Looking at the Trill family

I decided to start my work day looking at the Trill family. Grace Trill married Thomas Escott of Withycomb  at Selworthy 14 Feb 1759 (Find My Past). 

There is a baptism for Grace Trill 12 Jan 1711 at Selworthy daughter of Thomas Trill and Margaret but this would make her 48 when she married in 1759. Thomas Trill married Margaret Clerk 7 Dec 1706 at Selworthy. A Thomas Trill was baptized at Selworthy son of Thomas Trill 27 Dec 1675. This does not appear to lead me to the Siderfin family.

 There is a burial for Mr Thomas Escott 23 Oct 1765 at Withycombe.  There is a will for a Thomas Escott, Gentleman of Withycombe probated 7 Dec 1765 PROB 11/914/215. I have downloaded the will for free which is amazing really. I have visited Kew three times now and each time downloaded wills for my Blake and Pincombe study but to be able to do it from far-away Canada is truly a gift. I have bought a lot of wills over the years as well. 

I will transcribe this will as he does mention that Grace is his wife and see what I can discover. I did find one Thomas Escott descended from a Benjamin Escott which corresponds to the Escott which later married into the Nurcombe-Siderfin family. 

Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 28 Feb 2022
Source: The National Archives, PROB 11/914/215
Name of Testator: Thomas Escott
Place: Withycombe, Somerset, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 13 Apr 1765, probated 7 Dec 1765
Read: Electronic copy
Condition: scan, old English writing good, contrast excellent

[Left hand corner] Thomas Escott

1    The Last Will and Testament
2    of Thomas Escott of Sandhill in the parish of Withycombe in the
3    County of Somerset Gent made and published the thirteenth day
4    of April one thousand seven hundred and sixty five First I give
5    and bequeath to my dearly beloved wife Grace Escott all my
6    Leasehold Estates situate lying and being in the parish of
7    Sellworthy in the said County for and during the Term of her
8    natural Life also I give and bequeath unto my Kinsmen
9    Robert Newton John Towill and William Towill the Sum of one
10    hundred pounds each all the Rest Residue and Remainder of
11    my Lands Tenements hereditaments and premisses and also all
12    my Rights Credits and Effects whatsoever and wheresoever that
13    I shall die possessed of (not herein before given and disposed of my
14    just debts and Funeral Expences being first satisfied and discharged
15    I give devise and bequeath unto my Nephew Thomas Escott to
16    his only proper use and Behoof of my said Nephew the said
17    Thomas Escott his heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns for
18    ever whom I do hereby constitute nominate and appoint whole
19    and sole Executor and Residuary Legatee of this my last Will
20    and Testament hereby revoking all former Will and Wills by
21    me heretofore at any time made In witness whereof I the said
22    Thomas Escott the Testator have herewith to set my hand
23    and Seal the day and year first above written Thos Escott
24    Signed Sealed published and declared by the said Testator as and
25    to be his last will and Testament in the presence of us who have
26    subscribed our Names as witnesses in his presence at his Request
27    and also in the presence of each other Thos Leigh Mary
28    Leigh Jno Best
29    This Will was proved at London on the seventh day
30    of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
31    and sixty five before the Right worshipful George Hay Doctor
32    of Laws Master Keeper or Commissary of the prerogative Court
33    of Canterbury lawfully constituted by the oath of Thomas Escott
34    the Nephew of the said deceased and sole Executor named in
35    the said will to whom administration of the Goods Chattels and
36     credits of the said deceased was granted he having been first
37    sworn by Comm[issi]on duly to administer

As I work my way through the documents I have a clearer picture I think. This was actually being given to the Siderfin family by Thomas Escott as a result of the deed of settlement on the marriage of Thomas Escott and Grace Trill. It is property that he appeared to be holding. 

Back to the third generation again. I became distracted by the Escott-Siderfin marriage in the second generation (Christian Siderfin married George Escott).

February 28 and what does March hold for us

Kyiv still fighting on and the Ukrainian people continue to slow the Russian advance. When I was a very young child Russia was not our dire enemy.  Our countries had fought together to free Europe from the stranglehold that encompassed it. Russian soldiers and the people bravely fought on against the Nazis as the western powers gradually built up an arsenal to go back to the continent and defeat the Nazis from the west as Russia fought valiantly in the east. The West also took back North Africa and landed on the south of Europe through Italy pushing; always pushing the Nazis armies back. All of that happened before I was born. The Americans fought on mostly alone in the Pacific although the British Empire also did what they could. There was no point to having the huge war ships in the Channel so they too were aiding in the Pacific fight and the fight to control the Atlantic. My first memory though is of my brothers pretending to be airplanes, as we listened to the radio, flying into Berlin in 1948 and then I learned that Russia had cut off access by land to the city (but at three I did not take all of that in). It was later when we were talking that I understood that memory. It was this loss of partnership between the Soviet Union (Russia principally) and the West in the late 40s that we are seeing once again. Russian leadership does not want to be a democracy; her people maybe want more democracy I really have no ideas on that but the oligarchy which controls Russia under Putin prefer to keep an iron clad hand on that country. But people are meant to be free; at least as free as you can be without taking away the freedom of those around you. The Russian people have suffered so much I hope that they can find freedom to make their own decisions. Why do people think that they can hold people captive like serfdom of old? 

Hopefully the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will lead to a ceasefire. No more loss of life; Russian soldiers should be home looking after their country not dying on a battlefield far from home. Ukrainian people should be living their lives not hiding in bomb shelters and having to bury their children their loved ones of all ages.

Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter complete

 I managed to complete the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter yesterday even with four children running around me and dragging me into their play on occasion. I knew what I wanted to write though by yesterday and it just flowed out of my fingers. 

Back to the Siderfin Book today and I am really keen to see that project continuing to grow. The Newsletter gave me a few ideas actually on layout that I hadn't considered. 

I am still rebuilding the third generation of the Pedigree Chart - the children of Robert and Christian Siderfin and the children of William and Jone (Siderfin) Westeron. I did not find any children from the marriage of George Escott and Christian Siderfin thus far (the children of John Siderfin being William Sidervin married to Wilmot Foster and Christian Siderfin married to George Escott. I did do a little sleuthing about to see if I could discover children for the Escott-Siderfin marriage mostly because there was a will written by Grace (Trill) Escott leaving her husband Thomas Escott's estate (deceased) to the brother John Siderfin of my 3x great grandmother (son of Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent) with his sisters Mary, Betty (my ancestor), Grace and Joanna as joint tenants. That is the Eighth generation of the Siderfin family and this is the second generation when Christian Siderfin married George Escott. It has always been a puzzle to me why Grace (Trill) Escott left all of this property to this particular branch of the Siderfin family. Any child of George and Christian (Siderfin) Escott would be first cousins six times removed to my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin. Although of interest one of Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin's sisters Ann married John Nurcombe and their daughter Mary Ann Nurcombe married Richard Escott who also lived at Wootton Courtney where my Siderfin family lived at that time. Richard was born circa 1800 and died December quarter 1846 in Williton Registration District. Richard and Mary Ann had married 16 Mar 1830 at Wootton Courtney. 

I believe I will investigate Richard Escott to see what I can learn about him (records following from Find My Past). 

A Richard Escott was born 23 Mar 1800 and baptized 28 Mar 1800 at Carhampton, Somerset son of Benjamin and Mary Escott. 

A Richard Escott was buried at Luccombe/Luckham, Somerset 29 Jan 1848 (said to be 46 years of age and hence born circa 1801).

Banns were read at Wootton Courtney between Richard Escott of Dunster and Mary Ann Newcombe of Wootton Courtney  28 Feb 1830

Marriage Registration for Richard Escott of Dunster and Mary Ann Nurcombe of Wootton Courtney 16 Mar 1830 with witnesses Robert Nurcombe and Betsey Nurcombe. Mary Ann's parents were John Nurcombe and Ann Siderfin with siblings Robert Nurcombe, Thomas Nurcombe and Betsey Nurcombe. 

A Benjamin Escott of Carhampton married Mary Paramore of Selworthy 6 May 1783. 

On the 1841 census at Luccombe/Luckham a Richd Escott 40 years, butcher born in the country with wife Mary Ann 30 years born in county and children Ann 10 years, John 7 years, Richard 6 years, Eliza 3 years and Robert 1 year all born in county. 

Discovering more about Benjamin is perhaps worthwhile and will spend a short time looking at that (family trees at Ancestry and My Heritage). I did found an excellent tree for this Escott branch which led me back to an Escott family of Burlescombe, Devon (Hugh Escott born circa 1590 Burlescombe and died 1642 Carhampton, Somerset). Interesting but inconclusive. The coincidence is amazing actually and why would Grace Escott have left everything to this particular branch of the Siderfin family? There is always the possibility of a relationship on her Trill family side since she was born a Trill.

Kyiv still Ukrainian; fights bravely against the Russian Invasion

War is an archaic tool that doesn't belong in the 21st century. The Russian people are not war mongers; their leaders are. The Russian people know how to punish leaders who send their sons and daughters to war without reason especially if those sons and daughters are killed. The threat of nuclear war has hung over my entire life and if the Russian leaders choose Armageddon so do I; the planet will flourish without us. The air will be clean; the animals will continue and earth, home to nearly eight billion homo sapiens, will instead house all the flora and fauna that God gifted earth. Why destroy though when we can move forward together in harmony. So many things done in harmony these past thirty years and more. It all started with the fall of the Berlin wall and steadily we have moved forward. Lets join hands and move forward again without having to watch as Russia's soldiers die on foreign soil far from their loved ones. Over 2500 dead or wounded and with Ukraine's infrastructure being destroyed by bombings how can they take care of Russian wounded and their own wounded and dead. The Ukrainian government has done the right thing and asked the Red Cross to repatriate the Russian dead and wounded so that they can receive proper attention in their homeland. 

This Sunday I pray and with the rest of the world likely that this war will end today, now in Ukraine.  Ukraine and Russia must settle their differences in a better way and hopefully the meeting at Chernobyl will result in a cease fire. Peace beautiful peace is what the world needs as we come out of the COVID Pandemic. Let us move forward as people of the world and create a better place for our children/grandchildren and all those who follow them. 

Attended Church on You-Tube and as the organ music fills the Cathedral one can sense God's presence in our world. He must wonder; can this human creation ever get along. We can; We must.

On to the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter

I spent a few hours yesterday working on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. As I worked my way through the 1600s I realize that I have loose ends in this time period. I do not know what happened with one Pincombe family at Bishops Nympton. William Pincombe born circa 1620 (son of William and Wilmote Pincombe) died young in 1654 leaving five young children. I do not find those children in the Parish Register for Bishops Nympton after their baptisms.  William was buried 8 Jan 1654/5 at Bishops Nympton and his wife Mary was buried 25 Dec 1654 also in Bishops Nympton. Their five children: Wilmote (1645), William (1646), John (1649-1688), Mary (1651) and Katerin (1653) were all baptized at Bishops Nympton Parish Church. 

No information for Wilmote Pincombe.

There is a burial for a William Pincombe at Swimbridge 1st February 1671/2 and a will for a William Pincombe 1671 in Swimbridge (if him he would be 25 years of age, Administrator appointed). 

There is a burial for a John Pincombe 2 July 1688 at Swimbridge and a will for a John Pincombe 1689 at Swimbridge (Administrator appointed).

Mary Pincombe perhaps married Hugh Symonds 9 Nov 1673 at Swimbridge Parish Church.

Katherin Pincombe perhaps married William Mules 9 July 1677 at Swimbridge Parish Church. 

The youngest son, Hugh Pincombe, of  John Pincombe (married to Johane Blackmore and brother to William Pincombe (buried 8 Jan 1654/5)) lived at Landkey which is about 2 km from Swimbridge. Possibly there was a property there that the Pincombe family occupied and which passed to John after the death of his nephew John in 1688. Most of the property was copyhold and I noticed with my 3x great grandfather Robert Pincombe's will that copyhold property passed to his brothers rather than his sons. 

Hugh Pincombe married Sara Lang according to an online tree. I did search the parish registers for Swimbridge and Landkey but did not find the marriage for Hugh Pincombe. I also checked Family Search but no luck there either.

A new day and what will it bring

I grew up in the shadow of World War II. The newsreels showed the devastation in Europe and England; in Russia and in China; in so many places. War is a dreadful thing; it creates enemies that last through generations but most of all it destroys. It breaks people whose mental ability never recovers. It creates heroes with people determined to move forward at whatever the cost.

Prayers that this war will soon end. Russia is a huge country with so much wealth in it; why risk all of that for a legacy? When you die Mr Putin you risk being remembered as a villain even by your own people; you will have let people's sons die in a war that they did not wish to fight. Russia, in particular, appears to hate people who do that.

Having peace does appear to be one of the hardest things in the world to attain. Although no World Wars since I was born; the peace has been shattered many times in many places. When we visited Strasbourg in 2014, it was a wonder seeing the European Parliament. Europe is a huge collection of nations with a population of just over three quarters of a billion peoples (including Russia with their 146 million peoples).  Europe has found peace now and they want to keep peace and they have the means to keep the peace. I wasn't alive during WWII; I have lived in the aftermath; the Cold War; the wonderful 90s when Europe became a centerpiece of life and happening once again. When we were there in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016 we visited countries all over the British Isles and Europe. People were happy and they will not be willing to let that happiness go now. We have moved beyond war. War is archaic.

And I continue with the Siderfin book

Yesterday I converted the text to show James Sanders work in [ ] and that was quite quick actually. I am back to working on the 3rd generation which means looking at the Luxborough Parish Records. I did discover that the Bishops Transcripts can be viewed at the Family Search Reading Room so will do that eventually in the summer. But today I am back to redrawing the Pedigree Chart for the Robert Siderfin - Christian (unknown) family where Robert was born circa 1540 and died by 31 Jan 1527/28 when his will was probated.  He did choose one of his younger sons Thomas along with his wife Christian as Executors. 

I must admit that when I gave away the Siderfin one-name study to a cousin in England; I pretty much dropped my intense research into the family (around 2009 I think it may have been). Now returning to it in 2022 I am coming at it with eleven more years of experience with the records. At the time that I transcribed this will I simply did not have enough information to make me think other than this was a different Siderfin line and how did it fit in. Now, it is a very important will that links the third generation to the fourth and solves some of the mystery in James Sanders' Pedigree Chart that perplexed me at the time. 

Today a little more cleaning just to complete that. Otherwise I shall concentrate on the Siderfin book and the Pincombe Newsletter. The time for the Newsletter release is fast approaching. Hard to believe we are almost up to the first of March. 

There is a fine but thick snowfall out there today. The temperature  is minus 13 degrees celsius. The snowbuild is gradually increasing as it always does approaching March with the heaviest snows to come in all likelihood. Then the gradual warming up and the melting and mud season will be upon us. But the surprise of spring with its beautiful spring flowers is always wonderful. The air has that slight warm tinge to it and the sap begins to run in the maple trees and that Canadian treat of Maple Syrup is with us. 

Back to work. The day has begun.

The World on the Brink

What can we do? If every country in Europe sent just 10,000 soldiers to the Ukraine they would outnumber the Russian soldiers 2 to 1 easily and there would be a bloodbath. It is a watch and see. Is China willing to risk their trade with the world on their friendship with Russia? What would a world in two parts look like? Russia/China and perhaps a few others on the one side and the rest of us on the other. Would it be Armageddon? At 76 my view is really different from the view of young people. I would like to see the world continue and find a way out of the climate impasse. We can not do that with one country lobbing shells at another with the intent of whatever it is they intend. But a bloodbath in Ukraine - all those Russian soldiers (and of course other soldiers) should not have to die for a war when war doesn't have meaning anymore. People in majority rule have a right to determine their place in the world. It shouldn't be on the shoulders of an oligarchy in Russia. What a waste of intellect and resources to lob shells at another country.  We need to find peace that lasts. What the world will look like in a hundred years is up for grabs at the moment. It should be this peaceful place where the air is clean and people are happy and content doing the work they love doing and constantly making the world a better place for all the peoples of the world. 

Tribalism though continues to be the worst enemy of the people overall. With my 100% British ancestry I suppose I could belong to that group but I love Canada with its mixture of people from all over the world. We must continue to make our democracy work in a meaningful way and not let a few cause conflict within it. Canada is on display and our Prime Minister with it. 

Ukrania Ice Refuge is one of the three Ice Refuges to which people fled during the Last Glacial Maxima 15 thousand years ago. My H11 haplogroup hunkered down there and from there spread out to modern day Russia and the Baltic States and other smaller nations around Russia but also in my line took the trek through the Scandinavian Peninsula (H11 is found there as well) into Scotland where my line was in the Argyllshire/Ayrshire areas of Scotland and from there crossed into Northern Ireland and spread out into the rest of the Island from there it would appear. But also across Europe into Poland and Germany and into the southern parts of Europe as well as Western coming into the British Isles from the south also. One wonders which came first in the naming of areas really; modern history must determine land borders in order to have peace it would appear.

I like Democracy

I like democracy. But what is it really? When you hear a Canadian demanding their First Amendment Rights you know that somewhere down the line that person wasn't listening if they grew up in Canadian schools or even as an adult listening to the news. Americans have a First Amendment that they refer to quite often. To me, that is a total misunderstanding of our brand of democracy. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the majority rights; minorities do not rule but yet they get to let us know when their rights are not being regarded. Democracy isn't about you individually; it is about your country and how it can survive the ups and downs of the years. Life isn't always going to be easy and democracy doesn't guarantee you an easy life. You still have to work hard and follow the rule of law. I supported the Liberals 100% with the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act. A huge group of people in downtown Ottawa deserved to have their freedom back and the police forces did a perfect job of restoring their freedom and freedom for the rest of us in Ottawa.The NDP did a good job supporting the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act. When PM Mulrooney's Progressive Conservative government created the act it was for just such situations. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms did not foresee the difficulty of a protest gone rogue but his government did. It would be good to hear his thoughts on this legislation. It has been revoked now by the Prime Minister and the next election will stand on how people felt about the freeing of Ottawa I suspect rather than how COVID was managed. 

The Prime Minster has more important business now with Europe and how to respond to the invasion of Ukraine. How do the democracies rescue Ukraine without turning the country into a bloodbath? We share several thousand miles of Arctic Ocean border with Russia. I never thought of Russia as an aggressor nation really but this happening must make us think about it. Do the Russian people see themselves as world conquerors or is it just the separatist provinces of Ukraine that they would like to aid so they can be Russian? Tomorrow will tell us likely what will happen. With 190,000 men/women in the field plus all their air force and naval force Russian forces outnumber the armed forces of Ukraine by a huge amount.

For us in Ottawa looking back it just cost Ottawa $30Million minimum (likely much higher) to get rid of a group of people who came here to protest COVID restrictions, to ask the Governor General and Senate to force the Liberal government out and presumably call an election (worst time ever for sure) and one of the parties was very willing to support them. Why, in a democracy would a national party support a protest that broke all sorts of bylaws in Ottawa as soon as they arrived and threatened an entire downtown area and was asking for something that doesn't exist namely the Governor General and Senate forcing a government out. Do not tell me that they were peaceful; peaceful people follow the rules. Protests have come and gone these 40 plus years that I have lived in Ottawa; lots of good examples on how to have an effective protest. This was an occupation to try to force out a government that wasn't giving this group of people what they wanted. That is anarchy. 

We need to make our democracy work well so that all the people of the world see it as a valid system. It is a lot more work to make democracy work than to let anarchy run wild in the world.  You actually have to care that your country is running smoothly and not that your life is perfect. Country must come first. As a child one learned that as we recovered from the Second World War.

Russia surprises me in many ways. They suffered dreadfully during the Second World War; 50 million dead. They held the line against the Nazis for two years whilst we gained the strength to attack from the west although during those two years we did made inroads in Africa and the southern part of Europe and China moved west in their country so that they could build up the strength to drive the invaders from their lands (and we helped them too). Russia was an ally; China was an ally during the Second World War. We need to find common ground with these two large powerful countries. No they are not democracies but we all have to exist in this world and we need to show that democracy works well for her people. Shape up people; make Canada work. Stop causing trouble; look and see where your money to cause trouble is coming from; COVID restrictions will go hopefully speedily now as spring is around the corner beckoning us onward into that much warmer weather. It is minus 17 degrees celsius this morning but the sun is shinning. 

The Siderfin Book is starting to take on a life

As I work my way through the Third Generation, the Siderfin Book is starting to come alive for me. I am feeling more comfortable. I am still missing the original text for some items that James Sanders used because the books have been bought up and published privately by companies. I am a great believer in capitalism so will bide my time but for the most part records are readily available at the end of my fingers on the keyboard as I use the available resources. Finding the original registers for Luxborough on Ancestry has been a boon for the project. I have downloaded a number of pages and will extract what I want from them today for the book. Too bad the mice got at the books though as some interesting items are now gone forever unless the Bishops Transcripts exist and I will have a look for them. 

But I am now totally convinced that Robert Siderfin did not die in 1612; rather he lived to see the grandchildren he mentions in his will and passed on to his children the different rights and properties that he acquired after 1612. His will in 1627 will provide a bridge to the Fourth Generation. I probably will not finish the Third Generation today as I will be proofreading all the Foster-Siderfin material that I retyped. Since the book is now three times longer than the original and eventually will be closer to ten times by the completion of the project James Sanders section will seem quite small. I need to determine how to show the difference. I have been putting square brackets around my additions but these are rapidly taking over the entire book. Perhaps I should reverse and put the square brackets around the original work. Having thought that through I will put that into practise as I am so very close to the beginning still. 

But today is a cleaning day as well. Yesterday I vacuumed so today I scrub. Cleaning is a never ending task really but it is also rewarding. The dogs and I went out for a walk and that was great fun part way through the day. The latest snowfall was a mixture of ice and snow that formed a very hard surface on the top of the snow letting us walk along on the path. It is minus 17 degrees celsius here today and it is sunny. Another lovely walk today I expect. 

Tree for Robert Siderfin born circa 1540 and died 1627 not 1612

 I did construct a tree for Robert Siderfin and his wife identified as Christian in his will. Using Ancestry parish records for Luxborough Parish (1576-1713) and the will itself, I have been able to list ten children for this couple. Several of the children are not named in the will. Just collecting up the records in Ancestry. I checked for a burial in 1610 - 1615 for Robert Siderfin but did not find one. The 1627 burial records are not useable (mostly eaten I suspect) and I did check from 1624 to 1630. There may be Bishops Transcripts and if I find them I will check them as well.

The parish registers for Luxborough in these early days are difficult to work with as many pages are missing large chunks. However, over time I will go over the pages and I have downloaded about twelve pages in total thus far in this early time period. Since they go back to 1576 I had hoped to find the marriage registration for Robert and his wife Christian but I did not spot it yet. I can see that this is a project with a longer time line than I realized a few months back when I first decided to do a revision. At that time it looked like a small revision but as I really got into the various items I realized that there was a problem with the tree for Robert Siderfin especially concerning his death date and the will that I had transcribed for a Robert Siderfin in 1627 which seemed to be the Robert Siderfin son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster. However, I now have a better handle on all the material that he did collect in that time period and have sorted it so that I can refer to it in a way that works better for me. I do though wish to express appreciation for the work of James Sanders. Reading these early documents is a demanding vocation and takes a good deal of time. 

The role of the Senate in Canada

Interesting that one of the earlier demands from the Protest Convoy was that the Governor General and the Senate dissolve parliament. Neither of these are able to do so. The Senate prolonging the debate longer than necessary on the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act only fuels the logic that the Senate could overturn the will of the majority. They cannot. We expect them to debate and have opinions but in the long run the will of the people should prevail and that is the useage of the Emergency Measures Act should be ratified and should be in place. The Protest Convoy is still in existence apparently huddled on farms around the area. 

The right to protest enshrined in the Canadian Bill of Rights (and I did not agree at the time to inaugurate this particular legislation and what has happened has increased my thoughts that my reluctance at the time was justified and continues) has been utilized many many times since 1982. Our society lives on precedents with their various checks and balances and the method of protesting has lots of examples in the past that the Protest Convoy could have utilized but they chose to hold a city captive and that is not a protest it is an occupation that broke many many city bylaws. Not acting immediately gave this very large unwieldly protest an opportunity to improve on their initial mistakes but they did not do so; they continued to break bylaws, insult people, make people fearful and life was generally unliveable in the downtown area of Ottawa. The Conservatives' members who met with the Protest Convoy (and ate with them) gave them a feeling of legitimacy that they did not in fact have and turned the whole event into a political circus. The Protest Convoy had already broken bylaws before they met with some of the Conservatives.

So to the Senate I would say; please do your duty; debate the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act and let us understand ever more completely just what is implied by the Act that is why we have a Senate. But, we, through our representatives, have passed the Emergency Measures Act. You should ratify the invoking of it. You are a place of careful thought and contemplation but thus far nothing that has been published about your thoughts convinces me that the use of the Emergency Measures Act should be other than ratified by the Senate. Your need to know top secret information will I am sure be carefully considered but in reality the fewer that know some of the details the better; the less the Protest Convoy know about what is known supersedes your need to know. We saw the result of this protest; it was shameful that Canadians would do that to other Canadians.

Robert Siderfin born circa 1540 died circa 1627

I have a will probated in 1627 for a Robert Siderfin and the naming of his children and his sister's children matches the Robert Siderfinne who appears in a set of documents from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who reigned from 1558 to 1603. He would have then been  21 years of age in 1560 presumably as the regnal year of 2 is mentioned on some of the documents. At the time of writing a will in 1627 this would have made him 87 years of age. Since I do have other Siderfin males who lived to quite old age even into their 90s this is perhaps a long-lived family. But it is the will itself which makes me think that James Sanders has been incorrect giving Robert Siderfin son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster a death year of 1612. 

Definitely the documents dealing with the land contested between Robert Siderfin and James Foster (first cousins) do state that Robert is the son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster. There are items that Robert refers to in his will of 1627 that mention grazing rights that are then the property of one of his sons. He also mentions children that are born after 1612. I believe I need to reconstruct the initial family chart breaking it down into each family grouping to make it easier to follow. Robert and his wife Christian had ten children when the baptismal records and the will are reviewed together. 

I will add to this blog as the day progresses. It is helpful to work away sometimes on a section in the blog. It separates me from the book and I just look at the available data. One does tend, I think, to be influenced by the written word and you need to look at all the available material giving all of it the same weight of significance depending on the date that the work was written. Those items closer to the event carry more weight than an item prepared hundreds of years after the event. James Sanders was collecting material for a long time before he wrote the book in 1910 when he was 65 years of age. Now at 76 I am revising his book so I need to be very careful to let the early works held by the Archives weigh in and make my decisions based on what is in those early works. 

Ice storm followed by snow here yesterday. Very pretty but likely somewhat difficult to get around. We are into the warmer part of the winter to some extent now as March approaches and we get our heaviest snows. Early March can be very difficult in this area. Generally though we have less of the polar vortex so somewhat warmer.

Working on the third generation of the Siderfin Book

As I finish up the third known generation of the Siderfin family in the Siderfin Book I can see that I want to do footnotes rather than endnotes and will now go back and add in that feature to the book. James Sanders used footnotes as well but mostly included the  references within the text with just a few footnotes. I would like to have more footnotes as I have documented all of his references (thus far) adding in images and full titles of the works which he used. My confidence in my decided method has grown substantially as I have worked my way into the old text. Many of the books that James Sanders used have been republished which in a way is unfortunate. Repeating the mistakes that can and do exist in old works gives them new significance on brand new paper. It is really better to revise these texts if they are republished. The access to these records has improved ten thousand fold in the past hundred years. Even though the National Archives of the UK still has less than 10% of their holdings scanned you can ask to have items scanned (the cost is more than a will but considerably less than a trip there to photograph it!), there is still a great deal of material online especially old books on the Internet Archive. 

Today I will work on taking the actual reference citation out of the text and put it into footnotes where I can briefly comment if need be on why I have picked that particular image to insert with the original mention or to correct small errors in the work and make note that I have done so. 

I must admit I had not thought about the missing three hundred years between the mention of Siderfin in the 1200s and then the next mention in the 1500s. Where could they have been in this time period? They do not appear to have left any records that are entered in the Discovery database at the UK Archives. Was it just an uneventful time for this family? Did the Bubonic Plague overshadow any possible entries that might occur? Did the family disappear entirely and a new emigrant come into the country in the 1400s with the Siderfin surname? All interesting questions and I checked the Emigrants Database 1330-1550 but using various spellings for the surname I did not find any entries. I then checked Somerset and Devon in the Emigrants Database but again did not find any surnames that resembled Siderfin in that time period. My grandfather did talk about the Bubonic Plague once that I recall - it sounded gruesome for entire villages to die out so I retained that in my mind. One thing I recall him saying was that some villages just closed themselves away from people. They were self-sufficient so they did not have the need for anyone new coming in and in the area where the Siderfin family was found in the 1500s near the Exmoor one could see that as a potential happening. It is extremely wooded in that area and one could perhaps disappear particularly if an entire village is protecting itself. Interesting thought actually.

Church on You Tube today

Our weekly Church Service will be on YouTube today. The protesters are gone from Parliament Hill. I did support their right to protest but they almost immediately became anarchists as they broke into the Rideau Mall not wearing masks. I think that was the point at which I no longer supported their right to protest. They were breaking our bylaws and destroying the way of life in downtown Ottawa. They did it on purpose proclaiming freedom when all we wanted was to get back to normal in this slow progressive way that has worked very well for us this past two years. Anarchy never works; it destroys civilizations and takes us back to a less workable past. 

Looking forward to Church. Last night I attended an interesting panel on Climate Change which was created by the Ottawa Diocese. A lot of interesting ideas were shared by the panelists. I support all of these ideas but I also support oil. I just think we shouldn't burn it in cars; we need to move away from that as quickly as possible. But oil itself is a precious commodity with lots of good uses and I look forward to the Trans Mountain Pipeline creating lots of new industries that will profit Canada. This needs to stay Canadian as its potential to support the Canadian population is very large. I would like to see it used to create Guaranteed Minimum Income for Canadians if retained by the government and if not the taxed profits could go towards creating such a program. It is highly likely that people on minimum income will spend it in the area that they live in benefiting the stores and industries in that area. 

But the best part is the occupation has been sent on its way. Our police were magnificent; they did a perfect job really. That, in spite of the anarchists putting their children in harm's way to try to slow the police down. A lesson in perfection for sure and one that can be a model for any such occupations in the future. We are a country that lives by the rule of law and the argument that this is an Act to be used in only very serious instances is poor management. This occupation was dug in and had no intention of moving on. A specialized treatment was needed and the Emergency Measures Act provides for just that sort of specialized treatment - the rapidity with which the area was cleared is proof of that. 

God bless Canada and her peoples.

Family Day in Ontario

Family Day once again and it is a well named holiday in Ontario and four other provinces namely Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. I think when families are close they create an atmosphere of love for all of their family members bringing them up in a world where they can live and work knowing that their family is always with them. In these days of small families I think that is really important to have such closeness between cousins. 

Yesterday I did work a little on the Siderfin book. Mostly editing the Acknowledgements which I wrote to follow the Preface which James Sanders originally wrote for his book. Although I have done a lot of writing it has not been an entire book before so I expect this will be a slow process as I want to ensure that James Sanders work still exists as an entity within the revised book. . 

Today I shall spend some time on the Siderfin book and also the Pincombe newsletter which is due the 1st of March. The time just seems to pass so quickly and I also have the Income Tax but still waiting for more paperwork. 

Edward has been in my thoughts these days as the first anniversary of his death approaches. I have decided to give a donation to the Ottawa Branch Library of Ontario Ancestors (was the Ontario Genealogical Society and I think that might still be its legal name not sure) on the anniversary of his death. I thought about having it on his birthday which is just six days later but I think I will do his death date. We still miss him very much and always will. He was the center of our lives and always such a busy person. He enjoyed his life and once traveling to Europe wanted to go back again and again which we did in fact do. We saw so very much and now with two years of no travel it seems like all of that is so very long ago now. Fortunately we made powerpoint presentations of all of our trips which I will continue to add to so that all of the images which he took are in the full presentations for our family to enjoy. 

Coming from a very large family (seven children), I think that the value of such time together as children can never be quite so fully appreciated until you reach my age and as the mind stretches back to those few years together (I was just twenty when Edward and I were married) you remember the fun times together with a great deal of nostalgia. I was maybe four years of age when I first played Go Fish. My oldest brother would deal the cards quite often and then he would come around and help me to organize my cards. I generally played on his team with the two others playing against us so knowing my cards was not a problem but perhaps was a bit of a gift! But then it relied on a four year old to play the game properly. My oldest brother used to say I was just three when I first started to play but I have forgotten those early days but the memory of turning five was only me looking at all those cards and playing the game. Rainy days were card playing and board game playing sometimes all day long. 

In retrospect the fifth child never really got included in those games until my oldest sister decided not to play games anymore. Then the two youngest were born long after we spent so many hours playing cards and board games. They are eight and ten years younger than me and sixteen and fourteen years younger than my eldest sister. We were all pretty much grown up by the time that they reached their teens with my youngest brother being just ten and my youngest sister twelve when Edward and I married. I always remember she had her long hair pinned up under her (what you would now call a fascinator) hairpiece and it gave her a headache so we took the pins out and her beautiful long hair flowed out from her face as she looked so much happier. 

Now we are all over 65 (my two oldest brothers have passed away) and our growing up days are long ago as we watch our grandchildren start to take their place in their own family units. Our grandchildren only inherit 25% of our DNA and share just 3.13% of their DNA with their second cousins. It is truly amazing how quickly the genes of our ancestors are spread thinner and thinner as the generations follow. 

The only line that I do not know anyone in it other than ourselves is my paternal grandmother's father's line. The priest gave her a middle name of Cotterill and with just one Cotterill family in the village one is left to contemplate that this was the surname of her father and certainly there are a lot of matches that are likely Cotterill but thus far I have only written one individual who did not respond. It would be interesting to know more about this person. They were both rather young and personally I think the right decision was taken to do what my great grandmother did which was to go home and let her parents raise her child which they did until she married and then had another four children with her husband giving my grandmother half siblings and a step father gave his surname to her and treated her as one of his own. 

In the letters which I saw the siblings all thought of her as their full sibling. Probably she would not care that I have even looked at the possibility of this individual as being her father; she had a father whom she loved very much and that was good enough for her perhaps. Because she died five years before I was born I have no ideas on that. My grandfather loved her dearly and talked about his Bessie a great deal when I was young. 

An interesting post for Family Day as I look back at what I have written. Genealogy per se does not interest me as much as the ancient ancestry in our genes. It is fascinating seeing what our genes reveal about those who came before us. They have passed Nature's gift on to us and that stays with us our entire life.

Another wonderful Olympics

Congratulations to Canadian athletes for their performance in the Olympics. Just watching the closing ceremonies. 

It was strange having the occupation in downtown Ottawa all during the Olympics but that is finished as well. Our city will never be quite the same again. But we have upheld the Canadian tradition of politeness on our part even if the occupiers did not. They were rude and broke many bylaws. We have tried as a city to minimize the impact of COVID-19 to protect our hospitals and the aged and immuno compromised. The objectives of this occupation varied from beginning to end with their fake news saying that they did not do some of the things that they did in fact do. Their demands were very un-Canadian really. We are a polite people who pride ourselves on respecting each other's rights but there are always unfortunately some people who do not share our views. Profanity was abundant on the news reels by the protesters. I remember as a child my mother saying that people use profanity because they are frustrated at not getting their own way. It does seem ridiculous to see that in an adult. Putting their children in harm's way was another aspect we have not really seen in Canada. Using them as shields in order to create sympathy does not work anymore. We regard those who do so as childish and incapable of managing a protest without breaking the laws of our country. 

Blaming the police for their own failure to properly conduct a protest is a non starter. The police were magnificent and did their job perfectly. There were no hitches on their part. They were controlled and caring for the entire process. Even when a gas grenade was thrown at them they did not panic. They simply brought the protester down and arrested him before he could do more damage. Children's Aid was on hand to protect any children foolishly put into harm's way by their parents (and it is also illegal in this country to have your children at a protest under the Emergencies Measure's Act). It was disgusting to see children there actually in harm's way. 

The net result would be hopefully that the Parliamentary precinct is a zone carefully controlled by the RCMP with checkpoints in and out. They have spoiled our country's free and open access to Parliament Hill. For that we will always remember them. The bonus is we know (meaning CSIS) who the anarchists are in our population. God bless Canada and her peoples (even those who abused our politeness) and may the anarchists be brought to a better place in their lives and share the courtesy that characterizes Canadians instead of the face that they have presented these past weeks. 

No Church today because my Church is in a no-go zone in the downtown area. But the protest is gone and our city can be restored to peace and tranquility once again. The police have done a great job with the help of the Emergency Measures Act. What a shame that we had to use it to restore our rights and freedoms taken away from us by the Freedom Convoy. Never was a protest more misnamed.

Back to the Siderfin Book

Sunday should see me spend some time on the Siderfin book. Our Church Service on You-Tube is delayed this week. Out today for a walk with the dogs but it was pretty cold out there. 

Next week can not come soon enough

 I will be so glad to see the protesters gone. The heavy police presence is reassuring. What world do these protesters leave in? It can not be real time Canada or they would know that what they are doing is socially unacceptable; morally unacceptable and legally unacceptable. They could just go home and let us have our city back. They spoiled Winterlude what little there was to be. They spoiled school for the children in the areas they are occupying. They ruined Church in the areas they are occupying. There is no shopping in the area that they are occupying - they spoiled that as well. They are selfish. They have imprisoned an entire community and tried to hold it ransom. Plus there being here had no effect except to ruin our city; COVID rules were going to be relaxed until they came and ran around the Rideau mall without masks (breaking our bylaw amongst many others) and caused another lockdown in that area.

I remember when the War Measures Act was invoked in 1970 and what a cold feeling that was to know that we had such terror in our country. Now The Emergency Measures Act is invoked and it is a good thing. In 1970 one couldn't tell for sure who was supporting whom. Now in this digital age everyone who has supported this ridiculous truck convoy can be identified. They deserve whatever is handed out to be honest. Was it needed? Of course, there is no other way to handle these people. They do not listen to anything that is said to them. We are all tired of COVID but we were on the way out until they arrived and broke all of our bylaws with respect to masking. They have exposed innocent minds to their devious ways and planted seeds of anarchism in their minds. I hope that seeing that huge police presence will tell the children that their parents are wrong. 

I agree with protest but this occupation is anarchy. Blowing up a bouncy castle when you have been told to leave twice is an insult to the police. You are trying to create violence. Probably 99% of people who live in Ottawa want you to go.  A few thousand did support you but one wonders why they would do that. Again in our polite way please go home and leave our city in peace. We have been polite about this but it is time to go. 

The notion that this police action could have happened earlier is rubbish. They needed all the tools of the Emergency Measures Act to get rid of this occupation. Knowing where the money came from was a great help and then freezing their accounts made it so much easier. Plus we needed all those police so that no one was injured; the show of force was and is perfect. The federal government can only make laws and it was up to the police to handle the situation. They needed more resources; they have them. 

I have been a Conservative most of my life until PM Harper tried to destroy Library and Archives Canada. That was it for me. Now Premier Ford is interesting and would make a good leader - he listens except he doesn't agree with Guaranteed Minimum Income but maybe he can see that as well one day. The Conservative Party needs to find itself again so that conservatives can return to the fold. Just complaining about the use of the Emergency Measures Act turns me off of voting for them. Wake up Conservative party; you ate with the occupiers and supported them. That is why they stayed so long. Until the Conservatives start relating to all the people of Canada I vote Liberal federally. 

Happy days are coming

Happy to see that Ottawa has turned a corner on the occupation. We will be free and soon I suspect. Plus my Enbridge account is all fixed and life goes on. They were as quick as they said they would be and I appreciate that very much. Just the Income Tax to do and then moving forward with the usual of newsletters and research and the addition of managing Edward's research. 

New snow is always welcomed and we got lots of it. Covers up the old snow and gives this lovely picture card out of the window. I do so love that view. I would always want to live in a country that has lots of winter snow. It does make spring so much more meaningful for sure as that snow melts away and Nature yields up her bounty of beauty in spring flowers. 

Another cleaning day as the dogs did not go to daycare yesterday so I accomplished less. I put them out for a run in the yard but they just stood and gazed in the window at me. So I put on my coat and out I went for the usual 45 minute walk in the backyard with the dogs running about me jumping and playing with each other. They just let me walk but they like the company. The cat instead looking through the window at us but I could not tempt him to come outside. He is definitely tired of the snow and the cold but he is getting older. Plus he is right down in the snow when he is out. The dogs have long legs. 

No work done on the Siderfin book yesterday I was cleaning and watching the police managing the situation in downtown Ottawa. We are a polite people but this was too much for sure. Plus having to watch children being treated in such a fashion was dreadful. Children have a right to be in their home and not put on public display in front of our national capital where their parents are breaking our bylaws daily and acting as if it is their right. The only good thing that comes out of all of this is we know who the anarchists are and there can be a police watch on them for the rest of their lives. Twenty two days to protest is too long. There should be an amendment to the Charter limiting protests to daytime hours and for perhaps two days at the most.

How anyone can support their cause is beyond me for sure. I am also tired of COVID; everyone is but the way forward is to follow the rules that most of us are following. Anarchists spoil it for everyone. 

Huge snowfall expected

An interesting twist to the occupation of downtown Ottawa, there is heavy snow expected. I have not been downtown for a very long time and especially since the occupiers came to our city. Apparently they carry signs that indicate they belong to the Christian right movement. They have literally forced all of the Churches that are downtown to close for the moment although my Church has a You-Tube service. Is it a coincidence that the Churches they have forced closed are mostly mainline and not far right? Why do people think that the colour of their skin has anything to do with their position in the world? No one is better; no one is smarter just because they are white. To the best of my knowledge my ethnicity is British Isles going back at least six hundred years and then I might be able to claim some Huguenot French but mostly I am British Isles with both my paternal line (yDNA) and my maternal line (mtDNA) likely going back eight to twelve thousand years in the British Isles (primarily paternal in the area of Andover and maternal in the Ayrshire/Argyllshire area). The autosomal does pick up a few other items like French and Scandinavian but they are minor compared to the percentage of British Isles ethnicity. 

I feel sorry for the children. They should have rights to learn all that there is to learn and not a narrow education that makes them feel superior just because they are white. Hopefully, they will all go home now without any trouble.  The sin of training children to be anarchists will live on in this country into another generation but it is very minor. There are very few people there in actual fact. Why spoil the children's lives; let them live in a country that welcomes everyone and sees them as equal under the sun. 

Cleaning again today and maybe a little bit on the Siderfin book. I should develop a timeline to keep myself working on the book so that I complete it in a timely fashion. I shall also look at the next Newsletter - Pincombe - which I started a few days ago.

Continuing on the Siderfin book

It would be so interesting to discover where the name John Siderfin was found living in Luxborough in the 1500s and father of William Siderfin who married Wilmot Foster. I have not yet located that information but will keep looking. I may have overlooked something in the original text. 

Working on the second generation namely William Siderfin married to Wilmot Foster which generated quite a number of court cases fortunately in that vital 1500s time period. It also introduced the names of the children of William and Wilmot although some of the Church records exist in this time period giving a second proof which is always handy. 

Today I shall also clean so not so much work on the book but a change is always good. 

Good news is Enbridge sending me my bills for the last two months and a bill for this month.

Siderfin generational study for the revision of James Sanders' book

 Yesterday I worked on the first two generations of the Siderfin Family of Luxborough Somerset. It is going to work well to do the revision in this way. It incorporates all of James Sanders' work in almost the exact same order as he published it back in 1910. There will be a couple of changes in order but mostly it continues in the same order. 

It also gets the research that I did between 2005 and 2010 into a format that will let me post it on my blog and let people be aware of what I have found. I am sure there is more information to find and gradually as the amount of material that Kew has scanned increased from under 5% to 100% there will likely be a lot more material to look at. 

As I look at so many old books, it is like looking at trees. Trees live so much longer than homo sapiens. If they could talk they could tell stories in time but with the publication of books this has become possible through the printed word. Really amazing when you think about it. Now with e-books we have added that element to the publishing of lifetimes of the human race. Plus there can be so much more published; that is the gift of the internet. 

I narrowed in on Siderfin back in 2005 because I finally found that the 3x great grandmother that I was looking for was namely Elizabeth Siderfin. Since I was writing a Pincombe profile for the Westminster Township History book for my cousin George Dekay I wanted to have as much information in the book as I could. At that point in time I did know all of the 3x great grandparents in the Pincombe lines going back from my mother except for Elizabeth the wife of John Rew. Finding the Siderfin line was amazing. It required a great deal of sleuthing which I had learned in my courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies.

Guaranteed Minimum Income

Reading both sides of the Occupation comments and again does it come down to a Guaranteed Minimum Income ? During the worst of COVID-19 shutdowns money was made available to people CERB I think it was called. This no longer is active and are people living on a margin so narrow that they cannot manage without aid? I do not know the answer to that but I continue to support the idea that every person 18 years and over should have a guaranteed minimum income of $18,000 per year. I do think we need to insure that people are able to have the basic needs in our country. Is that why Ottawa is occupied. Does no one want to say that in the convoy? We do need answers to all of that. Why are they still here? 

I do think they should leave though as they are totally making life unlivable for the people in the area. They do not have the right to do that. COVID has been long; it has been hard for so many people. The measures taken were needed and are still needed to a certain extent. We do not want to have pockets of COVID that overwhelm the system. This is an orderly way to manage a pandemic but it appears to be largely endemic now although will wait on Public Health to declare it as such. Our hospitals still have a lot of patients and unless the patients are compromised they are primarily unvaccinated. So the health measures are helpful to keep the amount of virus present low.

The restrictions are coming off. It is not due to the protesters being here. We have all found COVID to be long but in a democratic society we respect our fellow citizens and do not claim rights that inflict harm on others.  

Just reading the editorials, well said Albert Dumont from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation our anglophone Poet Laureate of Ottawa.

Church on You-Tube

Today I celebrated our Church service from yesterday and it is on You-Tube as always. Still closed although most Anglican Churches (and others) are now open for services, the Truck Convoy has restricted this area of Ottawa. This week the Beautitudes were part of the theme of the Sermon. I always loved the saying of the Beautitudes at the Church Service. They are in essence the meaning of Christianity in community - Jesus wants to to feed the poor, clothe the naked, care for the sick that is our duty and the Church has always been our means of fulfilling that duty that Christ passed to us like a torch to carry during our lives and pass it on to those who follow us after our death. 

Going to Church relaxes my taunt nerves. The stress of the last year is still with me as I still have items to do that are foreign to me. Enbridge is working on my case to resolve the non-billing issue which, if not billed this month, will mean three months without billing. I will pay them again approximately what I think the bill will be but I do wish it could be resolved quickly. The Income Tax looms large in front of me but I still need more items to do Edward's Income Tax. I have always done his Income Tax since before we were married actually. I helped him do his mother's Income Tax each year and of course I have always done my own. But this year's seems more stressful than usual although I have removed the need to do it by the end of February and will let it go in when it goes in probably sometime in March. 

The singing and prayers and the sermon are part of my essence. I do love the Church that Jesus founded for us.

Valentine's Day and Loving one's fellow citizens

It would be so very nice on this Valentine's Day if the "Freedom Convoy" would just leave Ottawa. They do not bring freedom only drudgery for the people who live within the smell of their diesel fuel burning and the blast of their air horns. One thinks again on what right do they have to impose this misery on thousands of people in the downtown Ottawa area. The injunction against their air horns was apparently broken on the weekend. They are very selfish. In the past peaceful protests were had in Ottawa and the people went home. Why can't they go home. They have not done anything peaceful; they have been the cause of very tough laws against doing exactly what they are doing. They are not respectful. What is the matter with them? We are all tired of COVID; gradually the restrictions are going no thanks to them as they have caused a 100% lockdown in the area that they are occupying. I like the French solution to a freedom convoy in Paris - tear gas. Go home, stop using your children as shields that is disgusting. 

Back to the Siderfin Book and I need to do some work on the Pincombe Newsletter today. I will do a rough table of contents and work away at that over the next couple of weeks. 

I have inserted the Ahnentafel Chart for the Siderfin family in a descendant order coming down from John Siderfin known to have lived at Luxborough in the 1500s and married to Christian (unknown). I used both James Sanders' Pedigree Chart and the records to produce the Ahnentafel Chart but that was in 2010. About that time I was contacted by a Siderfin cousin in England who wished to take on the one-name study for the Siderfin family at the Guild of one-name studies. Since he was so close to the records I willingly consented to his doing so but he has since dropped the study perhaps a few years ago not sure when. I did think about taking it up again but decided to just stay with my parent's surnames as they are quite a bit of work. However, this gives me the opportunity to update James Sanders' book and to publish the research that I did. I am sure in the years to come another will pick up the mantle and discover more. I do not see myself going to the Somerset Record Office to look at records there.  The book is now 136 pages with the Anhentafel Chart inserted. I do estimate it will be a couple of months of work before I publish it on my blog chapter by chapter. 

Other than that it is minus 22 degrees celsius today with a brilliant sun shinning and pretty much zero clouds. Not a nice day to be living in a truck with children for sure. Plus the heavy snows are to come in our area. We wait for the warmer winter days for our heaviest snowfalls and they will surely come. As surely as COVID will once again recede from our daily lives and we will be freer again in most of the country except for where the Truck Convoys have set up camp. Really I do not see a point to their demands. In a democracy one does not demand their own point of view - that is anarchy. We work in unison to give the best life to our country and her people. The occupiers should go home; get their children out of the cold and stop using them as shields. I think every country in the world uses tear gas except us but the ignorance of these people may make us do that as well. What a sinful people they are to hurt their fellow countrymen/women/children by this ridiculous occupation and force us, a peace-loving people, to enact laws and use methods that we prefer to think of as being in the past.

Beautiful Day today

 What a lovely day to be at the cottage. The lake is frozen solid now and skating is on the agenda except I think I will watch. I have not skated for a very long time and perhaps at 76 I will enjoy watching others do that. I could do it; I know I could but if I fall with my osteoporosis I could break a bone. Sometimes I think that is how one gets started down the road to incapacity by doing things that have an element of danger in them for one when it is a while since one has done that. I will stick to my solid ground exercises like running, calisthenics, walking and weight lifting and then in the summer swimming. I love to swim. 

Working on Sudoku at the cottage; a favourite pastime of mine but I only do that at the cottage as I become a bit of an addict doing them; I just keep on doing them one after another!

The dogs love the cottage. They have a big yard at home but the cottage has more property and they can really have good runs without coming up against a fence but they are good to stay on the property. 

Had the weekend to think about the Occupation of Ottawa and the blocking of the Ambassador Bridge and the decision to draw up legislation to prevent this happening in the future. I think that I really despise the blockaders and occupiers. Canada has never had to have such a strong set of laws because we are people who obey the rule of law until now. I am disappointed as a Canadian that they could not just do what everyone did in the past which was to protest and then go home. It is frankly quite disgusting that we are forced to enact such laws. I am glad that the bridge will open again soon and I hope that anyone who impedes traffic again for such a ridiculous protest will be put in jail and fined and made to take and pass a course in Canadian history before they are released. And for the person who said the police were not with history; no you have it wrong you are not with history. You are teaching your children to be anarchists. We are all tired of COVID but we know that a roadmap is being made and portions already released quite a while ago to bring us back to whatever the new normal is. 

I do hope that you also leave Ottawa very soon. You have been disruptive and rude and guilty of  injuring our city. We would not do it to your city or wherever you live. Go Home. 

Congratulations to Premier Doug Ford for declaring this an illegal blockade

My congratulations to Premier Doug Ford; he did very well. So many questions about why it took so long? Do people no longer study our history in school? People have a right to protest in a polite and seemly fashion. This was neither polite nor seemly. They quickly became an insurrection in Ottawa and should have left; some did; I will give them credit. They realized that the initial reason for coming was being used for other purposes. 

It takes time to carefully make the kind of decisions that have now been made. What these people are doing is illegal. They could be immediately bundled up and put into police wagons and taken to jail unless they leave now. Their children should be protected by the Children's Aid Society until a designated family member can come and take them home. Hopefully they have a family member that can do that. We do not jail children for the errors of their parents.  It is disgusting what they are teaching their children; you do not have rights that infringe on other people's rights. Personally I am happy that the children are having fun in Ottawa as their parents have commented; too bad the lessons they are learning from those parents are the methods of anarchists. 

Thank you Premier for now announcing the means to an end of this blockade in particular of the Ambassador Bridge. Hopefully, this will also work for Ottawa. Certainly one of their punishments should be to attend a course in Canadian History and write an examination that they must pass to get their driver's licenses back. They need to do this so they can understand what they  have done wrong. They obviously do not understand the rule of law at all. 

We are all weary of COVID. How many ways do we have to say that. The way out is not the way of the protestors. It is a careful methodical plan not hysteria.

The Olympics - another great olympics

 And, amazingly, there is so much going on in Canada that I have forgotten to say that I am also glued to the television watching the Olympics. Canada doing well in their game against Sweden thus far. 

I can scarcely believe that so much happening has overshadowed the Olympics in my postings. I love the Olympics, for three weeks I generally am into that but being in China does limit it a little as they are busy competing whilst I sleep. 

We are doing very well but as always Europeans do really well in the winter olympics as well. It is their game too for sure. Flying over the alps years ago with its snow caps already well installed in late November one can understand why they excel at winter sports as well. Always cheering our Canadian team on and when we are not competing I do cheer on the American team; after all they are our neighbours and good friends. 

Friday again and another polar vortex

 Today is a thinking day as I work through the Siderfin Book in my mind. Now that I have decided on this massive change to the style, I need to contemplate how to best serve that change in style. Footnotes at the end of each chapter; footnotes at the bottom of each page. I suspect I will go for footnotes at the bottom of each page. Then do I do a register style showing the descendants or just into paragraph mode. I will have to think about that. There are pros and cons to both. For sure, I am a very detail conscious person so the register style system of recording a generation is more appealing to me but paragraphs with perhaps a register type notation as the subheading for each paragraph allows for more latitude in text close to the individual named. Probably I will go with that method but will think about it for a bit. 

The dogs love to spend some time with me in the room when I am working. That is happening a little more now as the puppy is becoming fairly reliable. It is important though for the two dogs to bond and they are doing really well. The puppy is still pretty independent though and that is probably good because she will outlive the older dog in all likelihood but I suspect there will always be a puppy to follow any loss of dog now. This has worked out really well. The older dog has done a wonderful job of training the puppy. 

The CARP annual general meeting was yesterday and Premier Ford was the main speaker and that was interesting to hear his thoughts on the blockades. It is almost as if these people taking on the blockades are not listening. Perhaps they are just looking to have their picture on the news. No ideas on that. But they are crippling our industries and will cause trouble for Canadian jobs in the future if they do not soon halt this process. The money is coming from the States to support them which does make one wonder if there is a thought there that bringing jobs homes to the US is the purpose of all of this blockage. It does look like we are doing it to ourselves but one wonders what is going on behind the scenes. It isn't really like Canadians to get so involved in things like this. Plus it doesn't make any sense the restrictions are gradually coming off; there is no benefit to immediate removal except for increasing our rate of sickness and hence inhibiting industry once again. Think carefully truckers who you are benefitting and who you are hurting. Think carefully supporters about jobs that could be lost down the line because you forced a change in how companies purchase supplies.

They circled the airport here in Ottawa. It does look like an insurrection in many ways. They are hurting our country. We tend to do peaceful discussions not activities funded by another country's citizens; think for yourselves. Go home. 

Walking the dogs

The dogs and I have had a wonderful time out walking in the snow the last little while. The puppy remembers most of the time not to jump on me although she is still light enough that she would not knock me over. I am training her for when she is much heavier. Mostly I am successful; she is just so happy to see people that she forgets that she isn't to jump on people.

Working on the Siderfin book and I think that I will revise the style and create chapters labeled 1st generation, 2nd generation etc. I will begin with John Siderfin as he is the furtherest back in a continuous line from the present. That means there will be a maximum of 12 chapters but more likely I will only go as far as my generation in the book (i.e. anyone born before 1960 perhaps). That would make everyone in the book over 60 years of age. The practical side is that one could find oneself in the book and our age is more likely to be looking. Children or grandchildren of people in the book will likely know that individual thus making it useful for perhaps 40 years or more as some will know their great grandparents and perhaps become interested in the book that far down the line and revise it! I am sure it will need revisions as more and more material is coming on line every day. And of course this is to be an e-book.

Starting to think about the Pincombe Newsletter due on the 1st of March. I think I might like to write about the unknown Pencombe who came to North Molton with Lord de la Zouch in 1485. I do not have a lot of information on him but it could be that concentrating on him in that way and doing my usual search of the literature might reveal something that I have missed.

 

More thinking on the Siderfin Book

I added nearly two pages to the Siderfin Book revision yesterday. James Sanders had mentioned a number of items and with modern tools and the internet archive I was able to lift all of those mentions from the various publications and include a snip of each in the book.

It also pointed out that the line of Siderfin (beginning with a Robert Siderfin at Croydon) that bore a coat of arms has not been traced in the book. I did find a reference to Robert Siderfin in the UK Archives (Kew) and living at Croydon and think I might order up that document. I do not know if it is difficult to order a document from the Parliamentary Archives. Will see how that goes.

This particular Robert Siderfin was referred to as Esquire (so one step up from Gentleman) and he married a Baronet's daughter Ann Wittewronge daughter of Sir John Wittewronge of Rothamsted, Hertfordshire. The article that James Sanders referred to mentioned that the Parish Church at Luxborough did not have any monuments  (this is 1791) but inside the Church on the floor was located a memorial inscription to Ann Siderfin who died 5 May 1708. The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset collected from authentick records and in actual survey made by the late Mr. Edmund Rack. Adorned with a map of the County, And Engravings of Roman and other Reliques, Town-Seals, Baths, Churches, and Gentlemen’s Seats. By the Reverend John Collinson, F.A.S.; three volumes. Published at Bath and printed by R. Cruttwell. 1791. 

This does take us back to Siderfin's Estate Act: 

Reference:     HL/PO/JO/10/1/523/1470
Title:     Siderfin's Estate Act
Description:    
Amended Draft of an Act for vesting the manor of Exton and other lands in the county of Somerset, late the estate of Thomas Siderfin, deceased, in trustees, to be sold for payment of debts.
 Annexed:
 a) 11 Dec -- Petition of Robert Siderfin, of Croydon, in the county of Somerset.
 b) 22 Jan -- Consent of John Worth, of Luxborrow, James Cornish, of Withill, and Thomas Darch, of Stawley.
Date:     13 Dec 1699
Held by:     Parliamentary Archives, not available at The National Archives
Language:     English 

The date 1699 places this at the time when Ann (Wittewronge) Siderfin was still alive. The Manor of Exton belonged to Thomas Siderfin as mentioned in his will of 1678 (page 34). Croydon to his brother Robert Siderfin is in that will and Robert and Ann had married 16 Jun 1687 at St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London. Robert had two children from his first marriage to Catherine Polkins 3 Feb 1680 St James, Dukes Place, London namely Robert and Walter. Interestingly Christian (sister of Robert) married John Worth 9 May 1682 in Luxborough. 

I have a tree for the descendants of John Siderfin (lived at Luxborough about 1500) which I will place in the book as well as an appendix at the end of the book. I have not yet traced Robert Siderfin or Walter Siderfin sons of Robert. That will be a project for today. 

Although the book that James Sanders wrote mostly follows along in increasing year order there are points where references are made earlier and then more material is added later. I may re-order the book into generations. I do have nine generations of this family coming down from John Siderfin (1500s at Luxborough). Putting it into generations might be useful and I will make a decision soon on that.

The Trucker Convoy here in Ottawa and at the Ambassador Bridge and everywhere else

I still think they should just pack up and go quickly and quietly if they are capable of bringing their trucks back into order. If they think we have snow and ice now in Ottawa wait until the bulk of the snow comes starting mid February into March. They had their say; this is a democracy but now it has become ludicrous. They actually have children with them. Why are they not in school? Another law broken. What kind of a person would bring children to something like this? It is cold in Ottawa in the winter; a truck isn't a home unless it has to be in which case it would be outfitted to do the job. Before I thought they were just unknowing of how a democracy works; now I think they are crazy. What a disgraceful thing to do to children. To teach them that they are able to protest is one thing but to have exposed them to your juvenile behaviour of honking an air horn night and day is beneath you. Teach your children to respect your fellow man/woman. You had your say; we listened. Go home please and thank you. Just a respectful goodby although you do not deserve one.

Go home, the restrictions are slowly moving away at our pace not yours. Stripping all the restrictions leaves us vulnerable to another sudden increase in cases; overloaded hospitals and full ICUs. People with other needs in the hospital can not obtain them when increases in virus happen and people died who might have lived with proper treatment. Grow up. Go home. You have destroyed people's lives for long enough.  

We are also tired of the restrictions. In grade school I could have told you that these restrictions will come off as they came on in a protective and careful way to cause the least amount of upward trend in cases. No one can predict the rate at which they can come off without consequence. We just take it day by day.

You were our heroes during the worst of the pandemic; you have destroyed our image although we know that 90% plus of truckers are still out there working hard and helping us to get through this pandemic. But you are spoiling it for your fellow workers which is just wrong. What right did you have to do that?

Not a lot accomplished on the Siderfin Book

I came to an interesting thought on the Siderfin Book as I work my way through. I had found the Siderfin Estate's Act but I suspect that it pertains to the Thomas Siderfin who died in 1578 rather than 1575 because it mentions Exton Estate. I need to read more on that today. 

Otherwise I did accomplish all of my exercise periods which I have not done for a while. My 40 minute run, then my walk with the dogs for 45 minutes outside, followed by my weight lifting (12 minutes) and then calisthenics for 20 minutes followed by a walk at night for 45 minutes. Lots of exercise which is good for the elderly. Hard to think of myself as elderly really except that both of my grandparents were like me with their very active lifestyle right to the end of their lives. They both had strokes and my grandmother passed a week later but my grandfather survived from July until October. My father had a stroke and survived seven years after that. My mother had mini strokes which caused a fall which eventually lead to her death several months later. Interesting really strokes and I do not know a lot about cause of stroke so must read up on that. 

The honking has been halted with an injunction. Really it was very unfair of the truckers to have occupied our capital city area. Their argument is predominantly with the provinces other than the cross border law that you must be double vaccinated to cross the border either way. It really does seem nonsensical now for them to be parked in downtown Ottawa. It is destroying all of those businesses downtown and wrecking the home life of all the people who live there. Perhaps they are looking to buy houses and hoping to drive the prices down!

It blocked people from going to Church and we have a lot of Churches in the downtown area. There is really only faith when everything else is taken away and even that has been taken from people except my Church does have a service on You-Tube and it continued on Sunday. The service was, as always, a wondrous opportunity to be at one with God. 

But I still think that accepting foreign money to stage an occupation is the greatest crime that has been committed against Canadians. They are making demands that Government step down and yet we voted for parties that overall supported mandates. Do they not understand democracy? One wonders if they do. They are anarchists; they need to go; they need to refuse money from foreigners. Only Canadians should have the ability to decide on our government. Perhaps at this stage we should just ignore them and they will go away. Or arrest them. No ideas on that really.

I think that perhaps my cataracts are growing a little larger since last year. My eyesight is still reasonable but my eyes are tiring so assume that it is the cataracts. Must get them checked one of these days.

Working on the Siderfin book

I will continue working on the Siderfin book today. I can see that my initial thoughts on just a few revisions has changed. Already I have added eight new pages and I am just at page 19 of the original book. Not having access to all the records is rather limiting here in Canada but I can order copies as they will scan and email that to me (at my expense of course!). Perhaps it is in the writing down of a family that one does end up revising. A brand new book has the feature of just starting once again at the beginning and working your way through but I would wish to give credit to James Sanders for all the work that he did way before the internet. I am sure that he didn't have indexes to use to look at material either. It would have been a lot of looking things up at the various repositories. He lived in South Molton, Devon and a trip to London and the archives was a major expedition in the early 1900s. 

I did not add anything to the Charley book particularly that I blogged earlier because the information that I have is for the one line only in Devon. Hopefully, someone in the future will run with that set of blogs and produce a revised history of the Charley family in England and Ireland. 

These are the two principal books that I have on my families that I have done any work on. There remains the book that my cousin George Dekay produced in 1976 on our mutual Carling, Beverley, Gray, Hildred, West and Mason families and their descendants. I would like to expand the book somewhat to include the Routledge, Pincombe and work my own family in since my mother was a Pincombe. All of us (my siblings) are in the book but it would be to add in details in the past that I have collected over time. George's book was 253 pages so is a huge task which I shall leave to next winter I think although I will continue to collect information. 

There is a published history of the Blake family but it contains a number of inaccuracies which I have blogged on and a number of genealogists have published revisions. There are also publications on the Blake family in terms of Charts that I have copies of but for the most part I have blogged all of them. If time permits I may write an e-book on my Blake family history. 

There are published histories of the Buller family but I have not yet worked my line back from Christopher Buller born circa 1764 as his parents continue to be unknown. But more and more records are coming online. 

The Lywood family has been well researched by another member of the Guild of one-name studies (Warwick Lywood) although I do not know if he has published a book on them yet. 

The Rowcliffe family has been published and I have corrected a mistake in our line with the individual involved in that study. 

Off the top of my head I think that is all the books that I have seen that have been written about families from which I descend. I could have missed some; at 76 my memory is sound and very good for some things but as I age I anticipate that I will need more reminders in front of me so that I do not forget things. 

The Trucker Convoy in downtown Ottawa does not respect us

 Perhaps that is the one item that has really emerged out of the occupation by those in the Trucker Convoy and their leaders; they do not respect us nor do they see us as having the same rights and freedoms as they claim for themselves. It is totally unfair of them to say that they come to give us freedom; they do not; we are not free. We were free before they came. 

They should leave us to carry on with loosening our COVID-19 restrictions so that we can get back to living our lives. Their coming does not help us; it hinders us. They are making life unbearable in the downtown.

They sounded their air horns on the Lord's Day. An abomination for sure. We are living in the 21st century where democracy is meant to be the best way to live. They are showing the drawbacks of democracy ever time they speak or sound an air horn or try to enter a store without a mask; they are breaking our laws. We live by the rule of law. We voted for mandates as a country. We want to have the mandates so that fewer people die.

But I think the way that they are hurting our freedom the most is by accepting foreign money to run their protest. It is the same as putting a gun at our throats.

Will of Christian Siderfin, Luxburough, Somerset, England - National Archives, PROB 11/205/77, probated 4 Jul 1648

I will add to my thoughts on the will through the day before I add it to my revised copy of the book on the Siderfin Family. 

Looking forward to Church today on You-Tube. Hopefully I can be there in real time but we will see how the day flows. 

James Sanders has produced a family tree at the back of the book which includes Christian Siderfin. Her husband William Siderfin is in the family tree as the son of Robert Siderfin who died in 1612 and has been mentioned in Chancery Proceedings found earlier in this book. Christian his wife is named as Christian Webber born circa 1610 and who died in 1647 (the last notation in the will was made on the 20th February 1647 (old style) so her year of death was 1647 or1648 since the will was probated in 1648. Using the order on the family chart: the third child William was said to have been born in 1615 and died in 1615 however a William Siderfin her son is very much alive in the will of his mother Christian in 1644. The fourth child Georgianna was born in 1617 and died in 1617 (not mentioned in the will). Thomas the sixth child was born in 1618 and left his will in 1687. The seventh child, also mentioned in his mother's will was Robert and he was born 1620 and died in 1675. The second child Wilmot was listed as Wilmot Siderfin in her mother's will so perhaps a spinster (born 1613 and died 1668). Mary the eldest child married (unknown) Gyldes and her mother mentions their three children in her will. the fifth child Christian were born in 1617 and died in 1617 (not mentioned in the will). 

Looking at the Emigrant's Database for England found on the Kew (United Kingdom Archives) website, I did not find a Siderfin (and several other spellings were tried) on that database but James Sanders lists the first reference as a Robto de Sidernefenne listed in the Hundred Rolls of Somerset, Ed. 1., 1274. James Sanders also speculates on whether this is an Italian or a Dutch family. I have not, to date, found anything which shows whether this is an old family (i.e. pre Norman) or a family that arrived in the time of the Normans. There is a break in the chart between 1274 and the next mention of a Siderfin family and this is John Siderfin and Christian his wife who lived at Luxborough around 1500. The Abstracts of Somerset Wills Series 106, F. Brown (Series 3, 90) does have an abstract for William Sidervin of Luxborough, Somerset. Will dated Aug 20. 1568 proved May 16, 1572 (Taunton Registry). To be buried in the Chancel. Residue to Wilmot, my wife, to dispose of any goods as shall seem best to the pleasure of God and the weal of my Soul. Mr. Alexander Sydenham, a Witness. Unfortunately the original will was destroyed in the bombing of Exeter in 1942 during WW II.

Noting on the chart that the children of Thomas Siderfyn were born after the will was probated so could not have been mentioned in the will unless all three died and they renamed children born after the will with the same names (nmely Thomas b 1650, Philip b 1652, d 1661, and Christian b 1654 and married to John Worth of Wychanger in 1681. As well the information on the will of Christian Siderfin mentioned in the book is taken directly from the Abstracts of Somerset Wills Series 106, F. Brown (Series 3, 90,91). The addition of her full will to this book does provide more family details. 

Transcription

Recorded: 5 Feb 2022
Source: National Archives, PROB 11/205/77
Place: Luxborough, Somerset, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 25 November 1644; probated 4 Jul 1648
Condition: electronic file, old English writing
[in margin] Test: Christiana Siderfin

1    In the name of God Amen The fyve
2    ande twentieth day of November in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand sixe
3    hundredth fortie and fower And in the yeare of the Raigne of our Souveraigne Lord
4    Charles of England etc King the twentieth I Christian Siderfin of the parrish
5    of Luxborowe within the dioces of Bathe and Wells widdowe being visited with sicknes but of perfect
6    mynde and memory praise be given unto Almighty God therefore being renounced and revoked all former
7    wills by me made doe make this my last will and testament in manner and forme following First I bequeath
8    my soule into the hands of Almighty God my Maker and of Jesus Christ my Redeemer trusting and beleeving
9    through his death and passion to obtayne pardon and forgivenesse of my sinnes And my bodie I commit unto
10    the Earth from whence it came to be buried according to the discretion of my Executors hereafter named
11    Item I give unto the Cathedrall church of Wells twelve pence Item I give towards the repara[t]ion of the
12    Church of Luxborowe aforesaid five shillings Item I give unto the poore of ye foresaid parrish of Luxborowe twentie shillings to bee distributed unto such poore people of the same
13    parrish at my funeral as unto my sayd Executors shall seeme good Item I give unto every of my
14    Godchildren Twelve pence a peece Item whereas Mary Gydles of Dunster widdowe my daughter
15    oweth unto me ten pounds which I lent her at two several tymes I doe release and forgive her the sayd
16    debt and summe of money Item I give unto William Gydles and Robert Gyldes her two sonnes of my
17    sayd daughter Mary Gydles one Ewe sheepe a peece Item I give unto Christian Gydles daughter of the
18    sayd Mary Gydles, my Grandchild fifteene pounds to bee paid unto her when she shall come unto
19    her age of twentie and one years And if she shall happen to dye before her sayd age of twenty
20    and one years then I give the sayd fifteene pounds unto William Gydles and Robert Gydles
21    afore named my Grandchildren equally to be devided betwixt them and to bee paid them at their
22    several ages of twenty and one years Item whereas my sonne William Siderfin doeth owe
23    me thirty pounds Twenty pounds thereof I give unto Thomas Siderfin sonne of the sayd William
24    Siderfin my Grandchild And the other ten pounds thereof I give unto my sayd sonne William
25    Siderfin and doe release him of the same debt Item I give unto Johane Westerne my Grandchild
26    fourty shillings Item I give unto Robert Siderfin my sonne five pounds Item I give unto Wilmott
27    Siderfin daughter of my sayd sonne Robert Siderfin Twenty pounds Item I give unto John Siderfin
28    sonne of my sayd sonne Robert Siderfin fourty shillings Item I give unto Johane Syderfin daughter
29    of my sonne Thomas Syderfin Twenty pounds And if shee shall dye before her age of twenty
30    and one years then I give the same unto Thomas Siderfin and Phillipp Siderfin sonnes of my
31    sayd sonne Thomas Syderfin equally to be devided betwixt them and to be paid them at their several
32    ages of twenty and one years Item I give unto the sayd Thomas my Grandchild sonne of Thomas
33    Siderfin aforenamed my sowe and heifer yeareling Item I give unto all my servants which shal[l ]be
34    dwelling in my house at my death five shillings a peece the residue of my goods and Chattells not
35    hereby given or bequeathed after my debts if there shall be any shall be satisfied and my legacies
36    paied I give and bequeath unto my sayd sonne Thomas Syderfin and unto Robert Siderfin
37    the sonne of my sayd sonne Robert Siderfin my grandchilde whome I make and ordaine to be
38    my whole and sole Executor of this my last will and Testament and I doe entreate my Cozen
39    John Squirell of the parrish of Mynhedd and John Pearse of the parrish of Charhampton
40    in the County of Somerset yeoman to bee my Overseers of this my last will and testament to see
41    the same in all things performed In witness that this is my last will I the sayd Christian Siderfin
42    have hereunto putt my hand the daye and yeare first above written The Marke of Christian
43    Siderfin This writing was read unto me the sayd Christian Siderfin upon the day and yeare first above
44    written and approved thereof and did then publish and declare the same to be my last will and
45    testament in the presence of The marke of John Blake The marke of Robert Lasswell The
46    Marke of John Lobb The marke of Anne Pyke The day of the above is the three and twentieth
47    day of November in the yeare of our Lord God 1644 Witness the witnesses aforesaid: The sayd
48    Testatrix afterwards xx February 1647 gave and devised unto Johane Westerne the Grandchild five
49    pounds and to her servant Wilmote Kent Twenty shillings and directed that these legacies should
50    be added to the above written will
51    Probatum fuit testamentum suprascriptum apud London coram ven[erab]li viro domino
52    Nathaniel Brent Milite legum doctore Curia Prerogative M[a]g[ist]ro siue Custode Ultimo constitute
53    quarto die Mensis Julij Anno domini Millesimo sexcentesimo quadragesimo octavo Juramento
54    Thomas Syderfin filij et Roberti Syderfin Nepotis op filio dicti defuncti et Execut in eadem Testamento
55    nominat Quibus Commissa fuit Administrato omnium et singulorum bonorium Jurium
56    et Creditorum dicti defuncti de bene et fidel[ite]r Administrando eadem ad s[an]c[t]a[ dei Evangelia
57       vigore comissionis in de parte als emanat Jurat