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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.