Genealogical tree in process

 Finally down to work on the genealogical tree for Blake. It will begin with Robert Blake and he has two sons Richard and Thomas. Both of these men leave their wills and Richard leaves his just a couple of months after his father passed away with Thomas' will (younger brother) being nearly twenty years later. Jone Blake (widow) does not name her husband but the wills of Richard and Jone do give one the impression that they were husband and wife. Jone names her children as Robert, Nicholas and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is married to (unknown) Mylne although in her father's will she is not married. Richard naming his eldest son Robert  in his will is helpful as well as in that his father was also Robert who left his will dated 14 Dec 1521. I have quite a bit on these lines which I will now pull into my legacy file. Charlou Dolan worked on the family of Robert (son of Richard) and I have all of her work but the dates are just approximate. I have more details now from other records. But I will credit her with her work in the book when I write it up. 

I need to do a little more work on the Latin in Robert's will just to clarify a couple of small points.   That was lucky learning all that Latin but I need to get back to the Mango Languages Latin and will be doing that soon just to keep it fresh. 

Up early, mind is racing. It happens and I just have to work through it and then sleep for a while to keep the brain rested. So doing some short projects just to wear me out once again and back to sleep for a couple of hours. 

This was a very busy summer and really never stopped from early May right to the end of August nearly. I am looking forward to this fairly quiet September and then on into the Fall. The one hour a day on the yard will be good exercise and lots of fresh air. Plus the yard will look better. The plants that Edward guarded are still there to a certain extent but some are lost and that is sort of sad but it happens in nature all the time so must not dwell on it. Something always replaces it and sometimes that is just as beautiful as what was there and less fragile generally. 

I also need to get to work on the Kipp Newsletters as I promised them to Chilliwack Archives. I need to add a Creative Commons License to them and I did write the final one yesterday and put it up online. I remembered to put that on Edward's blog as well. I will try to send the email again today to the members of the yDNA Kip-Kipp study. I may have been tired putting it in and missed something.  There is a little bit of work to do there as there are about a dozen newsletters that I wrote. Edward did not want to do that; he preferred just writing anything in his blog but I decided it would be quicker for me to add everything from the blog into newsletters and make it available to the entire study group. That does appear to be going to work well as they would like the Newsletters at the Archives and then I can just take them down. 

It is possible that my older daughter when she retires sometime into the future and it will probably be quite a while as she loves working especially teaching and helping students doing their masters and PhD but she also teaches undergraduate as well during each calendar year. She has several research projects ongoing with past students who now have their own academic positions in the United States and around the world. But I digress at some point into the future I suspect my eldest daughter will take over the DNA Studies so I am ensuring that I have complete files so that she doesn't have to start it all over again. I do have to put together Edward's files as I just gave him sort of final information on his different lines as especially Ancestry proved all of his lines to be accurate which was all he wanted. But he also tested at all the different companies and so there is a lot of data but never put into databases or saved as single name files for each match. So a lot of work to do there and I am in the thought process on how to proceed getting that done. I will use the same principle as I used with my own. When he saw my phasing of my grandparents he wanted that as well and did ask his one niece. The only difference really is I have a set of five siblings and for Edward I have himself and many many cousins from 1st cousin to third  in large numbers and even larger numbers of more than third cousins. I believe I can phase his grandparents with all this data so we will see how that goes. I wish I had the DNA of his nieces and perhaps one day hard to say. Both of them would be great as they are not a great deal alike and so would cover both sides of the family likely. The older one is very like Edward in her younger pictures (Edward's first cousins (six males I think, I have forgotten as I do not know his family only met them rarely) look alike in many ways) and the younger one very like her father Allen in her younger pictures although both look like their mother as well but 1/2 is great. The people that I most knew in Princeton were friends of his father (and mother) that filled Edward in on lots of interesting stories about his father. But we only visited with them a few times but wonderful conversations. They were primarily people that Edward worked for when he was young; he first started to work in tobacco when he was just 12/13 years of age. Too young really; not good to be around all those chemicals when you are growing without taking good precautions such as they do now a days. 

Back to bed. Solitaire puzzles when I wake up again as I am getting sleepy.  

Tiredness is creeping in once again.  

 

Reflecting on Edward

 When I met Edward one of the first items that he mentioned to me was his quest to learn more about his father. Edward's father was Lorne Bernice Kipp and he was the son of William Henry Kipp who was the son of Benjamin Kipp who was the son of Isaac Kipp. Edward knew all of that from his uncle Howard Leslie Kipp. He also knew that his father had been treasurer at Princeton United Church and had sung in the Choir if I remember all of that correctly. Lorne was a farmer and his farm was just across Highway 2 facing the Village of Princeton, Ontario. So Edward had some ambitions in life including going to university and studying Chemistry and going all the way to do his PhD, he wanted to have a family and he wanted to be treasurer at the United Church and to sing in the Choir. He achieved all of those desires in his life and was quite content. The genealogy took him down paths that were appealing to me - we did a lot of traveling in the United States and Canada searching for his Kipp particularly ancestral line and our first trip was to Northeast Town in Dutchess County. We knew that Isaac and his wife Hannah (Mead) Kipp had come to Canada in October 1800 as settlers looking for land and over time he discovered a connection with Thomas Hornor that he hoped might give him more insight into the Kip family of New York/New Jersey. After yDNA testing he knew that his Kipp line was descendant of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip of New Amsterdam. The exact name of those ancestors eluded him but he collected as much information as he could with the thought that others would utilize it and find that name connection. It was a difficult time 1 Nov 1764 when Isaac was born/baptized. The Family Bible did not specify whether this was baptism or birth although was on the birth page. 

Jobs were difficult to come by when Edward finished his PhD in 1970 and he went on to do a PostDoc in Chemical Engineering but still jobs had been quickly taken up by American draft dodgers coming to Canadian Universities in particular so the new graduates had to settle for teaching High School or industry if they could find it or do another degree which Edward did; he finished his Masters in Library Science in 1975 and that did get him a job at the National Research Council in Ottawa. He was thrilled when his eldest did her PhD in Library and Information Science and from his Alma Mater. He was equally thrilled when his youngest did her Masters in Biology and then an MD. 

He had planned so many trips still to do but COVID came into our lives and changed so much around him. 

But we sat thinking about our 54 years of marriage and it was the anniversary of that which is just two days away that got us thinking. He was happy that all the things that he had talked about all those years ago had come to fruition. He had walked in his father's steps with his love of gardening, with his love of the United Church and following again his father's time as treasurer and in the choir, and his own ambition to do his PhD in Chemistry and be a scientist. A little earlier in the summer our eldest had brought him a List of Citations of his work that she had collected and it was a long list actually with a number in the period after he wrote his Thesis (his work was initial work in the field) and then a huge interest again in the early 1980s extending up into the 2000s. He was thrilled with the collection of citations. Edward was only two years old when his father died in a farming accident. His father had epilepsy and had been home schooled and then managed the farm for the family. He had a fall in the barn that was fatal as his head hit cement I understand from what Edward said. 

As our Anniversary comes once again I will make two donations I think with one to the Branch Library of the Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors as usual (a group that he joined in the early 1980s when he went with Gordon Riddle, his cousin, to the first meeting he ever attended (I was not interested in going when we lived in the London area and that interest didn't come at this time in the Ottawa area either (it would take a while for me to take up the mantle of genealogy like 2003)). He loved the group and spent the next close to fourty years as part of it in so many ways (and he volunteered me for items he wanted done (I always think he was trying to keep me at home as the psychiatrist had told him I needed a lot of rest and quiet)). However all that volunteering involved my going out or people calling me on the telephone or having to call people on the telephone (his United Church, the OGS, Treasurer at Camp Bitobi and so many items except World Day of Prayer which I volunteered to do)! And I did go back to work as soon as I could actually although at home for over fifteen years for the bulk of that work and then back into the working world.  

The other donation I am contemplating picking up once again was his donation to his Alma Mater (and mine actually Western University was the University of Western Ontario). I shall investigate that as I would want to do that in his memory. 

I have continued most of the donations that he was doing along with the ones that I was doing. All societies need donations to organizations in order to provide that activity or need to continue being met as they are a social need for many many people. When money concentrates in one small group then life does not flow as equally or well as God meant it to.  

September finally

 The second day of cleaning and it will be the basement. Glad that it is September and the children are back in school so my food shopping days can begin again. I always stock up in mid-August to last until on into September. I actually have quite a bit on hand still. Moving does sound so delightful actually. I will probably just order my groceries delivered though. That actually works very well. 

Edward was so attached to his property here but I never was except at the very beginning when we first  moved here. It was so lovely and quiet. We knew our friends over on the street behind us. We could just spend all our time  on our projects including our daughter. She was so into reading but gradually she made a couple of friends that she played with mostly on the climbers in our back yard as we came with three in total which we set up for her to play on as she had had them at the house in South Ottawa which we were renting. But she loved to read and was starting to write little stories to send to her grandparents. Then she was off to four year old kindergarten in the Fall at Convent Glen Catholic as a tuition student since Edward had listed us as public school supporters but they had a spot for her in their four year old programme (no four year old kindergarten in the public school system then) which was great. I would have kept her going there but Edward preferred she be at the public school. Her best friend was just two doors up and they were best friends until he moved away. Her other friends were close by which was nice. 

I remember being out for a walk with our eldest daughter just after we moved here (eight years older than her younger sister) and some children called her over to play on a climber but she said no she was going for a walk with her parents. It was cute. She was like that although she did feel sorry for a couple that dropped by our house with their dog and they were saying they didn't have any children to her. But I told her they will have children eventually. He was our family doctor actually and she did like him at first until she started getting her allergy shots and then she did not like him anymore but she was only five. When we went to Edward's Church the first time she ran away when he came over to speak to us. Edward stayed and chatted with him; they did work on their in common Kipp genealogy as they both came from the same area (I think it was on Gordon's maternal side but no ideas on that). I avoided all such conversations so do not know  much about it. I think he might have been younger than Edward though; no idea on that. When I was checking the Tillsonburg Kipp family as one of the people in Edward's Kipp yDNA study had asked a question, I discovered that Gordon was likely from that Kipp family so they were about fourth cousins or greater actually as the common ancestor in this family is unknown - Edward descends from Isaac Kipp (Northeast Town, Dutchess County, New York) and John Kipp was a Quaker who had come up from somewhere in New York State to the Niagara area before moving on to Tillsonburg, Ontario. I think Gordon thought he was descendant of Richard Titus Kipp (brother to Edward's Benjamin Kipp (Edward's great grandfather)) but Edward had placed him in the Tillsonburg Kipp family at some point. His last name was Riddle though so on his mother's side perhaps or could be his father's mother's side. 

Reading Nehemiah and the last couple of chapters and then will  move on to Tobit since this is a Catholic  Bible that I have. The King James Version does not have Tobit and Judith but I will read them both. Then it is Esther followed by two more Books that are not in the King James Version 1st and 2nd Maccabees. Then Job, Psalms and Proverbs and then are a few more additional books in the Old Testament Catholic Bible. Always remembering why I started to reread the Bible from the beginning as I understand better my thoughts on resolving all of our differences and moving to that uplifted plain of peace that would give the world so much happiness. I always felt that Armageddon had come during the Second World War and we had survived by our ingenuity and the hard fight that was fought against evil and we had moved through Revelations to a peaceful existence. God very much in our minds and hearts but the second coming did not happen then and is perhaps way into the future because God loves humanity and wants them to survive much longer. It is something that I have felt for a long time and I wonder why I think it now.  Perhaps the Bible will reveal that to me; no ideas on that. Millions of people have read the Bible but one has a different look when one is in their 80s I think as one reads the Bible. Although with the Russians throwing around the idea of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine human life might not be as long as it could be. What does one do with such evil people?

Today it is cleaning day and I will do the top floor after all; I was going to do the basement but first I will vacuum the basement. Generally I wash the floor because 3/4s of it is cement and the rest area rugs. Washing the cement keeps the dust down.  We only use the one end of it as a TV room/exercise area. The rest of it used to be packed full of tools and all sorts of stuff most of it went to Salvation Army or the Tool Library and some to neighbours except for what my son in law wanted - he got first choice. We kept enough tools to do repairs that we can do ourselves. It still surprises me to see how empty it is. 

Another beautiful day in God's world. Success for the Liberals they won all three of the ridings in the by-elections. Although I do not necessarily support the Liberals in all of the things that they do I feel very strongly that the idea of diversification of trade is our most important step including our huge investments in the military along with getting these pipelines built to tidewater. The Eastern pipeline is also very important to Ontario/Quebec. I just do not think we will be giving up oil anytime soon in terms of cars although EVs are certainly interesting. We buy so many cars in Canada and we did have a Canadian car industry which was bought out; perhaps a new one will appear in the near future. There have been so many surprises. 

So cleaning today and then work on the genealogical tables and mostly quiet work once I finish the cleaning. I am still getting back my energy after a very busy summer. There is a lot of yard work but I shall soon begin my one hour per day cleaning up the yards. It will take a few weeks but that is fine. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. 

Prayers continuing for the souls of those who lost their lives in the glacial flooding in Nepal and Tibet. Prayers for the rescue of the thousands still buried in the mud in tunnels under the earth. The Chinese military are doing a fantastic job of helping in the rescue there. They have been on the job since it happened.  

 

 

 

A new ancient ancestor

 Interesting work being done mentioned in a study published in Science. Unlike Neanderthal and Denisovan this particular "ghost" ancestor appears in both African and non-African populations which takes the date of entry of this particular genus into the evolution of Homo sapiens further back prior to the time that modern humans spread into Europe and Asia. Unlike Denisovan which can be up to 5% of genetic inheritance although in Europeans closer to 3% or less or Neanderthal which tends to be in the 2% or less in modern humans of European descent, this earlier ancestor makes up about 0.5 to 1% of the Homo sapiens genome today for all carriers. The timeline then is at least 800,000 years ago as opposed to Neanderthal about 50,000 years ago as a European event and Denisovan also about 50,000 years ago but more of an Asian/Oceania event. The science is picking up all of these ideas with the test for my brother showing 2% Neanderthal and 3% Denisovan with ancient ancestry in the British Isles but that area was under a kilometre of ice until 12,000 years ago but the yDNA tells us that this was a group that wintered in the Balkans coming north early and probably crossing via Doggerland to the now British Isles 8,000 to 12,000 years ago. This was something that rather intrigued my brother who consented to have his samples done (I paid for it all but convinced him that I should do that by saying I would publish it although I was just wanting to save him any costs). I suppose in a way I have published it to a certain extent and far more in the Blake book. 

Dogs up early as was I and breakfast is all done and they are just waiting for the ground to dry up a little and their breakfast to be settled before a good run again outside. Walk for the older dog as she is still strengthening your leg. 

Continuing to read 1 Chronicles and the history of the people of Israel continues to be reviewed by the authors of this particular book of the Bible. David especially receives a great deal of study in these chapters. David spent some time preparing for the House of the Lord to be built (Solomon his son would build it the Lord said). Taking my time somewhat although a lot of it is the chronological descent of the various families. There is always this temptation to make tables but I am not sure that was the actual plan for people reading the text but rather to record the names as Israeli names for future naming of children. A thought on my part as forenames were very important in families through the generations and given very often for a reason. 

Yesterday a little more work on the matches with just thirty left to do. Once they are done then I move back to phasing the great grandparents and continuing to create the genealogical tree of the Blake family at Andover. Here and there in the records and in the literature I do get some help with that. 

Myself I am just moving along day by day doing the work that I would like to accomplish and thankful to God for all that He has given to us as a people of the world. We need to follow God's words in our daily lives and the world is a better place when we do. Love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love our neighbour as ourself. 

Out twice already with the dogs and it is another beautiful day in God's world. We are blessed to have such a beautiful planet to live on. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. I must get to the Kipp newsletter and perhaps today is that day and then I can send them all off to the Chilliwack Archives. They are available to Kipp family members on FT DNA who are in the Kipp family study there. They were not something Edward ever planned or wanted to do. He preferred just to share his work in his blog. But I decided blogs can disappear and that I would put that work into newsletters that he had spent hours on and communicated with other researchers in The Netherlands and Germany to have their opinions as well. I always find when the dogs are with me I love the time with them and the work has more trouble getting accomplished. I also need to write a letter to my sister as I am trying to keep up a weekly letter to her.  

A change is as good as a rest

 This old idiom has stood the test of time - A change is as good as a rest. It just takes a little time to get used to the change and at 81 it will probably be a number of days. The dogs have joined me whilst their home is being worked on so to speak - a few changes here and there. It will be fun for me and I already have enjoyed it but I do not get as much work done for sure. They are always in motion which also tends to be true of me. We quickly get used to each other every time that they come. They just want to be loved and that works well as I do love them very much. 

Certainly when my daughter arrives home each time to do her research time and be my live in caregiver instead of my far away caregiver I slip into that role very quickly; seldom takes more than a few minutes. Finally the person is here that will take me hither and yon to pick up items that I only buy a few times a year and help me with paperwork just to make sure that yes I did understand everything that is being changed. Life is always changing - insurance companies update their policies and all such and the like. The City is making changes and they involve my at least knowing that they are. Each time as my daughter's return to her in place work starts to be on my horizon then I must admit I do feel that change and it is not too long before she will retire and return full time but until then I must manage my life although my other daughter is here but she is very very busy as well so I always prepare myself for that change when it comes. The dogs will be with me which is wonderful; they are good for my nerves and we enjoy each other's company. But I can not get much work done when they are as compared to when my daughter is here. 

My daughter has hundreds and hundreds of students (perhaps even more no ideas on that) who have gone through her Metadata classes, Data Science classes, Relational databases, etc, Methodology in research classes that are working all over the United States now over the last nearly twenty years. Many of them write to ask her for references and others keep her up to date on how they are doing. Technology is so very important in every field now but especially in Libraries. It is important for Librarians to know all about the new tools and especially Artificial Intelligence because the youth wants to know all that and often enough libraries even in the smallest places are where they go to ask. Very important for librarians to be knowledgeable on computers and all the skills that come with computers. Lots of librarians come back and do courses in these new advanced studies so that they are able to help the younger students who come into their libraries with the newer methodologies (certifications are possible which doesn't hurt in one's job for sure).  I would have loved to have her here always close by but that was not to be; jobs were not available or in most cases Americans actually got the jobs here and when she was offered a job by an American University she took it and off she went. Her aim was to teach them all the skills that she knew from her years of education, she also worked in industry giving her that special edge I think of having been employed in that workforce (it was actually an American company here) that would eventually hire her students. It is her teaching that is most important to her and one of her research projects has developed out of the need for more technology in the field and she is an expert in that work. The research is primarily with former students and she is helping them to become resourceful and efficient scientists as she is. 

But I digress and my reading of 1 Chronicles continues. This renewal of the earlier Bible chapters was timely for the Israeli people, who had been forcefully and cruelly carried off to Assyria and Babylon far from their homes in Israel and Judah, reinforcing the stories handed down to them from their ancestors; clarifying those stories for them. 

I realized when I was looking for an email from one of my cousins in the United States that it really is a long time since I have corresponded with any of them actually. I see their comments on Facebook sometimes but I have not written to very many although have received emails from them occasionally. 

Must get some more work done. I have corresponded now with the Chilliwack Archives concerning this present issue of the Kipp Newsletter and will try to get that done today. I want the people on that list (Kipp yDNA group) to know that this material is available at that archive although it will take them awhile I am sure to get it into a Fonds for easy access. Such work takes a lot of time especially when it is the research of someone else. 

One item I think is true though; we need to rebuild lost industries (bought out by American companies and they took it offshore to Asia) by creating them again with lots of updates (there are so many industries gone from Canada that were here when I was a child). The youthful mind can come up with all sorts of new and interesting ways to create products (I still need that Canadian made vacuum cleaner!). This time we must always support them and help to keep them from being out competed and/or selling them to American companies. I love the United States but Canada is also meant to be a strong nation and the United States will always have a strong friendly partner sharing this huge border with them. We are meant to be great friends. We have been for a very long time.  

Solitaire puzzles to do and it is cleaning day and today is the basement.  

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.  

Solomon does not obey the rules of God and disaster comes

 Chapters 10 to 15 in 1 Kings tells of Solomon being very wise and well received in the world but he does not follow the word of God as he worships foreign gods following his wives' religions. God decides to split out the tribes leaving just one tribe in Judah to the descendant of Solomon namely Rehoboam. Ten tribes of Israel would have Jeroboam as their King but he did not follow God's laws either. Still one reads and understands that faithfulness to God must be 100% but God will still listen but one must obey. David is referred to a great deal throughout 1 Kings because he obeyed in all things but one his adultery with Bathsheba. This line of David continues to be important throughout the chapters read today. I am reading chapter by chapter and not applying what I know will come so I do not see what some religious scholars see. What I do think is that God has found a human that suited Him in David and He holds up David as an example. He sinned, he paid for that sin in a huge way and returned to absolute obedience to God. Within David were the elements of humanity that God wanted but He doesn't say why. I think that is what I have gained from reading through these chapters. God continues to listen but obedience is the only way to God. 

We worked on the indexes for the picture binders yesterday for about two hours. This method will take hours and hours and one wonders at its value since an index already exists in junction with files that lead to the actual images all scanned. We decided to not revise the index down to the six to eight albums that are desired out of this redo to the fourty binders. It was a good decision. The first step will be to extract all of the images of my husband's birth family from the binders and send them to his two nieces. The second step is to look at the idea that a Fonds could be created with all the scanning of various items that Edward did could be burned to DVDs along with his handwritten research note books and other material that fit into a Fonds of his collections that deal with his various family lines (perhaps in the OGS Library of the Ottawa Branch). I will write about that today. I will also ask them if they would like a set of year books that he has for Western University. We have a duplicate set of our years since we both graduated from Western. The remainder of that set of books he collected through the years for his uncle's graduation year and a number of other books for various reasons. The third collection separation will be to make up a set of six to eight binders of our family. All of my pictures are electronic as my younger sister holds the originals which works very well for me but there are a number of Edward's pictures from childhood 1944 to the 1960s which will provide an interesting look into his life as a child and then our 54.5 year marriage with just 1960s  to 2001 in actual photographs as the time from 2001 to 2021 when Edward passed away is all electronic. These will be put onto small drives. The fourth collection is a set of collections really of our trips here and there and they will be only electronic. There are a couple of very interesting ones that we will publish under Creative Commons license in memory of Edward which were primarily taken by him on our trips into Northern Ontario for the most part in the first seven years of our marriage. So really happy to have worked that through and I will begin the work probably in early September along with writing my books. 

Managed a few more DNA matches and I think I still have perhaps three or four more pages to go through over the next couple of weeks. Again I am only collecting items that provide an insight into areas that I want to refine for the most part but also if they include all or many of the four siblings results on this database. A couple more Blake with very early American colonial ancestry came to light and will spend a little time on those. Again the risk is that this is a common area and may not do anymore for me than conclude that these individuals came from the southwestern area along the coast of England towards Portsmouth on the east including the Southampton area. I already know that the Knight family was early in Colonial North America coming to Newfoundland in the 1500s with some then moving to colonial America through the years. Since they come out of this data in the Blake line I must be cautious (Edward Blake of Upper Clatford, Hampshire (my great grandfather) married Maria Jane Knight from Turnworth, Dorset 29 Oct 1870.  

Church was at my regular YouTube account for Christ Church Cathedral. A lovely service as always and the sermon particularly interesting. 

Cleaning day and it is the top floor and I will begin in a bit but first solitaire puzzles and really first my 250 steps for 9:00 to keep my FitBit up to date.  Also today I must write the Kipp Newsletter and the H11 Newsletter. Both will be quite short. 

David and Jonathan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solitaire puzzles to do. 

The commissioning of Joshua

 These chapters are very interesting in Numbers. Again women are mentioned as the only children of a line coming down from Joseph (Chapter 27) and the Lord has decreed that they should inherit their father's portion. God establishes the right heirs as sons and if no sons then daughters, and if no child then brothers and continuing back through the generations to establish the right heir. I never really understood burnt offerings before but the explanation in Chapter 28 is quite explicit and easily understood. These are pleasing offerings to God and in specific time frames, Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings, Passover offering, Festivals like the day of the first fruits. The idea of not working on the Sabbath at your occupations puzzled me as a child. For the burnt offerings it is mentioned that this is a pleasing odour to the Lord but not working is a holy convocation. A holy convocation is a sacred assembly or formal gathering of believers called together to worship God, for instruction or spiritual renewal. 

In the Christian world that I grew up in I was conflicted by this idea because people still did work and gradually it was defined as a needed service and so avoided conflicting with the holy convocation ideal. The Christian world has moved far away from that original concept of the holy convocation on the Sabbath (Chapter 28) (in the Christian world this is celebrated on Sunday for just the actual time of the service). I myself go to Church on Sunday with YouTube. I went through a period of time when I was nine and ten and found this idea of burnt offerings of animals that I saw on the farm and so many listed and I can see those reading now in Numbers. They were troublesome in my mind and I blocked out that idea of sacrificing animals and indeed refused to eat meat for a while. But hearing the stories of the First Nations and their thanks given to the animals which they ate was sort of a balm on that worrisome mind of mine. Moses is instructing the people of Israel because he knows he is not going into the Promised Land and must prepare them so that they continue to celebrate God as God has commanded. 

Packages mailed off to the Archives should arrive in the next week. The material that Edward carefully collected through the years can be useful to people researching the Kip/Kipp family name. He collected a lot of material in the United States where the Kip/Kipp families lived. Although I helped him to collect the material,  I did not absorb any of it particularly because I was not interested in genealogy but simply helping him with his collections. I do not know the Kipp families that he is related to and it just seemed practical to put it all in a repository where any of them can go and see it. At 80 my time is short ahead of me and I especially did not want to see any of it thrown away after all his work on it. 

Top floor cleaned yesterday and it is the main floor today. A huge amount of cardboard went out this week for the collection. We have replaced all of the drape rods and drapes in the house now pretty much. They were getting old and needed new ones. 

NATO will buy ten of the SAAB jets for reconnaissance which is good news as we had debated doing that as part of our fleet but really having them as NATO possessions is an advantage. Germany and France are very much moving to the forefront in NATO. France in particular is heavily armed and nuclear capable. The United Kingdom also increasing their military (they too are nuclear capable) and they too have an Arctic presence. I feel that NATO is progressing forward very quickly and in particular has command of the Arctic which is important as the ice melts. Canada will be part of that protection cover for the Arctic along with Norway, Sweden and Finland with Germany and France. The other countries in NATO are also committed but the heavy work will probably fall to the countries that neighbour on the Arctic plus France and Germany (and Denmark). We will hear at this meeting how much the United States will be involved I think as they too have an Arctic presence with Alaska. Greenland is also part of NATO and the protection plan but Greenland (protectorate of Denmark) has a very small population so need the support of the surrounding nations on the Arctic along with Denmark, Germany and France). I am sure we will hear quite a bit more on all of that. Russia continues to try and provoke NATO but NATO is a purely defensive organization. 

Russia still is living in the times of the 1800s with no concept of a world view that wants peace. I was pleased to see China say at the UN Security Meeting that it is time to wind down this war against Ukraine. Russia continues to murder the people of Ukraine and especially in Kyiv the capital. They are satanists. 

Probably not much work done today but time will tell.

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Yes, the submarine purchase is moving forward

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

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

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

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

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

 

Fourty years have passed in the wilderness

 A second census is taken as recorded in Numbers and the fourty years have passed and only Caleb and Joshua remain as recorded in the first census. Caleb and Joshua had been the spies sent out as two of the twelve members of the twelve tribes of Israel and they had properly recorded what they discovered. God said they would survive to enter into the Promised Land. Neither Moses nor Aaron will enter the Promised Land. I found this second census to be very interesting as daughters were mentioned as the heads of families within each of the tribes. The numbers of Israelis (descendants of Jacob whom God renamed Israel) is a very large number once again just as the first census was a large number. God continues to punish any turning away from Him. The Old Testament section of the Bible is so different from the New Testament. Rules are always needed but when the severity slows down the ability of Homo sapiens to survive in a hostile environment God saw the need for a change although I do not see yet the promise of a Messiah in all these writings God does find a way to alleviate His punishments so that the Israelis, His chosen people to let the world know that He was the Creator God and no one else, continue to survive and flourish. 

I am finding now that rereading the Bible was a path for me to follow at this time in order to better worship God the Creator. At every stage of one's life I have read the Bible but generally in the style of the readings that are set aside for each day since the presence of the World Wide Web in my life. Before that I read as the readings given to us by my Church but not with as much meaning for me as I am doing now reading the Bible from cover to cover.  In my youth when I read the Bible from cover to cover it was less focused and with less understanding. It is too long ago now to remember if I was successful in reading the entire book (I suspect I skipped parts here and there but I did read huge amounts at the time). 

 Yesterday saw us putting together the British Columbia Kipp material to send to the Archives. There are now two boxes (one banker box and one smaller Archival Box all wrapped up in brown paper and labeled which will go to the post office in the afternoon. It was an hour or so of wrapping up the boxes and finding a copy of The Kip Family of America by Frederick E Kip printed in 1928 that Edward had used for his research and added to quite a bit with a genealogical table that he produced in Legacy and is on his website. It has taken me a while to move to getting this done. It was one of his many mentions in those last years before he passed away. 

It keeps reminding me that I must keep my work organized and headed out the door once assembled in order to not be leaving loose ends. But COVID certainly complicated all of that and Edward had concentrated on some other work the last couple of years and I think had just forgotten his intentions with this material. 

Next up is the Allen family material that is mostly in one box and will get that mailed off to the Allen family that I met in 2019 on one of our last trips to his cousins that he had exchanged letters and information with over the numerous decades since he started into genealogy back in the early 1960s (sixty one years of doing genealogy!). 

Then the 40 plus binders of family pictures to reduce down to six to eight binders of purely family material to organize that material for our grandsons to have detailing Edward's life in particular from babyhood to the last set of pictures just before he passed away (mine tend to be electronic as my younger sister has all the originals). They include his many planned trips into the United States with a couple of organizations that he and George Anderson organized over a decade and a half  between the late 1990s up until 2012 I think most of this material has been given to the organizing groups for whom they arranged trips into the United States and in Ontario. 

Time to do the Solitaire puzzles.

Leviticus- Worship, atonement and consecration

 Reading the first six chapters of Leviticus and it brings back memories of what is allowed and what is not allowed except I was raised Christian so only heard that expressed as what the people of Israel had to do to be able to be close to God and to live in His presence. For God was with the people of Israel as a cloud by day and fire by night. Always with them; God wanted the world to know that He was the only God.  God brought the Israeli people out of slavery and bondage in Egypt and back to the Promised Land where the bones of their forefather Jacob had been taken four hundred years or more earlier after he died in Egypt. This total surrender by the people of Israel to God's commands was their way forward into time so long ago now but they did it and brought to us now in the present the Old Testament so that we too can learn the history of Homo sapiens with respect to our God. 

Perhaps it is being Christian that I interpret all of this in the fashion that I do. Still in the back of my brain are my grandfather's stories about the early peoples in England being one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The Western Hunter Gatherer DNA that my brothers carry is ancient to the British Isles and indeed other old family names in the Andover to Basingstoke area of Hampshire also carry Western Hunter Gatherer DNA which is fascinating and one can think that the depth of their habitation in this area is known by family lore as being ancient to this land. What is ancient to the British Isles. The British Isles was covered by ice likely to a depth of 1 kilometer during the Last Ice Age so nothing likely lived on the British Isles prior to that date but one is left to wonder did those Hunter Gatherers retreat to the south during the Ice Age and then return home as it receded thousands of years later. There is much to learn in the archaeological digs of the British Isles. Why do we carry (my siblings and I) both Neanderthal (2%) and Denisovan (3%)  DNA material from these two earlier groups of Homo? What is it telling us? Many carry these two in varying amounts. But primarily all of my autosomal lines are ancient to the British Isles - one line back in the late 1400s came to Dunster, Somerset from France (Huguenot). 

Tomorrow I continue reading Leviticus which I always consider to be one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible perhaps because we are learning about communion with God and how it is achieved. No ideas on that really as it belongs to the past; a very long time ago and Jesus came to bring an easier shorter list of commandments - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. That way wars can end and the world can find that peaceful plain where all prosper and evil is gone. He is the God of the Jews, of the Christians and of the Muslims and they are the only religions that I know and primarily I am familiar with the Christian religion principally. 

Yesterday was a moving day as we shifted work desks about to make our task of working much easier and even streamlined. I need to downsize and it has taken me five years to accept that I need to downsize and this summer will see me send material that belongs to the Kipp family and it will be in the Archives where anyone can look at it or use it. I also sent links to Edward's work online and anyone can download that. It is his gift to the Kipp family of which he was a member. I suppose in my mind I kept thinking maybe one of his own would contact me and say we want all that material. But no one did and so I must make the move forward to place it where it can be seen. I am also thinking of now getting rid of my Fiche Reader back to the OGS where it belongs and the fiche will go to the Anglican Church Archives which I set up a number of years ago as at the time of purchase from various repositories in England I agreed to place the material in an appropriate place which the Anglican Church Archives at my church is certainly appropriate. They already have a number of holdings. I will check to make sure they still want them. Each move forward brings me closer to my one room theory of how I eventually need to live. 

My grandfather would have loved all this knowledge. He loved to read and the same for my grandmother. Both encouraged me to read and to write and to learn as much as I could. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

Rain again but the ground can still absorb a lot more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Looking back in time

This is the day to create the last section of the Somerby chapter and it will look at the work of Paul C. Reed a well known American genealogist who published in The American Genealogist (TAG), Volume 74, 1999 an interesting article namely: Two Somerby Frauds or "Placing the Flesh on the Wrong Bones. My husband Edward being a subscriber through his membership in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) I was able to download the article. Earlier he had published an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Register (NEHGR) which ia also downloaded and it was about Dorothy _____,. The key in our search for Shadrack Hapgood. This was one of the families that Charlou Dolan researched along with Blake. Finding these two articles when my husband brought my attention to them sometime after 2004 when my interest in family history suddenly developed thanks to my cousin George DeKay wanting a Pincombe Profile for the book he was editing namely: Delaware and Westminster Townships (two parts), published by the Westminster Township Historical Society, November 2006. My thoughts were pretty much on the Pincombe family at this point and I put the two papers into a folder labelled Blake because I saw mention of the Blake family. I was still working full time in those days and started taking the courses to complete my Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) which I did complete in 2007. As always my first thought was to acquire the tools to do the Pincombe Profile since my mother had just passed away in 2002 and my maternal uncle in 2003. My uncle had given a package of his personal papers to my husband to write up his story. My husband passed them to me after 2004 and said this is your job and I put them in a safe spot as I needed to go back further than my uncle. 

Interestingly it was me that said we should do our DNA with Sorenson - my husband somewhat ambivalent at giving the world the knowledge of his genes thought about it for quite a while actually but I went ahead and ordered two kits and waited until he was ready to do them. He was in a quandry about his Kipp line as Isaac his 2x great grandfather had been born in 1764 in North East Township, Dutchess County, New York just as the Revolution was about to begin. His parentage was unknown but he was married to Hannah Mead who appears very correctly to be the daughter of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III who was definitely a Patriot in this Revolution. They lived next door or with Jonathan Mead and family in the 1790 census. But I digress. I said to my husband the best way to prove a line is with yDNA and he was hooked and off the kits went to Sorenson and then into FT DNA they were transferred as there was a setup to do that. Lots more testing and we were into the DNA at its beginnings. DNA would fundamentally change how people did their genealogy - a genealogy without DNA is no longer complete but it did take about half of a generation to convince genealogists of this case. Edward and I did give lectures at various time on DNA in our area. My results had been fascinating as I quickly found literally many many Pincombe cousins both in the Utah area where I knew they had gone (my mother mentioned that) and all across Canada and into many parts of the United States. The first database I signed up for was the first time I used it basically. I searched on my Pincombe family that had come from Devon in the 1850s and discovered a likely family but hidden behind the paywall of Ancestry. It suggested that I could sign up for two weeks for free, I went for the membership and was soon in there with the passenger manifest and there they were, my Pincombes. It continued to amaze Edward as I spent all of my spare non-working time on genealogy as I had spent the first nearly fourty years of our marriage with no interest in genealogy except I did help him when we went to repositories where he wanted to find something interesting he had received from cousins around the world actually. Edward's correspondence list was huge.

So one day shortly after I submitted the Pincombe Profile to my cousin George DeKay, I sat down and read Paul Reed's papers and was astounded as I discovered that the bits and pieces that my grandfather (and occasionally my father) had shared with me as a child appeared in print in these articles. It was an amazing moment that spring of 2005 (the profile was due and it was promptly submitted on time for publication) and it was one day after gardening with Edward that I came in and read the papers. I was still working then full time and would be for another couple of years. Edward had retired in 2004. I had decided to join The Guild of one-name Studies and being the sort a person I am had selected three study names (Pincombe, Lambden and Siderfin). They were just very interesting names Lambden and Siderfin and Pincombe is obvious (I thought they were all small projects but actually much larger the second two and I have set aside Lambden for anyone to pick up. The Blake study had been held by Paul Blake and being such a newbie I would not have even considering attempting Blake for sure. But here it was all that information about Nicholas Blake of Enham and it fitted the stories my grandfather told me in terms of the fraud committed. 

Today I will read through those papers as it is a long time since I have done so. I will also add in the section on Paul Reed's paper into the chapter as it will complete it. 

I couldn't decide if it was the weather, all that rain, but my eyes have been very strained but today that disappeared although will not spend too much time on the computer as it is cleaning day three and the upstairs which does take a good portion of the day. No idea why the eyestrain really (perhaps reading the Latin which I was putting a bit too much time into) but our direction ahead as a country continues towards diversifying our trade and it is pretty much top of mind (I was listening to the Premiers of the Provinces talking yesterday). It is good to see and we will be an even stronger partner on this continent as we build up our military and work with the Arctic countries of the same mind as us on our common need to provide protection of the Arctic. I think our focus is good and we need to continue removing any trade barriers between the provinces as there are lots of items that we could be buying that are home-grown. Re-starting some of our lost industries should also be top of mind I think and certainly getting those shovels in the ground to do the work that needs to be done. I was actually not opposed to the province buying a new airplane (surprising perhaps) but this is a huge province and the Premier needs to be more aware of what is happening all over the province (the availability of transportation quickly and with sufficient room to bring people along with the Premier is important (providing potential investors and customers with such extras is always a good plan). This is a time of growth for Canada as we concentrate on supporting the world being a peaceful place but always preparing to defend that peace. History through the centuries has shown that the peacemakers win.

Drinking my tea and solitaire puzzles to do. Today is Earth Day. Thank you God for this beautiful world. 

 

Remembering Edward

 It is five years today since we lost Edward; it seems like yesterday and yet it also seems a long time ago. Life has changed all around us. Because he did not wish to be forgotten we have talked about him and tried to keep some of his research alive with the website. I respond to all of his mail and gradually we have found new homes for historical items that he collected for his various families. I am still in that process with a number of boxes of original material. It is a slow process to do that. 

Edward was born 16 April 1943 at the farm which is in Burford Township, Brant County facing the Highway (which divides Oxford and Brant Counties) and the village of Princeton (Oxford County) where Edward grew up after they moved from the farm into the village when he was about two and one half years of age. His father died in a farm accident when he was  two years and two months of age. He was a very sensitive child and cried when his father was mentioned and so little mention of his father for many years around him and as an adult he didn't want to be forgotten like that and he has not been. Edward has done so many wonderful things in his life and perhaps his greatest gifts to the world aside from his lovely daughters was his research still cited all these years later. He did some groundwork on Cobalt for his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry which has proven to be baseline work often cited in other people's work. That he did not become a scientist because of the lack of jobs at the time (true for all of his classmates as it turned out) was somewhat of a sorrow to him but he retrained and earned his Masters in Library Science and was employed at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada for nearly thirty years contributing greatly to the ordering of knowledge in a systematic way making online retrieval an actual ability and readily available. He retired in 2004 and spent the next seventeen years working on his genealogy for his family uncovering an amazing story which he related several times at meetings. Rest in Peace dear Edward and know that your children and grandchildren remember you well and will never forget you nor will your many nieces and nephews. We were married 54.5 years and this year is sixty years since we married. 

I think one of the joys that Edward acquired through life was my actually becoming interested in genealogy which he had been active in since his mid teens. He collected items where ever he went and when we bought a a car about eight or nine months after we were married we went everywhere looking for items to help to tell the story of his families. As I worked away yesterday on the Blake book I always find my mind traveling back to our times together. I had always helped to find items for him but he knew I wasn't really interested in genealogy but when I was he was thrilled and the retirement years saw us spend enormous amounts of time in New England, New York in particular although our travels took us to many places in the United States. But now I was looking occasionally at items that belonged to my studies. But it was my interest in DNA that he particularly was happy to see flourish once again as he wanted to use my knowledge of DNA to learn more about his Kipp line with the yDNA. It was a fun time acquiring all of that information and with the arrival of autosomal DNA testing he was able to prove his research in a meaningful way because so many of his American cousins tested their atDNA. It was amazing and he enjoyed it so very very much. He had a group of about a dozen cousins who tested for him and it will be all of this information that I use to create the phasing of his grandparents. A project that I will begin shortly and set aside one day of each week to probe the data and see what I can come up with. 

Yesterday saw more work on the Blake book as I begin the genealogical charting. Right now I am in the process of putting together the information on Robert Blake who left his will dated 16 Dec 1521 living at Enham near Andover, Hampshire. He names a number of Blake individuals in his will that I must sort through once again refreshing my memory of that time when I did the work way back in 2014. That will continue today. I have related the interesting information that I have acquired on a Richard Blake who appears on the Emigrants Database 1330-1550 arriving at Salisbury, Dorset in 1440/1441 and  his ethnicity is stated as Irish. Determining the earlier ancestry of Robert Blake at Enham has been something I nip in and out of through the years but now this is the time to try and sort it into the beginning of the Genealogical Chart for Blake at Andover. 

Time for breakfast, the day moves quickly.  

Monday and it is cleaning day and it is the basement

 Soon I will start the Robot cleaning the rug. I always check to make sure it sat on the charger properly all week so that it will run its normal 1.3 hours on the rugs. I would never vacuum the rugs for 1.3 hours but the robot does it and the path is random and I do not think it misses even a tiny bit of dust by the time it docks itself. It takes about the same amount of time every week. Then I clean out the trap and it has about the same amount of dust - more in the winter than in the summer. Then wash the floors that do not have rugs, wash the stairs down to the basement and dust all the furniture and the task is done for another week.It used to take me four or five hours to clean the basement as Edward had so much stuff and it is pretty much all donated now as I have little or no use for tools. The books and furniture he accumulated down there is also all donated years ago; he did that himself but still there was a lot there. The house is getting emptier and emptier but it needs to as I will eventually move to a much smaller house and one floor hopefully. 

Yesterday was a very interesting sermon and I was perhaps even more keenly interested following the tragedy in British Columbia (prayers continuing). One does come closer to one's religion when tragedy strikes. 

Here it is Monday and the sun is rising in the east as I look out my workroom window. Very faint in colour which is always a good sign as a brilliant red sunrise is a warning to those on the seas as I learned as a child. I do have a lot of these old stories that are from the British Isles since everyone of my ancestors in the last five hundred years appears to be from the British Isles. 

My ancient yDNA line carried by my brothers and my ancient mtDNA line carried by our female line tell me that both of these were ancient to the Isles (although both will go extinct in my own personal family line there are many many cousin DNA holders out there all matching us and the lines will go on and on). But in between these two types of DNA  there is a great deal of autosomal DNA shared with cousins passed down to all of us from our mutual most recent common ancestors and with five companies testing I have this overview that I keep in mind coming from all of them that somewhere back in the past I have European (primarily German and French (I do know I have Huguenot who came to the Isles in the late 1400s)), some Scandinavian (likely Viking in my Gray-Routledge line) and some Eastern European probably because my mtDNA wintered at Ukraina during the Last Ice Age or later maybe there are a lot of centuries prior to my known family line of the last five hundred years plus in some lines and I do have a few lost lines although not too lost as they are likely from those small villages and no records before the Parish Registers for some of them.  

I still marvel at how quickly I changed from having no interest in genealogy to a rampant interest (mostly following the introduction of DNA information but also my cousin did need the profile for my Pincombe family and, as it turned out, I was the best person to provide that document now published and available for usage by researchers). 

My husband was both shocked, overwhelmed but grateful to my cousin for pushing me to do this Profile. From that point forward we did even more traveling (as my husband was retired) down into the New England States, New York and even into Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin following the trails of his Kipp family mostly who had gone west in the late 1700s from Northeast Town, New York and also north into Ontario in the early 1800s (his line) and some of his line then went from Ontario back into Michigan further west and he corresponded with many of those cousins. But now I was a more enthusiastic follower of genealogy which he truly loved working at. 

Many trips to NEHGS in Boston and the knowledge just flowed. I myself found a number of books on the Blake family of the United States there. This was where I first encountered Horatio Somerby Gates and his fraudulent work and a memory blazed forward as I sat looking at some of the material. I finally understood what my grandfather and father were talking about where Nicholas Blake was concerned. 

Fascinating really how life comes together from the deep past to the present. My grandfather was talking about Americans looking for information on Nicholas Blake and descendants in Andover, Hampshire, England and that the story about Nicholas was incorrect that they were following. Fascinating really. 

Anyway tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles.  

And yet another research day

Working on Chromosome 6 and with all the known matches this one is moving along very nicely thus far and I am up to the J forenames as I work my way through almost to the half way point. I have been adding Relatives in common to some of the matches especially on 23 and Me where the matches that are listed do share at least one length of DNA with the current tester. Since all grandparents are represented in the known list this chromosome has been a lot easier than some of the others and with 128 matches that is rather handy. Just five left to go and I will have set up the database and can then move back to writing as I have this lovely chart in excel that I can flip about as I wish to review matches against census  in the 1800s and the ability to check on mother's maiden surnames in the databases. 

I also want to start working on Edward's grandparents phasing as I feel that this is a project that is a go  although my close relatives to him is limited to our daughters I have many many first, second and third cousins in his database which is handwritten but none the less extensive enough to help lead the path back to his grandparents. It may help to solve the mystery of his 2x great grandfather Isaac Kipp's parentage. I rather think his father is Henry Kipp who was a Quaker in Northeast Town area but proving that will be a bit difficult and going back from Henry though might be possible with Quaker records. We know that he matches the Kip line of New Amsterdam/New York so the endpoint or beginning depending on how you look at it is known namely Hendrick Hendricksen Kip where Kip is an added surname to distinguish several Hendrick Hendricksen families in New Amsterdam now New York City. We also have his marriage in The Netherlands and the baptisms of the children there. There is family lore and some written history but much of it is not based on fact and so Edward was busy working with a couple of researchers in The Netherlands in 2017-2019 but COVID struck before we made our trip there. Since my knowledge of Kipp is very limited I did not pick up the traces of that but with all the DNA testing being done around the world I may be able to tease out information at least on the American Colonial lines back earlier in time. We will see as I work on phasing the grandparents. 

I feel this might lessen my reluctance to take apart the binders which proved to be a task too far for me at the time and I set it aside. The idea of taking apart someone's lifetime work putting together all these fourty lovely binders of his many activities through the 54.5 years of our marriage became something I just found difficult. But to save the family portion of it I do need to do it and it has to be me for sure.  I did check to see if the Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors (was Ontario Genealogical Society) would like the trips as I could easily put them into some of the surplus binders but they did not at this time however they are also digital so will not be lost if I now shred all of the prints. It is a difficult item really when you are working with prints of many people still living and all pictures have been named. 

So some shoveling to do later  and time for Church in just a few minutes. Another lovely Sunday in God's world and one would wish that all the world was at peace and every neighbour loving their neighbour as God asked. One can only pray for that and thank God for what He has given to us these many centuries of the presence of Homo Sapiens on this planet. We have been a successful people surviving many many catastrophic happenings especially in the last century. 

Time for Church, tea drank and solitaire puzzles completed. Thank you God for all that You do in the world that You have given to us.  

Cleaning Day Three and then on to Research Days

 Yesterday Cleaning Day Two accomplished along with completing Chromosome 12. Staying inside means more time for research although it has been lovely skiing this year. Once we get sufficient snow  the skiing will be back. In the meantime the cold weather saps the water out of all of that ice. 

Chromosome 12 with twenty known matches went very smoothly and just some work on the Buller/Taylor and Rawlings/Cotterill matches to be done. I may resolve both of these unknown lines - Ellen (Taylor) Buller my maternal grandmother's mother and unknown Cotterill (although several testing companies have selected an individual) my paternal grandmother's father. It does add a sense of mystery to these two lines for sure. Although I was hesitant to work on my paternal grandmother's father's line that is passing in my mind although I will always remember that she loved her step-father very much. She lived with her maternal grandparents when she was quite young (from birth until five years of age) until her mother married William Taylor 11 Feb 1882 in Ludgershall, Wiltshire (a short distance from Kimpton, Hampshire where she was born and baptized). She is found on the census of 1881 with her grandparents William Rawlins and Elizabeth (Lywood) Rawlins at Collingbourne Dulcis, Wiltshire. 

 I did start Chromosome 11 and there are seventeen known cousins for this chromosome with Blake/Knight and Pincombe being particularly well represented but there are matches for all four of the grandparent lines. Buller has just one and this cousin shares X DNA inherited from Sarah (Cheatle) Welsh's mother (still not entirely sure of her surname but she was married to William Cheatle father of Sarah). This was the first chromosome that I ever phased more than a decade ago now. At the time I was amazed at what one could do with all of those matches acquired at that time. Now with  1500 matches over four grandparents the process is a lot less complicated. The methodology has evolved as well although I tend to use several different sets of data to work on crossover points including the original GedMatch setup that was commonly used back a decade ago. I find that the testing companies using different chips does give a slight variance on these crossover points and one must select the best point bearing in mind that this is not yet the exact science it will be one day. 

Having five sibling results makes a large difference but I am about to begin working on my husband's crossover points using just his results, his daughters results and many many 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins. I suspect it will be possible but will write it up as I proceed. It will be a slower process as I need to get back to writing the books as well. Once I have completed the great grandparents then a portion of each day will go to writing of either the Blake or the Pincombe books. I have given myself until 2028 to complete these two books and will then move to Buller  and a fourth one not yet selected. 

I will never write up Edward's family as I am not familiar enough with his lines - in terms of DNA lots of familiarity and I will do that but I do not know any family stories so will leave that to whomever one day picks up his work where he left off.  He was happy with his final version of his tree although was sad not to have discovered Isaac Kipp's parents names. There were possibilities but he did not feel there was adequate proof for any of them at this time. That his yDNA leads back to Hendrick Hendricksen Kip was adequate for him as the years passed although he was in touch with several researchers in The Netherlands and a trip was planned but COVID-19 break definitely discontinued that possibility. The work on the autosomal DNA was his although I did collect the data into excel files as I did my own but now I will pick up the traces of that work that he did and move it forward with this attempt to phase his grandparent's DNA and then perhaps take it to great grandparents. He has many many more matches than I do although with Living DNA growing that could change in the future - hard to say. 

Still not much work done on the photo albums; perhaps in the New Year I will try again to work on that.  

Time to get back to my morning exercises. I always do them with a short break. Then tea time and solitaire puzzles.  

 

The variety of DNA that exists in populations

 Both my husband and I have done a lot of DNA testing but we have never found a common ancestor primarily because Edward is 30% German/30% Dutch/10% French/10% Polish/10% Scandinavian/5% English and other smaller European portions and I am virtually 100% British Isles (with known Huguenot in the late 1400s coming to Somerset). So we do not find one common ancestor although there is one possibility (in a somewhat circular case) but still being researched. Edward shares common ancestry with the American Work family, Eleanor Work (seventh cousin twice removed) married James Burke Roche in 1880 and their great great grandaughter was Diana, Princess of Wales (Edward's ninth cousin once removed) and the possibility that Diana, Princess of Wales is descendant of the Andover Blake family would amazingly see us both related to Diana (I would be 12th cousin once removed to Diana (the published book of the ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales refers to the Andover Blake family (Richard K. Evans, NEHGS, 2007))  which was sort of amazing when we discovered that in our trip back through time. It struck me as I write this that when I attended a weekend activity at NEHGS where one could work with Gary Boyd Roberts and others Edward really benefited greatly from his time and when Gary asked me what I would like to discuss as my time had come up I said that I was from the Andover Blake family but I was not really into genealogy which surprised him since I had paid to come but I suggested that he continue working with Edward as they were making really great progress into his ancestry and they did that although he did speak to me once again but I really didn't want to discuss my ancestry since my knowledge of it was pretty ancient and I was not into Blake genealogy at that time although I was writing this Pincombe Profile but did not want to discuss that either really. I had a handle on it already but I am like that. I also didn't want to get into a discussion on the Pinkham family as I was about to take on the Pincombe study at the Guild of one-name Studies and did know that the two names were often found together (I was certainly still that person with no actual interest in genealogy beyond getting this profile written at that point in time (after all I couldn't find my paternal grandmother in the records back in 1988 when I was trying to do that for my parent's 60th wedding anniversary book!)). But DNA was about to radically change my thoughts and it was coming for sure in 2005 and I was taking my courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies but still in the beginnings really of that work! Edward purchased the book on Diana perhaps in 2008 or so but I didn't really look at it until I took on the Blake one-name study at the Guild in 2011. And it was sort of an absent minded look in actual fact and may have been prompted by Edward commenting on Blake being in the index. That particular time Edward was ill and my concentration was poor so my memory of some items perhaps not quite as good as usual! By then I knew that my Blake line had an ancient haplogroup which was dubbed Deer-Hunters by Ethnoancestry so their surname had been acquired at the time of surname useage beginning in England after the Norman Conquest. Although it did sort of make me think because why would anyone choose a surname that was already in use by several known Blake lines. Interesting letting the mind roll back sometimes. 

Since we look at different record sets it was difficult for us to work together once I got inspired to do genealogy in 2003 and DNA certainly became a strong part of that draw. He was looking at records that I did not look at although over time eventually he did get back into his English Ancestry when we traveled to the British Isles. But all of that was a very long way back for him in the 1600s except for one 3x great grandmother who came with her family to Canada in the 1830s from the Norfolk area (Mary Ann Abbs) and he learned a great deal about her and  his line in Norfolk at Kew. So it can be very difficult to work on your lines in repositories when you are so divergent for sure. 

Just before COVID isolation time Edward was corresponding back and forth with Dutch and German investigators and we had a trip planned to both countries but COVID 19 interrupted that and those trips did not happen but he recorded everything he learned in his blog and in his tree. The gene pool  in Europe is enormous perhaps because of the constant movement of populations. Europeans are very healthy people. They follow regimens that contribute to their great life style and they were clever to come together and argue in the EU parliament instead of the battle field (and they do fight on occasion having to be separated but they have made God's words a reality - love your neighbour as yourself and they will enforce that as time progresses). They become stronger and stronger as the days pass. Edward was very proud of his European/British Isles lineage and of his lengthy Colonial American ancestry (he had 9th and 10th great grandparents in his tree with a large number from The Netherlands as well as from the British Isles). His being Canadian was more of a fluke than anything else as people moved west or in his case north into Ontario (siblings of his 2x great grandmother Hannah (Mead) Kipp went west to Wisconsin and further). Canada in 1800 was lightly settled by colonials and there were then as now many many First Nations all over Canada or Turtle Island as its original name accidentally changed to Canada by the first Explorers from Europe to the St Lawrence River (as far as we know they were the first to come along the St Lawrence but there is still much to know of the early history perhaps embedded in the stories of the many First Nations that we haven't heard yet). I look forward to learning many things from our First Nations brothers and sisters now that I am retired and just working away on my books. 

I still have not yet produced the two  missing Newsletters and yesterday I worked away in my available time on phasing the great grandparents working on Chromsome 22 which is mostly finished and I have achieved good lengths for the Knight family. This Chromosome is 51 cM long and primarily the Knight line is verified from 17 to 51 cM with several known cousins. There is an interesting Cottrell match from 37 cM to 47 cM. I do not anticipate that this will be easy. Some of the matches I have looked at do point to a particular great grandparent but I want to have more substance to that with proof in the census since all of these great grandparents appear in the census of England during the needed time period and there are many many trees on the various databases. There are 15 matches still to review and a couple of them are known to me as cousins. Finding the Cottrell was interesting and I will pay attention to these matches and also see if I can trace that particular line back in the British Isles (remembering that I do have cousins who are surnamed or descendant of Cottrell/Cotterill/Cotterell (the spelling still variable in those early census). 

A little more work to do around the house today but it is primarily a research type of day. Perhaps those Newsletters will happen over this time period. I do not have anything to write really in the H11 as there isn't any new news on that subsclade. For the Pincombe again I have not really spent very much time with Pincombe over the past couple of months as I have concentrated on all the lines working on the rephasing of my grandparents now completed although I still need to annotate the charts sufficiently into journal ready items without actually even considering that sort of activity but rather that I put into these items everything that I have found to pass on to the next individual who wants to have an interesting retirement project (namely one of my relatives!). 

Tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles to keep the brain sharp. Yesterdays puzzles were amazingly straight forward or my mind was just totally concentrated. We will see today's puzzles. I see Microsoft has announced a 19B plan for AI and data centers in Canada which has been welcomed by the Prime Minister.  Patience is what is always needed and if a western pipeline is to happen there must be a lot of that. The MOU simply sets into motion a methodology to explore but there is a lot of work to do to convince British Columbia that there is a win-win for everybody in this particular item and the Premier of Alberta is prepared to go to the parties affected and discuss. Canada is the best compromising country in the world which I discovered when my eldest daughter and I went to Italy (Rome actually for an invited event; I was invited and she was accompanying me as I had never flown before nor had I ever traveled to Europe). Staying at the organized retreat sort of in a monastery in Rome I discovered that we were the only ones who learned Italian to come (we spent four months learning Italian - mine somewhat spotty as I interjected French when I couldn't remember the Italian word - but my daughter on our first taxi ride (as the metro was on strike) revealed just how well she was doing although she did ask him to go a little slower which he did; she amazed me when on a tour by ourselves she spoke easily with a couple of people from Spain who were speaking Spanish - children are amazing really). That is what Canadians do we compromise until it works for everybody. I prefer an eastern pipeline that is for sure so that we stop paying 3x what we sell the oil for to the United States where it is refined and sold back to especially Ontario - the biggest gas guzzler in Canada and Quebec also uses a lot of gas but it can be shipped there alternatively; no one has to have a pipeline. But the jobs are needed in order to make us more tariff proof. It is by and large the safest way to transport across land compared to water routes but with caution those routes can also be safe. We just have to demand that shippers use transport that is safe and cautious at all times paying strict attention to the weather. 

I do think though listening to comments that we, Canada, must be very circumspect reporting on the content in items sold (any foreign material right down to the smallest screw needs to be identified). But our preference is for all Made in Canada. We should not be using short cuts or cheaper material if it says Made in Canada. Nowadays it is becoming easier and easier to make those sort of identifications as trade becomes much more scrutinized by everyone. This attention primarily to profits is a problem and one that must be looked at as the biggest attention should be on how well the job or the product is when completed. There should still be a sense of a job well done not just that it made so much money. Money gathering and this desire for more and more is a curse very often which was pointed out through the history of mankind many times. But Tariff proof we must become as quickly as possible. I have become distracted and must get to my solitaire puzzles.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Shredding Day

 Another hot sultry day very common in July here in Canada and we spent a good three hours shredding correspondence which stretched in many cases over a sixty year period during which Edward searched for the parents of his Isaac Kipp - known by yDNA to descend from the Kip family of New Amsterdam/New York. Isaac first appears on the 1790 census living next to or with Jonathan Mead the Cooper III in Northeast Town, Dutchess County and census records here in Canada at a later date show this family to be descendant of the New York family. Their marriage date known but not found in any records thus far other than Family Bibles. The birth dates for Isaac and his wife Hannah (Mead) Kipp also in Family Bibles but not located in any records thus far. A yDNA match with the Tillsonburg Kipp family also shows a relationship and this family also from the same area in New York. A mystery not solved in his life time sadly as we spent a good amount of time in Dutchess County going through various repositories looking for that single record. An interesting one I noted way back in the early 1970s was for a Henry Kipp living close by (a Quaker) who died young but did live long enough to have been the father of this Isaac. He lived close to Jonathan Mead and one wonders if by chance Isaac worked for Jonathan and spent his youth after the death of Henry (I thought I found a will but it is so long ago) helping at the Mead home later marrying Hannah. I tend to be a bit dreamy in my thoughts on occasion but Edward required solid proof. Interesting that one of the sons of Benjamin (Isaac's second youngest son) named one of his sons Henry but not really strong enough). To Edward's knowledge Isaac did not have any siblings. Born in 1764 we are looking at the time of the American Revolution - Isaac would have been a young child born the year before the beginning of the Revolution (Henry was a Quaker) and by the end of the War Isaac would have been 19 years of age but no history of being a Quaker or being involved in the Revolution. In 1790 the Bible Records show he married Hannah Mead  (she was six years younger than he was). Jonathan Mead, her father, was a Patriot. Edward did think that Isaac's father might be Isaac since they called his first son Isaac. The sons of Isaac (and the first five children were male) were Isaac, Jonathan, James, John, David, Richard Titus, Benjamin and Daniel with daughters Phoebe, Elizabeth and Susannah. All scanned by Edward those letters and he was shredding them himself the last year or so; that project on its way to completion. I have put it off these four years. Isaac and Hannah came to Upper Canada in 1800 with four of their five children (Jonathan Kipp stayed behind with his grandfather Jonathan Mead (most of his older children had gone west in the United States)) and Isaac and Hannah acquired land as settlers in the Oxford/Brant area of now southwestern Ontario. Many many Americans came north to Canada into what is now Ontario in that time frame. Some of Isaac's children moved to Michigan and others to what became Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. 

A smoke day today as the forest fires still rage in the west but the temperature is going to drop and there is rain coming which will help to clear the air. As a country we really need to pull together to recharge our economy and re-create industry lost by free trade. We are moving together as a unit across the country and many of the First Nations are happy but we need to convince more of them that the very existence of Canada depends on us pulling together and creating the kind of economy that will support us into the future. Still the downsizing here and gradually I will be able to sell the house and move to something smaller but I am not in a rush. The time is coming though when it will be too much for me and I can see that. The big thing is keeping it clean and managing the yard. Keeping the lawns cut this is a large property in terms of length. 

I haven't been out in the back for a bit and the dog two doors up was most excited to see someone he knew with all the change about here. There are new electrical lines going in and an upgrade to the transformers. It is going on 50 years since these lines were laid and the houses built with the block that I live in being the first and we watched all of the rest being built. 

I worked on Chromosome 9 once again and still some more to do to complete the cross over points adjustment with the Living DNA results. Removed some of the smaller matches from my Paint DNA charts. They do not add to the information and make it appear cluttered. However they are saved in my "too small" file. 

Today more work on the matches and soon to start. Drinking my lemon ginger tea and will do the solitaire puzzles shortly.