Busy research day yesterday and Sunday today

Lent 2 today and we have moved to a new person writing  the Lent without borders email. I found the theme to be very interesting "creational love dwelling among us" considering this last year of our lives as we begin to live again after COVID. The need to protect the earth has become one of my most prominent thoughts amongst others. God ever watching and waiting for us to become a more perfect people by His definition not ours one might note; He is demanding but the rewards have been endless throughout time. On this Sunday as every Sunday and every day for that matter for the last year Prayers for Ukraine and her peoples. Glory to Ukraine. 

Yesterday good accomplishment on the Siderfin in some ways although I had already extracted them from Carhampton but needed to ensure that there were no odd spellings or partial names that could be Siderfin elsewhere in these records (Somerset Lay Subsidy 1641-2). I once again find the Saffin/Saffyn family and have recorded them. Are they a different spelling for Siderfin in some of these areas? Not sure yet. The biggest accomplishment though was mostly on my whole look at Somerset in the context of both of my one name studies (Blake and Pincombe) as I extracted Blake along with all the other names that I am interested in from the Somerset Lay Subsidy of 1641. The extant records for Somerset Lay Subsidy 1641-2 only capture 1/3 of the people according to the writeup but it just happens to capture the areas in Somerset that most interest me although missing some of it. 1641 is a bit late for the beginning of the Blake family in Somerset as I really need to be back in the late 1400s into the early 1500s but it is an interesting survey and I found a number of entries:

Hundred    Parish    Surname    Forename    Suffix    £    s    d    Note   
Cannington Hundred    Plansfeild in Over Stowey    Blake    Humphrey    jun    G    4
Cannington Hundred    Edstock and Beer in Cannington    Blake    William        L    1     
Carhampton Hundred    Avell in Dunster    Blake    John            4    6    sub collector   
Carhampton Hundred    Withicombe    Blake    Agnes    widow        10           
Carhampton Hundred    Carhampton    Blake    Gregory            7           
Carhampton Hundred    Mynehead    Blake    John            3    5       
Carhampton Hundred    Dunster    Blake    Francis            2           
Carhampton Hundred    Dunster    Blake    Richard                6       
Huntspill and Puriton Hundred    Puriton    Blake    Humphrey        L    1        cert.   
Kingsbury West Hundred    Wellington    Blake    Robert            5    3       
Kingsbury West Hundred    Buckland St Mary    Blake    Robert            1    1       
Kingsbury West Hundred    Lideard Episcopi    Blake    James            10    3       
North Petherton Hundred    North Petherton    Blake    Samuel        L            petty collector   
North Petherton Hundred    Hamm (in Bridgwater)    Blake    James        L    1           
North Petherton Hundred    Poulett    Blake    Samuel        L    2           
North Petherton Hundred    Poulett    Blake    Nicholas        L    1           
North Petherton Hundred    Bridgewater Borough    Blake    Humphry    mayor    G    4           
North Petherton Hundred    Bridgewater Borough    Blake    Robert    gent    L    1           
Taunton Hundred    Kingston    Blake    John            7    8       
Taunton Hundred    Trull    Blake    Edith            2    6       
Taunton Hundred    Blagdon    Blake    William            6    6       
Taunton Hundred    Duddlstone    Blake    John            2    10    rator   
Taunton Hundred    St James Extra Portam    Blake    Agnes    wid           
Taunton Hundred    Liddeard Puncherton (in Bishops Lydeard)    Blake    John            6    11    
Williton Hundred    Halse and Dodington    Blake    Ann            2    0    
Williton Hundred    Halse and Dodington    Blake    Robert            3    7    
Williton Hundred    Nether Stowey    Blake    Edmund            1    0    
Williton Hundred    Kilve    Blake    William            1    8    
Williton Hundred    Sandford Brett and Torweston    Blake    James            4    4    
Williton Hundred    Watchett    Blake    John                6    
Williton Hundred    Crocombe    Blake    John            2    0    
Williton Hundred    Crocombe    Blake    William            1    0    
Williton Hundred    Old Cleve    Blake    Cicely    wid        1    6    
Williton Hundred    Old Cleve    Blake    Laurence            4    6          

Now completed I will save this for the Blake Newsletter looking at the Somerset Lay Subsidies. These are all Blake members that I would expect to find in the various locations in this time frame. by 1641 this family found in the early 1500s has increased rapidly. A project that needs to be done once I get to the Family History Library. I would also like to find a Devon Lay subsidy prior to 1485 just to confirm my thoughts on the Tyncombe family of Gidleigh and area. 

Always another project generated whenever I look at data in the past. It is a never ending work in progress which I find to be quite interesting. I would say that aside from a deep interest in science particularly Chemistry and DNA; my other love of learning is history- factual and at any point in time. I find ancient history to be absolutely fascinating and every new find contributes better to our understanding of our place on earth and how we have altered the planet not, at the moment, in a productive way but the children and grandchildren will be much more guarded with the planet and change will come that will restore some of the planet and hopefully all of it. 

Today Church at 10:30 on You Tube and before that I am adding to my exercise routines jumping jacks - I have been doing a set of 50 eight times a day but reading online advice it would appear that 100 three times a day is a good benchmark to reach for. So today I will attempt to do 75 in a set and four times a day. It will take time to reach that goal just as it took time to reach 50 so I will be staggering it over the days until I can accomplish 75 in a set four times a day. Why ever do I push myself; probably because I am an exercise fanatic which extends way back into my childhood and until I am no longer able to manage I will try. 

God bless the World and all of His peoples. On to breakfast but first that set of jumping jacks to start off the exercise day and that was successfully completed. The next session though is key as getting past 50 having eaten a large breakfast is more difficult although will spread it out so that I have a couple of hours in between. What a beautiful Sunday although somewhat cloudy but the trees have their branches lifted high waiting for that thrust of spring to waken them up once again from their long winter slumber.

Back and forth between the third and fourth generations of Siderfin

Finished the cleaning yesterday and that went well. I am getting better at it by taking good breaks during the day. I am not quite so tired at the end of the day. At 77 one must take breaks I guess.

Did do some work on the Siderfin book. Today I need to do some footnoting just to make sure I have duly noted where I obtained the information. I think some of the issues that I have encountered in James Sanders book are of a proofreading nature. There are moments when text appears to be missing rather than in error and I suspect he did not type this book himself. Being a well-trained typist at a young age (I was just twelve when I learned to type properly and continued with that type of course work through my high school days - taking Business administration instead of Latin (I have my regrets now actually but not then) and sometimes I had to take the class early in the morning before the actual school day began because that was the only time that it could be timetabled and fortunately more people than myself decided this was a good idea or I would not have been able to continue as my course load was principally heading me towards University and Science. I love Science; I love Chemistry and also Physics and did study Honours Chemistry. At 16 my thoughts were to go into Medicine but that did change when I was 20 and got married. The medicine training I wanted was to enable me to go to Africa and be a Medical Missionary. When I did not go to Africa then my thoughts changed. But that was a long time ago now and I have no regrets in actual fact. Life flows where it flows and God leads us ever onward but my not going to Africa had more to do with my parents than my own decision but at 16 one must listen to one's parents as they mean well. 

But back to the Siderfin book and my need today to complete the footnoting in the Third generation text and finally fully on to the fourth generation. James Sanders book tends to go back and forth in the family time frame for various reasons. I think he was trying to find the link between the Selworthy branch and the earlier branch and the clues were in the Minehead Parish Registers which I have on fiche but I have mostly looked at the Index created from those registers. Perhaps today I will reach into the original registers and have a look at why he might not have attempted to do that type of research. The son that he gives to Robert (second son of Robert (will 1627)) is a John at Wootton Courtney who does not actually exist rather the child born to Robert and Ursula Webber and baptized at Minehead in 1614 is their daughter Wilmot. Interesting he has him at Wootton Courtney and I will check those Parish Registers because his statement in the book was a cheery " Shewing there was a John Siderfin at Selworthy in 1641." This section belongs to the Fourth Generation in the revised edition which is why I was back and forth yesterday between the two chapters. 

I would like to add some images to this revision and have done so giving proper credit along with location of the images (quite often Archive.org and Google Books and occasionally one of the Universities Library databases). The Saffin/Saffyn family were a new item for me in my working through some of the data which James Sanders provided as at Cutcombe where one would have expected to find Thomas Siderfin at South Wheddon a farm in that town I found a Thomas Saffin and a George Saffin. Checking the Protestation Returns there was a George Saffin but a Thomas Siderfin. So interesting and I did extract the 15 records for the Saffin family from the two sets of data. I may or may not put them into the revision but I will reference them so they are readily found. 

Other than that the day is ahead of me and I must accomplish as much as I can I am now into the second of three weeks I have allotted to this work. It is minus 21 degrees celsius so a good day to be inside. Breakfast awaits. 

Finally into the Fourth Generation and moving ahead. I think I have collected up all the material that James Sanders had in his book for the Third Generation but time will tell!