One of the marvels for me of the 21st century has been being able to attend Church on You-Tube. I am by nature reclusive and my widowhood has made that more so. I am a busy person with my now four newsletters (four times per year) and my two one-name studies and H11 mtDNA study. Not really a lot of spare time in my life by the time I do a couple of hours of exercise a day and keep up the house cleaning and such. After each day of cleaning I tend to yearn for the one room life style - all I really need is one room but I still have too much stuff for one room. When and if I move into a small apartment I do not want it to be over-crowded.
Yesterday I managed about one third of the database for the H11 group. It will take perhaps three or four days to put the newsletter together but the month is only half through so plenty of time for that.
I did not work on the Siderfin book as it turned out; I underestimated how much time it would take me to pull out all the information for the H11 Newsletter. Perhaps today I will spend a little time on the Siderfin book.
The Bible Reading for today was thought provoking. One thing that I learned when I joined the Worldwide Anglican online group in 1995 was that we are all sinners because we do not adhere to the teachings of Jesus who gave up everything in his life. There have been many people throughout the last two thousand years who have strictly followed the teachings of Jesus and have achieved sainthood within the Catholic Church. I do wonder if people really understand what the Church is about; it isn't a social club; we are meant to be making the world a better place and I fail in that too. It is somewhat frightening to see the Church become less prominent in our world. God no longer walks and talks with mankind; nor does He interfere in life events; He sent us Jesus and we are meant to follow the teachings of Jesus. What will the world be like in ten years; a hundred years or a thousand years? One wonders. The Catholic Church is not a democracy. The fundamental beliefs of the Catholic Church will go on forever carefully preserved by the faithful.
Looking back at my ancestors mostly I am finding their wills telling me their religious feelings. Although I know these tend to be a bit "bookplate" because that was (and in many ways) still is the way that we create but some wills do lack these words asking God to receive their souls so the presence of the religious part of old wills was a conscious request on the part of people making their wills. Some do not give money to the Church and express no concerns on where they will be buried although I actually did not find any wills in my lines going back that did not contain these words directed solely at God.
It is funny now looking back on my eventually coming to the pursuit of my ancestors. Initially I was convinced that I knew all that I was going to be able to find out about my ancestors and that persisted well into 2003. It was my cousin George Dekay asking me to create a Profile for my Pincombe family that brought it home to me that not everyone has the same storyline for the same family. He did have someone else who would write the Profile but that individual thought that my grandfather had owned a grocery store on Wharncliffe Road. Actually that was my uncle and it became my duty to preserve the family story suddenly and in a moment. I accepted the challenge immediately and with a group of other Pincombe descendants we created a Pincombe Profile. I wrote it but it was based on what I was told by each of those family groups about their individual Pincombe families. I do like to have it right if that is at all possible. Just before the due date for the Profile I discovered that our mutual 3x great grandmother was Elizabeth Siderfin and I did send the information off to my cousin but he was probably pretty busy because that one short line did not make it into the Profile. I was disappointed but I should have phoned rather than emailing. I really like emailing and use that as my method of communicating most times. It is rare for my phone to ring and for me to call; it is my texting machine primarily.
Sometimes I think when someone comes forward to take on the Kip-Kipp Family Newsletter that I will create a Siderfin Newsletter although there are many names I could choose closer to my generation - Rawlings or Lywood or Rew and a couple of other interesting ones. But who knows what the future holds in terms of what I will do with what I have gathered up. Right now Newsletters are the right way to go but I also have all of Edward's material to go through and my days are full and likely will be to the end of my days. Hopefully my brain will remain sharp and able to manage all of this material. I try very hard not to get distracted by details.
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