It is interesting

Yesterday was a busy day and great fun. I did not accomplish a lot but did get in 17,000 plus steps and a 40 minute run. Lots of fresh air (in spite of the rain which I actually enjoy) and lots of good conversation. I even ate out in a restaurant which I haven't done for quite a while. 

I am reminiscing on this Sunday morning (and excited that Church is once again on You-Tube - I do enjoy that) and thinking that it is interesting that throughout my entire life I have never desired to be younger than I am. So long as I stayed quiet and at home or working at work my health has been good for me and I have been content. I did volunteer at school throughout my children's early years but paid the price of unfortunately picking up childhood illnesses just like a beginner at day care. I have little or no resistance to the common cold or other such childhood maladies. Masks would have been great in retrospect but I persisted and helped with computer training or whatever the teacher assigned me to assist with in their class. My own children ignored me at school if they could because I was always this exacting person correcting work and generally encouraging from that lofty parental position good reading habits and hard work.  For myself, I have been content with my age and never once desired to be younger than I actually was and that continues. As the years pass by I am amazed to still be here in some ways although I do take care of myself. At 30 I was dreadfully ill but recovery came my way and so long as I followed the advice of the psychiatrist who managed my recovery from my mental/nervous/physical breakdown I was fine. Veering from that was not good for me (but like all lessons in life one must learn from mistakes or bad advice) and I gradually pulled back from anything that was a problem for me. So this morning I am thinking that I am now 77.5+ years and God has been good to me through the years. He doesn't actually get involved in one's life I do not believe; He told us how to live our lives when he sent Jesus to be with us all those thousands of years ago now. That is what we need to do for sure in order to attain that peaceful existence that He wanted for us. Love God with all our heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and love our neighbour as ourselves. It sounds simple and it could be; all Homo sapiens though must be on board for us to make it to that peaceful plain where all can co-exist. 

Today I will continue with the Siderfin book and hopefully well into Generation Five by the end of the day. Tomorrow I clean and will also begin, in the time in between, the Pinkham/Pincombe material that has been passed to be by another researcher. My aim is to follow the same path basically as I have with the Siderfin book. Come down from the past into the present instead of the way that I have generally done surname searching. In some ways, the Pencombe family should be easier as there is more known about them on a regular basis through time. They were also a larger family as they spread out from North Molton in Devon from the late 1480s on. 

I am awaiting the results of the Y-700 test on Edward's yDNA to see if it will actually run and then I will, with my daughter's help, work on that as well this summer. 

Other than that another day is gifted to us and we must make the best of all of our days (and one's service to God being the first but Jesus did remind us that service to our country was also very important - Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and unto God what belongs to God). This will be an exciting week in the British Isles - the King will be annointed in the ancient Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey. I shall watch next Saturday and enjoy. I watched the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth with my Grandfather all those years ago now. He was enthralled; could not take his eyes off of the television screen. He had seen five monarchs in his lifetime and this sixth one would be his last but he enjoyed every second of that time watching on the television. He was a child when Queen Victoria ruled and then followed by her son King Edward VII, his son King George V, his son King Edward VIII, his brother King George VI and then the daughter of King George VI -  Queen Elizabeth II. That will be in my mind when I am watching this Coronation - my Grandfather sitting there beside me for sure. He was 78 years of age (just six months older than I am now) when Queen Elizabeth was crowned. Surrounded by his then five grandchildren (he would live to see the sixth one born) and he was so very happy. The memory still fresh in my mind. He was getting old for sure but he never forgot who I was even once to the last time that I was with him. I am glad that our Prime Minister will go to the Coronation - he carries the love of Canada with him. 

As the future rolls out in front of us, I like to think that all of those who have profited from being Canadian should do their best to ensure that Canada continues to be able to do the best that it can for all her peoples. 

On to breakfast; my favourite meal of the day. When I was young, on a Sunday, going to early Communion with my father, I would wait until after the service to eat my breakfast but I am old now and one should maintain one's health in as much as one is able so as to not burden the medical service. Get lots of good exercise, eat a good simple meal and thank God for all His blessings. 

Fourth Generation of the Siderfin family

 More or less together but I need to link in documents that were in James Sanders book and just be sure that everything matches with the new data; this section is broken into a William line, a Robert line and a Thomas line and then the rest are lumped together as the amount of information is small. Perhaps today I will move into the Fifth Generation but I still have tomorrow as well. Giving myself the rest of the year allows for proofreading of the final text and making charts. I also have a correspondent (descendant of Thomas born 1777 who disappeared from Somerset in the latter part of the 1700s) to look at his line. His line is very large and I will send the descendant chart of Thomas to her for verification before publishing since she has done extensive work on her line. 

The Bible reading today quite absorbed me in thought. The last line of John 10:1-10 is particularly apt to the situation in which the world now finds itself and explains the New Commandments and Jesus' role in the maturing of our society. " A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I (Jesus) came so everyone would have life, and have it fully." That is the promise of the New Commandments. Russia is certainly the thief in our world. We must find a way to stop Russia before a Third World War is caused by them. For them it is give me what I want or I will continue to murder, steal and lie which means that our world faces the worst enemy here since the beginning of time - Putin and his enablers are Satanic. We managed to survive World War II but it will take the combined efforts of the entire world to stop Russia. Their thirst for land can not be assuaged - they say it themselves that the fall of the Soviet Union was a disaster for them. Each victory will make them thirstier for more (Georgia led to the Crimea part of Ukraine and the Crimea to Ukraine itself) - that is the way of Nazis. Russia has become the psychopathic land stealing murdering Nazi that we put down in 1945 mostly because we did not follow the advice of Winston Churchill and make the freeing of Europe in 1944 through Poland to halt the Russian advance into Europe back in 1945. But we would have had to fight a two front war for sure. Perhaps that is the human tragedy that exists in our world; that Nazism can rear its head again and again. Nazism makes no friends; they betray everyone; they only want for themselves and they are always a small tightly knit group of psychopaths who constantly lie but manage to coerce (mostly by violent threats) a large following of people to help them in their own country and as they absorb other areas they force them to do their deeds of murder and stealing. I will always remember the stories of Hitler towards the end of the second world war when he manned the defense of Berlin with young boys - he did not care what happened to the youth (they were as young as twelve or less if they were big enough); they were just fodder for him to use and because the military had not won the wars for him he felt that they should all die; he did not care if all the people of Germany died. Hitler (and his Satanic enablers) was also a Satan.

Back to revising the Siderfin Book

Completed the Siderfin marriages yesterday and moved back into revising the Siderfin book. I will work on the fourth generation and hopefully into the fifth generation today. I did not find any Siderfin male lines down further than the early to mid 1700s except in Robert (Robert 3, William 2, John 1)'s line. This was what James Sanders also presented in his chart but I do have a few issues with his chart and will be working on those over the next couple of days left in April. 

I broke up the rest of the branches that came down off the maple tree and that was another bin full out to the street. The elderberries are in bud so the yard is coming along. The bunnies are running about and will need to have fencing around the lettuce plants for sure. Most of the plants are starting to show and I do not think I will buy any more plants. I may buy some more spring bulbs as they are not as plentiful as they once were. Still lots of crocus and snowdrops and a number of daffodils. The hyacinth was particularly lovely this year. The wild flowers are doing very well there has been a lot of rain and just waiting now for the dandelions. I do love the dandelion flower and do let them bloom now. We dug everyone out as I could not convince Edward to embrace dandelions. 

Hard to believe it is Friday; the last Friday in April with just two more days to the end of the month. May Day is Monday. I celebrate May Day in my mind as my grandfather loved May Day and it is a jubilant time in England especially this year with the Coronation. The people of the United Kingdom have a great deal to celebrate with the Coronation of the King. I would prefer to see him remain as King of Canada. He is a figure head after all (no political maneuvering or hidden deals; politics have their place for sure but I dislike the personal vindictive attacks being constantly made against Justin Trudeau; it is boring and it discourages people with his excellent background from going into politics) and his lifetime of service to greening the earth is exceptional. He has been from childhood committed to various good causes and has done it very well. His wife is very supportive of him which is what he always needed; she does not wish the limelight for herself it would appear but is dedicated to helping him in his role as King. 

So on to the day and it will be primarily a research day revising the Siderfin book. Technically it should fall into place once the fourth and fifth generations are completed and I will likely do to the 12th generation coming down from John Siderfin and his wife Christian (unknown) who lived at Luxborough around 1500 and had two known children William and Christian. Like most family stories there is excitement, drama and emigration around the world. The 12th generation is my mother's generation and the book will end with the generation mentioning her birth and that of her brother along with all of the others born prior to 1920. My families appeared to prefer to live in England until the Routledge family of Bewcastle, Cumberland first set out in 1818 for southwestern Ontario followed by the Gray family of Etton, East Riding of Yorkshire circa 1832 and then the Pincombe family of Bishops Nympton/Molland, Devon in 1850/51 followed by the Buller family of Aston/Birmingham, Warwickshire and Bermondsey/London, Surrey in 1908 and then finally the Blake family of Upper Clatford/Andover, Hampshire in 1913 and they all ended up in the now city of London in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. I still marvel somewhat that these five/six areas of England came together in one spot and that there are seven of us descendant of this group of people. Having the DNA for five of them has been a rather exciting adventure these past sixteen years and each day reveals a new match somewhere in the world although my matches continue to be predominantly in the United Kingdom since most of my cousins are still there overall (as it turns out I do not have any first cousins). However, my heart and soul is Canadian as I discovered when we traveled about the British Isles. 

Canadians are driven by compromise so that I continue to be shocked by the attack style of the now Conservative Party. Where are the issues; who cares what Justin Trudeau does personally to provide his family with some sort of normal life for a short period. The Conservative party needs to have balanced issues; Frank Stronach brought up some really good ideas. Justin Trudeau carries a large weight having been the son of a Prime Minister but he shouldn't be punished for that (obviously his father made friends and I really do not have a problem with that; he is only one voice in his Cabinet); he brings a lot of good knowledge to the table. I may not always agree with how the money is spent but I have to say this latest military contract which involves a Halifax firm learning to manage repair work is excellent. Good job on the part of the Liberal government (and I do realize that they are buoyed up by the NDP party). The NDP need to learn from the Liberals and Conservatives; when they were in government in Ontario they were an absolute failure. It is fine to be buddy buddy with everyone but we need excellence in government and that can mean hard decisions. The tax payers money must be spent wisely.

Prayers for Ukraine and now Sudan as always. Russia's fingers reach far into the world to cause disruption. Someone needs to bind those fingers. Whomever does it will be appreciated for sure. But we need action not words; Russia continues to bomb and kill people in Ukraine (twenty five more dead today (including three children) in the bombings). War is useless and destroys the planet slowly but surely. Peace, wonderful peace slips out of our grasp once again because of Nazism - murderous land stealing psychopathic Russian Nazis (Putin and his enablers) and North Korea threatening South Korea constantly. Why is it that the West doesn't get to say that they feel threatened and do things that make them feel safe (and South Korea is a good example as is Ukraine)? Why is it only the murderous butchers of the world that get to say that they do the things they do to feel safe (bombs cast uselessly into the ocean kill marine life; destroy ecosystems; it is all part of the world)?

FreeBMD births and deaths completed

Continuing to move through the Siderfin data that is available online with the births and deaths completed on FreeBMD. When I was first into surname studies I discovered FreeBMD and they were looking for volunteers (probably still are) so I decided to put my new course in paleography to  work and transcribed for them for several years actually until Edward took ill the first time back in 2010. At that point in time my entire life changed as I became the driver of the car - now Edward did not like my driving at least he said he didn't! Mostly I think he only trusted himself behind the wheel of the car although when he was tired enough he would ask me to drive but now I was the driver. That was perhaps the longest year of my life as he did like to go out every day shopping and usually twice a day - morning and afternoon. No matter how long I have stayed home I have never become a shopper. I loath the occupation and get it over as quickly as possible although Edward and my children did manage to get me to dwell longer than anyone over that task. I simply can not get up enthusiasm for twenty different kinds of something. If I like the look of it I buy it and otherwise I leave it. Consequently I own very few things although now with everything in this house not yet given away, donated or otherwise contributed into the general good I have amassed an enormous amount of goods. Although my children comment that the house is becoming sparse and it is with relief that I hear those words although I still see a lot of items. But I digress from where I was at. Free BMD is a wonderful tool and I still use it often. The Siderfin entries are not numerous - it is a small family name but I have brought the births and deaths up to the end of the 1980s which is really far enough - I was mostly interested in the deaths past 1911 and they have been achieved. Just the marriages left to do and I will work at that today. Then I can extract once again from my legacy file a narrative descendant book to use in the Siderfin Book. I have not discovered any lines missed that James Sanders found to have daughtered out in the 1600s. They daughtered out for the most part except for Robert (Robert 3, William 2, John 1). It is his life in the male Siderfin name that extends down into the 1600s and on into the 1700s and most importantly into the 1800s where no other lines are seen descending down from the other male children of Robert (William 2, John 1). I do not find any trees on line that descend from these other lines. Looking at the Somerset Subsidies would be an added proof to the daughtering out of these lines. I will try to do that this summer. 

My fingers are itching to get at the Pincombe/Pinkham material that was given to me by another researcher. I may have a lot of that material but the important thing is to see that I do have all of it. I basically want to do the same thing as I have done with the Siderfin family. I have completed the first three generations of the Pencombe family at North Molton and the next step is to move into the fourth generation. I will probably talk more about the first three generations of the Pencombe family in the next newsletter bringing in land that was managed by them as that does help to link the families together. Am I actually moving towards the book? That has now become my goal to write a book on the family. I think that I have begun the beginning as one might say but I still have the Pencombe material from Hereford to marry into this data and I need to acquire the original scans for that data which I will do over the course of the next little while. I  might see if one of my Pincombe cousins would do that for me at Kew although it is tempting to just have them scan them and charge me. Not being much of a shopper I do have a few pennies here and there to spare for such luxuries. 

I realized this winter that the corduroy slacks that I am wearing all winter are now fourteen years old and one pair is at least twenty years old. I do have a closet jammed full of clothes as I never get rid of any although Edward used to do that - give my clothes to the Salvation Army. Perhaps he got tired of seeing them! That did inspire me to go shopping for new. I actually like new clothes; I would just like to find a way to buy them that doesn't mean I spend hours shopping however my daughters like to shop and perhaps I should think about some new items; it is good for the economy to keep buying. We old people need to do that since we have time to shop and every bit helps to keep the economy in a good position. 

So today is another Siderfin day and I still have a couple more before the end of the month. I would like to see myself back to actually continuing to revise the book by the end of the month. That way if I have a thought I can just quickly go into the book and add it whilst I am working on Pencombe. The two families are intertwined as a Siderfin married a Rew and then a Rew married a Pincombe but it is somewhat in the past. The name just caught my eye way back in the Pincombe Profile writing days and then when I first took on Surname Studies at the Guild of one name studies I actually selected three studies - my I was a dreamer for sure just one is a lot of work. 

Up early and the rain is going to continue and the earth is very thankful. The ground was very dry last fall. Mother Earth needs all the support we can give her. It is 2 degrees celsius at 6:40 am and my day has begun. I love the mornings and getting up at 6; Edward rather lured me away from that through those 54.5 years of marriage but I am back at my early mornings when the winds of God can be seen in the trees especially in the spring and before the buddings and the leaves come. The thin branches sway in His breath and it is wondrous. I must get outside today and have a look at all the new buds coming. The daffodils have had their day and soon the tulips - the leaves are all up. I will order a bag of garden soil soon as the lawns are crying out for some fresh soil and new seed. I can work away at that each day until it is time to work on the garden. Keep raining and the task of greening can move faster and faster. Spring is beautiful with its succession of flowers - the lawn is still blue with flowers and likely the dandelions are starting to send up their fresh leaves. Thank you God for our wonderful world. 

Breakfast soon. First set of jumping jacks down and the next set before breakfast and then onto a day of work and exercise - yesterday weight lifting and I am getting used to the increased weight so moved on to a fourth set (partial, will take it slowly). Once the fourth set is in place then I can start to increase the number of repeats to fifteen. My fourty minute run just before lunch with a set of jumping jacks. Then an afternoon that finishes with calisthenics before dinner and the fourth set of jumping jacks. I missed doing them; forgot I guess when Edward was ill. Life was difficult but meaningful; we likely talked more during that time than we had for years when we were both busy working and raising children.

Work on Siderfin continues

I still have another few days in the month to work on Siderfin and I must remember to post the Kipp Newsletter to the Study group on the 1st of May. Yesterday I continued with the FreeBMD entries although all of them are in my database thus far. It would seem negligent though on my part not to check. I should accomplish this task by the end of the month. In May I will begin to work on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter right away as I have a project to work on with the information given to me by another researcher. The Newsletter will likely look at the generation of Pencombe as it spreads out from North and South Molton in the 1500s. I have worked on the first three generations and so the fourth will be in the crosshairs of my research endeavours during the month of May. Perhaps this slow methodical look at the available material especially any land records will prove fruitful. My own line has used Pencombe then Pincomb and then Pincombe throughout their history but they were never far from North Molton. The movement for my line appears to be North Molton to East Buckland and Filleigh and then onto Bishops Nympton where they lived from the late 1500s until my 2x great grandfather John Pincomb moved from Bishops Nympton where he had married Elizabeth Rew to Molland where the farm that he was working had been in the family for several hundred years ( it appears to have always been farmed by a "John" of the Pincomb[e] family - Gatcombe (Lower in his case)). The presumption that he received this land in a different way does come from the will of his father where he is given just a small amount compared to his siblings as if to just mention that John was his son but had already received his inheritance. From Molland John Pincomb, his wife Elizabeth and their five children would emigrate to Westminster Township in Middlesex County in 1850/51 through the Port of New York. They stopped to visit with/stay with perhaps until spring his older brother Robert and his wife living at Genesee in New York State.  All of this was known to me from childhood from my mother although accurate details had become hidden by time in my memory banks revealed as I worked my way backwards in my family line. My mother did not likely know precisely where they lived before Bishops Nympton nor did she know they had not "always" lived in Devon but she was only eight when her father died and he would have been the one who told her much of her history along with her father's first cousin (they farmed side by side) Frank Pincombe. Frank was also her uncle by marriage as his wife was Ada Buller (sister to my maternal grandmother). Why I felt it was my job to get into the Pincombe material was a result of my 4th cousin George DeKay editing a History Book of Westminster and Delaware Townships in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. He wanted me to write a Profile of the Pincombe family and my foray into surname studies was launched in 2003 with a due date of 2005 (summer). I met the deadline and the rest is history. I was sold on surname studies and have spent the last twenty years pursuing the Blake and Pincombe families of my parents Ernest Edward George Blake and Helen Louise Pincombe. 

Along the way I have met many wonderful cousins both in Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom (mostly England), and the United States. It is a fascinating journey through time. Finding history quite interesting all of my life it constitutes part of my reading time although science predominated that reading time throughout most of my young life into my teen years and my time at university. It was always like I could not get enough of learning throughout my life; I find learning to be the best of all activities now in my widowhood. That I would have ever found myself doing genealogy continues to amaze me as I had watched my husband search out his ancestors from even before the days of our marriage in 1966 but avoided more than a polite listening to him and helping when he asked. But DNA sold me on genealogy for sure; one could actually prove these lines in a scientific way although not having purely phased results can make one consider very carefully the results that do arise but having four siblings tested has been very helpful in that regard. And so the quest continues and the ultimate goal is now in my mind as I did not really have a goal. That is to publish the Blake family of Andover, Hampshire, England (my line) and the Pencomb family of Devon with its large derivatives Pincomb(e) and Pinkham. But in the meantime I continue to correct the Siderfin book and once accomplished will set it aside for another to revise in the future. That is, I think, the aim of every genealogist that one would set down what one has learned in the hopes that in the future their work would also be carefully examined and corrected as more and more details are scanned and available to pursue around the world. 

The world is a story of families really and how those families have evolved through the ages. One hopes that that peaceful uplifted plain will eventually be there for all of Homo sapiens. We must be honest with each other and get rid of the aggressive tendencies that exist in our world. The commandments we were given were clear and simple - Love the Lord God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbour as ourself. It is an eternal truth and we can achieve that peace we seek only by following the commandments. It is actually one of the things that I like about Justin Trudeau. Interesting he carries the traits of his Father's French Canadian family and his Mother's English Canadian family and wears them very well (his youth was just that he has matured well). I never voted for his father in actual fact. I do like to see variety in politics as we get the best job out of elected officials when they are not in power for long extended periods but at the moment I do not see a successor to him. Not being of the liberal persuasion but rather preferring fiscal conservatism which hasn't been seen since the days of Prime Minister Mulrooney (and yes I was working in one of the areas that were cut in the 80s by Prime Minister Mulrooney (for whom I had voted) but as mentioned yesterday I moved on and was actually better off!); I would like to see better use of the tax monies that are collected. I found the television "discussion" by parliamentarians and the CEOs of the large grocery chains to be the most disgusting treatment of these individuals who came to Ottawa to try to help. One does not verbally attack these individuals; it isn't the Canadian way. They had a story to tell and if you did not like the story that doesn't mean you get to attack them. We can do better than what I saw that day. We need people in parliament like these efficient CEOs to run the country so that money is not wasted. I do dislike this idea of attacking people personally; it is repugnant. One only has to shop in these grocery stores to see all that is offered for sale to realize the truth of what the CEOs were saying - a large part of their profits does come from "non-food" items. The food areas in these stores are shrinking compared to the "non-food" items. The food items have changed so much in my lifetime from mostly basic ingredients that were in my Uncle's grocery store to prepared meals that dominate the shelves (and sometimes I wonder if one can really call them food but rather a treat; basic ingredients are cheaper). I mostly buy basic ingredients (and yes my grocery bill has also increased but everything is more expensive). But enough said and I will not continue my tirade working on increasing our military expenditures as it is obvious that we should and just have to do it. But I have mulled around that televised "discussion" ever since.

The Gospels - I love the Daily Bible Reading

 Every morning the Daily Bible Reading comes into my email box from the Canadian Bible Society. Today's reminds me that COVID's one plus was having Church on YouTube. Although through the ages missionaries have shared the message of Jesus around the world; COVID introduced the world to online Church and it is marvelous. Now the message of Jesus is truly there for all to see anywhere that YouTube reaches. Perhaps not quite as Jesus intended as community was to be very much part of His message but for me it has meant that weekly I am part of the online community and for me that is the best choice. Sometimes I think I might go back but first I must have my cataract surgery and then we will see whether my driving on the highway on my own is a particular item. Going on the train is a thought and I have often mulled that idea around in my brain but I am not sure it is the most practical one for me and I continue attending Church online. I feel as if I am there. God is in the world and He saw that it was good so many many centuries/millenias ago. We have a task to keep it good and restore it to its pristine condition prior to the Industrial age. We must follow the commandments that Jesus gave to us - love God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbour as ourself.

Today the sunrise was muted as it is cloudy and just 2 degrees celsius when I started on the computer around 6:15 am. Rain has been promised most days and that is April for sure here in Canada. The rain is needed; the ground was so dry by Fall last year. The spring flowers are abundant and continue to bloom. It is daffodils now and the yellow against the slowly greening lawns is beautiful. There are also blue forget me not flowers all through the lawn. They are wild now and I will let them bloom. Each year there are more. Soon the dandelions will come and I will let them bloom as well - Edward and I used to dig them out. I wanted to embrace the dandelions but Edward did want them dug out so we did that. But now they will flourish and the yellow will be beautiful with all the bees working the flowers. I may break off the seed heads - time will tell. There is so much work though that I may not; I stopped last year when it was just too much. The raspberry canes have come to life this past week, as well as the red currants and the gooseberries. I must check on the elderberries but they generally are later as the ground at the back is the last to thaw. My raspberry transplants have taken hold and will do more of that this year. It is better than just pulling them out and putting them into the green bin. The birds also enjoy them. 

Cleaning accomplished yesterday and today the basement but I will also get more work done on the Siderfin family. I am working on FreeBMD now but a lot of them are in my file already. I will move to Ancestry to collect the BMDs/BMBs after the mid 1970s not yet in FreeBMD. 

Frank Stronach has done it again - well said for sure. Having been eliminated as a public servant in the early 1980s I have to say that it lead to an excellent job in the private sector that I held for another twelve years and it was full time work and I worked at home for most of that time. When the proofreader/copyeditor retired a few years later they offered me the job so I managed to convince them to let me work in house for four or five hours and then take the work home with me and I completed it there continuing to give me an eight hour workday (or more as there was a lot of work considering I was replacing a full time proofreader/copyeditor plus the time that I had spent doing the same at home). I had an advantage over their person though as I was fluent in the language of science, could read three languages and other items (I was always a history buff for sure and I am somewhat picky about grammar - all essentials of a proofreader/copyeditor) as their person had had just a high school education. I continued to be a contract worker until they sold to another company and I only agreed to work for them if I was an employee (just in case and in reality I was let go which I anticipated as they had a full time proofreader that they asked me to train to read the scientific material). That way I was protected as I was paying E.I. but I soon found another job. So trimming the Public Service of items that can really be done in the private sector is something I agree with and I do speak with personal experience. The private sector can be very efficient; perhaps a little more blood thirsty but very efficient and it builds up the economy as that means tax money going into the government coffers not out of it. But I actually worked the same hours for the government as I did for industry but I made more money in industry plus I continued to stay home with my children.

Russia is starting to rattle their nuclear threat and talk about a Third World War again. It is actually illogical as one thing we do not need in this world is a third world war and we (the so-called West) are not going to start one for sure. We actually never have. It was always Nazis - we are definitely not Nazis. Peter the Great would be so saddened at what is happening to Russia as he wanted Russia to be part of the world; his people enlightened and educated. Putin has been a dreadful head of state there. Letting all those young men die on the battlefields that he created. What a disaster for Russia he is but his enablers sound the same. The blood of Russia is crying out for a Russian hero to save them from these Psychopathic Nazis (Putin and his enablers). We can hear it; why can't they? Do they care so little for the youth of their country? Russia get out of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine. Prayers for Ukraine where a Museum was bombed today - uncalled for destruction by the Russians and the loss of one Ukrainian life thus far plus whatever ancient treasures were destroyed by their bombing.

Breakfast awaits and then the cleaning day but also some research.

April is a typical month

 Rain, Rain, Rain and we know that April is its pretty typical self here in the Northern Hemisphere except for the surprise warmth - that is global warming. We must do something about that. That is what I always liked about now King Charles; he was a leader way back when it wasn't fashionable and he took the chance given his special position in the world to support a cause that has grown from being ridiculed to a fact of life - our planet is warming up and it is dangerous for every living thing/being on it. We need to work at that; we need money for that and there is money; tons of it stashed up in the accounts of billionaires and multi millionaires. Think of the tax break. But also you could buy a submarine or whatever else we need military wise for Canada (if you are Canadian and haven't already hidden your Canadianship behind some other nationality which can not protect you from the pirates of the world if they decide to come after you; this is your time). Canada has made you what you are - time to support and defend Canada. You could arm an entire brigade with the latest and best equipment - we could put a lovely tribute in the newspaper for you. Your family will be honoured for many generations. 

The Poll on the monarchy I find offensive to be honest; I want to have statistics published with these polls. I do not trust polling. Why anyone would want to replace the current Head of State - the head of the Royal House of the UK - is strange. To have an elected head would mean politics and definitely do not want another political level in our country; look at the present situation where we have personal attacks as the style - work on the issues not personal attacks. We need our military to be funded; it isn't properly funded and hasn't been for more than a generation. One mustn't forget that Diana, Princess of Wales, was jealous of Charles and went out of her way to displace him in the hearts and minds of the people of the world. Her first duty was not to Charles as it should have been (she married him and promised her undying loyalty to him). I can not believe that she did not know about Camilla from the beginning; she lived in those circles. Displacing a loved person in a marriage of convenience is probably impossible; one shouldn't delude oneself. Diana, Princess of Wales, did have mental issues and personally that is something that is very difficult to control. She was a pawn in the hands of those who just wanted to use her and she let herself fall into that trap. I am sure it was ghastly but when you know the system you can not cry Wolf as she did; you are being unfair to the world that is watching.

But I digress from the topic of April and God in our midst. He doesn't alter anything I do not believe; that is what we have to do. We have the commandments which Jesus brought to us and suffered for doing that. We must love God with all our heart, soul and mind and we must love our neighbours as ourselves. In this modern world everyone is our neighbour and I must thank the Chinese Foreign Office for clarifying the remarks by one of their envoys.  The spokesperson Mao Ning has repeated the official stance of the government - "The Chinese side respects the status of the member states as sovereign states after the collapse of the Soviet Union" and he added that China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with those countries. 

The rains of April always remind me that God is out there providing what has always been provided to the earth in human memory but we must control global warming; that is our problem and it tells us that our way of life has to change. I am gradually trying to change my life so that it fits into a mold that benefits the world 100% because I too have ways that are not 100% green. It is a slow process and we do need to speed it up. 

Yesterday I completed all the Siderfin hits on Find My Past and started working on the FreeBMD births, marriages and deaths and will move to Ancestry next to find any items that I have missed. The process continues of extraction of material. Then back to writing once again. But this is cleaning day and the vacuum is on the top floor waiting for me to begin. Today is the long day of cleaning and tomorrow is the shorter day - just the basement. Routine is wonderful actually; it keeps the mind sharp. 

On to the day and breakfast. Today I will finish up a Frittata that I made Saturday - still trying to do just two meals the same in a row but I do find the Frittata reheated is just as delicious as the first time - eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, spinach layered on top of half of that, then a roasted mixture of pepper, onion and grated carrot layer, another layer of spinach, then a layer of mashed frozen avocado (thawed in lemon water), on top of that the other half of the egg/cheese mixture. Bake in the 410 degree oven for 25 minutes and a fabulous meal with a slice of toast/bread. Tomorrow will be a piece of cod, mashed sweet potato and peas. My menu is pretty simple and I do enjoy it. Edward tended towards a lot of meat, potatoes, vegetables (cooked) and a fresh salad plus dessert. I actually gained twenty pounds over the course of our 54.5 years of marriage but am now back to my weight in the latter part of my teen years before I was married. With the change in diet my weight stays the same now. Perhaps it was not healthy for me to eat such heavy meals in retrospect. Life was just always so busy I did not really notice until now the difference. One tends to do what works well in a marriage I think at least that tended to be my way.

Earth Day 2023 and where will we be at on Earth Day 2024

Yesterday, Earth Day 2023, was a usual April day in Canada except a little warmer perhaps than one remembers from 40+ years ago. Being transplanted from southwestern Ontario to the Eastern Ontario part of Canada I do not have a long history in how the land and the weather goes in this area but then I didn't have a long history in how the weather and land went in southwestern Ontario when I was 30 years of age at the time of being transplanted (although my mother did talk a lot about her family but it always ended with the Routledges first coming in 1818 to southwestern Ontario because they had tired of the Border Wars in Cumberland). I think they came because they had a huge family and the property which they lived on and had lived on for quite a while would not provide for all those sons. But they could also have just wanted to blend in (they were part of the Oakshaw Routledge family); who knows? It is a mystery perhaps. My Routledge cousin (probably 7th cousin) who still lives there has done a great job on the history of the Routledge family. I gave him my 2000 lines+ excel file of Routledge data that I had collected back in 2008 or so but he had already done a lot of work anyway. I did transcribe for him for awhile but the eyes are getting old and need to preserve them for the work that I am doing on my parent's surname studies. But I digress from Mother Earth Day.

But the First Nations people have a better feel for the long history of this land and I honestly believe that we need to continue bringing their thoughts to the forefront. Having a Governor General with a long history in the land handed to her by her mother is  a very important part of her being in this position. She is doing a wonderful job although would like to hear more about her traveling about in Canada but she is not a young woman either and I would not enjoy spending all my days traveling. But it is important that she is our Governor General - it is a move forward in reconciliation with the First Peoples of this land. I myself with just that small line going back from myself to my mother to her father and his mother represent my only set of Canadian born people - all the rest were born in England itself as far back as I can trace thus far unless I go with the Routledge having been from the Highlands of Scotland but that was back in the 1400s and then there is my mitochondrial DNA which takes me back to Ayrshire and Argyllshire Scotland but for the most part I am as English as you can get perhaps with generation after generation of my ancestors born in five different areas of England itself. 

But I veer away from Earth Day. This celebration could be about Mother Earth and all she has done for us through the centuries and even millions of years. We would not be here without her. Protection of Mother Earth should be prominent in every decision that is made from hence forward particularly where Russia is concerned. Russia thinks that their natural borders include all the lands that were part of the Soviet Union. Fortunately for all of those people enslaved by the Russian army as they raced towards Berlin as the end of the Second World War was becoming apparent; none of us in the so-called Western world  agree with this enslavement of people. Russia did nothing for them except greedily steal from them just like they are doing in Ukraine. 

From an historical viewpoint these countries have their own long history even if a Chinese envoy says otherwise. Where is China on all of this? Will they turn their back on the rest of the world and let Russia do whatever they want or will they stem the tide and tell Russia to get back inside of their borders as established at the Fall of the Soviet Union which Russia caused by going bankrupt after they invaded Afghanistan. But please China do not insult the peoples of the world who gained their freedom from tyranny when the Soviet Union failed. Protect Mother Earth China; your country too has a long history of protecting and celebrating Mother Earth. Russia is just a psychopathic nazi nation looking to steal whatever they can from where-ever unless they prove differently. As always the so-called West waits to see how it all comes down. We are a very forgiving people in actual fact. But letting Russia get away with such atrocities as they have committed in Ukraine would be a sad happening in the world. Peace wonderful peace and can we be there next Earth Day 2024? 

Yesterday great accomplishment as S and T sections of the Siderfin hits on Find My Past were completed except for the baptism of a Francis Joseph Temple Siderfin. That one belongs to the Derbyshire Siderfin family likely but placing him has proven to be difficult - the mother is not named in the GRO UK Indexes. Today I hope to complete the entire task from U to Z (there are only entries for V and W). Then do a descendant chart out of Legacy and go back and complete the 5th generation and move on. But I still have other items to include - Free BMD needs to be checked as well to make sure I do have all the entries. Again I stopped collecting when I gave the one-name study to my cousin. There are 258 births and deaths. There are 108 marriages. But I can also go to Ancestry and do the BMDs from the 1980s on so will do that. I did find a few items that were most helpful in the 1600s which I expected. Mostly I had all the data because I did the census but I found a few Siderfin that were missing from their families which is always handy. 

Sunday again and Church on You-Tube. I do love Sunday. Up a little early today and will soon make breakfast but tend to like to eat around 8:00 a.m. and it is just after 7.

Busy day with Siderfin and the R entries

 I completed the R entries for Siderfin yesterday and will start on S today and there are 524 hits on Find My Past. But I am coming to the end of the alphabet sort of but still a lot to go as I was only at 65% completion of the entire set of data. Again mostly placed all the entries with just two that I needed to add an unknown person to the tree. 

Started off the day looking at Edward's 23 and Me matches and there are many new ones. He had three pages for first to third cousins along and I do not reach less than 1% shared until the third page. I must do some work on this so that it is ready to hand off to my daughter as I can sense an increasing interest on her part in her father's work. She will always do mostly online because that is her skill for sure and genealogy is getting to be that; mostly on line. Handling the ancient documents is detrimental to them and the more that is scanned the less handling that is needed. Since Edward tested at all the companies that I did there is a lot of data to sort through because nothing done for the last two years. My time is used up pretty much although once I complete the Siderfin book I will be less encumbered although do have plans for books for Blake and Pincombe. 

Grey day out there today and rain is promised. Looking at the weather channel my idea to get garden soil will work well as I want to do some grass work at the beginning of May and rain is promised - perfect grass growing weather. I can just do a little of that a day as I am getting old for sure.

On to the day and it will be a research day once again mostly on Siderfin but I can see that I should set aside some time for the DNA matches of Edward to get that back on the track that he had them on. So much work but it is interesting for sure. The complication of the Kipp-Schultz in his male line where everyone matches Kipp and Schultz in the close family means that the separating is done beyond the second cousin these days in most cases but he does have an 80,000 plus family tree to work with and that has been helpful. I am now suspicious that Edward was never really interested in my doing genealogy (he certainly never encouraged me to do my family tree and my younger sister has been involved in that for quite a while) because he could always persuade me to help him and knew that my interest level was pretty much zilch until George DeKay inspired me to write the Pincombe profile and the small interest in surname studies was reignited from my teen years to somewhat dominate my life these days. 

Russia continues to try and distract the world from its butchery in Ukraine by arming the rebels in Sudan (that appears to be proven although Russia will certainly try to deny it). As well the UAE also appear to be supplying them with bombs (seems rather a poor choice on their part given the closeness of Sudan to their country but the illegal arms trade is a vicious business that makes huge amounts of money). One hopes that the United Nations can quickly put an end to that type of action. I am surprised that China would not be finding this arming of the Sudan rebels obnoxious as they have put a good deal of money into Africa and would probably not want to see that destabilized; war in any form is dangerous - civilians are being murdered in Sudan. Perhaps we will see China also get more involved in halting this destabilization of Africa. Then there is Russia upsetting the shipments of grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea hoping thus to increase truck shipments into Europe and upset the bordering countries because it is cheaper grain than they are producing. Anything to destabilize - that is the Nazi way. They do not care whom they injure so long as they can continue to steal land and goods from around their borders. Nazis can never be trusted; they are psychopathic egotistical land-stealing maniacs and that is a good definition of Putin and his enablers. 

Breakfast awaits and as usual I am very hungry - my meals tends to decrease in size through the day with breakfast being the largest.

Kipp Newsletter completed and moving on

 I completed the Kipp Newsletter yesterday but it came with a surprise. I have not worked on Edward's DNA matches since he passed away. The time simply escaped me and it was hard to fit it in. He has so many matches on the many testing sites (most of his ancestors (except for three who came in the 1800s - one from Norfolk, England (1832) and two from the Mecklenburg-Strelitz area (1849 and 1867) of present day Germany) were in the Royal British colonies and New Holland (Dutch colonies) beginning in 1620 with the later ones coming in the early 1700s (mostly by 1710)). But last issue of the Kipp Newsletter I had talked about looking at his autosomal matches on ancestry. There has likely been several hundred or more new additions to his site and with the new technique of separating into paternal and maternal there was a different way to look at these matches as I have learned on my own site and those of my siblings on ancestry. Not having any really close relatives testing, Edward had often sought to persuade cousins to test and had been successful with some.  He was trying to find his Kipp line back to Hendrick Hendricksen Kip since the yDNA matched known descendants. The reach back was in actual fact into the mid 1700s because his 2x great grandfather Isaac Kipp was born in 1764 which is pretty far back for just a 2x great grandfather but he was lucky as he was descended from the youngest sons in two generations. There were four rather interesting 4th to 6th cousin matches that were not in his Ancestry file. One of them was descendant of Isaac Kipp and Hannah Meed his 2x great grandparents so eliminated. The other three were all descendant of the second eldest son of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip and two of the three cross matched with Edward. The amount shared quite phenomenal for likely sixth cousins (28 cM and 22 cM). Given that Ancestry does eliminate DNA in common with their software package TIMBER this is likely a larger match. Edward did inherit a substantial amount of Kipp DNA in the cross between Kipp and Schultz although likely in the 25 to 30% range. The system is complicated because a Kipp male married a Schultz female and a Schultz male married a Kipp female so that his second cousins in that line are all double second cousins making the data difficult to manage. The match itself is significant because it is large. Shared that with my eldest last evening and she is keen to work on that when she has time. It was a dream of her father to find that elusive line back to Hendrick Hendricksen Kip. There are a number of Isaac Kip lines and other sons coming down that do not reach into the mid 1700s so one of them perhaps. Isaac Hendricksen Kip and his wife Catalyntje Hendricks Snyers were the parents of six sons and one daughter. He had placed the possible connection in this family line calling the line DNA-3 Kip as he felt it would be three steps back to this match from his 2x great grandfather. Definitely more to do as there are a number of matches in common with these two individuals and I have not yet looked at other matches within the 4th to 6th cousin range. My first search into the new matches was quite amazing. Although Ancestry does not provide any chromosomal details the size of their database and their search engine do make the results quite interesting and manageable in a different way from the chromosome matching. 

I did not expect to complete the Newsletter in just one day so that was a surprise and lets me spend the remainder of the month on the Siderfin book. I will work on the R matches today and perhaps complete them and move on to S. I had to go to that method because I reached the end of the search page numbers with a strictly Siderfin search. No problem it is actually easier not having to work my way up into the 70s by page number!

It looks like a lovely day today with some sun and some cloud. It is 4 degrees celsius at 7:00 a.m. Yesterday I did some yard work and discovered I have no idea where I put the garden paper bags so used the green bin instead since you can but that did limit the amount of work that I did! Will get bags soon. Although we cleaned up very well in the fall and before winter so not that much to do. I need to start the greenhouse soon for the bedding plants. That time of the year has arrived once again and I am not as enthusiastic as Edward was for that. It is nice to have fresh lettuce though for sure and especially fresh spinach. Spinach is by far my favourite vegetable I put it in everything almost. Edward liked it a little but did not have my enthusiasm for it but he did grow a lot. I need to order the bag of dirt soon probably just after the first of May. 

I always feel that the summer is so very busy; there is barely time to think with all the work although by the middle of July that has somewhat ameliorated and time returns once again. This year I shall buy a kayak and go kayaking as well as walking in the late afternoon break that we take. I generally work all morning and part of the afternoon so the break is a wonderful part of the day and full of exercise. I was and am an exercise fanatic. 

On to breakfast and the day but first a set of jumping jacks (75) the second lot of the day followed up by a shoulder stand for two minutes to let the blood run easily to the head. Then weight lifting (one day off between sets until I am used to the five pound weights) and more research time. Then my fourty minute run plus jumping jacks and a shoulder stand which is a highlight of my day as I use the time to think about my research. Lunch follows and a bit of television to see what is happening in the world (I eat in front of the television and do tend to talk to myself to express my thoughts on what is happening in the world). Alexa is handy and I can ask her queries about what is being published elsewhere. Then some research followed by calisthenics for about 30 minutes and then dinner. I made my favourite macaroni and cheese yesterday with carrots, onion, peas, corn and withered spinach (plus old cheddar; absolutely delicious). I am trying to just do two meals each time and gradually getting there. My daughter thinks every other day a change is good so will follow her advice.

Busy week

This has been a busy week with my going out actually twice with the car. Groceries on one day and the other the snow tires off. If it snows now I will just stay home which I normally do most of the time anyway!

Today I settle into the Kipp Newsletter. Yesterday I worked a little on the R names in the Siderfin hits on the Find my past website - there are 235 hits and I am about 1/3 of the way through them. There were a couple of interesting ones that I could not initially place in the 1600s but believe I have them in hand now. Both were Robert forename. The daughtering out/no issue of the families in the 1600s/early 1700s is surprising as it appears to continue dwindling down to just the one line - that of Robert (Robert 3, William 2, John 1). The one line that James Sanders actually did not have complete as he put most of his concentration in the 1600s on the more affluent lines but, of course, being his line did record the line of Robert but it is mostly incorrect in the 1700s with the 1800s rallying and still with some corrections it does impart the general gist for this family. They definitely dwindled in the 1600s and early 1700s and then with a couple of large families one generation after another the numbers went up once again. 

For the Kipp Newsletter  I am meant to be continuing the look at the children of the emigrant Hendrick Hendricksen Kip. I have completed the three sons who came with him which leaves the daughters and there is some material on them in Edward's notes so will concentrate on them for this issue. 

I will probably work in some time on the R hits for the Siderfin family if I find the Kipp Newsletter heavy going. It is over two years now since I had any conversation with Edward on his Kipp family and time is dulling that memory unfortunately. But I do still have his material that he collected and that may be the next step after this issue. Not sure really. Or I could just go to a two pager for a bit just to keep the DNA study up to date. 

I still wonder why the opposition in parliament continues to hammer away personally at Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister. Why doesn't the opposition bring up the lack of funding for the military and get that funding in place so we can actually see that our military presence is increasing at a good rate and not just paper progress. 2% of the GDP is nothing really I think we should aim for 4% so that we have an excess of military equipment. Introducing a one year service for all youths (would certainly make use of any excess equipment) when they leave high school would be good disciplined training for them that they could take with them to a job or go on in school. Especially I would like to see the tuition in the trades/farming at Community Colleges/Universities subsidized perhaps as much as 50% or free. I consider the way that Justin Trudeau is attacked in parliament constantly as a waste and perhaps it is to distract us from the inadequacies of the opposition. I will give the NDP credit for bringing up important issues but would like to see them get into better training for our youth and funding for the types of jobs that we actually need. I would love to vote Progressive Conservative once again if we ever get such a party back. I am not a liberal in my outlook but I abhor social conservatism - we are meant to love our neighbour as ourselves not judge them. "Judge not lest you be judged" and "Vengeance is mine" says God.

Interesting weather continuing

Another rainy day perhaps; snow was mentioned but not yet seen and we are  1 degree celsius so anything is possible. Weather in Canada in April is very unpredictable except perhaps by our wonderful weather people. 

The Bible Reading today was from 1 Peter 1:13-25 and the entire passage is interesting but I especially like a quote:

"Humans wither like grass,

and their glory fades

like wild flowers.

Grass dries up,

and flowers fall

to the ground.

But what the Lord has said

will stand forever."

I summarize the section before this quote to say that the New Commandments which Jesus brought to us from God are a winning constant in our lives. We must love the Lord God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind this being the first and greatest commandment and the second is like unto it (and I take it to mean it is also one of the greatest commandments) We must love our neighbour as ourselves. Love is the key word and we must find that in our world because only our true love of the world will save it. That is why we created the United Nations. 

On to the Kipp Newsletter today; cleaning all accomplished and I would like to finish it by the end of the week so that I can get back to the Siderfin book. Next month I want to work on Pincombe once again. 

The Pincombe history goes back (known to us) to the late 1480s in Devon and I believe it extends back even further in Herefordshire at a place called Pencombe at least to the early 1300s. Although I created a yDNA study at FT DNA I have done very little with it partly because the number of testers is so small. One of my third cousins once removed has tested and he matches our mutual fifth cousin in Australia taking the line back to John Pincombe married to Mary Charly in 1767 at Bishops Nympton, (John was baptized 13 Feb 1728 and son of John Pincombe and Grace Manning who likewise married 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton) since they are the most recent common ancestors (MRCA) for them. Another match within the project is likely descendant of the Barnstaple/Bideford branch of the family although a name change has blurred that a little but it was a female COAD who reverted back to her maiden name having been married to a Pincombe (early 1800s) and they had several children. Family lore of the Pincombe family at South Molton has members of that family moving to the Barnstaple area in the 1600s but I have not yet proven that line. This would take the matching line back to John Pincombe son or grandson of  Pencombe who came to North Molton with Lord de la Zouch in the late 1400s. There is another match in common with this group of three (using the Pinkham surname) and his line traces back to an emigrant to the English Colonies in 1750 but little is know about his ancestor and I have not yet put time into looking at that. There is a second group of known descendants of the Richard Pinkham family of Dover, New Hampshire (although one uses the Pyncombe spelling) and there are two members of this group that are close and a third that is in the same general area of match. Although yDNA studies are very interesting and informative they do not take into account events in the history of a family particularly the case when a family line is daughtering out and a decision is made to "adopt" one of the sister's children as a descendant of a brother who does not have children. This can happen long ago in the past and will likely lead to an apparent break in the line (in the case of primogeniture though titled or landed property can not pass in this way but most property in the Pincombe/Pinkham family was freehold or copyhold). Although a non paternal event is suggested by some as a reason I suspect that very often in the past it was an adoption where possible inheritance depended upon the son of a daughter in a line daughtering out taking on his uncle/grandfather's surname and inheriting the property. The more people who test the easier it might be to spot such events particularly if they occur after the introduction of the parish registers and their regular use. One set of data is R haplogroup and one set is I haplogroup. I will do a little more work on the deep ancestry of both of these groups for the next newsletter to discuss the areas to which the deep ancestry points.The British Isles does have areas that were more likely to be one haplogroup or another although this is percentage more than a lack of or non existence in any area.

I have a project with a set of papers listing events which has been given to me by another researcher in the family that I want to work on in May; so my May will be busy with gardening and analyzing. Sounds like a wonderful time although I am still only a little convinced on gardening but it is my daughter's joy to garden. 

Off to breakfast, the day is young but rather wintery looking at the moment but that is April; one is used to it.

Dashing into summer with a bit of winter mixed in

 As usual we are dashing into summer with a bit of winter mixed in if we actually do get any snow. But it is only April. 

Cleaning of basement accomplished and today the main and second floor. Fortunately the place is small relatively so doable for this going on 78 year old. This has been a week of all sorts of people stuffing my mailbox with ideas on how I could sell my house. That will come in the future I am sure but for the moment I continue. I made chicken stew last night, my favourite by far, with a chicken breast, sweet potato, lots of onion, carrots, orange pepper, then frozen peas and carrots and finally my most favourite ingredient spinach. I do love spinach and it gives everything that fresh taste. As usual there is enough for three more meals. It isn't that I do not like to cook; it is more that I like the idea that a meal is prepared for particular days that have a heavy workload whether it be research or cleaning or gardening for that matter. The broth is delicious as I start with onions, garlic and ginger root browning in the stew pot and then add the chicken to quickly brown it and then pour in the water and presto a perfect chicken sauce to then cook the rest of the vegetables. That was how my grandfather made a stew. He was a wonderful cook and I remember his meals very well. 

In between cleaning today I shall think about the Kipp Newsletter once again and it is getting harder and harder to work on. I do not know the Kipp family other than what Edward told me but I have his research and want to be sure that all of it is out there. He put hours into collecting up all the data. I think a lot of it is but this will put it all in one place in his study group. I need to look at the yDNA results. There were several Kip/Kipp families in the United States and most people are interested in whether they descend from the 1630s-1640s Kip family emigrants to New Amsterdam (now New York) or the Kipp families who arrived from Germany in the 1730s-1740s. They do not appear to be the same family (yDNA) mostly because the Kip family surname was an addition to the Hendrick Hendricksen's name; the earliest emigrant in the Kip family of New Amsterdam and not surprisingly he was from The Netherlands. Although his birth place in The Netherlands was very close to the present day German border and this territory passed back and forth somewhat. The Kipp family that came in the 1700s actually have Kipp as their surname and one of the actual descendants of the German Kipp family has tested his yDNA (he and his line are still in Europe) which has been rather handy and let it be possible to separate for sure the Kip family of New Amsterdam/New York from the German Kipp families who came at a later date. I should actually put this section into Edward's blog and will do that later today. So probably, as there are new people coming into the project, I should look at the DNA project there. He did that himself for the most part although did help with the grouping when he asked me (I love working with data and appear to have a good handle on doing that but I am a numbers person). 

Frank Stronach has it pretty right about how to improve Canada even more than it already is. I like his comments. I continue to support the idea of a Progressive Conservative party but we do not have one at the moment - the so-called Conservative party just attacks Trudeau constantly and daily. I do not care how his family spends their vacation (it would be good for his children to escape that fish bowl existence occasionally). He does a good job although do not agree with how the money of Canadian taxpayers is spent; we need actual dollars into military equipment and the military itself so that we can see it at work. We need more money into infrastructure (and not just oil); that employs people. We need to see the trades and farming for the great value that they give to Canada so that the youth wants to do those jobs. Everything requires a good education now; the way that all life is done now one needs a good education. We do not need to throw money at items hoping that it sticks; we need constructive plans to develop what is needed to keep Canada great. The money is once again getting hoarded by some; profits spread amongst the workers is a fantastic idea. Good work Frank Stronach.

Is Japan the actual country that is in the crosshairs of China? The whole idea of the United Nations was to move forward together. China suffered greatly before and during World War II (which really started in Manchuria in 1930 by the way) but we give it the dates 1939-1945 because Canada was in for those dates. Americans generally see it as 1941-1945 because Pearl Harbor was attacked 7 Dec 1941. But just as China suffered so did all of the so-called Allied countries (a lot of wonderful people died in that war) of which China and Russia (after Germany attacked them and broke the treaty between them dividing up Poland; one can never trust a Nazi) were both part. But we moved on into the United Nations and decided that the best result for everyone would be peace without retribution once the war criminals were prosecuted. That was what I grew up in a world where people were prosecuted for their misdeeds and reconstruction of war zones so that the world could again move forward. It has been good in my lifetime although the constant threat of Nuclear War has hung over my entire life (and continues) but trade has increased and developed so many countries; we were prosperous until Russia attacked first Georgia, then held an illegal and fake referendum in Crimea and then attacked Ukraine (a free sovereign state). We need more trade; more talking and considerably less war for sure to continue our excellent trading relations. Supplying Nazi Russia with the tools of war prolongs this conflict. If the Russian people do not want to be seen as Nazis then they need to stand up to their Nazi leaders (Putin and his enablers). Personally I do not care who heads Russia; I just want them to get out of Ukraine. Russia is their country after all and has a proud history that the Nazi Putin and his enablers are spoiling. 

The morning moves on and so must I. Lots to accomplish. Re-watching The 100 as I run. A few nuances that I missed the first time through. An interesting show actually and not being a fan of fantasy reading I am surprised to find myself watching these films.

Breakfast awaits.

An outside day

 Yesterday after Church was an outside day with a little cleaning up here and there. Mostly just checking out the property and things that I need to do. My weight lifting has stood me in good stead all winter and the increase in size of weights I am noticing now that I am out and about doing some work. I have thought about increasing the size of the weights that I lift for a while but finally decided to go for it. It was hard at first and I went to every other day lifting instead of every day but now after a month of lifting the new weights I am becoming more capable. It does take a little bit to increase the weights it would appear but I will appreciate it this summer as we work on the yard. Plus I am going to buy a kayak and the increased muscle will be handy I suspect although it does not take a great deal of strength to kayak. 

Still thinking about yesterday's sermon and how well it was delivered and it is on YouTube. It was like an answer to the ideas put forth on National television by another Christian Church's minister. It was needed especially at Easter time (atheism is a scourge on mankind; it separates us from the history and beliefs of humankind from the beginning of time as we know it). The Creator appears in all of our societies around the world; the spiritualism leaders of peoples who saw the creation differently than those in the Christian faith. But we are all one in the world; all of us Homo sapiens and each faith must be respected. But atheism takes away the love and hope that God and Jesus gave to us in the Old and New Testament and in the stories of the ancestors of other cultures. Studying and working in science one can really appreciate the logical and orderly nature of science in all of the world's parts and pieces. As we delve deeper and deeper into particles we are seeing God I think; at least God at work. The Universe is so perfect in its construction and yet within that there are wayward asteroids and comets but they too have served their purpose through time bringing to the various planets the necessary materials for life itself. Perhaps in the lifetime of the babies now being born we will travel the cosmos and learn even more about our God. Is there life out there? Did God only send Jesus to earth? So many questions. The orderly realms of science have arisen and produced all that we see around us and God saw it and it was good. But we are failing at protecting the earth and all of its beings; entire species are being lost.

Today is cleaning day and must get that started soon enough. It is a grey day and rain is promised. Now that the ground is unfrozen lots of rain to wet it down. Even the heavy snows of last winter have now been absorbed and the ground waits for more. Mud Season is the most important time of the year really; we must have lots of moisture for planting and growing of the crops. 

It is comforting to see yet another great continent has come together to handle aggression - the African continent has quickly rallied to manage the conflict in Sudan (internal conflicts are always difficult; sometimes you just have to circle the wagons and prevent breakouts). That is the way that probably works best. When aggression occurs we need these quick responses to counter that where ever it occurs. Else wise we are just back where we were in the 30s when aggressive nations just attacked and took what they wanted until we had regained the strength to stop them. We must keep supplying Ukraine with what it needs to defeat and cast out the Nazi Russians. Then we must protect the peace by all means at the disposal of the United Nations. 

Today some work on the Kipp Newsletter. I need to rough it out and then put it together. Probably it will not take a long time but I like to give myself a couple of weeks before it is published. Then I can get back to the Siderfin book which I want to accomplish this year. 

On to breakfast.

Continuing with Siderfin and 65% completed

 Continued with the hits for Siderfin at Find My Past and have now completed 65% and working on the Rs now. I may try to work in a few every day but now on to the Kipp Newsletter starting tomorrow.

Completed watching The 100 on Netflix. The eternal theme of evil versus good predominates this series. There was just so much evil that goodness was hidden at the beginning. The use of the Shepherd as the leader of the group that is now in place to end war is an interesting one (communal living though is the way of life for the followers of the Shepherd - including the Shepherd). It is a peaceful coexistence that uses the words "For All Humanity" as its refrain. The enemy itself is "evil in the world" as the members of the Shepherd's group have been taught. But they too use extreme measures to control.  Even reproduction itself is a science in that all babies are engineered in artificial wombs with all faults corrected (neither male nor female is involved except in the donation of egg and sperm although this is not actually discussed). Each embryo is carefully cared for and indoctrinated to be part of the army that will fight the last war of mankind. The Shepherd manages everything and he has managed to survive from before the nuclear war by first going into a bunker with as many experts as he could bring together, finding the path around the universe and then cryo. The Shepherd wants to transcend at least that is his belief. He does not see himself as God but rather as the means by which humanity survives. But when the last war is over he does believe the answer to the eternal question (eternal to him and many others perhaps) - Is there a God? - will be seen.  The Shepherd and his group have the ability to move about from planet to planet in the universe. Sanctus (the last outpost of humankind to survive as far as we are aware at this point in the series) was in fact peaceful although their existence was governed by the group known as the Prime who with the use of Artificial Intelligence were able to keep the essence of the original settlers (four families sent before the nuclear war) by killing volunteer individuals and perpetuating their persona. Gabriel, one of the original, had refused to be part of that initially but was perpetrated perhaps against his will (because I run while I am watching I sometimes miss a few elements) and the so-called children of Gabriel were kept apart because the two groups did not agree on this "murder" of willing victims to perpetuate the "Prime." Chaos entered into Sanctus with the arrival of the remnants of humanity in the universe who had lived an interesting life and were the first seasons of this show. It is a three part story in some ways with earth predominating and the Ark above the earth where survival had been maintained for 100 years in the first part. It is interesting overall and in my running I may well watch it a second time. When I run I like to have something on and I am busy so do not always take the time to look for another and just pick up one of the ones I have already watched. I have always found the stories of good and evil to be interesting to watch. Good has always won eventually in our world. 

God waits in the Heavens and watches I do believe. I do not believe he interferes in the affairs of mankind now since He sent Jesus to teach us; He is  the God of the Old and the New Testament. He sent His son Jesus to give us the New Commandments by which we must live. I think we must keep the faith that came to us through Jesus (from God His father) alive and well and not get distracted by philosophical ideas that lead one to atheism. God asks for very little from us in actual fact. To love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and to love one's neighbour as oneself. But greed does predominate in the world and we need to struggle against it because it is destroying the world.

Church on You-Tube today. I am very content to see King Charles III as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He is dedicated to a world that can survive by moderating our life styles. We are watching as the life of the Royals is changing - the Prince and Princess of Wales have declined to live in a Palace; they prefer a much smaller place that is easier to maintain. The Palaces are life in the past and can now become showpieces for people to visit and see their past. We need to move on into a present where life can carry on and greed needs to become a thing of the past. One must work for the betterment of God's world. 

We must help Ukraine because good (Ukraine) and evil (Russia) are fighting there. Glory to Ukraine. Prayers for Ukraine as always. No more war but we must keep supplying Ukraine with the materials of war to defend themselves against evil. They have a right to their land and their style of governance. Evil has forced even neutral countries like Finland to join the NATO pact - humans will always work towards self-preservation; it is in our genes. One does pray that the people of Russia will see that the evil being perpetrated by the Nazi Putin and his enablers is fed by their greed and that none of it is for the Russian people but just for the Nazi Putin and his enablers. Protect Navalny; he loves Russia and all of its people.

The sermon today at Church was a perfect answer to a United Church Minister being on the National News and saying she was an atheist. A Christian Church minister can not be an atheist - Christ founded the Church. It was founded to do the work of Jesus Christ - feed the hungry, care for the sick, and help the poor. The Sermon reminded us of the wonder of the Resurrection and how the peoples two thousand years ago who had known Jesus, walked with Jesus. learned from Jesus found both the strength and the courage to carry out his work. Now two thousand years later there are billions of committed followers around the world who continue to believe and worship the Risen Lord given to us by God and thank God for the beauty of this earth which has been given to us to protect and defend from those who would destroy it.

Back up the files

 I did finally get around to backing up my files and that is done. I have meant to do that for awhile. The snow is pretty much gone now although still have a stack at the front where the sun doesn't quite reach. I must start working outside and see if the grass is ready for raking; I suspect not but should check it out. Usually I do not rake until May. I want to see the budding on the trees as that is one of my highlights in the spring. Love to see that new growth.

We have had a really nice warm spell but cold weather again next week. I want to order a load of garden soil to repair the lawns here and there and add some fresh soil to the gardens. Perhaps by the end of the month I will do that. 

Still listening to Ian White's Psalms CD. It is a very welcome music and I am enjoying it. God's world is all around us struggling to deal with the environmental difficulties and we need to work hard to help Mother Nature to cure the world. Each nation must make an effort to mend the world. I was thinking the other day that my grandfather was descended from the First peoples of the British Isles with his Deer-Hunter designation for the yDNA line. He certainly talked that way with his love of the land; he loved gardening in his old age. He knew the land so well around Upper Clatford/Andover, Hampshire, England.

H11 Newsletter is now complete although will be stored. 

Today some work on the Siderfin family (continuing with the hits on Find My Past) and starting Monday I will do the Kipp Newsletter for publication on the 1st of May. The year slowly falls into place and gardening will soon dominate my life. I need to start the small greenhouse for the seedlings. My grandmother would be amazed; although I used to help her cleaning up in the spring and fall and weeding in the summer she knew I did not have a lot of interest in gardening. But I do have all those garden spots ready for planting although there is a strong temptation to fill them in with grass but my daughter loves to garden and so we will do that. 

On to breakfast; the morning is progressing. Have to work on my menu for the next two weeks. I do not eat a lot of meat but do eat quite a bit of protein although it tends to be eggs, peanut butter, peanuts, humus, avocado, a little chicken and fish. I do love fish and try for a couple of meals a week of fish. But I am not a really big eater so tend to work with frozen meat mostly that I purchase and break down into smaller packages. Although I notice the cost of groceries going up it probably doesn't affect me as much as some people. I have a pretty plain diet and oatmeal, wheat bran, wheat germ is still pretty cheap - the fruit I add is more expensive. I realized the other day that I had not yet opened the bag of sugar that I bought at Christmas. I am not a really big fan of baked goods either other than bread. I do love bread although incline towards the full flavour of whole wheat or other whole grains rather than white. I like frozen vegetables or stored like potatoes, onions, cabbage and carrots in the winter and fresh in the summer. 

The value of mitochondrial DNA - at least to me

Mitochondrial DNA tends to be a very slow changing DNA locked in the mitochondrial cells of the human body. It can remain the same throughout many generations or it can have mutations - either way it may or may not lead you to interesting information. In the case of myself and my siblings we do not have a lot of matches - primarily because the people that I know I will match have not tested. I know quite a few and judging from the size of the families from which I descend on that line there are a lot of them out there - they just have not tested. The only asset to them testing would be seeing if there were any mutations; they are all modern descendants. I need the earlier lines and a few of them have appeared in the FT DNA testing site. I do know that this mtDNA line of mine was in the Blood of the Isles Database by Bryan Sykes in Agryllshire/Ayrshire Scotland and that members carried it to Ireland with the Planters during the Cromwellian era. From there it traveled to America in 1772 with the Rev William Martin in the six ships that came to this area from Northern Ireland (mostly Antrim). But it also traveled directly down from Ayrshire to the Cumbria area in the 1700s. That is the advantage in being able to look at mtDNA. But the names are very difficult because they change with every generation. I have a lot of family lore on this line both from my maternal grandmother and my mother. Their stories do rather mesh but then they are mother and daughter so one would expect that. But Ellen Taylor herself was a mystery. She had an illegitimate daughter in 1879 and then married Edwin Denner Buller before 1886 (marriage missing) and had seven children (my grandmother was the eldest). Interestingly Edwin Denner Buller lived close to where Ellen Taylor lived in Birmingham - her father was likely the boot and shoe maker my grandmother mentioned. Edwin came back from the Fist Boer War injured in 1882 and it is likely that Ellen Taylor was still in the Workhouse at Aston in 1882 (she was there likely in 1881). The hospital in that area was in the Workhouse. The name though is fairly common Ellen + Taylor but in actual fact only seven in Birmingham in this time frame and I have certificates for them all. A descendant of this line wrote to me a couple of months ago telling me the story of my family (but then it is on the web and easily found plus my tree is in ancestry). I suggested atDNA just to see but have not heard back. But it is interesting that a descendant of this family did contact me. So have I made progress because of mitochondrial DNA - I think so. I have an idea of this line just not enough names yet! But the autosomal matches are a huge number and many of them would carry the same H11 haplogroup as well.

Worked on H11 yesterday and have the 21 new people incorporated into the file (433 members which is a good size for this haplogroup). Today I need to look at my block of people in the "can not be put into a subclade while results are private." They do not always tell me when they have opened the file enough to let me see what I need to see to subclade the results. But on the other hand this study with this number of members still represents less than 5% of the people who have tested H11 at FT DNA. So why do I do it; the H11 Newsletter? It is sort of a bond forming thing that brings people together and I am simply encouraging that bonding and for some people it has given answers. Not publishing it yet though; waiting for Russia to get out of Ukraine. 90% of the members of the study are from the British Isles or Europe (East and Central principally) or Scandinavia. But again the 21 new people have provided new links which is always exciting. 

A bit of eye strain today so will take god breaks today.

Tracing lines and lines that have daughtered out

My Buller line disappeared in my maternal grandmother's generation, she had three brothers in total but two died just after birth and the third did not have children. My Pincombe line disappeared in my mother's generation as her only brother did not have any children. My Blake line will disappear in my generation as my brothers do not have any male children. Of my four grandparents that leaves only the Rawlings line of my paternal grandmother.  Fortunately her grandmother had four sons (and three daughters) and the Rawlins/Rawlings line is numerous with 14 Rawlings grandsons (nephews to my great grandmother) and the line continues both in the United Kingdom and Australia/New Zealand in great numbers. Mind you there are lots of Blake and Pincombe lines still that are known cousins to me. Lots of Buller matches but none still carrying the surname of Buller. My 2x great grandfather Henry Christopher Buller and his wife Anne Welch had eleven children - 4 sons and seven daughters. By an earlier marriage (his first wife died) he had one son and one daughter (three children died young). The sons do not appear to have had any sons other than my great grandfather. Learning more about the ancestry of the Buller line has been difficult but I keep watching for possibilities! 

Lots of matches on both the Buller and Welch side and some do trace back to a younger brother of my great grandfather who went to South Africa to continue working in his job after my great grandfather joined the war effort (the first Boer War in 1880-81). My great grandfather was wounded (he was a medic) and repatriated back to England by 1882. He walked with a cane the rest of his life as he had a leg injury according to my maternal grandmother. His younger brother was Clement Charles Caswell Buller born March quarter 1856 at Aston, Warwickshire, England and died Dec 1927 at Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. He married Elizabeth Ann Larkworthy Crocker circa 1885 in New Zealand. I have just one daughter for that couple thus far Ethel Ivy Buller (added in the other six children to my legacy chart as they are now on the tree in Ancestry; a great addition to the day). She married Allister Neil McKie 1 Nov 1916 in New Zealand. I have a DNA match with one of their descendants. This is a good sized match on ancestry with one of my brothers sharing 45 cM, another brother sharing 30 cM and a sister sharing 32 with me coming in at 36 cM. The shared matches are equally strong and known to me as descendants of both the Buller and Welch lines. The naming of their children also similar to the names chosen with other members of this family. Interesting but I still have Christopher Buller born circa 1764 and parentage unknown as the father of Henry Christopher Buller who is the father of my great grandfather Edwin Denner Buller. My match list for Buller is large and a number of them are not known to me.

Continued with the hits on Find My Past but only accomplished two pages (now on page 70) as several of them required a good deal of research to determine who they were. I eventually had to enter one of them as an added unknown in my Legacy Chart. 

Will do the H11 Newsletter today but will not publish it until Ukraine is free once again. We sit on the sidelines and watch (the so-called West (although we do provide Ukraine with the tools of war just as we provided Russia then the largest part of the Soviet Union with the tools of war when they were invaded by the Nazis in the Second World War) ) as Nazi Russia attacks the free country of Ukraine. 

On to breakfast as the morning advances. Another beautiful day in God's world; we are blessed. The paragraph below emerges from my brain this morning and could not be silenced! 

I have been watching The 100 on Netflix; still no opinions on the series. It is like a warning of what life after a nuclear Armageddon could be like. It isn't pretty and the message continues to ring through it - greed is the greatest human failing and it dominates the series from beginning to end. Now that we are into the second year of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, one can see the stupidity of the Russian people for allowing such greed to become a part of their society. Even as they retreat they greedily steal the property that is in the homes of the Ukrainian people. The breaking up of peace on such a scale is a sad entry into a new century which really had a lot on its plate already with environmental damage. We need to fix this world; Nazism has no place in it and the Russians are land stealing Nazis (Putin at its head along with his enablers). Russia does need to stop ripping the world apart with bombs against an innocent people who do not want to be part of their greedy graft ridden country. Georgia too once again is under threat as the judges there continue to imprison the earlier leader who brought them through the war against Russia to protect their borders in 2008 (interesting that judges can be so corrupt and get away with it). Courts should distance themselves from personal prejudice or recuse themselves. Everyone has a right to their day in court. Glory to Ukraine. Prayers for the Ukrainian people as always.

Change in thinking with regard to matches

Initially my thought with matches was to actively pursue the likely relationship which led eventually to my phasing my grandparent's DNA (literally the DNA that each one of the four passed to my parents). That has changed to a more passive approach where I do collect all the matches and use my phased chart (looking to see if any incongruencies arise by this choice) to place the person. If they have a tree I do check it but I seldom write to anyone these days with respect to how they are matching me. It has proven to be a good method and I have redrawn those phased charts twice now mostly on a yearly interval but this time it will likely be two years. The number of new matches continues to increase but I moved to 20 centimorgans for a minimum match unless known to me (before phasing my grandparents). I am thinking of moving to 25 centimorgans for the matches that I retain and work into my system. I will gradually cull my system of the smaller matches unless they are known to me. 

Today we have a reddish golden sunrise and it is spreading rapidly across the sky - absolutely glorious. In just ten minutes it has moved from a small glow in the east to filling most of the sky visible from my workroom window. Another day on God's earth and praise Him for that. The snow is rapidly melting now although still there especially in the darker corners that the sun does not reach readily. Today the car comes out of the garage for the summer/fall. Then I can start to sort out the patio first thing. Put the swing up as I enjoy sitting out there and swinging during the day. The birds are back and at the feeder so will take my time letting them get used to me being out on the patio so as not to frighten them off. The water is still sitting on top of the ground so the freezing is not yet gone but going for sure as less and less apparent. It will still be another week before I go out to the shed so as not to do to much damage to the grass which is now totally encased in the mud. Mud season is with us once again and the longer the mud season the better the ground is prepared for gardening. 

I will start the little greenhouse in another couple of weeks so we will be ready to plant towards the end of May. Gardening season is just around the corner. Amazingly one of the three orchids which Edward treasured has bloomed this winter. There are four flowers and six to come. Quite amazing really as I do not have a green thumb at all and limited interest in growing flowers but it is quite beautiful. He loved flowering plants. 

Going to be a cloudy day I think perhaps the beautiful sunrise has already dissipated. Today I shall continue with the Siderfin hits on Find My Past and I am now up to Page 68 which is 55% of the hits nearly. Just a couple of individuals I can not place into family lines so they are added in but unattached. I will probably get back into the book today to sort the Appendices into a date order and check to see if there are references already to some of that text in the section of the book already revised. Other than that exercises planned and work to do. 

 

My largest match next to my siblings

A rather large match for a 2nd-3rd cousin that I could not place has finally been given a spot on the tree. This individual and I (and my four siblings) share the MRCA of John Blake and Ann Farmer of Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England. Problem solved that has lurked in the background for quite a while. It is however a very large match for a third cousin once removed (I share 247 centimorgans or 4%) so I am tempted to think he is also related to me on the Knight line as he shares many Knight matches in common with me (and my siblings). So a little longer adventure there perhaps (unless it is just a very large match which could happen). We do have some large Blake matches (just none quite this large) with descendants of my father's first cousins (i.e. my second cousins). The interesting comparison is a match with my second cousin on my mother's side (Buller line) where we share 227 centimorgans or 3%. It has been a tantalizing match for sure ever since it first came up. A similar match in the same family line of Farley is only 98 centimorgans (my third cousin once removed). So an interesting match for sure that still has a story behind it I suspect.

Back to Siderfin once again today. I did not accomplish very much yesterday with all the cleaning. I want to continue working on the 2433 hits on Find My Past. It would be good to complete that task by mid June which I think is most probable. Along the way I do end up doing some other background checking as the hits can sometimes take quite a while to place. I am also going to start the Kipp Newsletter next week and do the main issue of H11 although will consider whether to put it up online. Time will tell but I will get it completed. 

A new match on Ancestry with the Siderfin family has proven to be very interesting as well. I am able to place this person into the line coming down from my 3x great grandmother's sibling Thomas Siderfin who rather disappears from the Selworthy area as a young man. This family, being very large, would have had to find their spot in the world for sure since the property was going to go to the eldest. My line, descendant from John Rew and Elizabeth Siderfin did end up at Bratton near Minehead at some point and after Elizabeth died John would move to his son's farm in the Bishops Nympton area where he is found in 1848 with his will being probated and kindly identifies my ancestor Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe as his daughter and that he wants to be buried beside his wife in Selworthy, Somerset. A perfect will since he lists all of his married daughters and so much genealogical information all in one place. One dreams of such wills. Linking Elizabeth back to her birth family proved to be a fascinating story of census, serendipity, and just good luck. That happened way back when I really knew almost nothing about doing English genealogy but followed some of the guides in my course work and I was rewarded very largely. 

I shall try to keep on track with my genealogy work as we pull away from the COVID watershed in time. Before COVID my blog tended to be about my research but it did become somewhat political and I did not actually intend to be quite so political although my thoughts are exactly that my thoughts and I can be, in my small part of the world, rather political but tend to stick to that at home only (politics is not a good dinner conversation). I captured all of my blog from this watershed time into my Life Story just because I decided to do that. A whole lot happened in my life during that time and I wanted to record it for anyone in my family that wanted to read it. 

The second cleaning day of the week and it is the easier one - the basement. We are promised a 14 degree celsius day today  which should result in more melting. We still have a lot of snow although the grass is showing quite well now. My crocodile on the roof has melted down into the look of Perce Rock off the coast of Quebec in the Gulf of St Lawrence. It is very small now and will not likely take my eavestrough off any more although I can say it has not moved even when it looked like a rather large crocodile. Next year I shall try to knock the pile off to one side with a broom to keep it somewhat less large. We had a lot of snow this year. 

On to breakfast and cleaning day. I shall have time to work on Siderfin today.