Friday, September 20, 2024

A perfect early fall day

 Lovely outside today and I opened all the windows to let in the fresh air first thing. The house now cooled down to an excellent 21 degrees celsius I am back to work. Today will be a work day and good news on the fence it is going in today and there are no questions for me. I needed it to be like that at 79 I do not want to have a lot of questions unanswered that I need to answer. The installers have been great and I appreciate their diligent and hard labour for sure. Growing up in a trades family hard work is generally the key word in a day's accomplishment. Lots of brain work as well because trades people need to be as proficient in mathematics and science and competent on a computer as anyone else. They do most of their planning on the computer. 

My back yard is a bit of a disaster at the front but will remedy that once the fences are all in. I have plenty of spare black earth in my large garden and can just gradually move that over and plant the spring bulbs before winter comes. Then in the spring I can put in some new plants to make up for the ones that did not survive. Gradually next spring and summer I will restore the garden beds as Edward would like them to be seen before selling the house. The front bed is good; a bit overgrown and will work on that as there are spare plants I can move to the back. The grass well it will never come up to the standard that Edward kept for sure. But I kind of like dandelions in the spring and the blue forget me nots. 

Today is a working day and it will be Augustine's son Robert who is my ancestor. The interesting historical act by Augustine Siderfin witnessing the will of Robert Siderfin of Croydon remains a clue to my mind. Robert looking around would not see that many of his relatives still living. He might have first looked at William's line (the oldest son of his grandfather Robert 3 (William 2, John 1)) but many of the males in that line were deceased and their land holdings had diminished. Looking next to Robert 4 the second eldest son of Robert 3 there was only one male descendant with descendants and that was John 5 whose son Robert had a large family including Augustine who by the time of the writing of the will was a school master with a small property at Old Knowle. Interesting really. Thomas, the father of Robert, was the youngest son of Robert 3 and had been a JP with his sons becoming prominent and wealthy but by the end of his sons (Thomas 5 and Robert 5) lives they were heavily in debt and their lines had daughtered out. So choosing Augustine although he had older brothers was a logical choice and made a statement - you are now the holders of the family name and he passed the torch so to speak is what I read from asking Augustine to be a witness to his will. 

I could not find pertinent records to help me with John being the husband of Thomasine who left her will in 1709 but the innuendos from other records have given me, I think, the proof that all of these lines descended from John Siderfin first noted at Luxborough, Somerset in the early 1500s. Which was part of my intent in publishing the revision to James Sanders book. 

The one errata that has any real significance but I think is obvious that I was missing one generation is on page 91:

Page 91: Para: 4 , Line:  2 - …A baptism can not be located for William 7 Siderfin circa 1660 but he did live at Minehead. His father (James Sanders has John 5 (Robert 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) I postulate Robert 6 (Robert 5, William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) simply because this Robert 6 was traditionally at Timberscombe and William is referred to in a deed as the son of Robert 6 (Robert 5, William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1). …

The bolded text contains the correction. I waffled about a bit as I tried to establish this lineage in William's line as it was absolutely incorrect in James Sanders' book. I should have caught it but I did not and it appears on the Errata page in the Companion Book. I am still debating how to illustrate that in the online book. Normally once published you do not change a text and I feel like I should stay with that principle. The Companion Book will always be associated with that book and I could add perhaps a line to the first page of the original text linking the two books. Not really changing the book but like putting a sticker on a book to bring two similar books together. 

 Breakfast  completed, yard ready for the installers, Latin next. 

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