Siderfin Family and continuing French Canadian Ancestry

My new correspondent and I have been sharing information. She found a new will (new to me!) at The National Archives (London UK) which has illuminated another error in James Sanders book. Definitely John Siderfin married to Joan Adams was John the son of John Siderfin and Joan Greenslade and not the son of Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent. This makes James Sanders chart completely incorrect as he shows his great grandfather as John Siderfin married to Sarah Clark being the son of John Siderfin and Joan Greenslade. This means that my Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin (sister to John Siderfin married to Sarah Clark) was aunt to his grandfather Robert Siderfin. That means that Elizabeth Rew (Elizabeth Siderfin's daughter) was first cousin to Robert the father of Elizabeth Siderfin (mother to James Sanders). Mind you Robert was born in 1788 and Elizabeth in 1801. Then Elizabeth (daughter of Robert was born in 1817) and William Robert (my great grandfather) wasn't born until 1837. It could be the generational differences that resulted in this loss of knowledge. Plus my family emigrated to Canada in 1850. But it is still surprising that he incorrectly selected his great great grandparents. Mind you he wrote the book in the early 1900s and his mother died in 1882 and his grandfather Robert Siderfin died in 1859. James grew up at South Molton which is quite aways from the Watchett/Selworthy homes of his Siderfin ancestor. Surprisingly my Elizabeth Rew married John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton just five miles from South Molton but the discrepancy in ages may well have resulted in the mistake. In my family, the name Siderfin was never recorded on this side of the Atlantic so that family line was completely lost.

I continued working on my son-in-law's family. I am proving the 3x great grandparents now on his grandfather's side. I have managed to pull out quite a bit of information - census, CMBs and BMDs but a few still elude me. I spent part of the morning reading the 1851 census at St-Polycarpe, Vaudreuil County but did not find the Matte (Mathieu/Matts), Gagnon (Gagné), D'Outre or De La Tour families that I had hoped to find there. There were LaTour families but not the one I needed. I still need to check the marriage registration for Léon Matte and Marie Louise Gagnon at Prescott in 1865. The Geneaogical Society has transcribed the register and listed parents as Olivier Gagnon/Josephte Beruit (census shows de LaTour) and Joseph Matte/Josephte D'Outre (census shows Louis Matte/Josette Doutre). Reading the original at the Archives of Ontario will be helpful for this marriage I suspect. Because all four families were from the Vaudreuil area originally I had hoped to discover some information on the 1851 census but they may have already been moving to the Prescott area of Ontario by then. I do not find them at Prescott so possibly somewhere in between.

Today I will enter the proofs for the 3x great grandparents of the one line and then begin to work on the maternal line back to the 3x great grandparents. Putting the trees on ancestry was very very helpful with all the searching ability of this site. I had some really good hints that were most helpful.