Yesterday ended up being a good day for reading and indexing and the Ninth Generation is complete. Today is the large cleaning day so just a dent or nothing at all in the Tenth Generation likely. I am likely looking at Friday to complete the indexing and initial proofreading. I will read it a second time before I actually serialize it and publish the full book. The serializing will commence this weekend perhaps or early next week but I am actually aiming for the First Chapter which will actually be the original Preface and added to that the Ancestry of James Sanders which I have added along with some footnoting there and the Acknowledgements Page which I wrote. Then the opening Chapter and the book begins with the generations following that.
I have also inserted following the Title Page a picture of my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe whose mother was Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew and the reason why I would ever take on this project. She would be in her early 70s in this picture and to the best of my knowledge it is the only picture of her. She died at 75 years of age in 1876.
I would give tribute to my mother in this book but she did not know about Elizabeth Siderfin married to John Rew. That entire history of her Somerset ancestors was lost partly because the Rew family that continued to be in touch with their Pincombe cousins also lived in Devon. Strange really but it does show you that moving away from your roots does actually break them unless a strong effort is made to retain them. In one of my discussions with one of the Medical Residents who had noted my "genealogical" activities his comment was that someone in their family kept the family information so that it was not lost and he knew his lines back many many generations (at least he said he knew someone who actually could relate it which was like knowing it). At that point in my life (the early 2000s) I had been persuaded to write the Pincombe Profile and had no idea that my family history would come to totally dominate my life in my old age. But it was something very interesting to learn actually about another culture; the importance to them of their genealogical lines.
My roots which are 100% English back to the late 1400s when I have two Huguenot lines introduced into those English lines but the children of my body are Canadian/American with their 50% English Ancestry from me and that huge American Ancestry from their father which because he researched it was about 35% German, 30% Dutch, 20% French, 10% English and 5% Polish with the Scandinavian, Danish and Swiss being included in the German percentage (the Dutch is also Germanic so overall their very deep ancestry on their father's side is Germanic. Pass to the next generation and they are 50% French with all of the other on their mother's side (which includes French as it turns out). Fascinating really. I must get back one day to their French ancestry which I have taken back to France on many lines but there are also other interesting lines that I have learned from relatives which would take them deep into the original peoples of this continent. Their French ancestors arrived with Champlain so very long ago. So my ancestry disappears into the mist in two generations! Remembering my grandfather talking about his ancestry is poignant actually - his memory that his people always lived in the Andover area and his yDNA does tell that tale of deep deep ancestry in the British Isles. So you have the waves of immigration that came to British Isles reaching Andover and many many intermarriages later one has Britons carrying the blood of the First Peoples out of Africa into the Middle East and thence to the far corners of the Eastern Hemisphere as we know currently the science of all of this shows. Interesting to know that the next King of England on his mother's side (Diana, Princess of Wales) shares that ancient peoples of the British Isles DNA coming down directly from her as she is descendant of the Blake family at Andover (very ancient at the 12th great grandparent level).
The United Nations meets today on the war between Hamas and Israel. It is an ancient story though for the Jewish people; if they fight they die and if they do not fight they die. Are they better off or worse off; there are still 130 or so hostages held by Hamas and Hamas threatens to kill them (Hamas is so barbaric really and there are 6000 Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails but the Israelis are not barbaric and do not return blow for blow but simply want Hamas out). One has to ask oneself; what would you do as a country if someone did that to you? Do not think of who they are or the circumstances; what is the result to you if someone does what Hamas has done to Israel except it is your country that is under the bayonet on the 7th of October last and your hostages threatened with death! Personally I think there is only one answer and one vote; tell Hamas to stand down and surrender the hostages. Then the food, medicine and daily needs of the Gazan people can once more flow into Gaza easily and readily. I am left to think that this has been planned for a very long time and that the stockpiles that people had were sufficient for them to continue to live and we shouldn't be naive thinking that it is otherwise. This is a very tiny piece of land easily crossed in a day so stockpiling could be anywhere. I do not understand the hatred of the Palestinian people for the Jewish people; it is envy that this land is Jewish and they want it and claim it by squatter's rights which do not necessarily stand up in the court of law of the United Nations where they have upheld First People's rights many many times. Gaza was given to them but yet they continued to kill the Jewish people, ask them why? Censure them for not permitting the Jews to live at peace on Israeli land. Whether or not you are putting the gun to the head of a person; if you celebrate the barbaric deaths that happened in Israel that day on the streets of my country, as they did, I see them as being both responsible and complicit. Forgiveness can come; it has before in the history of the world but it will take the Palestinian people helping to defang Hamas and submit them to justice; to free the hostages so that they get to live another day.
I did find it incredible that a well educated Palestinian academic revered by his people was part of this whole charade of attempting to deny even the 7th of October. The United Nations was and is about the rights of people. The Palestinians also have rights as people but they do have to stop killing Israelis. Since Gaza is their country (willingly given up by Israel) then Hamas is doing this in their name and Palestinians have to put an end to it, get along with their neighbours (Egypt and Israel) and I am sure the money will flow for rebuilding. But I would build a wall with sensors on constant alert and there does need to be a no mans land between Israel and Gaza. Fences make good neighbours but you can also have an undefended border; Canada and the United States continue to have the longest undefended border in the world although with modifications since we too have squatters trying to enter our countries illegally.
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