King Saul and King David remembered

Continuing to read 1 Chronicles and the genealogies of the families continues. This reminder to the exiled Israelis was timely to remind them of who they were and what had happened to them as time has passed and the children and grandchildren of the Israelis carried off to Assyria and Babylon have been born. The great libraries I mentioned a couple of days ago are now flourishing and the stories of so many of the peoples of the world are now written down but still the Bible with its reach far back into the beginnings is a story that resonates through the ages telling of God's love for mankind. The genealogies continue but now the text tells the stories of some of these families including King Saul. That Saul died because he was unfaithful to God is also mentioned. The important items of the history of Israel that the people needed to know to move forward as children of their loving God. Then the story of King David is again written down in 1 Chronicles. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday and today is the main floor. I also managed to get through another set of matches so just thirty eight matches left to put into the databases. Many of these matches are filling tiny holes where no one matched in particular lines. I have very few gaps overall but these matches have come along and they have filled some of them. I like all of the databases but I do have favourites for particular items and as it turns out each of the databases has a particular item that I find most useful which is interesting. 

Collection Day once again and I have one bag of weeds, two containers of recyclables and one garbage can. It feels like a waste to use a white garbage bag in the kitchen which is never full and a green bag to put it out to the street in the garbage can. The green bag is too big to keep in the house although I am considering it because it does seem like a waste to put a white bag into a green bag. Perhaps changes will come to rectify that particular circumstance. 

Just 16 degrees celsius today and the cooling trend has arrived. The birds are starting to flock as they prepare to migrate south and the training of the newly born this summer has begun. The animal and bird life are so methodical and such good parents as they tenderly guide their youth towards adulthood. One exasperated crow was trying to get the young birds into the air again having brought them down from the nest to the ground and finally the bird just ran at them and up they went soaring about. Perhaps they were teasing the adult bird. Hard to tell. 

My work is cut out for me the next few months as I return to downsizing the photo books. It is a huge task with over 40 large binders and that is just the photos from the beginnings of the lives of my husband and I to 2001 (we married in 1966 when Edward was 23 and I was 20). I was very young and Edward more of an adult and we spent the next eight years traveling about following the line of Edward's families as he sought answers about them primarily in the North Eastern United States but also Ontario and Quebec. But we also spent many many weeks with our canoe in the northern Ontario woods following the creeks and rivers as we enjoyed all that nature abounds in in Northern Ontario. It is a fantastic place to be although now it is many many years since we were there. Children arrived and campgrounds with lots of children items like swings and slides and wading pools became our life for a while but back to the woods again as they grew and they too love the outdoors. Now I am old, 81 is old, and have given my kayak to my grandchildren to enjoy and I just walk on the beach and enjoy the fresh air in the summer. 

Time for solitaire puzzles. I  must write the Kipp newsletter today mentioning the items that have gone to Chilliwack Archives for the Kipp family. I also need to write the H11 newsletter although with the new setup that FT DNA has introduced my breaking these lines down further is past tense; they have done a wonderful job but I will check the literature and see if there is anything new to report.  

H11 Newsletter in progress

I did work on the H11 project yesterday and all ungrouped members are now grouped. It is not of any value to do the statistics I used to do in this issue of the newsletter. In each individual member's page is all the information that I used to provide in an anonymous way which is now available to each person except they can see the matches. Thank you to FT DNA for doing such a great job in this upgrade. I can not publish the new mitogroups because that information is personal. So a small writeup on that in the Newsletter. I still have to have a look at the recent messaging online about H11 and see if there is anything other than my newsletters. 

H11 is an old haplogroup subclade which wintered in Ukraina during the last Ice Age. Presumably given the tracking of some of the members of this group it would appear that there were several paths to the west through central Europe and into southern England and through the Scandinavian Peninsula and into Scotland where my ancestor appears on the Blood of the Isles Database created by Bryan Sykes. The H11 also trekked east and south east and south west. The Blood of the Isles Database is a limited look as few markers are mentioned but the ones that are end up, in my case, being significant and it is likely that both of my lines y-DNA and mt-DNA were in the British Isles 8,000 to 12,000 years ago as Western Hunter Gatherers. Both of these signatures go extinct when my generation is gone and when the grandchildren generation is gone (y-DNA in my generation and mt-DNA in the grandchildren generation). I think sometimes it is hard to believe given that I have six siblings but there you go. However there are still, in my estimation, around half a million to a million holders of this mt-DNA and an unknown number for the y-DNA (there were fourteen matches on the Chromo2 test). This being an expensive test probably did not get as many testers as it might have. But I do know that the y-DNA is all over the British Commonwealth but not so sure of the United States as no one has tested there that matches. I do not know of any male Blake of Andover going to the United States. It became a very small family in the mid 1700s and most holders were still in England. Time will tell though and if DNA studies continue to interest people more will be available in the future. 

 Today finish up the H11 Newsletter and work on the Kipp Newsletter. I also hope to get back to the matches and there are 22 to finish off Chromosome 2 and then on to the last one - Chromosome 1 with its 250+ matches. That will take a bit of time. 

My new exercise routine now a few weeks old is going very well and I think it was time for a change to that type of longer exercise. I also ran for thirty minutes and lifted weights for 20 minutes. It gives me a good cardio load for the day and exercise level. At 80 one has to keep up the exercises as you lose the muscle tone very quickly. The balance also has to be part of the whole exercise story and I was amazed at how adding two sets of exercises that my daughter mentioned to my routine kept me from falling down readily whilst skiing. 

Started filling in my income tax with basic details and I do believe I will move to one of the Canadian manufactured income tax form programs. I suppose I knew it was American but I guess I thought maybe it was also Canadian but it is totally American owned. But at $27 for the basic form it isn't a lot but I will move to possibly UFile as it looks interesting, has a lovely Canadian flag in the corner and is downloaded to the computer which I prefer. It is sad though as I really like Turbo Tax. We were all happy I think with the status quo but time changes and life moves on and so must we. I do like what Prime Minister Carney is doing. One mustn't think of the deficit at this point; we need to think of increasing jobs and Canadian content of everything. 

Today the opening of the new Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland and the Governor General is there along with Minister Anand  and we are well represented there by many Canadian Inuit cousins and friends to support this new Consulate and it will bring us even closer as peoples. It isn't far from Baffin Island to Greenland and new trade routes are opening up in the Hudson Bay and we can all work together to make our lives more productive. 

Drinking tea and on to the Solitaire Puzzles. Still enjoying the Sudoku very much and do get a good laugh out of the Superstar label.  I do miss the sixteen games of Spider to achieve the Diamond level in that particular Solitaire game and perhaps I will return once my  eyes adjust to this sparkling as it tends to give me a headache. So move on from that; there are other games and Sudoku is great as a memory and brain game for sure. 

 

 

 

The day has brought out a few thoughts

Cleaning all accomplished and the research week begins. Knowing one's history as far back as possible is rather interesting. Although my interest in my youth was purely science from a knowledge of Chemistry and Physics to knowledge about the universe that surrounds us I have moved from that in my old age to an interest in these many surnames in modern times that have created me plus the eons before that when tribal lines were my ancestry leading back to the ancient times. My grandfather had this strong belief that his people had always lived in the Andover area of Hampshire, England. Thus far I have not found anything that would say otherwise. Blake being a rather old surname and it does appear in the records of Andover area back into the 1300s but it will not be me that really does that research because one needs to do that in the Record Offices back in the British Isles. That Blake is a surname with a number of founding lines is rather interesting and the surname projects leads one down many paths.

The Yazidi people are much in my thoughts these days. I had always thought of them as an early Christian denomination and certainly ISIS pretty much destroyed the entire population in Iraq as Infidels. It is something to keep in mind as these Satanic people (Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihadists ISIS and others like them) destroy any peoples who do not fit into their decision on who can live in this world. These Satanic people must be put somewhere so that the world is protected from them and we can have peace. The really deep thought this day is Iran the only one funding them? It is a mystery we must resolve for our own existence. But minds much greater than mine are on that for sure and the thought passes from my brain. And it must not be us funding our own demise thinking we are helping in this case the Palestinian people. There must never again be any way for satanists like Hamas to terrorize the Israeli people; murder Israeli babies in their cribs and kill/rape/torture Israeli men, women and children in their homes/schools/places of work.

Prayers for Israel and all the Jewish people of the world. Prayers for Ukraine and perhaps in the depths of all this Russia and Ukraine will find a common meeting ground where both are content. Prayers for the Palestinian people and free them from the clutches of the Hamas terrorists who constantly use them as human shields. When the life of a Hamas terrorist is in danger then they gather around them as many Palestinians as possible in order to create a news story that blames Israel. But we are cognizant of your tricks Hamas. What you have done to the Palestinians is criminal using them as human shields. God says "let my people go."

Working on the Kipp Newsletter today and the H11 Newsletter (just one issue for this year) has now been published. My reasons for not publishing the newsletter were perhaps not entirely consistent with how I have dealt with all of my newsletters and so I will continue to publish just the one issue a year at the moment (1st of February) that looks at the data in depth and countries of origin. H11 emerged from the Ice Refuge at Ukraina (an ancient name for an ancient place) and slowly but surely took back the land around them and moved further and further afield until perhaps as much as twelve thousand years ago they returned or came (who knows) to the Highlands of Scotland where my ancestral mitochondrial line probably lived according to the work of Bryan Sykes in his writings on the early British Isles DNA - "The Blood of the Isles Database".  What would drive these people so far; certainly following the herds that they lived on would be part of it but was there also that desire to see once again the enormous ocean the Atlantic that lines the coast of Europe/Africa, no  ideas on that. But I can see the attractiveness of the human spirit that wants to know in all of that. Men and women working together moved west from Ukraina and moved east as well and once again an ocean was that the attraction that drew them to the far east where the eastern continent of Europe/Asia faces the Pacific Ocean.

No snow today on the ground but soon it will be covered and once again my country moves into their long cold winter. The day beckons.

mtDNA H11 study

I have not published the newsletter for the mtDNA H11 study since Russia invaded Ukraine in that a number of my members are in Ukraine and quite a few in Russia. I felt that it was not correct to do that. As time has passed I have been contemplating releasing the 1st issue of the year as it has the most interesting details regarding the naming of the subclades. There is no personal information in that newsletter. I mention countries of origin as given to me by the participants only. Although I do include some of the mutations as I create the different subclades. I will think about this for a couple of weeks and may decide to publish last February's newsletter (already produced) on the 1st of November and that would mean that the newsletter would then be produced again on the 1st of February with the yearly summing up of subclades and new additions. 

I am a conservative person in my outlook and I do come from a democratic country so liberal views are expressed in my country which is their right. But I am perhaps not providing a full enough experience as I have been doing with this particular research project. All of my other projects (three of them) are still being published every three months and I have not even noticed if some of the members of those three groups are living in different countries around the world. 

It was the shock of one country invading another sovereign country in Europe and I still feel strongly about the rights of sovereign countries. Nothing has changed in that regard. 

But the recent events in Israel have made me aware that a very large population of people on their border - the Palestinian people have been lead by a terrorist group whether they liked it or not and I have continued to support both Israel and the Palestine people although rejecting the philosophy and character of Hamas which is a terrorist organization. Perhaps I should have considered that at the time when I stopped publishing the H11 Newsletter. And so I have decided to consider it and will likely publish the February Issue on the 1st of November of the H11 Newsletter. I will also continue to support verbally the people of Ukraine who have been invaded and continue having to defend themselves and push out the invading Russian army. 

As I continue to support Israel. I do not trust Hamas; they do not want the people of Gaza to move away from Gaza City and I believe would do just about anything to keep them from doing that. Appearances more than prove that. The Palestinians offer Hamas a protection that would be stripped away if they are gone. Hamas has no other interest in the Palestinian people. They have done nothing for them since they took over the government in 2005 (or thereabouts) except keep them in a rather needy state. None of my business though particularly I am too busy writing my books. I am now hearing 85,000 pregnancies ongoing in a population of couple of a million where half of them are children. Their birthrate is very high. The heavy use of incubators is interesting. I wonder if they have a high level of blood disorders. I haven't thought about that for a long time. Anyway not something that affects all of this particularly. I am sure there will still be a lot of children born in Gaza for quite a while yet. In the pictures they are very attached to their children.

Watching the video and Israel does have a lot of high tech all around the perimeter. Identifying the blast as the responsibility of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who are dedicated to the establishment of their own Palestine. They likely did it to break up the meeting between President Biden and the other Arab State leaders planned after his arrival tomorrow. They will not scare Biden away; he is made of much sterner stuff than that. Plus they wanted to blame Israel as they are also dedicated to the military destruction of Israel. Israel has a lot of enemies and Hamas is likely preferring to blame Israel rather than the actual group who did it. This organization would eliminate or absorb Hamas and they are also involved in Egypt which has now outlawed them. Israel has done well to survive so long actually. This group assassinated Anwar Sadat president of Egypt about fourty years ago. They are an older group known originally as the Muslim Brotherhood. This does add to the problem and it is one that the Arab world will want to settle quickly. Blaming Israel is perhaps just a way to get them to lighten up on the bombing I am sure Hamas knows who bombed the hospital. The PIJ is a very serious threat to the Palestinian State which the people in Gaza would like to have. They have attacked Israel many times and they are very familiar with their modus operandi.

78 years old and Church on You-Tube today

 A great day yesterday and 78 officially now. I can remember each of my grandparents at 78 years of age. They were both still quite hale and hearty; both loved a good walk. In retrospect both loved a rich red meat diet and salt was definitely on the menu. Although both were relatively slender and muscular diet is a very important part of life for sure. Winters in Canada can be difficult for the elderly because getting out for a walk is risky with the ice on the walks. Exercising was not really something that people did back in the early 50s or even into the 60s as these two grandparents were 11 years separated in age and one from each of my family lines - my Blake Grandfather and my (Buller) Pincombe Grandmother. Reflecting on their lives is something I do more often than on my own parents because I lived with them on a more daily basis whereas I only saw my parents a few times a year because we did not live in their area and I returned to work outside the home in 1994 and that rather restricted travel time. Plus we used to go with Edward when he had to travel for work; it was great to do that in the spring and fall when he might have conferences to attend. We saw so much the three of us - my daughters and myself. It was a great education and gave one a freedom to travel the entire continent it almost seemed although most of the traveling was along the Atlantic Seaboard. That time is remembered fondly by all of us as time with Edward when he was not busy off doing his job and his volunteer activities. He was not home a lot for sure. 

Today Church on You-Tube and it is nice to be back. I do love the organ music and singing the hymns especially to music. I have to rely on memory when the organ isn't there playing the tune. Although as usual Ian White's Psalms is playing in the background at 6:17  a.m. this morning. 

An interesting article on the many species of Homo that have walked the face of the earth and DNA is doing all that tracking. In my own lines we have 3% Neanderthal and 5% Denisovan. Why so much Denisovan, I have no idea actually but do suspect it is my maternal grandmother's line going back in time. I know very little about her mother other than what my grandmother told me from the point of view of where she lived and the kind of person that she was. From the mtDNA though I have a great deal of information. H11 wintered at Ukraina during the Last Glacial Maximum better known as the Last Ice Age 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. Then this particular group of H11 from which we descend crossed from Ukraina perhaps through Doggerland or the Scandinavian Peninsula further north to end up in the Ayrshire/Argyllshire area of Scotland and thence to the northeastern part of Ireland. The first sign of Ellen (Taylor) Pincombe is Birmingham, England in the mid 1800s and it is the only timing firmly known to me about her because she was 37 years of age when she died of pneumonia one February morning in 1997 which my grandmother never forgot. She was eleven years of age.. But timing for these events prior to that time is totally unknown. As more and more research literature comes to the surface Haplogroup H11 continues to share some of that scientific perusal because it does have such a wide range for such a small grouping. I have ancient Russian/Ukrainian/Polish/Swedish/Finnish/Scot/Irish cousins from this line. But they are very ancient to me but none the less the fact that we do share common ancestry is amazing. One of the most fundamental items though is that we share ancient Ukrainian heritage, all of us, and that alone is amazing that we know that. 

On to the day, learning Latin, footnoting the Ninth Generation and moving towards the Tenth Generation. The last week of September may well see me into the Eleventh Generation and early October finished once again. Then back to the final work through and the setting up of the Creative Commons License to protect all of that work and keep it free for all family members to peruse and add to on their own computers and together we will keep the Siderfin family alive through the ages and perhaps one of us will uncover the link back to the 1200s in Early England and find out where they lived before that. One never knows what knowledge can be acquired with dogged determination and a desire to know. 

But first of all getting ready for Church. Even though I do not leave the house to go to Church there is still a lot of preparation to be ready for the service. Jumping Jacks and teatime is first and then my solitaire games; I have already read the Bible Reading for the day - poignant perhaps although not for myself; a rich man can not enter the kingdom of heaven and so must divest himself/herself of all that they own before they die. There is a richness in that Christian Heritage that nothing else can replace that shows up in the wills of our ancestors as they dutifully gave away all that they had as death approached them. That way they can control how what they have acquired is spent after they die. It is important to do that for your own good conscience I think. It is the gift of Jesus that just keeps on giving through the ages. God in His omnipotence loves what He has created but He did make the rules and in following them we have a more fulfilling life.

On to the day. 

The weirdest experience

Today I had an appointment with the Eye Institute to look at my cataracts. The optometrist told me in January that I would need to have them operated on in another year but I decided that since he said he would have recommended that I should have done that two years ago except my husband needed his done I decided I should get right on that and get it done. My appointment with the Eye Institute was for today. I was there in plenty of time; I took a taxi because that was just the easiest thing to do. My daughter had a lot to do and it was the simple method since I would not be able to see to drive home after drops in my eyes plus I do not drive on the highway by myself anymore. And it was actually really true that I could not have done that. I couldn't read anything in actual fact. The recommendation was to have the cataract surgery with a replacement lens. The ophthalmologist discussed several different types of lenses aside from the basic lens and I had no idea there were such choices. I have worn glasses since I was eighteen months of age. I have strabismus and astigmatism with one of my eyes particularly weak. I was actually being told that all this could go away and I would be glasses free (if after study my eyes fitted into that category). Aside from the fact that I really in my mind did not think that could happen I realized as I spent some time reading about all of these lens later that I actually enjoy wearing glasses and being an outdoor sports person I also like not having bugs in my eyes. I decided to phone and tell them that I really wanted the basic lens and forget about any bells and whistles  - just basic. So we will go with that as I got through to them and was able to discuss with her assistant. The Ophthalmologist that I had as a child, wonderful man with such patience for a small child, always said that my eyes could not be operated on and not to do that so I have avoided any comment on laser surgery or anything like that through the years. He tried to correct my eyes with patching and that did not work when I was a child and said I would just always have to have glasses (I believed him although realize that the surgeries have come a long way through the years but did discover that some people have strabismus return and end up with glasses in the long run anyway). Dr. Dyson was one of the pioneers in child surgery for strabismus and he had been one of my Father's scouts (my father was actually Chief Scout in London sometime in the 30s (have the reference)) and very well liked by many people there. So I do realize that Dr Dyson, my ophthalmologist, did take special pains with my eyes because of that. I also realize that was a long time ago but he was my eye physician until we moved to Ottawa when I was 30 years of age. Dr. Sullivan, an equally good and knowledgeable ophthalmologist here looked after my eyes until he went into fulltime surgical so I decided we would just go to an optometrist and not have to book these appointments so far ahead. But in actuality it is just the fact that I really prefer wearing my glasses and I like the versatility of having the stronger lens to work away on my computer and I have confidence in that and I do not want to move to any of these new compound lens. That isn't to say that I do not see this as a very progressive movement for people and it is good if children do not have to have strabismus all their life but for me no bugs in the eyes is more than enough reason to stay with the basic lens. 

It was fun though being back in the hospital campus (the General) that I worked at for four years (I was at the Civic Campus for six years, Riverside Campus for about two years). I went to the Cafeteria after I was finished and had a huge gingerbread cookie and a coke. Glad that appointment is over; surgery likely towards the end of the year since I have to work that into when my daughter is here. In the meantime I have started once again to work on the Siderfin Book. Hope to finish it before the end of the year so should work very well. Then take a while off of the heavy computer work (I shall try to improve my execise regimen at that time although it is quite excellent already) and then start on the Pencombe book and after that the Blake book. Who knows what will be next but I do have a few ideas (George DeKay wrote a book on our mutual Gray families along with several lines that fed into these lines (Routledge, Carling, etc. etc.)). A book that included more information on the work of Sir John Carling (my great grandmother's first cousin) would certainly be interesting to family members (I just create *.pdf documents and put them up on my server and then anyone can download them at will). I will give copies to Family Search as well if they want them. 

I also want to continue working on the H11 haplogroup and would eventually like to publish a book on that particular subclade of H. The DNA of my father and brothers would also make an interesting study (I-PH151) as it goes extinct in our generation although there are still a number of male descendants of John Blake and Ann (Farmer) Blake as well as John's parents Thomas Blake and Sarah (Coleman) Blake of Upper Clatford. This is an interesting line because it goes back to Joseph Blake (and Joanna (King) Blake of Upper Clatford) of Andover who was the only descendant of Thomas Blake and Ann (Carter) Blake who survived to adulthood and this Thomas Blake was the only  child of Thomas Blake and Mary (Spring) Blake who married 6 Nov 1708 at Andover St Mary. This limited number of descendants in the 1700s makes the family easy to trace back into the 1600s and earlier as it turns out. I would like to do more on the Buller family of my maternal grandmother. Now that I am in to these surname studies they are quite fascinating and as I withdraw eventually from my commitment to the Guild of one-name studies (Blake and Pincombe) I can see all sorts of interesting ways to spend my time. My father had great success all those years ago with his cataract removal. He could do his beloved cross word puzzles and spent hours working on them after he was semi-retired. Dr Dyson always said that I had exactly my father's eyes and I am younger than he was and he never wore sunglasses. I hate them but have worn them for years now. They block the real world. 

The evening is fast disappearing and I am up late. Off to bed. Goodnight dear God and may peace become more than just a wish.

Statistics for my blog

I haven't looked for such a long time at the blog statistics. In total 513128 page views of the 2700 blogs that I have written since I created this blog in 2008. I have 103 followers. Average daily read is around 50 to 60 with last month having 1820 pages read. The Charley book is somewhat popular just at the moment. The blogs where I list a lot of records tend to be the most popular. The will transcriptions for the Blake, Pincombe and Buller families also very popular. I have received over 300 comments but often forget to check so that they can become quite dated before I respond. The location of some of my readers is a surprise although I understand that "bots" make up some of this total. The H11 work means a lot of Eastern European readers mostly Russian and the Ukrainian but lately Scandinavian as well. One can see the trek of my ancient mtDNA ancestor coming away from the Ice Refuge to make her trek to northern Scotland likely when Doggerland still existed. I have matches in Scandinavia in families ancient to the area there. Brian Sykes "Blood of the Isles Database" includes these ancient markers for H11a2a1 which I carry.

I created this blog as my historical memory of our trip to Salt Lake City Family History Library in 2008 in terms of looking at the documents. I wanted to remember my thoughts at that time. We were there for eight days and I spent the time photographing records many of which are now online and I have looked on occasion when my image makes me think I should! I never dreamed people would actually read it to be honest. Early on a reader sent me a portion of Augustine Question's will and I discovered that the Siderfin published history had been incorrect with the surname of Robert Siderfin's wife (my 6x great grandparents). His wife was Elizabeth Question not Blackford. That was handy as Blackford did not work in any historical searches but Question did.  The blog does tell a great deal about me and it is interesting that an introverted person such as I am would have gone through life very quietly until the rise of the Internet.

I also encountered some resistance to my Blake research in Cornwall which came in as comments on my blog. All I do is collect information and publish what I find. For myself I would find it exciting if someone was able to lift records from ancient material that shed light on my Blake family prior to the 1300s when they are found in the Andover, Hampshire area. To have Breton ancestors would suit me fine to be honest. My grandfather (who lived with us when I was a child) talked a great deal about his Blake ancestors. For him, they had always lived in the Andover area and his DNA does tell that story of an ancient people in the British Isles dating back as much as 8,000 to 12,000 years ago. I did submit the yDNA to a study looking at ancient British family names so perhaps in my lifetime I will learn more than I know now. My grandfather and his brother were the first in their Blake lines to come to Canada although my father did recall that one of his Knight cousins went west. One of this uncle's great granddaughters tested on 23 and Me and we found each other. She also knew that some of her relatives had come to Ontario. This Knight family came to Canada in the early 1900s with my father and his parents coming in 1913. 

So I will persevere and keep blogging until I have published all of this material that I have accumulated through the years. I do download my blog regularly but my daughter plans to keep it going once she retires. She is slowly acquiring an interest in family research and the DNA does tend to do that to people I think. First the DNA makes you incredibly curious as you see these matches pop up that fit the research and then you are sold on it. A day doesn't pass that I do not check the various testing companies to see if there are any new matches. 

A cousin wrote to me from South Africa and I could see that he is matching me and other descendants of the William Welch and Sarah Cheatle family of Birmingham, England. They had identical twin daughters Anne and Sarah and both of whom had large families (12 and 13 children). The number of descendants is huge and a number of them have tested now. Rather then matching as 4th cousins (William and Sarah are my 3x great grandparents) the matches are closer to third and even second. The amount of shared DNA is amazing sometimes. 

Breakfast time and back to typing the Siderfin book. I am inserting the Discovery Catalogue Information where the various records are transcribed just to aid in that research for anyone reading the book once it is published online. I suspect it will double the size of the book as I already have more pages than where I have stopped typing for the moment. I have a number of additions at this point in time not yet done. James Saunders felt that he had enough evidence to show that the Siderfin family was in the Luxborough/Cutcombe area of Somerset before 1548. With all the scanned records in the Archives it is now becoming possible to really look at that idea. He did the hard research back in the 1910s at Kew for which he is very much to be appreciated. Without the earnest dedication of family historians in the 1800s and early 1900s much of this information passed from family to family may have been lost until an eager PhD student in history decided to investigate particular items but they would not likely look at it from a family viewpoint. 

Neanderthal and Denisovan

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/neanderthals-suffered-a-lot-of-traumatic-injuries-so-how-did-they-live-so-long/ar-BBOybzT?ocid=spartandhp

Ever since testing my brother and my own DNA at all the testing companies I have acquired a few results for Neanderthal and Denisovan.

National Genographic found my brother to have 1.9% Neanderthal and 3.5% Denisovan. Our Denisovan is at the upper range as the average is 2.1%.

23 and Me found 300 variants for my brother (highest is 397 in their database apparently) and I tested at 285 variants.

Every once in while, like the article's link above, information is published on Neanderthal. When I was young in the 1940s and 1950s, the image of Neanderthal was poorly understood and assumptions were made at that time that are no longer considered correct. These days Neanderthals are thought to have survived for 500,000 years and perished because of their inability to adapt to the Ice Age. Given other research, the interbreeding with Homo Sapiens did not result in viable male offspring; only female children survived so one is left to surmise this was also a cause for the decline in Neanderthal.

The Denisovan rather intrigues me as we have 3.5% with an average overall for Homo Sapiens tested of 2.1%. Since my family's yDNA and mtDNA are ancient to the British Isles,the presence of 3.5% Denisovan is our family is rather interesting. The mitochondrial line H11a2a1 is thought to have wintered in the Ukraina refuge during the last glacial maximum. East Asians tend to have the higher percentages of Denisovan with 5% being found in some Australian peoples. Where ever did we acquire 3.5%? But then once one gets back into the 7th, 8th great grandparents not all of these individuals are known. Traders from the South Seas were certainly coming to Europe and perhaps I have this very interesting ancestor way back then!

My audience

My audience always surprises me even if it is bots as some people have said. In the past couple of hours I have had over 400 hits by people living in Russia. It certainly isn't my political views that they are looking at as I rarely publish political posts. It is H11 haplogroup. It shows just how small the world really is. My ancient maternal line finds its resting spot in Ayrshire/Argyllshire Scotland and probably has been there for 8000 years or more but H11 is one of those smaller H haplogroups that has resting spots in specific areas of the world. Likely H11 wintered in the Ice Refuge known as Ukraina and located in the Ossettia/Georgia/Ukraine area from 15 to 20 thousand years ago. From there H11 went mostly westward with some making the great trek through the Scandinavian Peninsula and then across to Scotland and Ireland. Another migration crossed through Poland into Germany, the Netherlands, France and into southern England and perhaps also to Ireland. Another arm of migration went southward into Hungary moving towards Greece and can also be found in Spain. The Spanish arm may have also come south from France. One group remained where they were expanding outward into Russia. But our numbers are small; about 1.5% of H haplogroup but that still numbers in the millions! My H11 project at FT DNA includes quite a few people who live in Russia. I publish an H11 Newsletter quarterly and the latest was just published on the FT DNA website as well as my blog.

422,000 page views in nine and a half years

I was surprised to discover that there have been nearly 422,000 page views in the past nine and a half years since I started my blog. There have been a few times when it would appear that individuals are reading them like a book from the beginning.

Most popular posts

1852 pageviews  - Welch at Rugeley, Staffordshire and Birmingham (24 May 2011) (this rather family oriented post surprised me until I noted that it includes the land tax assessments for Rugeley from 1813 and likely this is the popular item in that post)

1303 pageviews - 100,000 page views - 26th February 2014 (noting it took six years nearly to reach 100,000 and now just four more years to reach over 400,000)

829 pageviews - The Rashleigh Family of Devon and Cornwall (14 Aug 2011) (a popular article that I transcribed from Devon Notes and Queries, Volume IV, Part VI, April 1907)

770 pageviews - Blake Newsletter, Volume 5, Issue 4, 2016 (28 Sep 2016) (included an article on Richard le Blak of Rouen who came to England circa 1274)

751 pageviews - H11 haplogroup (5 Nov 2013) (this is a particularly sought after article with nearly 300 members in the H11 project at FT DNA)

649 pageviews - Happy New Year (1 Jan 2016)

642 pageviews - Unknown Taylor (23 Dec 2015) (love it that this article is in the top ten; it would be fun to discover for sure more about my great grandmother Ellen (Taylor) Buller)

634 pageviews - First DNA Circle at AncestryDNA (3 Mar 2016) (I now have two DNA Circles!)

629 pageviews - Banns at North Molton 1844 to 1850 (19 Sep 2011)

625 pageviews - 52 Ancestor Challenge (10 Jan 2016)

Audience

United States 161098 pageviews (Blake articles are particularly sought after I suspect)

Germany          66416 pageviews

Russia               45517 pageviews (about 10 percent of the members of the H11 project live in present day Russia)

United Kingdom 30993 (not surprising given my 100% English ancestry)

Canada                25131 (Blake articles again I suspect)

France                 16140 (I have done some work on our son in laws French Canadian ancestry)

China                   10029

Australia                 7706 (Blake again perhaps but also shared English ancestry)

Ukraine                    6838 (H11 - about 2% of the H11 haplogroup members are from the Ukraine)

Sweden                    2145 (H11 - about 5% of the H11 haplogroup members are from Scandinavia)

Traffic sources

https://www.google.co.uk/
http://kippeeb.blogspot.com/
https://www.google.com/

https://www.google.ca/
https://www.google.com.au/
http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/elizabethmain.htm

H11 Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2018

H11 Newsletter

Table of Contents

1.   FT DNA Project

2.   Project Statistics

3.   Phylotree

4.   Denisovan Ancestry

5.   Breakdown by subclade in the project including “resting spot” as noted by contributor

1.   FT DNA Project:

There are now 294 members in our H11 project. Full sequence results are completed on 254 members of the group. Interestingly 205 members of this group have also done Family Finder. Unfortunately it is not possible to visually look at the Family Finder results as that would compromise the privacy of individuals. However, you can look at your matches in Family Finder. 

2.   Project Statistics (yDNA statistics removed):

Combined GEDCOMs Uploaded	47
DISTINCT mtDNA Haplogroups	16
Family Finder	205
Genographic 2.0 Transfers	19
Maternal Ancestor Information	247
mtDNA	265
mtDNA Full Sequence	254
mtDNA Plus	262
mtDNA Subgroups	22
Paternal Ancestor Information	229
Total Members	294
Unreturned Kits	12

3.   The latest release of the phylotree used by FT DNA was dated 18 Feb 2016:

H11 breakdown in the PhyloTree mt:

Within the study group we have members in every sub-haplogroup except H11a5 (and it can be seen in the chart above that the mutation C15040T marks this subgrouping).

http://www.phylotree.org/tree/R0.htm *

*van Oven M, Kayser M. 2009. Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation. Hum Mutat 30(2):E386-E394. http://www.phylotree.org.

doi:10.1002/humu.20921

4.   Denisovan Ancestry:

Recently I read an online blog 

https://iseekdeadpeople.wordpress.com/tag/haplogroup-h11/

and discovered that this H11 individual also had a larger percentage of Denisovan ancestry (2.2%). Testing my brother at National Geographic 2.0 Project had yielded a result of 3.5% Denisovan. The average is 2.1%. H11 does appear to have “wintered” at the Ukraina Refuge during the Last Glacial Maximum and many members of our group are from Eastern Europe. Is it possible that other members of H11 also show a higher value for Denisovan? 

5.   Breakdown by subclade in the project including “resting spot” as noted by contributor (actual mutations in the coding area have been removed from this display):

H11: Ten members – Croatia (1), Finland (1), Germany (1), Ireland (2), Poland (1), Scotland (1), Spain (1), Sweden (1) and one unknown

H11-C16354T: One member - Scotland (1)

H11 (2 mutations) -16354T: Five members – all unknown

H11-93G-1 mutation: Five members – Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway) (5)

H11a: Fifty six members – Croatia (1), England (3), Estonia (1), Finland (4), France (2), Germany (3), Hungary (1), Ireland (2), Israel (1), Lithuania (1), Norway (4), Poland (2), Russia (1), Scotland (1), Sweden (3) and twenty six unknown

H11a-T152C: Nine members – Germany (1), Ireland (1), The Netherlands (1), Norway (3), Germany (1) and two unknown

H11a-one mutation: Four members – England (1), France (1) and two unknown

H11a-207A: Two members – British Isles (1), England (1)

H11a-two mutations: Two members – England (1) and one unknown

H11a-one mutation: Four members – Finland (2), Sweden (2)

H11a-one mutation: Two members – both unknown

H11a1: Forty six members – Croatia (1), England (1), Finland (15), Germany (1), Norway (1), Poland (4), Russia (6), Scotland (1), Spain (1), Sweden (4), Ukraine (1) and ten unknown

H11a1-one mutation: Two members – Poland (1), Serbia (1)

H11a1-143A-one mutation: Four members – England (1), Ireland (1), Scotland (1), Sweden (1)

H11a1-16209C: Three members – Hungary (1), Slovakia (1) and one unknown

H11a1-16224C: Three members – Finland (1), Hungary (1), Sweden (1)

H11a1-16299G: Three members – all are unknown

H11a1-198T: Two members – Sweden (2)

H11a2: Seven members – England (1), Norway (1) and five unknown

H11a2-16092Y: Two members – Sweden (1) and one unknown

H11a2-16261T: Three members – England (1), Finland (1), Sweden (1)

H11a2-one mutation: Two members – Italy (1) and one unknown

H11a2-16092C: Two members – Croatia (1), Hungary (1)

H11a2-16092C-16261T: Three members – Finland (3)

H11a2-16092C-one mutation: Two members – Greece (1), Ukraine (1)

H11a2a: Six members – all are unknown

H11a2a-three mutations: Four members – Sweden (4)

H11a2a1: Thirteen members – England (1) Ireland (2), United Kingdom (1) and nine unknown

H11a2a1-one mutation: Three members – England (2) and one unknown

H11a2a2: Fourteen members – Austria (1), Finland (2), Germany (1), Hungary (1), Poland (2), Russia (4), Sweden (1), Ukraine (1) and one is unknown

H11a2a2-one mutation: Two members – Eastern Europe (1), Poland (1)

H11a2a2-one mutation: Two members – Poland (1) and one unknown

H11a2a3: Four members – England (1), Finland (1) and two unknown

H11a2a3-16380T: Two members – both are unknown

H11a3: Two members – England (1) and one unknown

H11a4: Five members – England (1), Ireland (1), Scotland (1), Sweden (1) and one unknown

H11a6: One member - unknown

H11a7: Four members – Germany (1), England (1), Ireland (1), Scotland (1)

H11a8: Five members – Ireland (2) and three unknown

H11b: Two members – both are unknown

H11b1: Six members – Germany (1), Norway (1), Poland (1), Serbia (1), Scotland (1) and one unknown

H11b1-16261T: Eight members – Poland (2), Ukraine (1) and five unknown

H11b1-16357C: Four members – Germany (1), Sweden (2) and one unknown

Any submissions to this newsletter can be submitted to Elizabeth Kipp (kippeeb@rogers.com).