Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible

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 When I read the Concordance summary of Judges it tells me that the historical content of the Book is the most important.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

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

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

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

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

Solitaire puzzles next.  

Continuing on the matches

Worked yesterday on the matches and also did yard work. It was an efficient working day. I shall write my cousin as well today in the west. I keep meaning to do so but the Knight book is a very long way off although there will be mention of the Knight family in the Blake book because Maria Jane Knight was her great grand aunt as well as my great grandmother.  

The matches (I completed five) were fairly straightforward but only two could be restricted to the great grandparent line. I will continue to work on that today although Church will be in just over an hour so not as much as yesterday.

I have managed to clear away all the weeds and wild spring flowers from the emerging plants so we will see how that goes. But it is good to have the front done. I still need to rake the lawn although I generally wait until the dandelions are finished so that the bees can work them. 

Not paying much attention to the news for the most part. Occasionally read the editorials in the National Post when they catch my eye. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet are very very busy from the news that I do watch. I like the concept of Fortress North America (borrowing that familiar phrase from the Second World War). I still remember references to Fortress North America in my young years. Here in Canada before the United States came into the war, we helped to protect American neutrality by pushing planes over the border in the west that had been purchased by the war front in the British Isles and then flying them to England (many women pilots flew those planes to England during the war from Canada (as well as male but they were needed at the front for the most part)). When the Americans came into the war the term Fortress North America was coined. That it would also suit trade discussions is an interesting concept which was mentioned by the Prime Minister at the Conference in Toronto. 

Toronto is an important city in Ontario (the capital of the province) which we all know in Ontario but also it has the ability to hold large conferences with individuals from all over the world with a huge airport for those arriving and leaving including in this case Past-President Obama from the United States.  This was a meeting of CAP Action (Center for American Progress Action Fund) named the Global Progress Action Summit. Also attending was the former US Secretary of Transportation Peter Buttigieg as well as many people from around the world. 

Church in a bit and then some more outside work unless it rains. What to do next? I expect I need to start working down the sides and we want to move some of the rich earth from the central garden as it is now full of roots from the Black Walnut tree and mostly useless in terms of growing anything. We need to especially build up the areas where the new fence was put in as that pretty much destroyed the gardens for that length on both sides.  We also need to free the plants as they are coming through. The hosta still not showing at the top but probably not enough sun and warmth in the morning as they are up further down in the gardens at the back.

One of the matches was quite interesting as it is in an area that was without matches. This area now covered is all Buller and all from Living DNA and people living in the United Kingdom. Since just one line predominates in England (all of my line coming down from Edwin Denner Buller is in Canada or the United States) so I know that these strong matches are from the Edwin Withers and Sarah (Welch) Withers family which was very large and found all around the world including the United Kingdom. I know there are a number of them as there are at least 25 in common in that match. So that has cleared up that mystery as we all descend from great great great grandparents -  William Welch and Sarah (Welch) Cheatle, Christopher Buller and Mary (Beard) Buller with Sarah (Welch) Withers and Ann (Welch) Buller being twin sisters. 

Time for breakfast. I am late today. Solitaire Puzzles still to do.  

More matches

 Yesterday was a shopping day and quite successful. The store has Canadian Flags on all the Canadian merchandise; saves my eyes although I still check. But it does quite capture the items readily that I have been moving to over the last year and a bit. I do miss my favourite cranberry juice as the Canadian one has apple juice in it as well but I also like apple juice but it does weaken the rather pungent taste of cranberry which I rather like. Overall I buy only what I have to buy from outside of Canada just because we are a northern nation with snow on the ground six months of the years and a much shorter growing season than other countries of the world. When you talk the frozen north that is a lot of Canada although the sun is finally coming our way. 

Worked on the matches yesterday and this last set have all been in the Buller line. They are large and I suspect the piece of DNA being passed is ancient in the Buller line. I have been looking at trees and the area is common to my line and this goes back to the Buller-Welch 3x great grandparents namely Christopher Buller and Mary (Beard) Buller of Bermondsey, Surrey and William Welch and Sarah (Cheatle) Welch of Rugeley, Staffordshire/Birmingham, Warwickshire and Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. They do seem quite a distance apart these two couples but Henry Christopher Buller came to Birmingham and had his businesses in both London and Birmingham, living, in one or the other place.   My suspicion is that this length of DNA I am looking at for more than a dozen descendants is from the Welch line rather than the Buller but I could be mistaken as I have not yet resolved whether this Buller line is from the Cornwall/Devon/Somerset Buller family. I think it is but I am not positive. Christopher Buller had a Slop Shop (sailor uniforms) on Tooley Street in Bermondsey just south of the Tower Bridge and connects London Bridge to St Saviour's Dock.  We were on our first tour bus in England and actually in London itself when I was looking out the window and we sat up so high and came so close to the street sign that I could actually read it and it said Tooley Street where I knew my Christopher Buller had had his shop. I was amazed and needless to say the next trip to London saw us arriving a week early so that we could walk the streets of London - it is just one square mile after all. We spent a lot of time looking around Bermondsey as well our hotel was just up the street from Waterloo Station. 

I found a number of new Buller line (looking purely at Grandparent (my maternal grandmother was a Buller)) matches in all the databases and knew the chromosomes that I especially was interested in. Going back to the great grandparents continues to feel feasible. I will continue with that sorting and entering today.  

Continuing to avoid the news for a bit as I tend to get too much into it and lose time on books. Concentration must be paramount to complete these books in a timely fashion. 

I did however have one thought on the Sovereign Wealth Fund which has been proposed to be started with an infusion from the government of $25B and it would be primarily individual Canadians building this fund. Since it would be an initial infusion by the government adding to the national debt I would suggest that we should not restrict it solely to Canadian individuals but rather have Canadian businesses and Canadian Pension Funds also be part of the Sovereign Wealth Fund as they could create the initial $25B (spread out over many business/pension funds) and Canadians could add to it as well with their money then all actual and not an increase in the national debt as it is used to invest in major projects. Not including businesses/pension funds takes away a sufficiently large portion of potential donors who could help to start this fund off in a positive position for immediate usage in funding national projects. It would remain in the public forum with a board of directors that reflected the various inputs from both individual Canadians, Canadian Pension Funds and Canadian companies. We are all going to benefit in the long run from this Fund and businesses in particular will benefit greatly with the increased GDP overall for Canada. 

I gave this some thought and actually looked on line and there is a thought with some non-governmental agency   that Canadian Pension Funds could also be part of this. I suppose the problem with including private industry might be conflict of interest if they are bidding on a project. But I still think some industries would not be bidding on mines and items like that and I thought this was the idea for the money that it would be national projects. However, we will let the Globe and Mail run with it. It just popped into my head while I was writing my blog earlier. I should check before I write things.  

Breakfast eaten and my first set of calisthenics completed before breakfast. A good couple of hours of work and then a thirty minute run. 

Solitaire puzzles to do next.  

Cleaning accomplished once again as well as clearing the porch and patio of snow

 Another good working day yesterday and today the top floor will be cleaned. Moving forward into the week on this consistent path is good for an 80 year old I think. Working away on my assigned tasks is meaningful to me. My exercise breaks greatly enjoyed as I am an exercise nut so to speak. All this snow is a treat this year as we waited forever last year for this much snow. Amazing how increasing the work load gives us happiness because we do love the snow. 

We love Canada although I think we need to examine more closely this tendency these days for our political representatives to come out of a Political Science Program and think they are ready to govern a country. They need to actually work I think in jobs that benefit them for this particular method of serving their country. Coming out of the ivory tower of learning is just not enough to prepare them to be in Parliament. Right now we need everyone to be concentrating on growing our trade externally around the world. If a pipeline is to happen; it will happen but there is much work to do to get to that point. You can not force a pipeline through an area that does not want it - compromise has to be found. Wasting time in parliament on pipeline bills when the implementation of the budget needs to be passed is ridiculous. The Conservatives lost the last election they  need to find a way to produce a platform that will win - they need international experience to help grow Canada; they do not have it. Wasting vital time is very annoying. 

The world for Canada has changed and we must grow with it and increase our external trade around the world so that we are tariff proof. That is really what this is all about. But mostly it is making sure that what we do buy is Made in Canada in as much as we are able (we are forced to do that really to make ourselves tariff proof). This is the winter and Canada is covered with snow and the growing season is to come so we buy a lot of food which used to come from our good friend and neighbour to the south but life changes and we can not know whether this access to food will still work for us so we must pursue our trade deals around the world to keep us tariff proof. It was not our choice and we love our neighbours and do wonder what happens to all the products that they sell to us as we are their largest customer. It was the preferred way but we have to be tariff proof. 

 Worked away on the great grandparents phasing and it is interesting. I chose the 23rd chromosome to begin with as it is fascinating to work with especially given the way that it was passed to we five siblings. Three received the usual crossovers and two of us had a slightly different passage with one receiving an entirely intact chromosome for Buller and myself I received 60% Buller to match him and 40% Pincombe which matches the others. It does mean that those nearly 100 matches I have collected over the last decade and a half are very meaningful. For instance the first part of Buller is inherited from my Cheatle 3x great grandmother (Sarah Cheatle married William Welch 24 Aug 1818 at Longdon by Lichfield Staffordshire England and they lived at Birmingham and welcomed six children into the world (three boys and three girls)). By chance two of the girls were twins and the descendants from one are enormous and all over the world and my line also large enough is also all over the world. But this solid length from the start of the chromosome and extending for 50 centimorgans was passed in various ways to Sarah's 3x to 4x great grandchildren (there are different chunk lengths passed but my one brother received in total (as did I) 54 centimorgans from Sarah who passed it to her daughter Ann (Welch) Buller and at this point it was passed to Edwin Denner Buller her son and he passed an intact chromosome from his mother to his daughter, my grandmother (so no Buller passed) and as luck would have it; it apparently then passed to my mother and for whatever reason in combination no change occurred in this Cheatle length but overall Taylor attached itself during meiosis between my maternal grandmother and my mother and this length also readily determined  appears as running from 51 centimorgans to at least 100 centimorgans. The known length beyond that to the end remains a mystery at this time but there is much to look at and it may become obvious over time. This is a length of 55 centimorgans thus far belonging to Buller/Taylor. The Rawlings/Cotterill length I am able to separate portions into Rawlings thus far from 108 to 155 centimorgans. The rest is a mystery but I will work away at it. The Pincombe is actually Gray/Routledge as no Pincombe Chromosome 23 comes to us since my maternal grandfather (John Routledge Pincombe) receives his only X chromosome from his mother Grace (Gray) Pincombe. Thus far I have determined one section only that is Routledge and the rest are labelled as Gray/Routledge. There are a lot of matches but some of them are extremely distant it would appear. But it is that distance that interests me as it helps to lead me correctly back into the past. I have an amazing number of American cousins as I sort through these matches but then I did know that as I also have some close American cousins (2nd since I do not have any first cousins). I have had a number of good conversations (on email) with my American cousins. One notes of course that there isn't any Blake on the 23rd chromosome (X chromosome) since my father passes an intact X chromosome from his mother Edith Bessie (Rawlings-Taylor) Blake to his daughters and nothing to his sons as they receive the Y chromosome. The Rawlings has certainly added an air of mystery to my studies generating a lot of thought for sure. It is interesting that such items do make for a very intriguing study. 

 So that sort of work will continue today and I shall look at the 22nd Chromosome to see what I can see. Some of these chromosomes have many known cousins on them which is very helpful but again this is Citizen Science and the much more crucial Scientific studies remain in the future as DNA will become a very important part of our lives but it does not absolutely control our lives - it is lifestyle that controls how our life flows and we humans with our various foibles work around any limitations that are thrown our way. Some in very amazing ways helped by medical science. 

Tea drank and must do the solitaire puzzles for the day.  

 

 

 

 

Beautiful white snow

 What a beautiful sight out of the window - everything covered in white snow. Another snow fall in December to protect the roots of the plants for the spring growth. It is a good thing; last year's December was cruel cold with no ground cover of snow to protect the roots. It showed in the spring. More snow is promised and the skis are waiting to be tried out once again. At 80 I will go cross country skiing once again. Amazing really to my mind but I am thinking of my two grandparents whom I knew so well in their declining years. But they were both very active until they suddenly were not; that is how life goes sometimes. 

A lovely walk yesterday with my cleats on my boots and I really enjoyed the fresh air. It was cold though, still minus 27 degrees celsius with the wind chill but I was dressed for it and just that little bit of my face that I covered with my enormous gloves that I used for clearing snow to warm it up as I walked. It was very invigorating and when I got home I made a cup of hot tea which was thoroughly enjoyed. Although I was not cold except perhaps my lungs were cooler than usual as they sucked in the cold air. The hot liquid quickly warmed the lungs up as it traveled down my esophagus to my stomach and it has always fascinated me when one is cold to feel the hot liquid traveling down one's throat and spreading its warmth through the body. 

I did complete all of the chromosomes but still doing some work on Chromosome 23 with regard to the crossover points since I do not have them from Living DNA. I have those points from Gedmatch and from 23 and Me and created a third set that looked at all the information in the nearly 100 matches I have in Chromosome 23. I am still reviewing that although there were no changes in the placement of the crossovers in this Chromosome. With one brother inheriting 100% Buller in his X chromosome from our mother who received it from her mother and is a mixture of  Cheatle (marriage of William Welch and Sarah (Cheatle) Welch) from her father's mother and Taylor/Roberts from her mother. The portion which is included in the entire first section of this chromosome which my brother inherited  and passed to my great grandmother Ann (Welch) Buller  is Cheatle and was inherited as well by myself and a number of cousins. Chunks inherited by other siblings is also part of this Cheatle bundle that has traveled through time from Sarah baptized in 1795 at Ashby de la Zouch to Canada now in the 2000s. The next section of that chromosome in my brother is labeled Taylor which I also share. The last section of this chromosome is shared by two siblings including my brother and appears to be Cheatle as well; we will see. I have inherited Pincombe referring solely to the four grandparent line at this point. There isn't any Pincombe though it is all Gray-Routledge as inherited by my maternal grandfather from his mother my first born Canadian whose parents were Robert Gray and Mary (Routledge) Gray. I do know that some of it is Routledge as I have matches with Routledge and both of Mary's grandparents were Routledge on her mother's side (Thomas Routledge married Elizabeth Routledge at Bewcastle 23 Jun 1785 coming to Canada in the late summer/early fall of 1818 and my first colonial emigrants (Mary was just 14 years of age at that time). Chromosome 23 will likely occupy me for a few days as I have always meant to have a good look at the matches. It does seem like a misnomer to label sections as Pincombe as no Pincombe Chromosome 23 is inherited by my siblings or myself since my maternal grandfather does not inherit an X chromosome from his father. However my maternal grandfather did have a surviving half sister who would have inherited Pincombe from her father (my great grandfather) but the X chromosome would be passed from Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe to her son William Robert Pincombe (my great grandfather) and hence also not Pincombe. Fascinating to learn all of this and the learning continues - I have always had a fascination with learning. The other 22 chromosomes though are full of Pincombe DNA passed from my mother (received from her father) to all of us. 

Slept in today; all of that fresh air but everything is done now that needed to be done to prepare for winter which is very much upon us. 

It was good to see our Prime Minister and the President of the United States on good terms at the FIFA event. Our countries have been best friends for over 200 years and some snowbirds have had enough of the cold and will travel, they say, to the southern United States to enjoy the heat once again. It will take a while to get the numbers up to where they were I suspect but gradually we are finding our feet with unemployment now at just 6.5% coming down from 7.1% a couple of months ago. The GDP has also come up but it will take time to rework our trade around the world for sure. 

Time to make tea. 

First ten chromosomes re-phased for the grandparents

Nearly half way through re-phasing my grandparents and some review of Chromosome 23 matches. So far they tend towards Buller proving that line quite early on to likely be as I had thought it; one entire Buller chromosome passed to one of my brothers intact from his mother and unchanged from her mother who received from her father and it came to Edwin Denner Buller from his mother Anne (Welch) Buller whose twin sister Sarah married to Edwin Withers had a huge family now found all over the world. Anne of course received it from her mother Sarah (Cheatle) Welch giving me a large length of Cheatle that is shared by many around the world. Quite fascinating DNA as it travels from parents to child through the generations. 

Other than the small glitch at the beginning of one sibling's chromosome in Chromosome 7 the re-phasing has been extremely smooth. I marvel at how close I came with that first phasing actually which I have updated a number of times over the past decade plus. The problem is one match that appears to be Blake but really not information to alter anything already in place. It waits for confirmation and perhaps will come one of these days. 

The basement cleaning all accomplished and everything back in place. The basement looks empty; it needs to look empty as it had been full to the rafters on occasion. More downsizing could be seen as I surveyed what is left. I remember telling my husband to be then and later husband that I never wanted to be left a widow; please do not leave me a widow I said to him after he asked me to marry him. It is a sad task to be a widow; to have to manage and be a caretaker of another person's dreams and possessions is the hardest thing in the world really. When a person is unwell you do not like to ask them how they want to manage items and he knew that about me and told me many things that he wanted me to do and they have been done for quite a while now. But the possessions he created that meant a lot to him are just massive in content and will not survive intact because so much of the material in them is about Edward's life. I would say that a comfort in his period of illness was that memory he created of his life from the early days of our marriage right up to the present at the time. He carefully preserved it all and regularly would collect one of those large binders and bring it up to his office and enjoy it all once again (including reviewing all the trip brochures collected and items purchased). Sometimes he would ask me to join him and I would but lots of times he just wanted to enjoy it all by himself. But the children and the grandchildren do not know all those people and the places are not something that mean anything to them and will not because he isn't here to make them live for them (Edward did do a lot of things on his own away from us). They belong to the moving generation these children and grandchildren. They will not create the kind of memories that my generation and those before me created. It will be different because recall is different. You can have it all just on a tablet with a big memory card. Life is and will change rapidly over the next century for sure. All of these pictures are scanned and in files and will never be lost in that way but the originals will have to go through the shredder because they are other people's memories and one just doesn't dump the originals for sure. They need to be shredded and that is another huge task. I am glad that Edward spent all those hours scanning and when he tired of it I scanned a great deal of material for him so all stored away just in case there is that inquisitive child in the future like Edward who wants to know everything about his ancestors. Edward is still very much in his grandson's minds; they loved him dearly.

 Today snow clearing as there is just a couple of centimetres. I will put on my cleats although I did put a mixture on the ice it is safer to wear the cleats for sure. The car in the garage so I do not have to clear it off or de-ice the windows which is a treat. Soon time to ski; the snow looks good and it will be perhaps a white christmas which we are used to having here in Canada. Soon all of Canada will be covered by snow. It is beautiful actually but it is also cold and there is a polar vortex. We are going through that period of shift when the polar vortex covers our area for weeks on end. 

 Tea drank and solitaire puzzles worked. It is early today as the puzzles went very quickly. Eyes a little tired today so will not do a lot of work but I will do some planning as it is time to return to the books. I will work on the phasing of the great-grandparents over the next few months. I am not in a rush but I have not yet pulled all the census material to aid me in my quest from Find My Past, Ancestry and My Heritage. I tend to a look at all of the databases and accompanying material just to see what has been collected by the companies. This is my pleasure for sure; subscriptions to all of these companies. 

The sky is lightening but no wind in the trees. God is watching over His world as always. His creation still intact in spite of the Satans in our midst. We learn so slowly we humans and it is time to move to that peaceful uplifted plain where war is no more; greed disappears and the world will prosper. 

The return of the Indigenous articles from the Vatican ensures that the memory of this great land mass will always be visible in this country and part of its heritage. Thanks to the Pope for making this happen.  Thank you to the Thomson and  Weston families for their winning bid to purchase the original charter of the Hudson's Bay Company with plans to donate it to  four museums here in Canada. This document from 1670 will be part of the historical background of colonial North America. 

 

Even if you do not agree with the process

The aim of the budget is to make us tariff proof and it will be expensive. We are not obviously although the extent of the damage is mostly being borne in individual areas and not right across the country with the exception of that very important part of our population - the youth. Employment amongst the youth is suffering because we are stagnant in terms of economic growth and have been for ten years and more. The downturn in 2008 did not receive the type of support that it needed particularly in Ontario; we are not a one product country (oil is not the only great commodity that we produce). Now is the time for us to take that giant leap from dependency to the glory that is Canada; that was the vision of the Founders of Confederation along with the First Nations/Inuit/Metis who also wanted to be part of the growth (think of Louis Riel (a great Canadian) and I am sure there are others not mentioned in everyday conversation but known to their groups).  Canada has a great positive future and the Prime Minister does see that (he is a banker and economist after all and has actually worked in the field his entire working life) and if he was the Conservative leader no one would be criticizing his budget except the left which seems to think that we need to keep putting money into projects that make life easier for people but in reality we are making people too dependent on government. Personally I think it is a bad thing but I do not want to see increasing costs for medical because people have bad teeth - one is caught in a bind on this. I do not want to see people go without their drugs but again does lifestyle control the amount of drugs we end up taking in our old age. Again genetics has a bearing but life style is pretty important. So all for the budget and let us grow Canada like she should have been grown in the mid 60s when we first became dependent on a one customer market and it carried on into the 1980s and early 1990s and now we see the product of such dependency. We need to stand alone; we have the ability in our youth to do great work; we must harness it and quickly. Our students should not be turned away from jobs here ever because they are going to go where the jobs are when that moment in time comes and they are lost to us because they fit into a system especially in our friend and neighbour to the south and all of that talent goes there. So be alert dear Canadian companies; it is time to grow and extend and capture all the ability of this country to come to its greatness. It is time; Canada's time on the world stage. 

 Yesterday I completed the main floor cleaning and today it is the basement. First breakfast already eaten and will set up soon for the Robot to do the rugs as it does every week but I will check to make sure it is fully charged because that is my duty as an owner of a robot. One day perhaps one will just push a button on the robot and it will tell me if it is fully charged - the future is full of all such goodies. Then I will have my second breakfast and that will be it for seconds as my weight is slowly climbing back although I gained nothing the last two days; probably I am working too hard but that is also good when one is 80 and can still do it. 

I also completed Chromosome 3 including correcting the older samples that I should  have done a while ago when my two cousins tested but time passes and I knew it would get done in the time frame that I had established. It was a bit grueling to be sure but all done and obvious as one looks at it as each kit was full of query where the grandparent listed had a question mark and often a typed question to go with it. Chromosome 2 is now set up and it has the most crossovers of any of the chromosomes including Chromosome 1. I contemplate that chromosome often enough because of its differences across five siblings That chromosome jumps around a huge amount with one sibling having seven crossovers and the minimum is four so one can see the variety is huge and one day I must take a moment and see what is on that chromosome in terms of medical interest. Funny that came back to me somewhat as there was a discussion on the Health Project that I am a member of here looking at a particular issue. I was not able to attend but will review it later when it is available. Health Projects that encompass a large part of a population are very interesting especially given the size of the Baby Boomers who follow my generation (the Quiet Generation born just at the end of the Second World War up to the beginning of the Baby Boomers). The amount of data that can be crunched on this group is huge and I am pleased to be a part of the study. So today work on the matches (120 matches for Chromosome 2). Proving the  24 crossover points will be interesting for sure with only 120 matches but I have the visuals as well and 18 known matches all at the 2nd and 3rd cousin level encompassing a good amount of the known grandparents. I still need to do that chart showing where the known matches are and will work at that first of all. There are a number of 30 to 50 cM lengths to work with which is very lucky one might say. Chromosome 1 though is now in my sights and then I will redo Chromosome 23 just to look at the matches and remove any that are too small. The 23rd chromosome in particular is somewhat fascinating because one sibling (male) has just one grandparent represented and set the pace for working on the other four for sure. I myself match him for about 60% and as the matches rolled in and then two cousins testing who shared our mutual 3x great grandmother Sarah (Cheatle) Welch that was an amazing moment in time a while ago now. I could find it on my blog but the amazement at how neat that was to find them was truly a great day in my memory. We live continents apart but yet we share that chunk from our mutual 3x great grandmother. 

Tea completed, will have to do the solitaire puzzles as I move along through the day. This has been a busy morning first thing.  

 

Clearing Snow

 I did pay the company to clear my driveway this year but again I am going to do my porch and patio and looking forward to going out and doing that in a couple of hours. I need the fresh air but I think I might hire this company in the summer to do my lawns; have been contemplating that idea. I also decided to order in my groceries and I had thought to go and get them myself (with my mask on) yesterday when I got my flu shot but the weather was very bad so I decided to just go home and make up an order for delivery as I haven't tried that and it is a good opportunity to try it out. I want to do my chicken stew tomorrow night but I do not want to go out for a couple of days after my flu shot. It looks straightforward and you can ask for a recycled box so they can just be left at the door after the bell is rung. I will be watching though for them to be delivered and will bring them in after they leave them as I am still wearing a mask since I had flu mid week last week. Arm is a little sore but otherwise all is well although I still  haven't got my sleep length back yet as I do not yet do enough exercise. Today is cleaning day and it is the basement since I did not do that last week as that was the day that the flu struck. Discovered my daughter was called in to work in the ER last night when I sent a message to her thinking she was home with her family. That is the way for doctors having to go out in all kinds of weather to take care of the patients; there are many who rely on the ER as their family doctor although hopefully declining. 

The basement is fairly quick and I will soon start the Robot doing the rugs and then just the dusting and then the floor to wash and all done. It takes me about 1/4 th the time that it used to take when it was loaded full. Now it is much emptier and I hope to whittle that down this summer again.  

Along with the snow clearing of my patio and porch and the cleaning I will begin to work on Chromosome 5 as it is ready to go and there are 101 matches to go through and fourteen crossover points to verify. On this chromosome there are several large sets of interesting matches (unknown to me) that I want to investigate a little, some of them are on ancestry with trees which makes it very interesting and also in the other databases (FT DNA and My Heritage use the My Heritage trees which is very handy). It would be neat to find a recent common ancestor in their trees for sure. I actually made a breakthrough with a Buller set in the last chromosome because of a pretty far back ancestral line John Welch and Margaret Brockhouse married 16 Feb 1782 at Rugeley, Staffordshire (4x great grandparents) and their parents were: Thomas Welch and Mary Linn married 2 Sep 1745 at Rugeley and Charles Brockhouse and Ann Lea married 23 Jan 1748 at Rugeley. Charles Brockhouse was the son of John Brockhouse (no marriage located yet) and John was the son of John Brockhouse and Margaret Wood married 27 Apr 1692 at Rugeley. Another son of John and Margaret namely James and his wife Lucy Robinson were the ancestral line for one of the matches (a 5th cousin 1x removed and 27.8 cM over three chromosomes for the best match with one sibling (which wasn't anything really spectacular) but I checked the tree years ago now when matches were not so many; the other three siblings that match are at 25.6 cM over three, 19.3 over two chromosomes and 12.8 over one chromosome which is me) giving me a clear path for that and helping to determine another cluster of matches that were all Rawlings after all when they couldn't readily be separate from the Buller group. So interesting how valuable this intensive work can be. Could AI do it? It is the leaps that one makes from line to line because you just know the families that pretty much allows one to make such leaps. My Heritage does do Clusters which are handy as they bring like matches together and I contemplate that they are using AI. It does make errors so one has to be on their toes to catch the mis-steps as one must lead AI not follow it. It is easier as I work on this massive task to do it myself but I am shaping the files so that I could use AI for particular queries. But I think the human input will always be important. Our ingenuity allows us to quickly switch between thoughts without anybody telling us because we know the details and can bridge the gaps. 

Time to make my tea and have a break. Then Solitaire puzzles and perhaps set the Robot going. Such a handy tool. 

The strength of this Budget shouldn't get lost in controversy as Canada being more economically sound is good for everyone who does business here. I mean I love the Dodge product and as I said we have driven Dodges in my family all my life and my father's business always had Dodge trucks. But for a business the bottom line  is profit and there is a benefit from them being so oriented to stay stable and resistant. These days though with so much information available one does risk being misunderstood and I rather think that we should give them the opportunity to follow through on their comment about continuing with their plant here in Ontario. I mean this is a brutal financial world in many ways and they contemplate producing a competitive brand against these cheaper brands. I have to be honest and say that I am certainly routing for them. Somehow my appointment to change to my winter tires got mixed up by me as I thought it was Friday but they have Wednesday and I doubt that I can manage that so must call and let them know. Maybe I will get them changed later when they are not so busy. I almost never drive now. 

I also think that apologizing is not a weakness; I do see it as a sign of strength actually. It should not detract from this concentration on having a budget which will help us to become economically sound. There is a lot to do and a pipeline to the east absolutely essential (after all we have a port on Hudson Bay being refurbished and the St Lawrence is quite adequate to carry oil to the ocean although not as practical as a pipeline). But I did see some people in Quebec are considering this pipeline (overall I think it is a negative but one never knows). Certainly it would be a good business move to get our oil to both Asia and Europe/Africa and the Trans Mountain Pipeline is still not yet fully utilized so not so  much of a rush as the pipeline to the east. We will see how this all flows for sure. I think this is growing pains so to speak; we have the ability to become a really efficient great country and we need to follow the signposts that lead us to be an independent efficient and self-sustaining country welcoming investors for sure because there is money to be made in Canada (it is a very endowed country with riches that just need to be organized and the First Nations is on a path with that as well so we need to really merge our plans as we are all one country). But all provinces have huge assets and there is  no sense to concentrating on one province but rather bring all ten provinces and three territories to the same level of efficiency and ability and we can do it. We owe it to the future; to the children to the grandchildren - lots of hard work; lots of belt tightening and on our way. There is business to do and lots to come from it to help everybody in Canada, everybody will have to work hard though and especially those who invest in us; this is the time. Our dollar rides low and now is the time to hitch a ride. 

Canada in its quest to rebuild its economic identity

When 85% of Canadians voted to support the Conservative and Liberal platforms this year which also elected the Liberal Party and Mark Carney as Prime Minister we had a purpose and that was to rebuild our economic identity lost during the long years of Free Trade. I do not think even once that Canada complained about Free trade. We should have resisted our Canadian companies being taken over and nothing being made here anymore hardly that was totally Canadian. But life was hard after the Second World War as we recovered in mind and soul. I can remember all of that and the flood of immigrants who came to Canada (and life is making itself like that again as floods of people want to come here) but gradually we entered into hum of reality after the Second World War and people prospered and the Free Trade deals were created. Was it our fault that the companies (generally American) that bought out Canadian companies then turned to Asia and produced their products there? No not really it was just finance but the punishment is huge now for us. The recovery of Canada is on the edge and needs help to move forward. Everyone pulling together but can one hang back and say no we just want it as it was. Is that even safe? the hordes are at the gates so to speak - internally there are those who would overthrow this beautiful democracy that has been created and turn it into a dictatorship run by the ultra rich it would appear. The ultra rich does not want to pay proper wages or provide care for people. They just want the profits from their companies or investments. They are selfish because they do not have a history of caring for the peoples of their land - they have no idea how that works (not part of their upbringing I guess) as they can see lots of people straining to come here and so there will always be replacements. Individually they do not need any of those who are not ultra rich because they can see replacements all over the world. Nothing is safe unless we, the public of Canada, take a stand and do what needs to be done to re-create our industries and build that energy corridor that will make us self-sufficient to the end of time. 

What prompted my thought? It was my washing machine just five years old and it needs repairs like a new belt to drive the washing drum and a hose because it leaks! I lived in a family of nine people and one washing machine ran for most of the time that I lived in that house. Now I do not abuse my washing machine - I treat it with tender loving care. It shouldn't have broken down in just five years. Well I can leave that with faulty workmanship where the belt is concerned and poor setup where the hose is concerned likely. We bought it just at the start of the COVID shutdown and it took two months to get it. The person who came to install it (and I did pay for that) did basically nothing; I had to install the dryer vent myself because he didn't like the setup. As it turned out my daughter's husband and her father in law finished the task as I was missing one item and it was perfectly installed with no effort. I paid to have it installed and I would never buy from that company again. They were irresponsible and took no care. I did have a warranty with them but it did expire a year ago. Well that is getting managed although I was tempted to just buy a new machine as I hate having all that trouble but really would I just be in the same state in five years but by then for sure I will have moved. It is just a small price a washing machine really less than one thousand dollars but the nuisance level is huge. We need to get back to where we build things and they are well built! Once this is fixed it will be a great machine once again. 

I do understand the desire to have life remain as it is without any interference; no one wanting to build roads or interfere in the forest area in order to create this energy corridor. Wab Kinew has it right though; we need to move forward as fast as possible and having a full service port on Hudson Bay is an excellent idea and would provide a means to get oil and canned gas to British Isles/European markets as well as western on a much more immediate basis.  We are limited by winter months though when Hudson Bay is frozen over. I also think the Pipeline to the eastern areas of Canada is a must so that we do not import our own oil back refined which we sold at a discount and pay far more to bring it back. Plus we can have an Atlantic Port as well for easier access during the long winter months. 

I continued yesterday working on Chromosome 1. As the longest chromosome it is a good starting point since I have already been through the angst of creating phasing diagrams. I think my chromosome one is very unusual as I inherited the entire Blake Chromosome intact from my father which he of course received from his father and it would have been a combination of his two grandparents and indeed on this chromosome I have a mixture of Known Knight and Blake. I only have two crossover points which  give me a length of Pincombe surrounded by two lengths of Buller. As chance would have it I have two know Buller cousins to collaborate on the second Buller length, no one known to collaborate on the Pincombe or the first Buller length. The Blake though is well represented with cousins descended from Ellis Knight and his wife Eleanor (Knight) Knight (likely 2nd cousins and my 3x great grandparents) covering the lengths from nearly the beginning of the chromosome to the end with some cutouts that are matching a cousin with whom I share the MRCA of Edward Blake and Maria Jane (Knight) Blake (my great grandparents). The Buller is particularly strong and all descendant of cousins with the MRCA of Henry Christopher Buller and Anne (Welch) Buller (my 2x great grandparents). It does make my chromosome 1 a rather perfect base for the five siblings. The Living DNA is giving me slightly different points of crossover but varying by very little in actual fact (the companies choose their testing point and they can vary here and there). Since this is not an exact science that I am using for the crossover but rather just the first two/three digits of the crossover point, one could perhaps one day be more precise since the actual values are known to nine digits or less for those under 100,000,000 centimorgans. It will be an interesting week working through the 22 chromosomes provided. 

Today I shall go out and fill a bag and hopefully sweep as the debris from the tree out front is collecting. Edward has a blower but I find it a bit heavy to carry about so a broom suits me well!

Tea drank and solitaire puzzles next. Beautiful out today as I put the garbage out early this morning as it is Collection Day. Time passes onward and waits for no one; we must keep running to stay caught up because not doing so exposes us to far more hazard than just keeping going as fast as we can. God the Creator made the world for all of us and we really must learn to live together and move forward together like Tecumseh and Brock all those many years ago and bring Canada to their economic might in the world. Because we will just be over run if we do not.  

It was truly a cleaning day

 Cleaning was pretty much all I accomplished yesterday but done for another week. Doing the main floor and the basement in one day is a challenge but I met it although pretty tired by evening. Went outside to put out the garbage but that was about it. Not really an outdoors person in a city although love being out in the woods especially in Northern Ontario and especially with a 16 foot canoe (cargo type) which I have given away to a lovely family in the north and I imagine them enjoying going down all those lovely rivers in the north. Probably I am past that sort of thing but it was great fun and did help to bring me along in terms of my mental health at the time. Nothing like the wilderness where bears do on occasion appear to be stalking you or just avoiding you not sure which and mostly the latter I suspect unless you interfere between a mother and her young or maybe food. We didn't do either and had no unfortunate encounters in the wild in the eight years that we spent going up to Northern Ontario. 

So today I should continue to think about the two newsletters and get them done. But also I will work on my Living DNA matches. The Buller matches are proving to be most interesting. I have a huge set of matches with Buller on one chromosome which are from all over the world and I have not collected all of them. There are just too many and I have not yet been successful in locating the actual family line there. Other Buller lines went to New Zealand and have been in contact with them as they descend from one of my great grandfather's (Edwin Denner Buller) brothers Clement. Clement had followed Edwin to South Africa to work in the jewellery business for his mother's twin's husband. So an interesting family that Buller line coming down from Henry Christopher Buller and Anne Welch with Henry being the son of Christopher Buller and Mary (Beard) Buller of Bermondsey and Anne being the daughter of William Welch and Sarah (Cheatle) Welch of Birmingham (formerly Welch of Rugeley, Staffordshire and Cheatle of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire).  

 Not really sure why anyone would think of voting against the Throne Speech actually; it was a good plan kindly presented by the King himself to the Parliament and the people of Canada. I think that was the problem with the NDP from the beginning of the Pandemic really they could not see the urgency that existed and became fixated on items that were simply not in the best interest of Canada in terms of money expenditure at the time (the Liberals were definitely bad money managers at that time) and I await the progress with Prime Minister Carney as he has a much more interesting background to bring to the table in terms of management particularly money. Eighty five percent of Canadians voted for Liberal or Conservative and their platforms during the election were very very similar. Not to say that we shouldn't have that type of care available that was being offered to those in need but we need to have the economy to support it and this Throne Speech definitely lays out ideas for that growth in Canada. I think it is a bad time to vote against Canada personally because that is what they would be doing especially if they do it as a block. I can see where the NDP works provincially (although a very poor job in Ontario in the 1990s) but federally I think it just gets in the way of normal progress in terms of a government being defeated when it is time to do that. Too many parties mix the brew up too much; needs to be somewhat more streamlined so that it is effective and if not immediately defeated and the people speak again to elect a government that works. But the punishment for putting this government to election again would be very painful for any opposition party I think. We the people would not appreciate it and it costs a lot of money! Lets get this job done. 

 Tea drank and breakfast next but first Yoga. 

 

 

 

Forging ahead with Living DNA results extraction

Getting used to a site is part of the entire process; minimizing the number of times that you look at each item perhaps the most important but it does take a bit of time to get used to each individual site. I have extracted fifteen matches from Living DNA looking at myself and the process will continue today. For the most part I can assign them to one of my four grandparent's lines based on the matches in common and my own phasing of my grandparents done five years ago. In the eleven years since I first phased my grandparents the changes have been fairly minimal primarily cosmetic. A couple of new matches that are interesting particularly in the Buller line. Matches in this line tend to be from the Commonwealth countries although there are also a number of them in the United States as well. In this line I suspect there is a pretty clear division between Buller and Taylor but I do not always have that figured out for every chromosome. For the Pincombe-Rew I have a number of clear distinctions and also for the Blake-Knight looking at my great grandparents. I haven't made an effort yet in the Cotterill?-Rawlings lines although will likely work on that through this process. I have been through 46 matches now in my account and will likely do the first 100 to 125 by advance checking but one never knows for sure until one gets there! Then I will move on to the brother that least matches me as this tends to catch most matches to the five sibling group that constitutes this research study. I will use my account at Find My Past to look at some of these matches as they do have trees now and it is primarily a United Kingdom site but has a worldwide searching ability through their records. 

Prayers continuing for those affected by the fires here in Canada (looking at a map entire areas are in a danger zone). We have had a lot of rain but it has been accompanied by lightning which is a problem in the hot dry season in the west. But as always our Military is helping a great deal with transportation of those forced to evacuate. The firefighters try to preserve the settlements and save as many homes as possible; their hours are long and prayers for them as well and our military personnel aiding all of them. 

Today the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the Provinces/Territories meet to discuss priorities in our move towards abolishing our inter provincial/territorial restrictions between them within Canada and to look at and review projects that will help to increase our usage of Canadian paths to better economic use of our own products and get that process started as soon as possible - shovels in the ground so to speak. The pace is fast but our youth is up to it for sure. This will be their opportunity to shine and gradually assume the responsibilities and benefits of being the wage earners in our country utilizing our own products within our own borders and also producing for trade around the world. 

Sunday and Church at Loughborough and this is home county for my Cheatle family of Leicestershire along with Ashby de la Zouch.  I have a number of very good matches with my 4th and 5th cousins in the Cheatle line. Sarah Cheatle married William Welch 24 Aug 1818 at Longdon by Lichfield Staffordshire although she was baptized at Ashby de la Zouch. They eventually moved to Birmingham and had a restaurant at the corner of Lower Temple Street and Dale End. My Buller family lived close by to the restaurant. I actually corresponded recently with a descendant of the Withers-Welch family and their Welch ancestor  Sarah who was a twin to my 2x great grandmother Anne Welch. As a result of the twinning we are excellent matches much larger than the usual 4th cousins. 

Church livestreamed at my own Church and at Loughborough and will attend both. I do love going to Church and the idea of Church online for old people is a great idea I think (or any age if they want to watch rather than be present or it just works out better for their schedules). As a child I often attended twice on Sunday; once at early communion with my father and later at the morning service where I did teach Sunday School in my teen years. 

Tea finished, solitaire games played and breakfast soon.  

 

Not enough doctors

 While I cleaned yesterday I continued to think about 3 million Ontarians not having a family doctor. When we were young there was a doctor on every corner nearly it seemed in the suburbs. They mostly had their offices in their homes in those days but everything has become so much more advanced toolwise that one needs an office in an area where everything is very accessible and close to hospitals too. Most of the patients were children for sure; the growing up days of the baby boomers. Although I was born just at war's end I went to school with children born during the war because I skipped a year ahead from 3 to 5. But we could see that huge group coming along behind us.  

Life was harder for doctors way back then; my husband's uncle was a family doctor and he died relatively young (in his 60s I think). His hours were very long and his patient load quite heavy as he was outside of the city in a small town (not a huge change for physicians in rural areas except the hospitals are better equipped than in the 50s for sure). But now the family physicians in the city are experiencing these enormous case loads and long hours plus the cost of maintaining an office is very large. So Edward did make an effort when Gordon asked him to go to the Ottawa Branch Meeting of the OGS way back in the early 80s with him. It wasn't something that we ever did; Edward and I. We liked astronomy and were members of the RASC in London and then again here when we first arrived along with the Ottawa Field Naturalists Society. My parents visited right away and took us off to the local Anglican Church (not surprising!) although I had already found it but I knew Edward wanted a United Church. Gordon and Edward did seem to enjoy the meetings of the Ottawa Branch and for the next fourty years that pretty much occupied Edward's spare time (although he was pretty involved in his United Church as Treasurer and singing in the Choir as well!). 

Personally I do better in didactic situations not social; I tend to find social situations to be a nightmare to be honest. I was volunteer secretary at Edward's Church (I didn't actually volunteer). The bonus was I was behind a table and could mostly be away from people and just be helpful if needed. After all religion was part of my very being which I knew very well and I had my own deep seated Anglicanism as my support in time of trial. But I had promised to go to Edward's Church with our daughter. Learning Edward's ancestry of dissenters opened my eyes actually and let me see my Anglican Church through Edward's eyes; not that I agreed with him (my faith is very different from his approach to faith although towards the end of his life he did come to see that my faith was a strength that he could hang on to); I do not think I have a Protestant bone in my body; Catholic through and through. With people like Roger Williams, John Bowne, Hannah Feake, Elizabeth Fones, Anne Winthrop, Rev Obadiah Holmes etc. (the reach back into history in his line was formidable in terms of the talent that was there coming down to him and it expressed itself in him as a scientist although the opportunities (unless one went to the United States) were not overly available at that time. He just really wanted to stay in Canada although as we traveled more and more to the United States one could see that he was rethinking some of that and was very supportive of any such thoughts in our children (although they prefer Canada as well but one has to go where the opportunities are for sure as is the case of my older daughter). One could also see where he got his Protestantism from (I was amazed at all the dissenters in his tree actually as he moved back in time)! But I do believe that families should worship together and whatever works for them is great (I am pretty much a wishy washy person and go with the flow unless I have a strong opinion which does occur but I could be a closet Anglican (still went to early Church at the local Anglican Church for a number of years) and in a way I am back in that closet again except I have You-Tube Services!). For Edward I think he felt the need (plus he did go to the United Church when we first met and I did go to Metropolitan United with him in London when we lived there) as we moved through parenthood and he was following in his father's footsteps (he was only two when he died) and being treasurer and in the choir; it was definitely good for his view of himself to seek that association out I think. Edward was a strong person actually; very capable and really quite brilliant and along with his classmates Canada definitely failed them back in the 70s by not hiring their own students first to academic positions in the universities. Edward's father was also an elder but that is no longer quite the same in the United Church. My maternal uncle was also an elder actually as well as being involved with the Missions and Services in the United Church in both London and Toronto. Plus Edward's father was a farmer and Edward did love his hobby of tilling the soil. I had not thought to do any writing up of Edward's work because he felt he had done all that he wanted to do. But I could go back to reprinting items on his blog I am thinking from his many talks. I was doing that but then got back into my own one name studies. But perhaps that would be a good idea and I would be more relaxed about any missing ideas that he expressed but did not write up on his website. A contemplative day I guess as I move forward in my own research but thinking of ways to keep Edward's research in the present. Most of his American ancestors came to Canada as settlers in 1800 and after. The latest one was in the 1820s - William Rathbun - at the annual reunion of that family he learned that William was said to have "an itchy foot!" which was really something quite stunning to learn from the members of the American family actually. William was remembered and that was 150 years later perhaps.

Although the girls did try hard to be with him for his genealogy endeavours it wasn't easy to be young in so many graveyards but they did their best including writing it all down for him from the stones that he selected. When he received his Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for all of his volunteer work but especially his genealogical work they were pleased to see that all that work that he did was rewarded.  

I am very busy working away on the books for my mother and my grandfather. As a member of the Guild of one-name studies we have a newsgroup that keeps us attached as a group and people often share ideas and thoughts. We were into mediaeval tracing the other day and that is basically where I am at with both of these books at the moment. It is exciting times in England between 1200 and 1500 and then you start to see more wills, the parish registers and land documents but there is still a surprising amount of material to pursue before 1500 although it is in Latin and so I continue learning Latin and it is amazing how much I am able to do with it. Published genealogies and Pedigrees can be somewhat suspicious and we did discuss that. It is hard to undo what has been in print for hundreds of years but correct the errors of Horatio Gates Somerby I will do and a few other items which simply do not make sense. But the Somerby work is the greatest problem because it has been copied so many times especially by Blake descendants in America.

For the next book after these two, I know my grandmother had no interest in writing a book on the Buller family but I may give it a go when Blake and Pencombe/Pincombe are done. She loved her father and mother very much (mother died when she was 11; three years before her father). But his injuries in the First Boer War made life difficult for him although he tried very hard she said. Her mother was just 37 years old and her father was 49 years old. So it would be interesting to put her family into words. They are in fact very interesting. My family would likely enjoy having all of that encapsulated into a book.

What would the second book be? I could consider Rawlings but one of my cousins in Australia has done a lot of work on that as well as our mutual cousin (John Rawlins has his MBE) who wrote me maybe a dozen years ago now and said who is Ada on the 1881 census with William Rawlins and his wife Elizabeth (Lywood) Rawlins (her grandparents actually who apparently didn't mind taking in their illegitimate granddaughter!)?  I had mentioned my grandmother Edith Bessie (Taylor) Blake aka Ada Bessie Cotterill Rawlings in a post that he saw and that began a detailed correspondence over nearly a decade so I think I should leave Rawlins to them. Although I do have a good writeup on my paternal grandmother already (about 120 pages actually). I will have to think of which surname to work on next. I am not that interested in collecting cousins, my sister does an excellent job on that. For me it is the deep ancestry that yDNA and mtDNA leads me to and the surname trail back into the past. Although I never really did any genealogy all those years that Edward did, I appear to be spending my retirement (was going to knit baby clothes for packages to the north; and some sewing as well) doing an entirely different thing than I had intended. 2003 was definitely a watershed year in my life when George DeKay (my cousin) asked me to write the Pincombe Profile. 

I shall have to think about a second book to write at the same time as Buller. - there are some interesting choices like Cheatle which is a Leicestershire name and pretty much only there until the 1800s. A Cheatle married a Welch and produced the wife of Henry Christopher Buller. Lawley in Shropshire is another one still on my grandmother's side (the name appears to have originated in Ireland and I do know there is a percentage of Irish as several of my siblings have between 11 and 18% Irish). Why did they come to Shropshire in the mid 1700s? One wonders that. But with my searching over the past twenty years I have encountered a number of these families written up and because we corresponded our line is included. Interesting to contemplate.

The cleaning all accomplished yesterday and on to Pencombe today. Exercise (I do think I am an addict) but then one of the first things that I did when we were in the process of moving here was to take a break from moving in and walk around the large block  (no sidewalks then and the road was incomplete) with my three year old. I decided that was going to be the greatest thing having that 2 km trek to do every day until my little one was off to school (and me to work or school to do my masters!). What a treat I thought. That was April of 1978; we moved here on the 26th of April. Some friends from London lived closeby (yes we did have friends when we moved here) and that was when we noticed these carriage houses (they also had one). I fell in love with it immediately and we have been here ever since (not  much ambition where houses are concerned; Edward traveled a lot then and it was just a comfortable size for me to look after when he wasn't there). I no longer do the walk around as my daughters do not think it is good for me to go alone and to be honest I agree (older people should not wander around alone but COVID did show us how much exercise we could create in our own homes and yards). I have my treadmill, my stationery bicycle, weights, yoga mat and runners so I can do it all inside or in the backyard and can walk/ski around outside when they are here. Teatime and Latin next. Then on to breakfast. 

My own English ancestry (grandchildren can inherit between 0 and 25%; and I am not sure that my grandchildren inherited very much of my English ancestry; the youngest perhaps as he has autism but mostly he reminds me of his mother (he has an enormous resemblance to her) but occasionally I get a glimpse of my brothers there; just rarely)). My English ancestry sinks rapidly into the past having merged with Edward's 9th and 10th generation mostly European and maybe 5 to 10% British Isles ancestry; then Edward's 8th and 9th early American colonial ancestry in our children and now with our grandchildren French Canadian ancestry merges in back into the early days of Quebec and our son in law's family has found First Nations ancestry in their lines (I do want to get back into that research as well! never enough time) so way back into thousands of years ago on this continent for at least one line. Amazing really when you think about it. Which reminds me that is exciting naming Louis Riel as the first Premier of Manitoba. We are, in my lifetime, seeing The First Nations and the settlers walking together just as Tecumseh and Brock walked together. Our Governor General Mary Simon brings the long history of her Inuit peoples to her capacity as the King's representative in Canada and she does it so very well. With three grandparents born and raised in England and a father born there I am likely going to be a royalist supporter for sure! Will we always have a King? I think having a Head of State that isn't political is better myself. Politics can be such a downer sometimes. Although Conservative most of my life; I have voted Liberal the last ten years. But frugality in government is needed; better management of money but that is also on the companies that do work for the government. Do not cheat; do the job or resign from it if you cannot do it - let someone else do it. COVID was a difficult time; decisions had to be made quickly. Things had to be cobbled together to get efficiency but cleaning it up should be a process begun in the past. Part of the problem is the negativity in Parliament. Get the job done; work together instead of trying to score points. I am not impressed by point scoring. I am impressed by good government; good management of money. And I continue to blame all of the parties for celebrating a Nazi  in Parliament. You do so much mud slinging surely you could have caught that before it happened. Stop concentrating on belittling Justin Trudeau; he has done the job for ten years and quite well actually. He was absolutely perfect during COVID. He brought his citizens home from around the world without really any problems. He organized that very well in terms of filing income tax for instance. I have to be honest it surprised me; Liberals can not generally be counted on to be efficient. That is the Conservative strength generally but Social Conservatism is dead in the water for me. I will not support it. Jesus said to love your neighbour as yourself and those words come from God. The prefatory of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with "We believe in the supremacy of God and the rule of law." God has many terms including The Great Spirit, Creator. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms represents the best wishes of a people for a government that supports all the people. 

Must get to work; the day moves onwards.

 

 

Shared Workaholic tendency and Monday morning

Edward and I share a workaholic tendency although he is more prone to being sociable than I ever was. For me, as a child, being sociable was what my mother requested of me and as an adult I have avoided social experiences in as much as possible. I love to read and work away at things although when my children were small I couldn't always do that and didn't as they came first. Learned that from my mother as well. But as luck would have it my children were quite amenable to an organized day so that by the time they were three they would sit beside me and do "their work" as they called it. The coffee breaks were longer for them for sure and generally involved a long walk to have a look at the world and discover birds, trees, plants along the way or watch favourite movies. I did take the girls to play group and my older daughter enjoyed it more perhaps because she was an only child for such a long time but my younger daughter on her first day there quietly confided to me that she would rather be at home working and we never went back! I do think we are all workaholics in this family as Edward has many projects but he put everything together for his various projects and passed them on before and during COVID and published everything that he wanted published. 

I am busy writing all of these books I have thought about since I ventured into Surname Studies back in 2003 and mostly when DNA became the driver of my genealogical pursuits around 2005 after the Pincombe Profile was completed. George DeKay would be amazed to see the result of his persuading me to write the Pincombe Profile for sure. The Siderfin book revised and published. Blake and Pencombe books in the starting phases. Buller book on the back burner. Rawlings being thought about occasionally but one of my third cousins in Australia has written up quite a bit on the Rawlings. Then I get back another generation and I have Knight (Winterbourne villages, Dorset), Cotterill (Kimpton, Hampshire it appears but not conclusive on the surname)?, Gray (Holme on the Wolds, East Riding of Yorkshire), Taylor (Birmingham family, shoe/boot maker - a small company, was contacted by a descendant which was interesting). Would I ever take up books on these four lines? The Gray is written up by my cousin George DeKay but  he wanted to revise and update it and I said I would help him if he wanted but he passed away and COVID did rather get in the way of that. That would mean a revise and update of his book but I wouldn't do all the families that  he did without other contributors - I do not know most of them actually. For me it would be a Gray-Routledge book perhaps looking at the descendants of the Routledge family here plus my research back in Bewcastle. My cousin though has a lot of work on line for the family beyond Bewcastle back into the Highlands of Scotland. There have been books on the various Knight families and I rather think I would need to be on the spot to do that one as there are a lot of Knight families and the same goes for Taylor I expect. The next generation (2x great grandparents - would be Farmer (Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire), Butt (Winterbourne villages, Dorset), Sherwood (Cotterill married Sherwood at Kimpton)??, Lywood (there is a one name study for Lywood and Warwick Lywood has done great work for sure), Rew (same areas  as Siderfin, have done some work on this line because of the Siderfin book and just interest), Routledge (my cousin (perhaps 7th) Thomas Routledge is doing a wonderful job with this family in England), Welch (huge family although I have traced my line back into Rugley Staffordshire several generations) and Roberts (Bickenhill, Warwickshire for a couple of generations before Birmingham). 

Perhaps one can go to far back! I think at this point (3x great grandparents) I would become selective and pick some of the unusual 4th great grandparents and further back surnames and work on them - Cheatle (Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire), Croxall (Bickenhill, Warwickshire), Lawley (Wellington, Shropshire), Hemsley (Southwark, Surrey), Sproxton (Hutton Cranswick, East Riding of Yorkshire), Charlie/Charly (Combe Martin, Devon) and the list keeps going back! But there is just one lifetime for each of us and we do what we get done for sure. I did learn that from Edward who enjoyed the OGS now Ontario Ancestors Ottawa Branch so very much. He never really missed a meeting all those years before COVID taking me along after he got tired and his friend became ill and he found the drive home long. He loved being able to go and do the things he wanted to do anytime that he wanted knowing I was quite content that he enjoy his life. I loved all that precious time at home after I retired working away on Surname Studies which in itself is rather amazing being very late to arrive at an interest in such things. His greatest regret was not traveling across the ocean much much earlier - like when I proposed we backpack around the British Isles and Europe after he finished his PhD in 1970. It would have been fun for sure.

On to the day. This is basement cleaning day and today work on the Blake book - looking at Andover and area. 

Small error in the download site at the top of the Blogger page and it is fixed

 I had an extra space in the download URL at the top of the blog page but it is now fixed. 

Yesterday was a good day on the Pencombe book looking at North Molton and what I can find out about the village in the time period of 1480s to the 1500s when the Pencombe family was moving out of North Molton to South Molton and then later to Bishops Nympton (my line), Barnstaple/Bideford.

Sunday and another glorious God's Day. The human race as we know it, Homo sapiens, has predominantly worshiped the same God for thousands of years although we have diverged from a singleton Abrahamic religion with Judaism, Christianity and Islam being the three of which I have knowledge. I do not know the other religions of the world and how they practise their faith and at 78 plus I am probably not going to do that. What is important to me is that God is remembered every minute of the day and night. Our lives should centre around God/Great Spirit and what He has asked of us. The Ten Commandments were clearly set out. We are intelligent enough to follow them; we just need to find the will to follow them and the world will be a better place. Mother Nature deserves our support to help to maintain the world.

Interesting articles on exercise lately. I was thinking back on my own life and exercise has always been important to me. Working at home made it much easier to keep my exercise up with a bike ride or walk around the large block (about 2 km) every day just as a break in the day (the ride when my children were in school and the walk when they were with me until they could ride their bicycles or they rode behind me on the bicycle). But why do I still do 150 minutes of exercise per day? When I was ten our family doctor told me that I should walk a mile every day. He didn't say why and at ten I didn't ask. I preferred the visit to the doctor to be as quick as possible and didn't ask any questions. Later in life when we moved here the family doctor told me that I had a heart murmur. At that point I should probably have been referred for assessment but I didn't say anything because once again I prefer not to spend a lot of time with medical appointments if I can avoid it. I think I was 33 years of age at that time and very physically fit. That has generally been the state of my health through the years except when I wasn't but then I was striving to become physically fit. Why is that? I think perhaps some humans are just made that way. Part of my inspiration for running was my great grandfather used to run from Goodworth Clatford to Upper Clatford every day to visit the graves of his parents and then back again. It is about 1.5 kilometres I think so just a nice run. My grandfather told me that although by then grandpa was here in Canada and was learning that by letters. But I think it inspired him as he used to walk for miles every day where ever he had to go he would walk including visiting the grave of his wife which was a long walk for sure. So I have run for most of my life and continue to run fourty minutes a day and probably walk an hour a day (which probably doesn't get added into that 150 minutes of exercise actually). I have started to use the treadmill for walking as it does let you walk much quicker than just around the house. But the whole point of this paragraph was to stress that people do have to get exercise for all of their life. We owe it to God to take the best care of ourselves; to take care of the peoples of the world and to take expert care of the world itself. 

Another beautiful Sunday and the Bulletin for today is in my Inbox. I shall check to see if the Service is online as usual on Youtube after I eat my breakfast. The five hour delay is nice actually between the service somewhere in England and here. 

And it was amazingly at St Martin in the Fields in London near Trafalgar Square which we visited when we were there. My 2x Buller great grandparents (Henry Christopher Buller and Ann (Welch) Buller) went to that Church when they had their Butcher Shop in Convent Garden back in the 1830s/1840s but they also lived in Birmingham where they had a Butcher Shop as well. The desire to look at the Buller Family is often strong but Blake and Pincombe come first.  But I digress, the service was quite wonderful.

God bless.

Ancestry matches

I finally got all of my ancestry accounts up to date with DNA matches. A couple of new and interesting ones that continue to point to my Buller line and likely the X chromosome. I do not know these people at all but do know their ancestry from their trees. There is one portion of the X chromosome that has come directly to all of us from Sarah (Cheatle) Welch who was my 3x great grandmother. Her daughter Ann (Welch) Buller) married Henry Christopher Buller and they had eleven children Ann's X chromosome was passed to my maternal grandmother intact from her father hence the strong matches on the X chromosome. Interesting that such a good length passed from a 3x great grandmother to us. But only some of us of my seven siblings only five have tested and only three have inherited this rather interesting length which varies between 18 cM and 28 cM with most around 25 cM. Occasionally one of the Ancestry customers posts their DNA to Gedmatch but I also have matches at 23 and Me  and FT DNA just to give me a rather well rounded look at the DNA and its ancestry back to Sarah Cheatle. Sarah's mother is also named Sarah and may be Sarah Bonnell who married a William Cheatle 7 Jan 1752 at All Saints Loughborough, Leicestershire.

Changes to Ancestry and an exciting find on 23 and Me

I like using Ancestry; I like their search engine as I can get lots of variety in spelling. I also like their DNA. I had settled into a pattern using DNA at Ancestry and their latest change certainly blew that up to put it mildly! But with a few more days of thinking about it I have altered how I look at Ancestry. I had been creating Excel charts to look at my matches for both my husband's accounts and my own accounts. I can see that I could stop doing that and put everything online in my charting. Of course one always wishes that they had started out with this idea but it is never too late to make revisions. It just takes time. I am using the groups function which I had pretty much ignored after it was brought it a few months back. The 24 colours for groups is nice but could be expanded to 32 just to give even more flexibility. I do have some matches that can clearly be linked back solely to one 3x great grandparents' sibling (and more than one of those).

Lately a new cousin came onto my 23 and Me account which has permitted me to verify my Chromosome 23 phasing for my grandparents. What a relief that was as I had rather thought it was correct but some items just did not fit. Reading comments on Chromosome 23 and regarding anything less than 20 cM match as "unsure" I gradually came to the conclusion that this Chromosome is very sturdy and can carry lengths through many generations. For instance this new length that I have (as does one of my brothers thus limiting the match to my mother's side) is 20.2 centimorgans. Although I do not know this individual; and she did not respond to my message, she is matching known Cheatle lines. Sarah Cheatle was my 3x great grandmother and she married William Welch. Their daughter Ann married Henry Christopher Buller. Then their son Edwin Denner Buller married Ellen Taylor. My maternal grandmother thus inherited from her father a blended Chromosome 23 which he had received from his mother Ann Welch and would include both Welch and Cheatle. This discovery very much confirms my phasing and places new emphasis on not using lengths of less than 20 cM to phase the 23rd chromosome. I do have several lengths that one might think would let you establish that a length had come from a particular ancestor. I have overlap with some of my mother's ancestors on her father's side and her mother's side in terms of location which had not really occurred to me until I started to phase the 23rd chromosome.

The other excitement on this Cheatle match is my inability to clearly link my Cheatle line with the other Cheatle lines at Ashby de la Zouch. With these matches I am now in the thought process that my William Cheatle married to Sarah unknown and baptizing my 3x great grandmother Sarah Cheatle at Ashby de la Zouch in 1795 likely married again in the early 1800s as these matches link back to a William Cheatle at Ashby de la Zouch but not to the mother of Sarah Cheatle.

Chromosome 23

Still I am perplexed by Chromosome 23 and how to divide up the maternal portion I inherited from my mother. I have two known matches by 4th cousins but the length is really insufficient to say positively that I have phased this Chromosome 23 correctly between my two maternal grandparents lines - Pincombe and Buller. I have one match on my Routledge line (my great grandmother Grace Gray married William Robert Pincombe and this match descends from a sister of Grace's mother Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge). I have one match on my Welch line and in this case the descent is from the twin sister of my 2x great grandmother Anne Welch who married Henry Christopher Buller. The amount shared is 10cM for the Routledge match and 8 cM for the Welch match. Fortunately they do not fall in the same area but they confuse a phased X chromosome which I produced prior to knowledge of these two matches. Do I go with the matches or do I go with the carefully thought through phasing that I did before the matches appeared? I am ambivalent. I wish I could find one of my known 2nd cousin Buller as their grandmother was my grandmother's sister. Likely we will share some X chromosome enough to convince me one way or another on how we have inherited our X chromosome from our mother. The paternal X chromosome is, of course, easy as that is inherited entirely from my father who received it unchanged from his mother and it was inherited by her from her parents - William Rawlins and Elizabeth (Lywood) Rawlins.

I have a new match on Ancestry lately which is also descendant of my Buller side likely back to my 2x great grandmother Anne Welch. It would be interesting to see if this individual has an X chromosome match with me. However, I have not yet written but will contemplate doing that to see if it interests him to pursue the match. It is a large match. Another similar match at 23 and Me is likely Welch-Buller with a 1.2% match and in this case the chromosomes have not been shared. I did write to this individual and verified our descent from the Welch family as being our most recent common ancestor. Perhaps over time she may share her chromosome results and again a strong possibility that there would be X chromosome results of a length sufficient to name the phased portions of the X chromosome with more accuracy.

Living DNA results for my brother

Living DNA results came in for my brother. We are the least alike thus far of us seven siblings and fortunately for me he has been willing to be tested here and everywhere (and I have done so!). I expect his results to show a strong southern England setting and good percentages along the eastern coast of England. That was completely fulfilled but I was surprised not to see any Scotland but he does have a Cumbria component which is our Routledge line and they are far removed from the Scottish Highlands having come to the Cumbria area in the 1400s. I also thought he would have a north western European component that would be Germanic rather than Scandinavian. His results follow and I compare them to my results.

 Area                                                       my brother             me

Europe                                                      98.9%                100%

Great Britain and Ireland                         95.9%                   96.5%

South Central England                            23.9%                   31.7%

Southeast England                                  18.8%                      7.2%

Devon                                                      13.4%                     14.6%

Central England                                       0%                          14.6%

North Yorkshire                                     11.6%                         3.5%

South England                                       11.5%                         2.7%

Lincolnshire                                            7.7%                         2%

Northumbria                                             5.5%                         4%

North West England                                  0%                           3.5%

Cumbria                                                  2.2%                           0%

South Yorkshire                                      1.2%                           5.4%

Southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland   0%                        4.8%

Northwest England                                  0%                             3.5%

Aberdeenshire                                         0%                             2.5% 


Europe (North and West)                        3%                              3.5%

Germanic                                                  3%                             0%

Scandinavia                                              0%                             3.5%

 Asia (South)                                         1.1%                            0%

Southern Central Asia                           1.1%                            0%


The first item that pretty much defines our family is the Great Britain and Ireland percentage. My result is 96.5% and my brother's result is 95.9%. Given that our father, three of our grandparents and all of their known ancestors were born and lived in England probably not surprising. Our fourth grandparent - maternal grandfather  John Routledge Pincombe - was born in Canada but his father William Robert Pincombe was born in England (Devon) and his mother Grace Gray was born in Canada and she was our first born Canadian ancestor. However both of her parents (Robert Gray and Elizabeth Mary Ann Routledge) were born in England (father in East Riding of Yorkshire and mother in Cumberland).

The North and West Europe component that each of us have remains somewhat of a mystery. I have 3.5% Scandinavian and my brother has 3% Germanic. Looking at 3% of our DNA the rough estimate would be a 3x great grandparent or 2 4x great grandparents. This is an interesting thought actually. For most of our lines I know the 3x great grandparent's place of birth, who they married and when/where they died. But there are a few exceptions - one is my maternal grandmother's father's grandfather - Christopher Buller. I think he is English but I have no proof. His death registration/burial registration does not give any clues in 1832. I have never found his birth/baptism in London, England where he lived his entire life (actually Bermondsey just south of the Thames in his adulthood). His wife Mary Beard I can trace back a number of generations in the Bermondsey area. The other exception is my maternal grandmother's mother's parents and grandparents. But this line is more likely to be Irish/Scot than Scandinavian or Germanic. We do have a number of matches with people who currently live in Germany and always have and I must have a look to see if my brother actually has more of these matches than I do. In general though these matches are with people having a Jewish ancestry and endogamy is probably playing a part in all of that as I suspect our possible Jewish ancestor converted to Church of England back in the 1400s (first appears in Anglican Church records) or earlier. 

The Devon results for both of us at 13.4% for my brother and 14.6% for me are very reasonable given the matches to our Pincombe lines that we share in common. We have been most fortunate to have half a dozen and more of our Pincombe cousins test ranging from 3rd cousin to 4th cousin. Their testing has enabled the phasing of our grandparents DNA which is progressing and helpful with new matches. Our Pincombe line was at Bishops Nympton from the late 1590s to the present and prior to that the line was at North Molton (East Buckland and Filleigh) back to 1485. Prior to that is not firmly proven although some researchers have placed this family in western Cornwall and others in Herefordshire. They came to North Molton with Lord de la Zouche following the Battle of Bosworth Field in which Lord Zouche was attainted for supporting Richard III.

The South Central England results with 23.9% for my brother and 31.7% for me were also an expected result. South Central England includes Wiltshire and Somerset (as well as Hampshire) and the matches which we have thus far point to my having inherited strongly from my paternal grandmother whose lines were from Wiltshire predominantly although she, herself, was born in Kimpton, Hampshire. Plus I have strong matches with my 2x great grandmother (my maternal side) who was born at Selworthy, Elizabeth Rew (daughter of John Rew and Elizabeth Siderfin) but married her Pincombe husband at Bishops Nympton and my brother does not match the Somerset cousins for the most part. My brother inherited strongly from his paternal grandfather which is primarily Hampshire and perhaps gives some evidence with his South eastern percentage that the Blake families at Andover were indeed all related as one line of this family went to Surrey and then London in the latter part of the 1600s.

Southeast England which includes London and Surrey was the home of my 3x great grandfather Christopher Buller's wife Mary Beard. The Beard family can be found back into the 1600s in the Bermondsey area. Henry Beard (Mary's father) was a tanner and he had married Elizabeth Hemsley and her family is likely from the North Yorkshire/Northumberland area back a couple of generations (Elizabeth was born in 1742 at St Mary Newington daughter of Matthew Hemsley and Mary Coal. But my brother's portion at 18.8% is much larger than would be expected from 4x great grandparents and the only other London line is of course Christopher Buller himself. Hence I am suspicious that Blake is also showing up in this area with its roots in Andover.

No Central England for my brother and again not a surprise as he has very few matches with our Buller and Welch cousins. Henry Christopher Buller married Anne Welch in 1838 at Edgbaston, Warwickshire. He the son of Christopher Buller and Mary Beard and Anne the daughter of William Welch and Sarah Cheatle. In this choice he received more Pincombe-Gray then Buller-Taylor from our mother. William Robert Pincombe having married Grace Gray (family from East Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland) my maternal great grandparents.

North Yorkshire was 11.6% for my brother and only 3.5% for me. Our Sproxton family likely hailed from North Yorkshire (Ann Sproxton (daughter of Richard Sproxton and Ann Harland married 1753 Great Driffield) married John Cobb 1782 at Lund and they were the parents of Elizabeth Cobb who married Robert Gray 1806 at Lund and their son Robert Junior emigrated to Canada and was the father of Grace Gray. The percentage is high however and I suspect there is also Hemsley in that mix.

South England is primarily Hampshire where our father was born (Ernest Blake born 1904 at Eastleigh) and all of his Blake line mostly from Upper Clatford and all pretty much within a few kilometres of Andover going back in time although Elizabeth Lambden (Elizabeth married Isaac Farmer 1789 at Andover; Ann Farmer married John Blake also at Andover in 1823 (parents of Edward Blake my great grandfather)'s father was likely from Berkshire. For the most part though the Blake line and the families that married into Blake were from Andover or closeby. My brother inherited strongly from my paternal grandfather and that shows up strongly in his matches. He is at 11.5% and I am at 2.7% and I suspect some of mine is from the Dorset area where our great grandmother Maria Jane Knight was born (she married Edward Blake at Upper Clatford in 1870) as I have very good Knight matches.

As with myself, Lincolnshire is partly an unknown. Close to London as I get back into the 1700s there are some unknowns in my lines. My brother was 7.7% and myself at 2%. Certainly he inherited strongly from the Gray family and as I work my way back in the East Riding of Yorkshire there are lines coming in that I have not yet discovered.

Northumbria at 5.5% for my brother and 4% for me is perhaps some of our Routledge ancestry (2 of my 3x great grandparents Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth Routledge (2nd cousins) married in 1785 at Bewcastle Cumberland). There is also my Hemsley family likely from this area and 5x to 6x great grandparents.

Cumbria at 2.2% for my brother and 0% for me is very likely this Routledge family as well. Although I do have matches with our Routledge cousins and my brother does not thus far only two have tested.

South Yorkshire at 1.2% for my brother and 5.4% for me is perhaps again the Gray family who lived at Etton and places within about a 10 kilometre radius of Etton.

Not unexpected, my brother shows no Irish or Scottish. He does not have a lot of matches compared to a multitude of Irish/Scot matches for myself. Northwest England at 0% for my brother and 3.5% for myself, Southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland and 0% for my brother and 4.8% for myself, and Aberdeenshire at 0% for my brother and 2.5% all point to our possible Irish/Planter Scot ancestry. He has very few matches with people of known Irish/Scot ancestry. This is of course our unknown line. My maternal grandmother's mother was Ellen Taylor born at Birmingham and we of course share her mitochondrial DNA (H11a2a1, relatively uncommon although there are probably slightly less than one million people who share it on the planet today!) which does point to Ayrshire/Argyllshire Scotland in the Blood of the Isles Database. Matches with the colony in the Carolinas founded by the Rev William Martin and his six shiploads of colonists in 1772 was from County Antrim and a number of matches with our mitochondrial DNA are found with people who descend from this group of colonists.

Scandinavian (3.5% for myself) and Germanic (3% for my brother) are somewhat mysterious as I do not have any known ancestors born in these two areas. But I have many many Scandinavian matches (and some German). My brother has few Scandinavian but many German matches. Perhaps it is fairly ancient and has just managed to be passed down through the ages relatively intact but through whom is the question and one which I look at in depth with each new close match that is from Scandinavia or the Germanic Countries.

Very pleased with these results as well from Living DNA. Looking forward to their matching. I have also shared one set of another brother's results and one set of another sister's results for the matching. Now that I have these results I will do a write up for Living DNA as they have requested feedback.