790 to 120,188,941 on the chromosome. The distraction is the known family history of the matches which does tend to be northern England, southern Scotland and leads one's mind towards the Gray side of the Pincombe/Gray split. Blake and Knight are predominantly in southern England although the Knight family moved to the Lancashire area in the 1800s working in the woolen mills. The length varies between 20 and 35 centimorgans in the many descendants carrying this particular section of Chromosome 8. Some have deep American colonial ancestry with their origins unknown in their trees as written up (endogamy in the Routledge or Knight family comes to mind in this case as these families were very large and often enough amongst some of the earliest trekking off to the British colonies). Looking at the two siblings most affected the length of Blake is a singleton chromosome for both and the length of Pincombe runs from 60 to 140 centimorgans and 73 to 146 centimorgans for the second one. The other three do not share this length to any degree except for me and I have Pincombe from 17 to 73 centimorgans and 124 to 146 centimorgans. It is intriguing and does rather occupy one's thoughts as the various matches are regarded whilst I study the known information on each individual. But today I will just continue sorting because the internet is down for the moment and that lets me look at them differently actually yielding more insight some times. 

 Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles. Time to get moving and do some exercise.  

The Epiphany Service was perfect

Being at Church on Epiphany Service always reminds me of my father's story concerning the 12 days of Christmas and the Wisemen/Kings bringing their gifts to the Baby Jesus. When he as a child in England he said they always went to visit his Blake grandparents for Epiphany at least that is how I recall it. But it was a long trip in those days from Eastleigh to just south of Andover at Goodworth Clatford. His grandparents had moved from Upper Clatford sometime in the late 1890s to Goodworth Clatford. The chorister was particularly excellent for this service. They are all extremely capable the Choristers in the Christ Church Cathedral Choirs. 

A quiet day Sunday and once again we never made it out of doors - it was very cold here and this morning it is a warmer minus 17 degrees celsius but there is a warming trend coming and likely we will ski most of the week if the weather holds and we get all that snow that is mentioned on the Weather Channel. I am all set up once again on a two year contract with Rogers - I really like Rogers and have been with them since the early 2000s. They provide excellent and timely service whenever I need anything which is rare. Other companies come to my door (I no longer answer as I am busy working and have thought about putting a note on the door but decided just to treat it as my workplace and only answer when I have requested the individual come). Mind you I do glance out the window in case it is a municipal officer coming for one reason or another but that does not occur in my memory unless I asked them to come. So would be leery of that probably. 

I worked on Chromosome 8 and it is flowing along with a few removals of matches that are simply too small or ambiguous. Chromosome 9 is completed but has a few questions that I will need to do working on the trees for various matches. There are 68 matches for Chromosome 8 and I have eight known cousins matching many with really good lengths for three of the four grandparents. Pincombe does not have a known match although I do have a number of likely Gray matches that just need me to review their trees most at Ancestry although also at My Heritage which also covers FT DNA and I also have Find My Past. Rawlings is particularly well covered with second cousins as is Buller with third cousins. Blake falls neatly into Blake and Knight with that particular cousin. So continuing work on Chromosome 8 and I am contemplating how to begin phasing my husband's grandparents. I need to find his files that he created for his autosomal DNA especially his work on 23 and Me. The Ancestry I extracted for him including any found in Gedmatch. FT DNA he also managed and was just getting into My Heritage and asking for me to extract his cousins matches there and that was in process (his matches are all in my account on My Heritage). It appears to be doable and I will see how it goes. Probably blog the progress as I move along with that. 

Cleaning day today and it is the top floor. I will start that in a while as I sip away at my tea and time to move to the Solitaire puzzles to work the brain. Breakfast after that.   

Chromosome 10 completed and Chromosome 9 started

Yesterday was the day that I learned how to play a computer game using a hand held device; well not entirely the first time I did play a game with my grandson where he helped me to make the moves that I needed to do in his game but this time I did most of it except when I was obviously not getting it right. I am not sure that I am meant for computer games other than solitaire though I must admit. I like them to be short and snappy and not take up a lot of time. But we did have a quiet couple of hours working away at that and it was meant to be a holiday - the first day of 2026. 

Mostly our television set is used for gaming by visitors - it is a lovely big screen for such things and that seems to be fun for the younger generations. Plus I do watch YouTube for my Church Service primarily but also I am doing a history series that I found very interesting. We often watch nature shows on the YouTube made by people around the world. My desire to travel is pretty much nil but it is nice to see other countries. I have traveled so much though with Edward for most of our marriage that it is just nice to not be doing that so much. He loved to drive everywhere and we did. Once I managed, after more than 40 years to get him to fly to Europe, he couldn't fly there often enough. He loved it; all the different countries where his ancestors had been early colonials in particularly the New England Colonies and New York back in the 1600s. His earliest ancestors came to New Holland and lived at Albany and in New Amsterdam now New York.. In our travels we visited all the areas where the Kip family lived amongst others and they were numerous. It wasn't until he really had time to get into his own genealogy that I realized how many of his ancestors (and our daughters for that matter) had lived their entire lives in the colonies of the now United States of America from the 1620s on. When he tested his autosomal DNA he had thousands of cousins really from the beginning of his testing. As the results proved his trace back in genealogy he felt very happy with all of his genealogical endeavours and certainly visiting NEHGS in Boston was part of that. We went to a weekend get together where he worked with Gary Boyd Roberts who helped him with a couple of tricky ancestral lines but for the most part his work was very accurate. 

So I am now into Chromosome 9 and it is also an interesting one with a number of matches. For the most part Chromosome 10 is going to be a lot of genealogical work on the trees of the people who match with long lengths of Rawlings/Cotterill and Buller/Taylor. But equally I do not have all of the Blake/Knight separated or the Pincombe/Gray. I have built this latest excel file in just one so that I can eventually sort it by the name of the match and simplify marking the great grandparent as I have not taken the time to do cross research between chromosomes since there is an easier way than spending all my time flipping back and forth. I have numbered the file so that it can always be resorted back into its original layout. In the case of Chromosome 9 I have  eleven cousins known to me in terms of their relationship to me and our MRCA. Every grandparent is covered with the exception of Rawlings so there will be some work there but that too will be in the future as there is little point in my doing abstract research daily when I can put it all together at once and work on it. But overall this has been a good experience going back to the great-grandparents as they are all on the British census from 1841 on and one is on the Canadian census (my first born Canadian ancestor - Grace (Gray) Pincombe mother of my maternal grandfather John Routledge Pincombe. I always find myself thinking about John and how sad his youth was but my uncle said his father was a happy man with his family. He was very proud of his children and wife my uncle always said. He was over six feet tall and had been a very popular bachelor and did not marry until he was 41 years of age. I imagine many people were very envious of my grandmother and she was fourteen years younger than he was although still she was twenty seven when she married. I have pictures of them in those early years of marriage from my half second cousin which was very nice of him to share with me. George DeKay, my Gray third cousin, who persuaded me to write the Pincombe Profile did set that up. I did actually work at writing books in my younger days and surprisingly have returned to it. But it was kind of my cousin to loan the photo albums to me and I scanned them over a weekend when we came to meet with my Pincombe cousins in advance of writing up the Profile. Since my line had not stayed on the farms I did feel it should principally be about all of them as some were still on the original farms. 

The Prime Minister is going to France to be part of the Coalition of the Willing trying to bring peace to Europe once again. Although some complain about the expense to Canada I think the money that we have used to support Ukraine has been money well spent. We are building up our own defensive industries just because peace is not with us and the only real way to have peace is to always be ready to defend ourselves against aggressive peoples. We do not want war; we as a country have never been aggressive; we have buried far too many of our youth on distant shores. The torch they passed to us we must hold it high and do our best to keep the peace that they died for; the generations that followed them. Life was very different in Canada when I was a young child; we were a very militaristic people very conscious of our need to be ready. We have become like that again. Threatening us with nuclear war is just ignorant and we all know the result of nuclear war but perhaps not; perhaps some people think they can hide underground no ideas on that but the waste of the world that God gave us would not be as He desires. Of that I am very sure. But He waits and watches and His simple words continue to ring down through the ages - love your neighbour as yourself.

So today continue with Chromosome 9 heading towards Chromosome 1 and it is the New Year and time marches onward and must get back to writing the books. I am ready for that now and about to start transcribing some of those Latin documents that have sat on my computer for over a decade. However they still appear to be in good shape but if not I will order them. There are some that will  not benefit me I can see that now but they looked interesting. 

Tea drank. Solitaire puzzles done and I am late for breakfast.  

Ice Storm apears to have moved on

Yesterday we cleared away the ice that coated the laneway and that was a back breaking task for sure but all accomplished for the most part. Hoping for snow the next couple of days and back to skiing once again. First thing in the morning the trees did have a small coating of ice but it was gone by mid afternoon and a sigh of relief I am sure that the vicious ice storm had passed us by for once. 

We did review our freezer content and used up a number of items for last nights dinner which was an interesting one - a four cheese pizza which was very tasty and then two meat dishes - scallops with couscous, peas, grated carrot and tomatoes along with a piece of salmon poached and then placed in a tasty sauce with a cucumber salad on the side. We had our cooler ready with frozen blocks just in case. 

The basement cleaning was completed in the morning and today is the main floor and that will be in an hour or so that I will work on that. 

I also worked on the matches and I am about half way through Chromosome 12. There are  22 known cousins with matches on Chromosome 12 and half way through I now have matches that take me back to great grandparents Pincombe, Knight, Buller, Rawlings, Gray, and Blake. There are a number of matches that are Rawlings/Cotterill and Buller/Taylor and will have to look at the trees to investigate them. I still have about 40 matches left to do for Chromosome 12. There are very few areas that do not have a known great grandparent. Perhaps I will complete the other fourty matches today - hard to predict as I sometimes do follow through and look at trees although the intent is simply to make a list but one can distracted. 

Still 11 chromosomes to do and the number of matches for some of them is very large but almost half way through so that is good. 

Minus 14 degrees celsius today and we are back into the Polar Vortex for a bit as the temperatures will be similar to that for a few days but it is January coming and the coldest months tend to be January and February. 

Tea drank and must do my solitaire puzzles. Breakfast and cleaning next.  

 

Chromosome 13 completed and working on Chromosome 12

 Chromosome 13 broke down into Knight, Blake, Pincombe, Buller, Rawlings, Gray quite well but Cotterill and Taylor will require tree searching. I do have lots of matches for both of these but the trees are unknown to me at this  moment in time but I will get busy with that once I complete this survey. There are a number of Cotterill matches within the Rawlings/Cotterill which I recognize so they may well be the known connections but need to do that research before making that conclusion. 

Chromosome 12 is covered by 20 known cousins so that just part way in to this chromosome I already have Buller, Knight, Rawlings, and Pincombe clearly separated with quite a few of the matches still to review.  I am just at the D's and still have all the way to the Y's to do alphabetically and there are 90 matches in total and I have completed 16. Today though is cleaning the basement day so not that much work on the matches today likely. 

The ice storm raged all night here and it looks pretty icy out there but snow is going to start falling soon and later I will use the de-icer on the porch and patio and laneway. It is a friendly de-icer and we are not going anywhere. Skiing is pretty much destroyed until we get a heavy load of snow on that ice. 

I have been working this past year on correcting the muscles in my eyes which have developed throughout my life when my eyes were routinely crossed without glasses on before cataract surgery. The glasses corrected that quite well actually although whenever I was tired my eyes would cross - it was a message to tell me to stop working and take a rest! The muscles though are used to doing that and I think the last few months I have been noticing that tendency less and less but it is a conscious reaction on my part to halt the tendency when it does occur generally when my eyes are tired. But I continue to be amazed at what I now see. Looking into the trees without leaves I can distinctly see that the branches are all at different angles and the tree has huge depth that I never really could see properly before. But surprisingly distance is shorter now than I used to see it. As I said the first thing I noticed with my operated eyes was that my backyard had shrunk in length. 

The tree limbs are pretty much coated with ice but hopefully not to the breaking points. Not sure what it looks like away from here but will have a glance at the news a little later. 

Continuing with the research and my cleaning today and it is time for tea; I am late today and then breakfast and start the robot vacuuming the rugs in the basement. An orderly day these three cleaning days. 

 

 

Chromosome 15 completed as well as Chromosome 14

It was a good research day yesterday as I completed Chromosome 15 and with a surprise ending as I came across a match that locks in the beginning of the Chromosome for me as Buller and not Taylor so not an Irish length of DNA for me. The match that does this is two lengths at each end of the chromosome totaling 54 centimorgans with the beginning length 48.3 centimorgans and a shorter one at the end. This is an early American Colonial match in a pile-up area (most of the matches tend to be early Colonial American) and certainly the Buller family was a very large one in Cornwall which traveled about the world in those early years of exploration although my knowledge of the Buller family in this time frame is limited (eventually I may investigate this line as well for a book). Interesting really how that transpired. Chromosome 14 has my Jewish matches which show up as 4th or even 3rd cousin but are actually likely twice that (i.e. 8th or 6th cousin) because of endogamy in the lines. Chromosome 14 has very long lengths of Rawlings/Cotterill with known Rawlings which is helpful. The same with the Pincombe/Gray where a number of Pincombe cousins (3rd) are matching all of us on this chromosome. Some Knight matches and again Buller/Taylor not yet separated by any of the matches on Chromosome 14. I even started Chromosome 13 so an extremely good research day. 

Mid morning I cleared away the couple of centimetres snow fall and noted that everyone had their paper recycling out so put mine out as well - I forgot the night before.  The collection was late, after dark actually, but I put out two big cardboard boxes full of paper so did not have to go out again to bring the bin in. That was handy for sure. 

Sunday today and the last service of the year. I will attend on YouTube as usual. The week flew by quickly and I did not check for the sermon online since the service cut off just at that time last week. We will see how that goes this week. Having the service bulletin already at hand I can read it on my own but it is nice to attend online when it works. 

I heard from my Buller cousin off in New Zealand and I hope to collaborate with her on this family as we trace it back in England. I have been able to trace back to Christopher Buller born circa 1763 according to his death registration in 1832 and he attended St Olave Bermondsey Parish Church which was demolished to make way for the ramping up to London Bridge. His Slop Shop was on Tooley Street in Bermondsey just as you cross over the London Bridge into Bermondsey on the south side of the Thames. Christopher married Mary Beard 30 Dec 1794 at All Hallows Barking by the Tower and I think it was an elopement although Mary was 27 years old and Christopher would have been  around 31 years of age. The couple had seven children with their eldest Elizabeth Jane dying as an infant in 1797 and a second infant death Henry Christy Buller in 1803 but Martha Sarah was born in 1797, Elizabeth Jane in 1799, Emma Hemsley in 1800, Henry Christopher (our ancestor) in 1805 and Robert Hucksley in 1806 although he too died as an infant in 1807. Mary was buried 14 Dec 1806 at St Olave Bermondsey Parish Church and the graves for all of this Buller family were moved to Bunhills when the Church was demolished later in the 1800s for the Bridge approaches.  It is possible that Christopher remarried by 1813 although the actual registration I have not located as there are two more possible sons namely Thomas Christopher in 1813 and John Christopher in 1819 who died as an infant in 1819. Interesting family really and the parentage of Christopher remains a mystery but I must admit I have hundreds of Buller matches in England that I have barely glanced at so the answer may well be there. There was a Buller family in Bermondsey and they had moved from Somerset to Bermondsey at some point in the 1700s. 

Skiing today if it works out and hopefully the freezing rain predicted is not as bad as mentioned. Time will tell. 

Must make my tea the day  moves onward and the solitaire puzzles are already completed.