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. 

 

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.  

DNA matches

Edward, when he first tested his DNA (yDNA, mtDNA and atDNA) did not have any close matches although gradually as more and more Americans tested his match list became quite enormous because a number of his ancestors came to Ontario after 1820 (land was free) and the fertile valley between the Great Lakes (Huron and Erie) particularly great for growing crops and few people there so the enticement was strong and a number of his family arrived in that time frame (2x great grandparents mostly). His Kipp line (Isaac Kipp and Hannah Mead) arrived in October 1800 and applied for land as settlers. They were accepted immediately and lived in Oxford County. Isaac Kipp was born in 1764 and just a child really when the American Revolution was fought so not part of his past and by then settlers were just desperately needed in Ontario at least the government saw it that way. They had a large family, came with four of their five sons with the other being left with his grandfather Jonathan Mead (the Cooper III) of Northeast town in Dutchess County (this grandson was named Jonathan and did come to Ontario after the death of his grandfather Jonathan Mead the Cooper III) and another three sons (Benjamin, Edward's great grandfather was the second youngest of the children, born in 1811, so long generations in that family as his grandfather William Henry was born in 1864) and three daughters were born in Ontario. Many of the descendants of these lines have tested but they are third cousins as they share his 2x great grandparents Isaac and Hannah. So finally as a surprise I persuaded my eldest daughter to test her atDNA and for Christmas that was his gift that year and he loved that. She of course matched him at 3563 centimorgans and her matches could then be looked at with his helping to exclude any outliers and it was just nice for him to have someone match so close (by then I had four siblings tested and I think he missed not having that closeness). Eventually she also tested at Ancestry which was very helpful as again it helped to understand some large matches that he could not locate. She can only inherit what he passed to her and so it is helpful to always have two matches that are close. It was a gift that just kept on giving for him and those last ten years he spent a lot of time on his DNA matches. His first stop for a new match was to check his daughter's match list. 

I really must do something about his matches (and my own) as I have been busy writing these last two years and I do nip in every once in a while and sort them but I have not been paying them the attention I once did plus I have not updated my phasing of my grandparents since February 2020 and we are approaching February 2024 so a lot to do there. I will be looking at the Siderfin autosomal matches as I have 13 at Ancestry but my siblings all have closer to 35 each. I really haven't looked at the other databases (i.e. 23 and Me, FT DNA, My Heritage, and especially Living DNA as they now have a chromosome browser and most of my Siderfin correspondents still live in England). So that chapter is partially written and it will not be particularly long as I am a great believer in privacy but will point out possible areas to check for large common passages of DNA from one to another. 

Tired after cleaning yesterday and I could barely touch my toes at first this morning when I got up but did make it to ten although hands not quite flat on the floor (close though, haven't lost it yet!). Today is not quite so much of a strain as just the basement and it is 3/4rds washed now and about half dusted. Will finish that after a nice rest and then lunch. Breakfast was about 9:15 this morning instead of the usual 7:45 to 8:00 so not hungry yet. 

Wanted to put these few thoughts on paper before I return to cleaning. I generally take a 30 minute break between one to one and a half hour bouts of cleaning. So still a few minutes to go so will work on the lovely new set of Solitaire cups that can be won (bronze, silver, gold and diamond) on a weekly basis. I have completed silver and in the midst of gold. Great way to train the brain. I have been playing it from the beginning (about 1.5 years now). Along with the daily challenges I play a lot of solitaire it would appear. I think it is also good for my eyes. It is restful but lots of eye motion. Still nothing on my cataract surgery so probably not until spring now since the surgery lists are probably set up at least I used to have them set up a couple of months in advance when I was booking for the physician that I was working for. I think it is even more centralized now although no ideas on that. It is nearly twenty years since I worked in the hospital. I miss the research parts for sure but I am old now and this surname research is tantalizing plus I am learning Latin and that is a lovely new skill to obtain. 

A few games of solitaire and then back to cleaning.

Will of John Blake, Baker, Winslow, Buckinghamshire - The National Archives PROB 11/1564/128, probated 11 Jan 1815

John Blake the testator is the son of Robert Blake (and Martha Seir) mentioned in the will of John Blake blogged yesterday. John Blake is married to Sarah. John's siblings were Elizabeth, Thomas, Martha (died as an infant), Gabriel, George (died as an infant), and Martha. He has three children Susannah, Martha and John.

This information is from the website called Winslow History mentioned yesterday: http://www.winslow-history.org.uk/winslow_blake.shtm#john5

This website is part of the Winslow History Project and will probably be available for some time. What a marvelous website to set up for Winslow, Buckinghamshire. Of interest, the Blake and Burnham family have been written up. They do request you send any information that you have on people. I will add this Blake family to my Legacy one name Blake study as well as I am able to do so.

George Jones mentioned in the will is the husband of Elizabeth Blake (John's first cousin and daughter of  his father Robert's oldest brother Thomas). She married George Jones by licence 25 Nov 1794 in Wicken, Northamptonshire.

According to this website Sarah had died in 1807 and John in 1815 but he hadn't revised his will so his eldest daughter Susannah took the will to probate as heir at law. John (her younger brother) was not 21 in 1815 nor was Martha her younger sister. Susannah married Charles Neal 24 Apr 1816 at Winslow and they had four children (not named). Martha married Joseph Fletcher and they had 11 children. John does not appear to have married.

Checking through on Google, Family Search, Ancestry and Find My Past and I did not find any new information to add to this family.


Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 25 Apr 2013
Source: The National Archives, PROB 11/1564/128
Testator:  John Blake, Baker
Place: Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document:  2 Feb 1804, probated 11 Jan 1815
Condition: 19th century English, legible copy

[Margin]: John
[Margin]: Blake
[Margin]: 5

1    In the Name of God Amen
2    I John Blake of Winslow in the County of Bucks Baker being
3    of sound Mind Memory and Understanding Praised be God for the
4    same do make and publish this my last Will and Testament in
5    manner and form following First I give and bequeath unto my
6    two daughters Susanna Blake and Martha Blake the Sum of one
7    hundred and twenty pounds each and to my Son John Blake the Sum
8    of Eighty Pounds of Lawful Money of Great Britain to be paid to them
9    respectively by my Executrix hereinafter named when they shall attain
10    the Age of Twenty one Years Also I do nominate constitute and appoint
11    George Jones of Winslow in the said County Bucks Lace Buyer sole
12    Trustee of this my last Will and Testament Also I give and bequeath unto
13    my beloved Wife All that my Messuage or Tenement situate standing and
14    being in Great Horn Street in the Parish of Winslow in the said County
15    of Bucks now in my own occupation with all and every the Rights
16    Members and appurtenances thereunto belonging To hold to my said
17    Wife Sarah Blake for and during the Term of her natural life and from
18    and immediately after her decease then I do hereby give and devise of the same
19    Premises to the said George Jones his Executors Admors or Assigns In Trust
20    that he do with all convenient speed sell and dispose of the same for the
21    best price that can or may be had or gotten for the same either by Public Auction
22    or Private Contract and the Money arising by Sale of such Prem[iss]es as
23    aforesaid to be equally divided between such of my said Children as shall be
24    living at the time of her decease and Lastly I do hereby nominate constitute
25    and appoint my said my said Wife full and Sole Executrix of this my
26    last Will and Testament hereby revoking and making void all former
27    and other Wills by me at any time wheretofore made and I do declare this
28    to be my last Will and Testament only In Witness whereof I the said John
30    Blake the Testator have to this my last Will and Testament set my hand and
31    Seal this second day of February one thousand eight hundred and four
32    The Mark of X John Blake Signed Sealed published and declared
33    by
    [Page 2]
34    by the said John Blake the Testator as and for his last Will and
35    Testament in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our
36    Names as Witnesses thereto at the request and in the presence of the
37    said Testator and also in the presence of each other Matt[he]w Mead
38    Rob[er]t Irath  Tho[ma]s Rawbone
39    On the 11th January 1815 admon (with the Will annexed) of the
40    Goods of John Blake late of Winslow in the County of Buckingham
41    deceased was granted to Susanna Blake Spinster the natural and lawful
42    daughter and one of the next of kin of the said deceased having been
43    first sworn (by Com[miss]ion duly to administer Sarah Blake widow the
44    Relict and sole Executrix died without having taken upon her the Probate
45    and Execution of the said Will and no Residuary Legatee being named
46    in the said Will

Blogs and genealogy research

Although I initially started this blog totally for me as a diary, it has become more than that with comments received which have sometimes led me along the path to even more genealogical studies of my family lines. The ability to label each blog with the keywords that are most important to that particular post is one of the strongest features of the blog.

Today I started a blog for the Eastern Canada Region of the Guild of one name studies. It gives me the opportunity to interact with the members of my region and to send them quick messages as their Regional Representative.

Continuing on with Pincombe/Pinkham one name study, the excel file which I am updating now has all marriages complete from 1912 to the mid 1950s. I am working on the births now to list the parents of each child in the flat file. I will be continuing with my census work and linking the children born prior to 1912 to their parents. My mornings are generally spent on my one name studies (along with gardening, washing and a lovely walk and aerobic exercises). I think I shall have to rethink my day in order to glean the best possible working sessions.

Plus I am rethinking my priorities with regard to my surnames that I have researched in the past. I had enthusiastically set up my surnames on a rotating schedule along with those of our son in law but time ran away with me through the summer and I had to abandon the schedule. The beginning of the schedule (i.e. King for my family and Bédard for our son-in-law) will come around again in November and I shall begin again to work on these names but I will not expand my surnames beyond the frequency that they now hold in the old schedule. I will stick with no more than one hour in a single day on any of the surnames unless something arises which is spectacular - unlikely given the distance back I have now reached but one never knows that is true. The time will be spent transcribing principally in order to clear all the documents that I now hold on these surnames or any parish fiche which I have purchased. In the future my fiche purchases will be primarily to look at my Blake one name study or my Pincombe one name study. For our son-in-law's French Canadian ancestry I shall continue working as before on these names in order to pull all the documents out of the databases for them and organize the folders to accommodate them generation by generation.

I will no longer work on the Mead family although continue to be on their mailing list. I am satisfied with Hannah being the daughter of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III and unless someone discovers evidence to the contrary - the overwhelming evidence at the moment does point to that conclusion. Hannah Mead was my husband's 2x great grandmother and married to Isaac Kipp. My husband continues his Kipp one name study now officially a Guild study. The Force Study Group has become active on email once again and he may yet learn about his Force family (his great grandmother was Elizabeth Force daughter of Benjamin Force and granddaughter of Noah Force.

Well having made all those decisions, I can see the work that I will go ahead with as we go into Fall here. I continue transcribing North Molton Parish Registers to complete all the fiche that I own and then move back to Abbots Ann Parish Registers which I had to leave in the spring. I need to re-contact the Blake researchers that I spoke to last winter via email to let them know that I will be continuing with Abbots Ann as they are descended from Charles Blake who married Mary Prince at Abbots Ann in 1736. Determining his parentage is one of the goals of our joint research and of course part of the bigger picture on the Blake family. There are a number of Blake researchers who descend from Charles Blake and I would dearly love it if one of them would test their yDNA to see if they do match my brother. I am still curious if there are several different yDNA lines at Andover or whether they are indeed the same family and descendant of the Calne Wiltshire Blake family as the Pedigree Chart at Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office indicates.

I will also be working on my Pincombe/Pinkham one name study continuing to work on the flat file of BMDs and the Parish Registers that I currently hold. With the PRs for London on Ancestry I also need to start working on the Blake family there since they are known to be descendant of the Hampshire family.

Kipp-Kip-de Kype family

My husband has been researching his paternal line for over fourty years (Kipp-Kip-de Kype family). The published work on this family that is generally referred to is History of The Kip Family In America, by Frederic E. Kip and Margarita L. Hawley, 1928 (Private printing). Unfortunately my husband did not find the name of his ancestor Isaac Kipp (born 1 Nov 1764, New York, USA (and thought to be Dutchess County)) in the book but there are many lines that are not traced down. He has spent a great deal of time tracing down the many lines and now has a nine generation chart on his webpage for the Kip(p) family of New Amsterdam there as well as worldconnect. Fortunately yDNA arrived and he was able to connect himself back to the Kip family of New Amsterdam by matching people who could trace back with a paper trail (paper genealogy is still most important).

Attending the New England Regional Genealogical Conference has been in the back of our minds for a number of years and we finally did make it there this year. He attended sessions that pertained to New England and New York records for the most part. It is interesting to hear what others have to say on the subject of these records. I think for myself it is the first time that I have had a glimmer of understanding of how people do do their genealogy when they trace back to the 1600s in New England! I have to date found it very very difficult but in my case that isn't a problem at all since I do not have any ancestors on this side of the Atlantic prior to 1818 when my Routledge family arrived (except for a short stay in Halifax in 1807 by my George Lawley when he served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (then the 23rd Regiment of Foot)).

Back to the Kip(p) family and there is an extra bit of interesting genealogy just to make the pursuit ever more exciting. There were three Kipp emigrants from Germany arriving in the 1750s and naturalized in Pennsylvania who spell their name Kipp and with the movement about these families have been confused with the New Amsterdam Kip(p) family. Certainly Ed wondered until he did his yDNA whether he too was a descendant of the German Kipp families. We now have four distinct lines of individuals who trace back to German Kipp families and we are now researching those lines in terms of locating their emigration point and their naturalization point. Gradually we will see the lines appearing in the census as well so that we can to a certain extent assist people as they search for their ancestral line.

I went onto Footnote.com to spend a day looking at the Kipp family and discovered that the Poughkeepsie Journal is scanned and on this site from the earliest days (prior to 1800!). That will be a tool that might assist my husband with his research. The family lore coming down through the Richard Titus Kipp family (brother to my husband's great grandfather) was that the family had come from Dutchess County New York, The census of 1790 (Isaac Kipp married Hannah Mead 29 August 1790) lists an Isaac Kipp over 16 and in his household there is a female. They are listed beside or with Jonathan Mead (thought to be Jonathan Mead the cooper (and he would be the III, his father was the II cooper and his father the I cooper) and four lines down Nathaniel Mead known to be the brother of Jonathan Mead the Cooper III. Isaac Kipp is missing from the 1800 census at Northeast Town but does appear to be at Rensslaerville, NY and the family there is listed as 4 members under 16 and 2 members over 25. Isaac was born in 1764 so he would now be 36 and Hannah was born in 1770 and she would be 30. They had five living sons by 1800 (Isaac b 1791, Jonathan bc 1792, James bc 1793, John bc 1795 and David b 1797) but one son Jonathan is thought to have not come to Ontario with them - he was known to be in Ontario by the late 1810s. Jonathan Kipp would appear to be with his Mead grandparents on the 1800 and 1810 census. The naming is interesting in that Jonathan would be the forename of Hannah's father and John the forename of the furtherest back ancestor on the Mead side before the other two Jonathans. We are left to contemplate was the name of Isaac's father Isaac and his grandfather Jacobus (James)? The name David occurs in the Mead family. On arrival in Ontario, the first known daughter Elizabeth was born just a month after their arrival followed by Phoebe in 1802, Susannah in 1805, Richard Titus in 1807, Benjamin in 1811 (my husband's great grandfather) and Daniel in 1813. We continue searching out these families.

Tomorrow it is back to my lines!

MIlwaukee Public Library and Family History

I spent all day Monday at the Milwaukee Public Library in their Family History Section. An excellent source for people doing their genealogy. I was looking in particular for Kipp and Mead. I made a couple of discoveries that will be helpful. First of all the Mead descendants appear to be from the Irish Mead family. Eliminating lines is sometimes as good as finding them.

The rest of the week has been very busy with reading a number of books.

New York State Library Research

I spent several hours this morning entering all the new images into my 2009 excel file to make it easier to find items. I want to work on some of the material but sent the file off to my husband as well because they are his ancestors. Because we have tried the "frontal" approach on his Kipp and Mead ancestors unsuccessfully it is time to start moving away from that concept and work on the families in the area and related families by searching genealogies. This was a suggestion by Henry Hoff who was one of the consultants at the Albany Conference. Although Ed has been accumulating all information that he finds on the Kip family actually bringing down the contemporary families isn't something that he was necessarily working at unless they were related (i.e. siblings).

I found that Sarah Guernsey has several possible sets of parents on World Connect. I also found a will at Albany for a Peter Garnsey where he mentions the heirs of Jonathan Mead (1812). This could be Jonathan Mead married to Sarah Guernsey and these heirs would be Jehiel (died of wounds in the Revolution)'s descendants, Jonathan (the Cooper III) and to the best of our knowledge Jonathan Kipp is living with him at this date as he doesn't arrive in Canada until 1819 or 1820 - his descendants, Nathaniel Mead (married 1 Hannah Lamb and 2 Martha Quimby)'s descendants and Nathaniel is still living in 1812, and Hannah married to Stephen Atwater and she is still alive (died in 1835) and Titus who died from wounds in the revolution in 1785 (he left no known descendants). Ordering his will could be very interesting as it may provide more details on Jonathan. Jonathan Mead and Sarah Guernsey were still alive on the 1790 census and likely living with Nathaniel their son at Northeast Town. That was one rather interesting find but a search of the Gurnsey, Garnsey family books did not reveal any further information.

I shall construct a couple of *.pdf documents of information that I gleaned from a couple of journals to make it more readable. They should help with looking at the 18th century Dutchess County documents in order to determine if we should order a copy as they are all held on microfilm at Salt Lake City.

I did some searching online and found that the ancestors of Ruth Hardey have been a popular post to World Connect. Whether they have all taken from each other or several have arrived at the names individually is difficult to tell. A couple have sources so will check those out next time we are at a repository that includes the information mentioned. Ruth Hardey's mother is said to be Ann Husted. Her brother Angell Husted married Mary Mead according to our Mead Research Group. No parentage for Mary Mead though but she had to have been born in the 1620s.

Tomorrow I will continue looking at the Mead material and type some of it up to send to the research group. I also need to make a plan for completing my study of all the material that I brought back from Salt Lake City. It is now one year since we were there. The opportunity to go again next year has arisen and I want to be ready.

DNA study

I decided to extract the mitosearch entries for T haplogroup and that ended up being nearly 2000 entries. I extracted them by subgroups T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and as I write this I realized that I missed T and T* so will have to go back and collect them as well. I decided to do that and then come back and continue with my blog. There were another 700 entries which should prove very interesting. I will match them up with the mutations and see if I can add their knowledge of geographic location to the database effectively.

Needless to say my transcriptions are being set aside. I think perhaps I must have needed a rest from them. I shall get back to them soon though as I am very interested in the Andover registers in this time period.

I spent a little more time on my presentation as I have to do a short write up for the syllabus and also speak with one of the other speakers. I shall email her tomorrow since I am more or less ready with all my thoughts in place :)

One of the Mead researchers wrote to me today to ask about my talk and I explained that I wasn't doing anything with the Mead in this talk and it was mostly my own family lines (my husband is the Mead descendant). I do not have any American ancestry actually. With three grandparents born and raised in England and my father also born in England (he and his parents came to Canada in 1913), the chances of having American ancestry are quite slight.

I also learned a little more about the Sherwood family. The reputed father of my grandmother Blake was the grandson of John Sherwood. It might be interesting to discover if he actually was her father (George Cotterill).

Tomorrow will be another busy day and we have been having rain most days this week. It leaves me free to work away on my genealogy.

Andover Parish Registers - 24

Unfortunately, I did not complete the Andover Parish Register #1 - burials section today. I did manage to complete to January 1631. The transcription is very very difficult but I will continue tomorrow and hope to finish. There are six prints left to transcribe.

I had a query from a descendant of the Hinxman family. They are found at West Dean after the late 1600s but not there in the earlier register. I sent the requested baptism to the enquirer (Edward Hinxman baptized 30 December 1628). The record was a little earlier than thought - they were looking for 1635 and indeed there may be one in 1635 and I will see that at a later date unless I take the time to look tomorrow which I might. Edward was a fairly common name though in the Hinxman family at Andover.

I also met a new individual looking at the Jonathan Mead the Cooper I, II, and III family in Dutchess County, New York, She has written an article published in the NEHGR on Jonathan Cooper I. Her interest is strong and I sent her all of my husband's details just so that she would have them.

We had all our children home for dinner today and it was a busy time. The dogs loved the chicken treats after the meal was over.

Tomorrow I will continue working on the Andover Parish Registers to complete them. Then I will begin the Timberscombe Parish Registers plus I need to complete the Birmingham transcription at Family Search. Never a dull moment.