More than two thirds plus of the way through the 1653 document

Another beautiful day in God's world. A slight breeze in the trees reminds us of His presence and continued interest in this world. We are but one of a million or more species and subspecies all created over time. Our very existence is dependent upon all of those species as they contribute to our survival and we should to their survival. Why ever were millions of bees being transported; they can fly! We must work to make this like the world that existed before the Industrial Revolution so that our impact on the environment becomes carbon neutral. We do not have to live in the Dark Ages or a time of barbarism (like Russia does) but we need to be observant of our effect on the world. Russia wonders how to protect their military establishments from Ukraine. Obviously they just need to get out of Ukraine as established at the end of the Soviet Union by the United Nations. Then they have nothing to fear after all they were the aggressor. Really in the so-called West we want peace; not peace on any terms but peace that means a barbaric country like Russia does not attack its neighbours.

Continued working on the 1653 document for the Siderfin family in answer to a complaint brought against them by the Frank family. I am just beyond 2/3rds of the way through now and it continues to be somewhat confusing. Wilmott is being referred to once again and one is left with the impression that Wilmott has outlived Robert Frank and that they were married but no children it would appear. Very confusing but there seemed to be an agreement between Robert and Willmot that sums of money would offset her dower rights. I did not find a marriage  although did find the burial for Robert Franke at Porlock 21 Jan 1653 (old style) and he was the son of Thomas Franke according to the Somerset Archives Parish Records - Somerset Burial Index. 

I really need to complete my first run through the document but have already achieved my goal from this document which was to whom the defendants were referring as there is this overlap in naming within these two Robert families (children named Robert, John and Willmot) in both families but separated by a generation. This document does show that the Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) family is the family mentioned in the document thus supporting one of my premises that Robert 5 (son of Robert 4) died in 1636 and his father survived along with his mother Ursula and brother John at least until 1653 and beyond for John. This document shows that this family were not clinging to ownership of the property that was owned by Robert Franke at East Lynch and that is also rewarding information as it supports my other premise that the Robert Siderfin at East Lynch (mid 1600s to late 1600s) and William Siderfin at Minehead (mid 1600s to early 1700s) were the sons of Robert 6 (Robert 5, William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1). These lands were held by this William 4 Siderfin line and it is merely coincidental that the reference to East Lynch occurs in the Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) line. James Sanders does not mention this item in the book so suspect he did not see it. The Pedigree Chart he produced does end up not assigning the Robert Siderfin lines taking into account these other documents namely the will of Robert 6 (Robert 5, William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) in 1688 and the answer to the Frank complaint in 1653 by Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1). The item continues to fascinate as I understand the language in it and the rather broken history line that runs through it since everyone knew in 1653 what was being discussed; in 2023 I have no idea of the missing parts (some is difficult to read) and inuendos implied in some of the language. So on to the end of the document and a reworking of it on a second read. There are perhaps 20 lines left to transcribe now. No burial found for Ursula Frank or Ursula Siderfin on Find My Past; must look around just in case.

Up early today and it is over a week since I had my eye tests at the  hospital. No word yet from the Eye Institute physician's office on surgery. No ideas on why the tests were run at this particular time. The secretary there tried to convince me to have the more advanced lens when I called back later in the day after my appointment in June but I wanted the doctor to know that I preferred the OHIP option as I preferred to wear my glasses (keeps the bugs out of my eyes). I was a little surprised to have the secretary get so involved in telling me about a family success with the more advanced lens since I had already stated my reason for wanting the OHIP option and it would save the doctor time as she was going to do calculations for that advanced lens and the simple lens do not require these extensive calculations. I am a patient soul though and busy with my book. Having worked in doctor's offices it does take time to set up the surgery roster plus I understand that there is a waiting list. Since I really do not mind waiting until on in December or next mid-May it is not a problem for me. I am curious about the surgery and quite ready to have this done. I have seen  a number of these surgeries in my own personal family. I am out of touch with the hospital system now since it is twenty years since I worked in the hospital; very lucky on my part that I have had no hospitalizations since my early 30s other than one childbirth (checked out on day 3); nor was I ever in a hospital before my first delivery although did work in the hospital laboratory before her birth. We had always thought to have three children but my second child at 36 years of age and 30 hours of continuous labour (the first eight years earlier was three days with 36 hours continuous labour before delivery) I was not sorry that we decided to stop at two.  I do think that long labours can not possibly be good for the baby or the mother in my humble opinion. I did walk and walk with my second one at home but the labour just continued on and on. I do think that concentrating births in the Civic and General was a good move since I arrived at the Riverside after 8:00 pm. and felt like they had closed up shop for the day to be honest. I did say to my husband I would rather go to the Civic or General after being there about 30 minutes. Plus taking my history they concentrated on my mental/nervous/physical breakdown as I recall and did not listen to me saying that I was three days in labour the first time, 36 hours continuous. I was already pretty exhausted at 8:00 pm and she was not born until 5:14 a.m according to the birth certificate; my memory of much past 11:00 pm is pretty much non existent except for her cry before I was lost to time once again.. I did think that eliminating delivery at the Riverside  was an excellent idea. Later in my life, I was working in Perinatology at the General at the time that The Ottawa Hospital was created and was the volunteer secretary (my employer was the head of Perinatology) for that committee which met in the evening. Doctors are very busy people and all of this work of merging the hospitals was done in their spare time so I having an interest in this merging also said that I would do it as a volunteer (although my boss said I should claim the time but I did not do so; this was my bit for women in labour so that they would have the best deliveries that could be provided!). I still look back on that time period as one of my best volunteer moments along with my volunteerism at my daughter's schools and my volunteer secretary role at the Anglican Church in Orleans when we first moved here. All the other volunteer roles were pretty much my husband volunteering me!

I do like working on my books though and already Pencombe is percolating through my brain. I am a touch typist still able to type very quickly so the text just flows from my fingers (my children used to be amazed that I type without looking at the keys; my oldest once wanted to blindfold me to see if I could still do that and of course I can). I always laugh when people say I should write my own life story as I prefer my one-name studies. Writing my own story is not in the books that I am considering after all I am busy extracting information from old documents and transcribing quite lengthy ones for use in my books; a much more valuable addition to the information world as I have a knack at doing transcription of old documents. 

Today I am going to take apart a large closet and re-organize it. I need to have lots of interesting tasks to keep me from working continuously on my transcription. It gives my eyes a good rest. On to the day, first jumping jacks and then breakfast.

And the rain came down

A very heavy thunder and lightning storm in the night with lots of rain and once again we did need the rain. But the lightning we could do without for sure as lightning is one of the causes of forest fires. We are doing okay in Ontario though so far. Winter is coming and for me the best time of the year for sure - lots of research time. Plus lots of movie watching time as I continue to binge-watch on Netflix all of the interesting shows they have created over the past dozen years. Edward loved to watch the cooking shows and music so we generally did do that but I do like shows about space - the child in me that thought being an astronaut was a wondrous notion when I was in my first decade has returned to thinking going into outer space is a fascinating idea. 

I woke up thinking about one of my favourite hymns today. It was a perfect way to awake and I do so love religious music - Gregorian Chants have always fascinated me. I did sing in the Choir when I was a child until I was about fourteen I think; would have stayed longer but I started to teach Sunday School. My mother kept me busy with Guides and Dancing Lessons but they conflicted sometime in my teen years perhaps around 14 or 15 and she decided that dancing was probably more important for me because I really did dislike camping - wall to wall people in a bell tent without a floor was dreadfully unappealing. I could have wall to wall people at home so the attraction was absolutely nill. Plus there always seemed to be long grass where ever those  tents were pitched so one was faced with soaking wet legs or the grass cutting bare legs if one wore shorts. My memories of Guide Camp are not good and when my daughters wanted to go camping with Brownies and Guides I did not go with the oldest but the youngest had some food allergies and so I went as cook and bottle washer so to speak with my tent that had a floor! But she did decide that she could manage the food allergies after that and I was persuaded by her to let her go without me. I did get rather exhausted to be honest hauling food back to the campsite in some sort of a cart - the memory is somewhat blurry now. Never was I so glad to have something completed to be honest. I was not meant to be a Guide/Brownie leader and only did it whilst my own children were involved although did do one year ahead of my eldest just to remind me of Brownies. Mostly it reminded me that I did not ever really like Brownies and Guides - I really think it is for only children or children without a lot of siblings. I was Brown Owl though for my children and all the children had a great time as I recall. I think the comradeship is good for children but my other leaders were probably not that happy with me as I tend to run things in a rather rigorous and scheduled way seldom deviating from that planned time. But the children were content with the fixed pattern. 

No work done on research still clearing up for winter although still a lot to do but I want to be able to put the car in the garage and that time is fast approaching as August moves into September. Just four more days and the anniversary of Edward and I marrying (it would be 57 years had he lived to now). Part of my clinging to the past is Edward would have liked to live to be 90 and we wanted that for him but health and fate intervened and he was almost 78 when he passed following nearly ten years of less than optimum health although I would have said it was a hernia that he acquired that was the most restricting for him. He just couldn't walk for miles as we had done before that hernia. His operation was scheduled but time caught up to him during COVID which I also tend to blame as he was a people person and loved his various groups and things he went to. It was a moment in time when the hernia was acquired. We had just returned from our month in the British Isles and I came back with a nasty cold and decided not to go to the book sorting group that day. I generally went primarily to make sure he didn't over do it picking up boxes and the like because he was slowly losing his great strength. No one's fault of course but he picked up one to many boxes and the hernia resulted. It still saddens me that I stayed home that day but one can not feel guilty one's entire life and we all make choices. So I have decided to move on from that thought in my mind and put it into the past. It was just something I could do nothing about and had to watch as his strength ebbed away because he found COVID so restrictive and I could never persuade him that walking around the house up and down the two flights of stairs could be fun but I am an exercise fanatic and we did not share that tendency. Exercise is the most important item for seniors really I think. One can eat a pretty basic diet and still get good nutrition but exercise is vital. 

The Siderfin book continues top of mind and my fifth cousin is working on the Thomas Line which is much appreciated and will mention her in the acknowledgements. It is the more difficult line because Thomas moved away from the family so more difficult to follow and understand. 

The Pencombe book though is starting to sneak into my thoughts these days and I am looking forward to starting that book as soon as I am able if the cataract surgery comes first. If not then I will begin the Pencombe book in December which is rather exciting. 

A reminiscent morning for sure and must get on with the day. Tea all drank and now on to breakfast but first one more set of jumping jacks. Then weight lifting later in the morning and a good 40 minute run before lunch. Then calisthenics in the latter part of the afternoon, dinner and TV watching for a bit. Usually I do not do research in the evenings as my mind gets too busy with all the thoughts and complicates my sleep! 

On to the day.

The Franke family in the Protestation returns and the Lay Subsidy in 1641 and 1642

A lookup in the Protestation Returns of 1641 for the Francke family was helpful.

 Hundred     Parish     Forename     Surname     Notes                             

Carhampton     Carhampton     John     Francke     
Carhampton     Timberscombe     Alexander     Francke     
Carhampton     Porlock     Robert     Francke     sen
Carhampton     Porlock     Robert     Francke     jun
Carhampton     Porlock     Roger     Francke     
Carhampton     Porlock     Walter     Francke     
Carhampton     Porlock     Walter     Francke     
Carhampton     Porlock     Thomas     Francke     
Carhampton     Porlock     John     Francke     sen

A similar lookup in the Lay Subsidy for 1642 was also helpful  

Hundred    Parish     Forename     Surname     Other     L or G     Amount    Page     Notes

Cannington     Timberscombe     Alex     Franck     gent         20 s     195     
Cannington     Porlocke     John     Franke     sen        1 s 2 d     198     listed as sub collector     
Cannington     Porlocke     Rob     Franke     jun       1 s 2 d     198     Robert Francke sen listed Cannington     Bossington in Porlocke     Walter     Franke     2 s 3 d     196     
    
Looking for proof of presence for the Franke family at East Linch in 1641. East Linch does not appear as an entity in either of these two returns. However it is interesting that the Protestation Return and the Lay Subsidy Robert Siderfin sen and jun are at Timberscombe along with Alexander Franck and Alexander Franck is mentioned in the Answer to the complaint given by Robert and Ursula Siderfin and their son John and their deceased daughter Wilmot is mentioned as well. We know that Robert at Timberscombe is also associated with East Linch so it would appear that both families are present near or at East Linch and East Linch continues in the Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) family until all of the lines daughter out at which point I have not made note of what happened to that property but it is into the early to mid 1700s that this land continues with this line. We already know that John Siderfin is at Selworthy (also close to East Linch so can understand why this other Siderfin family was known to the Franck family). Just a bit of logic to understand this document which I do not really need as it doesn't affect the descendancy of the Siderfin family. What is interesting though is the proof that Robert Siderfin married to Ursula Webber has survived to 1653 at least as has his wife and his son John. This does fit with the initial descent that James Sanders proposes but it is the individual Robert baptized in 1656 and married that is in discussion and he does have this Robert married twice, once to Thomasine and once to Elizabeth Blackford and both are incorrect as he married Elizabeth Question of Dunster. But I will continue to transcribe the document simply as it supplies proof for one of my arguments concerning this line of Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) and sets the stage for the changes that I made to the Pedigree Chart for the Robert Siderfin at East Linch and the William Siderfin at Minehead and both sons of a Robert Siderfin namely Robert  6 (Robert 5, William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1). The John Siderfin named as the father of Robert Siderfin at East Linch and William Siderfin at Minehead is incorrect. He is likely the father of the John Siderfin baptized 15 Jul 1565 at Wootton Courtney who married first Mary Chapman (listed as unknown on the Pedigree Chart of James Sanders) and second marriage was to Maria Winter bu I can find no descendants of the son Robert from the first marriage to Mary Chapman (baptized 15 Dec 1688 at Selworthy).

More proof for this particular postulation would be welcomed and is perhaps there in the Record Office but I feel with the documents acquired thus far the idea is certainly reasonable and I will proceed with it leaving further proof to others much closer to the registration office than I am!

In general though the Francke family does appear to be more in the Porlock area that the Carhampton/Cannington area. The holding though at Timberscombe does appear to be somewhat more substantial then other holdings at Porlock so there would be a strong desire to retain this piece of property.

Will continue with the transcription today.

Yesterday the sand was completed on the patio and probably the hardest task of this Fall. Another beautiful sunny day perhaps although just 10 degrees celsius at 6:30 a.m. The air quality though is at 54 so will have to work inside probably today.  That is always an interesting prospect!

On to the day.

Ten degrees celsius at 7:00 a.m.

Another cool night but brilliant sun today. The shed is nearly put together now with just a few items in the garage to help with the Fall cleanup. Perhaps today we will spread the hardening sand into the porch, patio and bricks along the laneway. That is also  a big task with sweeping away of the cracks taking place first. It should be nice and dry now so will work at that this morning. One piece of fencing to put up as well. We managed to find another length of the black fence along the one edge as it is just a little bit short. This will bring the fence to the end of the garden and will have the 20 centimetre high fence along the front. There is so much work to do in the yard in the Fall. The raspberries are in fruit once again as they are ever bearing so that is a nice treat for the end of the summer. 

No work on the Siderfin document yesterday but may squeeze in some time today. I need to check the tax records and see where the Fran[c]ke family was in 1641. That should also prove interesting. I am not really sure of the intent of this answer now but does appear that Ursula had taken it upon herself to check on Robert Frank and did discover that he had died of his sickness. Perhaps more on that today. The Frank family is saying that the Siderfin family have documents about the property at East Linch and this is being denied by the Siderfin family particularly John Siderfin so perhaps they were of a similar age and he too had tried to help Robert Frank during his illness. The story slowly evolves. But definitely no mention of Robert 5 (Robert 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) up to this point in the document. My first premise does appear to be correct that Robert 5 died in 1636 and the only male line coming down from Robert 4 (father to Willmot 5, Robert 5, and John 5) was John 5. That he likely married Thomasine before 1656 and their first and only child Robert was born in 1656. This Robert being the only male Siderfin whose children/grandchildren continued into the 1800s. John 5 would have been 34 when he married as he was baptized in 1619 at Minehead. Thomazine died in 1709 so was likely younger than John but does mention all but one of her grandchildren. Likely in her 20s when she married, that would make her perhaps in her late 70s which is quite possible. No death date is known for John 5 Siderfin. 

Already 7:30 and I haven't had my tea so must get the day started.

Slowly but surely through the Siderfin Answer to the Franke complainants

Good news as I worked my  way through the Siderfin Answer to the Franke complainants. A time period has now been mentioned and the death of Willmot Siderfin (I still think it is prior to the marriage but we will see as there are more details in this latest but I need to understand the language before committing to a definitive answer on the marriage). A time period of thirteen or fourteen years has been mentioned which would place the wedding to be in 1640-41. Willmot daughter of Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) would have been 25 to 26 years of age whereas Willmot daughter of Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) would have been in her mid teens possibly if she was a first born child and younger if not. I may yet have to back down on this being Robert 5 but I need to understand about betrothal at this time period and marriage. The marriage had not taken place as far as I can tell and Willmott daughter of Robert 5 was still alive in 1644 as she is mentioned in her grandmother Christian (Webber) Siderfin's will. I do not know any details for Willmott daughter of Robert 4 other than her baptism in 1614 at Minehead. 

If this does prove to be that Robert 4 did not die in 1636 but rather Robert 5 (Robert 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) died then it continues to fit in with my premise that Robert 5 did not have any children and died at 20 years of age. 

But I do wonder why Robert 4 is involved with East Linch in 1653. He only ever appeared to have property in Minehead. We also learn in this document that Robert Franke also died at this time but after Willmott. Looking at the tax records for 1641:

Somerset Subsidy 1642
Tax    Hundred    Parish    Forename    Surname    Other    Amount
1642    Carhampton    Luxborow Everhard    Crispian     Syderfin        6 s 8 d
1642    Carhampton    Luxborow Everhard    William    Syderfin        4 s 8 d
1642    Carhampton    Timberscombe    Rob    Syderfyn    sen    4 s
1642    Carhampton    Timberscombe    Rob    Syderfyn    jun    3 s
1642    Carhampton    Browne in Treborough    Wm     Syderfyn        8 x 1 d
1642    Carhampton    Wootton Courtney    Robert    Syderfyn        13 s 6 d
1642    Carhampton    Cutcombe    Thomas    Syderfyn        11 s
1642    Carhampton    Carhampton    Thos    Syderfyn    gent    5 s 6 d
1642    Carhampton    Mynehead    Thomas    Syderfyn        4 s 6 d
1642    Carhampton    Mynehead    Robert    Syderfyn        4 s 7 d

We do see Robert Syderfin at Wootton Courtney and Minehead as well as Robert senior and Robert junior at Timberscombe. East Lynch is just 1.9 miles from Wootton Courtenay and considered part of Selworthy. 

I am now up to line 43 in the transcription and there are about 40 lines remaining. I think though I have allowed my mind to concentrate on Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) being present at East Linch and not seeing that the Frank family also appears to be present at East Linch. That is perhaps new news that did not occur to me at the initial reading of the first 43 lines. It is a first read through though and I am missing some words as I always go through in a somewhat quicker fashion the first time through any document. Perhaps what I am slowly seeing is that this property belonged to the Frank family and the family of William 4 is not involved in this transaction at all. This then clarifies the Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) family with the eldest son Robert 5 (Robert 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) dying in 1636. John does not likely marry Thomasine until after 1653 (their child Robert was baptized in 1658) as she is  not mentioned in this answer to the complaint. Definitely Robert did not marry Thomasine which is what James Sanders implies on his Pedigree chart. 

This beautiful Sunday morning I am reading that the Russian War Bloggers are complaining about the way that the war in Ukraine is being managed; what kind of people are Russians really that they could support a war against innocent people that they have been trying to murder for nearly a hundred years in one way or another. Perhaps if Russians are isolated for long enough they will see that such ignorant behaviour is not responsible behaviour for Homo sapiens and they can once again rejoin the world as sensible people respecting the rights of nations to exist after all Russia caused the downfall of the Soviet Union by attacking Afghanistan and going bankrupt in the process. Freedom for those people who were enslaved at the end of the Second World War was a wondrous happening after so many years of the Cold War at the end of the Soviet Union. Wake up Russia; get rid of your barbarian behaviour and join the modern world.  So Russian war bloggers I suggest you find a way to get your country to get out of Ukraine instead of supporting this war that Russia has created. Save the lives of these young Russian men; bring them home with your writing instead of encouraging them to fight an illegal war. Glory to Ukraine.

Church today and the time of remembrance is passing quickly. COVID-19 was a watershed in time affecting people who survived it in so many different way. For me it was an interlude where I got to live the life that I love one of  research and close family life. Sadly we lost Edward and we are slowly but surely moving to a life without him but keeping him in our hearts. The girls will always miss their father as they were so close as will his grandsons but life is slowly inching forward into this new world Post-COVID.  Shattered by war but hopefully that will also soon pass and Russia corralled in their borders until they are ready to join the world once again as partners bringing our world to a better place where Climate Change has been averted and the uplifted plain of peace is all around us. We must always be ready to fight as we do not know what lies out in the universe but sharing peace on earth is what God wants for us. 

Perhaps a little more transcription today as I see what the other half of the document reveals about the Siderfin family in 1653. But also we are going to put the shed back together as we move towards winter life. The gardening is coming to an end other than picking the tomatoes etc. The sunflowers are about to come to flower and that will be interesting watching the squirrels harvest them once again. They do love the sunflowers. The birds are flocking and heading south as the nights are now cool - just 12 degrees celsius last night. 

Breakfast awaits and on to the day with Church at 10:30 on my own but soon back on YouTube perhaps or I will continue singing and saying the service by myself. I am content at nearly 78 for that life style. 

 

Another beautiful day in God's world

 Brilliant sunshine this morning and another beautiful day in God's world. A slight breeze in the trees and this Black Walnut is nearly 3/4ths of the way across the yard this year. It is a huge tree. It pretty much shades the garden from the late morning on which isn't overly helpful but then grass is also appealing to me at this stage of my life. But we did clear out the back of the garden which still does get quite a bit of sun so next year perhaps we will plant the lettuces in there. 

Finished clearing the rest of the bricks along the side of the laneway along with the patio and porch so ready to do the hardening sand and will see how that goes. I do not want to put it down when it is going to be quite rainy so must watch the weather. But it will be nice to have it completed. The front yard I can maintain fairly well although the grass is not quite s nice as it was. Perhaps next year I can get that done. 

Thomas Siderfin's line completed in the reformatting so sent it off to my fifth cousin to have a look. No rush on that as I will  not publish before end of November. I want lots of time for proofreading and reviewing. It is exciting to think that it will be done this year. If my cataract surgery doesn't happen in December then I will start the Pencombe book and looking forward to that. I have a lot of early documents (in Latin) to work on and will spend time before surgery or after a rest working on those. I acquired them from the National Archives of the UK on visits there over ten years ago now. I may need to order some new images as the ones that I took may not be as good as the scans that they do. Will check that out. But there are huge documents for this family in Devon. I will be remembering my mother's thoughts with this one plus I have nearly thirty years of her letters which I can use as quotes in the book as well. She had her memories from her father and then from her father's first cousin and her maternal uncle by marriage (my maternal grandmother and his wife were sisters). 

Looked at some of the DNA results yesterday in a quiet moment. I have not checked out FT DNA matches for quite a while. I tend to keep up with the 23 and Me and Ancestry more or less but FT DNA I look at for different reasons generally the mtDNA and the yDNA rather than the autosomal DNA. Living DNA I have barely touched in a couple of years and must get back to that. There is a DNA meeting with a speaker on Living DNA so will try to get to that today. We were meant to be at the cottage this weekend but changes occurred and as it turns out has worked very well as there was so much to do here. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always; it is sad to see the youth of Russia dying on the battlefields that Russia created in Ukraine but they could just go home; just pick up and go like they did in 1917. The leadership in Russia is corrupt; they are Nazis and not worthy of the people of Russia. Their only way to a better life is to eliminate the Nazis Putin and his enablers. Invading a free sovereign nation is so wrong; no one has the right to do that. Glory to Ukraine. 

Thank you God for the beauty of this world and may we strive much harder to eliminate Climate Change caused by humans. We are destroying this beautiful planet and must find a way to turn that around and very soon so that the grandchildren of tomorrow will have as much fun as we had as children in our world. 

On to breakfast but first the second set of jumping jacks!

Half the laneway bricks completed

I did complete half of the laneway bricks yesterday and with luck and good weather will complete the other side plus the porch and patio today. Then we can add in the sand and get that project completed. Fall is moving in now as the nights are cooler and the male cicadas are singing their usual August song. August itself is nearing the end of the month and the activity of return to school has already begun. The quietness of Fall approaches and my research time will expand somewhat although clearing up the yard for winter will still be a priority item. 

My 78th birthday rapidly approaches and as always I thank God for my years upon this earth. It is nearly 50 years ago now that I was so very ill and all the days since have felt like a gift of time. Although I would have been happier in seclusion all those years the various activities for which I did volunteer come back to me as great memories. I will always remember helping the children learning to use computers and especially I will remember the young boys with their absolute wonder and thrill of activity when they worked away on computers generally in groups of three enjoying the moment; the thrill of being in this new world we found ourselves back in the mid 80s. My youngest was an expert on computers at the age of 2 and a half being able to insert the 5" floppy that contained her games and start up the game all by herself. What a change for children computers were and are. My oldest child was into computers by seven years of age and bulletin boards were part of her young life. Myself I was first into computers in the mid 1960s learning Fortran and later Cobol before my children were born. Computers can give us so very much ability at our fingertips. Edward was also very involved in computers during the mid 1960s and that continued throughout his working career and very much dominated his retirement as he worked away on his genealogical endeavours which were enormous.

A busy day today and I must get started. First tea and then solitaire games and then on to breakfast.

Eyes stronger today

In terms of my eye care I am realizing that had the optometrist referred me at the same time as my husband was referred when he had said that we both needed the referral, but he referred him first with me to follow right after, it would now be over two and a half years since I would have been referred. But I did not get back to the Optometrist until this past January. Life was complicated for a bit. Interesting really but then I have no idea when I will actually have the surgery as I do not think that doing the measurements has any effect on the actual date of the surgery unless the case becomes more urgent because of the measurements. Time will tell. But I have opted for the lens that is covered by OHIP rather than the more refined lens that might apparently correct for my astigmatism. I like wearing glasses and do not like things in my eyes having worn glasses since I was one year of age so opted for the lens that means I still wear corrective lenses. The wearing of glasses though doesn't really extend to sun glasses as I dislike them but have worn them for a very long time now as recommended. I think I have been wearing them for nearly 30 years on recommendation when ever I am outside but I am not really an outside person fortunately. I am especially not a beach person being one of those people lying on the beach completely covered by a towel which always amused my children. So time will tell; When I thought there was just a three month or so waiting list I did suggest December as I would have help them but it could also be next May when I again have help plus I would have the half year to start work on the Pincombe family. My life is somewhat complicated because my caretaker isn't always able to give up time for my care due to work commitments. 

I bought natural tears as suggested and will soon start practising to give myself eye drops. I have given them to my husband as he had dry eyes but have never given eye drops to myself. I will  need to be able to do that as one must do drops for about a month after surgery. I am not feeling rushed as I can still see quite well enough to drive but tend to stick to just the grocery store. Any long trips (i.e. more than a couple of blocks where the area is well known to me) I call a taxi. 

There is a little wind in the trees today and it is a bright sunny fifteen degrees celsius at 8:00 am this morning. I woke early and had my breakfast and then had a two hour sleep on the couch watching the weather. It was most pleasant. Yesterday I managed nearly 22,000 steps but that does not always guarantee a long sleep. But I feel somewhat rested now. 

Today I shall work on the brickwork out front clearing away the weeds once again so that we can put the hardening sand between the bricks. The work load continues to be large in the yard and I do so love winter with its snow removal service which means that I have almost no work outside. Lots of research time and writing time as I have reached that time in my research. 

I have almost finished the formatting of the Siderfin family tree and hope to send off Thomas and his descendants to a fifth cousin to have a look and see if she agrees with my research. I will mention in the book that she has assisted with his line. He disappeared over time and because my own line moved from Selworthy/Minehead in the 1830s to Bishops Nympton and area they perhaps lost track of Thomas and indeed by the time they emigrated to Canada in 1850/51 I can find no mention of the Siderfin family in my mother's notes or any other paperwork that came my way. She was my 3x great grandmother and managed to completely disappear. Interesting really and finding her was a seredipitous event - my first actually in pursuit of my ancestors. Given my mind I of course had to understand the word serendipity and this noun was created in the middle of the 18th century by Horace Walpole who took it from the Persian fairy tale The Princes of Serendip. The meaning of serendipitist is "one who finds valuable or agreeable things not sought for." All this from a dictionary Merriam-Webster which is online. Although I was actually looking for the maiden surname of John Rew's wife the path to it was somewhat convoluted in that at the time I was trying to locate her daughter Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe missing from the Gatworth, Molland census along with her eldest son John with the 1841 census containing only her husband John Pincombe, his son William Robert Pincombe (my great grandfather) and youngest child Elizabeth Ann. The path taken resulted from the unlikely finding of the will of John Rew where he asked to be buried beside his wife in Selworthy Churchyard but this will was probated at South Molton and he living at Sheepwash but all the interesting people were missing from the 1841 Devon census. The will of John Pincombe was amongst the first ones that I purchased from the National Archives of the UK way back in 2004. In that the path led to the Siderfin family so truly was serendipity because I was actually looking for Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe but the path led me to a "valuable or agreeable thing not actually being sought for at the time" but certainly in the back of my mind was the desire to find Elizabeth's maiden name. Rew is actually a much more frequently occurring name than Pincombe so had been a difficult search at the time. 

The wind in the trees reminds me that God is with us on this beautiful sunny day. We can not know His intentions or directions but do know what He has commanded us to do in our lives. His commandments could lead to such a wonderful peace if all peoples would but follow them - Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Perhaps today will be the day that mankind reaches its pinnacle of greatness and is able to move forward in life to that peaceful plain that is sought by most of us. 

Breakfast long ago now and forward to the day. I shall work on the laneway for a bit.

Another beautiful day in God's world

Having the two eye tests was a very quick happening as I was in at 12:45 for the first test and all finished before 2:00 with the second test. Both tests were quite interesting and this is the preparation for the cataract surgery to come. Other than a loss of my far sight (I used to be able to recognize birds that were more than half way down the yard quite readily but now I have to look hard at the feeder to recognize them well if they are not brightly coloured or some other demonstrative anatomical feature is present which is perhaps 1/4 of the way down the yard (the yard is perhaps 60 metres deep). So I do have some loss of vision but I am nearly 78. My close up vision is still crisp but I use a separate pair of reading glasses and that is helpful but I have done that now for more than 45 years since I used to proofread and edit scientific and technical material at home for private printers (I first was prescribed bifocals in my early 30s). Today I am  noticing some tiredness with my eyes so will not do much eye work today on the computer giving them a chance to rest. 

The Siderfin Book is coming along quite nicely. This latest document does appear to also satisfy my theory about which Robert Siderfin is which but will continue with that transcription in a couple of days. The formatting of the last fourty pages of test out of my Legacy file still remains but will likely take just one or two days and then I can send Thomas (younger brother to my Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin married to John Rew) off to one of my Siderfin cousins (5th since Elizabeth was my 3x great grandmother and we share their parents in common). That should capture any errors on my part in that line and the other lines for the most part lived in the same area until a generation or two later thus putting them on the census and somewhat easier to locate. I need to link in more of James Sanders text and that will be the task for September and then proofreading and editing through October and publication in November hopefully. I will use the Creative Common License to publish it thus making it available for revision immediately if there is a cousin out there wanting to do that. 

Then I can set my thoughts on the Pencombe/Pincombe/Pinkham book. I am quite excited to be looking at that already as it has only lately coalesced in my mind. Along with that I will be searching out documents that I will need for the Andover Blake family book which will follow the Pencombe etc. book. I rather think both of my parents would be most pleased with the work done thus far especially my mother who had an enormous love for her family - it was her way plus it kept her father alive in her mind I rather think. Losing a parent at eight years of age must be very traumatic I think. I remember my grandfather very well and I was eight when he passed and I missed him terribly. Having pictures was helpful as I could always gaze on his likeness in many different ways but my mother had only a few pictures of her father to remember him by. Her half-aunt Martha had a lot of pictures but my mother was much too shy to have asked her for copies. Those photo albums have all been scanned and I have found a number of pictures that she would have loved including several of my mother with her father when she was seven years of age which she would have loved to have had. But life has changed so much and it is so much easier to share photographs now. 

My younger sister has done a great job on the overall family tree and has always scanned my father's huge trove of images of the family. I think I have every picture of me that he took during my childhood plus all of my siblings. Having six siblings grounds you in a way; there are always people out there that lived in your generation and are part of you. You may not see them for years and years but yet they are a part of you; a part of your soul so that you are never truly alone. My father was an only child and I do remember his seeking those parts of his being that belonged to his past in England (he came to Canada as a child with his parents in 1913). I do not think he meant to have that be so important to him but it was a feature of his being an only child I think. 

Another beautiful day in God's world. No wind in the trees today but just a tiny whisper of movement. God loves his world; I truly believe that and we must try harder to do what is best for the world. We need His approval to survive in this world. We can only reach that plateau by following the new commandments brought to us by Jesus Christ His only Son - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Then we can attain that peace that our ancestors laid down their lives for in so many generations past but especially in the 20th century. That torch they passed to us must not die out but rather continue to burn fiercely through time as we find true peace in our world and heal Climate Change so that the descendants in the next and many generations to come will have the same wonderful world that we grew up in full of hope for the future. 

On to breakfast; dinner last night was a long time ago. The most vital of human needs - food. No one should ever be permitted to destroy thousands of tons of food that could feed the starving. It is a disgusting act and should not go unpunished. The world must shun Russia until they remove themselves from the sacred Ukrainian soil which the Russians have blemished with their murder of innocent children, women and men.

Eye imaging today

 Today is the day that I go in for two eye imaging procedures. This is a precursor to cataract surgery I understand. Looking forward to the surgery actually. It will be my first real surgery as I have only ever undergone procedures. Probably not unusual for a lot of people although I wonder if the removal of my wisdom teeth was surgery - not sure about that and it would be dental surgery anyway. That was 56 years ago now when I had my wisdom teeth removed. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday for the top and middle floors and today the basement which is by far the easiest of the levels now. Every week a few more items do leave the basement but it is a slow process. We need to determine if we might need it. 

I was listening to the news talking about caesarean sections the other day and the value of natural childbirth for the babies well being and such discussions always remind me of the birth of my children. For my first child I was in labour on and off for three days and then the last 36 hours straight at that time. It was exhausting and I do not really remember her birth other than when she cried just after birth. For my second gestation at six months I asked if I needed a caesarean section (looking for a referral) after having had three days of labour and the final 36 hours  of constant labour since I was then nearly 36 years of age (this was eight years later). I was told that there were no problems so this trusting soul went into labour once again hoping for the best but it was 30 hours straight of labour once again and I barely remember her birth either other than her cry. Whenever I watch a movie that involves a birth it does make me think back on those two deliveries and my lack of memory of other than their cry at birth. For such long labours one wonders if a caesarean birth isn't better for both. 

But on to the day; in retrospect birthing is like a blink in time really. The passage of time is over very quickly so it is better just to have the best care that one can have for both the mother and the baby and  make up for any deficiency in a caesarean birth after the fact. 

Probably no work on the Siderfin document today; I did manage about half of a dozen lines yesterday. But I probably have eye drops today so will wait a day to work on the document. It was interesting though yesterday. More information on Willmot who apparently died before she married. So all the more interesting but it does make sense that a piece of land does not become the property of a would be husband when the marriage never occurred! But I am only half way through there is probably more material yet to come. No mention yet of the eldest son Robert and just a brief mention of John. I am still convinced this is Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) and not Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) but will continue to work my way through the document. It is interesting that both of these men were married to an Ursula though. 

Time for jumping jacks and tea. Not having the Schultz and Kipp material is a relief for me. I had not realized how much the responsibility of all that original family material was weighing on me. 

Bible Reading - seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine; Genesis 41

 I always found the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the King of Egypt very interesting. Genesis as the first book of the Bible takes us  a long way back in history and forward. Those early times of the history of man when he walked and talked with God are an important memory. I think we should always learn from the memories passed on to us. Why was this particular story important in our memory bank. I think because the availability of food is the most important thing in our lives; we must eat to live. Any massive waste of food is unacceptable in our modern lives. There are too many of us for any country to be permitted to destroy thousands of pounds of food because the Nazi leaders of that country are unable to smash into another country murdering and assaulting their people. It is the two year old in every human being wanting what is not theirs and striking back when they do not succeed. We must always defend ourselves from such butchery and treachery. I think the Bible Story reminds us that the most human need is food. 

Yesterday was a milestone as Edward's Schultz cousins came and picked up eight boxes of material both for themselves and for Edward's niece which was much appreciated. Two of the boxes are fired plates of birds that Edward enjoyed very much and I suggested that at the next Schultz picnic they could be shared amongst his cousins in his memory and it was rewarding to me that this might be able to happen. Edward would have liked that I am sure. Also the two Kipp family Bibles and one Schultz Family Bible (in German) are now in their hands and I will leave the distribution up to them. I do not want such original items to be lost on my watch. Three old teapots that belonged to Edward's mother's mother and her mother and mother in law will go to his niece as again I do not like to see them lost in the shuffle. A banker box of family pictures also for Edward's nieces and there will be more for them to have of their childhood and that of their father (Edward's brother). Then two boxes of Edward's research on the local Ontario Kipp family all of which is scanned but I still have a lot of pictures just not enough time to separate them into family groupings yet. A lot of them are also Kipp but can easily travel through the mail in the prepaid boxes (a great addition to Canada Post for sure). Eight boxes gone; it is such a relief for me. Just one small box for the Amateur Radio Club - more manuals for all that equipment and some other items and a box for the United Empire Loyalist and our summer of sorting and moving forward will end. Next summer already planned and the ground work will happen through this winter. The house feels lighter once again but still so much stuff that needs to find a home where it will fit a purpose. The one item still to be completed is items for the Salvation Army to resell and we will get that together this next week. I think there will be several bags once again. 

Today is cleaning day and a little reorganizing as the number of boxes continues to shrink. We are dealing with about eleven boxes now but other than the research boxes for the Kipp family of Chilliwack BC (early settlers in that area) and the NB Loyalist families - Allen, Parlee and Folkins which I hope to place in those province's archives the research boxes are nearly all sorted and have a new home. The Kip-Kipp Newsletter will be a two pager in the future discussing the yDNA results from the Y-700 test on Edward's sample, the autosomal results but not likely the mitochondrial results because women's surnames were not fixed until lately. 

Must get my tea and do my solitaire games. The day is early but there is as always a lot to do. Perhaps I will get a little transcription of the Siderfin document done in my break times.

Continuing saga of the Siderfin document on East Linch

 As I work through this document I discover that I may not be correct in thinking that the Ursula Frank mentioned is the now wife of Robert Syderfin. We are now into the spot where Wilmott (daughter of Robert and Ursula Syderfin) is mentioned and she was betrothed to marry Robert Franck. The marriage which did not happen. He could not acquire sufficient funding to create the Jointure which would have involved the land at East Linch. So the story, like a soap box opera almost, is the Frank family trying to use this Jointure as if it had occurred and claim the land at East Linch. Amazing really. But the evidence provided does make one more aware of how life flowed in this time period. The land at East Linch was Robert Siderfins and namely Robert Siderfin the Elder and the Younger as mentioned in the Protestation Return of 1641/2. In the early 1640s Robert Siderfin the younger would have been in his early teens or younger and Wilmot younger than that but this is 11 years later. I need to do the entire document carefully making sure that I am absolutely correct that this is the Robert that I think it is Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) and not Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1). The presence of a wife named Ursula is interesting as Robert 4 married Ursula Webber but that was 23 Jul 1611 and their daughter Wilmot was baptized in 1614. Robert 5 was  baptized 27 Nov 1611 so not likely married much earlier than 1630 and Wilmot was second child named in her grandmother Christian (Webber) Siderfin's will written in 1644. With the history recited thus far in the document I am transcribing the story which does not seem to be a very long time ago which leads me to Robert 5 but I must be sure and perhaps by the end of the document I will have enough clues to be absolutely sure or at least in that ball park. 

Cool this morning at 7:00 a.m. just 15 degrees celsius; the crickets are singing; Fall is coming and most welcomed. The forest fires in the north are relentless and so many people evacuated to protect them. 

The weeks are passing quickly in August and yesterday I noticed some of the birds flocking; it is approaching rapidly the time of migration. All of the young of the year have to make that great flight to the south to their winter habitat. The parents have prepared them well. 

Another day of review of Edward's material as we gradually work through everything. It is a slow process but we have six more boxes ready for the Schultz and Kipp lines including two boxes for Edward's nieces. One is full of memories of their family life which Edward captured on camera through the years. Still more of that to come as we begin the task of refining the photo albums but probably not yet. We can relive the years from even before our marriage in 1966 up to the early 2000s when we went all digital and stopped producing photo albums to look at.  

Russia is complaining about Ukrainian drone attacks - they should get out of Ukraine and then there will be no more attacks. Russia started the war; they need to remove themselves from Ukraine and back to the borders as established at the end of the Soviet Union. Leave Russia and let the world have peace once again. A peace shattered often enough in small ways but Russia has brought us back eighty years plus and no one except them wants to repeat that dreadful war. They claim to have lost 50 million people in the Second World War one wonders why they would put their people through that again - obviously because they (the psychopathic nazi Putin and his enablers) do not care how many Russians die. 

The day moves onward, it is Sunday and Church by myself with my bulletin. Breakfast is first.

Transcription, kayaking and walking

Yesterday was a busy day with transcription, kayaking and walking. It did look so very much like rain but a quick check on the weather and no rain before five so we were off for an hour of kayaking and walking at Petrie. Lovely time. Buying the parking pass was such a good idea as we never have to go and purchase a parking sticker anymore. The pass is reasonable especially as we have, in spite of the smoke days, been a good many times to Petrie both for kayaking and walking. I am surprised that everyone doesn't get a parking pass actually as it is a much easier method for attending the park whenever it strikes your fancy. Plus it helps to pay for the maintenance of the facility.

Through the day I continued to transcribe the answer document for the Siderfin family at Timberscombe.  Up to line 23 now and each line of the document is two lines of typing on a legal sized paper in landscape orientation so quite a large document as I am about 1/4 of the way through. As for the times, it is quite repetitive and I was correct in thinking that the answer would include the argument presented in the complaint. I was more interested in the information on the defendants than the argument itself but it may prove interesting in that Robert Siderfin the elder of Timberscombe/East Linch may have married an Ursula Francke either a daughter of the house or a widow of the house. That remains to be seen; there is still 3/4 ths of the document to transcribe. A daughters dower or a widows claim to a piece of land due to marriage settlement being contested is not unusual following the death of her husband/father when a sibling will attempt to take back a piece of land so granted. Families can be quite fascinating to study. The Siderfin family, as shown by James Sanders book, was an extremely interesting family although the lines that were the most controversial and prominent did tend to either daughter out or simply not continue. It does appear that the Siderfin family today is all descendant of Robert Siderfin and Elizabeth (Question) Siderfin with Robert likely being the son of John 5 (Robert 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) and his wife Thomasine. Although James Sanders does not entirely agree on the exact lineage during the fourth/fifth/sixth generations on that the passage of land and property but the naming of the next generation and their location does appear to support that idea. I will write it and using a Creative Commons License I leave it up to the next researcher to do the same as I have done and revise and update my book at some point in the future and I do welcome that as the correct version of history is always more interesting than any concocted version written to cover up misdeeds and what not!

I also continued to work on formatting the last pages of the book as well with just another thirty pages to work on. I am removing all mentions past 1920 and that is making the task much quicker than the chapters preceding this one. I should soon be finished that and will send off Thomas (younger brother to my Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin) since I have a correspondent willing to check that out for me to see if what I have found for Thomas fits their records. I do not have any family lore for the Siderfin family passed down to me as the name was lost in family discussions although she was the mother of Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe my 2x great grandmother who emigrated with her husband John and their five children (John, William Robert, Elizabeth Anne, Richard and Louisa) to Upper Canada via the Port of New York. They traveled to Genesee New York where Robert Pincomb (elder brother to John) lived with his family and then on to southwestern Ontario arriving in the spring of 1850. 

Another beautiful day in God's world; the wind is gently rustling in the trees as God moves about us watching and waiting for us to live the life that Jesus told us we must live. When will we ever get there? I do wonder if all Homo sapiens can learn to do the right thing and respect and love their fellow man/woman/child. All wars would cease and peace would come to our world so that we can work together and defeat climate change and protect ourselves, if necessary, from anything that might be out in the universe. We must always be ready to take care of ourselves as we do not know what awaits us in the universe but peace on earth would be a beautiful gift obtained by following the words of Jesus sent to us by God Himself. 

Breakfast awaits.

And the cleaning continues

 Yesterday we spent the afternoon cleaning windows and putting bird silhouettes on the windows. We had a bird strike the other day; the bird did manage to fly away again as it had not been a hard strike but we decided we need to get the job done of putting on these bird silhouettes and clean the windows. So just a bit left to do and that task accomplished. 

I put together the next issue of the Pincombe-Pinkham newsletter and the main story is the upcoming book which I plan to start in the new year. I am realizing that I could also put a chapter of the book into the newsletter over the next few years and will likely do that as well as serializing in on my blog. The next issue will be published on the 1st of September on the FT DNA website as a link.

The day moved quickly as do all days it would appear. Life is always very busy. Up a bit early today and will soon have breakfast. I think hunger does wake me up and it often makes me think of all that grain and produce in Ukraine being blown up and just how dreadful that is to destroy food when people are starving in the world. When one starts to count up the sins that Russia is committing surely the destruction of food is a grievous one along with greed and envy and murder for that matter. The murder of the innocents of Ukraine will be a blemish on Russia for a long time. They could alleviate that time greatly by simply getting out of Ukraine and returning to their borders after the breakup of the Soviet Union. They caused their own demise by attacking Afghanistan and they never actually had the right to enslave all of those people in the Soviet Union anyway but we did not listen to Winston Churchill. Should have done so. 

Breakfast and on to the day although it is early at 5:45 a.m. for sure.

Huge projects

I do have several large projects for the fall independent of my writing/editing. There are four large piles that have to be shredded. There is one banker box of items that need to be scanned before shredding. Shredding the four large piles is difficult in some ways because a large part of it was letters between Edward and family members he met along the way. The letters begin with the usual things that genealogists talk about when they write to a long lost relative but some of this correspondence went on for twenty or thirty years and they became like pen pals sharing their lives with each other. I feel it is important that I shred all of this as it is private information between two people who found a friendship by mail that they enjoyed but it wasn't really meant to be shared with the world. My daughters have a nodding interest in genealogy but not strong enough to support picking up the traces which were left by Edward and carry on with all of this work. They may pick it up one day but this way they can use their own flavour of research and they are happy with that. The amount of material that Edward held was quite enormous thinking back now as I look around a house still full but not overwhelming in quite the same way. The fullness results from four people and then five living here for a period of time accumulating objects and not really wanting to part with them. Even I with my tendency to not gather dust so to speak do have some possessions that I have acquired although rapidly diminishing. One set was the VCR tapes and then DVDs that I bought (generally on sale) during my working days as I had planned this lovely retirement watching all the old movies (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) but my cousin did change all of that and I was able to persuade Edward to travel to Europe/British Isles which also changed how we did things in between trips. I liked to see absolutely everything that I could in any particular area that we stopped and so the huge lists began with the directions attached and on our tour travels we added in our own personal tours in the evenings whenever we arrived. It was fantastic. But I have given away most of the VCR tapes and a lot of the DVDs as well keeping just a basic set that I enjoy because I do not apparently have enough time in a day to watch one most days. Just sometimes. 

Yesterday I did some more work on the Answer document that pertains to the Siderfin family at Timberscombe and East Linch. It is proving to be an interesting story as in the answer Robert Siderfin and family relate most of what was in the complaint as far as I can tell since I elected not to buy the complaint as well. I really just wondered what they would say in the answer and whether it would help me to locate which family this was. Indeed it has and I am simply continuing to transcribe out of curiosity. I suspect that this Robert Siderfin the elder married an Ursula Franck either a Franck by birth or a widow as that is starting to emerge from the document. It will end up having no impact on the writing/editing that I have done thus far except to be a further proof. But we will see how the document flows and I am perhaps one fifth of the way through now. 

I am not in a rush particularly plus I am realizing that I need to do the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter for the 1st of September. That very nearly slipped my mind. In the past three months the idea of writing a book on this family has solidified and will be my next effort in writing in the new year as the likely beginning time. I continue to collect information and will also work in the same manner with this book as with the Siderfin. I will begin as far back as I am able to research and then bring the material forward although continuing to work backwards through the available census and the Parish records to the 1500s/1600s when these Pencombe/Pincombe/Pyncombe families dispersed from North Molton/South Molton area into North West Devon and other areas including London especially. It will be at least two years in the writing I estimate. The only advantage that I have with this book is personal history passed to me by my mother and then my uncle in the last  ten to fifteen years of his life when we used to spend time with him and he and I corresponded regularly or spoke on the telephone all of which I recorded and have available to me. That discussion though is limited to my  direct family only that lived first at North Molton and then in Bishops Nympton/Molland and then with Philip Pincombe in Gloucestershire as my direct line emigrated to Canada originally with others also in that direct line emigrating as well to Canada but also to the United States, Australia and South Africa. 

I have given myself until the end of the year to complete the Siderfin book and will publish it under a Creative Commons license in order that I can protect the contents from being published for profit making it free to download or be distributed to repositories that may wish a copy. Plus it will be then possible for descendants to edit my work with their own new publication even during my lifetime and correct/alter/change items for which new material is available or simply to maintain the lines and bring them forward as I will not publish anything that has occurred after 1920. 

Breakfast is next and I am hungry as usual. Last night we had a piece of salmon poached with dill which was quite delicious along with a broccoli salad which I quite enjoyed but that was many hours ago now! Another beautiful day in God's world and may peace be the choice of all of us as we manage our way through this wilderness of climate change and come to a better side by caution and care and respect and an end to greed, violence and envy. 

Psalm 133 - Bible Reading for today

The words from Psalm 133 are truly a wondrous treat to read first thing this morning.  "It is truly wonderful when the people of God live together in peace." 

Would that it was true. That the people of Ukraine could wake up this morning to peace; Russia back in its own borders as determined at the end of the Soviet Union. What a wondrous happening that would be. No more murdering of the Ukrainian people - the baby the other day; surely no one has the right to murder babies lying in their mother's arms. Surely we have come much farther along than that in our evolution to be better people. 

The document from the National Archives of the UK arrived yesterday in my inbox. What a treat. A first read and it would appear that Robert 5 (William 4, Robert 3, William 2, John 1) married an Ursula as well and that this document concerns Robert the elder (generally the reference given to Robert 5 living at Timberscombe/East Linch. I have only transcribed the first ten lines thus far (it is a very large vellum perhaps 60 lines in total). I have noted the name Wilmot referring to Robert and Ursula's daughter mentioned in her grandmother Christian Siderfin's will and John is mentioned there as well as their son. At this time these children would be in their early 20s likely. Can I completely exclude Robert 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1)? I will transcribe the entire document before I finally decide but the early appearance (the use of Robert Siderfin the elder) does rather point to this being Robert 5. Plus Robert 4 (if he was alive) would be 66 years of age and Robert 5 is likely in his early 40s. I am wondering how the name Francke came to be involved with the Siderfin family and perhaps this document will show the connection. I can not find a marriage between Robert Siderfin and Ursula (unknown). 

Cleaning completed yesterday and today we will work on the window washing. A not insignificant task for sure but it will be nice to remove the summer's dust. 

A walk on the beach yesterday late afternoon was most welcome although the weather was looking somewhat stormy it did not start to rain until we arrived home once again. My new sandals got their first workout and I do like them. I really liked my leather sandals but they do not do as well in the sand and they were eleven years old now so getting pretty battered. These sandals are synthetic and have a really good sole and made for beach walking for sure. 

Tea is cooling and I shall read my mail and work on my solitaire for a bit and then breakfast.

Continuing with cleaning

 Today somewhat cloudy and rain is promised. Continuing with cleaning. Not much done in the Siderfin book yesterday; cleaning does take precedence. But gradually working my way through the 12th generation. The number of pages still do is 60 which will dwindle quite a bit in the formatting since I am eliminating any records after 1920. The 1920 was sort of an arbitrary decision because it was a decade marker.

The summer has been most efficient. We created a list of twelve projects and other than the two ongoing - scanning project and shredding project - we did accomplish or will in the next couple of weeks accomplish the other ten projects. Already we have a list for next summer of nine items but there will be some preparatory work to do before then so that we can complete them in the summer. This will continue for a few years to come as I continue to downsize and ensure that Edward's research into his family lines remains available to researchers. It has been a lot of work and I find myself looking at my large box of papers and will endeavour through this next winter to whittle that one down as well. I can see what a strain it leaves on your loved ones to manage your material when you are no longer there. 

The emptier the house becomes the less work there is to cleaning it which is a great plus. My children do not need all of these objects collected through the years on our travels here and there to many many historical sites. With just four bookcases now and we had nearly 60 bookcases in our house, I can still see where I could trim that as well. I continue with my one room concept in my mind for that day, if I should live so long, when I am in just one room working away on my computer and completing the projects which in many ways are the product of my grandparents and parents who told me so many things about their families which I stored away in my brain not actually intentionally but by repetition they have become part of my story now and I will write them all up. My parent's photo albums scanned by my younger sister are a window into that past as well plus the collections of my grandparent's photos which also found their way into my hands over time. Interesting that I resisted doing family studies for so many many years. Perhaps it was the efforts that Edward had to put into finding each one of his lines traveling to the New England states and New York area pursuing the latest leads. It just seemed so fragile and tenuous linking these people through the generations. But DNA certainly came to the rescue and Edward got to enjoy the fruits of his labour as his many lines showed up in his matches particularly at Ancestry and the proof was in the pudding so to speak. He had the thrill of seeing all of that work proven again and again which he quite enjoyed. Even his link back to the Kip family of New Amsterdam/New York was given to him through his yDNA another major excitement time for him. I also find DNA very useful in my research as it has continued to direct my approach in some lines which are totally unknown to me other than the continuous lines back in the Parish Registers. 

Today I received the document from the National Archives of the United Kingdom. The condition is excellent and the scanning equally so. Having been at Kew a number of times and looked at very very old documents I can see that they do a much much better job than I of photographing them and will likely re-order some of the ones that I photographed for the Pincombe and Blake families in the future. The reading will be much easier. It is a large sheepskin which will take me many hours to transcribe and a quick glance does not reveal very much actually other than the names that I expected to see. I am keen to begin but will take it very easy transcribing. I am glad that I did find it in my searches and it will help to clarify this family at Timberscombe and East Lynch. 

On to cleaning the day is fast moving towards 10:00 a.m. and I am about one hour behind. Breakfast completed and two sets of jumping jacks but probably not too much more as the exercise is in the cleaning for this day as well although a walk on the beach later might be nice.

Romans 11 is the Bible Reading for today

 The entire chapter is very interesting as it talks about the Gentiles and how they fitted into the Church that Jesus Christ created with Himself as the cornerstone. Romans is the longest of St Paul's epistles. The Concordance relates that this epistle is the most systematic in its theology. Time was always very limited perhaps and Paul wanted to write down all of his thoughts. Paul was not one of the original group of disciples but he became perhaps the strongest of them all because he was a disbeliever who became by miraculous means a follower. Sometimes coming in after the fact can give you a view that is very encompassing I rather think. The passage for Paul was a very long and difficult one to Jesus. But when he came to be a follower his whole self was melded to the new vision. He writes "Who can measure the wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God? Who can understand his decisions or explain what he does?" God is omnipotent; He was there at the beginning; He gave us Jesus His Son and He will be there at the end. All that we have; all that we know is part of His universe and we are but one species in all of that. The words by which we are saved were clearly said to us - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbours as ourselves. The world has not yet reached that plateau of life because of rogue nations; because of greed; because of envy but we must to have peace. We lost too much in the World Wars of the last century; we must build on what the youth of those times did for us; respect their loss and create a better world. 

Perhaps it is watching the bird families out of our window every day as the summer passes as their young are slowly trained to become adults; the space of time so much shorter than the life of human children as these birds by the end of the summer have to fly thousands of miles with their parents to their feeding and living grounds in the south. All of the bird's efforts are put towards teaching them in these few short months so that their species can survive. They live in our yard, they feed at the bird feeder and yet when they are gone there is barely a trace that they were here. We must learn to be more like that and protect and care for the planet as we were always meant to do. 

Monday once again and it is cleaning day. Along with that I shall work on the 12th Generation of the Siderfin Family. The length of the book is slowly declining as I format the rough text from my Legacy download of data. Plus I am eliminating all references past 1920 which takes out lengths of text here and there. When I have completed this task and sent the book into the Guild Library I will also include a readout of my Legacy File. When someone in the future takes up the Siderfin name once again as a one name study then they will have all of the material that I have collected and utilized. I am considering taking up the name for one year and depositing everything collected and will look into that. 

The summer is fading quickly and it was dark when I first awoke. Hunger once again sends me off to breakfast and then on to the work of the day.

On to the Twelfth generation of the Siderfin family

Yesterday I completed the eleventh generation and I am doing the twelfth generation in the Siderfin book which was a surprise. This week should see me complete that project and the paper from the National Archives of the UK is due on the 16th so works together very well. 

Heavy rain yesterday again and we are waking up to a lot of sunshine - a beautiful Sunday with just a little wind in the trees. The world looks so peaceful and I wish it was.  Can we not have peace in our world? Why do rogue nations seek to upset that peace. It is perhaps not a perfect peace but bombs weren't constantly being thrown at people. This age old feud that Russia is conducting against Ukraine goes back in time with the Russians murdering Ukrainians during the Hunger when many Ukrainians starved to death. What kind of hate is this? How do we stop it? Greed is the base and greed must be eliminated from our lives. The United Nations working as a single unit can do that. Rogue nations need to be punished - strip Russia of the veto power in the Security Council they have lost that right given to them for their valiant effort against the Nazis in the Second World War. They can re-earn it but for the moment they should not have that ability to continue to inflict hatred on the Ukrainian people; greed for what they have; their land; their property; their very being. 

Church today and the time of memory is coming to a close as we approach the fall and a return to You-Tube for the service. I am looking forward to that and the sermons to be given by the new member of the staff - he is a religious scholar and I will find his sermons to be most interesting I am sure. 

As the time on the Siderfin book draws closer to completion I do let myself contemplate the next book which will be the Pencombe family of North Molton, Devonshire, England. When I first saw the Pincombe one name study on the Guild of one name studies I was just a mite disappointed that it was already taken but then suddenly it was not and so I joined the Guild back in those early days of my forays into Surname studies having just then completed the Pincombe Profile for my cousin George DeKay to put into the Westminster and Delaware Townships History Book. I was surprised to discover that it was actually two names Pincombe and Pinkham because I grew up learning that Pincombe was always spelled that way (perhaps without the last e) but that was the actual spelling and none other. Time has shown me a number of spellings that belong to this family and all are welcomed certainly. The work done by the earlier researchers Dr Richard Pinkham and Galen Pinkham is greatly appreciated by me. Word of mouth (some of it is that) is always valuable even if you do find that some things are not remembered quite the same by everyone. As the past records tumble onto the internet and become so readily available as downloads by application to the National Archives of the UK more information spills into that research portfolio including the possibility that this is the Pencombe family of Herefordshire dating back into the 1300s. Proving that may not be easy but I shall seek to find what documents are available in my trek back in time. 

My tea is about ready to drink now and so I shall contemplate as I drink my lovely green tea the book to be which shall commence after my cataract surgery. My father (and my mother) had a successful time and that was fourty years ago now. My memories of his working on his crossword puzzles remains with me as one of those things I remember about his old age (our mutual eye doctor, one of his scouts, always said my eyes were exactly the same as his). I will take my time recovering and then on to the Pencombe book followed by the Andover Blake family book. My parents would be pleased to have these books produced as both were very interested in their family history so I do them in their memory and dedicated to their descendants. The Siderfin book is a sort of trial run and a learning moment plus it needed to be revised to include new material and I was just in the right place and the right time to do that.

On to the day and breakfast, I am quite famished as usual. But it is me I have always eaten large at the beginning of the day and small at the end resulting in hunger in the morning!

August is advancing

 As the nights lengthen and August nearly half way gone, one can sense fall in the air. The birds are preparing to leave us once again for the sunny south. With global warning one wonders if the time will come when the birds just stay and perhaps go further north. The world is topsy turvy and no ideas on the overall effect. It isn't the beautiful earth of my childhood although already creeping in was the ravages we would soon see big time in a generation. 

The trees are moving ever so gently. God's wish for us would be that we would learn the gentler path that Jesus brought to us. We just do not seem to learn that path; some perhaps but for the most part greed dominates and particularly with the Russians. The psychopathic Nazis Putin and his enablers believe that Russia can not be held to their current boundaries. That seems rather idiotic to me actually. Do they not respect the boundaries of any country? I suspect that they do not and no one is actually safe from their desires. Corralling them is really the only way for world peace until their people become modern Homo sapiens respecting the world and its peoples - all of them. It is strange that the Russian people do not rise up and throw out the Nazis Putin and his enablers so that they could have a modern life not some sort of a barbaric existence left behind in the last century.

Continuing today on the eleventh generation of the Siderfin family in hopes of completing it by the end of the weekend. Next week the twelfth generation and the document from the National Archives of the UK. Then in earnest I will go back and revise, if necessary, or just update to the different style that I adopted part way through (I have already done the first section). Then decisions on whether to put items into an appendix or leave them in the text. As well footnoting Generations 8 to 12 which will take me a month likely. But I will send out the Thomas line to his descendants to see if I have captured what they found. 

Work on the laneway as well during the day when I need a break. Breakfast already accomplished and weight lifting is next.

Eleventh generation of Siderfin nearly formatted

Probably another day or two and the eleventh generation of Siderfin will be formatted. Then just the 12th generation to format and by then the copy of the answer to the complaint will be available for download. I had not expected to be this far along by nearly mid August. Once I have completed the formatting I will send off the portions to cousins who are willing to check and see that I have not misinterpreted the data. There is really just one section likely the descendants of Thomas the youngest brother of my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin who married John Rew. I have a number of DNA matches which I shall also mention in a chapter although will not name the matches other than the most recent common ancestor.  

Heavy rain in Ottawa yesterday although I was pretty busy working away on filing and just really didn't glance out the windows very much. I was accumulating piles of paper in my inbox so needed to resolve that problem. That keeps me on track. 

Today I will work on some of the older material that we separated out just to resolve it and decide what to do with it. Mostly it is just recyclable and will likely do that but give it one last look before I do that. That is one nice thing about modern times there is a lot less paper used. I mostly put everything on the computer and work on the computer without printing. Printing by me is generally a rare event. 

Lovely walk on the beach in the early evening yesterday. The rain had left a lot of puddles on the beach but the walk was fairly clear and we did four circuits which is around 4 km so a very pleasant end to the day. One of my pet peeves is people driving after they can not see well and we encountered an individual driving on the wrong side of the road coming out of the park (our side). We slowed down and finally they saw us. Really people do need their eyes checked regularly when they are elderly. Especially as there was a second car coming along almost beside the one that was in our lane!

Breakfast is waiting my favourite meal of the day for sure.

Headline today - Moscow announces "appropriate response" to West's "indirect war"

Russia is not living in the real world; their lines of communication are so blocked that they do not see that they are the problem. They need to stop attacking Ukraine; get their armies out of Ukraine and the world can go back to doing what needs to be done which is mainly and primarily cleaning up the environment. Russia (the Nazis Putin and his enablers) lives in some sort of a dark age where reason no longer predominates in their culture but just greed - greed for land, greed for products and hatred of the west. Russia does need to start seeing the real world where people just want peace and a better environment. By the bombing that Russia does they threaten both world peace and the environment.  Considering the amount of material that was poured into Russia during the Second World War to help them fight the Nazis it is absolutely ridiculous that they would attack Ukraine for the same ugly reasons that the Nazis started the Second World War. The waiting game is still on; we will be ready when Russia tries to break out and start a Third World War. A Russian rocket has struck Zaporizhzhia; that is lunacy. 

Continuing with the redistribution of Edward's research and all of the Link material has now been transferred. The next set of data is for Schultz and Kipp-Schultz as well as some items to Edward's niece and the Princeton Museum. Wonderful cousins of Edwards are going to pick that material up from us and take it back to where it needs to go. Much appreciated as I am not doing that drive although I have offered to mail it. But some objects are very fragile and would be better in a car for sure. All that I am left with now is a box for the United Empire Loyalists and need to determine where to send all that material so will contact the two groups that Edward belonged to and see if they can decide. There is also a box of manuals and other items for the Amateur Radio group that Edward belonged to and I have someone picking that up as well. That would complete this summer's redistribution projects and next summer we will work on the original images of the Allen-Parlee-Folkins families and the Kipp families of BC to see if the repositories in New Brunswick and British Columbia would accept those two sets of data. 

I have a large box of scanning to do which I will work at this winter in between writing. The other boxes are the story of our family so to speak and we will need to manage that for ourselves and it occupies 40 plus large binders in terms of printed images. Two boxes of film and slides and other photographic discs through the years. It is a relief on my mind to have handled all this material in a fashion that does see it go to other interested people. Genealogy is definitely something you have to be interested in doing; I never really did get that interest. My one-name studies (although sort of like genealogy) are more of a deep search into the past rather than a modern look at how the family has evolved. My younger sister does that and has a great tree built of the family to which I do refer actually for anything recent. 

The Bible Readings this week have been about Joseph and his sibling rivalry which led to his being sold by some of his brothers and taken to Egypt. The exciting story of all of that is to come; a time when God walked and talked with mankind. But his guidance has been given and we must learn to follow the words that Jesus brought to us in order to achieve that peace that we so desire. 

Russia has shown us that that we must be prepared to fight back and fight back with all our might if they ever do break out into Europe. There can be no peace in our world unless Russia is corralled within their own borders as established at the end of the Soviet Union. Putin it appears is incapable of rising above his stupidity and getting out of Ukraine. Greed is a dreadful thing and a sin.

Breakfast soon. 

Article - What Killed the Neanderthals? PAST: The Newsletter of the Prehistoric Society Number 85 Spring 2017

An interesting article on environmental change perhaps being part of the story of the demise of the Neanderthals. Myself I think they died out because their birth rate dropped off for unknown reasons. When the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens produced offspring only the female children appear to have survived although this would definitely need proof but have noted that thought being expressed. Perhaps this loss of male children wasn't exclusively when they bred outside of their community; perhaps they already had declining birth rate for reasons unknown to us at the moment (this paper proposes environmental change as a possibility). Environmental change is taking its toll on our own species and that is not likely to change unless we alter our much too tardy attitude towards protecting the environment in a very drastic way.  

Back to my research time and I will continue formatting the Siderfin book - 11th Generation. The 12th Generation will be the last one as it has the births of individuals in the early 20th century including my mother Helen (Pincombe) Blake daughter of John Routledge Pincombe son of William Robert Pincombe son of Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe who was the daughter of Elizabeth (Betty) (Siderfin) Rew. Normally as a one-namer I would not follow the female lines after marriage beyond the first generation but I came across this book by James Sanders on the Siderfin family and discovered eventually that there were some difficulties with his Pedigree Chart. Being a novice when I first found the book I had no idea that there were inconsistencies with the actual historical documents and his book. He did a great job of amassing a great deal of information including transcribing some latin documents so do not want to lose that part of his book and it is included in my revisiion,. But the errors in the Pedigree Chart do need to be removed and the Chart upgraded with the documents that have been located in both the Somerset Archives and the National Archives of the United Kingdom. I await one more item from the National Archives due around the middle of August. 

I also want to clean the bricks once again alongside the pavement in the laneway and around the patio and porch then we can add the hardening sand before the fall comes so that is ready for the winter once again. That will be my outside chore for this week. Towards the end of August I will start to clear the weeds here and there although will need to wait for a good frost so that I can cut down the plants for spring. Another lovely sunny day and a fresh August morning greeted us today. 

Gradually my very full house is emptying as more books and material went to the local genealogical library. Hopefully some of it will be useful to people visiting the library. We also have another set of paper data this time to give to one of Edward's half first cousins for their mutual Link line. That is yet another box of information that will go to someone also interested in that particular line that they shared. We are gradually concluding our summer of redistribution with another six boxes prepared to go to researchers and descendants. Yesterday we packed up three old teapots that belonged to various members of Edward's maternal line to go to his niece (the eldest grand daughter). Another small pile of saleable objects for Salvation Army that will interest some. We are left with about twelve boxes now and next summer we will work on the original images of the Kipp family that were early in the Chilliwack area of British Columbia and of the Allen-Parlee-Folkins families that were Loyalists living in what eventually became New Brunswick. That will be an effort to create a small fonds for these families at the archives so that those original images are not lost to time but are available to researchers. That will basically leave us with our own family stories - eight years before children, all the years with children and then our travels back to Europe and the British Isles as well as many extensive trips into the Northeastern United States following the trails of Edward's ancestors which we did do for most of our marriage. That is still a huge amount of material as there are more than 50 large binders full of images. All of this material back into the mid 60s is indexed and recorded in excel files. Edward was a very careful researcher. 

His online published tree has all of the information in it which he gleaned from the records over time. 

Breakfast awaits and another beautiful day on God's earth. A very slight rustling in the leaves to show His presence but He only watches and waits for us to become the kind of people that we need to be to survive on this earth; follow the commandments brought to us by Jesus - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. When we do that we can find that uplifted plain of peace.

Sibling Rivalry - Bible Reading

The story of Joseph and his coat of many colours is emblazoned on the memory of children from Sunday School days. When I was young every one that I knew went to Church on Sunday. Possibly it was the effect of World War II still being felt; the loss of life was horrific - men, women and children and the numbers were in the millions. We will never know what was lost but what was not lost was our desire for peace. World War II brought about a longing for permanent peace and so the United Nations was born. The League of Nations was a try at that desire for peace but the desire wasn't strong enough and it dissolved with the drums of war in the 1930s. But the United Nations continues to be the hope of every school child in my day that one day there could be peace on earth and our relatives would not die on the battlefield fighting greed because that is what Nazism was and is - greed for land. But back to the story and it is a sad one; jealousy for a younger brother who was a favourite of the father. First of all I think that it is a sin to have a favourite child personally. No child should be preferred above another - all children should be equal. But life doesn't always flow that way but the results of such favoritism can be disastrous. It is a story with a happy ending eventually but the trials that had to be gone through were enormous. 

Cloudy today and my second cleaning day. The basement and it is easier, no walls just one big room and it is now three quarters empty and it needs to be almost empty before I can move from this house. Most of it can not come with me. That is the comfort of old age perhaps knowing that in your downsizing there is a finality always ahead of you so that it is easier to let go of the memories that a basement can hold. 

No work yesterday but the cleaning went well and today should also flow along nicely. This summer is very different from last summer. I still was finding it very hard to manage Edward's many projects but this summer has the reminder of the purchase of a broken up research portfolio belonging to another which I worked on last summer. What a dreadful thing to happen to carefully sought data on the part of someone. It is better to have a contingency plan for your research at least the original records part so that the material goes to a repository where it can be used or to a relative ready to pick up and run with that research - two choices really. 

On to the day, Tea is cool enough to drink and setting up the robot vacuum to clean the basement rug is the next step and then breakfast. No work on the book today either unless it is later in the day. This one will be busy.