Page 68 to start the day

Yesterday went very well and I completed to the end of Page 67. The process is slow because I am working on a number of items as I work my way through.  Nine days left in November and about 85 pages left to work through. Time will tell whether I complete this review by the end of November and it will be into December before I publish this one. 

Likely I will wait until January to start into the Blake and Pincombe books although will reread once I have completed this book. It has been interesting for sure but I will be happy to complete the Companion Charting Siderfin book and have it on its way. 

Yesterday another lovely walk outside to the store where I bought milk, chicken broth and small potatoes. This is how people used to do their grocery shopping but I shall do my big grocery shopping soon and then the little trips in between. They are becoming a welcomed addition to the day. The fresh air is certainly attractive. 

Still no snow and it is nearly the end of November. Waiting patiently for the white stuff which really does gladden up the landscape with its pure whiteness. 

The Russian war against Ukraine continues but the support of the west can continue forever. Perhaps when Putin has caused the death of all of his youth and that of North Korea or has no more money to fight then the Russian people will finally eliminate him (why should we have to; we can just keep him corralled (interesting Belarus is now seeing it that way as well; they do not want to be a vassal part of Russia either although they still penalize people who support Ukraine in Belarus)). One prays for that day. The same goes for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis sycophants of Iran in that they will fight to the last Palestinian and then carry it on to the last Lebanese unless the Palestinians and the Lebanese kick them out - why don't they instead of complaining to us that they are being killed by bombs - they bombed/attacked Israel first. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis sycophants of Iran are useless people with their intention to destroy all the Jews. 

No more calls from Carleton University; probably a mis-dial although strange at the end of the day really. But then I tend to ignore most telephone calls unless I recognize the number or my phone tells me that it is a particular number. I made a donation to Carleton University years ago from some work I did for the United Empire Loyalists. It was something I did to help set up this youth program which allowed for the sale of something or other; way back when so I said just to donate it to Carleton University. Occasionally years ago they did call to ask for a donation again so likely just a mis-dial makes more sense as it is years since they called asking for a donation. Another one of those things my husband volunteered me to do. It gave me a tax deduction for that year (I think I was still working at home then; vague memory).

Tea is ready and the day commences; soon yoga and then breakfast followed by Latin and back to work.

Good accomplishment on Siderfin Charting Book

 Up to Page 53 now so just over 1/3 of the book. It is slow going but hopefully no errors missed. I of course am always happy to hear if anyone disagrees. This isn't for me this is for the future researcher finding James Sanders book and then my book and then produce his/her own book. Family research is a continuing process as one finds more and more documents that provide an insight into the life of our ancestors. We are at a lucky stage with companies such as My Heritage, Ancestry, Find My Past providing huge databases of information along with the repositories of the National Archives of the various countries that I am interested in (primarily The United Kingdom and Canada) as my ancestors mostly lived in England with my little Canadian line which does stretch back into the early 1800s well around 1818 my Routledge family arrived in London Township. They left lots of records and George DeKay did a great job of pulling together that material in his book which I would also like to update and we had talked about it. But that is a future endeavour although I continue to collect information as it comes my way. I have a 7th cousin who has done extensive work on the Routledge family and a great job he has done taking us back into our Highland home in Scotland. 

Today work on the Siderfin Book and I actually have this telephone call about a study on brain health which should be interesting. A last call for testers came in yesterday and I thought well maybe I should send in my name and my background as it doesn't take too much time. I had dropped out of the other projects because my reason for being there was to learn more about the drugs my husband was taking to control his sarcoidosis/liver disease. I just sort of landed into it and then continued with it as I was involved in other projects but as they wound down I stepped away although all of the projects were fascinating and the last one resulted in a paper so that was interesting. Coincidentally not long after I sent back details for a phone call my phone actually rang and it said Carleton University which was a surprise and I opened the connection but nothing so hung it up. I rarely answer the phone unless I am expecting a call. I rebooted phone in case it was a spy ware. Must get a new phone with all the bells and whistles. Probably a mis-dial and my voice not recognized. Works for me. Using the phone is not my favourite thing; takes up too much time. Email is better.

Sunrise and it looks gorgeous out there. It is the fall scene which is so stunningly beautiful with the leaves all gone from the trees and one can see the skyline so clearly. A treat after the heavy foliage of the summer blocking the view. Perhaps snow in the next couple of weeks. I do so love the white world when it comes. 

Must get my tea; forgot and then breakfast.

Cleaning the basement today

The good news was the chair arrived and it opened just exactly the way it was supposed to.

The cleaning just needs the basement done today and I can get back to the Companion Charting book. I would really like to finish it in November and maybe it will work and I will do so. Then on to the Blake and Pincombe books which I am keen to get back to once again. The Siderfin sort of merges with the Pincombe because it is Elizabeth Rew who married John Pincombe and Elizabeth's mother was Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew. But updating an earlier book is a big chore actually. You have all that literature to go through that was in the original book and then chart it all since there was just the one pedigree chart and James Sanders did not make definitive decisions always on where the placement was within the chart. 

Still no snow but perhaps by the end of the month. It is strange not to have snow by now although has perhaps happened before. I do not keep a chart of such things. 

Tea time and then breakfast. Start the robot and do my Latin. Day all organized and that works well for me. 

Going to an interesting discussion today: Demystifying and understanding the intricacies of mistreatment of older adults. A lot of discussion on institutional care and I had not really thought about that before. So very interesting to listen to.

I just noticed that 200 children have been killed in Lebanon; why don't they bring the children here to protect them. Surely there are many many Lebanese here in North America that could take in children like we did the British children during the War. So sad.

Sunday Service

The Sunday Service was quite remarkable and memorable. It reminded me of the Morning Prayers of my youth although the language is from the Common Worship Prayer Book which I purchased when we were in England but have never really read it thoroughly.  It was interesting to have that service yesterday as the world is deep in contemplation of the changes to come. The Bible Reading today from Daniel 7:1-14 was rather an eye opener as one read through it thinking about our current situation.

For myself yesterday I managed to finish another couple of sections of the Charting Book. Generally I do not work on Sunday on the books but rather have a day of rest but Saturday was sort of that so I did do some work yesterday. I also had a lovely walk around the block (about 2.2 km block). When we first moved here in April of 1978 I walked around the large block (which is probably about the same but at some point after the more local block was created I switched) which was still somewhat unfinished and no sidewalk along Orleans Boulevard but it was a nice walk and mostly I did that every day with my toddler. Good exercise for children and I could always carry her on my back when she got tired. But she too loved the walk. We did not know anyone on that path although did have friends in the area. I mostly reveled in the anonymity that was mine here in the Ottawa area. I did not have any family other than my own and it was just really something that I had been looking for personally in my life. I needed downtime for a while. I did think for a few months that I had found it. But life flows and change comes and we just adapt in whatever way we need to.

So today is cleaning day and it is the large cleaning which I shall set to very soon. FitBit has a new Readiness level on the app which is rather interesting. After I had my flu shot my readiness dropped way down and yet I did not really feel any different perhaps a bit tired. But a week later it is back to normal so that was an interesting experience. I still did my exercises and slept about the same. Interesting though; the FitBit has proven to be a fascinating addition to my life anyway. I rejected the initial one I had and stopped using for maybe six months as I thought it was having too much control over how I lived my life. I had to look at it differently and make it function to suit me which I did and now I quite like it. One thing it did show me was that I was not getting as much protein as I thought I was so remedied that by changing up the sources.  When one is old one does require more protein which is expensive so you have to be cautious and selective to make sure you are getting a sufficient amount without overdoing it or breaking the budget. I am definitely a budget person; I love to make it work efficiently.

Project for today though is continuing on the Charting Book. I am looking forward to the end of that book for sure. I will take a peak at the Latin document; ran out of time yesterday. I will do my Latin studies as always after breakfast. I am a bit late today as I had some thoughts that I woke up with and went with them. Getting up at 6:00 a.m. is a habit and I enjoy that habit. Then there is the cleaning and I just have to fold the clothes that I washed and hung on the racks in the front room where the plants can benefit from the moisture and I save the electricity from not running my dryer. I can run it if I need something urgently which is rare. I do not have urgent situations anymore; I pretty much never go anywhere except to walk which I do love to do. Sang Happy Birthday yesterday once again to my grandson who has completely forgotten the unfortunate incident; children are so flexible. When the chair arrives and works he will just be happy and now he knows one is coming. He so wanted one; he has autism and was non-verbal but has come along so beautifully. I can see a lot of me in him in his learning ability and how he goes about learning so time will tell. For me it was a lesson not to always be so trusting of science; open it up and check it out! An expensive error for sure but one learns and that is the way life goes. The first one worked so beautifully back in the spring.

Onto the day. My correspondent in England is off to the Registry Office again today so we will see if he sends any more interesting items my way. I am always excited to see Pincombe documents that I do not yet have. I photographed a huge number (perhaps as many as eight hundred when we were at the National Archives) and I have worked my way through a number of them but the Latin I set aside for my need to learn Latin so that I can transcribe them. I have moved along and I think I am ready to make that plunge but have saved it waiting for the end of the Charting Book. The documents in latin that I would have needed for Siderfin had already been translated by James Sanders. That is a gift that he made to the descendants of this family and respect always for his careful and attentive book that holds these documents for our use over one hundred and 12 years later. Thank you to James Sanders my cousin (distant not close) although we descend from the same 5x great grandparents so he is a 3rd cousin twice removed. Our four times great grandparents were siblings and of course we are out of synch as he is a 3rd cousin to my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe. Who would have thought I would find family studies so fascinating. No one actually I think as I managed to stay away from it for most of my life until I was 58 years of age - funny really. My mother had an interest though and this work is all done in memory of her and her desire to learn more about the Pincombe family from which she descended. That was also the case for my uncle. I shall always remember when I went to help him with the funeral service for his wife (my Aunt Norma). He had a huge stack of material that he wanted to go over with Edward to explain what was in the packages. From my mother he had the notion that Edward would write up the Pincombe family at some point and he wanted to let him know what was there. He pretty much ignored me but I listened carefully because it meant so much to him and I did love him dearly and he returned the love for sure. But he did not think I would ever be interested as I never really did display that much interest in the people more in the history that he told me about. So in his memory as well I am doing this Pincombe book. 

Have I taken on too much in my old age. I don't think so; time would be heavy on my hands without all this work. My time before Edward passed away was spent partly helping him when he asked which was fairly frequent. I just had to fit in my stuff when he wasn't wanting me to read something or write something that he needed for his Ottawa Branch Journal. Then we always went shopping which I never was into very much. I am a list person; go and find it; buy it and go home again. Walking around stores admiring all of the goods that are produced was never really my thing (he was definitely good for the economy; I do buy things but probably not as good for the economy as he was). I find it hard to give up clothes that I really like and will wear them far past their due date. Astronomy out in the black night sky yes always happy to be there. But I was happy to be with Edward as he wandered about so it worked well. 

Busy Saturday

A busy fun day on Saturday was much enjoyed by me. Except for this chair I bought my grandson that did not open properly in terms of becoming a much larger chair sort of an explosion on a small scale and very quiet. Unfortunately I bought it two months ago as it said there was only two of that colour in stock and the closing date for return to Amazon has now passed. Sad of course but we ordered another one in a different colour as my grandson really loved that chair. I had already bought one in June for another grandchild and it worked perfectly so a bit of a disappointment for sure but he rallied and we went out for dinner.  The new chair will arrive later next week and we will open it immediately. A lesson learned I guess. Chemically speaking it must have had some sort of a leak (or was not adequately primed before sealing) that minimized the explosive power of the package as it did "grow" a little. But the other chair I bought is so lovely so a bit of a sad time on a birthday.

A very fast paced and delightful walk to the park with the dogs and all of us was equally enjoyed. I do love the fresh air; I keep forgetting that I do as I work away on the books. I must schedule a walk at least every few days not on a fixed schedule but rather eye strain should trigger the schedule of a walk instead of watching the television every time. I shall try to keep away from politics for the next while including war. I am old and have my opinion but probably no one listens. As far as funding for the military goes though that is essential and should come before anything else really; our military is our strength both at home and abroad where needed. Just like locks are made to keep us all good neighbours so does a strong military keep people honest and defeat the satanism that dominates our world in these wars at the moment - Russia, North Korea, Iran and their sycophants Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and various "Jihadist" groups. 

God bless the world and help it to prosper. 

Breakfast finished, tea to drink and latin begins. My fingers are itching to get at this fresh crisp picture of the document on the Pyncombe family. Perhaps today I will find a few minutes to work on it but primarily it is Sunday and will attend Church soon on You-Tube. This is the second Sunday before Advent begins but the location was not revealed easily on the website. Will attend soon. 

One more cosmetic error

 Found one more cosmetic error and corrected that and uploaded the corrected file to my website. As I work my way through the Companion Book I will find any inconsistencies in the text but I am moving beyond what I considered the large area of correction in James Sanders book - his misalignment of John named as the father of Robert and Walter Siderfin as a son of Robert (second eldest son of Robert (son of William, son of John the known patriarch)). Using numbers made it easier but a slipup could occur and did back before cataract surgery. I really did not realize that my sight was poor to be honest. I could still see and reasonably well actually I thought; I could still drive but I was very cautious as I always am because my sight has always been my weak side. Reading through the text it is quickly obvious that I made a slipup but I missed that reading through it back last January. Absolutely the hardest thing is proofreading your own work; you really do have to be careful. I was a bit stressed as I wanted to get the surgery done in a way that worked best for me. That was of course my problem not the medical system. Although I did feel I was saving the system money in the long run as my insurance would have had to look after me and I really didn't want to do that. I see it as a backup my insurance not my way of life. 

Anyway continued with the Companion Charting Book yesterday but I also raked and cleared away the stems of that dreadful walnut tree. It is actually a beautiful tree in shape but it is just about a foot (30 centimetres) from the fence and it will take that fence out one of these days. Trees needs to be at least 2 metres from a fence as a minimum. I am constantly pulling out new trees from the fence line. There could be dozens out there if I did not. Plus the mess from a walnut tree; huge actually and it poisons the land under it for growing. But I actually do not really like gardening so it doesn't really bother me that way. But it is even hard on the grass. 

Today is a busy day taken up with other items so probably not too much on the Charting book although time will tell. A lovely leftover salmon dinner last night was greatly enjoyed. I turned it into a salmon salad with pickle - one of my favourites and had it on toast with leftover sweet potato and fresh peas (frozen actually but tasted fresh). Occasionally the foodie comes out in me but mostly when I eat salmon. Chicken stew tomorrow and another of my favourites made with the thigh of the chicken so is very flavourful along with small whole potatoes in their skin, carrots, onions, and brussel sprouts that I found in the grocery store that look very nice. I will also add frozen peas and corn at the end. Sometimes I soak beans and put them in as well after cooking them partially. The addition of chicken broth completes this delicious meal and it lasts me through the two cleaning days which is great. 

Tea completed and is a great way to start the day. Nearly time for breakfast and then Latin and then getting ready for the day. One of my correspondents sent an interesting latin document my way which I shall have a look at out of curiosity. It is particularly clear and crisp. Good practice. Plus it has an interesting set of individuals John Pyncombe jun and then repeated John Pyncombe jun (sic) which I always thought meant as already stated or as a spelling abberation but perhaps not. I always have lots to learn with terms used by archivists. My background being primarily in science and mathematics. Although a great reader of history for sure; one of my favourite pastimes. I loved reading Winston Churchill's books but lots of others as well. The John Pyncombe junior referred to in the first instance is the son of John Pyncombe son of likely John Pencombe married to Alice with sons John Pencombe/Pyncombe, William Pencombe and Thomas Pencombe. So we are looking at the grandson of the likely John Pencombe who came to North Molton with or as an officer of the King when Lord de la Zouch went to North Molton in 1486 not sure which. He would have been John Pyncombe junior the son of John Pencombe but then he died in 1571 and his son who had been referred to as John Pyncombe jun became the senior but I have not yet looked into his date of death  and he also had a son John Pincombe Junior with the known son William Pincombe baptized at South Molton 16 Mar 1605. So likely we can see the father of this William and the grandfather being the men referred to in the document. Interesting so must have a look at it in my spare time I will sneak a few looks before getting back in to Pincombe and Blake books. I am actually at this sort of level in Pincombe as I am starting to examine the records for any missed items on my part in the past during my forays into the Pincombe family of Devon. Mostly I have been collecting documents so this one much appreciated. I do not plan on publishing the Pincombe and Blake books widely; will likely announce the availability and let people write to me rather than put it up online for any and all. It will be primarily a family book that can be added to through the years; revised as new documents come to light or corrected since I will be proofreading them once again. As I venture towards 80 I keep in mind that I am not that youthful person who proofread for hours straight but then it wasn't my work and my mind was left to question and query what I was reading without bias.

Moving ahead with the indexing and checking

 I am up to Page 27 now (152 pages in total) which is still slow going but this is text heavy and it will take time. But to complete it by the end of the month I only need to do eight pages a day and I am usually doing 12  so working well. 

Checking out the DNA matches as I want to do my usual yearly (and it is has been three years apparently) review of the phasing of my grandparents and great grandparents. I have about 150 new matches to introduce into my database. A couple of them are quite good and I have been meaning to work on them so will do that once this book is complete. 

Eyes are standing up well which is good news. Starting to think about some of the other projects that are ongoing  but will likely stick pretty much to this book until it is off my plate and published. 

Must do a little raking today and cleaning up. Gardening is rarely my thing to be honest. I will be really happy when the grass goes in in the spring and has eliminated that huge garden in my back yard. The raspberry bushes are fine; they are a sort of windbreak in the yard and taste good!

Today more work on the Charting book and perhaps a little attention to the other projects - creating powerpoint files to convert to *.pdf of the photo books. I think now in my mind that Edward had this vision of the entire life of his family from beginning of the marriage in pictures. It is rather amazing really that it has taken me all this time to really understand that but not surprising. I did enjoy looking at the binders with him but did not think very deeply about it at the time. Life was too busy for this individual who craves quiet times. I simply did not have the interest in being so involved with people as Edward did. 

My politeness also did end up being misunderstood many times I think as I would really have just preferred always to just remain in the background working away on my projects and raising my children. I have found a way around that politeness; just do not answer the door unless you requested someone to come!

Tea time eventually; will do my solitaire games first. 

Then after that breakfast and work time. The day moves onward and God watches us as always wondering what we will do next perhaps. When He left us to just live our lives without intervention until He sent Jesus to help us along the path, He did literally do that I believe. We shape the world we live in by our actions so we need to be cautious in how we manage.

Back to the Companion Charting Book

Yesterday was work on the Companion Charting Book. I went back to the beginning and filled in the Preface and the Acknowledgements adding some pictures of my line coming down from Elizabeth (Siderfin) Rew with her daughter Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe and John Pincombe, her son William Robert Pincombe and Grace (Gray) Pincombe, his son John Routledge Pincombe and Ellen Rosina (Buller) Pincombe and my mother, their daughter, Helen Louise (Pincombe) Blake. 

I then started back at the beginning and will now do the indexing and reading of everything there once again. I will then at the end go back and proofread it once again before I publish it. I decided one set of charts was just too small so redid them. That will part of this as I got much stricter with myself as the book moved on so some at the beginning may need to be redone. Not finding many changes which is good but will be cautious. I want to finish this and have it off my plate so that I can get back to the Blake and Pincombe books. 

Other than that exercise although still feeling somewhat the effects of the flu shot (managed to get one at the Drug Store last Sunday) as it multiplies through my system. It was the 65+ shot that is stronger apparently for us ancients! I haven't had flu in many many years as I had the flu shot at the hospital all the time that I worked there and ever since actually. I tend to wear a face mask in the winter when I am shopping since COVID as why not it is easy to do. But I was never a cold prone person anyway. Watched a little television with all the excitement still ongoing from the election in our neighbour to the south. The House of Commons seems to be in a stalemate which I find annoying as they make a lot of money at our expense and should be governing the country in an efficient manner not always sucking up to one part of the populace or another by random benefits. The Conservative party needs to find its roots and they are in efficiency; I think people in politics have lost their way. They go in thinking they always have to be in power but sometimes the most effective place is in opposition to curb the wastefulness of left leaning parties. 

On to Latin and then the book.

The 45th President Donald Trump missed out on the biggest win in his life

One item that I think is obvious in all of this is that the 45th President Donald Trump running for re-election missed out on the biggest triumph of his life because of the Insurrection on the 6th of January 2021. For a lot of people who would have voted for him because of disappointment in the 46th President Joe Biden either didn't vote or voted for Kamala Harris. But this was going to be a big win for him for sure but it could have been so much bigger. He did win with a huge majority in the Electoral College though and won the Senate and may well win the House. Times will be different and I hope he remembers that a strong Canada is good for the United States. We have your back at all times and you are our best friend in many ways even if we still do have a King who loves us but he is a long way away and we do not see him often. Our Governor General Mary Simon is perfect and a descendant of the First Peoples. Many tributes to her for her perfect appearance on Remembrance Day representing Canada (and the King). It is Canada that the King represents after all here in Canada (just another word for Crown really). 

I would like to see the borders toughened between Canada and the United States; that never happens during a Democratic term in office. I get really tired of people freezing to death in the winter or drowning in the summer here especially small children who didn't ask to be carted around the world and brought into a country illegally. If you cannot get there legally stay home and fix the system where you are. 

Efficiency is a word that I love and would be very happy to see a more efficient government here. Trim the waste, support the military and lets get this country on track to the great successes that it can have.

  

Wars end when the aggressor nation agrees to stop threatening their neighbours

As always it is in the camp of the aggressor nation to halt their aggression/their threats of continuing aggression. When that happens, when they lay down their arms then the war ends. Perhaps one should note that Hitler at the end insisted that the children man the walls of Berlin. What a hideous thing to do to the children of Germany. But that is what dictators do? when they do not win then they punish the people who did not win the battle for them. For ever, when one thinks of a monster Hitler will come to mind for sure. As a child growing up in the shadow of World War II, Hitler was that monster and he remained there forever in my mind as that sinful satanic person. But gradually over time Stalin too became that kind of a person as he did not release the peoples of Eastern Europe to return to their own governments/their own countries but held them fast in the Soviet Union and the Cold War descended upon us. I do not remember the time between my birth in 1945 until 1948 when my brothers were pretending to be airplanes flying around the room as we listened to the radio in a room that I lived in but have no real memory of being in that house as we moved not long after that. But my grandfather was there, my father and mother and my older sister and my two brothers and I forgot the baby although I do not think he was in the room. We were listening to the radio and that memory is forever in my mind. They were saving Berlin from certain imprisonment if the planes did not relieve the hunger in Berlin. The films made since then showed the harrowing flight that those planes had to make to land in western Berlin to unload their precious cargo and go back and do it all again. Thank God for those brave pilots and the men who flew with them to help manage the cargo. 

That uplifted plain of peace is always there but it slips away from us like the mirage in the desert as we try again and again to have peace in our world. Remembrance Day brings that home to us and it is the most powerful vision of our dedication to the men and women who fought against unbelievable odds to retake Fortress Europe and defeat the Nazis. Russia must be corralled and not allowed to break out and attack other countries. The Russian people may well handle this themselves but it is a hard call for sure; death sits in front of them at all times if they do not agree; if they resist. When enough young men are sacrificed then the bell will tool for Putin and his enablers just as it is tolling for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and perhaps even the Nazi Satanic leaders of Iran. Freedom for the Iranian people too in all of this perhaps. A place where a young woman will not be beaten to death for refusing to wear a hijab. When I was young we always wore a kerchief outside it is true. Not sure why I was still young when we stopped and the wind blew through our hair as we ran; it was a wonderful feeling to have the winds of God and Mother Nature blow through our hair for sure. 

Cleaning all accomplished. Today will be a work day and yesterday I did put up, in the blog, the URL for the Siderfin book that has the errata corrected in it. I work today on the Companion Charting Book and hopefully it too will be available by the end of November but time will tell I shall take my time with it and the New Year will see me return to the Blake and Pincombe books if not sooner. Whenever the one is done the others will start. 

Drinking my green tea and writing my blog at 6:11 a.m. and a new day is with us. A new day in God's world where one prays for peace in our time just as we have for as long as I can remember. It seemed like peace when the Berlin Wall came down but Nazism slipped in once again as the psychopathic Nazin Putin and his enablers have once again loosed the dogs of war. Hamas copied Putin invading Israel and we have two war zones. The dogs of war must be put down. 

 

Remembering our military

 Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph in Ottawa was as always perfect in every detail; even the rain came down as tears from God/Mother Nature for our soldiers lost to us but never forgotten. I remember our first time attending here in Ottawa when our oldest was 18 months old. The canon frightened her but gradually she got used to it. Perhaps that is the way no ideas on that. But it was wondrous to be there in our capital city on Remembrance Day and we never missed year in and year out until I was working on Remembrance Day at the Hospital but retirement saw us back at the Cenotaph year after year. 

When we toured France in 2014 perhaps as much as one third of the tour took us to the Normandy Beaches so well known in the Second World War and then through the west side of France to Ile de Ré and back across and then up to the trenches of the First World War near Verdun. The perfectly maintained graveyards are a tribute to France's appreciation for her liberation. A country where democracy was born by fire and maintained through the centuries every time a dictator threatened that freedom. France rose to defeat that and carry on their democracy. Paris is perhaps the most beautiful city I have ever seen; a walk down the Champs-Elysées a never to be missed opportunity. We were there for a special ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe  back in 2014 in June having walked from the Hotel St James. Everything was in easy reach of that Hotel as we went on our own to Notre Dame and took a ride back in a bicycle taxi. That was a beautiful experience all in itself. L'Eglise Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Paris also reached easily from the hotel - a stunning piece of architecture which fits so beautifully into the Paris landscape. Touring le Jardin des Tuileries just across from our Hotel; there was so much to see beyond the tour itself. 

Must get back to my French on duolingo soon. I will also work on my German although I do not think I have any recent German ancestry but I still have this thought on my Buller line and time will tell. Not necessarily the Buller itself but marriages into the Buller line in the early 1700s. The French/German DNA does mystify me although it isn't huge it is still enough to have an ancestor from the 1700s in my line. It shows up in all of us a little; in some of us more and with five tested one can really look at these things. I have become most interested in the autosomal DNA now although retain my interest in yDNA and mtDNA. I do know I have 10x great grandparents who were Huguenot thus accounting for the possibility of French DNA although it would be small for sure but sometimes you have these sticky pieces of DNA that just get passed on and on.

I always say when my children ask that I have traveled enough for an entire lifetime and will do no more. I want to write now and get everything recorded in case in the future one of my parent's descendants becomes curious about their ancestors (they have eleven great grandchildren). For myself, I did not have that curiosity really but I loved to listen to my grandparents and they told me so much and I must pass that on; that is my duty in my life that I have left to live as I see it. Mind you I do want to see more of Canada I have only been as far as Winnipeg to the west, to James Bay to the North and I have spent a lot of time in the Maritimes as Edward had a number of Reunions there that he wanted to attend. I have even been to Labrador where the whales put on a show for us that one day and at the end they seemed to be saying goodbye. It was amazing actually. I will always remember that. 

We have been to every State in the Eastern part of the United States and some of the central almost all the way to New Orleans and then to Utah. I have been further west in the United States than in Canada so must remedy that one of these days and get to the west coast. I have especially spent a lot of time in the New England States and New York State as Edward visited every grave yard to find his many colonial ancestors. We have been back in the bush many times finding old graveyards still preserved and maintained by a caring people. 

Basement cleaned yesterday and today the main floor and the top floor and another week of cleaning accomplished. Routine is a wonderful thing actually as it maintains a sense of normalcy in your life as you adjust to changes. 

I did put the corrected Siderfin book up online and go to my website: 

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

and you will find the book at the bottom of the Siderfin section. The changes are in reality small but I found them to be enormous in my mind but perfectionists are like that. 

The Companion Charting book continues to be prepared to go online and I have no idea when that will happen but hopefully soon. I want to get back to my Blake and Pincombe books so will not dally with it. 

Tea all drank and solitaire games to play and then Breakfast, start the cleaning and then Latin in my rest period. The day passes much too quickly sometimes and I am at the end of the day with not quite everything accomplished that I wanted to do but there is tomorrow. But I do not see an end to the things that I need to accomplish as there is still a great deal of Edward's material to work through. Hard to believe as so much of his library is now at the Archives but I will persevere and complete this task in a hopefully timely fashion. But I do have a tendency to meander through life and was perhaps one of the things Edward liked about me; I was never in a rush to do anything and didn't try to rush him!

Remembrance Day

 Remembrance Day around the world as the world holds it breath once again whilst Satan rages and we must put Satan down once again sad to say. Russia/North Korea and Iran remain the problem countries in the world. Putin the Nazi in Russia with his adherents and Iran (how much of the country actually supports the present government) with their sycophants Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis (and perhaps the others as well called Jihadists of different stripes). Where does China stand? I think perhaps for progress but at the expense of whom? Why do they hate democracy; because they can not get people to grovel in a democracy; they are always going to stand up and fight for what they believe in. What do they believe in? A world that can be at peace where all prosper perhaps not as affluently as the next door neighbour or the people who live in the expensive subdivisions but they can strive which is something they cannot do in a country run by dictators. Dictators are always going to support only the people who accept their dominance. Sad really that Satan is running amuck once more. I like the symbol that is used at Mecca of stoning Satan to rid him from our lives. I do not share this desire for great wealth; I prefer to live my quiet anonymous life writing my surname books and thanking God for the world that He has given to us. His instructions were clear from the beginning really in the Ten Commandments and later the modified Two commandments that Jesus brought to the world dying for us to cement that Covenant. Today reminds us that we shed that blood of our ancestors/cousins to keep that promise of the covenant and forever we must uphold the lost lives and carry the torch they passed to us from their dying hands. 

Growing up in the shadow of World War II; I was born not long after VJ day so belong to the so called  "Silent Generation." That smallish group that followed the children born during the war and before the Baby Boomers. We just did what we were told as children had during the war without any fuss or bother that was why they called us the Silent Generation. Our numbers are small but we watched that huge group come behind us in school and then in jobs and now in retirement. We grew up with nuclear war held over our heads for a generation and then it quieted but then it returned all because Russia could not stay within the borders that resulted from their own foolish attempt to subdue Afghanistan and take it for themselves. Why did they do that? I have no idea really; they were just trying to let the west know they were still there and they wanted something and what they wanted they could take. But the people of Afghanistan did what they always do; they force those who break into their country out. The Soviet Union was bankrupt and suddenly the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe were free after the Cold War. WWII did not end for them in 1945 it ended in 1990 when their countries started to form once again and they had democracy which they wanted. They pushed against their captors and rejected them; joining NATO and feeling much safer in this world. Who could blame them? Who wants to be vassal states anyway? No one actually. 

God bless our military and keep them safe. Make people realize that the military gets the first cut of the monies to keep us strong not teeth not the old when so much of the money will be taxed back anyway. The military needs funding and the best equipment that we can make or buy. Satan tries to come back time and again and we must always be ready.

I must resolve to make a list of all my cousins that I have found who died in WWI - because most of my relatives live still in England although attending the Remembrance Day Service yesterday online at Christ Church Cathedral once again I hear the names of my grandfather John Routledge Pincombe's cousins who died in WWI (John Carling and Gordon Carling). When one searches the Commonwealth database there are 37 with the surname Carling. The loss of our youth will be forever remembered and fill us with vengeance that drives us to resist again and again when our freedom is threatened. That is what NATO is about. We do not seek out war but we will resist it as we catch that flaming torch from those we lost.

Revised book has been reread and new copy produced

 Perhaps today I will upload the new copy of the revised book but it will likely be tomorrow. Anyone is welcomed to write and question or correct errors. My drawback in writing the book is that I do not live in the area; actually I live across the ocean. Going to the Atlantic Ocean whilst visiting England back in 2008 was an awesome experience. Looking out from Westward Ho Beach towards the west, I experienced this sort of overwhelming thought that out there thousands of miles away was my home country. Looking straight out is below Ireland so all that is between me and my country was water. I have no idea if any of my family members on my mother's side had spent time in that area as they lived at Bishops Nympton. All of that is lost because my mother was only eight when her father died and his memories were of a childhood in Canada with his father emigrating to Canada in 1850/51 when he was fourteen years of age. We, my husband and I, had gone to England in 2008 and we went about six days earlier than our tour so that we could spend time with my Blake cousin Ivan Kent. I had booked us into a house nearby which let rooms and one was able to use the living area of the house if needed. It was a lovely bed and breakfast place and we stayed there for several days. We had arrived at Heathrow early in the morning and took the underground to the train that took us to Dorchester, Dorset where Ivan met us. It was the first time I ever met Ivan although we had corresponded for twenty years at that point in time. 

My mother had asked Edward, my husband, to create a 50th Anniversary Memory book for their Wedding Anniversary back in 1988 (when I first wrote to Ivan to see what sort of pictures he might share with me). As it turned out, Edward did agree but insisted that I do the work of ferreting out all of that information from the Parish Registers at the Family History Library. I had done some of this work for Edward when he had a project and just needed a spare set of eyes to go through the available data. Well, as it turned out, I was probably a good choice as I had listened to my grandparents in childhood talking about their families and my mother and father as well. Memory banks are amazing tools that should never be overlooked and should always be tested and filled in as a child actually I think. It is good training for the future as you store away things that need to be remembered and at the tip of your tongue. So there I was picking through the Parish Registers to create a genealogical tree of my family as Edward did interesting things like collect each of the different types of currency for one of the pages and maps of England which was all very interesting for sure. In the meantime I did run into that problem of who was my paternal grandmother. I had all the stories in my mind but they didn't fit. Eventually I was down to three possibilities (none of which was right) at that time and simply put nothing except what was known which was her life parents who raised her. She was just sort of an enigma for whom there were lots of pictures, stories of siblings, pictures of siblings but no record of her birth but records of her siblings births, a marriage record for her parents. Stories of how wonderful her father was and how much she loved him. For all the others I had parents and grandparents in many cases but that was it. Perhaps there was an inkling of curiosity then for what I did not know but life was busy; I proofread eight to ten hours a day and mostly every day although did take off part of Sunday in the day working in the evening (following the Jewish tradition that the day ends at dusk). The book was created; reproduced making one copy for each sibling and one for my parents and we kept the original which I shall turn into a powerpoint presentation (I think I will correct the genealogy though just to have it current). My parents were pleased (perhaps my father a little less so as so little on his mother whom he had adored and over the next short period (as he finally succumbed somewhat to dementia) I did learn just a little more to set my mind thinking although it would be another twenty years before I really looked at my grandmother Blake (he talked about an ancestor that had been at Waterloo amongst other tidbits that came up in the conversations that we had over the eight hour period that I spent with him each time I visited the nursing home where he lived for the last six years of his life). Then I spent about 100 pounds and bought all the certificates that were needed to lead me to the correct birth registration for my grandmother. It was a surprise and a sort of gift that she was loved so much by her families that no one wanted to remember and that her mother was unmarried when she was born. The actual name of the father still up in the air but mostly because I am a stickler for having actual proof. The priest had recorded in the baptismal lines that her name was Ada Bessie Cotterill Rawlings. There was only one Cotterill family in that tiny little village of Kimpton with a son around the age of Elizabeth Rawlin[g]s. Was George the father is still a question in my mind? Does it matter? When I discovered he died of cancer I thought well maybe it would be good to know. But really haven't still at this point in time pursued it (I haven't seen a picture of George yet). I have matches that lead that way. Her mother Elizabeth Lywood (from a relatively well settled family) had a run away marriage and they baptized their first child born the 20 Aug 1849 in Dec 1849 with their marriage on the 22nd Sep 1849 and away from their home village. As it turns out this is my only line with an illegitimacy. The mother of Elizabeth Lywood, Martha Peck, was the daughter of Elizabeth Peck and I suspect her daughter Martha was the result of a too hasty event before a soldier left for a posting (back in 1791). George and a cousin joined in the early 1800s (a runaway I think taking the King's shilling along with a cousin to see the world perhaps but they were not the first; young men were eager to join up in that time period and earlier and he was just fifteen or so when I figure it out). He did come to Canada actually and was stationed at Halifax until 1808 when his unit returned to Portugal and the Peninsular Wars (all written up in a lovely book I bought in Wales from the Royal Welsh Fusiliers). It makes for an exciting story in a family actually. Not knowing this story as a child meant I didn't know that George Lywood who fought at Waterloo was my 3x great grandfather and finding that was amazing. I had I think around twenty such long conversations with my father after he moved into the nursing home. He loved talking about his family and suddenly he didn't care what I knew! He had  it all right for sure so perhaps he was just starting into dementia but he lived to be in his 95th year. I hope my memory is as good if I should live so long.  Everyone thought he had dementia but as I went back in time about ten years after that; everything I found proved what he said. I am so very  happy that I elected to spend my eight hours with him on one of the days that we were back visiting. He  just never talked a lot when we were children; he was busy working for sure. So you never know where genealogy will lead you and for me that path was a very very long one before I finally succumbed to name collecting although I call it surname studies as a member of the Guild of one name studies. I study BLAKE (my father's surname) and PINCOMBE (my mother's surname). SIDERFIN was just this happening that has occupied my life now for nearly three years. 

Breakfast completed. This is Sunday and Remembrance Day and it is on YouTube which is exciting. I look forward to it. I didn't know you could tap now and buy poppies so did that this year and have a lovely one with a plastic centre that you can attach firmly to your coat plus a couple of others. The tap is for $10, $5 or $2 but $10 is such a small amount so I just tapped $10 and have all these poppies just for me. I will not get to put one of them on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Remembrance Day but at nearly 80 that is probably wise on my part but I will keep it for one of these days I am downtown. Although putting it later might not work so I will just think about it.

God Bless the members of our military and keep them safe. God Bless Canada. Definitely I will vote for the party that promises 2% GDP for the military sooner rather than later (2032 is very late) and especially if they promise to reach towards 4%. We need our military to help take care of Canada. I have taken to cleaning my teeth three times a day these last five years and paying to have them cleaned every 4.5 months to keep those costs down on my insurance and maybe everyone could do that and we could direct that money towards the military instead of funding people's teeth cleaning. I do believe in looking after people but we need to do as much as we can ourselves. The military needs to be better funded and have better pension so that it is an appealing job. I always thought my husband would have loved the military as he did so like traveling about plus he hunted when I first knew him. Living in a small town though he never thought about it until much later.

Proofreading continuing

I completed to the end of the 9th generation in the revised book yesterday. That did seem like a good use of my time and and hopefully I will get through the entire book (except the Appendices which I will not reread) perhaps by early next week. That will let me return to the Companion Charting book which I will feel more comfortable about flipping back and forth to the newer *.pdf which I will create and upload so that it can be downloaded from my website. I will not put it on the blog heading this time. Once I have uploaded it I will put the URL on the blog for that day and perhaps days to follow. Still I am not finding significant changes other than those already mentioned. For which I am grateful actually, I do know my eyes were not doing as well as normal at the time but somewhat of a relief that I caught most of them. The biggest error being a John 7 listed in the descendancy string rather than Augustine 7. Weird really that I did that but it was incredibly consistent which is like me. 

I am looking forward to completing and publishing this Companion Charting book for the revised edition of James Sanders' book. Putting the book together and publishing it in 1912 was a gift to the family really and I think we should be forever grateful to him for his collection of material given that so much was lost in the bombing of the Exeter Record Office during World War II. The wills can never really be replaced but fortunately a number of them were abstracted earlier in time at least giving a small glimpse into the contents of what were likely long wills with so much family information. 

My mind is starting to turn back to the Blake and Pincombe books in my free time away from the Siderfin project. I am looking forward to getting back into that work once again but will take it at an even slower pace than I had imagined. The next thing about surname studies is you can lay it down at any time placing it in a secure place and at some point in the future someone will likely be happy to have found all your notes and material and take up the mantle of that surname research once again. 

I am toying with whether or not I will preserve my DNA sample at My Heritage. I have all the results one could possibly imagine or want as far as DNA is concerned and I do not particularly see anyone in the wings looking to work on these lines I have spent the last twenty one years looking at so wonder at the value since I have recorded and will burn to a long lasting DVD the material thus far acquired. Is there a value to the research in having a full genome done of my DNA is really the contemplation of which I am in the midst. I may still decide in favour but I still have about six weeks to do that. 

I am listening to the thoughts of our political leaders as they head into this next year of working with our neighbours to the south. We have not yet heard from the Conservative Party in that regard and I personally think that the deputy leader has put forward some very very excellent comments in the house over this past year as I watch Question Period often enough. Being in control is really the best feature of a leader; not being a follower there are plenty of those already. Election year 2025 in Canada will be a very interesting one for sure. 

Breakfast time and then latin. I am coming to the end of the actual lessons but will stay with the project doing the reviews as more lessons come on board hopefully. But also I want to get back into French again as I want to work on my son in law's genealogy which I started back in 2008 but have not really had a lot of time to work on it although I do have an extensive tree now as I added it to my tree which was always in the 6000 people range but that quickly sent it up over 30,000 with all his French Canadian ancestors going back to the early days of New France and by good fortune with marriages takes at least one of his lines back into early Turtle Island history as it turns out. Interesting name for this continent actually it is starting to grow on me. As a transplant from the British Isles with mostly English ancestry, I admire the ancestry of these earliest peoples and the stories that they must have of life thousands of years ago just as my grandfather told me stories handed down likely to him by his parents, grandparents and even great grandparents whom he knew as a child. They emerge in my brain occasionally these days as I reach towards 80. Amazed though none the less to have Sir John Carling as my great grandmother's first cousin. My maternal grandmother (wife to her son) used to tell me stories about this great grandmother whom she never knew except through her husband's eyes. My small Canadian line - myself, my mother, my maternal grandfather, and his mother are my only Canadian born ancestors. All the rest were born in England in the near past and for the Routledge/Routledge lines which we share with the Carling family back into the Highlands of Scotland. There are Irish lines but are they Planters from Scotland or are they Irish; that still remains a question to be solved perhaps not necessarily by me but in the future - we carry that knowledge in our genes.

The proofreading continues

 Mostly proofreading yesterday through the original book. I was reading the two in tandem but realized rather quickly that going through the original book was probably a better plan at this stage and then return to the charting book with my corrected manuscript rather than working off of the published manuscript. I found nothing really in the first seventy pages except for one word I left out but noticed that already. So perhaps I can read more today once I get started at that. I did do some work on the charting book rereading from the beginning but will concentrate on the published book for the moment. 

I looked out at all the leaves and I am still of the same mind that I will just leave it to rot where it stands. If we are not going to get heavy snow cover then there will be a lot of rotting through this winter as it is our rainy time. I do not go out in the backyard anyway so doesn't matter to me. The forests leave the leaves to rot so should work well. Most of the leaves are down now off the trees. One can see the sky again. That is very  nice although the branches are getting thicker and thicker. 

Lots of exercise yesterday as I managed my weightlifting, running and yoga. Most days I do but some days I miss out on the afternoon yoga. The day runs away on me and dinner time arrives and I haven't accomplished that. 

Breakfast completed and Latin to do and then on to proofreading.

A Strong Canada Helps the United States

I think probably one of the most important things is for there to be a strong Canada with well cared for borders. It is an enormous benefit to our great neighbour to the south if we are strong. Hence my constant referral to the need to increase our military spending at least to 2% GDP and preferably to 4%. We need to upgrade NORAD absolutely and sooner rather than later. We share a water border with one of the most dangerous countries in the world with no respect for us. But to have a strong military we need to have a strong economy that isn't butchered with tariffs. President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney created NAFTA to benefit North America especially its defense and it was a great idea and has had enormous benefits for both of our countries. Upgrading it was also a good thing and having reviews keeps it modern. But overall a strong Canada both financially and militarily benefits our great neighbour to the south. Canada has a huge land mass to manage and that is an expensive proposition. 

The day flew by but I did manage to work on proofreading the Companion Charting book for the Siderfin Family. I am not doing all of that heavy footnoting that I did in the revision because it is already there but am putting in lots of page numbers to go to for the information. Am I happy with the product? It is coming along but I feel that I am not missing any spelling errors this time or slipups. Being a bit of a perfectionist normally, I am still shocked at how many errors I have in the revised book. Well lots of pages are fine but I am a perfectionist. That is my other project to find them and correct them and save it again as an *.pdf and put it up online. I have enjoyed working on the Siderfin book actually. I had done a lot of work earlier before I gave it to my cousin but it was mostly collection of data. I noticed some of the documents that I collected would aid me in figuring out the line coming down from John and his wife Christian (circa 1500) and labelled them in order to keep the idea fresh in my mind whenever I looked at that file. Putting it together was amazing really to see that it was possible to bring the line down to the modern day with lots of proof. That so many lines died out is probably not surprising; at least it didn't surprise me.

Probably because my Blake line was huge in the 1500s and 1600s but in the 1700s it dwindled with a Thomas Blake son of John Blake having just one son Thomas. Thomas married and had two sons, one died in infancy, and it was this one son Joseph from that huge set of lines that remained in the Andover area and moved to Upper Clatford and married Joanna King in 1757 (the priest noting on the marriage lines that Joseph was from Andover). So amazing really what you can find when you transcribe all the documents. But that is a story for the Blake family book in progress but it will be a couple of years before I complete that one along with the Pincombe book. I am thinking I will say three to four years rather than two years and give my mind lots of time to work on these and not rush myself. More exercise obviously to maintain my fitness level.

President-elect Trump is up and running. The last few days of his campaign were very impressive on his part for a 78 year old being 79 myself. He was there; he was active; he was engaged with the crowd. I would think that his legacy will be uppermost in his mind although he is always a business man for sure. But he has many grandchildren and he wants the best for them. So good luck to the 45th President and on to the 47th Presidency. Looking back over these four years has been a grinding process for every country of the world partly because Russia was unable to stay inside their borders and attacked their much smaller neighbour ruthlessly and ignorantly. History will not be kind. But also because we were recovering from the cruel devastation namely COVID-19. It damaged every economy and no one escaped in the world. The other great disaster in our world was Hamas (as the government of Gaza) attacking Israel in a cruel barbaric manner that aimed primarily at old people, women and children - even babies were killed or kidnapped and taken hostage back to Gaza where over a hundred still live in the underground. Hamas needs to go along with Hezbollah and the Houthis and even Iran. Their lifestyle is ignorant and barbaric and doesn't belong in our century or any really. Get out of Gaza and Lebanon Iran and your sycophants and peoples of the world get rid of your anti-semitism.

That being said, this new president (President-elect Trump) will not permit anything to happen to Israel of which I am very glad. Go for it. 

Today more work on the Siderfin books and reaching to that day when I can say; they are ready to publish and off my plate. 

Breakfast completed, morning exercise completed and Latin is next.

I suspect our American neighbours are glad election day has now happened

 Just as I am not sure that a woman could win as Prime Minister in Canada; a man has once again defeated a woman to become President of the United States. Although it sounds simplified I do wonder if that is the case. Wars are being fought and we think (and for a good reason likely) that a man is more likely to project strength. In his acceptance, the 45th President Donald Trump has said he will be President of all the American people as 47th President. It is good to hear that as their neighbour to the north. I am glad that he said that. I was surprised to see that this was pretty much all over by 5 a.m. this morning actually. The Republicans have also won the Popular Vote. 

That isn't to say women can not project strength; Nikki Haley is a very strong candidate in that way and if Kamala Harris had had more time her strength would have been more obvious. I think the next election will be very exciting actually in the United States. It was an ad that the GOP campaign ran that made me really think about the election in the United States; several women talking about the campaign and the ad basically ended with "Trump (45th President Trump) will keep me safe." I think the projection of power is a big part of elections especially with two wars ongoing (Ukraine invaded by Russia and Israel invaded by Hamas (the government of Gaza (with Hezbollah and the Houthis joining in and they are sycophants of Iran which is the main antagonist in all of this)).

Yesterday continuing accomplishment on the Companion Charting book for the Siderfin Family and I have now been through it once making the cosmetic changes to make it uniform throughout. Still the Name Index to complete and without the index there are 152 pages. I also got started correcting the revision I published nearly a year ago now. My this has been a busy but strange year - so much going on in this quiet person's life. Although I feel somewhat blocked in with the new fences it is good they are in and I will not have to be handling these sorts of things. That was a long event from beginning to ending and I had a few days of exhaustion that followed that event but recovered now. It is always hard dealing with people you do not know. My gardens at the fence are devastated but will remedy that in the spring when I see what bulbs/plants do come up.

Had my lovely run around the house for thirty minutes yesterday; usually I do not go outside running unless I have to do that; I had a question one day that I needed an answer to from my neighbour during the fence business and I could have just stopped running but once a runner starts running they hate to stop; an addiction I suppose. I usually run six days of the week for thirty minutes and then follow that by a fifteen minute walk which again I could do outside but I just walk around the house usually. COVID got me into that way of thinking and I have just continued it as I get older and older. I do try to get out for a bit of fresh air and usually have a cross the fence visit with the dog two doors up. He is a friendly dog and made friends with one of my granddogs when they stayed, she enjoyed chatting with him. The other one, just a pup, really was a bit frightened of him and that was a bit nosy but perhaps next time it will work out better. When he talks to me I know he is asking about her so I always tell him that she will come again one day but not today. He is a sweetheart for sure. 

So today more work on the Siderfin books and perhaps completion by the end of November; one can only hope and time will tell. My eyes are doing very well. They do get tired and I just stop and have a rest for a bit. But that is because I am old not because my eyes are less than what they were. Definitely this depth of vision is a great addition to my life. It can still surprise me sometimes especially when looking at something I have known all my life and suddenly I realize that I can see into it. Funny really. NO migraines is also a plus although I suppose I could still have one; no idea on that as I haven't yet. 

I did publish the Kip-Kipp Newsletter and put it up online and must remember to put that on Edward's blog. Trying to encourage other members of the study to become more involved to keep the Newsletter going but they may not want one particularly. It is basically several people with German Kipp ancestry and this old colonial line of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip who arrived in New Amsterdam from Amsterdam The Netherlands in the latter part of the 1630s. A lot of Kip families are descendant of this line and it is nice that so many came together to establish a base line set of results for genealogical purposes across the United States and Canada. Edward's line came to Canada as settlers in October 1800 leaving one of their children (Jonathan) with his maternal grandfather in Northeast Town, Dutchess County, New York. He would have been about eight I think and maybe he wanted to stay no ideas on that but definitely Jonathan Mead probably needed his help in his work (he was a Cooper). Most of his sons had moved to the Midwest by then. After Jonathan Mead died, Jonathan Kipp came to live with his family in the Oxford/Brant area sometime in the early 1820s where he was actually murdered in 1831. 

Breakfast completed, drinking my tea and Latin is next.

Cleaning day accomplished

 Always nice to have accomplished another cleaning day although I still have the basement today but it is greatly simplified. Sort of like how life simplifies when one becomes closer to 80. When my brother just a little older than me was struggling and in one of his last emails to me he said probably I am not going to write many more emails. I just felt that he was saying goodbye with that email. He lived seven hours away and my husband was very unwell so I did what I saw someone do when I was a child and I closed up the wagons around us because what was ahead was I thought a long period of being with my children's father and my husband as he worked his way along this struggle (it ended earlier than we thought but he knew what was ahead as well). I think I have come to think that when people want to stop communicating they do. I am probably like that. When you are old it is better to keep the circle small and you do not over extend yourself. I am very ready for that state of mind although do still send my emails out to family when great discoveries are made or something comes up that perplexes me. 

One of the last times I visited my grandfather as a child he explained to me that one of these days he would be gone to Heaven and I cried. But he said I should be happy for him because he would be with Bessie his wife and his parents and his siblings that had already passed and if he passed muster he would be with God (that was when he told me I was named after Bessie although I was given the full name of her mother Elizabeth whom my father remembered very well from his childhood). I was not quite eight years of age then. He said to be happy for him and so I wiped off the tears and we continued to converse as we always had; he told me stories about a country that I did not know but did finally visit and even walked the paths where he walked as a child. It was fun to do that and I shall be forever grateful to my cousin Ivan for making that possible. He too enjoyed the walk and I had no idea that two years later he would be gone. 

Right now my priorities are these books to get them off my plate and so I return to that tomorrow working away until I have accomplished that and try not to intrude or get distracted by anything because in reality God is there behind the veil waiting for us. So today is the basement and perhaps a little work on the books. I have not yet started to proofread the revision that I published. As I notice something I change it and that works. Then when the time comes I will read through it once again and then replace the copy online for downloading and I only submitted to a couple of repositories and I will ask to replace that copy if it is possible. I have no idea. At nearly 80 I will do my best to make sure the copies that are there are replaced with the corrected version. I shall apologize profusely but this is a limited book that just a few people really when you consider the population of the world are going to look at. I found mistakes in James Sanders book and fixed them so I feel satisfied that at least in this modern era one can correct after publishing if permitted. 

So forward and ahead to the day. Breakfast and then set the robot to work followed by Latin and the day and the week carries forward. Today is a warming trend  and there is to be rain.

Pershore Abbey in Worcestershire, The Abbey Church of the Holy Cross

 Absolutely stunning old Abbey in Worcestershire. The Britons have an amazing number of old Churches - the talent that went into building them was wonderful. 

The service was lovely and I felt very content to be able to attend a real All Saints Day Service if only online but at my age online is good. There are no commitments for me and to be in the company of Anglicans was a pleasant experience. 

Working on the Charting book and I am at page 138 - it has expanded somewhat as I found the letter size was maybe a bit small in some of them. Interesting I was actually shocked at the size of the type in the revised version that I published back in the winter last year. I now realize my eyes were really not up to doing that as I often thought the print was a bit small but in reality it is huge. That is part of the reason the book is so long. I suspect that the Blake and Pincombe books are also such larger type but I haven't looked at them since before the first surgery. Time just has flown by once I realized that I needed to do the Charting book for Siderfin. 

Lots of exercise yesterday through the day and it was a lovely quiet day. The sort of day that appealed to me when I was younger and wanting to read whatever it was I was reading. My teen years were spent doing a lot of reading. But also I was on a panel for one of the radio stations in London where I grew up. I can not remember the call sign although it might come to me. We discussed teenage thoughts and I think there was maybe six of us perhaps from different schools; I think it was a bit political I have forgotten now but we did talk about a lot of things. I did that for one year as I recalled with a friend that my grandmother had introduced me to. She is a lovely person and I last saw her at my uncle's funeral in 2003. Should have exchanged emails or something but mostly we were remembering my uncle and the time flew by and then we were on our way. Sort of one of those times in your life when you meet someone you knew in your teen years and by then I was 58 and I think her life had been busy as well but we enjoyed chatting; it was fun. Hard to believe that this loner did things like that when I think about it. 

Watched the news yesterday and still the Satanists of the world continue to threaten our desire for a peaceful existence. Strange really but then that is Satan; always causing trouble. It was interesting hearing that in Mecca the pilgrims stone Satan to rid Satan from their lives I guess. Without Satan we could truly have peace. 

Today the cleaning and it is the two floors so will be busy. I am getting more and more organized though and the time taken seems to be lessened. Basement on Tuesday.

 

All Saints Celebration

 One of my very favourite services is All Saints Day. I used to go when I still lived at home to the service even though it was during school time. It was and still is wonderful to hear the stories of the early Christians as they tried to follow Jesus' teachings to give everyone a better life. The online service today is an All Saints Day Service so will attend after breakfast. 

Yesterday was a day of thinking and working. I moved forward to page 117 in the Charting Book and slowly but surely it is coming to the end of the book but still another few days and then the need to continue the indexing and then proofreading and that should see the end of the book to completion. I will correct the original revision to eliminate my errors during my time of cataracts and then put them up on line. 

Then and only then I will move onto the Blake and Pincombe books once again. Today I need to work on the Kipp Newsletter. I just did not get to it yet. I am still thinking about what I want to say and it is more difficult because this is not my family line but it is the family line of my husband and children. The yDNA was what I generally worked on for the Kipp family and Edward did the autosomal DNA whilst I was and still am a co-administrator of the T2 mitochondrial haplogroup that is his and the Full T haplogroup.  Life has been busy for a while for me as I delved into yDNA and mtDNA. I was a slower comer to autosomal although did do all the testing. I just waited for quite a while as the matches flowed in before I really got into it. The Pincombe became the most interesting because so many of my cousins tested. Then so many Blake cousins tested that it to became quite interesting. I find my interest now lies more in the autosomal matches now then in the yDNA and mtDNA matches although these are also usual in research. I did manage to get a cousin to test our Pincombe line which has since been verified by a number of other testers. 

Daylight savings is over and I hope it is the last time that we move to daylight savings. I really prefer the brighter mornings and the dark evenings let me work away for hours and hours. But I am definitely a morning person mostly up every day at 6:00 a.m. just as I have been most of my life. It worked well for us when our children were small as Edward liked to stay up late and sleep in in the mornings. Although gradually he moved to going to bed earlier and getting up earlier which was nice and they do say it is healthier. I used to worry about his health staying up so late although didn't go on and on about it. Just kept it to myself. 

So my list for the day is breakfast first, then Church, then latin and then the newsletter and finally the Charting book. Mixed in will be my exercise routines and perhaps I will get into the backyard at least for fresh air. Although the air seems fresh enough inside as well to be honest. It is definitely hibernation time as there are fewer and fewer squirrels about. The chipmunks appear to have moved on with the new fence building although we will see if they return in the spring. Definitely the birds are gone with the feeders taken down now. Still see some birds but not so many. 

 

Saturday in God's World

Another beautiful Saturday. I loved Saturday as a child mostly because I didn't like going to school. I loved to learn and read everything I could manage. Saturdays were special. My father always got up early and made oatmeal porridge and I would go down from my attic solitude and he would fill a  bowl for me before he left for work. Sometimes we would chat a few minutes but then he was off. I just ate it like that; in the bowl without brown sugar and no adornments. Now I  make my own and it is cooked with raisins and cranberries and then blueberries are added at the end along with wheat germ, wheat bran and cocoa. Absolutely delicious and doesn't change from day to day to week to month to year. Possibly it could change but I doubt it. When I went out to work every day I did not make oatmeal. I usually had bran muffins that I cooked on Sunday to last the week. Love bran muffins and have not made any since Edward died. He liked them as well. So pretty soon time for breakfast but right now solitaire games, the daily Microsoft treat  on the computer. I also do the Weekly Challenge which gives me double the points once completed in the week. That is redone every week. It is just plain fun. 

When my children went to school I helped in the early years in the classroom once a week all year. I learned to appreciate the trials of a classroom teacher and understood much better why I was not happy in school. The lowest learner gets the prime amount of attention and in order to control the class you need rules that do not always fit for a student that is quite willing to move ahead and learn on their own. It is a challenge to have the slower students still working away on their arithmetic problems and a faster student reading because it looks like more fun to the slower students and they could become difficult in a classroom making the life of a teacher much harder. Interesting really what one learns as an adult. You do forget as you move along in school just how much you did learn in those early years. 

Yesterday was a busy day and I did a little work on the Siderfin family books. I will be glad to have them completed. Occasionally I mull around the thought - why ever did I do this, my Siderfin ancestor was my 3x great grandmother but it was the need to update James Sanders book that drove me. I am surprised no one did it until 110 years after he wrote it. He even in his Foreword emphasizes that his knowledge of genealogy is low and he hopes he will be forgiven for diving into this field of which he had low background. Myself, I should have realized how poorly my eyes were working. I had enough headaches to show that last year when I was working away at the text. So forward and onward and get this task completed so that I can get back to my parent's surnames and work on their books. 

It was nice to see the two big bags of raked up walnut leaves and stems go into the compost truck. There are more leaves and stems this year than last and the tree continues to grow at its usual miraculous rate of a walnut tree. They are basically a weed tree that grow in the woods but a squirrel must have planted a walnut in the backyard next door. It is too close to the fence and one day will take it out but not in my time. 

Now that fall is well into and the leaf cover is pretty much gone one can see the sky once again. The winter sky is beautiful. Usually bright blue and cold but you can see so much in the heavens wherein God dwells watching and waiting for us to do the right things. He gave all the instructions we just have to do it and live a better life on the uplifted plain of peace. It always seems within our grasp but Satan slithers in and takes it away (Russia and Iran you know who you are - Satan for sure). 

Onto the day and breakfast is next. Then Latin and another new week of Latin begins on Monday. I am getting to the end of the lessons. But I will continue to work away on practise sessions into next year and start to work on my French once again. I may eventually also bring my German up to scratch. It is just plain fun. 

Hallowe'en

A quiet Hallowe-en on this street with just a few children wandering from door to door. That is pretty usual the last ten years actually. I still wonder about the custom of children going door to door but it is a custom. 

More work on the Siderfin book yesterday and I am on page 108, slowly working my way towards the end of the book. I occasionally have to redo the chart because I think the lettering is just too small and that was the case once again with one yesterday. The page count is now 136 without indexes. It will shorten a little but not a lot. Most lines reach up to 1900 or slightly into 1900 which is fine as I think these days most know their grandparents and great grandparents. 

Latin moving along and my fingers are itching to get at those transcriptions of Blake and Pincombe material that I have collected up. I have had a cursory glance at most of the material but indepth is needed to see if they are valuable to the book.

November 1st and the Kipp Newsletter is due. I have not yet written it but will do so today. It will only discuss yDNA discoveries as a result of the Y-700 testing that was done on Edward's sample. It has actually led me on the path I thought it would which is good as it makes it easier for me to continue following through with that. YDNA is perhaps the most interesting as the surname stays basically the same. mtDNA has proven to be interesting with my line partly because of the questions it does not answer thus provoking one to look at it more intently. 

I raked for about 1.5 hours yesterday and the dreadful stems and leaves of the walnut tree are now bagged. They do poison the soil for a lot of plants. Plus it is only about 30 centimetres from the fence so will eventually destroy it or displace it. No idea why people let trees grow up along the fence line actually. I have a maple I have to get out of the fence on the other side and will do that soon. 

Other than that the warming spell is meant to dissipate and colder weather to arrive but no snow yet in the forecast that I have seen but I have not been paying a great deal of attention to the weather lately. Once I am inside for the winter I seldom notice since it doesn't affect me very much since I have a company to clear the snow. 

Breakfast soon and then Latin. Exercises to follow and more work on the Siderfin Book later today. I worked too hard yesterday and got a slight headache so will take it easier today. 

Page 90

I am up to Page 90 with the Companion Book doing cross reference and generally cleaning up the text (it does come out of my Notes in Legacy so sometimes a bit wordy). Yesterday was a lazy day after all that fresh outdoor walking which I do really enjoy. I reread part of "My Story" which has now taken on a life of its own as it now includes all of these blogs that I have written from the beginning of COVID to the present happily without COVID as part of our daily routine although it is cropping up again here and there. I must get my next COVID shot which is due in November to December. I generally go for six months apart and the new shot is apparently available now. I have been lucky not to have COVID for sure. My Flu Shot is booked and will likely do that one first and then a couple of weeks later will do the COVID shot. 

Never went out the door yesterday actually; one of those days. The part of My Story that I read was from birth to five years. There are a couple of thousand of pages now in My Story although it is mostly about my close family - husband and children and myself. I meandered through life but all those met along the way for the most part are not in my story; primarily they were friends of Edward in adulthood on my part and as a child I avoided people for the most part since I already had wall to wall people at home! Just some of my thoughts and Part 1 takes me right through to our marriage day which is quite short actually at 100 pages with pictures. I tried to get Edward to write His Story for the children and finally we did sit together (which was the only way he said it was getting written) and did that. I did blog that just after Edward died telling his story as I knew it up to our marriage. The rest of My Story does include Edward so is in a way Our Story with a lot of pictures. Now it is back to My Story and all that is in there is what is written in my blog as it turns out. 

Today work on the Companion Book will continue. I may start scanning Edward's thesis and doing OCR page by page. That way I can insert the charts and graphs as *.TIFF images for longevity. All the work that he did on the Tours he gave back to the groups that took the tours. I have electronic data for all of that. Then of course he did the Story of Our Marriage in Picture Albums which I am slowly putting into Powerpoint Presentations. Never a dull moment in time ever throughout our marriage actually. There was always something that Edward wanted to do. The calm and restful period has actually been good for me as I have slowly moved from wifehood to widowhood. 

There is a scam by the way where you receive what looks like an e-transfer and quite accurate in its rendition but I am not receiving an e-transfer (I would know if I was) and so I deleted it. One must watch these days for the scum of the earth as they appear in your mailbox. Too bad they do not get out there and do proper work instead of trying to scam people. I seldom answer the phone unless I recognize the number or am expecting a call. Email works as I do read everything including the Spam - my Sewer and Water Bill was in the Spam yesterday. One must check. 

Solitaire games are next and then Breakfast and followed by Latin as always. Thank you God for another beautiful day in your world. Would that we take better care of it and protect it from those who threaten us with nuclear weapons. All my life that threat has hung over the Western Hemisphere. It is so childish and ignorant. 

Snow Tires on

 I am ready for the snow with my snow tires on yesterday. The walk home from the car facility was great although a bit different in that my way is controlled by a lot of construction. However, I managed it very well and had a good brisk 2 kilometre walk and then back again later to pick up the car. Again my vision is so much clearer now that the cataracts are gone. But you do not really notice that it is somewhat less clear because it is a gradual thing. Mind you I hardly ever drive on my own; it is rare and becoming rarer. I could drive all the time but I prefer to have a second person with me. As I approach 80 and my driving test whatever that will mean, I do wonder whether a decision will be made in my favour. We will see and I will accept whatever the decision as it does not affect me that much really in the long run. I seldom drive. 

Cleaning all accomplished except for one room which I will complete today. Other than that the week is open for work which is great. Yesterday the high school children collected canned food for those in need at this time of the year. They bring a note to the mailbox and have a fixed date and time which works very well for me. 

Since COVID I have not participated in Hallowe'en and that will continue this year. I do not know any of the children and really I wonder at the value of this custom as we didn't do it when I was a young child. I can remember it later as I used to walk with my youngest siblings whilst they went to the door but it wasn't something that I liked doing and we used to go to a party at school as I recall when I was young all dressed up in our costumes. I went with my older siblings. I did consider just putting out a bowl of wrapped candies but decided that probably wouldn't work well either so will just stay dark. 

Working on the charting book today once I get things done that didn't get finished yesterday. I am up to Page 75 now so over half way. Then back to indexing and perhaps one can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this book. Time will tell. 

I need to rake up the leaves and stems from the walnut tree next door as they poison the yard over time. It will likely be two bags I think and will try to get that done once the sun comes out and drys that up as we had a heavy rain last night. I am looking forward to grass all over the middle of the yard instead of the large garden area. It will be so much easier to manage grass than a garden. We can still garden along the one side although the new fence is quite dense so probably not in that area. We will see what comes up as when the fence went in my yard took the beating with most of the plants gone from that area. However there were bulbs there. It does seem like I am corralled in to the yard now although I do not mind but it is the lack of sun in the morning that I would have liked to have had but I am not staying and I am sure other people will prefer the privacy that it affords. 

Working on the solitaire games and then breakfast time and the day continues into exercise periods and work periods. I love this routine; it suits me at this time of my life. Do I miss all the people that Edward brought into my life? No, I am not really a people person as he was although it was interesting meeting all of those people that he enjoyed being with for sure. I did recognize quite a few names when I was at the Conference although did not attend the social times. The closer I get to 80 the more I cling to my time as I  have many things I want to get done.

The Before and After of Cataract Surgery is truly amazing

I had no idea that my sight was that affected by my cataracts to be honest. Had I realized I never would have published the book before surgery. I just thought I needed to get it done and really had no idea that my eye sight was not as good as I thought it was. But when the first eye was operated on (my weak eye actually) all of sudden to my shock my living room ceiling was pure white with the operated eye once it cleared. But if I covered that eye my other eye saw just yellow and it was not sharp at all like the other eye which was my weaker eye. The weaker eye still is weaker but it never ceases to amaze me just how much it improved by the cataract surgery. I would not say the stronger eye is that different except I can read signs without my glasses because my strabismus appears to be gone. 

But back to the book. As I work my way through the companion charting book I am finding all sorts of little things in the already published book. I will republish it at the same time as this Companion Book is published. They belong together and if the one book wasn't already 412 pages I would put them together but it is really  nicer to have the two books side by side and I have put in the reference page number to go back to the earlier book as you work through the charts. 

Still waiting for comments on the original book because I am making a few assertions that create a slightly different descent than James Sanders had. Indeed James simply skipped over the descent and just started a new line although at first glance it looks like he is fitting them together but in actual fact he does not. Plus I disagreed with the middle section coming down from Robert 3 (William 2, John 1) to his sons William 4 and Robert 4. Indeed none of Robert 4's children appear on the chart and the one that does appear as a son of Robert 4 belongs to William 4. But no disagreements at all; I did expect a few comments questioning what I wrote but I did have documents to back it up every time so perhaps that is why. 

Working away on the book yesterday and will continue through the week. Not sure when I will finish it because I will republish the earlier one as well so it could be on into November before they see the light of day in publication. It is giving me lots of thinking time when I am not working on Siderfin for the Blake and Pincombe families. Plus I do have latin material that I need to work through for both of these books and it is not yet in the earlier parts of the book mostly because I do not at this time know what they say and whether they pertain to what is written in the book or are just miscellaneous material that could be interesting. Once I get into the generations I do have lots of wills to put in to verify my movement forward through the generations. 

Beautiful views of the moon this month and we are now into the ever dwindling slipper moon as it slowly works it way to the new moon and then back again. Should get the big telescope out but probably not happening. Although the tree cover is disappearing and the early mornings have been really beautiful. 

The day begins. Breakfast awaits. Cleaning day two and then back to the working week. 

A very interesting weekend

The Church Service was at Nelson Street Church in Rochdale near Manchester in Lancashire. On one of our tours we did go through the suburbs of Manchester as we headed for Wales, or it was off in the distance. A number of the Knight families moved to Lancashire during the latter part of the 1800s for work likely. My own did not remaining in the south of England. My father did remember some of his uncles moving away in particular his grandmother Blake's brother who moved first to that area I think he said and then to Canada and he lived out west with his family. I have been in touch with a descendant. I must write to her again. The Service was very musical and modern I would say but that is the magic of these online services; the variety is huge and welcomed. I fitted that in when the Conference finished for the day. Another bonus of online Church. You never miss a service. 

The Conference was really good. When I saw it was on Irish research I thought I really must try to remember to go (should be easy it is online) but somehow I forgot last year in the busyness so I printed out the Conference Schedule (rare for me to print anything) and put it on my desk to keep it front and centre in my mind. The last talk did generate a question on my part from a purely scientific point of view I was curious if there was any data on the frequency of Palatine (i.e. German/French) ethnicity in the Irish population. I hadn't quite anticipated his answer but it said to me that this group has maintained a sort of distinctiveness through the three hundred years since they arrived. It sort of fitted it to my thoughts on my great grandmother from whom I inherited my mtDNA which is mentioned on the Blood of the Isles database so thought to be ancient to the British Isles and located primarily in Argyllshire/Ayrshire. But I have this percentage of French/German that I simply can not really account for such a large amount if my Huguenots arrived in the 1400s (which they did into Devon) I would not see 20% for them; even my Charley family in Devon in the latter part of the 1700s did not really yield me an ancestress that would carry that much French/German to pass on to me. I inherited rather well from my great grandmother just because of the way that DNA splits. My siblings inherited Irish but I inherited French/German. So do I have a Palatinate ancestor? one wonders and will keep it on my plate to keep looking at. I have a sort of family line for Ellen Taylor and her husband has her born in Birmingham on the census. My grandmother said she was 37 when she died and that fits in with the birth of an Ellen Taylor to the Thomas Taylor and Ellen (Roberts) Taylor family in Birmingham. It has sat on the back burner for a very long time but matches have been coming in that are interesting and that led to my looking once again at that elusive Irish ancestry that my siblings have (mine is around 2% so not significant really). I bought eight certificates for Ellen Taylor born in Birmingham in that time period giving her an age between 32 and 43. Unless she was not registered in which case no ideas on that. Anyway an interesting pursuit ahead for me to follow up on in my spare time. 

Lovely walk to the drug store and back; the fresh air is wonderful on a crisp October day; it was minus 4 degrees celsius. No snow yet but time will tell. The markers are in my laneway now to clear the snow when it does come.

Breakfast done and must do my Latin. Cleaning day, the basement is first.