First cleaning day accomplished and some work on the Siderfin book

 I did complete the cleaning of the basement and if there was just a little less furniture in there it would be even easier to do that area. Perhaps next summer we will eliminate more furniture; time will tell. We mostly use it as a place to use the treadmill, weights and KeepFit exercises. 

The main floor and top floor are for today and gradually there is less furniture in these areas as well. Although next summer will again see more pieces being given to Salvation Army if they want them or elsewhere. There is only one large piece that I want to donate and perhaps will check at Church to see if there is a need anywhere. 

The Siderfin book continues and I am working on the fourth generation. I believe I have now worked out the Protestation Returns of 1641 and the Subsidies of 1641 and 1642 to help me with assigning properties to the correct lines. I know where the property ends up in the next generation thus making it somewhat easier to look at although the wills are mostly small transcripts as the originals were destroyed in the bombing of the Devon Record Office at Exeter in World War II. But one must make do with what one has. Other subsidies would also help but only so many are available to me directly. I can see that one of these days I must get into the Family History Library to do that search. The Siderfin family continues to be concentrated in the Carhampton Hundred for the most part in this generation although the occasional movement into Williton and Freemanours Hundred. Although I can not be positive at this stage I am suspicious that this is a singleton family name not arising anywhere else in this time period in the British Isles. James Sanders says that he thinks this is a Dutch or Italian family which fits in with my thought and the thought that they could have been an Italian Jewish family brought to England during the reign of William the Conqueror. In the History of the Jews in England (1066-1290) William of Malmesbury (English historian of the 12th century born in Wiltshire (Norman father and English mother)) which is very interestingly the county to the east of Somerset. William of Malmesbury apparently stated that William I brought Jews from Rouen to England at the time of the Norman Conquest. James Sanders did find early records for Siderfin namely Robto-de-Sidernefenne on the Hundred Rolls of Somerset in 1274 (during the time of Edward I). This information is at the top of his Pedigree Chart. If indeed they were Jewish they were no longer active in Judaism by the time of John Siderfin of Luxborough around 1500 as his family and the subsequent descendants were all baptized, married and buried in the Church of England. It would be interesting to discover why James Sanders had the idea that the family was from The Netherlands or Italy. Perhaps his research fonds at Barnstaple would provide some knowledge in that regard. It is unlikely that I will ever view this material but it is a project for a future Siderfin researcher. 

I continue today looking at the Fourth Generation making sure that all of the information that I have acquired goes into this section before moving on to the Fifth Generation. I do want to have a look at the Timberscombe Parish Registers if they exist prior to Martin Southwood's excellent transcription of the later period at Timberscombe. I still need to continue with the Luxborough Parish Registers in the 1600s. 

My DNA matches with descendants of the Siderfin family are interesting in that I along with four of my siblings have all tested at various companies as a set so that there is always more than two at any one company giving a very good sized group of Siderfin matches. I myself am a good match but others of my siblings are weaker matches. But my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe had a twin sister Charlotte and that has resulted in quite strong matches being more than one would expect at the third cousin level. 

On to the day, breakfast next.

Another good snowfall as winter carries on

We are getting buried in snow slowly but surely. One of our heavier winter snows this year although quickly cleaned up by the road crews. Since it was the weekend no traffic snarls at all. Our crews are very efficient. But then we do do winter for sure; this is a winter country and you need to love it or it challenges you. I have loved winter all of my life and not likely to change. The birds have managed to dig down through the snow and get the feed that is nicely preserved in that mound of snow - every day a small flock of them work their way down through the snow to the treats below - the squirrels are hibernating and have not really seen them about much so the seeds are all for the birds. Amazing that they manage at minus 16 degrees celsius so very well which is the temperature at 8:00 am this morning. The trees are once again coated with snow which gives them an ethereal quality as one looks out the workroom window enjoying yet another snowy day. 

Another new member of the H11 group this time from Central Europe and sadness creeps into my day remembering all the dead in Ukraine; I try to feel sad about the Russian dead but they brought this onto themselves and mourning them will be a long time coming in the rest of Europe. Europe was doing so well; getting along so well then Russia spoiled it all the last ten years and more since they invaded Georgia to start what is really a new Cold War except there is actual fighting. Glory to Ukraine and may the world survive another year in spite of the treachery of Russia against the world always trying to use the nuclear threat against us. They have been at it for a very long time although for a while it did look like Russia wanted to be part of the world but they have become psychopathic nazis trying to steal land and riches from the countries that surround them and they do not care whom they kill doing it. 

Good luck yesterday as I found yet another jewel in the proof of Robert Siderfin not dying in 1612 but rather he is on the Visitation of Somerset in 1623. I do have a copy of that and must read it through. I know that he is listed in the column of gentry as Robert Sitterfyn, gent from Luxborough (page 134 he is listed under Carhampton Hundred - Luxborow Robert Sitterfyn ignobilis  but James Sanders also says that there is a mention of him as Robert Gitterfen of Luxborough at Dunster 15 Aug 1623. I shall have to review the book as I do not see that in the Index. The reference is on page 131 and it is individuals: Disclaimed at Dunster the 13th of August 1623 under the title "Ignobiles" (meaning of ignobile is unknown or obscure) and Robert Gitterfen of Luxborough is thus named. Robert, son of Robert Sidderfyn and Christian (unknown) lived at Minehead as far as I am able to determine - the three children of Robert Sidderfyn and Ursula Webber were baptized at Minehead between 1614 and 1619. James Sanders also has a list of the Subsidy Rolls, 21 James I (1624) at Minehead which lists Robto Saydersin. James Sanders comments "No doubt this family migrated to other parishes" on page 18 which we do know to be true but there were two Robert Sidderfin at this time as far as I am able to determine - one in Luxborough and one in Minehead. I shall try to see if that particular Subsidy is online just to verify it. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the basement for the beginning of that task. Breakfast awaits and then on to the day.

This Sunday the Bible Reading is the Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most important words handed down to us over time other than the New Commandments, is the Bible Reading for today. Church on You-Tube today. I always remember the words from childhood that my grandmother used to say to me - Revenge is mine sayeth the Lord. It isn't for us to judge people beyond civil cases or criminal cases - we must protect society and so we do but the ultimate punishment will be meted out by God. 

Another new member for my H11 study from Eastern Europe and sadly the newsletter which should come out on the 1st of February looking once again at the subclades of H11 will not be published. I await Russia getting out of Ukraine before I will publish it once again. The Ukrainians and likely all the states that border Russia or are close to Russia do not have time for such frivolity. When one speaks of fear; look to Eastern Europe which spent over fifty years under the boot of the Soviet Union. There is no peace for them until Russia gets out of Ukraine - holding an illegal referendum without the presence of the United Nations does not alter boundaries. Get out of Ukraine Russia. Death to the invaders. Glory to Ukraine. 

I did not do very much on the Siderfin book yesterday. I did have a look at Savage's Hundred of Carhampton and it was interesting to see that James Sanders somewhat organized his book on the Siderfin family in a similar fashion to the organization of that book. Being a JP he perhaps had access to some documents that aided his initial forays into the Siderfin family and a trip to London for whatever reason would have let him into documents held there although I suspect that he would have had to meander through great quantities of paperwork to find items. My first trip to Kew in 2008 was remarkably different from my second and third trips to Kew. The first time I received large boxes of material to find items that I wanted. The second time often enough it had been refiled and organized on a finer scale and the third time the speed with which documents were delivered had increased quite substantially making my visit there the most fruitful perhaps as I managed to get through my entire list of 200 items. On-line is rapidly becoming the method of access to this ancient documents. It is wonderful I am thinking. My unrolling these ancient documents so that I could photograph them was a fearful thing for me - these documents, some of them dating back into the 1400s, were our history and I certainly did not want to leave any trace of my having handled them. 

Today I shall perhaps have a look at the fiche for the Minehead parish registers. Perhaps I will purchase more parish registers on this area if they are not on one of the databases that I use. Either that or I could join The Genealogist. Must think about that. I already have several thousand fiche for various parish registers in the areas which interest me. Probably it would be faster (and easier on my eyes and pocket) to simply sign up for another database. Must consider that as well today. No rush on that it will be some time before I move on to the 5th generation I suspect. This will be a slow process but very interesting. We traveled through this area in 2008 with my cousin Ivan. It is beautiful country full of small towns and villages. At Beaminster we visited Beaminster St Mary and discovered a memorial for one of Edward's ancient ancestors who lived there. Probably the time before they left England for the American Colonies was not an easy one as they were Dissenters. John Nyle and his wife Joanne Paviot were married 19 Jan 1606 at St Mary Beaminster and their son John was buried at Hancock Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts - he was Edward's 9th great grandfather. Most of this part of the trip had been about my Pincombe family but as we traced that path from Weymouth to Bideford we found so many items that were also about Edward's long forgotten American colonials. All of that was lost in his family and rediscovered by Edward through his researching and many many trips to the New England states that we took between the 1960s and right up until our last trip in 2018. He found so much rich history for his family; so many documents that let him relate to those ancient relatives and even places where they lived and churches that they attended. He counted Roger Williams amongst his ancestors amongst other leading theologians of this era. He was surprised to find so many items that were about his families in England as it was so long ago but Dissenters did make their mark in England and are very much part of the history of the British peoples. 

I am late today so must run and do breakfast before Church.

Another good day on research

Yesterday completed my review of the subsidies of 1641 and 1642 for Somerset. It was a long somewhat eye straining exercise but I am satisfied with the results. Interesting I am noting that James Sanders was born in the same year as one of my great grandfathers so in 1912 when he published the book he was 67 years of age. Although that seems a young age to me now he probably was not as mobile as we are these days. I have never really looked at his family but he married Anne Mountjoy June quarter 1867 at South Molton and they had seven children (three sons and four daughters with the youngest son named Harry Siderfin Sanders - interesting it was at this later date that he named a son with his mother's surname. The third daughter also received Siderfin as her middle surname and the youngest his mother's forename as her middle name. His accumulation of material was perhaps inquisitiveness as he says in his preface he was looking at a book written by James Savage and published at Bristol by William Strong, Clare Street but also in London by Longman et al in 1830. The book by Savage is indexed but does not contain any indexing for the Siderfin surname. Perhaps I should actually read it and may think about doing that. I did find mention of  Robert Siderfin of Croydon who created a memorial for his wife in the local Church in Luxborough. Perhaps it was the lack of information about the Siderfin family that set him on his quest. He mentions that his mother having been a Siderfin does leave one with the impression that he is looking at this book after the death of his mother (1882) although she could have brought it to his attention at some point mentioning her own maiden surname perhaps around the time of the birth of his third daughter since she carries the surname (1877). I found it curious that it was the surname that interested him which is the same in my case. One does wonder where one's surnames come from I suspect and we are all born with two in actual fact from both of our parents and my mother was very conscious of her need to talk about her family line which she did and my father perhaps as well although I learned more from my grandfather (his father) than from him but he was a very busy man running his own business. I worked for him in the summers from the time I was 12 until I turned 15 at which point he suggested that I should perhaps also work for other people and I did although did find it quite intimidating to do so initially perhaps because some people are very curious and I was always a rather withdrawn person. 

However, my quest to find more information on Robert the second son of Robert has been fruitful and I can now clearly say that James Sanders was partially correct in his descent as John was one of his children but there were two other children missing on the chart. I am only going to think of one generation at a time as I work my way forward to the present. That is perhaps the difference between a one-namer and a family genealogist. I am not really that interested in just looking at all the ancestors of my lines or the cousins and resultant descendants of all those lines. My interests lie mainly with the Blake surname and the Pincombe surname although I acquired an interest in the Siderfin surname about the same time as I had found it looking for the details of a Profile of the Pincombe family for my cousin's books that he was editing - The Westminster and Delaware History Books (this being two of the Townships in the County of Middlesex in the Province of Ontario, Canada). Fortunately my younger sister has taken up the mantle of genealogist for the family and pursues all of those cousins and descendants as well as ancestors in her own study which includes both her line and that of her husband. 

Today the quest will continue partially as my eyes can use a rest for a bit. I have extracted all the Siderfin information from the Index to the Minehead Parish Registers and will now look at the original parish registers which I also have on fiche. As time permits I will also look at some of the surrounding parishes as I have fiche in some cases and access to Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage to look at original registers online as they exist. Pulling together the Fourth Generation as completely as I am able is the task at hand. 

I did get rather distracted by the meteorite that flew by so close to us yesterday. I find such things to be utterly fascinating and do get carried away in my thoughts to be sure. I found Yuri Gagarin's space ride equally fascinating as a child. The desire to be out there was strong in me for quite a while but I did not pursue it. 

A bit of snow clearing to do today although we will probably get quite a bit enough for the company to come and clear it away tomorrow but I like to keep it cleared so that it doesn't create ice on the walks and steps. 

Glory to Ukraine and one hopes that the tanks will help to send the Russians back to their own borders - they can not just randomly claim land as their own with a fake referendum that was not overseen by the United Nations. Once again Putin makes his claim against Ukraine of Nazism when it is  the psychopathic Putin and his enablers that are the Nazis trying to steal land and riches from the people of Ukraine. Death to the invaders and glory to Ukraine. I think it is pretty clear that the Ukrainians have a right to their land they have also lived on for thousands of years; tanks are simply a means to stop the bloodshed and drive the invaders from their land. Why the Russian people would allow the Nazi Putin and his enablers to treat them as serfs is beyond me for sure. Absolutely no one is going to invade Russia now or ever (at least not the so-called West; likely we will want to have as little to do with Russia as possible although it is nice to let them take part in international events just to let them see how the real world lives). The Nazi Putin and his enablers have destroyed Peter the Great's Russia. He had such hopes for the future of Russia and all taken away by the Nazi psychopathic Putin and his enablers who let the youth of Russia die on the battlefields of Ukraine as cannon fodder. Russia created those battle fields but the sons of  the Nazi Putin and his enablers are not dying in this war just the sons of the Russian people that they have turned back into serfs.

What if we could put monitoring type equipment on an asteroid

Waking this morning early and hearing the news that an asteroid flew within 2600 kilometres above the Earth.  Asteroid 2023BU (3.8 by 8.5 metres) flew by at 53,000 km/hr (approximately) early this morning with its closest trajectory just across the southern hemisphere nearest to the southern tip of South America. What if we could put imaging equipment on an asteroid that could show us its travels around the universe? The asteroid was first reported by a citizen scientist (amateur stargazer) - Gennadiy Borisov at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea. Great work! Now if we could only harness that piece of rock and let it tell its story of travels around the universe. We are not there yet but we could be if everyone put their mind to what is important in this universe.

Yesterday, once again, great accomplishment on the extraction of material from the Somerset Protestation Returns - the originals are available online at the Parliamentary Archives Library and I have a CD with the transcriptions. Although only 1/3rd of these records are extant they just happen to be the area in which I am most interested. That extraction is now complete and I have moved onto the subsidies of 1641 and 1642 also on the CD. The extraction of that material precedes again today. 

With two sets of information confirming Robert Siderfin in Minehead and his two sons - one at Minehead  and Wootton Courtney and the second at Selworthy - I will try to discover if their sister Wilmot married at Minehead. I need to check the burials there as well. There was also lots of information on the William line at Luxborough and the Thomas line. Still working through all the information and I need to spend some time on the fiche for these early parish registers which I purchased years ago now but set aside when I let my cousin have the one-name study for Siderfin. But, if I can, I would like to update James Sanders' book and move it on to this next century knowing that sometime in the future another will pick up the challenge and carry the Siderfin family forward in time. After all, I, an uninterested person in genealogy until 2003, have been an avid searcher since then scouring the records for information. All it took really was my cousin twisting my arm to do a profile for one of the many profiles in the Westminster and Delaware History Books that he was editing and the Siderfin family came to light once again as the name had been forgotten in my line. But along with that profile, DNA testing came to the forefront and initially not really greeted with the enthusiasm it later would create, you pretty much need to do your DNA to have a study now!

I hope to work up the Fourth Generation with its breakdown into four subsets in the next two weeks and then on to the Fifth Generation. Each one a little more difficult and possibly less evidence - time will tell - but eventually in some of the lines I will get to the Census from 1841 on and then more information available once again. For my Siderfin line when Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin married John Rew she basically drops out of the Siderfin line and into the Rew line and it was her daughter Elizabeth Rew who married John Pincombe so my line is back quite aways in actual fact which was another reason to give it to my cousin at the time (his surname was Siderfin). Elizabeth Rew was born in 1801 over two hundred years ago (she and her twin sister Charlotte) but their descendants carry some lengths of DNA that pass on and on through the endless line of people who descend from her. 

I had forgotten that I do have the two subsidies for Somerset on disc and so have also extracted Blake from the data along with Siderfin and a number of other names. But I still hope to get into the Family Search Library to extract Blake from the many other subsides. This particular disc has a list of all the subsidies that were taken during several hundred years and has information on the status extant or not that is rather helpful. 

So another day of extraction and perhaps sneaking a look at the Minehead fiche - luckily an index was created for Minehead that I also purchased on fiche which makes that rather a treat to look at. My eyes have been strong through all of this searching although I keep it up for perhaps 30 to 40 minutes and then take a break - a good walk around and about. 

A bit early for breakfast; I have had my cup of tea so shall perhaps wander around for a bit. Solitaire games all played as that is generally my first thing to do but when I went to prepare my tea I generally turn on the news to see what is happening in the world and there it was - that lovely asteroid story and into my mind jumped the idea of putting monitoring equipment on such asteroids as they wheel about the universe. What would we see? would it be a worthwhile effort? I think that anything that lets us see the universe is worthwhile! Must get the telescope out one of these days - the nights are rather cold at the moment though. I prefer my binoculars in the winter for sure.

Protestation Returns for Somerset

Spent a good portion of the day working my way through the Somerset Protestation Returns for Somerset. Since I was doing the task I also extracted Blake, Escott, Trill, Nurcombe, Westerne, Couch, Chorley/Charley/Churley, Question and Rew as well as Siderfin/Sidderfin. It was a task I had often thought of doing and the opportunity presented itself. I did not find any more Sidderfin/Siderfin names than I already had located using the index. I also have the Parliamentary copies of the original to look at from their excellent website. I need to read through Minehead. 

What I am trying to prove, and it looks even more doable than before, is that the three children baptized at Minehead are all children of the same Robert and Ursula (Webber) Siderfin known to be at Minehead. Namely that is Wilmot Siderfin in 1614, Robert Siderfin in 1616 and John Siderfin 1619. I know that my Siderfin family at Selworthy also lived at Bratton just outside of Minehead at that time but part of Minehead now. James Sanders himself mentions property at Dunster that his mother was involved with at some point. Dunster is the location for the Question family and John's son Robert married Elizabeth Question of Dunster and James' mother Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of the eldest son according to his chart). James Sanders in his pedigree chart lists three children below John Siderfin whom he names as the only descendant of Robert which is incorrect it would appear. Learning more about Wilmot and Robert Siderfin the other two children baptized at Minehead would be interesting. I do have the Parish Registers for Minehead both the fiche of the original records and the Index of those records. I am at that place in time when I handed over the project to my cousin and decided to take on the Blake one-name study. Although I found Siderfin very interesting I did feel that my cousin was in a better position to do the research that, at that time, needed to be done in person at the Somerset Record Office. Time has passed and more and more information is online including the excellent search tool of the Archives at Somerset with lots of information. 

Today I continue with the Protestation Returns and plan to complete that task. In my mind I already feel that I have accomplished the task of linking John at Selworthy in 1641 with the John baptized at Minehead in 1619. He does appear to marry late (his children are baptized in 1656, 1658 and 1660 making him 37 when the first child was baptized. His wife Thomasine was likely younger than him as she was buried in 1709 at Wootton Courtney. James Sanders links three children with this marriage of John and Thomasine and they are as follows: the eldest son of John was said to be a John and he lived at Wootton Courtney, the next son Robert lived at Selworthy and the youngest son William lived at Minehead. Thomasine's will would have provided a lot more information than the abstract but as life flows that is all that there is. The abstract only mentions the son Robert, a "cousin" Robert Siderfin of Linch and all the children of Robert and his wife Elizabeth (Question) Siderfin. But Thomasine was buried at Wootton Courtney and Robert lived always at Selworthy. 

Interesting conundrum and the solution does lie in what is available one hopes. It doesn't matter in the long run in terms of just who the John at Wootton Courtney and the William at Minehead are when I reflect on my own line but for the sake of the Siderfin family study and the revision of James Sanders text I need to find as much information as I can. Will I ever register the study again? At 77 that seems a bit of a pipe dream to be honest. I am seeing myself as publishing and winding down in my studies although still very active with them. 

So on with the study. On with the day and on with breakfast!

Glory to Ukraine and may she drive the Russians from her land. The murder of so many Ukrainian children, women and men hangs heavy on the world; one prays that the tanks will bring an end to this useless war of aggression that Russia has wrought on the world. May it be the last of such wars of greed for land and riches.

This is the day that the Lord hast made

I have been singing the song "This is the day that the Lord hast made" for days and days now whilst I am sitting at my computer waiting for the sunrise. The beauty of our world abounds and now we just have to figure out how to keep it beautiful and help to restore it to its proper environment before industrialization started to decay the atmosphere. There must be a way; we are intelligent beings and somewhere within us is the ability to bring back the good life for all of us. 

Yesterday turned out to be a grocery shopping day and so I am prepared for the next onslaught of snow which is predicted to be 15 to 25 centimetres of snow. I had to use just a little de-icer on my porch yesterday and hope that it keeps working as we shift into snow high gear. I hate to put it on but sometimes a little is necessary. It does look bleak outside right now. The snow has melted off the trees and the sky has the look of snow to come but no snow yet. 

Playing my solitaire games whilst writing my blog today. I just had the song in my head and decided to share it with my blog today. The hardest game today was Spider Solitaire and it took a little manipulation but I managed it the first time through and quite quickly. On to Tripeaks and the first run was 25,600 points and moving on from there. Back to my blog when I finish my games. Generally I do them first after making my tea to wake up my brain fully before I begin the work of the day which will be the Siderfin book. 

Yesterday I gathered up all my databases (mostly on CDs) to work on separating out the four lines that I have decided to create with Robert's (married to Christian) children - a William Line, a Robert Line, a Thomas line and the remaining five children - on Sanders chart (Sanders says in the text that there are eight children but only six listed) - William, Robert, Thomas, Janet, Elizabeth and Joan; on my chart (8 children) - William, Robert, Thomas, Christian, John, James, Elizabeth and Jane/Joan. On Sanders chart - Joan married William Webber and no husband listed for Janet or Elizabeth. On my chart - Christian married William Couch; Elizabeth married James Nurcombe and Jane/Joan married? or not at all. Still to be determined. 

The will of Robert (probated 31 Jan 1627/28) lists his children and the child of his sister Jone married to William Westeron/Westerne. The son of Jone named as Robert Westeron and his son is Elmer Westeron. Robert's children - William with son Robert; Robert with son Robert (living at Minehead); Marie (daughter unmarried); Thomas Siderfin; Mary Siderfin (South Wheddon is mentioned for both of them along with the lease to keep one hundred sheep at Brundon); Jane; granddaughter Johanne Coutch; wife Christian. Probate to Christian (widow). 

Again, Sanders in the text mentions that Robert (will probated 1627/28) and Christian have eight children but only lists six. Robert has a granddaughter Mary born circa 1612 and a grandson Thomas born 1618 (could Robert have forgotten to note that Thomas and Mary were his eldest son William's children? A number of William and Christian's children died young. With these thoughts in mind I continue with my review of the Protestation Returns for Somerset. I did not find anything new yet but like the Devon Returns I shall look at them all through the day. 

Cleaning all accomplished and the next five days belong to the Siderfin book although I generally do get distracted by emails and the like!

On to the day and breakfast.

 

More Snow promised and it is already starting

This will be a great snow winter perhaps; time will tell. Some winters we have so much snow and then others not so much. But we do live in an area that can get lots of snow and I do love the snow. I would miss it for sure. 

Yesterday two floors cleaned and today the basement and then that task is finished for the week. I did not do a thing on the Siderfin book yesterday I spent it all pretty much cleaning. I have a few extra jobs that I wanted to accomplish just to neaten things up and so that was done and I am happy with that. I need not to have clutter as I find it distracting when I am trying to work. 

Today work on the Protestation Returns of Somerset to make sure all of the Siderfin members have been extracted as that is an important time in Somerset history. With the wills all destroyed in the bombing of the Exeter Record Office, the need to use other tools is very important. Fortunately there was a lot of abstracting done on those wills and the Siderfin family has a lot of Abstracts which I have put into an earlier blog. 

William Siderfin
Lived at Luxborough, Somerset
Will dated 20 Aug 1568
Probate 16 May 1572
Christian, burial in Chancel
All bequeathed to Wilmot, his wife
Witnessed by Mr. Alexander Sydenham

Christian Siderfin
Lived at Luxborough, Somerset
Widow
Will dated 28 Nov 1644
Probate 4 July 1648
Daughter Mary Gyldes (lives at Dunster, widow)
Son William Siderfin
Son Thomas Siderfin
Son Robert Siderfin
Daughter Wilmot Siderfin
Sons of Thomas Siderfin (her son) Thomas and Philip

Thomas Siderfin
the elder of Luxborough, Somerset
Gentleman
Will dated 6 Nov 1675 (no probate)
To the poor 10 pounds
His wife is Johan
Son Robert Siderfin
Son Thomas Siderfin (50 pounds) and all his law books
All children to receive one peece of Barbary gould
Grandchild La....
Johan his wife executrix

Thomas Siderfin
Middle Temple, London
Esquire
Will dated 17 Mar 1678
Will proved 15 June 1681 (by Ann Siderfin, widow)
Wife Ann
Brother Robert Siderfin and wife Ann to receive his messuages of Crodon, Manors of Exton and South Quarme (in Exton), lands in Carhampton, Somerset, and in Lambeth
100 pounds a year to his wife
50 pounds per year to Anne his daughter
Survivor of wife and brother to receive lands in Somerset

Katherine Sidderfin alias Graves
Croydon, Carhampton, Somerset
Died at Exeter
Husband Robert Sidderfin
Administration granted 23 Nov 1686 to husband

Thomas Siderfin
Luxborough, Somerset
Administration to his widow Mary 4 Nov 1687
Daughter Christian (wife of John Worth)

Mary Siderfin
Luxborough, Somerset
widow
Will dated 19 Nov 1689
Will proved 10 Oct 1693
Grandchildren: Susanna Worth, Christian Worth, Mary Worth and Sarah Worth
Daughter Christian Worth

Ann Siderfin
Lambeth
Widow
Will dated 22 Mar 1687
Will proved 5 Mar 1706
Buried at Lambeth near husband and mother
Aunt Gee
Aunt Gee's sons Orlando and Joe Gee
Cousin Gilbert East

William Siderfin
Minehead, Somerset
Gentleman
Will dated 9 Mar 1716
Will proved 17 Dec 1723
Niece Rachael Clothier
Wife Mary to be Executrix

Richard Blackford
Dunster, Somerset
King's Masters Extraordinary in the Court of Chancery
Will dated 8 Jan 1688
Will proved 4 Apr 1689
Wife Elizabeth Blackford
Son William
Daughter Sidwell Blackford
Sister Mary Coffin
Sister Christian Blackford
Cousin John Quirck
Cousin Robert Siderfin
Sister ....Hawkins
Son in law Edward Dyke
Daughter Elizabeth Dyke

Mary Quirke
Periton, Minehead, Somerset
Widow
Will dated 3 Mar 1728
Will proved 29 April 1730
Son in law Walter Siderfin
Grandson Thomas Quirke
Daughter Mary Question
Daughter Alice Siderfin
Son John Quirke
Son James Quirke
Son Robert Quirke
Son Thomas Quirke

Robert Quirck
Minehead, Somerset
Gentleman
Will dated
19 July 1731
Will proved 9 July 1731
Uncle Mr. Robert Siderfin (Executor)
Son of kinsman Mr. Walter Siderfin, is Robert Siderfin, gives his estate in Old Cleeve

These wills that were abstracted by F. Brown are very handy but I do have more Siderfin Wills in the time frame of the 1600s that I must also look up once again. It is interesting coming back to a project that I worked on steadily nearly 15 years ago now. I should write to my cousin and see what he accumulated but I assume he is disappointed at not proving the line in order to show "rights" to the Siderfin Coat of Arms although my knowledge of such things is limited and the process that one must go through. Coats of Arms do not actually interest me very much; although they can be helpful in figuring out a family (Blake is a good example). The Pincombe Coat of Arms has been considerably less useful as it was only used by one family and the line daughtered out and it does not appear to have been used officially since the 1600s. Other than that I really haven't looked at Crests to be honest. 

The will of Thomzine Siderfin became rather important in my thinking as I read through the old blog post. I shall attempt to pick up on that particular thought. It is James Sanders chart that brings it to mind as he has Robert father of Robert married to Elizabeth Question (he actually has Elizabeth Blackwood but that is incorrect) listed, This Robert is said to have married Thomasin who died in 1709 leaving a will. Robert is said to be of Selworthy. I just noticed that there isn't an e on the forename. So must alter my search path from what was in my thoughts at the time of the earlier blog post. She only mentions one son though and so the Chart that I can see does not link this Robert married to Thomasin back to the line from which it appears to connect. Interesting actually. Where does this Robert fit in and that is my search at this time. Where does this Robert fit in as I am sure Thomasin would have mentioned all of her children in her will.

The abstract for the will of Thomasin Siderfin is in Sanders book so the original will once again was lost:

Thomasin Siderfin, Selworthy, widow. Will dated 2nd July, 1709. Mentions son, Robert Siderfin. Cousin Robert Siderfin of Linch. Grandsons, John, Robert, Augustine, Thomas, various small legacies, and granddaughters, Jane, Susanna. Witness: Thomas Trill, John Harrison, Joane Trill. 

I believe this is the point that I was at when I surrendered my one-name Siderfin family study to my cousin and so I had forgotten that the will abstract was in the book. Lucky find first thing in the morning. It is from this line that my Siderfin ancestor arose - Elizabeth Siderfin daughter of Robert Siderfin and  Grace Kent. Augustine was a School Master at Selworthy. I am assuming that he taught school but will do a little search to learn more about that. According to the Cambridge Dictionary Schoolmaster is an old-fashioned noun and the meaning - a man who teaches children in a school. I would say that learning was very important in this line as my 2x great grandmother was also a school teacher before marrying John Pincombe. She home schooled her children which my mother mentioned and was considered to be quite fierce in having all five of her children well educated. Certainly my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe had a great interest in reading according to my grandmother. 

On to breakfast and the rest of the cleaning. A busy day ahead as I immerse myself in the Siderfin family once again when the work is done.

 

Picture of the King and Prince Harry

There is a picture of the King and Prince Harry (and the Prime Minister of the UK) on the newsfeed today. Wow, does Harry ever look like his father! I still find it amazing and dreadful actually the things he has, according to the various newsfeeds, said about his family in a book just for money. Poor Charlotte; a small child should not have had such a dreadful experience as a dress for an event that was so important I am sure to her. A dress that was so baggy and large she noticed it; she was just a little girl. Her tears were certainly a real happening of which we were not aware before the book - poor Kate with all that was going on at the time; new baby and a wedding that would place her right in the world spotlight should not have had to deal with so much difficulty at the last minute - her cup was really very full for a new mother and really everyone should have helped her as much as possible; that is what friends and family do. I did find that newsfeed to be pretty disgusting to be honest. Amazing we never heard a word about it until now - an earlier newsfeed painted a rather different picture. I know when I was breastfeeding my children it did not take a lot to upset me in those early weeks - one is really living for two plus she already had two other children. I know she has help but still she takes on a lot of responsibility herself for her children. But of course, in defense Harry and Meghan knew nothing about children presumably since neither had any so would not realize that a small child simply can not envision that everything can be fixed in just a couple of hours or so and ready to go. It was just too close to the date that poor little Charlotte was getting ready to take part in. Two and three year olds are so sweet really and very aware of time and such but lack some knowledge of things like just how long it takes to fix something. But it did surprise me after Harry making his statements about being worried about William's and Kate's children - not to have understood why Charlotte would be so very upset. But none of my business really; it is the sort of thing you keep within a family not on the front page of newspapers or a headline on the newsfeed. How ghastly it really is to live in that Fishbowl but King Charles and Prince William do it very very well.

William looks like King George VI more and more every time that I see him in a picture. William is coming to the age that I do remember the King (he was 50 when I first recall his picture (we had a picture of the King in our house and the picture of the Queen after he died was in the living room). Well another decade before William is 50 but the similarity is wonderful - King George VI was a great and wonderful King - he died so young. 

On to the cleaning. Breakfast completed. Continuing using up leftovers from Christmas parties so haven't been out for groceries for a while - one of these days when the milk runs out probably.  We bought six litres but the date was good although now approaching the date with the last 2 litres - macaroni and cheese tonight and with four or five breakfasts the milk will soon be gone.

Cleaning Day and the Protestation Returns of Somerset

One always seems to be constantly returning to the same datasets as I look once again at the Somerset Protestation Returns in between cleaning bouts today. I do not remember now if I ever sought out the Siderfin family in the Protestation Returns. I indexed my blog with a purpose as far as my one-name studies were concerned and back on the 16th July 2009 I did look at that. However I can not trust that I have actually located all of them and so I will repeat the survey of the Protestation returns and Subsidy 1641-42 as the idea of really different spellings of surnames but still foreign to me in 2009 - slowly seeping in but I know that I did not do a thorough enough job of seeking them out. 

Protestation Returns - 1641-42
Sidderfin Thomas gent Carhampton 1.
Sidderfin Robert Luxborough 2.
Sidderfin Thomas Luxborough 3.
Siderfin William overseer Luxborough 4.
Sidderfin Robert Minehead 5.
Sidderfin John Selworthy 6.

Subsidy 1641-42

Surname Forename Suffix s d Parish
Syderfyn Thos gent 5 6 Carhampton 7.
Syderfyn Thomas 11 Cutcombe 8.
Syderfin Cristian 6 8 Luxborow Everard 9.
Syderfin William 4 8 Luxborow Everard 10.
Syderfyn Thomas 4 6 Minehead 11.
Syderfyn Robert rater 4 7 Minehead 12.
Syderfyn Robert sen 4 Timberscombe 13.
Syderfyn Robert jun 3 Timberscombe 14.
Syderfyn Wm rater 8 1 Treborough Browne 15.
Syderfyn Robert 13 6 Wotton Courtney 16.

At this time I did know about James Sanders book and did have an electronic copy. Reading though my blog of the 16th July 2009 I am looking at the age of Robert (will probated 1627/8) and when he was born. I query whether in 1568 when William Sidervin's will was probated Robert and his sister Jone (married to William Westerne (Westeron in 1602)) were still young. One thought that has come to me is the date of the marriage of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster. The creation of the indenture in 1534-35 does not necessarily mean that William and Wilmot married at that time. They could have both been young and that could well move the date of Robert's and Jone's birth on and I must learn more about the Muster Rolls and how young an individual might be on those rolls. After all the children of Kings of England went off to sea as midshipman at the age of twelve years even in the 1900s. Each year gained makes this will by Robert in 1627/28 all the more plausible and if he was but 12 years of age in 1569 then we are looking at a date of birth in 1557 which would make him an even more reasonable age to be married and baptizing children in the 1580s and 1590s and even up to 1602. One must be a history sleuth as well in order to make sense of one's family. At that point, when I wrote that blog in 2009,  I had not located the Somerset Muster Rolls naming a Robert Siderfin in 1569. Interesting my thoughts and it is not long after this that I gave the Siderfin study away to my cousin and I only just realized in the past year that my cousin was no longer doing a one-name study on Siderfin! Life does move and change for sure. 

I like to be logical and that shows up in these files - I have no idea why I numbered each of these lines and the remainder of the blog text that day does not elucidate that reasoning either. But I shall leave them in in case they bring back a memory!

Speaking of logic; one wonders why would a country invade another country on a trumped up charge of Nazism when that country (namely Russia) has only shown Nazi tendencies themselves as they ruthlessly invade the countries on their borders stealing land and riches. Is it because they want to kill off the young men in their country who might have thoughts of separating from Russia itself? (These Nazis Putins and his enablers well know that the rest of the world does not want a Third World War and they hold us ransom threatening us again and again with a nuclear war hoping to get us to back off helping Ukraine.) One wonders - what is their logic? After all the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan for land and wealth but ended up retreating back having lost a lot of young men and causing the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union and its breakup. Putin considers this to be a travesty that the Soviet Union is gone but we see it as freedom for millions of people held captive by the Soviet Union for over 50 years (and those people will fight for their freedom; Russia should never think anything else; no one wants to be part of the Soviet Union except Russia herself and Belarus it appears). Is there any logic that fits sending the youth of their country to die on the battlefields of Ukraine in the thousands by the way - it is believed that thousands and thousands of young Russian men have died on these battlefields without proper equipment to aid them (the sons of the psychopathic Nazis Putin and his enablers are enjoying life in Moscow they are not dying on the battlefields of Ukraine). These young men of Russia dying in Ukraine have basically been used as cannon fodder and to what end? In the long run, it is a false idea because these young men who have been called up and have actually reported for duty are the least likely to rock the boat and create a revolution but the way that they are being used is giving them the incentive to refuse to follow orders. Russia will create her own revolution once again within her own borders because she invaded a free country namely Ukraine and has been spilling the blood of children, women and men of Ukraine ever since. The land is soaked in their blood; they will fight Russia until Russia leaves, Poland has been given permission to send their tanks to Ukraine by Germany. Russians go home; women of Russia call your men home before they are all dead on the battlefields of Ukraine where they have no right to be anyway - Ukraine is a free country. Russia should be a free country but the Nazis Putin and his enablers along with Patriarch Kirill are lying to you and they have made Russia a land of serfs and Nazis overlords. The Nazis are Russians trying to steal land and riches from Ukraine. Throw away your uniforms and go home to your aging fathers and mothers, go home to your wives and families - Russia is using you as cannon fodder. Glory to Ukraine. Death to the invaders.

Time marches onward and progress on the Siderfin book

 Yesterday was devoted heavily to working on the Siderfin Book. I have more or less completed the third generation with a few loose ends I am still working on. It had a major stumbling block as James Sanders had Robert Siderfin (son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster) dying in 1612 but there is a will in 1627 for a Robert Siderfin naming his children and sister's child. There isn't a will in 1612 for a Robert Siderfin. His age in 1627 would be estimated at 87 which was a very long lived life at that time. The estimated 1540 year of birth was based on his parent's likely marriage in 1534-5 given the indenture that was created as the marriage portion for Wilmot (Foster) Siderfin by her father John Foster and Robert appears on the Muster Roll of 1569 although he could have been as young as 16 perhaps so that year of birth could be 1540 to 1544 which would then give him an estimated age at death of 83. The baptisms of his children begin in the 1580s which has him as rather older when his children were born and has been a challenge in my thoughts but there isn't an inkling of the maiden surname of his wife Christian or their date of marriage. The will of 1627 names his children and grandchildren as well as the child of his sister (except for a Mary/Marie mentioned in the will as a daughter but one child Elizabeth is missing from the will and she married James Nurcombe 30 Sep 1616 at Luxborough and has a death date of 1668 on Sander's Pedigree Chart. He does mention his granddaughter Johanne Couch (daughter Christian married William Couch 3 Jun 1616 at Luxborough). The records are definitely thin on the ground in this time period and the parish registers for Luxborough in the 1500s have been "eaten" making them rather difficult to read but the name Siderfin does rather stand out where it exists fortunately. 

Today I continue with the Third Generation and hopefully moving onto the Fourth Generation. The size of Robert's family makes this a rapidly expanding family and I will do the Fourth Generation as four separate charts - namely one for each of the three sons leaving a large family - namely William, Robert and Thomas - and one for the overall family including the daughters of Robert. I have not done the task of working the table down for the daughters as being a one-namer the second that one changes their surname I may or may not record the first generation although generally I do not but in this case I will attempt to bring the line down a couple of generations if that is possible (in this case there is the Couch family, the Nurcombe family and perhaps one other as I have not discovered if the youngest daughter Jane married - she is mentioned in the will regarding her marriage portion). Mary remains a bit of an enigma since there is a Mary in the will but not an Elizabeth! Mary Elizabeth would have been a common name as the female children were often given the name Mary along with another forename and the boys were often given Joseph along with another surname but not perhaps as often as the forename Mary is given. We are now into the times of Queen Elizabeth when the Anglican Church was becoming more prominent in England with Elizabeth as Supreme Governor (Queen Mary returned the Church of England to its former position as part of the Church of Rome and the Pope as Head of the Church). 

I will do some shifting of text so that all of the text dealing with the Second Generation is part of that section. There is still more text to go through in the Third Generation portion. When I first read "The Siderfin Family of West Somerset" book by James Sanders I was quite pleased with all the material but I can see where my changes will make it more readable and less of an historical tome of events in the Siderfin Family brought together with subtitles of the most eventful happenings in the Family over a period of three hundred years. 

Reading the news today and once again are the Nazis Putin and his enablers going to be able to hold the world ransom so that it can steal Ukraine? The threat of nuclear war has forever been bandied about over the seventy seven years of  my life. We will probably need nuclear weapons in our future if only to move asteroids out of the way of the planet but threatening us constantly with global annihilation is just a childish two year old way of saying I want it and if I can not have it then I will destroy everything. Russia, as a country, has a unique and beautiful history over the thousands of years of its existence. Too bad that the psychopathic Nazis Putin and his enablers have a goal that is untenable in the modern world. We can not let brutes run our world; we all lose because today it is Ukraine but what is it tomorrow? Give Ukraine the equipment that it needs to push the Russians back to the borders established at the end of the Soviet Union. No one asked the Soviet Union to wage wars that caused its bankruptcy and the break up of the Soviet Union. Millions of people were freed from enslavement behind an Iron Curtain when the Soviet Union collapsed; this war will come if Russia does not get out of Ukraine - they can not unilaterally hold an illegal referendum without the United Nations being part of it to declare it a free election and then claim that land as part of Russia. Armageddon looms again and the way to God is through Jesus and the path is through the New Commandments not some wishy washy statements made by a corrupt Rasputin like Patriarch Kirill. If he cared about the Russian Orthodox Church and the millions of adherents in Russia he would support Ukraine's right to be free. But it is all about power and money and his own glory and so he treats the Russians like serfs and tells them lies to get them to go to war against their blood; their cousins and neighbours. We must not lose the beauty of the words that Christ brought to us. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is like onto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; There is none other commandment greater than these. One of the great mysteries of the Russian Orthodox Church is their belief that one faithful person with one icon can rebuild the sacred Russian Orthodox Church which has its roots deep in the Christianity created by Christ Himself. There can be wicked people Russia - remember Rasputin - support Ukraine not the Nazis Putin and his enablers who have taken over your government. Russia belongs to the Russian people not the Nazis Putin and his enablers.

Todays Bible Reading from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

 The Bible Reading today was especially poignant. 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 and the guidance therein. The Concordance says of this section Paul is feeling somewhat dismayed by the issues that have arisen in Corinth and he trusts that by discussing the authentic Christian perspective that the appropriate conclusions will be drawn. In this century many of us have become more accepting of people's rights and that too is in the commandments that Jesus gave to us. We must not lose the beauty of the words that Christ brought to us. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is like onto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; There is none other commandment greater than these. Ukraine is part of all of that; Russia attacked Ukraine for many false and anti-Christ reasons and those reasons should resonate around the world - the evil which Russia has created goes against everything that Christ said with these commandments which he gave to us. We must help Ukraine to stand against this evil that the Nazi Putin and his enablers have thrust upon all of us. The continuing threat of nuclear annihilation which is behind the sickening smiles of Nazi Putin and his sycophants is a tragedy for all of us and we must supply Ukraine with what they need to drive the Russians back into their own country. There the people of Russia must manage their country and rid themselves of these psychopathic Nazis Putin and his enablers. They are ruinous to our world - all of us suffer from their inability to be good citizens of the world.

Great progress on the Siderfin book as I reached back to the early part and did the searching to prove the line that my Siderfin cousin suggested was correct and so it was. It was a good find on his part especially as the chart in the book did not really make sense as the children of Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent were born at the same time as their parents. I think though that James Sanders (whose mother was deceased for thirty years at the time of his writing this particular book) simply was confused and the chart does present itself with possibilities of interpretation although clearly he was attaching his line to the wrong John Siderfin. Carrying forward and I am once again at the Third Generation and will continue with that today. I have a clear three weeks to work before I must start the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter for the 1st of March. These two families merge in my mind because John Pincombe (my 2x great grandfather) married Elizabeth Rew at Bishops Nympton and Elizabeth's mother was Elizabeth Siderfin married to John Rew. My DNA matches with this family are most interesting because they are double the size with Elizabeth Rew having a twin sister Charlotte who married Daniel Love and the descendants of this line are matching me as if they were third cousins instead of the fourth cousins which they are and many of them have tested. 

Watched the sunrise and it was a winter sunrise with a faint glow in the sky telling me there is more snow to come; another seven or eight centimetres on the bird feeder yesterday. The birds though search down through the snow and find the seeds and chirp happily as they meet together on the bird feeder. They are hardy those birds that stay here in the winter. 

On to breakfast. 

Newsletter Completed and the Siderfin Book moving forward

 Another day of great accomplishment and hopefully more of the same today. The Kip-Kipp Newsletter is completed and will publish it on the 1st of February. It will also be the last time that I published the H11 Newsletter which is rather sad. When I decided, after Russia invaded Ukraine, not to publish it because the people in my study from Ukraine would not have time to read it and the Russians in my study should certainly be trying harder to make their government aware that invading a sovereign country is illegal and immoral. But I have gone on and on at length about this dreadful war which is shedding the lifeblood of Ukrainian children and adults. The more that Russia continues to kill the greater the resolve builds of the Ukrainian people to defeat the Russian army and drive them back to the borders established at the fall of the Soviet Union. In the past one hundred years Russia has tried to destroy the Ukrainian people first under Stalin and now under Putin - both psychopaths. Putin is a Nazi though, although he throws that title around, he has all the attributes of a Nazi along with his enablers as he tries to steal land and riches from Ukraine.

On to the Siderfin book and I did accomplish and move forward and also backward with the book yesterday. When I let my cousin take over the Siderfin one-name project years ago now (maybe a dozen I would have to look it up) he wanted to establish a clear line for the Siderfin family and since he lived near Taunton I felt that I should step back and let him do that. At some point he did correspond with me concerning Sander's book on the Siderfin family noting that Sanders had wrongly placed his mother in the genealogical chart and I did accept that at face value. Yesterday, I had this sudden realization that I had not proven that for myself and that was my backwards step. Today I continue in that vein as at the beginning of the book where James writes that his mother was Elizabeth Siderfin I had dutifully put in the new line that my cousin had mentioned. The problem with giving up a study is that the new person may or may not have the same vision as you have; continuance until you have made a difference or found a person who can take it on and run with it for a good length of time is necessary in my humble opinion. My cousin gave up the study at some point during my husband's illness and I did not notice - BLAKE and PINCOMBE keep me pretty busy. So I would be reluctant to pass on either of my studies whilst I can still manage them with that history in mind. 

Looking at the PINCOMBE study I inherited a more or less joint study called PINCOMBE for simplicity but it was literally a PINCOMBE-PINKHAM study. I was ambivalent about the PINKHAM surname section initially mostly because my great grandfather went to a great deal of trouble to correct the spelling of his surname on the census here in Canada being greatly disturbed with the spelling of PINKHAM when it was always spelled PINCOMB{E} in his family. He could accept the E at the end but not an entirely new spelling of the surname! Hence at a young age I learned that this was an incorrect spelling of the surname. However, the two researchers prior to me both had the PINKHAM surname and had studied PINCOMBE as well so I felt it would be an injustice on my part to shear off the one surname. Gradually as I acquired their work at the Society of Genealogists and via a PINCOMBE cousin in England, I could see that members of the PINCOMBE family in Northwest Devon (Barnstaple/Bideford area) had begun to use the surname PINKHAM interchangeably with PINCOMBE. Hence I continued as I started looking at the study from the same viewpoint as my predecessors had done. 

Lately an interesting event occurred which I related a few days ago where a cousin (and I believe he is a cousin although distant) wrote to me about his line at Roborough. He had tested at Ancestry and I quickly checked the four kits of my family and the kit of my known fourth cousin but did not find a match with him. Since his line had the PINKHAM surname in his tree, I decided to put the PINKHAM surname into the search box on Ancestry under "name in tree." For whatever reason (or could be I have forgotten doing so) I had not done that in recent memory and surprisingly a number of matches popped up and what was most significant, as these matches were truly rather small in length, was that some of these individuals matched more than one of my siblings/cousin. That certainly captured my attention and I shall be writing that up in the next newsletter for this family due 1st of March 2023. But I have my siblings tested in all the databases and always more than one of us, generally four or five of us are tested at every company. So I shall start doing more searching on the PINKHAM surname in those databases. But my concentration for the moment will be Siderfin whilst I work away at revising this book that James Sanders so kindly wrote over a century ago. 

There is a certain element of responsibility in taking on a study of a surname. The number of emails in my inbox testifies to that - you become known as a purveyor of information and one must be as accurate as possible or confess to not having knowledge of that line and perhaps direct the individual elsewhere if there is that possibility. That is my purpose and so I continue at 77 years of age doing just that. I do wonder on occasion if my eldest daughter will take up the torch when I step down but suspect that she will head for the KIPP study. When Edward passed away I did drop the study at the Guild in his name. I simply could not take it on and if there was another the opportunity to pick it up was then there. However, it has not been picked up and being a Germanic surname it may not be although more and more world surnames are being picked up by members of the Guild as it increases its presence around the world. It is somewhat dominated by "British" surnames though for the most part given its original roots but the purpose of the Society is acquisition of world information on a surname and hence anyone is welcomed to join. 

So always a conundrum when looking at one's study and the furtherance of that study. On a world level, the number of holders of the PINCOMBE surname continues to dominate but the number of holders of the PINKHAM surname in the United State of America is quite large so time will tell when I do step down how the study will flow. DNA will certainly become a large part of surname studies in the future - in my studies it already dominates although I do not write up a lot on that particularly. In the BLAKE study it is known that the founding lines of the BLAKE family are multiple with a number of founding lines in England itself. With the PINCOMBE it appears to be a singleton family study and time will tell on that but reaching far back into the 1300s prior to the PENCOMBE family appearing at North Molton there is a record (and perhaps more than one I have only looked at the Calendar of Patent Rolls) of a PENCOMBE family at Pencombe, Herefordshire near Bromyard. How that will pan out in terms of learning about the early history prior to 1485 of this family is unknown to me; I have a number of early records for the family that have not yet been transcribed - a project for one of these days so I may discover that or I may leave it for others to come along and pick up as I did the PINCOMBE study in my early days of genealogy in 2006. 

Newsletter and the Siderfin Book

Yesterday was productive I am pleased to say. I am sure Homo sapiens hibernated in the winter way back when and probably spent the time learning - this latest paper on a proto-language from 20,000 years ago was very interesting.  I shall keep a watch on the research literature for more information (some are dubious but the human mind is a glorious thing when it is working properly). I think perhaps my thought is "why not" rather than to look at it through the narrow view of what has already been collected - being broadminded and open to new and thoughtful comments which can and should be more thoroughly investigated is a good thing.

Yesterday was an interesting time for me as I worked through some of the Pinkham information which I received over the past week. I am really glad now that I followed the course that I did when I took on the Pincombe one-name study at the Guild (collect and examine what has been done and move forward). The original researchers - Galen Pinkham and a Dr Richard Pinkham took on the study perhaps in the late 70s I do not actually know that but Richard Pinkham was already into the thick of it collecting information from his many informants in the north Devon area. He was a physician located in Gloucestershire when I heard of him but he was likely retired then. The opportunity to chat with people with the surname was for sure more available to him in his occupation. The name started as Pencomb(e) possibly in Pencombe Herefordshire near Bromyard but I have no proof of that just coincidence. In 1485 an unknown Pencombe arrived in North Molton with Lord de la Zouch. Given that Lord de la Zouch had been attainted in 1485 for loyalty to King Richard III there was likely a necessity for him to be "out of the way for a while." I have recently learned that the first Baron de la Zouch,  Alan la Zouche (died 1190). was lord of the manor of North Molton which explains why he went to North Molton bringing along some of his adherents following the defeat of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. A wikipedia article has quite a bit of information but is lacking citations for some of the statements. However, the de la Zouche family is not of interest to me but rather the notation on the Visitation of Devon 1620 noting that an unknown Pencombe had arrived with Lord de la Zouch in North Molton in 1485. There we have a date for the beginning of the Pencombe family in Devon. Over time, a few people have hinted that this was a Cornwall name but a long list of surnames from another researcher in Devon does perhaps put that argument into the wind. When one collects up the surnames in the Parish Registers, which fortunately in many cases started in 1538 or shortly afterwards, and plots them a picture does emerge of this family moving out from North Molton across North Devon. Unfortunately, I have not done this particular mapping except in my mind as I have read the early registers of these parishes. A mapping task I may just set myself to one of these days. 

I also did find time to continue with the Kipp Newsletter and this son Hendrick Hendricksen Kip (named after his father Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, the emigrant to New Amsterdam from Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and the discovery that the reporting for this son is incorrect in some of the early books. There was confusion between the two perhaps and in one book the author has the emigrant returning to Amsterdam leaving his children behind which, given the age of the children, was unlikely. The author also has him married to the wrong person. I can see why Frederic Ellsworth Kip put so much time into publishing the "Kip Family in America" to correct his portion of history and lucky that he did as once in print it is really difficult to make changes. I will continue with the Newsletter today. 

The Siderfin Book was also looked at by me as I rediscovered when I had stopped (the footnotes were helpful in that regard) and at that point I found an interesting document which I believe I will purchase but there is a backlog of four to six weeks which is unfortunate as it fits in just where I am. Likely I could just move on but it would be nice to know what the document says. So I shall contemplate that whilst I continue with the third generation. The benefit of obtaining the document would be the verification that the Siderfin family was in Luxborough prior to 1548 which has more or less been proven but the original document would be nice. Spending time at Kew with all those documents at my fingertips gave me a thirst for having original documentation in my work. However, the practicality of spending time at Kew when I am thousands of miles away is questionable! This document is in the Somerset Archives so even less likely that I would ever be in that building. I do dream of all of these documents being online one day and it will likely happen which means the future one-namers will have access but in the meantime it is expensive to copy all of these documents and so I shall think very clearly about this one particular one. It is apparently very large and that does slow me down a little. Working on documents from the 1600s is a challenge although they are often in English which is helpful as I do not find reading the old English text difficult in itself if it is clear. Where I run into trouble is with Latin. I am very slow and prodding with Latin. 

My research days are cut out for me which is great. Yesterday I also cleared away the small amount of snow for some nice fresh air.  I generally move away the small amounts in between the Snow Removal company doing the job. We are expecting another snowfall over this weekend so great for skiing. 

Not sunrise quite yet but I am up early and shall have my breakfast and on with the day.

My Pilgrimage to Rome

It is now more than 22 years since I made my pilgrimage to Rome and today's Bible Reading (Matthew 16:13-20)  brought it back to me once again ("So I will call you Peter, which means "a rock." On this rock I will build my church ...").  It was a marvelous opportunity to go to Rome; I wanted to do that for a very long time and the idea was enhanced by my belonging to the World Wide Anglican group that was my principal communication with other Anglicans - it was a huge group at that time (joined in 1995 when I first acquired an email address) around 400 people as I recall. I had learned a great deal from all of the people in that group - my hitherto feelings of being sin-free were rapidly replaced with the knowledge that my sins of omission were still sins in the eyes of God. People in the group talked about going to Rome and specifically the Vatican and so the idea was born in my mind that I too would like to make such a pilgrimage. For most people I think perhaps they think of the Holy Land but for me the Church in Rome was the ancient seat of Christianity as it rose rapidly to become one of the dominant religions of the world. I wanted to see all of that and I wanted to visit the Vatican Museum. Suddenly, the opportunity presented itself when the next ECUSA Bishop of Europe was to be consecrated at the Church of St Paul Inside the Wall and we, the members of the Anglican worldwide group, were invited to come in the early summer of 2001. I decided instantly that I would like to do that; I asked my husband if he would like to go but thus far in our years of marriage (we were married for 34 years then) Edward did not want to go to Europe (he did not want to fly there; he often thought of going by ship which was not practical time wise). My oldest daughter was between ideas at that time as she had been thinking of doing her Masters in Library Science and welcomed the opportunity to have this ten days that I was planning to fly once again to Europe as she had been about eight years earlier on a School trip. So together we spent the next four months learning to speak Italian (she was already fluent in French and quickly picked it up; I did learn enough to at least speak to people and understand a little and mostly read Italian as needed on the trip). Soon we were a group of around a dozen people planning to go to Rome from different parts of the world but primarily the United States of America and the UK and members of the Commonwealth countries (not surprising considering that the Church of England is the Anglican Communion). The eight days spent in Rome were memorable -  we went to Vatican City every day (we were staying at a monastery not far away) and we took a full day tour of Rome and a number of tours on our own. But every day we went to St Peters Basilica and it was and remains one of my most religious experiences that I have ever undertaken. 

The Pope was at his window one of the days (it was rainy) and he blessed the crowd in St Peters Square. I am remembering that and the Pope's appeal to Russia to get out of Ukraine and stop killing the people there - different Pope - same message (the two memories flow together). I was horrified to see that once again Russia has bombed an apartment building in Ukraine and the number of deaths continues to climb - so many children. The sin of killing children will be a blight on Russia; she must stop and get out of Ukraine; back to the boundaries set up at the fall of the Soviet Union. Let the Ukrainians live; stop killing then. The Russians are psychopathic Nazis killing children, women, men all over Ukraine in their Nazi thirst for land and riches. It is disgusting and this murderous rampage has been going on for nearly 100 years. We must continue to supply Ukraine with the ability to throw out the Russians and then help them rebuild - the blood of the children of Ukraine is on the hands of every Russian that supports this war; that does nothing to stop it. Glory to Ukraine.

This week I shall work on the Kipp Newsletter and the Siderfin book. The day is a dull one; likely freezing rain as winter in Canada continues apace on its way to spring. The frozen rain are God's and Mother Nature's tears for the children (and adults) of Ukraine being murdered by the Russians. No tears for the Russian dead; they are murderous Nazis - serfs (cannon fodder) to Nazi Putin and his enablers. Rise up O Russia and cast them off; bring your sons home to live not die on the battlefields in Ukraine which Russia has created.

Pincumbe/Pincombe/Pinkham/Pencombe and their various spellings

An interesting email yesterday where a descendant of the Pincombe family has traced his lineage back to the Bishops Nympton Pincombe family which is my own. I believe he is the first descendant of Thomas Pincombe that I have met (younger brother to my William) and both are sons of John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore. Their sons were William,  John, Thomas and Hugh with daughters Johan and Willmote (these girls were twins). John died as a child of 13 years. William and Thomas lived at Bishops Nympton and Hugh lived at Landkey in their adult married lives. Thomas married Christian (unknown) but not at Bishops Nympton and I have not yet located that marriage. They appeared to have just two children Mary who died as an infant and John who married Catharine Bryer 3 Nov 1732 at Bishops Nympton. I was able to trace down the second son William and third son Thomas  who lived at Bishops Nympton and one daughter who also married at Bishops Nympton - in true one-namer fashion I have not traced their children. The researcher who wrote to me was able to fill in the line that I was missing coming down from Thomas the third son. The spelling Pincumbe was adopted in the 1800s and so they disappeared from my view and possibly they did go to the American colonies at some point perhaps before or after the Revolutionary War. 

Testing at Ancestry is interesting. You of course do not have any chromosome matching unless the results are taken into another database by the tester. However with the results of five siblings I can tell with some matches where the match is especially if one of the siblings has just a small match and then it is limited to just one chromosome. The much smaller matches tend to get ignored by me unless someone writes. I really do not look at anything less than 20 cM for the most part although I do bear in mind that Ancestry's use of TIMBER (a software designed to eliminate "common" lengths of DNA that are related to ethnicity) does shrink up some of the results and I have several good examples where as much as 50% of the length disappears but I have to admit I do not particularly let that deter me from ignoring them unfortunately. If the individual matches more than two of us then I will take a longer look. My next work on the Pincombe/Pinkham conundrum will actually take me down that route. 

Cleaning awaits; I get easily distracted for sure.

Ivory Tower

Having lived in an Ivory Tower for most of my life, I am wary of making statements because I know that my life has been easily lived so I can not really understand the depth of feelings created by racism and other forms of violent, abusive and unkind behaviour. Living in that Ivory Tower is actually easy but difficult perhaps for those around you. You can adopt this attitude that you are perfect and only see the faults in the world. But we all have faults of one kind or another and a really particular fault is thinking that you are able to "fix" people. Fortunately I have refrained from that although I do on occasion take up my stance on particular items. In my old age, I refuse to allot blame however as none of us is free from blame, I will defend myself since living in my Ivory Tower I am uncommitted to most things. The exception is my devotion to God, Mother Nature, my country and my family (in my mind I do realize I am 100% Canadian but there is a part of me that is also British and so I do sometimes embroil myself in items there on occasion). Those are my commitments and I retain them for myself and will to my death I suspect. Truly I prefer the hermit existence although Edward did manage to drag me out into the world doing various things through our life together. Having children also resulted in my leaving that Ivory Tower to be part of their growing up years - helping at play group, helping in their schools in the early years, helping with Brownies for six years and then electing to serve the District rather than do Guides with them. I was volunteered to be secretary at Edward's Church although I had been secretary at my own for a short period when it was very new and young. I did volunteer to be part of the World Day of Prayer preparations for a number of years for both Edward's Church and my own Anglican Church. But that was really the extent of my own volunteering everything else Edward volunteered me to do. My cousin dragged me into genealogy needing a profile for the Pincombe family for the book on Westminster and Delaware Townships that he was editing in 2003. But I can still be in my Ivory Tower working on my parent's one name studies which I did actually move to after taking 42 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and in particular DNA - such a marvelous topic in our lifetime. 

That does bring me to Harry and his Memoir. I had meant not to comment anymore on that particular item but one wonders why someone would go out of their way to destroy their family - is jealousy such a powerful human emotion that one would destroy one's own or at least attempt to do so (he says he is trying to help them but it is a strange kind of help one might say). The Queen saw Harry's jealousy; she took away much of what was Harry with the stripping of his military titles and his honorary titles because he said he wanted out - it was a logical step on her part. He punished her by not going to Balmoral when he could have done so while she was alive. Criticizing the Queen would not have gone over well and so he has gone after his father and brother (and their wives). It is sad really to attack one's own in such a public way and one might think he would regret it in his old age but I am dubious of that. I do not think that the Duke of Windsor ever regretted anything that he did. Harry is probably better ignored. I think Anderson Cooper got it right; why keep the titles? Renouncing them would seem to be the right route in order to support all of what was said about the British Monarchy; renouncing his place in succession for himself and his children would seem to be the appropriate route given what has been said about the British Monarchy. Thinking that the British people would ever want him as their King is a fairy tale. He has piled blame on them for something that was caused by Harry - he knew that his father and brother came first and simply could not accept that and attempted, like Diana, to make himself most beloved of the British public. Diana was very beloved and I respect her for all the work that she did; but she was in full support of the British monarchy and the British people - is Harry? He too has lived in an Ivory Tower his entire life and continues that same course without any consequences to him so long as he can pay the price for his upkeep especially security and that of his family. 

On to the day, cleaning day two.

Daylight at Dinner

Perhaps the best part of mid-January is the daylight at dinner and light in the morning; the world is slowly coming back towards the Spring Equinox which will be March 20, 2023.  But I eat early and it is still dark when I get up in the morning but the light soon comes. For me, the sad part is I have not accomplished that much this Fall and early Winter. The next two months will be spent working on my projects and I will try not to get distracted. A good Bible Study can always distract me but I have read the book and written down my thoughts - the author called it one's "Mapping the Journey." I do get inspired on occasion and think I will go and walk the Labyrinth at the Cathedral but it is not likely and I printed off another copy of the finger Labyrinth and will set aside a time each day to finger walk the Labyrinth - I do find it relaxing when I do that. It was an interesting read "The Path of the Holy Fool" but time to get back to my transcriptions and the like. I have a lot that I want to accomplish particularly the Siderfin Book, the phasing of my great-grandparents and the wills which got set aside a while back and not yet picked up in a regular fashion. I also have quite a few Pincombe documents which I photographed at the National Archives of the UK on our last visit to Kew. I must control my time in a more rigorous fashion.

Today is cleaning day and the basement is up first. Then tomorrow the rest and I will have five days to just work away. I may ski. Yesterday a really good run to the point and back was enjoyed by me - it is good exercise and if the temperature warms up to minus 5 degrees celsius I may do that. Otherwise I have my good routine of exercise. 

Breakfast awaits and on to the day. Glory to Ukraine. May she rise out of the ashes and become the kind of nation that she wants to be - Russia save the lives of your young men and bring them back to the boundaries established at the end of the Soviet Union over thirty years ago.

Minus 15 degrees celsius

A cold January day and typical for this time in the winter although when we first moved here minus twenty five to thirty degrees celsius was not uncommon but that may come; time will tell. A short cross country skiing event yesterday just to enjoy the new fallen snow. It is deep now and perhaps today we might go again but this is pretty cold for me; we will see. 

I did go to the BIGHSGO meeting yesterday and both sessions were quite interesting. I find discussions on Cornwall to be good teaching sessions. I have done quite a bit of work on the Blake family of Cornwall although some wish I had not for sure. It does appear that the Blake family at least in western Cornwall came to Cornwall in the 1400s from Breton. I have blogged that before so will not repeat endlessly. The Parish Records which are extant in that area and most of Cornwall actually did carry early records for the Blake family. They spread out from that point in Western Cornwall but also Blake families moved from NorthWest Devon into Cornwall so there is a mixture in Eastern Cornwall. It was interesting listening to how the speaker dealt with all the records. I used cards actually as I can lay them out on a surface and rearrange them manually - could do on the computer but it is actually easier to use the cards placed on a map of Cornwall and then strings attaching lines as they moved across Cornwall. As it turns out I also have an interest in the Buller family of Cornwall although not as a one-name study (Blake and Pincombe occupy a great deal of time) so I have also transcribed the Buller wills there but have not done a thorough collection of the Parish Records. Perhaps when my one-name studies wind down I might do that but time will tell.

I have decided to have an ophthalmologist opinion on my cataracts. I always went  to an ophthalmologist from almost birth until I was in my mid fourties but my doctor became busier and busier and then he stepped back to concentrate on surgery so I decided to go to an optometrist and that has worked well for the last thirty years. But now as I approach the time to remove the cataracts a return to seeing an ophthalmologist is the best option I suspect. My father's eyes were very like mine (or mine like his since he came first!) and he had his cataracts removed in his early 80s. That was a while ago like fourty years and he was pleased with the surgery; my mother too had her cataracts removed in her early 80s and one of my sisters so my time is coming. 

Other than that life is just moving along as I work away on the Kip-Kipp Newsletter and start to think about the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. So much to do and the hours are filled for sure. The winter is a great time for working on items like that as the summer gets eaten up with the outside work. 

Tea has become the morning ritual now and coca-cola a thing of the past mostly. I did enjoy drinking a couple of ounces occasionally as it does quickly make one alert but the tea also does that and the warm drink very pleasant first thing. Today I had a turmeric-ginger tea; a gift of a box of different teas for Christmas - lovely thought for sure. 

Sunday again and Church on You-Tube. There are actually a number of large churches that have a You-Tube channel; I think it is a great addition and follows the desire of Jesus Christ that we tell His story around the world - anyone can attend anywhere in the world. 

Glory to Ukraine. May she be free once again when the Russian army goes home. May the Russians also be free of the nazi dictatorship that currently is destroying their country.

BIFHSGO Meeting

I shall attempt to attend the meetings of the BIFHSGO (British Isles Family History Society of the Greater Ottawa area) group this year. I have been a member since the beginning of this group. Not sure why I made that decision but I was intrigued by the idea that British Heritage was important enough to start an active group, although my husband was an avid genealogist, I was not convinced that one can actually put together one's family tree accurately although did have the feeling that DNA might one day be useful in that regard but this was not yet the time although there were snippets of conversation that could lead one to think we were heading that way. My husband, who had told me about the forming of the group, was very much in agreement given that he did know he had at least one British ancestor - his 2x great grandmother Mary Ann Abbs who had emigrated to Canada with her family in the 1830s and married John Link. They were buried in the Christian Cemetery at Falkland. At this time he was unaware of his huge Dissident English ancestry from the early days of the American Colonies.

January nearly half way through and our fresh fall of 30 centimetres of snow will make cross country and downhill skiing the place to be for a while. At minus 15 degrees celsius I may not do that but time will tell; perhaps a short run. 

I met a new cousin (probably pretty distant) but his email started an avalanche of work on my part as I relooked at the Pinkham derivative of the surname Pincombe. I have always been somewhat ambivalent that this derivative had stemmed from the Pincombe family even though one group of this family started using this spelling in the mid 1700s in North Devon. It seemed strange to go from Pencombe to Pincombe to Pinkham in a couple of hundred years but I am not that familiar with the dialects that existed in North Devon in this time period. It was often the local priest that ended up changing the spelling of this surname in the records but most of the early Pencombe/Pincombe family members appeared to be able to write so was surprising. However, as this family moved out from North Molton where they are first found in 1485 in Devon the prosperity level of the family did decline and perhaps the ability to read and write was lost in the 1500s as they moved away being younger sons without inherited property or the influence level was lessened  which may have resulted in the spelling of their name becoming random in the records as one notes reading these early Parish Registers. But the surprise was looking at the DNA matches in ancestry for this new cousin. He actually did  not match myself or my siblings or any of my 30 plus cousins on Ancestry. However, it prompted me to play a bit with the search function putting Pinkham into the tree search and the results were surprising and included the line from which he descends. I already knew that one member of my group was related to the Pincombe/Pinkham family at Roborough - a small match lost in the latest rendition of AncestryDNA but dutifully recorded by me when Ancestry announced they would be reducing the number of matches at the small end of the spectrum. I do not really trust matches under 20 cM but Ancestry uses Timber and matches can be smaller than they actually are when taken into other databases. The match has opened my eyes to the Pinkham found in the Royal Colony of New Hampshire and some American Pinkham families tracing back to this individual. The yDNA does not match the known yDNA of my male cousins but this Pinkham coming to New Hampshire does not have a proven path back into Devon and so he could have had a mother with the surname Pinkham. This doesn't prove that but does leave one with the thought that finding matches with descendants of this Pinkham family in New Hampshire is remarkable and I shall write it up in the next newsletter for the Pincombe-Pinkham family. 

The meeting is soon to begin and I must do my weight lifting at the same time to keep in sync with my regimen of exercise. Breakfast consumed and on to the day.

Bible Study

 I did attend the Bible Study but should have checked my computer earlier in the day as there was an update in process and I was unable to connect my microphone or webcam to Zoom. My daughter came to the rescue and I used her computer which of course created a scenario where her name was on the screen although I did send an apology for lateness and that my name was not correct on the image giving them my actual name. 

By the time that I was into the Zoom room we were going into breakout rooms and I did join that room where there were three of us. I thought we were going to discuss Chapter 1. 

I had prepared my Mapping the Journey file (it is complete as I have completed the book) and I share below my thoughts on this first chapter since we chatted about other things:

1. Interestingly the first line is the way that I think – God is present ("One beautiful day in heaven, God is admiring creation and notices a problem."). But my life philosophy is different. I do not see God as interfering in the ways of the world but rather watching and waiting to see how mankind can continue; are we intelligent enough to overcome the problems that we have created in the last two centuries because of environmental pollution created by industrialization? Two great wars have occurred with either potentially Armageddon but we moved past them and sit once again at the brink. That is my philosophy. This book was written before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

2. I am asked how I would react to this circumstance where God has created a scenario where mankind is involved. What would I do with a shard of mirror. I would be cautious; I would pick up a piece if I found it. I would think about it and perhaps discuss with my siblings. I have withdrawn back into my family in widowhood. I may blog about it because it would be the news cycle. 

3. Asked about one of the most important people in my life aside from my grandparents and  my parents was my maternal uncle (my only uncle as my father was an only child). As a young child I was nervous of him and being a fidgety child I learned to be calm and quiet in his presence but he paid attention to me and gave me good advice as a child. It continued as an adult whenever I was in  his company right to the end of his days sadly alone in a hospital because I could not go SARS was rampant in Toronto and I worked at a hospital in Ottawa. His constant approval to this child in a large family was likely good for me. But he was a realist deeply committed to his United Church and Missions and Service. From him I did learn that our most important task on earth was to serve God and one can do that at any time; in any place.

Since I prepared the comments I thought I would share them with my blog. We did chat about my thoughts on labyrinths (my thoughts are very personal) so I hedged away from that with a comment on my experiences at many religious sites in the British Isles and Europe. 

My husband and/or I have been in the British Isles and Europe six times since 2001 until our last trip in 2016. I must admit that my husband mostly regarded a lot of this time in the British Isles as mine although we did on occasion find items of interest to his lines. His families from Britain were principally dissenters and had arrived in the Colonies (now the United States of America) in the 1600s but we did find a few interesting bits of information. Our times in France particularly and other parts of Europe were all his - any ancestry that I have in Europe is ancient - Huguenots in the 1400s who fled to England is the closest that I come really to knowing any of that history. His ancestry is principally 30% German, 30% Dutch and 20% French with some British, some Scandinavian and some Danish.

I do really find labyrinths to be a wonderful way to free the mind and explore thoughts in your mind as you walk. The finger Labyrinth is a wonderful addition.

Constitutional monarchy

Canada too is a constitutional monarchy and so deeply embedded in our constitution and governance that it would be a major task to make any changes which is a good thing in my humble opinion. I would dislike having an elected Head of State or none at all. The continuance of this position representing in this case the King in Canada is a pleasant happening given the visits that are paid to our country on occasion although the latest visits have all been to the United States of America which abandoned the Empire over two hundred years ago. However, I tend to understand the nature of that relationship that exists between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It is a good beneficial relationship that oftimes has been very beneficial to Canada although Americans do find that our continuing to have a King to be somewhat strange but so far that continues I am again very happy to say. 

Having an elected Head of State means letting political parties get involved in both sets of governance and possibly at the same time. Having that continuing Head of State, which really costs us nothing except  of course supporting the Governor General and all that involves which in actuality is not a huge amount compared to what happens to our tax monies no matter which government is in power, is a balancing of governance here in Canada. Whether you like the monarchy or not; they are always there and always consistent. The monarchy even manage to remain neutral and above the fray when attacked by one of their own moving steadily forward knowing that time is their asset and not the asset of the accuser. The accuser becomes less and less relevant as the days, weeks, months and years pass. He hasn't done himself any favours (except for the money he earned for betraying the confidences of his family) and his popularity is gone actually far more than the popularity of the Duke of Windsor who remained beloved in his country of birth by many although that diminished somewhat because of his wife's correspondence with Hitler prior to and during the Second World War. Again jealousy reared its ugly head as she wanted to be Queen and the Duke of Windsor wanted that for her as well - said to be love; I think it is jealousy and lack of love.  There is a hierarchy and mouthing familial happenings doesn't change that - just shows how little was learned by the attacker from his mother; he copied her error of letting his jealousy take him down the same path where (and Diana was jealous of Charles' place in the hierarchy) she was falsely influenced into making statements that resulted in her losing her HRH place in the hierarchy of the Royal Family and being divorced. Was her life pleasant at that time? probably not but she grew up in the shadow of the Royal Family and was aware of the way that that system worked. That she went out of her way to attract the people of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and even the world to her without paying due respect to Charles' position as the eventual King was unfair. I respect Diana and was saddened when she died in a car crash but she did not do her sons any favours in the long run. She was sorry for herself and left her sons with a burden that young children should not have had to carry. I will not read the book but I suspect it will remain in the news for awhile yet and eventually most of it will be discussed and so far what I have heard has left me with the impression that her sons felt guilty at her death and that is a tragedy; a mother should always protect her children from such feelings. 

I do hope that we will continue with our Constitutional Monarchy. I believe that walking together is more important than reparations. Accusing the British of starting the Slave Trade is beyond the pale to be honest. Africans were selling Africans and ship owners simply provided them with a place to sell them (ghastly really and history will prove that it was). It is horrific that it occurred as is all slavery including the Britons sold at Slave Markets in Rome way back in those ancient times. All slavery is wrong. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is wrong and that is the here and now - they have been killing Ukrainians for nearly one hundred years. 

At the end of the Second World War and at the Fall of the Soviet Union countries emerged, were recognized at the United Nations and that is the way life should flow. There is provision for changing that within the United Nations but attacking militarily a neighbouring country is wrong/forbidden/illegal but the only way to get Russia out of there is to keep supplying Ukraine with as much firepower as they need to do the task otherwise it is World War III. The end of mankind - Armageddon! The blood is on Russia's hands and their psychopathic nazi Leaders Putin and his enablers are the problem. The solution lies with the Russian people - Rise up and rid yourselves of these monsters. Are you serfs obedient to such psychopathic nazi liars or are you Citizens of a Russia with such an ancient culture full of writers, musicians, scientists and others who have gone down in history and are celebrated around the world?