Siderfin - 2

Today I continued with my pursuit of the Siderfin Family. Using Martin Southwood's excellent transcriptions (credit is as given on the webpages), I continued looking at the small villages around Selworthy and discovered, much to my surprise, Symon Mogridge (s/o David and Emmet) baptized at Culbone 28 Mar 1686. There are a number of Mogridge family members there and a number of burials which includes a Simon Mogridge in 1715. I know there was a Simon Mogridge baptized at Porlock in 1645 and it is this Mogridge which I now find at Culbone. Since I know that Symon went on to marry Mary Phelp 9 Feb 1724 at Selworthy and that he was buried at Selworthy 9 Nov 1766 I have no doubt of his existence! Finding him has been more of a challenge so that was a very rewarding search. He had a younger brother who died at a very young age. I could not find a marriage for David and Emmet but this is a usual name for the Mogridge family at Porlock (David). I have two Moggridge lines. Symon Mogridge and Mary Phelp's daughter Sarah married John Rew and his paternal grandmother was Grace Moggeridge (so many different spellings). Grace was baptized at Porlock 2 Dec 1668 and the daughter of Robert Moggeridge and Elizabeth Snow. Robert and Elizabeth were married 26 Nov 1659 at Porlock Somerset. There was a large Moggeridge/Mogridge/Moggridge family at Porlock and I need to draw them out. I bought the Porlock registers a few years back but haven't worked on them very much yet.

I appear to be moving away from the Siderfin family with all of this chit-chat but it was Elizabeth Siderfin who married John Rew (son of John Rew and Sarah Moggridge). Hence the very strong interest plus the Rew family was found at Wootton Courtney where Elizabeth was baptized and the debate is on whether she is baptized at Wootton Courtney because of the Rew family or because of the Siderfin family.

Another researcher believes that James Hooper Sanders (author of the book on the Siderfin Family published in 1912) is descended from Elizabeth's eldest brother John. At the moment I have John married to Joan Adams but there is merit to what he is saying. If John Siderfin married Sarah Clark then the idea that my family is found at Knowle makes sense as this is the John Siderfin at Knowle. However, it then makes the grandfather of the book author Robert Siderfin a second cousin to my 2x great grandmother. For a family that tended to pass down family information this is a surprise. Plus we do not own a copy of the book in our family. However, my family did emigrate to Canada but two of the author's aunts emigrated as well - one to the USA and one to Australia and I know that the Australian family has a copy of the book. I am rather mystified and will continue drawing out the old information on the Siderfin family.

I was concentrating on the 1800s and willing to go with the family tree but definitely I think this does need to be sorted out. Obviously in his family his grandfather had a strong interest in family history and would have known who his grandfather was and that brings us all the way back to 1824 and the father of the groom is on the marriage registration. So we are back to the 1788 Thomas Siderfin and there is a will that helps out there to bring us back one more generation to the John in question. Really the question is who is the father of the John who married Joan Adams and who is the father of the John who married Sarah Clark. That will be something that I will be looking at this next week to try and solve that mystery.

In actual fact it doesn't affect my line at all as I go straight back from Elizabeth (Betsy) Siderfin baptized 19 Jun 1759 at Wootton Courtney whose parents were Robert Siderfin (baptized 23 Jun 1726 at Cutcombe) and Grace Kent (baptized 21 Apr 1731 at Selworthy). Why was Robert baptized at Cutcombe - his mother was from Cutcombe (at least Augustine Siderfin and Mary Davies were married there 29 Apr 1720). Why did Robert and Grace go to Wotton Courtney - Augustine Siderfin was still alive in 1759 at Wootton Courtney although the older children were all baptized at Selworthy. But Augustine's mother was Elizabeth and perhaps my 3x great grandmother was named after her and they decided to take her to Wootton Courtney to baptize her there to please him. Who knows!

Tomorrow I will continue to look at the Siderfin family.