Website updated

I have updated my website and the Companion Charting Book for the Siderfin Family of West Somerset is now available. It is basically an update of the Pedigree Chart that James Sanders published in his book "History of the Siderfin Family of West Somerset" in 1912 at Exeter, UK but at 170 pages considerably longer. Please do let me know if there is anything that you do not agree with and I will sort that out. Other than that enjoy and it is the end of my forays into the history of our mutual family - the Siderfins of Loughborough, Somerset, England and their descendants. It is licensed in the same manner as the first book I published as a revision of James' work - a fantastic accumulation of information by him for his descendants, his cousins and the future. A much appreciated time and effort on his part by his family for sure. 

The book:

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/Companion Charting Book with notes for The Siderfin Family of West Somerset - Elizabeth Kipp 4600.pdf

 Paste this line into your browser or

Go to my website:

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/elizabethmain.htm

and select from the list of 3x great grandparents: SIDERFIN and go to the bottom of that section where the two books are listed. 

I have enjoyed the last six months putting it together in a rather slow fashion following my cataract surgery taking my time so as not to strain my eyes unduly. It did seem to be taking on a life of its own for a bit as it was much slower than I had anticipated but hopefully the results are useful to the many researchers around the world as they link back to their Siderfin family. 

I have also written up the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter but still have a little work to do that I shall complete today and publish it although the email from FT DNA may not arrive for a couple of days in your inbox. I shall begin work on the Blake Newsletter either today or tomorrow. 

It is cleaning day two and I have just the top floor to do as I did the main floor with the basement - I may not do that again it seemed to take me a longer time or I am getting older. 

Happy New Year's Eve to come and 2025 is around the corner for sure. When my children were young I used to have a little song that we sang - [insert season like fall, winter, spring, summer]'s around the corner waiting for [their name]. They loved it and was one of their earliest songs long before the memory chords click in and it gradually disappeared from their day. But we did sing our way through the day until they went off to school and life changed never to go back to those fun and work days. I taught them to read, to write and the beginnings of arithmetic as, to be honest, I really would have found the days very long in constant play. For some constant play works but for me I needed an organized system by which to raise children in order to get my work done as well. Whatever suits really and keeps a family happy and together. 

Teatime finished and on to the first set of Yoga for the day. I notice my FitBit now has a Cardio Load for me. Yesterday, in spite of cleaning for more than eight hours, my cardio load was lower than normal. I used to enter cleaning into my FitBit on the desktop app but do not see that ability with the phone app. But I know I did it so that doesn't matter; interesting though letting cleaning disappear from the schedule or perhaps I have just missed seeing it. When I get my new FitBit I will try and set up something to cover "General workout" or something like that. I do like the FitBit for sure; it is a marvelous tool although mine no longer syncs with my phone for some reason but that too is not a problem as it seems to randomly sink. When one is old; the worries diminish considerably as we work through our time on earth before we become part of the past in God's world. On to the Blake and Pincombe books; I have been waiting for half a year to re-commence them. 

I see there is a letter in the news today saying that the Governor General should recall parliament. Is that a prerogative of the Governor General (the King does not recall Parliament)? I wonder if that is not inflicting something on an appointed Head of State that really is part of the Democratic System. A date of return was agreed upon I assume; I have not been paying attention. I do look forward to the election coming as soon as possible following the return on the 27th of January 2025. I think that the Premiers of the Provinces should be more involved in Parliament as the National Parliament, at the moment, seems to have lost the confidence of the people as it currently stands whereas the Premiers are in control of their provinces and perhaps should have more input in how the government runs - we have now experienced in the last couple of decades both the Conservative government under Prime Minister Harper and the Liberal government under Prime Minister Trudeau not taking the opinion of the Premiers of the Provinces as seriously as I think they should. I must admit to watching how the United States operates these days with regard to the Governors of the States there. But I think our Parliament has failed us in the last month especially; it can not be an ostrich with its head in the sand nor can it be so far to the left that one feels like a welfare state is forming (and they do it to gain votes which I find somewhat despicable) which one can look at Europe and see that that does not work well in emergencies. I especially dislike this last year the way that the current government has handled the rights of Israel to defend itself - first and foremost we believe in that as a people after all we were there immediately (in that case both verbally in support and physically in place) when war was declared both times in Europe because we believed in the rights of democratic societies and our need to defend them even though the battlefield was not anywhere near us. None of us liked seeing the loss of life in Gaza but the opportunity to bring thousands of children here did not happen - we did do that during the Second World War to protect the children of the United Kingdom from total War against them. Gaza as the aggressor had an opportunity that they did not take to protect those children and I shall forever feel that the Muslims in North America failed Gaza in that regard. All that was needed for young children was their DNA so that we could return them to their country of birth. Young children need very little space to live and seeing so many deaths was quite devastating actually. 

The Bible Reading for today is especially poignant (Numbers 6:22-27) as once again Hamas refuses to release all of the hostages unconditionally as ordered by the International Court of Justice nearly a year ago now:

The Lord told Moses, “When Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel, they must say:

I pray that the Lord
    will bless and protect you,
and that he will show you mercy
    and kindness.
May the Lord be good to you
    and give you peace.”

Then the Lord said, “If Aaron and his sons ask me to bless the Israelites, I will give them my blessing.”

Church at St Mary and St Nicholas in Lavant, Chichester, West Sussex

Again an area in England that we did not visit. Our closest approach was taking the ferry to France from Dover. A lovely service and the hymns just what anyone would have wanted on the quiet Sunday after all the busyness of Advent and then Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. When I was a child we never missed a Sunday at our Church except when we were on summer holidays but  then we went to Church where we were on holiday. It is part of my makeup really following the Church Season in my mind as we go from Advent through to Trinity. I do love the Seasons of the Church Year. For a while though it was the School Year in my childhood although mostly dominated by the Church Year. I think of all the times that I spent away from home but being in Church was my happiest time. I never liked school particularly. In Grade one I was punished for reading after I completed the extremely simple arithmetic sheet and thought it would be okay to read. It wasn't and my little hands were strapped with a ruler. I think I was meant to cry but I had all those brothers and I was still in the thought that one doesn't cry  like that but she suddenly realized that she had hit me for long enough. I really disliked that year! Some of the other years had good points but mostly when I graduated from University at 20 I was really happy to be finished with education at that time. I always loved working even if the people I worked for or with were difficult; there is just something very soothing and rewarding in doing projects. I actually went and helped at my children's school (both of them) and did my proofreading at night on those days to make up the time. It was interesting as one forgets how little you actually learn in a day in the early years of school. But then I am a life long learner always wanting to learn something new and interesting to fill my waking hours. Learning is a skill of Homo sapiens and I am always amazed when it isn't the most important thing to people. 

The Companion Charting Book is finished; I am content with it and it is up on my portion of the server. I will add it to the website so that it is findable. I found an old picture of my maternal grandfather and replaced the one that I had as he was older in that picture (although it was my mother's favourite picture of him) that I had originally used. It suits more the younger picture of my grandmother when she was 21 and this picture of John Routledge Pincombe he is just into his 30s I think. He was fourteen years older than my grandmother. 

 

The picture is a little fuzzy; not quite as crisp as the one I was using but the age difference not so noticeable as in the later picture of him coming out of the barn:

 

 But this was the father that my mother remembered as it was taken a couple of years before he passed away at 53 years (so very young).  She was eight years of age when he passed.

I did work away on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter and will get that published today as well and the next is the Blake Newsletter due on the 1st of January 2025. 

Perhaps we will go shopping today as it is raining and our snow is being melted away although probably not all of it as there is snow promised later in the week. 

Teatime and solitaire games to begin the wakeup for the brain!

An incredible day

The second last chart proved to be a longer issue than I would have ever contemplated. I had simply accepted James Sanders Pedigree Chart giving the birth mother for Anne [Christiana] Siderfin as Ann Hinde. I do not think I ever really thought about it. Being a one-namer I tend not to really get that involved in the female lines coming down although in this case I did do so to attach my own line back to my 3x great grandmother Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew. It was with that thought that I really started to look at James' Pedigree Chart and realized that Ann (Hinde) Siderfin had not mentioned the Darch family (Anna married Johannes Darch) in her will at all which seemed very strange. Thomas 5 (Ann's husband and Anna's father) had mentioned both his wife and his daughter in his will prior to the date of the marriage of Anna. I have as a result moved Anna in the chart so that she is the daughter of Thomas Siderfin and Elizabeth Lightmaker who probably died at the time of Anna's birth or shortly thereafter as she married early in 1665 (the license was issued on the 30 Mar 1665 in London) and died in 1665.  I was always somewhat confused by this particular line coming down from Thomas but could not put a finger on it until I really looked at James' chart and realized with the will also sitting in front of me that the dates simply did not work for Ann (Hinde) Siderfin to be the mother of Anne. That was really the last hurdle reaching the end point. 

I replaced a picture of my maternal grandfather with a younger one more in sequence with the younger picture of my maternal grandmother (circa 1912 for both of them) and that completed my work on the book. I will get the licensing done and the copy up on line by the 30th giving myself that extra bit of time to think about the book. It is a good feeling to be finished. 

If anyone sees anything they feel strongly about please do feel free to comment. I am overall satisfied with the two books now and I have proven what I set out to prove which is the line of descent for my Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew daughter of Robert Siderfin and Grace (Kent) Siderfin baptized 19 Jun 1759 at Wootton Courtney, Somerset, England both back to John Siderfin and Christian (unknown) Siderfin who lived at Loughborough, Somerset, England circa 1500s and down to myself born in Canada just before the middle of the 1900s. 

So today I shall start work on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter which did not get published on the 1st of December. I will mention the Charting Book there as my Pincombe cousins here in Canada are all descendant of the Siderfin family as we share my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe who emigrated to Canada with her husband John Pincombe and their five children leaving Plymouth on the 20th November 1850 and arriving in the Port of New York on the 7th January 1851. Their travel to the home of Robert Pincombe (John's older brother) in upper New York State and then in March 1851 to the London, Upper Canada area is well documented. The Siderfin-Pincombe matches are many in the DNA databases especially given that our Elizabeth had a twin sister Charlotte who remained in England with her family. These two families corresponded well into the 1930s but the war appeared to slow that down somewhat. I have corresponded with descendants of all of Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe's siblings. 

Tea drank and I shall get my daughter to check my licensing a little later when she has time. It is lovely to have her for Christmas but she has spent it marking, doing research discussions with co-authors and getting ready for next term although has had a number of good skiing days which is wonderful. The snow finally came. But that is the life of an academic for sure. 

Breakfast next and then Latin. I am starting to think seriously about all of the documents that I have in Latin now and the desire to start working on them is very strong. I did wonder how my eyes would do with that and it is amazing really to look at those ancient documents and realize that yes I can still do this. Medicine is a wonderful gift to the world for sure.

Skiing

 Another great day of skiing but will take today off again. It is nice to be flying along the ski trail for sure but at 79 the pace is a good deal slower and the distance less than in my youth. But it was fun and we had a great time. Such simple pleasures in life but in reality everything costs a lot of money - the skis and the boots are relatively new; I think it is their third season now but we have had good fun skiing when we have had snow. Climate change is most painfully felt in the polar regions at this moment in time because it is winter and we are supposed to have winter with deep snow covering the ground. We need to pay attention to Mother Nature and protect the environment. 

Another Saturday as well and this week has flown by. Today I shall work on the Thomas Chart and finish off the book getting the publishing license in order and producing the *.pdf to put up on my website. Then I will have completed what I wanted to do with the Siderfin material ever since I discovered that there was a lot of material not in James Sanders' book but then he wrote it in 1912 and it is much easier to get to the repositories in this day and age over 100 years later. 

Returning to the Blake and Pincombe books is the next step but first I must create and publish the Pincombe/Pinkham Newsletter for the 1st of December - somewhat late but I was resolved to complete the Siderfin task before moving on to anything else and then Christmas time is always very very busy. 

As we slide towards New Years and 2025 I do wonder what the New Year will bring. How sad that Russia appears to have shot down a civilian airplane and killed dozens of people. Russia is certainly out of control and the Nazi Putin is the cause of all the problems in that part of the world. The people of Russia do need to do something about the Nazi Putin destroying their lives and he will continue to do so unless something occurs to change that. 

Tea time and then breakfast followed by Latin and the day begins. A somewhat late beginning but I did oversleep. Perhaps I was tired by all of that skiing. Likely, I am over 79.25 years of age now. 

CUSMA/NAFTO and BRICS

Between these two very large trade associations we have almost 50% of the population and 50% of the economic exchanges that occur in the world it would appear by the latest statistics.  Mind you I am guessing at CUSMA/NAFTO and the stats for BRICS were just mentioned today. If one looks at G7 compared to BRICS the population and economic exchanges are even higher as a percentage of world population and economic interactions. Trade is such a good way for countries to share their developments in produce/product production and their cultures and upsetting that trade could be rather painful for countries that get involved in that. Associations particularly between neighbours are of enormous benefit to them and they can be especially when the natural environment provides some countries with huge potential because of existing economic possibilities (Canada is a huge land mass with much of it owned by the First Nations so they are very much in the forefront of trade here.) That is worth its weight in gold for sure and one should look to that when considering changes in a current trade pact - at least that is my humble opinion. When it isn't broken don't tamper with it just nurse it along and life flows so much more kindly especially for that American farmer working in his fields knowing that his crops have a home to go to and he can grow as much as he likes and know that he will make money on it. Or the American  factory worker building items that get sold to their neighbour. An interesting thought that came to me this morning as the end of the year is upon us. I am remembering the $10 cauliflower that came to our stores nearly six years ago now and watching them waste on the counter was just sad really. There weren't any more cauliflowers for quite a while. No one was spending $10 or whatever it would be if one put a 25% tariff on it! Why insult the farmers of one's country by setting up a practice that would hurt them. That is really strange. It would be sad to live on stored (potatoes, cabbages, carrots, turnips etc) vegetables and frozen (we have plants that freeze a lot of vegetables) products when south of us farmers are already growing them in abundance in anticipation. The logic of that escapes me for sure but last time we didn't buy the shipped in produce with a tariff on it - $10 for a cauliflower or a head of broccoli or more!

I was in the mall today on purpose actually as I generally dislike shopping and had a glance around noting all of the American stores that are there. They sell all kinds of items here and do their sales actually get noted in the American trade that passes into Canada. I mean we do not grow cotton for one thing and anything made of cotton is imported and usually from the United States. We have a lot of actual American stores and this isn't even Toronto. Sometimes I think wealthy people live in an ivory tower and have no idea what is happening beyond statistics that only measure items that are shipped across a border in trade that is reviewed by whatever institute that produces the statistics which are in reality just an overlook at what crosses the border in controlled trade and I suspect does not include these American stores using their own trucks or hired trucks to bring products in. Wealth does create its own ivory tower and most wealthy inhabitants seldom live in the real world as far as I can see. One can end up inflicting a lot of pain on the hard working people (in this case American farmers/factory workers) by putting tariffs on incoming products which then get offset by tariffs on the return trade. Giving lots of currency into the government coffers but nothing into the hands of the producers. How does the government spend all of that money? Unfortunately with our present government it would be spent continuing to turn us into a welfare state which will end soon hopefully. I wonder if it is meant to offset the taxes that are being reduced for the rich in America. That would be really sad for American workers for sure. The rich make their money on the backs of hard working Americans and reducing their output because of not being able to sell it is just an insult really to them.

Then add to that the disproportionate population 40 million in Canada and 330 million in the United States and the ability of the higher population to produce far more products which we buy because we do not produce them here for many reasons - short growing season, too cold to grow them like oranges etc, limited access to some materials for production the list goes on and on for the reasons that we do not produce some items; our Canadian stores are full of American produce/products. Trying to simplify what is purchased in our country that is American compared to what is purchased by Americans that is Canadian is a difficult proposition. After all Canadians go south and buy American goods because they produce so many in abundance (when you really want something like a particular item of clothing it is much easier to go and buy it at the source (namely in the United States) then try and buy it here where there may not be enough in that size or colour or whatever and is that included in the total? My mind is curious today.

Latin completed and it is a lovely day; perfect for skiing perhaps time will tell.

Christmas Service in Cornwall, England

 Another lovely Christmas Service in Cornwall, England led by a priest that I have seen a number of times and his message is quite beautiful actually. I loved my short time in Cornwall when we were touring England. The land reminded me of the Bruce Peninsula area of Ontario. Open and active and just waiting for you to take a walk down the many roads and paths that lead to the Ocean. A beautiful part of England although I do not at this point in time think I have any Cornwall ancestry unless it is my maternal grandmother's Buller family. They are elusive those Buller lines. I can easily get back to Christopher Buller born circa 1764 and who had a Shop on  Tooley Street, Southwark, when I reviewed the Court Rolls in the 1760s I could find a sailmaker named David Griffin on Tooley in Southwark in 1766 purchasing from James Heberd of Ewell (shop-keeper) this copyhold. In 1778 David Griffin surrendered to Richard Carpenter Smith part of the land but still held the shop it appears. I have been slowly collecting up material on this property on Tooley Street because that is where I find Christopher Buller in 1795. Will it help me; no ideas on that actually but all the information on Christopher Buller points to him living in this area from the early 1790s on and his birth (looking at his death registration in 1832) leads one to think he was born circa 1764. There were Buller families in London and I have transcribed a lot of their wills but no mention of a Christopher yet but I haven't done all the wills. There was a Buller family from Somerset at St Olave where Christopher and his wife Mary (Beard) Buller buried one of their sons and later Mary and Christopher were buried in this area but later moved to Bunhills when the London Bridge extension needed that graveyard. I have all of that material showing the various plots that were no longer in the graveyard but moved. But I digress. The name Buller is old and English but my great uncle was the last of the male Edwin Denner Buller line born to Henry Christopher Buller and his second wife Ann (Welch) Buller who was the son of Christopher Buller and Mary (Beard) Buller. He died in 1973 long before DNA testing. A fascinating family with Henry having a very active business life in both London and Birmingham which maybe could fill books in the future sometime. I do have many many excellent atDNA matches with my Buller cousins around the world.

The Church Service was perfect for a Christmas morning and thank you once again to the Church of England for having their online services on YouTube. I should go to Church and perhaps I will once again when I move one of these days and have an Anglican Church nearby that I can walk to.  I do love the Anglican Service. 

After Church I did my yearly donations to Montfort Hopital, Shepherds of Good Hope, Ottawa Food Bank, Orleans United Church, Ottawa Mission in memory of Edward, my husband. I had already remembered him with a donation to The Ottawa Hospital when they let me know that my donation would be tripled on Giving Tuesday and earlier I made a donation on our Wedding Anniversary to the Ottawa Branch Library for genealogy research. Ottawa Food Bank was a new addition this year but Edward had often given them his surplus produce from his gardening and a money donation. I just didn't think of them until they asked me at the Metro if I wanted to donate $1 when I bought my groceries. I did think about it but I would rather have a donation slip because I am like that - donations add up and we all need to economize to make the best use of our monies to support our economy. Of course my donations are not huge; I am not wealthy! Edward loved Christmas and giving these donations on Christmas day just seems so right.

Then off for a long ski into the Greenbelt park here. I actually went further than I have for many years but today I will rest - a day in between is probably a good move on my part. I am after all over 79 years of age. But it was quite enjoyable and I actually got up a bit of speed finally. Fell down just before the last turn but got up on my own without removing my skis. Thank you to the lovely young man who offered to help me get up. But it is good practice to right myself and so I did with a thank you to him. We said Merry Christmas to the many people who were also out there enjoying the fresh snow fall mostly on skis but some walkers, some bikers, some snowshoeing. It was a big group and it was cold. 

Then we had Christmas dinner and we made a beef/pork meatloaf, with candied sweet potato (in the skin so that the sweetness just penetrates a little without being excessive), mashed turnip/carrot, baked squash, olives, raw vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot sticks, tomatoes, turnip sticks and dip). All the raw vegetables were from the United States of America except for the carrots and turnips; our time of growing is past for a bit and the greenhouses of southwestern Ontario do not reach us here all the time). We thought about a Yorkshire pudding but the meat was mostly fat free and there was actually very little fat that came out of that meatloaf so did not do that. It was a lovely hot meal after that long ski. For desert chocolate and nuts. A feast for sure but no Christmas pudding; I have not made one of those since I went back to work in 1994 outside of the home. But there were also mandarin oranges to delight the taste buds to complete the meal. We will miss the fresh produce from the United States if the tariffs goes on as I will not pay for that. I can eat stored vegetables produced in Canada all winter. We did when I was a child. It will be sad though for sure. There are so many American stores in Canada and I am not convinced that there is any trade deficit when one takes all of those stores into account (I expect that Americans sell us far more than we sell to them after all we are just 40 million people and they are 340 million!). After all they often bring their own trucks across and does that actually get counted as trade between us; the goods are after all made in America by Americans (and their cotton products are so much cheaper in the United States than Canada). But I will leave that to Premier Ford to manage. 

Today cleaning to complete that task as I did not do anything yesterday or Tuesday as both days were busy. Also work on the chart for Thomas to add in the new details that I see I had missed doing. Then that is a completed task and on to publishing. Just a quick read especially the Preface and Acknowledgements and it will be posted on my website. I then need to ask if I can replace the earlier document where I placed it last January due to my now being able to see so much better following my cataract surgery (fortunately I only sent it to three places!). I had no idea my eyes were not always catching everything!

Tea drank and it is late for my breakfast but that ski certainly gave me a long night's sleep!

Merry Christmas dear world

I am reminded of my ten year old self today. I received a prayer book as a Christmas gift and in the flyleaf was written to Elizabeth Christmas Day 1955. I wrote a letter to my Grandfather that day still mourning his loss but I told him about my new little brother that I thought looked like him (it is in my prayer book from 1955). Children can be imaginative. I said I missed Grandpa still but my little brother was like a gift from God when I was missing him so much. Life flows as always and we move forwards and this Christmas Day whilst we celebrate the birth of our Saviour prayers that our world can find peace and charity and do away with jealousy, greed and violence.  Thank you God for the gift of this world. 

Today skiing perhaps although is is minus 13 degrees celsius and this old person is not keen on the cold. We will see. A warm sun would be helpful. 

I see that Premier Danielle Smith is to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. For her province the trade that goes from Alberta to the United States in oil is huge and a 25% tariff astronomical for them. She has taken a stand for her province advocating careful scrutiny at the border. I see that every province/territory in Canada has developed as an independent entity which was perhaps the intention of our Confederation - we are all equals in a single Confederation much like the States of the United States. We respect each other and we come together in a central government but we are independent of each other and our Premiers are strong people who believe in their province/territory and lead them forward. Our central government, at the moment, is not-functioning to the best of its ability. CRA lost half of a billion dollars to a scam and the only conclusion that I have seen is that a half a billion was found somewhere else (what that has to do with the loss I have no idea). That does not solve the problem that there needs to be better scrutiny in the CRA by those in charge. My own experience showed me that working at home for them is not good. They need to meet together regularly and ensure that all processes are working to protect the monies of Canada and the people paying the money. We need efficiency in our government; we need a fiscal conservative government like the government of Brian Mulroney to pull us back from the abyss of a welfare state and set us once again forward to efficiency and good life for the Canadian inhabitants. I did feel that Chrystia Freeland was doing an excellent job although not particularly a supporter of the Liberal Party except on one occasion and I did vote for the Liberals in 2015 but not again. We need to move forward and not be stuck in some sort of a welfare give-away. Tightening up the belt and economizing needs to happen and quickly, Chrystia Freeland was trying to take us there perhaps but was being relieved of her cabinet position as Finance Minister. In general though the Liberals do not do a good job with finances. Time for an election so that we have a brand new government in place when the government changes in Washington. 

Merry Christmas dear World.

Christmas Eve Day

 A good snowfall to greet this Christmas Eve day this morning - laneway already plowed by the company and just the porch to clear. I did have them do it all the last few years but decided I would do the porch and patio myself. I appreciate their diligence when I did have them do it but it is good exercise for me and I seldom go outside in the winter unless there is an inspiration like clearing the walk or skiing when I have company. The skiing should be excellent for the next few days which is a wonderful Christmas gift from Mother Nature. 

In my mind I am wondering why so many Russian ships are running aground in different places in the world. Is it all just accidental; they after all have proven themselves to be somewhat over extended because of this war they inflicted on the Ukrainian people and Europe really as they knew that Europe would try to help them and they have (the Russian aim was to wear down European support and aid so that eventually they could assimilate Ukraine). An ancient people, the Ukrainians represent a thorn in the side of some Russians who simply can not accept that this group of people can  exist as equals. Weird really. Although the United States has supplied a great amount of equipment to Ukraine the effect on the Northern Hemisphere is really minimal other than that provision of supplies and we have taken in a number of Ukrainians but the pressure of their support and care falls mostly on the people of Ukrainian descent here although the government enabled them to be able to supply such aid. 

But why these derelict ships at the bottom of the seas here and there? One does wonder for sure at these happenings. Russia is so very careless with people's lives - so many of their youth killed in this war against the Ukrainian people (an ongoing episode really that dates back into earlier times like the 1930s when the Russians tried to starve the Ukrainian people to death). Always I will remember the Russian child that stayed with us very briefly when they returned with the Canadian children who went to the Space Camp in Russia in 1992. Her desire/her absolute demand to go to the United States is forever in my brain and the simple statement that you do not have a visa did not put an end to it. The very idea that she would ask me to lie and say she was my child absolutely unbelievable really when I think back on it. Not happening I said nor did it. We do not do that to our American neighbours. But no matter where we took her and that included the majestic Niagara Falls all she thought about; asked about was could she just go to the United States there. It was like her mind was incapable of accepting that No is an answer that doesn't change. She was apparently one of the wealthy children in the group I learned when we had the party for the children at Edward's United Church before they returned to Russia. 

Now being wealthy doesn't mean that you are incapable of understanding certainly lots of wealthy people benefit the world in many ways. One is always reminded of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he pushed his wealthy friends to build the infrastructure that has made America the greatest marketing country in the world. A great country always needs fresh infusion of such capital to keep that greatness in newness and repair and add to that incredible ability that belongs to the United States of America. The gain for sure is that the money you invest will pay back hundred fold/thousand fold in the years that follow. That is what has made so many Americans great; they did that; they supported their country first and foremost without thinking solely of their own profit in the present. Profits are made in the future always. But what really makes America great is her people who came together to create a country of equals and all who joined in as the number of states grew came in as equals. The days of slave and non slave states lies deeply in the past. Now it is up to chance whether one is Republican or Democrat in a new area and in Canada for sure we change our political labels often enough when we feel that the party that we normally support is not doing the job that we want. But we abandon that party quickly when they fail to realize that the new supporters do not want to go down some paths that they start to create. It does make elections very exciting here for sure. 

I have stayed away from politics for a few days and will return to that. It does occupy my brain too much otherwise. What will be; will be for sure. 

Cleaning day two and must get at that soon enough. Skiing perhaps today but for sure tomorrow after Church. Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ again and again year after year reminds us of this great Christian Church that He built on the places of worship that already existed from time immemorial as God has been part of our lives from the beginning of time. It was new and yet it captured that love of God that has existed for as long as mankind has walked the face of the earth and perhaps even the Neanderthals who painstakingly took care of their peoples in a way that leads us to believe that they too had a religion that formed the basis of their lives - they walked the face of this planet for more than 400,000 years. We have a ways to go to match them. 

Tea drank, solitaire next and then on to breakfast and the day.

Page 151

Nearly finished; just a little work on the Thomas 4 (Robert 3, William 2, John 1) family as the records do not give quite the same result as James Sanders had in his Pedigree Chart. I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to this line at they daughter out in the grandchild generation although the single grand daughter Anna married into the Darch family which continues down to the present day. John Darch and Anna Siderfin (daughter of Thomas (son of Thomas)) had four sons. Although James Sanders lists an Elizabeth Siderfin as a daughter of Robert (son of Thomas ) I believe she is actually Elizabeth Gould daughter of the fourth wife of Robert prior to their marriage. But I do need to clarify a few dates with the records and then the last chart is for the Couch-Siderfin family and the daughter there Joanna Couch was named in her grandfather Robert 3 Siderfin's will. But I am pretty much through the book and now a faster read as I finish up and publish it. It is a comfortable feeling and really means that I will begin the New Year with Blake and Pincombe as I did last year pretty much. Each of these books is over 50 pages and will require a re-read as I have not really looked at them very often since my first cataract surgery in late May. I feel as if I am once again circling the wagons around my small family as I return to working on my parent's surnames instead of revising a book on my 3x great grandmother's line. No regrets as I really did want to link Robert Siderfin back all those generations to John Siderfin known to be at Loughborough in 1500. I just had no idea it would take so long to revise a 48 page book but James did collect up an enormous amount of material and his organization in general was good although not quite a genealogical recitation of the generations but close enough. That he took the time to collect, to transcribe and to produce the book in 1912 will be forever appreciated by the descendants of this family. 

Church for the fourth Sunday in Advent was interesting. It was a question/answer service with the young asking the priest questions and his responses were most interesting. It is nice to see youth taking an interest in religion actually. The Church of England (and the Churches of Ireland, Scotland and Wales) are ancient to the British Isles predating the birth of Jesus although it was Jesus who founded the Christian Church as we know it. But faith in God in the British Isles reaches far back into the shadows of the past; back into the Christian Celtic Church which came into union with the Church of Rome and then back further into the Celtic Church prior to Christianity and before that way into the distant past lie the roots of the Churches in the British Isles; their faith shaped by memories and time through the ages as my grandfather used to say. The priest at Upper Clatford (and he also taught at the school) was a very learned man he said and very knowledgeable in Latin and Greek and he talked about the ancient Churches of the British Isles to the children my grandfather said. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day lie ahead of us now in the Church Calendar as we celebrate once again the birth of Christ. It is these days that I most remember my own siblings when we were young with our new clothes for Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ. Sometimes it was just a suit freshened up with a new blouse but always some little thing was new. My mother always did that; had something new for Christmas and it has stuck in my mind but not being a shopper I did tend to wear the same items year in and year out. But in my smocking years there was always a new smocked dress for each of my daughters as long as they would wear them. Perhaps that will be my new leaf when I turn 80; I shall become a shopper and buy new clothes. Time will tell and perhaps it will extend to one item occasionally as shopping is really not my thing.

Cleaning day today and it is the top floor that will be my work for the day. A lot to do today to get ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Teatime and then exercise and breakfast followed by latin and cleaning.

Creating order out of chaos

Is chaos always the beginning of change; does it need to be? I wonder about that occasionally in my long days of reading. It is easier sometimes to have chaos erupt and let the pieces fall logically into place eliminating the outliers; the things that just do not work. But is it efficient? One has this view of the creation of our universe - chaos and then order but it did take a long time likely but that is still in the thinking and researching stage. 

When I first started to think about revising the Siderfin book by James Sanders - it was meant to be a quick fix of the errors I had found but gradually as I sifted through the material I collected I did realize that there was sufficient to actually fulfill my main goal of proving my line back to John Siderfin at Loughborough in 1500. It needed to be sorted and proven and so I set out to do that through that two year period and did as far as I am concerned. But definitely chaos reigned initially as I had to go back into files I had not opened for ten years or more. What inspired that?  It was during that time that the idea of revising the book first arose as my days were long in a strange place and so the mind could just run amuck sort of and it was during that time that chaos (my files referring to this family) came together and created logic.  Just as bringing logic to chaos in my Siderfin files was well worth the effort and another will probably run with that in the future and perhaps bring together the records from the 1200s to the 1500s which perhaps exist one can only search and I leave that for another. 

Yesterday up to page 111 and will continue today although a little more relaxed pace. I was going through my line yesterday back to Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew and her descendants. Normally I do not trace the female line down much past the first generation in a one name study but in this case I did do so but it is very familiar to me and so I could advance a little faster but the volume of reading was heavy and so today I will take it a little easier as I work through her twin sister's lines. Then the Nurcombe-Siderfin line I did improve on with the Charting book and following that the youngest child Thomas and that work was primarily done by Auriol Carney and again I do give her full credit for her work as it was not mine except for occasional checks back into the records. Then a quicker read through just for consistency and a final read of the Preface and Acknowledgements to see if they suit and creation of the License and it will be ready to publish. Then finally back to Blake and Pincombe. It is seven months plus since I put them down to get ready for my cataract surgery and then the recovery period which I extended into September just to really give my eyes a rest for healing. It was an amazing time as my depth of vision became actual rather than surmised. The other day I was noticing that I could see the mist over the water in that oil painting that first revealed the difference to me (actually having depth of vision) because it was a picture I have known for a very long time. The painting is amazing and for the first time in my life I actually understand why people sit in a gallery and look at pictures for hours on end. There is so much hidden in a painting really it is amazing and great credit in my mind to people who sit and for hours create masterpieces of art that we still enjoy today from hundreds and thousands of years ago. 

We have been watching the second year of Ancient Apocalypse and it is our second time through now as we appreciate all of the thoughts that Graham is putting into this work. I can see it as a collection of facts as he visits people around the world and listens to their thoughts on archeological treasures in their lands. This collection of thoughts will inspire many in the future I am sure. Sometimes it seems random what he collects but there is always a picture I suspect that will emerge now or later from all this fact collecting. He is a Citizen Scientist and those who fall into that grouping have the time and the money (or are able to persuade others to support such ideas) to put into place such projects which is a gift to the Scientists who will eventually use that data. Some people are like that - citizen scientists. There is a place for everyone in our world or there should be.

On to breakfast soon as teatime is complete. First stretching exercises of the day completed when I arose and now for a bit of Yoga to wake up the muscles before breakfast. Then exercising the mind comes next with Latin and finally back into the Companion Charting Book before Church for a first go of the day.

God in the Universe

I found myself contemplating God in the Universe yesterday. There is so much going on in the world that I wonder sometimes if people would truly sit back and contemplate God in our lives that many problems would solve themselves. At no point in the Bible do we see God condemning women for being part of the life of a country and telling them to shroud themselves and not become educated. Sometimes it seems simple to see the wars that are happening in this frame work but are they really? The suppression of women through the ages comes and goes. But why is that? I am curious as I have now lived for approaching eighty years and can remember times when women did not have support in their endeavours simply because they were women. I can also remember times when that support was very much there. What is it that determines that; I suspect a lot of it lies with how men and women raise their children? Certainly God created the world to be a place where all would thrive.  And the best mothers for children are those who are educated not necessarily a PhD in anything but they have done their years of schooling and can be right there beside them helping their children as they go through school so that they too achieve the best education that is possible utilizing both the system and parent support. When you are a child it doesn't really matter if you are a boy or a girl; you should have the same possibilities in your future not head towards a future where education is banned for one and you need to be shrouded in material if you are one and your ability to produce the healthiest child possible is restricted by lack of education and lack of fresh air and sun! God would not want that for half of His people. 

More work on the Siderfin Companion Charting Book and I am on Page 85 but still a while to go but will do more today again. It is heavy reading for sure. But will be a valuable addition to the existing book (both will be available as a free download once completed and the licensing: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - so it is possible to use the material freely to produce another updated book whenever one feels like doing that) which is available on my website and I can move on to Blake and Pincombe which I am looking forward to for sure:

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/The%20Siderfin%20Family%20of%20West%20Somerset%20-%20Elizabeth%20Kipp%204600.pdf

or go to

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/elizabethmain.htm#SIDERFIN

 and the electronic file is located at the bottom of the Siderfin section which lists my line back to John Siderfin at Loughborough around 1500 and he was my 12x great grandfather. The atDNA matches continue to collect and some are surprisingly strong given that it was my 3x great grandmother that is my connection to the Siderfin family but one of her sisters was a twin and so those matches are particularly strong for fourth cousins. 

Nearly ready for Christmas and will watch the services on youtube as usual. As I come closer and closer to 80 next year I can see that my hermit tendencies will only increase. It is fun being a hermit actually and working away on my projects. I can feel, as I say in the acknowledgements to the Companion Book, my grandparents still pushing me along that road of life encouraging me in the projects that I took on. As the years passed and they went home to their ancestors it did become my parents still giving me excellent advice from afar. Marrying at 20 was very early really looking back on the 54.5 years of marriage with my husband until he passed away. Those early years though were full of lots of interesting life especially I enjoyed our long canoe trips in Northern Ontario. I will always remember one of the park rangers telling us about a drowning a couple of days earlier with a couple of people in a canoe. I asked why do you think they tipped their canoe and he said the person likely stood up in the canoe without a life jacket and couldn't swim well enough. So I said, we are not going to do that and off we went. That was an interesting lake as it sat in a rocky area with smooth walls - one would not have wanted to try to climb up those walls in some places! Wonderful portages and camping way out in the wilderness. It was fantastic. 

Breakfast completed, teatime done and soon off to work.

 

Continuing to work on the Siderfin Book

 Although not a lot of accomplishment yesterday, I did continue to move forward. I am nearly half way but it is Christmas and other items are definitely on my mind. Like where is the snow; we still have some but it is melting somewhat and it is very icy - not fit for skiing unfortunately. We are meant to get more snow and time will tell on that. It is going to be very cold and it does not snow much when it is very cold although the ice will built up. I wonder if the World's Longest Skating Rink will be open this year. Last year was the first time in memory that it did not open. 

The dog is barking outside; it is cold for him. Something must be upsetting him. I haven't been out in the back for a long time so haven't had a chat with him. I do hate to see dogs out in the minus 13 degree weather and it feels like minus 20 apparently. We are expecting snow showers but they will be rather dusty and not good solid snow when it is this cold.

Back to work and see how much I can accomplish today. Breakfast done.

Up to Page 61

I am up to Page 61 on this second last time through the Companion Charting Book. Not actually finding very much but will reread it one more time before publishing. The month of December has gone quickly as we are now at the 19th. 

Staying away from the news again for a bit; I know Ontario is in good hands with Premier Ford. I do think we might as well have a federal election and then a government would be in place for the next four years. I continue to feel that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did a great job during COVID except for the liberal habit of just throwing money at anything that they think might work without due diligence and we see that with all of the errors in people applying for money to which they were not entitled apparently and the need to have all of that refunded to the government. I think in general we remained a fairly calm people during COVID due to the calm and helping attitude of both our Public Health Officer (who was absolutely excellent) and the Prime Minister both of whom gave mostly daily accounts throughout the entire period of time. The distribution of vaccine was excellent and we enjoyed high rates of uptake which helped to get us all back to work once again (except me but I like to think I am working in retirement!). I actually got a great deal done during this time period and was absolutely not troubled by the shutdown. Went for food a couple of times a week and medicine for my husband and just generally kept to ourselves. 

I think there are enough cool heads in the Conservative Party to stay away from social conservative topics and manage the swollen public service to get it stabilized. I do not care what they do with school lunches, dental care or any of that - the present setup is inefficient (there are no school lunches served yet apparently but hopefully the news is wrong as so much has been spent already). Although there are comments that there is great uptake to the dental care I suspect that people can live with the loss of it but perhaps will prioritize their dental care so as not to become critical for them again. Perhaps some consideration will be given to removing the extra money from the over 75 year olds in the OAS and having the payout the same for all in that receiving group. Increase the GIS if people are in great need but I think that they should have to submit receipts to show value for money if received and CRA could add a couple of lines to the Income Tax reporting (i.e. dental care or medical drugs/care that is not covered).  Other than that I am ready to see the Conservatives in power once again hopefully doing what they have done in the past (fiscal conservatism and reducing the size of the public service using efficiency as the byword) until PM Harper mucked it up with reducing the GST and trying to balance the budget during a critical time when the method he used was harming LAC and Fisheries (and muzzling scientists which is unacceptable). Increase the GST to 7% or higher and I do dislike this GST holiday - it funds the government so that we do not have to have funding bills every couple of months like in my youth. All it does is increase the national debt.

Back to work and no more politics; I will try very hard to stay away from all of that. I must say though the idea of 13 new states continues to appeal to me. I love Canada - it is a great country but the world is changing and we need to protect our borders and could do it much more efficiently as a single entity as all of that border surveillance would become unnecessary allowing us to concentrate on the water borders which are in general somewhat easier to manage. If it isn't supposed to be there and it doesn't respond properly you just can just blow it out of the water or air. My grandfather used to say that about the English Channel and the North Sea when I was young - he did love England but he also loved Canada - after all his only child and grandchildren were all here and Canadians! We would be just one huge island with a small border to the south with Mexico which could be armed to the hilt if necessary and tunneling could be controlled with interesting methodology. Long live North America; God bless North America. Grandparents are interesting people I think. Definitely past their prime but always ready to help. 

Lots to do; busy day ahead.

13 new States as we are 10 provinces and 3 territories not the 51st State only

An interesting proposition to have one country north of Mexico for sure but we would be 13 new States. What would we gain if we keep this non-functional government that is taking us towards a welfare state?  This government absolutely never considers how to make new ideas work for themselves so they become self-supporting instead of increasing debt onto the next generation (no they just set up a new branch of government and hire thousands of people increasing the national debt). The Americans would want to have keen excited citizens (second class citizens have no say). So no, we need to be first class Americans not second class citizens. All that we would likely share as states would be policing, foreign affairs and other national level items and our military as your states appear to do now (along with tax collecting as that is how ours works with transfer payments to the provinces for health, for education, for national infrastructure and other negotiated items plus the Provincial taxes since the tax monies are all submitted to the CRA by us!). For our military to give up their present Canadian military status would be a big deal. We have stood tall amongst the allies during the First and Second World War and during the Cold War and that status is born on the blood of our youth (our losses in the First World War were huge (and we were a very small country much less than half of what we are now in population) and substantial enough in the Second World War). The Americans too stood tall as our allies in these conflicts and coming together is not a bad idea given the way that the world is moving; we already work together on many items. But to leave us as we are one unit in 51 would not benefit us. There needs to be a gain for us in becoming one huge country; one huge wealthy country - Canada is a very wealthy country in minerals, fresh uncontaminated water and so many other assets etc etc. But, of course, there must also be buy-in with our First Nations. Our medical system although short at the moment on physicians (that is the fault of the stingy government reducing Medical School enrollments in the 1990s knowing that the Baby Boomers were on their way to old age) is very effective and costs less overall than in a lot of countries (I worked there for 12 years). No Canadian is refused normal health care but you do have to pay for your own drugs unless you have a health plan but some of these are not covered so can be expensive for some.

As for the electricity that crosses into the United States; paying 25% tariffs to sell it is not practical. But everything is negotiable and that is the trademark of the incoming President-elect Donald Trump "to make a deal." One wonders what kind of deals will be offered. We are after all your good friend and neighbour.

On the other hand we could work on our provincial trade barriers and eliminate all of them making it easier to sell our goods between provinces if we face tariffs going south. Hopefully our government will soon be replaced with people interested in making government efficient. I really dislike the attitude of the present government towards Israel; they have a right to defend themselves. You can counter with "they can defend themselves" but that doesn't change what started it all. Israel was invaded by a foreign government that was elected by the people of Gaza - they and they alone are responsible for what is happening. When a bully attacks (Hamas supported by in this case Iran and the people of Gaza and here that cheered in our streets (they should have been arrested for their hate crime on the 8th of October last year and later)). We normally side with the person attacked whether they can defend themselves or not. Plus they continue to hold hostages to this day in inhuman conditions under ground including children, women and men (both old and young). The people of Gaza (they did after all elect Hamas) have not returned all the bodies of the people Hamas killed for proper burial. Free the hostages immediately.

Back to the book today. Cleaning all accomplished. Hopefully fresh snow on that crusty ice so that we can get some more skiing in. The first time out was great; difficult but great but I am going on 80 so not surprising. I haven't skied for a while for sure. 

Breakfast completed. Latin is next and then the book broken up with exercise routines throughout the day along with my 250 steps per hour for the FitBit.

The line at the passport office is very long

Went to renew my passport and the passport office was bulging at the doors with a row of people outside who might not get inside on the day. Amazing really. I will try again later in the week. I am not in a rush just renewing to have it on hand since it will expire if I do not. I was actually surprised as it is coming up on Christmas and thought it might be a quiet time. 

Basement cleaning accomplished and today the main and top floor to do. 

No work done otherwise; the day was busy with things that needed to be done although the passport did not happen but picking up a parcel did. When we went in on the weekend the line for the registers was very very long and they do not appear to use the bin at the Orleans store. 

Going out shopping on last Thursday the traffic was so heavy at 2:00 in the afternoon - doesn't anyone work anymore! The traffic has really increased in the daytime these days for some reason. Mind you I haven't been off my street hardly for nearly four months!

Must get back to the Companion Charting book as I want to finish it sooner rather than later. 

Apparently the Prime Minister says we are going to increase our defense spending by 3x by 2030. That would be truly amazing. 

Breakfast next.