I always had a blue eye ring around the outside of the brown area of my eye

 I always had a blue eye ring around the outside of the brown area of my eye but it is more distinct after the cataract surgery (my eyes were very crossed though as a child (strabismus) and that is now gone (it was difficult for me to see anything really close up even with my glasses)). I hadn't really noticed it until this spring and I still think one would think my eyes were brown but definitely that blue eye ring is there as it always been from childhood (just looks larger, bluer and more distinct). The brown area just seemed larger to me through my life. Interesting really. I think maybe we should have our fingerprints on our passport which is perhaps a strange thing to say but it would be a second proof of who we are. 

Yesterday I finished the main floor cleaning but decided to do the basement today because I have to move the rug and under pad back now that the water meter has been changed. That went very smoothly and was accomplished in less than half of an hour. Getting ready for it took considerably longer but it was good to have everything cleared away from the area. So today I will clean the basement this morning and clear away the snow as we got quite a bit actually. 

Worked on the matches and there were a couple of quite good ones so into the databases and painted. I am not able to discover the Blake ancestry of these lines without going into the records of the English databases to search them out. But with hundreds and hundreds of grandchildren and they are my 2x great grandparents so one can only imagine the number of 2x great grandchildren!, John Blake and Ann (Farmer) Blake are a study all in themselves. Their descendants are found around the globe but primarily they remain in England and many in the London area as well as Hampshire. John Blake had died by the time my grandfather was born (John was his grandfather) but his grandmother Ann Blake was still alive and lived next door to him so he knew her very well and learned a lot about his Blake family from her and some of her Farmer family. The Farmer family were from Wiltshire and I believe I have found the correct line (a couple of interesting DNA matches work well) but Ann herself was born at Woodhouse in Andover. It was probably very helpful for my grandfather's mother to have her mother in law next door as she had twelve children! Her own mother lived at Turnworth, Dorset. Interesting how these Blake men through the centuries married outside of their area very often actually. I am still contemplating how far down I will bring the generations. Probably just to my father and he was born in 1904. All of his grandchildren know each other so that sounds good actually.

I watched a show on Netflix "Mary" which is quite good and I am about half way through. One never thinks about the whole story of Mary very often although there is evidence of her in the writings that points to the possibility of the accuracy of this show but it is also based on the knowledge of life at the time.

I haven't been watching Netflix for a while; life has just been busy with the election and I have been watching the candidates but I was annoyed by comments made yesterday by the Conservative leader. It always seems to be money that brings out the accusations and attempts to vilify one's opponent on the basis of money. Perhaps I do not put enough emphasis on money; but money destroys people; destroys their life often enough. I think having sufficient for one's basic needs is good and very necessary that as you work through life you put enough aside to support you in your old age. But being rich has its negative side; you have to protect it unfortunately that is the reality of life. It may look glitzy to be wealthy but it is a lonely place even if you do do all these fun and fabulous looking things. You can still do them and not be so rich and they are more fun I think simply because you are not always having to protect yourself from those who would steal from you. But in this modern world for sure anyone is a target for fraud and one must be attentive to anyone prying into their private affairs. 

But back to the election and I felt that the Conservative candidate had moved beyond mud-slinging but it is still there and I do find it repulsive. I do have my problems with the Liberal party - they do cling to power using whatever means works for them. This last parliamentary period I found to be extremely annoying with mistakes at CRA not being satisfactorily answered and responded to - there should have been people fired but it they did it on the quiet then fine but it would be good to know that a successful conclusion was reached for the huge mistake made. I found the dental and drug plans to be set up incorrectly as money for health belongs to the provinces and is much better managed by them. The Liberals always just throw money at it without being careful with the finances. It is highly likely that Mark Carney would be very efficient with money; I do have to say that. My decision still remains somewhat in abeyance as I listen to the candidates. The Feds should concentrate on improving our trade outreach which means working with the provinces to improve internal trade and increasing our network of trade in the world and other such global issues and not get into people's dental and drug needs. Seeing the NDP well below 10% of the popularity federally is a good thing. Provincially they have worked well in some of the provinces - Manitoba is a good example and possibly others I must admit to not keeping up with the politics of each and every province. Here in Ontario our experience with NDP was not good and I would never want to repeat that for sure. Mind you the Liberals certainly made a mess of it last time they were in power in Ontario. I am reasonably satisfied with Premier Ford although again the money issues that are thrown about are very annoying. Prove it or leave it alone; I get tired of it. My voting card came and it will be a nice walk up to advance polling.

 So next task is to put the rug down and then let the robot do its work vacuuming the rug. Then shovel the snow and back in to finish cleaning the basement. A busy day, breakfast already completed and will have my tea as that was mixed up today.

Forgiveness lightens the heart

Not the exact wording of Ephesians  4:31-32

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Forgiveness is the meat of human kindness and takes us far in this world. Forgiving doesn't necessarily mean friendship but it does mean letting go of what is past and can not be changed.

Another beautiful day in God's world and we must make the best of it as the sun prepares itself to shine once again upon this earth that I stand upon. 

Cleaning all accomplished and back to research. I am going to do research light for a couple of weeks just to give my eyes a total rest. I always, pretty much, have to experience that tiredness for me to remember that my eyes are my limiting factor and need that special care to let them do their best. My eyes will never be 100%; they  never were. I remember the first colour television and the dreadful migraines that I had as a child. I actually used to sit in the room and not look at the television; just listen and I still do that to a certain extent. Gradually over time my eyes accepted that flashing changing colour and of course TVs have improved. But I never really was a TV watcher. I mostly watch the weather and the news but do enjoy Netflix. It has so many good movies that are just my kind of movie. Edward loved TV and could watch cooking shows by the hour those last few years. He really took to cooking and delved into all sorts of different kinds of recipes. When COVID arrived I took to sitting with him most mornings and watching because I think he was feeling the loneliness that COVID brought on for some people. He was used to being out and about every day shopping which he really loved to do (we both went; I always went with him everywhere that last ten years unless he wanted to go alone). When I look back now I am realizing that other than working on his autosomal DNA he never really did any writing except for the Ottawa Genealogists which he edited and produced; after we started to travel extensively in 2008. He collected items and put them into his tree which is now on World Connect and his website. We will maintain the website for a long period of time but the work that he did needs to be consolidated but I can not do that heavy work on his research. I do not have the background to do it although did  help to collect the information but it needs to have someone more familiar with the family than I am to work on it. Perhaps my older daughter; time will tell. 

For myself, I shall go a little slower into my next two books just as I took the Siderfin book fairly slowly (it was two years in creation). There is no rush and I have the files organized but there is a lot of transcription to do over the next couple of years but will take that slowly as well. I continue to look forward to actually fulfilling the desire of my grandfather for his Blake book of Andover and for my mother her Pincombe family book of Bishops Nympton although it will be more extensive (i.e. the North Molton family which was the first Pencombe in Devon and even a look at the possibility of Pencombe in Herefordshire being the founder of that surname) since Pincombe is a much smaller family. 

Prayers for Israel and Ukraine. Prayers for the children of Gaza. Let there be peace on earth. The other spots in the world that continue to be of concern prayers as well. Thank you to those who help to bring about peace in our world. May the UN be all that we prayed for in the beginning and be a solace to the world and a defender of the ancient rights of peoples.

I do wonder where the next Church Service will be; although I miss the Service at the Cathedral online I am finding this tour of the Churches of England in England quite wonderful on Sunday morning. Some I have visited and others it is nice to see them. The little Church in Turnworth always comes back to me as we spent perhaps an hour there, my cousin and I and our spouses. We found the grave stone for our mutual ancestor Samuel Knight and his wife Louisa Butt (2x great grandparents for both of us) who were the parents of our great grandmother Maria Jane (Knight) Blake. It was a quiet peaceful graveyard with a number of burials that form part of that Knight family tree. Samuel's brother Thomas was Parish Clerk for over thirty years in this quiet little village on the Winterbourne. One might wonder how a young woman born in Turnworth met a young man (Edward Blake) born in Upper Clatford but there were Knight relations in Upper Clatford and I suspect that Maria Jane was visiting/helping a relative when they met and they actually married at Upper Clatford rather than Turnworth. My father remembered a tall white haired man (Samuel, his great grandfather) as his family used to spend vacation time in the New Forest where his cousins lived (the Hall family - his father's eldest sister Louisa married Charles Hall) and Samuel must have been there as well as my father always associated Samuel with the New Forest. 

On to the day. Teatime and Jumping Jacks first. I have perhaps invented a new exercise that I do before the Jumping Jacks and after the Reverse Warrior that I added in. I probably am a bit of an exercise addict. I start with the Reverse Warrior (count of 30 left and right) just to loosen the spinal area and then go into a deep squat and  make circles ten times in each direction (2 repeats only) and then walk at least 100 steps before doing the now 80 Jumping Jacks. I can see my aim now is to move to a count of 50 with the Reverse Warrior and then perhaps 20 circles in each direction in the deep squat and then 100 steps and 100 jumping jacks. Followed by perhaps 30 to 50 steps and then a shoulder stand for the count of 60 and when you get up use just one hand to assist you. I repeat that again before breakfast and I am finding that the back spasms that I experience with cleaning are actually lessening. I do have arthritis in my spine as well as osteoporosis so do do that carefully but the strength training is great. The rotations in a squat position are not easy and one might want to check with a doctor/physio before starting on a very intensive exercise program first thing in the morning. I can not imagine a day without exercise and my stints with physio were very helpful at the time that I had injuries. It is tempting to just go every month to a physio and review some of my exercises but I haven't gotten back to that notion since my last exercise injury before COVID. Perhaps in time. My osteoporosis would probably benefit from ever more weight bearing exercises I haven't thought of doing! Now to enjoy my tea and Solitaire games. It is certainly interesting to have Alexa wish me Good Morning and my forename follows and then set my five minute timer. 

And an exciting event coming my way is the dogs coming to visit with me for a few days. We will have a great time. 

The ARNOLD family of Milton Abbas, Dorset

A flurry of emails back and forth discussing the Arnold family at Milton Abbas between myself and Jill Morley who has been collecting Arnold material for over 30 years. She runs an active Facebook group on the Arnold family.

Likely Jill and I are related but she is unable to find earlier material on her direct line.

My Arnold line has fallen neatly into place back into the 1600s at Milton Abbas but I am stuck there with James Arnold married to Sibyl unknown. Sibyl was buried at Milton Abbas 28 Jul 1673. This couple baptized six children at Milton Abbas.

Henry baptized 4 Jan 1651
Mary baptized 12 Sep 1654
unmamed baptized 18 Nov 1657; buried 19 Nov 1657
Ann baptized 27 Mar 1661
James baptized 4 Oct 1663 (married Mary Hardy 1 Nov 1694 at Milton Abbas)
John baptized 4 Oct 1663 (married Melionor Leave 17 Oct 1692 at Milton Abbas)

These two younger sons trace their line down at Milton Abbas with my line being James Arnold married to Mary Hardy. They baptized six children at Milton Abbas.

Mary baptized 8 Mar 1694
James baptized 25 Feb 1697 (married Honor Lovell 26 Jun 1721 at MIlton Abbas)
John baptized 21 Apr 1702 (married Susannah (unknown) circa 1725)
Ann baptized 19 Oct 1704 (married Peter Hause)
Jane baptized 13 Apr 1712; buried 18 Aug 1712 at Milton Abbas
Jinny (Jane) baptized 4 Mar 1714

MA/4 1742 = this is the will of James ARNOLD of Milton Abbas dated 25 June 1742 Proved 8 August 1743 Mentions Wife: Mary ARNOLD Son: John ARNOLD Daughter: Mary wife of William Lovell Daughter: Ann wife of Peter House. Daughter: Jinny Appoints wife Mary as Executor

MA/3 1744 = this is the will of Mary ARNOLD (wife of the above) of Milton Abbas Mentions: son John ARNOLD Daughter: Mary wife of William Lovell Daughter: Ann wife of Peter House Grand daughter: Honor Daughter: Jinny executor

http://www.dorset-opc.com/Miscellaneous/ArnoldWills.htm

My ancestor was John Arnold married to Susannah and they baptized seven children at Milton Abbas.

John baptized 4 Aug 1725 (married to Hannah Norris 7 Jul 1751 at Milton Abbas)
James baptized 1 Feb 1726
Jane baptized 29 Jan 1728
Mary born circa 1730 at MIlton Abbas
William baptized 26 Jan 1732 (married to Ann Riggs 4 May 1755 at Cheselbourne)
Susannah baptized 19 Mar 1734
Thomas baptized 21 May 1737

My line is John Arnold married to Hannah Norris and they baptized eight children at Milton Abbas.

Mary baptized 8 Apr 1752 (married to Stephen Elford 27 Apr 1780 at Milton Abbas)
John baptized 17 Mar 1754
Jane baptized 20 Oct 1756
Joseph baptized 24 Oct 1759 (married to Susanna Best 18 Jul 1781)
Hannah baptized 18 Aug 1762 (married to John Hooper 21 Mar 1791 at Milton Abbas)
Susannah baptized 2 Oct 1765
William baptized 21 Feb 1770 (married to Elizabeth Molton 30 Aug 1793 at Milton Abbas)
Ann born circa 1773 at Milton Abbas (married James Vacher 26 Jul 1796 at MIlton Abbas)

My line is William Arnold married to Elizabeth Molton and they baptized six children at Winterborne Whitchurch and three or four children at Winterborne Clenstone

Thyrsa baptized 25 Mar 1791 (married Robert Tuffin 3 May 1814 at Winterborne Stickland)
Abel baptized 11 Mar 1792 (married Mary Lewis 6 Feb 1816 at Winterborne Clenstone)
Charles baptized 1 Dec 1793
Hannah baptized 18 Jan 1795 (married Charles Butt 26 Dec 1820 at Winterborne Clenstone)
Jane baptized 10 Jul 1796
Mark baptized 25 Mar 1798
Sarah baptized 15 Sep 1799 (married Joseph Butt 7 Jun 1824 at Winterborne Clenstone)
Elim baptized 11 Jan 1801 (married Mary Ann Cuff 24 Apr 1821 at Winterborne Whitchurch)
Ann baptized 8 May 1802

Mark baptized 15 Jul 1821 at Winterborne Clenstone (married Emma Hook)
This last baptism was said to be the son of William and Elizabeth Arnold but it is 19 years after the baptism of Ann. Not impossible Elizabeth would have been 55 years of age.

My line continues down from Charles Butt and Hannah Arnold. They baptized seven children at Winterborne Stickland.

Thurza baptized 11 Mar 1821 (married Thomas Knight 10 Nov 1844 at Turnworth)
Abel baptized 15 Feb 1823 (married Martha Knight 8 Feb 1850 at Turnworth)
Josiah baptized 15 Jan 1826; buried 24 Jan 1826 at Winterborne Stickland
Louisa baptized 27 Jan 1827 (married Samuel Knight 7 Sep 1849 at Winterborne Stickland)
John born circa 1830 at Winterborne Stickland (married Jane Gumbleton 13 Apr 1857 at Winterborne Stickland)
Arthur baptized 5 Jan 1834 (married Jane Cross sep quarter 1853 in Blandford RD)
Nehemiah baptized 15 May 1836

Samuel Knight and Louisa Butt are my ancestors. Interesting that three Knight siblings married three Butt siblings. Samuel and Louisa baptized eleven children at Turnworth including their eldest Maria Jane.

Maria Jane baptized 27 Jan 1850 (married Edward Blake 29 Oct 1870 at Upper Clatford)

This couple were my great grandparents and their son Samuel George Blake my grandfather. I have traced these lines down and only my grandfather and his younger brother Henry came to Canada with the rest of the family remaining in England. This family has kept in contact into the 2000s with my husband and I visiting the grandchildren of the youngest son of Edward Blake and Maria Jane Knight in 2008.

I did know from childhood that Charles Butt had married Hannah Arnold and that this family lived in the Winterborne area of Dorset. Going back from Hannah involved research on my part along with a cousin of mine Robert Arnold.

William Knight ( - 1827)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 15

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

William Knight is the more elusive of my two Knight 4x great grandfathers.  There are two possibilities that he was the son of William Knight baptized 6 Jan 1735 at Spetisbury or he was that William Knight and simply waited until he was older to marry Sarah Ellis but indeed William Knight married Sarah Ellis 7 Aug 1775 at Winterborne Stickland. Since he has died before the census of 1841/1851 I do not know for sure where or when he was born/baptized unless he is the William Knight baptized at Spetisbury. I have left the option open even yet.

That William might not be one of these two has also occurred to me but I am unable to discover a reasonable "other William Knight" that resembles this William Knight. Others have said that he is the William Knight baptized  5 Aug 1739 at St James Shaftesbury son of George Knight and Mary Long who married 2 Oct 1735 in Shaftesbury and this record can be found at Ancestry.com. Indeed he does name one of his sons George. My grandfather though did think that his 2 Knight great grandparents were related and I can not find any relationship between these two families. So hovering in the background in my mind is the possibility that he was incorrect.

William and Sarah went on to have eight children (one daughter Sarah 1792) and seven sons William 1776, Elias 1779-1779, Ellis 1783-1851 (and my ancestor), George 1785, Samuel 1788, Stephen 1798 (others have 1790 but this baptism is missing), Joseph 1799. Most of this information I have from Robert Knight a cousin of mine who lives still in Dorset and has ready access to the record office in Dorchester. Hence my having had this information since 2007 or so. I have since verified it with the records on Ancestry. Another cousin of mine lives in Australia (Keith Ford) and he made the trek back to Dorset before I did and photographed the pages of the relevant registers in Turnworth which I also received from him in 2007. Thanks to both of these cousins for sorting out the Knight lines in Winterborne Stickland/Spetisbury for me.

William Knight could either be the William baptized 6 Jan 1735 at Spetisbury or the William baptized at Shaftesbury. No one can say for sure. But William baptized 1735 is the son of Henry Knight and Mary Oliver. They married 25 Dec 1727 at Spetisbury and had 15 children Henry 1729-1788, Sarah 1730-1730, Thomas 1732-1794, Mary 1733-1734, William 1735-, David 1736-aft 1771, John 1738-1738, John 1740-1740, Ann 1741-1741, Mary 1742-1742, John 1744-1744, John 1745-1745, John 1746-1747, John 1748-1750, and Mary 1749-1750. Henry Knight was the Parish Clerk at Spetisbury and he was buried 25 Sep 1778 at Spetisbury. I have not yet found a burial for Mary. The place of birth/baptism for Henry Knight and Mary Oliver is not known to me and they represent the top of my Knight tree. Imagine burying six children all named John. No child survived after David

Many of the men in this family were stone masons. There was a Knight family at Cann who were stone masons and some link this family back to this area. The thought is that they came down to the Blandford area following the great fire in that city to help rebuild it. The fire occurred Friday 4 Jun 1731. One notes that Henry Knight was already at Spetisbury as he married Mary Oliver 25 Dec 1727 so do question this notion. The George Knight at Shaftesbury could be from the Knight family at Cann but I do not know his occupation.

There was a Mary Oliver baptized 12 Oct 1709 at Tarrant Rushton (3 miles from Spetisbury) and the daughter of Thomas Oliver and Sarah his wife. Given the naming in this family Henry first son, Sarah  first daughter, then Thomas second son and Mary second daughter one could ponder the possibility that this is Mary Oliver married to Henry Knight 1727 at Spetisbury. I could not find a marriage for Thomas Oliver and Sarah but did find a baptism of William Oliver son of Thomas and Sarah 17 Jun 1705 at Tarrant Rushton. There was also a Mary baptized 1 May 1704 (buried 30 Jul 1704) all at Tarrant Rushton.

There was a Henry Knight son of Thomas Knight junior and Julian baptized 2 Feb 1701 at Mapperton (3 miles from Spetisbury and 5 miles from Tarrant Rushton).  Again I did not find a marriage but did find a number of siblings for Henry:

Sarah baptized 15 Nov 1691 at Mapperton
Peter baptized 21 May 1693 at Mapperton
Susanna baptized 10 Feb 1694/95 at Mapperton
Ann baptized 27 Oct 1696 at Mapperton
Anne baptized 29 Jan 1698 at Mapperton
Henry baptized 2 Feb 1701 at Mapperton
Christian baptized 22 Mar 1703 at Mapperton (service 11 Nov 1705 at Mapperton, buried at Netherbury)
Thomas baptized 7 Jul 1706 at Mapperton
John baptized 26 Jun 1709 at Mapperton

Looking at the burials for Mapperton and noting that in some instances (baptisms) Thomas Knight junior is recorded as being from Meith there is a Thomas Knight senior of Meith buried  23 Apr 1723. He was buried from Mapperton at Netherbury. Also buried at Netherbury from Mieth, Henry Knight, clerk of the parish 13 Oct 1714. Also buried from Meith at Netherbury Anne Knight 7 Feb 1724, and Edith Knight 29 Jul 1716. (Henry and Edith were married.) Have I perhaps using Ancestry uncovered my Knight family. This is the first time I have looked at Henry Knight and Mary Oliver in several years.

Netherbury is just south of Beaminster and three miles from another Mapperton. Interesting and must pursue this another time. But for the moment I will list this baptism at Mapperton, as this is the village that is listed on Genuki rather than the one south of Beaminster, as the baptism for Henry with his father Thomas and his possible grandfather Thomas.

I should also list the other possible ancestry but will mention it only in this paragraph because I remain somewhat convinced that my grandfather was right and Eleanor and Ellis were related. George Knight (married to Mary Long),  I can not find a baptism for him although other researchers have his father as Richard Knight who married Mary (unknown) and was the father of Henry, George and Ann. One notes the forename Henry in this and the individual who created this family tree does have the family of Henry at Spetisbury descendant of this line. I am not convinced that this is correct although does then give credence to the thought that Eleanor and Ellis would then be related. As records come online it will be easier to determine the correct Knight line for my two 4x great grandfathers Knight!.

Ancestry of William Knight:

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George Blake (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Samuel KNIGHT (b 25 May 1828) - Turnworth Dorset England
6. Ellis KNIGHT (b 17 Jan 1783) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
7. William KNIGHT
8. William KNIGHT (b 6 Jan 1734/35) - Spetisbury Dorset England
9. Henry KNIGHT ( possibly b 2 Feb 1701) - Mapperton Dorset England
10. Thomas KNIGHT (junior)
possibly
11. Thomas KNIGHT (senior)

 It has certainly been an interesting tour through the records for the Knight family and I shall repeat it once again when I look at John Knight my other Knight 4x great grandfather. Perhaps I will be right after all that this Knight family, although some were stone masons, were not descendant of the Knight family at Cann unless they traveled southward earlier than the Blandford fire of 1731. Some have the father of William as George as mentioned. George is not a name found in the Knight family (other than William) until much much later so have always felt that that direction lacked credence but on the other hand Henry does occur 15 times in the Knight family although in a later time period there are 16 Georges. The Henry forename is used on a regular basis from 1700 on.

Ann Vincent (1755 - probably by 1841)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 14

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

Ann Vincent/Vinsent and I list both spellings of her surname. Ann was baptized at Dewlish and the second child in her family with the forename Ann (the first was spelled Anne but she died as a child in 1752). Ann's parents were James Vinsent/Vincent and Ann Moulam/Moulain/Mowlam. They were married 28 Nov 1733 at Dewlish, Dorset. Ann had seven siblings: Sarah 1735, Anne 1737-1752, Mary 1739, Francis 1740, James 1743, John 1745, and Benjamin 1749. All baptized at Dewlish. Their mother Ann Moulam/Moulain/Mowlam was also baptized at Dewlish 16 Dec 1712 and she was buried there circa 1768. Her parents were William Moulan/Moulain/Mowlam and Elizabeth. I have not yet found their marriage although they baptized 8 children at Dewlish but many died as infants including twins baptized in 1719. For a long time I did not have the parents of Ann because I was looking in the wrong place namely Shapwick where one finds the marriage of James Vinsent and Ann Moulam's daughter Ann to John Knight.

My Knight family is actually quite interesting and I will be tracing those two 4x great grandparents to a common ancestor - another case of pedigree collapse in my lines going back. That is to come as I do have two Knight lines.

I do not know anything about the Vinsent/Vincent or the Moulam.Moulain/Mowlam families but suspect they may be French Huguenot. I may pursue that notion at a later date. It is possible that James was the son of an Edward who was himself perhaps the son of Johannis Vincent/Vinsent. The registers do not clarify these entries that others have added to their family trees on My Heritage but I will keep that in the back of my mind. James was buried 20 Jun 1769 at Dewlish with Ann having preceded him in 1768 and also buried at Dewlish.

John Knight (Ann Vinsent's husband) was a bricklayer and also had a property on which he paid tax according to the records held at Find My Past. I have not traced down all of the lines in the family of John Knight and Ann Vinsent  namely Joseph 1785-1785, Eleanor 1786-1870 (my ancestor), Sophia 1789, Martha 1796 and John 1800. John certainly left descendants as he can be found on the census. Eleanor Knight married a distant cousin Ellis Knight and they had 13 children (something my grandfather remembered (a baker's dozen he called their children) and lived first at Spetisbury and later Turnworth. Samuel, their 11th child was my 2x great grandfather and he married Louisa Butt. Their daughter Mary Jane Knight married Edward Blake and they were my great-grandparents.

We visited Turnworth and saw the memorial stone for Samuel and Louisa and also visited the church which was somewhat of an awesome event for me. The skelton key which I held in my hand (opened the Church) was ancient and surely rested in the hands of Samuel at some point in the past. Thomas, Samuel's brother, had been parish clerk for thirty years. I can tell by the records that on occasion Samuel helped him with his tasks. To have touched an object that your ancestor touched is truly an unforgettable experience. Samuel died 12 years after his wife and as I touched the memorial stone I thought of this tall thin white haired man as my father remembered him and likely he too would come and touch the gravestone of his wife (the stone was likely put up for her as the carving was not the same).

Going and visiting the places where your ancestors lived, seeing the house that they lived in and walking the paths that they walked is perhaps one of the most meaningful experiences that I have had doing my genealogical research.

Ancestry for Ann Vincent/Vinsent:

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George Blake (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Samuel KNIGHT (b 25 May 1828) - Turnworth Dorset England
6. Eleanor KNIGHT (b 12 Dec 1786) - Spetisbury Dorset England
7. Ann VINCENT (b 26 Oct 1755) - Dewlish Dorset England
8. James VINCENT

1. Ann VINCENT (b 26 Oct 1755) - Dewlish Dorset England
2. Ann MOULAM/MOULAIN/MOWLAM (17 Dec 1712) - Dewlish Dorset England
3. William MOULAM/MOULAIN/MOWLAM

The intent on working through these stories is to see if I can find anything more and definitely I have learned that the name has several possibilities and I have collected a lot of sibling's names. The addition of a parent Edward to James Vincent is interesting and perhaps a Johannis as the father of Edward.

I begin the second quarter of the year with this posting. I have managed to keep up thus far and perhaps I will do the two Knight lines with my next two postings.

Elizabeth Molton (1766 - 1838)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 9

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

Elizabeth Molton, another of my 64 3x great grandparents, married William Arnold 30 Aug 1793 at Milton Abbas, Dorset. For a few years I had Elizabeth's surname as Malton from a trancription of their marriage lines but a cousin of mine checked the original documents in the Dorset Record Office and found the surname was Molton. That set us off on an interesting journey. We both had found the baptism of an Elizabeth Molton 20 Apr 1766 at Winterborne Whitchurch daughter of William and Sarah Molton (and it was known that her husband William Arnold had been baptized at Milton Abbas). We could now claim Elizabeth as our own which was a rather comfortable addition as Elizabeth had been quite brickwalled for ages for my cousin and for me from the beginning of my research time in 2004.

However, we could not find a marriage for William Molton and Sarah although did find the baptism of William 2 Aug 1743 at Winterborne Whitchurch and the burial of Sarah 13 Jan 1799 at Winterborne Whitchurch. They baptized six children at Winterborne Whitchurch namely:

Thomas baptized 11 Jun 1764 and buried 10 Feb 1765 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Elizabeth baptized 20 Apr 1766
Jane baptized 24 Jun 1769 and buried 20 Apr 1771 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Stephen baptized 12 Jan 1772
Jane baptized 1 May 1774
William baptized 7 Apr 1782

Searching through Find My Past for William Molton I came across an interesting marriage at Winterborne Clenston: William Malton married Sarah Seafear 5 Jan 1764 with witnesses James Masterman and Thomas Clerk. The witnesses were often to be found on marriages at this parish (I am the online parish clerk for Winterborne Clenston but had not noticed this marriage before).

There is also a baptism at Winterborne Whitechurch 2 Aug 1743 of William Molton son of John and Elizabeth Molton. This I had found earlier.

Other children baptized by John and Elizabeth Molton at Winterborne Whitechurch

Jane baptized 2 Jun 1749
Robert baptized 29 Nov 1753
John baptized 18 Jan 1756

Again a new marriage on Find My Past and it is at Turnworth with John Molton marrying Elizabeth Durden 12 Aug 1740. John is of Winterborn Kingston (at the time of his marriage) and Elizabeth of Winterborne Whitechurch. Turnworth is close to Winterborne Clenstone and Winterborne Whitechurch.  We visited all of these sites in 2008.I had found earlier the baptism of a John Molton 20 Jul 1714 at Winterborne Whitechurch son of John and Elizabeth Molton. There was a John Molton buried at Winterborne Whitechurch 24 Jul 1784 and an Elizabeth Molton buried 18 Jun 1781 at Winterborne Whitechurch wife of John aged 67 years.

There was also a John Molton (senior) buried 29 Apr 1747 at Winterborne Whitechurch aged 64 years and an Elizabeth Molton (widow of John) buried 14 Dec 1768 at Winterborne Whitechurch. The following children are baptized at Winterborne Whitechurch children of John and Elizabeth Molton (John Molton said to be of Milton, generally thought to refer to Milton Abbas but a website on abandoned communities is giving me second thought as there was a town of Milton midway between Dorchester and Blandford).

Mary baptized 2 Jan 1710
Thomas baptized 24 Aug 1712
John baptized 20 Jul 1714
Mary bpatized 24 Jul 1721
Betty baptized 30 Jan 1723

Although in terms of generations I have not added to the Molton family I have fleshed out a few more details which was the intent of my 52 ancestor challenge!

Ancestry of Elizabeth Molton

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George Blake (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Louisa BUTT (b 27 Jan 1827) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
6. Hannah ARNOLD (b 13 Dec 1797) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
7. Elizabeth MOLTON (b 20 Apr 1766) - Winterborne Whitchurch Dorset England
8. William MOLTON (b 2 Aug 1743) - Winterborne Whitchurch Dorset England
9. John MOLTON (b 20 Jul 1714) - Winterborne Whitchurch Dorset England
10. John MOLTON (bc 1683)

I do not know anything about Elizabeth other than her parents at baptism, her marriage to William Arnold and the children that they had and her death date. She lived in Winterborne Whitchurch all of her life it would appear although they married at Milton Abbas (the home of William Arnold). I know that her great grandparents John and Elizabeth Molton were buried at Winterborne Whitechurch and baptized all of their children there but do not have a marriage for them nor do I know their parents or where they were baptized. These furtherest back in her line on the Molton side were my 7x great grandparents. I have learned her mother's maiden name of Seafear but nothing more about her mother.

William Arnold and Elizabeth Molton would have ten children although some list the youngest Mark born 19 years after the youngest as the son of Sarah (daughter of this couple). Her daughter Hannah was my 3x great grandmother and she married Charles Butt and my last challenge was John Butt the father of Charles. 

John Butt (1776 - 1850)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 7

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

John Butt is one of my ancestors that I knew for quite a long time and possibly for much longer than I really realize. His eldest son Charles was known to my grandfather as a child. Charles was a Methodist Lay Preacher and an agricultural labourer. He lived to be 86 years old and it was his 80th birthday party at Turnworth that my grandfather remembered. Quite likely this was the furtherest that my grandfather had ever been away from home at Upper Clatford. He never really mentioned that but he remembered his great grandfather Charles who could tell him about life in England from the early 1800s on.

John Butt was baptized 10 May 1776 at Winterborne Clenstone. That was the main reason that I took on OPC for Winterborne Clenstone way back in 2007. He was the son of John Butt and Mary Rolles who were themselves married 9 Aug 1762 at Winterborne Clenstone. This John had been baptized 6 May 1736 at Winterborne Stickland and was the son of William Butt and Susanna Foster and they had been married 31 Jan 1729 at Winterborne Stickland. I was unable to trace back further from this point until I met a cousin at Genes Reunited and she had been into the Dorset Record Office and traced the family back much further. The father of this William Butt was also a William Butt and he was married to Elizabeth Lemon. They were married at Winterborne Houghton 27 Jul 1696 and their eldest son William had been baptized 28 May 1697 at Winterborne Houghton. The father William had been baptized 24 Aug 1665 at Winterborne Stickland the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Butt.  Thomas was baptized 31 Mar 1622 at Winterborne Houghton the son of Robert Butt and Susan Cantrell who were themselves married 13 Apr 1607 at Winterborne Stickland. Richard Cantrell the father of Susan had been buried 15 Dec 1591 Winterborne Stickland.

We traveled through the Winterborne Valley when we visited England in 2008. There was a light mist over the valley and the hills roll away from you into valleys. It was a beautiful sight standing on the knoll where the church of St Nicholas stands in Winterborne Clenstone. I was too new to genealogy to really learn as much as I would now from such a visit. I did photograph a number of the memorial stones in the small cemetery just above the Winterborne (a small river) and at the base of the hill away from the Church. The Church is a Heritage building and used for services only a couple of times a year. It is in beautiful condition and looks out loftily over the valleys and hills that surround it.

Richard Cantrell is my 10th great grandfather and the furtherest I have information for this line back.  No ideas on the father of Robert Butt my 9x great grandfather. I do not know a lot about this family although I believe they were always agricultural labourers working in this Winterborne Valley. Robert and Susan had eight children - 7 sons and 1 daughter. I have trace downs for several of the sons - Simon, Thomas and John. They remained in this beautiful valley until the mills of Lancashire beckoned some of them away in the mid 1800s and Charles (my 3x great grandfather)'s brothers went off to Australia (George and Stephen and there are thousands of descendants there) and Canada (Joseph and there are thousands of descendants here). Charles and Robert remained in England and I have lately met an ancestor of Robert's line on My Heritage. Charles had two sisters with Bethaniah dying as an infant and Maria married to James Vacher.

John Butt (1776-1850) married Jean Durnford 14 Oct 1800 at Winterborne Stickland. Jean was the daughter of Thomas Durnford and Mary Ball and for me this line remains a brickwall. Jean was baptized at Winterborne Stickland 29 Sep 1771.

There isn't a lot of information on this Butt family other than my small bit of family lore but they have spread far around the world. Surprisingly one of my mother's best friends Teresa Butt was actually my father's third cousin but he didn't know that although may have suspected it from the surname. Joseph Butt had emigrated to Canada with his wife Sarah Arnold (Charles and Joseph had married Arnold sisters). Then three of Charles' children married three Knight siblings making this quite a combination of double and triple cousins! No one, other than myself, though have tested their atDNA to my knowledge thus far. Although I do have five people on my Family Finder with the Arnold surname but none with the Butt surname.

Charles' daughter Louisa was one of my known ancestors as my father knew of Louisa (she died before he was born) probably from his great grandfather Samuel Knight whom he knew as a child. Samuel and Louisa were married 7 Sep 1849 at Winterborne Stickland and I visited their memorial stone in 2008 at St Mary the Virgin parish Church in Turnworth Dorset. Their eldest daughter Maria Jane was my great grandmother and she married Edward Blake at Upper Clatford. They had twelve children and the eldest daughter Louisa Mary lived with her grandparents at Turnworth, married there and looked after Samuel until he died. My grandfather Samuel was Maria Jane's second son.

Ancestry of John Butt

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George BLAKE (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Louisa BUTT (b 27 Jan 1827) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
6. Charles BUTT (b 21 Dec 1801) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
7. John BUTT (b 10 May 1776) - Winterborne Clenstone Dorset England
8. John BUTT (b 6 May 1736) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
9. William BUTT (b 10 Dec 1696) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
10. William BUTT (b 24 Aug 1665) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
11. Thomas BUTT (b 31 Mar 1622) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
12. Robert BUTT (b c 1570) 

It does seem like a long way to go back in an agricultural labourer's family and I really have no ideas on this family back into the 1600s. Were they always labourers or did they at one time farm and being younger sons did not inherit any leases or the like so had to make their own way in the world? They did it very well and the Butt family is huge around the world. A couple of years before I started into genealogy (2001 I think) there was a Butt family reunion in England. I would dearly have loved to attend that reunion and perhaps one day there will be another!

Sarah Ellis (1756 - 1844)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 5

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

Sarah Ellis is one of my people I found near the beginning of my research. I knew that their son Ellis Knight was my 3x great grandfather and although not known to my grandfather personally he knew of this family.  Ellis Knight married Eleanor Knight 29 May 1804 at Spetisbury and Spetisbury was a village name ingrained in my memory from earliest day. The name had a ring to it and just stuck in there. I knew that this couple had had 13 children (referred to as a baker's dozen!) and that my father's great grandfather Samuel Knight, known to him as a child and already mentioned earlier in my blogs, was their son. Samuel Knight married Louisa Butt and she was born at Spetisbury and so the name was known to me as my grandfather talked about his grandmother Louisa born at Spetisbury and that her mother Eleanor not quite known to him as she died five years before he was born was also born at Spetisbury.

I had a good handle on this Ellis family probably because the surname was used as a forename in the family. But back to Sarah and she was baptized 5 Aug 1756 at Winterborne Stickland. Sarah married William Knight 7 Aug 1775 at Winterborne Stickland and seven of their eight children were baptized at Winterborne Stickland, namely:

William baptized 21 Jul 1776 (born 15 Jul 1776)
Elias baptized 24 Feb 1779 (born 22 Feb 1779), buried there 24 Feb 1779
Ellis baptized 17 Jan 1783
George baptized 6 Mar 1785
Samuel baptized 4 May 1788
Sarah baptized 27 Dec 1792 (married George Morris 1 Mar 1824 at Winterborne Stickland)
Stephen baptized ?
Joseph baptized 9 May 1799

Stephen is somewhat of a mystery as I can not find his baptism but there appears to be enough proof that they indeed had a son Stephen.

Sarah Ellis died 9 Jun 1844 at Winterborne Stickland and was buried there 13 Jun 1844. Sarah was the daughter of Ellis Ellis and Sarah Wellspring. The name Ellis Ellis quite intrigued me and I could not find his baptism for a long time actually until the Dorset records came up on Ancestry. Then I found that he was baptized 22 Jul 1719 at Winterborne Stickland and married to Sarah Wellspring 7 Mar 1738 at Winterborne Stickland. This couple had seven children all baptized at Winterborne Stickland, namely:

William baptized 29 Jan 1739 (married Mary Arnold 23 Mar 1761 at Blandford St Mary)
Jane baptized 28 Sep 1742 (married Melchizedek Pitman 2 Jul 1762 at Winterborne Stickland)
Elizabeth baptized 3 Feb 1744 (married John Upshall 16 Apr 1770 at Winterborne Stickland)
John baptized 18 Jun 1745, buried 18 Jun 1745
John baptized 14 Jun 1747
Susanna baptized 8 Dec 1751 (married Thomas Cocks 16 Jul 1772 at Winterborne Stickland)
Sarah baptized 5 Aug 1756 (married William Knight 7 Aug 1775 at Winterborne Stickland)

 I have found 29 grandchildren thus far for this couple (I have not yet located any children for John).

Continuing to look at the Ellis family Ellis Ellis was the son of Thomas Ellis and Mary Bound and they married 27 Dec 1703 at Winterborne Stickland. This couple baptized 6 children at Winterborne Stickland, namely:

Elizabeth  baptized 12 Nov 1704 (born 16 Oct 1704), buried 2 Mar 1705 at Winterborne Stickland
Mary baptized 29 Jun 1706 (born 17 Jun 1706)
John baptized 20 Mar 1708 (born 18 Feb 1708)
Thomas baptized 27 Jul 1712 (born 9 Jul 1712), buried 29 Aug 1712 at Winterborne Stickland
William baptized 29 Aug 1715 (born 24 Aug 1715), buried 2 Apr 1721 at Winterborne Stickland
Ellis baptized 22 Jul 1719

Their story was certainly one of loss as only three children appear to have survived although I have not yet found any details for Mary and John beyond their baptisms as there are too many marriages for Mary Ellis/John Ellis and not close enough to Winterborne Stickland.

When we visited the valley of the Winterbourn in 2008 I found it to be rather a beautiful setting. There was a slight mist over the rolling hills although you could see for miles. All farmland and possibly that was what it looked like then as well. What did Thomas Ellis do at Winterborne Stickland and where did he live before Winterborne Stickland? Both are mysteries to me. There are baptisms for a Thomas Ellis in the right time frame but all are in the Dorchester area. Because he named his first son John could he be the Thomas Ellis baptized 11 Nov 1687 at Longbredy although would have only been 16 at marriage? Could he be the Thomas son of Thomas baptized 5 Dec 1662 at Rampisham? He named his second son Thomas. A mystery not yet solved.

Ancestry of Sarah Ellis (including my line down to me)

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George Blake (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Samuel KNIGHT (b 25 May 1828) - Turnworth Dorset England
6. Ellis KNIGHT (b 17 Jan 1783) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
7. Sarah ELLIS (b 5 Aug 1756) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
8. Ellis ELLIS (b 22 Jul 1719) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
9. Thomas Ellis

It would be exciting to find more about Thomas and his grand daughter Sarah and perhaps in time that may happen.

Will of William Blake of Blandford Forum

The Will of William Blake of Blandford Forum is 1015 lines and I have now completed the transcription. Because it is so long I have typed it rapidly and am now in the process of proofreading it.

I am a little slowed down at the moment as I managed to walk into the garage door (just the top of my head) but it was enough to knock me backwards and give me a touch of whiplash. That slowed down my computer time as I rested away from the computer. All recovered now and back to work. I generally watch for that but thought it was up high enough.

This will adds to the will of his father The Reverend Malachi Blake of Blandford Forum mentioning his siblings and his nieces and nephews and indeed his great nephews and great nieces. I find this family very interesting perhaps because my great grandmother lived at Turnworth Dorset (five miles west of Blandford Forum) and we visited this area in 2008 with my now deceased cousin Ivan Kent. It is hauntingly beautiful country with a slight mist covering the low rounded hills when we visited the Winterbourne Valley in which a number of small villages that my ancestors lived in are located.

How my great grandparents (Edward Blake of Upper Clatford, Hampshire and Maria Jane Knight of Turnworth, Dorset) met is a mystery to me although I have a vague memory of my grandfather telling me that Maria Jane was visiting in Upper Clatford (and I think perhaps helping out a cousin with small children) when they met.

My own Blake line and the Somerset Blake line are not related at least not in hundreds of year at least back into the 1400s although Horatio Gates Somerby in his writings on the Blake family did link my ancient ancestor Nicholas Blake of Old Hall, Enham near Andover with Humphrey Blake of Overstowey. This relationship is false. They were not siblings and their father was not William Blake claimed to be a son of Robert Blake and Avis Wallop of Quemberford near Calne, Wiltshire.

The will from 1522 by Richard Blayke may be the father of Nicholas and Robert Blake but they did not have another brother listed as living in their mother's will of 1527.


Returning to proofreading and I hope to post this will a little later today.

Ellis family of Winterborne Stickland

Talking about Family Finder brought me to the Ellis family in a discussion on the autosomal list serv. I decided to verify something about Ellis Ellis my 5x great grandfather and ended up discovering that Winterborne Stickland early parish records are now on Ancestry. An hour passed quickly!

Ellis Ellis's parents were Thomas Ellis and Mary Bound and they married 27 Dec 1703 at Winterborne Stickland, Dorset, England. I haven't found any information on this couple at Winterborne Stickland yet. There are a lot of members of the Bound family there but few Ellis members. Thomas and Mary had six children of whom only three appear to have survived to adulthood with Ellis being the youngest child. Their children were Elizabeth, Mary, John, Thomas, William and Ellis (with Mary, John and Ellis appearing to survive to adulthood). I have not yet looked at Mary and John with regard to marriage or children but Ellis married Sarah Wellspring 7 Mar 1738 at Winterborne Stickland and they had seven children according to some family trees. I have not yet found a baptism for a William baptized around 1739 but I do have the information on Jane, Elizabeth, John, Susanna and Sarah (my ancestress). All survived to adulthood and I have marriages for Jane, Elizabeth and Susanna sisters of Sarah but not yet one for William or John.  I shall spend more time looking at the records on Ancestry.

Sarah married William Knight 7 Aug 1775 at Winterborne Stickland and their son Ellis Knight married Eleanor Knight (they may have been 2nd or 3rd cousins). Their son Samuel Knight married Louisa Butt and my father remembered his great grandparents very well and actually knew Samuel when he was a child. They used to visit him at Turnworth Dorset where he lived. Samuel died in 1912 and was 83 years old ( his wife had died twelve years earlier but my grandfather's oldest sister Louisa lived with her grandparents and eventually married at Turnworth and stayed there thus providing them with good support in their old age since only four of their eleven children survived to adulthood).

For anyone related to this Ellis line there is quite a bit of information on them in the parish registers.

Genealogy as one's life work

I am distracted a bit at the moment reading a couple of books that have piqued my interest. Occasionally I mull about the reasons for my consuming interest in genealogy. I went from an interest level of zero to 100% in a rather short period of time. Enough interest that I took over 40 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies then based at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. A book sitting on a pile attracted my interest and I am about one half way through the book having begun it this morning.

The book is by Leonard Mlodinow titled The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives. The book caught my eye because it talks about randomness and how events that are random affect our lives. I love the imagery in the introduction which talks about random events being like molecules moving through time and space and how they may accidentally bump into or otherwise affect each other. I see life events as being like that and these "encounters" affect how our life flows.

My own life events that led me to genealogy are one such set of random events. We, my eldest daughter and I, went to Rome for eight days in November 2001 (yes it was an interesting time to fly to Europe and be there in the days following 9/11). This was an organized visit in that we were to attend a specific religious event the invitation for which I obtained via the Anglican newslist to which I belonged. The time we spent in Rome was absolutely wonderful and I appreciate it even more now that we have had our whirlwind tour of Europe where our time in Rome (2 days) was great but can not compare to spending eight days there even with the organized tours that swept us past long lineups. But it was here that for the first time I had a concrete thought about my ancestors and what they might or might not have done in the past. As I stood in front of St Peter's Basilica for the first time I wondered, aloud, whether any of my ancestors had made this pilgrimage to Rome (for that is how I saw it). Later as we traveled to the second city of our European trip (London) I experienced even more profound thoughts on fammily and from that experience (although it took another two years) was borne the desire to learn more about my ancestors. The randomness by which I reached the project that now occupies most of my waking hours (and sometimes my sleeping ones) has constantly amazed me and so this book has entered into my realm of thoughts. The randomness of life events bounces us one way or another like molecules in nature. Trtuly there was only a 50/50 chance that I would turn to Genealogy.

Now that I am nearly half way through the book, I look once again at Genealogy and how it occupies my life - basically all my waking hours are mostly directed towards achieving the maximum number of details possible on my ancestors. Not so much that I may solve all the riddles but that I leave the material thus found in such a fashion that another family researcher can pick my material up and run with it. Solving one's past opens one's eyes to the future in a way that I had not realized before in my life. Not that one can avoid the problems of life; that is highly unlikely but one can see that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. An old philosophy always says that when God closes the door He opens a window so that one does escape but the escape may not always be viewed as success by those who view it. It is an interesting conundrum - what one person may view as failure another may see as great success.

Genealogy is where I have placed the rest of my life's efforts and I am gradually concentrating that interest in to selected surnames - Blake and Pincombe are one-name studies. I have looked at doing one place studies of Winterbourne Clenstone and Turnworth both inb Dorset. I have accumulated a lot of information on these two places and for Winterbourne Clenstone I am the online parish clerk (www.dorsetopc.com). I am gradually moving away from some of the other surnames although will occasionally check for updates and I am considering a fixed schedule for that.

Genealogy as one's life pusuit (after retiring) is a commendable idea. One we have the time to transcribe all the material that until now has been enscounced in libraries and archives and sometimes in one's attic. Two we have a lifetime of training in organizing to put all this material into a useable order. Three we may not need funding to acconmplish all this work if we have a pension (luckily I have my three pensions now - work pension, CPP and OAS). Not a large amount (technically I am below the poverty line) but with two people, my husband and I, we can survive and actually we saved money for travel as well. Although initially I thought I might work and did do so for about two years, I no longer do any genealogy work for other people unless it is part of my own genealogy although I am still the online parish clerk for Bishops Nympton which does involve queries. Eventually I will have everything online and that will then minimize the queries.

But the probability of my now being occupied with genealogy instead of the sewing, knitting, smocking, and other handicrafts that occupied me in my child bearing years was only 50/50 and perhaps considerably less because I was simply uninterested in genealogy. A life event occurred in my case which changed that percentage drastically. As we walked the streets of London, my eldest and I, I had this overwhelming feeling of being at home and yet I had absolutely no idea that my Buller, Beard, Hemsley and other families had also walked these streets and in a number of cases the exact same streets. Leaving after just a short period of time was a wrench - I really wanted to stay longer and feel that sense of belonging. That sense has brought me back twice more and I expect we will go yet another time.

Does one learn a lot when one goes back to the scene of earlier families? On the surface I am sure these places have changed so much that our ancestors would hardly recognize them but on the other hand the visual image I had of Upper Clatford (and in particular the Church) was absolutely clear to me as we approached the church and then were at the Church. That wasn't the same in Bishops Nympton where I did not have any preconceived notions or imagery to go by. However, I suspect that the changes are principally cosmetic and one can still see the place as it was when one takes the time to carefully view the particular area. When we spend our next block of time in England I will have a better idea of the truth of that statement.

Parish Register 5 Andover St Marys

The last fiche in Parish Register 5 which will bring me up to 1699 for baptisms, 1701 for marriages is down to the last 27 images (the marriages). Parish Register 4 brought me to June 1714 for burials. Parish Register 6 will bring the baptisms and marriages up to 1714. Total baptisms thus far in the Andover transcription as of 22 Sep 1699 total 7140; I will now transcribe the marriages hoping to complete that this week. Time will tell as it is a busy season!

I am surprised at the number of non-Andover baptisms (some from as far away as Devon and London). One is left with the impression that there was constant movement through Andover going west and east in the late 1600s. The marriages will be interesting if the priest recorded location if not Andover of the parties to a marriage. My own great grandfather Edward Blake of Upper Clatford (1 mile/1.5 km south of Andover) married Maria Jane Knight born and raised at Turnworth Dorset. I still have no idea of where they met although they did marry at Upper Clatford. There was a Knight family at Upper Clatford but they do not appear to be a relative of hers but the Knight family from which she descends was very large so could be a line I have missed. One thought has just occurred to me that I should check the census for that Knight family at Upper Clatford (never thought of doing that before but genealogy is a learning curve for me starting from absolutely no knowledge in 2005).

Another interesting line has emerged at Andover - Durnford. I suddenly have Jane Durnford daughter of Thomas Durnford and Mary Ball at baptized in 1771 at Winterborne Stickland Dorset. There is a Durnford family at Andover in the late 1600s. It is not a very common surname so quite struck me. I shall continue to view the entries with interest. That is really the benefit of transcribing the entire register of a place. You see the lines as they appear and disappear from a parish. You see all the marriages into particular names which you might not think to search on the IGI. This particular set of baptismal registers is not on the IGI however I believe that the marriages are for this time frame.

I did transcribe Knights Enham (link on my webpage or go to the OPC Hampshire site where it is posted) hoping to find some Blake lines there but the registers begin too late to assist in that regard (burials of the expected people in the late 1600s early 1700s as I know the descent of the family in this time period at Enham). The Manor Book would likely be interesting as the Blake family were first at Enham when I find them in the early 1500s in Hampshire. That is a project for Salt Lake City the next time we are there. I have the manor book for Andover (about 100 images) which I shall also try to transcribe. Much of it is in Latin but it would be a worthwhile project to look at the Blake family there since they held a number of properties in Andover itself in the 1500s and 1600s. In 1710 John Blake is still a freeholder and this I believe is John Blake married to Elizabeth and the son of William Blake Clerk and his wife Ann Hellier. Although by the end of the 1600s their holdings were considerably diminished. By the Poll of 1747 only Robert Blake appears as a freeholder and he is descendant of Robert Blake brother to Nicholas Blake. The Blake properties where they are still held are in the female Blake lines and the names have changed due to marriage.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 13 April 2008

I completed the story for my husband to use in the next issue of the Branch Journal on researching at Salt Lake City. We wanted to express the necessity of being prepared before going to do research there. The need to follow your plans when you do start researching as there is just so much material there to look at that you can easily become distracted. Having goals in mind helps to keep you focused and, I think, yields you better results for the overall time spent there.

I then continued with the Poor Law Records for Turnworth working on 1751 for the Poor Law Rate. The remainder of the records are "snapshots" that refer to my ancestors. My 3x great grandmother Ellen Knight was paid for cleaning the Church and her brother in law (and first cousin) was paid as Parish Clerk. The Knight family at Turnworth was involved with care of the Church from the mid 1820s to the early 1900s. When we visited Turnworth the lady across from the Church was most kind to us and we saw inside the Church and the font where my 2x great grandfather was baptized. The key to the Church I held in my hand and it was a memory maker as I am sure that 150 years ago my Samuel probably held that same key in his hands and nearly 200 years ago my 3x great grandparents Ellis and Ellen Knight also held likely that same key in their hands. It gives one a warm fuzzy feeling to experience the continuum of time through such objects that exist before we are born and are still there after we die. My Knight family before 1820 lived at Spetisbury where Ellen was born and baptized. Their first six children were all born and baptized at Spetisbury and the last seven were all born and baptized at Turnworth. Why they moved from Spetisbury to Turnworth is a mystery which I had hoped to solve with records. It eludes me at the moment but perhaps in the future.

I also continued drawing out people on the 1911 Census at Turnworth and I am now missing only 18 of the 128 people which is really great. I will have to wait until Ancestry has them online or I am thinking of subscribing to FindMyPast once they have it available. I have a number of items to look up on FindMyPast which would make a membership quite practical. Because Ancestry offers American, Canadian and British records it is most practical for me to have a membership with them for both my husband and I since he has so much American and Canadian ancestry plus they are getting records for French, Dutch and German which date back into his earlier time periods. But FindMyPast will likely have far more English records. So eventually I can see that I will want a subscription with them as well.

Tomorrow I will continue with the Family Library images completing the Turnworth and then moving on to Winterborne Stickland (I do not have a lot of images for this village). I will transcribe the graveyard records for Selworthy Somerset and then move on to records for Wiltshire which I acquired at the Family History Library. But tomorrow I will likely only complete to the end of the graveyard records for Selworthy. Plus I need to get my hair cut!

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 11 April 2009

I completed the census for Turnworth Parish Dorset from 1841 to 1911 although I am missing 25 names for 1911. There were 128 people listed on the Census and I only found 103 thus far. I will be submitting this file to the OPC Dorset webpages for Turnworth once I have proofread them and the poor law records. I still need to look at the Parish Records, draw out the militia information for Turnworth and select pictures. I have a number of gravestone pictures including my 2x great grandparents. I will see what other information I may have for Turnworth to add in. I seldom have a request for Winterborne Clenstone as everything is on line. Eventually I hope to do that with all of my parishes for which I am online parish clerk. It is a slow process.

Today I shall return to the images from Salt Lake City as I again became distracted doing the Census extraction for Turnworth Dorset. However, it is Easter and we have company coming for dinner so perhaps only just a brief glance to plan tomorrow.

Saturday evening found my husband and I at Church sharing a Labyrinth Service with about 50 other people. The New Fire was lit in the Great Porch where we all gathered waiting for the lighting of the Paschal Candle. Slowly the sun was sinking into the west and from our windows we could see the beginnings of what would be a glorious sunset on Holy Saturday as we welcomed in the new day in Jewish tradition which begins at sundown. Our Easter Journey was about to begin.

Our leader began the Labyrinth Litany and the Dean lit the Paschal Candle and we followed him into the Great Hall where our Labyrinth had been prepared in the style of Chartres Cathedral in France. Slowly the Dean entered the Labyrinth carrying the Paschal Candle and made his way to the centre where he would then hold the Candle high waiting for each of those present to work their way around the Labyrinth to light their candles from the Paschal Candle. My turn came and I slipped off my shoes, walking the Labyrinth is a sacred moment for me and as I reached each lighted turn I remembered those who had passed on before me reciting a Hail Mary at each. Beginning with the most recent, my sister in law, my brother, my mother, my mother in law, my brother in law, my father, my grandfather in law, my grandmother, my grandfather and then those that I had not known in life my grandmother, my grandfather, my great grandparents until I reached the centre - the New Jerusalem. Another Hail Mary as I waited a few moments in the centre and then with my lit candle - New Fire - in my hands I followed the Labyrinth back out again remembering the Living starting with Jesus Christ and then my family members - my husband, my daughters and then other relatives as I traveled my journey back to the beginning of the Labyrinth. Reaching the beginning I turned to embrace the New Light once again from afar.

When the last of the faithful had lit their Candle, the Dean carrying the Paschal Candle himself retraced his footsteps back to the opening of the Labyrinth and we followed the Paschal Candle back through the Great Porch and into the Sanctuary itself where our Service continued with prayer and readings. We passed the Peace and then in darkness departed for our homes. As we left the Church the sky now a velvety dark blue still had a hint of the crimson sunset on the horizon from nearly an hour earlier.

The experience of the Labyrinth on the eve before Easter proved to be as wondrous as the Great Vigil that we normally worship.

The Labyrinth has an ancient history dating back to the Bronze Age with the Labyrinth at Knossos. Labyrinth comes from the word labrys, referring to a double, or two-bladed, axe. Its representation had religious and probably magical significance. It was used throughout the Mycenaean world as an apotropaic symbol; that is, the presence of the symbol on an object would prevent it from being "killed." The modern meaning of labyrinth as a twisting maze is based on this earlier story.

In Christian times the Labyrinth emerged as a means of Christian worship to replace the Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Lands because it became very dangerous and many people could not make the long trip anyway. One of the most famous is the Labyrinth at Chartres France in the entrance way to the Cathedral. Here the faithful could follow the path to the centre which was considered the New Jerusalem. Last evening our group, using a similarly marked path, retraced the footsteps of the pilgrims at Chartres.

I wonder if Stonehenge was a Labyrinth at one time. When we visited there nearly a year ago, I felt an oldness there that exceeded the timelessness that I felt when we visited the Pantheon in Rome (2006 years old). The history that exists within that site is just so long. Because I have ancestors from that part of Wiltshire I wonder if some of them, like myself, gazed upon those stones and felt the life in the stone at the entrance that we were permitted to touch. What a story those stones could tell if ever there was a way to understand them from a time perspective that didn't include destroying them to find out. The rain continues to wash them clean of anything that would help us to establish a time pattern but the ground beneath them may help to tell the story.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 10 April 2008

I completed the census to the end of 1871 and started 1881 for Turnworth. I am wondering who Anna Arnold, schoolmistress in 1871, is. She is from Stickland so is perhaps related to Hannah's family. The 1881 census is part of the Blandford and not listed separately. The Okedon family was enormous on the 1861 and 1871 census pushing the population of Turnworth up to 150 people from its usual 120 or so.

It was a busy day and I worked on a couple of other projects. We went to a concert at Church last night. It was my first time back at Church for nearly a year. The concert was very well attended which is good to see. We will go to a service Saturday night - not the Great Vigil of Easter but rather a Labyrinth service. It sounds interesting and perhaps very indicative of where I am at - pondering my Church and how it will survive in the 21st century. That in essence is what we must do - all of us - find a way for the work of Jesus Christ to continue to be relevant and to keep the Church as a strong part of society in the years to come.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 9 April 2008

I continued working on the Turnworth Poor Law Records and then started to do a database of the census returns for Turnworth. Samuel Knight is on the 1911 census for Turnworth along with his granddaughter Louisa Blake Hall and his son in law Charles and seven grandchildren including baby Muriel who was six months old and died at 9 months of age. My grandfather never mentioned Louisa or at least I do not recall him mentioning her as his sister - I do remember hearing about a Hall family. My father had forgotten that she was also his aunt but she appears to have lived with her grandparents from the age of 9 at least as she never appears on the census with her family at Upper Clatford.

I am also busy proofreading some material for a study that I am involved with but will slow that down just a little as eye strain is beginning to occur.

I ordered the marriage registration for one of my 2x great grandfather Buller's sisters just to see what was entered in the father's column for both actually. The descendants of this line think that it was a second marriage for Isaac Debnam although it is a known first marriage of Emma Hemsley Buller. I continue trying to discover more about this family and made an exciting discovery searching the BMDs listed on the NA newsletter yesterday. I had not been able to find a marriage for Elizabeth Jane (third sister of my Henry Christopher Buller) and it was in these records. Elizabeth Jane married Edward Churchyard at St Dionis Backchurch in London. A fascinating Church (no longer in use) located just across the Thames River from where they lived in Bermondsey. I also found the Fairburn 1801 map of London and was able to capture two sections with one showing Tooly Street (Christopher Buller had his Slop Shop here) and St Thomas St where they lived which is just two blocks to the south of Tooly. Tooly runs behind the wharves and piers on the southside of the river just past the Tower of London (north side of river) going east. The adjacent portion of the map also on the south side has Grange Road where the Beard and Hemsley families lived. Christopher Buller married Mary Beard. Henry Beard (her father) married Elizabeth Hemsley and the burial of Elizabeth Hemsley Beard in 1781 lists her last address as Grange Road. The burial for a John Hemsley is also Grange Road.

The parents of Christopher Buller and now the parents of Henry Beard continue to elude me. I have a death registration for a Christopher Buller in 1839 at Bromley Kent and it would put his birth at 1757 which would mean that he was 38 when he married Mary Beard (she was likely around 20). Was he in the navy? I think I may start to look at that. Producing naval uniforms would appear to be an appointment so wonder if it is because he is related to the well known Buller family in London or because he was in the navy himself. The death registration lists him as a gentleman and Bromley is not that far from London but one would wonder why he is there as he is 81 years old. The informant was not a family member. Christopher Buller was not a common name at any time period. I just have one sibling of Henry's Robert Huxley (Hemsley?) Buller that I am not able to find after his birth and baptism in 1806. I am hoping that the LMA records soon come online at Ancestry as they will answer a few of my questions perhaps or if I am very lucky many of them.

Today I take a break. I tend to push myself very hard. We will have a lovely long walk. I spent part of the morning listening to services for Good Friday and tomorrow we will go to the evening Labyrinth Liturgy service at the Cathedral. Most of our snow is gone now.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 8 April 2009

I completed my Centenary Club application and sent it off to OGS. I decided to have my Centenary ancestor as John Pincombe. I know the most about this family line with respect to my Canadian ancestry.

I continued working on my Turnworth Poor Law Records and I did hear back from the OPC Dorset project. I will take on the Turnworth parish along with the Winterborne Clenstone. These are both very tiny parishes (seldom more than 100 on any census). Turnworth especially is interesting to me as my great grandmother Blake was born, baptized and grew up in this small village. I am not sure how she ended up in Upper Clatford but suspect she was visiting her Knight cousins when she met my great grandfather. The Knight family lived just down the street from him in Upper Clatford. Always fascinating how people meet. I am realizing that in every generation my Blake ancestor always married someone from outside the village although their siblings offered married a local person. Joseph Blake was from Andover and he married Joanna King in Upper Clatford. Their son Thomas married Sarah Coleman from Abbots Ann. Their son John married Ann Farmer from Andover. Their son Edward (my great grandfather) married Maria Jane from Turnworth. Their son Samuel married Edith Bessie Taylor from Kimpton Hampshire. My father of course married in Canada and he was born at Eastleigh Hampshire. Amazing really.

We walked almost out to the point in the park today (about 4 kilometres). We are gradually working up to our much longer walks and bicycle rides soon to happen as the weather improves. It snowed here today but spring is coming!

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 5 April 2009

Returning to working on the Salt Lake City images and I transcribed Milton Abbas Poor Law Records for 1696 and 1656 today. Very interesting reading and I need to analyze them now to see if I have added to the information on my Arnold family who lived at Milton Abbas in the 1600s and 1700s by parish records. Hannah Arnold married Charles Butt at Winterborne Stickland and they were my 3x great grandparents. I will continue transcribing the Milton Abbas records to see if any interesting Arnold information emerges. The next set of Poor Law records are for Turnworth and those I am going to find extremely interesting as my Knight family quite dominate the parish registers at Turnworth in the 1800s.

I also added a list of surnames to the Hampshire England DNA project with assistance from the coordinator for the Devon Project. I had drawn out a list from the UK Surnames site but I added to that the Kingsclere site which she had mentioned to me. Up to three members now and I am hopeful that this particular study will form the nucleus of my Hampshire research. Managing the Hampshire Genuki pages gives me the opportunity to really add detail to the parishes of Hampshire.

Tomorrow I shall continue working on the Milton Abbas records. Other than the APG committee that I am serving on I do not have any commitments that are time related. I really want it to be like that so that I can work on items at my call rather than being dictated to by the needs of presenting or assisting.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 4 April 2009

Back to working on my Salt Lake City images and I decided to move to Dorset and work on the Protestation Returns for my villages there in the Winterbourne Valley - Winterborne Clenstone, Winterborne Stickland, Milton Abbas, Turnworth, Winterborne Houghton, etc. I have the Poor Rate for these villages and I have a mixture of people from here - agricultural labourers, stone masons, carpenters, and land owners. I shall transcribe the records and see what I can learn about all of them. My great grandmother Blake was Maria Jane Knight and she was born at Turnworth early in January 1850 but I am still trying to find her death date. I have her picture and she has a quiet smile in 1898. Usually people were shy or very stiff in their pictures but she stares forthrightly at the camera with just the hint of a smile in her face. She is wearing her blond braided hair like a coronet around her head, her black dress looking neat and tidy and her shoes are highly polished. My father adored his father's mother and he stayed with them at Upper Clatford a number of times as a child. My father remembered that she had come from close to Blandford Forum (Turnworth is just to the northwest of Blandford) and the name quite intrigued him I rather think.

Maria Jane Knight's parents were Samuel Knight and Louisa Butt and two of her aunts and uncles Knight married two of her aunts and uncles Butt. They were a closely knit family and my father knew his great grandfather Samuel Knight fairly well. They used to visit him every summer by traveling through the New Forest which quite stuck in his memory. Samuel died in 1912 when my father was eight. He was a tall thin white haired man who lived with his eldest granddaughter (my grandfather's oldest sister). The Knight family were stone masons and carpenters, the Butt family were agricultural labourers (Charles (Samuel's father) was a Wesleyan Methodist Lay Preacher) mostly as far back as I can tell, the Arnolds were land owners and other surnames were: Ball, Dashwood, Durnford, Ellis, Foster, Gantrell, Lemon, Long, Malton, Norris, Rolles, Sandle, Vincent and Wellspring. Unfortunately, I am unable to purchase these parish registers and the Bishops Transcripts are quite incomplete. One day I hope to spend a few days at Dorchester reading through the register copies although, to be honest, I would rather be out visiting where they lived.

Tomorrow I shall continue with the Poor Law Rates of these little villages. It is good to be back to the Salt Lake City Records. I would like to carry on through them now until I finish.

Bishops Nympton Parish Register - 15 February 2009

Back to Bishops Nympton Parish Register which is the first one that I started to transcribe about four years ago. It was slow going at the beginning but I have now completed up to 1812 for absolutely everything that I purchased from the Devon Record Office. I completed the Banns today and they actually go up to 1885 which was a surprise - there are a number of gaps in the 1800s but they are quite complete up to about 1820 from 1755 with one period missing 1795 to 1804. I am now working on the baptisms from 1813 on. I have done 1827 to 1837 so need to reach 1827 and then do 1837 practically up to the present. I have 50 pages to do to reach 1827. I find out an amazing amount on my families whilst transcribing. Since Devon did their own microfilming of these registers though I will not publish them as they are under copyright to them. Eventually when I have proofread everything I will send a copy to the Registry Office - my bit as the daughter of English emigrants.

Certainly my grandfather remained British to his dying day since he had only been lent to the Railroad here and was to have returned in 1922 to England to his job there. But the loss of manpower was enormous here in the 1st World War and they asked him to stay on and then on longer and eventually he retired here in 1943 after 30 years of service here and he already had 15 years of service with the Southern Railway in England. He loved to talk about England but half of his family died during the 1st and 2nd World Wars and then his wife died here so the incentive to go back home was quite low by 1943. There were five of us grandchildren by 1947 and when I really remember him by 1949 he just simply enjoyed being with us and keeping us in line! He described Upper Clatford to me so many times that when I went there I recognized some of the places from his description including the house where he grew up (likely!). There is just one of the three row houses left now but it appears to be the one that he grew up in (his grandparents lived right next door) with his 11 siblings although they ranged in birth year from 1872 to 1894 so that the oldest ones were already gone when the youngest arrived and two died as small children.

For my Devon ancestors I have less vivid stories because they came third hand. My ancestors left Bishops Nympton (actually Molland but that is another story) in 1850 (November 20) and arrived in New York City 7 January 1851. My great grandfather was just 14 years old when he came on to Canada in March 1851 but he shared the stories of Devon with his only son who then retold the stories to my mother (his only daughter). Of course my grandfather also knew his grandfather very well as he lived to be 86 years old and died in 1894 when Grandpa Pincombe was 22 years old. 2x great grandmother Pincombe was more of a mystery but I finally solved that one as she died when my Grandfather was only six years old. She was actually from Somerset which was part of the mystery.

Later today we went babysitting the Chihuahua (our son in law to be's dog) and he was so happy to see us as the others were going to take the puppy for his training lessons. The Puppy is now bigger than the Chihuahua but they are getting along better and better. The Puppy takes cues from the older dog and more so each day. We went for a long walk although it was a windchill of minus 15 degrees celsius. We stayed on the sunny side of the street which helped.

Tomorrow I shall continue with the Bishops Nympton Parish Registers as I would like to complete them by the end of February or by mid March (Baptisms go to the early 1990s, Marriages only until 1837, Burials also to the 1990s). By 1900 though there are few baptisms and few burials per year. Then I can continue the proofreading and transfer of the word document to an excel file to make lookups easier when people write to ask me about Bishops Nympton (although it is easy to search on the word file). I want to be able to sort on last names to look at my various lines through the five hundred years. I am still contemplating a one place study and Bishops Nympton would be one of my thoughts although I am still thinking of Upper Clatford. I have more documentation on Bishops Nympton but more verbal stories of Upper Clatford. It will be a hard decision and on the other hand perhaps I could do both. Then there is Turnworth Dorset about which my father told me a great deal because he visited his great grandfather there as a child every summer until he died in 1912. Turnworth is a remarkable place as we discovered when we visited last spring. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!