I always make the donation to the Ottawa Branch Library, Ontario Ancestors, in September on the date of our wedding anniversary but the rest I make on Christmas Day in memory of Edward. This year once again it will be The Ottawa Hospital, Shepherds of Good Hope, Orleans United Church and Hopital Montfort. Not huge amounts I am just a little person but Edward would have liked it that I continued with some of his donations in his name. It is nice when wealthy people match the donations of people for places like The Ottawa Hospital in December. It does make it so valuable to this wonderful Hospital where I spent so many happy years working away. This time of year I always think about people like Dr Carl Nimrod - a wonderful person for whom I worked when I first worked at The General which soon became the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital. It was a remarkable time and I was wholly in support of the idea of bringing together all of these hospitals to create The Ottawa Hospital so much so that when he asked me to be secretary of the merging group for Obstetrics/Gynecology I said yes but I would volunteer my time just as the physicians were to manage this merge. It took hours of time in the evenings but the result - fantastic. One of my own good deeds; I have a few. I tend to like my anonymity and can mostly manage to keep it that way.
I was glad to see that the government was picky with the handouts as one just ends up having it taxed back often enough. NO one likes to see people go hungry, children go without at least one present at Christmas. But the military still needs more money and we need to find it. Get the military enough money to fund the pensions properly so that people want do take this on as a profession in their younger years.
Yesterday good accomplishment on the book and I am now at page 85 but it is slow with the indexing and first proofing of the text. But I am up to my descendant line having completed Robert 8 Siderfin who married Grace Kent and this line is the ancestor of most of the present day Siderfin name holders. Augustine 7 Siderfin was his father and the most interesting thing that I discovered about Augustine was his being a witness to the will of his 1st cousin twice removed (his grandfather John 5 Siderfin was first cousin since John's father Robert 4 and Robert's father Thomas 4 were brothers and sons of Robert 3). At this point in time the number of males in the Siderfin family carrying the Siderfin surname was small. Robert 3 had three sons - William, eldest, Robert and then Thomas who survived to adulthood. By 1715 when the will was written/dated, William had one male descendant Robert who died young but was alive in 1715 but not asked to sign, Thomas had no male grandchildren and Robert grandson of Robert had a number of sons and perhaps it was he who selected his grandson Augustine to go and witness the will. I see it as a sort of passing the torch of the family name to the line that was going to proliferate most likely into the future.
Perhaps I am a romantic with that idea in mind but it seems to suit the style of life that people lived right up into the 20th century to be honest. Where the eldest male/female in a family were considered to be more important than their younger siblings (they did tend to inherit or have the better marriage with the best dower retained for them but not always). The younger siblings were basically spares! But Robert has likely chosen his third son to go and witness the will of his first cousin. Interesting anyway and the link between the two Siderfin families is enough, at least for me, to prove close kinship. It is also interesting that the mother of this Robert (with son Augustine) was Thomasine who mentioned in her will that her cousin (by marriage assumed but not stated) was Robert Siderfin of East Lynch probably because one assumed as the grandson of William he was from the eldest line in that family and that was in 1709 but by 1715 that line did not have a male heir other than the Robert mentioned who died young for whatever reason.
Serendipity plays a huge role in genealogy I think mostly because a lot of my thoughts on the Blake family at Andover are based on the things that I learned from my grandfather and father (and later my cousin Ivan) concerning Nicholas Blake who left his will in 1547 and was still being discussed (or perhaps it was newly aroused) in the latter part of the 1800s. The reason was likely the notes of Horatio Gates Somerby fabricating information concerning the ancestors of Nicholas Blake and the descent of his family. Since this was occurring towards the end of the 1800s Americans looking to find their Blake ancestor had probably started to arrive in the Andover area trying to locate more information. That is something once again that I surmise but it would lead to research on this small landowner in Andover at Knights Enham becoming a household discussion when I was a child and obviously when my grandfather was in his teens as he was born in 1875.
Breakfast time and then Latin. The day proceeds. Well actually I went and picked up some groceries. Raining but I dressed for it and it was a lovely walk with just a light bag of groceries to bring home. That is the second time this week and it is working out very well. But my large grocery order will be next week and I will drive the car.
No comments:
Post a Comment