Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Summary, 2014

This is the third year for a summary: 2012, 2013.

Our post count by year from the beginning: 2010 (13), 2011 (38), 2012 (30), 2013 (32), 2014 (47).

This year, the most active of the months was September with six posts.

The image shows reader activity by post for the "Past 30 days" and for "All time."

Past 30 days                                  All time      
In the "All time" column, "Gardners and Gardners" continues to be the post that has the most reads, overall. In 2012, this post was second. "Historical genealogy" was #1 in 2012; now, it is #3 as it was last year. "Old Planters, Beverly" kept its #2 position.

It is nice that the top reads of the "Past 30 days" are recent, albeit there may be some implication there in regard to depth of reading which might indicate a need to make links more prominent.

Of the issues for Gardner's BeaconTM, "Vol. II, No. 6" is on the "All time" list. For one thing, the issue had a time-line (annals) related to the lives of Thomas and Margaret. Too, it was the most lengthy of the issues, to date. We identified Elizabeth Gardner Armory as being the first to make the "1st Governor" claim. The overview (post) starts the discussion about Cape Ann's continued interest to the party after it ended up in Salem. Essentially, Thomas and Margaret got to enjoy, again and for a brief time, "their house" in an almost idyllic circumstance (American dream - no church, no state, no frictional neighbors; the life of Thomas and Margaret (as clean as Tabula Raza, if you would) offers much opportunity to more properly study and understand our modern basis). Expect more on this in 2015, as Magna Charta mania floats about.

The "Andover ordeal" post was followed by publication of an article in the second issue of The Gardner Annals.

Recaps: 20192018, 2017 (missing), 20162015, 2014, 201320122011.

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2019

12/30/2014 - In regard to historical genealogy, see recent Comment (November 17, 2014). Update of the discussion.

12/15/2018 -- Added links to recaps from the beginning.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Pages for organizing content

We are adding in a feature (Pages) as it will allow collection of material in ways other than temporal or categorical.

First use, Gardner Research. More to follow.

Remarks: Modified: 11/26/2019

12/17/2014 - Neat, can use a tab format.

12/23/2014 -- Added Gardner's Beacon, Recent finds and What's new pages.

11/26/2019 -- Added a page titled, The metrical. There have been lots of pages added. See Page Map.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 4

While researching for this issue, we were looking at the movement of Gardner families southward and westward. We know that Gardners went from Salem, MA to Nantucket, for instance. Too, there was migration from Nantucket to North Caroline. In short, we know that there are descendants of Thomas Gardner in every state of the US.

And, there are many Gardner families to consider. That subject is covered by our most-read post (Gardners and Gardners).  As Gardner Research works to identify all families and their relationships, the starting point is the list provided by Dr. Frank A. in his book.

---

On following Quaker migration, we ran across Gardner in New Jersey. Namely, Thomas Gardner arrived there from England in 1678. The below links provide some information about that community which was quite active.

Quakers of New Jersey: FoundingThomas Gardner house in Burlington1981 celebration.

Some settlers were new arrivals. Others had gone back to England from New England and returned further south. The Quaker tales such as these need to be told.

---

Introducing Janet Gardner's work: Quakers, the quiet revolutionaries. Janet has produced documentaries for several years. Her work is of interest to us.

---

During the effort to determine the namesake of Gardiner, OR who turned out to be a descendant of George of Rhode Island, we ran across another descendant of George. Jo Ann Butler has authored books using her ancestor, Herodias, as the focus. The viewpoint is appropriate, we feel. 

---

See Vol. IV, No. 4 of Gardner's Beacon for a recap of the accomplishments for the year, for a table of contents and an index for all issues, for a brief look at the Nantucket timeline, and more.

References: see Sources (Current Issue)  

Remarks: Modified: 03/02/2019

12/14/2014 - To follow the research about the namesake of Gardiner, OR and the owner of the barque that wrecked, the Bostonian, see the post on Henry D. Gardiner. A paper that summarizes the findings to date will be published by The Gardner Annals (and will be submitted to The Essex Genealogist). Recently, we learned that H.D., and his brother C.F, were also shipbuilders. They had quite an extensive commercial business, including the marketing of Gardiner's Rheumatic & Neuralgic Compound.

04/07/2015 -- Article submitted for review (see Timeline).

03/02/2019 -- Added the image as we are building an index via images at our portal to truth.


Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Contents, Index

The Gardner's Beacon summary page has been updated with a Contents table and an overall Index.

Vol. IV, No. 4 is in the works.

In the meantime, we are prototyping an application process for descendant membership. Having submitted more than two handfuls worth of applications (all successful) in a brief time to hereditary organizations makes us very sensitive to oversights. What might these be?

For one, duplication runs rampant when this is not necessary given the professionalism (even if it looks backward) of genealogy. But, there is a lot more to discuss. Who will take up the quest for a more humane treatment?

Eric Roth has volunteered to help. To watch progress, see our discussion pages: using the ahnentafel, documenting research, supporting materialverbosity vs sparsity, ...

Remarks: Modified: 12/05/2014

12/05/2014 - Added a table for the PDF (print) files. See Table of Contents for Vol. IV, No. 4.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Web site

Status: 11/23/2014 - 0600 PST, site is up and running

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Web site availability reports ought to be regularly supported. Today, I noticed that the thomasgardernsociety.org site was down about 10:00 PST.  As of now, 15:25 PST, it was still not accessible. The service provider has a general comment about no ETA.

webhostinghub notice
of outage
However, they did say that there would be periodic updates. Well, five hours is way too long for such a period, IMHO. But, we'll have to see how this goes. 

The last noticeable outage was in June of this year. Prior to that, there had been no down times that were significant. Meaning, one expects to have tie ups due to several factors that users need to know.

On the other hand, the whole notion of who owns what is an on-going debate (part of the "neutral net" arguments, to boot). We have dealt with this the sense of content versus configuration, for one.

Web presence, that persists and evolves, will be an integral part of any communication strategy in the future. How this looks may differ wildly from our current level of technology, but some of the issues will remain hotbeds of discussion.

---

A note went out yesterday about the TEG publication. The note points to our repository of papers. The email server is co-joint with the web traffic handler. Is that good? Well, all sorts of questions will be addressed.

Status: (see FB)
      Under the auspices of Gardner Research, sponsored by the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. 

      Switlik, John M. "John Sayward/Soward of Gloucester/Ipswich" The Essex Genealogist (TEG) Vol. 34, No. 4, November, 2014, page 210; In 1791, John Graves of Ipswich, MA married Elizabeth Sayward. Who was she? To answer that question, we need to look at Elizabeth’s parents. The article shows that her parents were John Sayward and Elizabeth Leatherland, of Ipswich, and, then, answers the question: who was John Sayward?

      Includes ahnentafel of an aunt of Dr. Frank A. Gardner, author. An earlier article covered his grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson. Next up, his grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner.
Remarks: Modified: 11/23/2014 

11/22/2014 -- Started a post on the technical blog, using Word Press. The general topic is content management, however content, as an abstraction, has many levels. The discussion started two years ago when we had to move off of Microsoft's site and has continued. ... There are many troubles that we see with computing; now, some of these are old and gnarly, while others are due to the recent technological advances. You see, value from change is not always a positive thing. We will go more into that.

11/22/2014 -- 18:37 PST, still down.

11/23/2014 -- 06:00 PST up and running; need to check email status

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Henry D. Gardiner

Earlier, a post (Places) mentioned that a query had arisen about the origins of Gardiner, OR. There had been a well-documented shipwreck (1850) without loss of lives and with the load being saved and the ship being salvaged for its lumber. Win-win, so to speak.


At the point where the goods were stored on land (nine miles from the wreck site), covered by the ship's tarp sails, a town arose. It was given its name since the person who had commissioned the ship's journey was named Mr. Gardiner. This loose naming was used in several stories, over the long years though there was mention of Boston as his place of business.

Much later, in 1994, an effort to document the town as a historic place resulted in a nice write up (see the "Places" post). That work identified the the owner, Henry D. Gardiner. Now, who was he? It was said that he lived in Boston.

Dr. Silvester Gardiner
namesake of
Silvester Henry Dearborn Gardiner
(source: Wikipedia
Too, we were told about the motivation for the shipment and a few other details, but, somehow, anything about Mr. Gardiner was never filled in.

---

We have found Henry D. Gardiner and provide a few bits about his life and times. He did live in Boston and can be found in both the 1855 Massachusetts and the 1860 US Census. His business was said to be lumber which relates to the purpose for the ship, Bostonian, being dispatched around the Cape to Oregon.

Note: A pre-fab house was aboard that was put up by George L. Snelling (who served as postmaster).

Related article: TGA, Vol. II, No. 1 (pg 6). ... See Remarks, this day, for a summary.

Remarks   11/07/2018

12/23/2014 -- Timeline of the barque Bostonian

03/17/2015 -- Snipped the details until the TEG Vol. 35, No. 2 (ESOG) article on HDG and his ships is published (May 2015). Put a comment at the Douglas County Historical Society.

Summary from the Research page:

A very recent example of research was following up on the namesake of Gardner, OR. This list summarizes activity and findings, to date.
  • The Gardiner who owned the Bostonian which shipwrecked in 1850 was H.D. Gardiner (this post contains a slew of links to material that is relevant to the subject from which we are developing a series of articles). 
  • H.D. married three times. Two of his wives are Thomas Gardner of Salem descendants. So, we will be expanding their tree. 
  • Bostonian in SF, 1850 
  • The Bostonian was on the west coast due to the need to supply the gold rush (49ers). We have traced the ship's activities in the time (1848 on) prior to the shipwreck. We have the passenger list for when it left Boston. Also, see ad and its time frame (image). Then, from San Francisco, the barque went to New Zealand. Most likely, that is where it picked up the cargo that was onboard at the time of the shipwreck.  See timeline for barque Bostonian
  • This research touches upon many aspects of those times (as in, the way things were (still are?) as an important topic for us) that we will go into. Several examples: for one, newspaper reporting that was very much flowery, judgmental, and opinionated. 
  • ...
04/07/2015 -- Article submitted for review (see Timeline).

05/20/2015 -- TEG, May 2015, Vol. 35, No. 2, Pg. 31. The Gardner Annals, Vol. II, No. 1, will publish the article in the near future.

04/08/2017 -- Put in pointer to TGS, Vol II, No 1. Changed image source for Silvester.

08/17/2018 -- The 2nd wife of H.D. was Caroline B. Turner (see note this day at this post) of Maine and not Caroline C. Turner of Nantucket.

11/07/2018 -- On the image from S.F., it said August 1849 which was only one month after the ship left Boston. Obvious typo. Too, we are using this post (The Gardiner that was) to collect and show material.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Historic Nantucket

As an example of contributions by Thomas descendants, we can use the Massachusetts Magazine that was started by Dr. Frank A. Remnants of this can be seen in The Essex Genealogist. Dr. Frank A.'s ancestral tree is a current focus of research.

Today, we wanted to provide additional information related to Nantucket where sons Richard and John lived. From what we have seen so far, Nantucket records are very thorough and ought to be the envy of less organized locations.
  • Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) - They had their 100th anniversary in 1994. It is nice that the NHA has many articles from their Historic Nantucket on-line for easy use. 
  • Eliza Starbuck Barney (Vol. 50, No. 3) - The NHA database presents Eliza's years of work in a modern manner. She is one of many examples that we have run across where someone spent their life and energy doing work for genealogy and history (too, wargs.com). 
  • Nantucket Lands and Land Owners (Vol. 2, 1906) - Henry Barnard Worth was an early contributor for NHA's Bulletins. Chapter II, The Nantucket Insurrection, is a must read. 
Both Eliza and Henry are Thomas and Margaret descendants.

Remarks: Modified: 03/02/2019

11/18/2014 - After seeing Eliza's database, I put out some notes based upon Dr. Frank's two books: person table. As one would expect, son Samuel was more in focus for the 1907 book. The 1993 book was George's family (not complete). Progress is being made on the expected ahnentafel format. Too, The Gardner Annals, Vol. II, No. 1, in process. 

04/12/2015 -- Nantucket pages by Coralynn.

12/30/2015 -- The settlers of Nantucket (Donahue family site).

H.D. Gardiner
owner, barque Bostonian
08/17/2018 -- While researching and writing an article for an issue of TGA, I used Barney's database. The focus of the research was to determine the owner of a ship that wrecked off of the coast of Oregon in 1850. The article appeared in TEG Vol 35, No 2 and TGA Vol II No 1 (title: Henry D. Gardiner (and Gardiner, OR)). In one section, I briefly referenced H.D.'s genealogy (see BGR, pg 239, #i7172) as his wives were Thomas Gardner descendants. The following image shows the page. In the footnotes, BGR is the Barney Genealogical Record as provided by the Nantucket Historical Association. H.D.'s second wife is noted to be Caroline C. Turner who was the daughter of Benjamin Turner and Rhoda Coggeshall. We have been notified that this Caroline (see BGR, pg 497, #i4936) did marry Alexander G. Coffin, but Caroline only had one marriage. Caroline and Alex were both buried in Durand, Wisc (findagrave for Caroline C.). As an aside, both Alexander and Caroline are descendants of Thomas Gardner (planter). On the other hand, the 2nd wife of H.D. Gardiner was Caroline B. Turner (findagrave for Caroline B.) who was the daughter of Briggs Turner and Comfort Jones of Whitefield, Maine. Notice of the two Carolines was provided by Dawna Lund of California.

03/02/2019 -- We're building an index via images at our portal to truth

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Documenting research

The overall discussion is what is necessary to show lineage (this post has a link to the prior post). There are two examples provided: verbose and very terse (is not the strong, silent type an American icon?).

We are close to proposing a reasonable approach, based upon the ahnentafel format and a hyper-linked set (ah, hypercard, where art thou?) of supporting material. Granted, there will be some missing information such as one would like to know (sensitive stuff about individuals), however there are many ways to go about this (G+, FB, etc.) such that duplication of effort is not necessary.

Too, we take the security/privacy issues to heart, strongly (as would Thomas, I would be). So, that larger picture will continue to be in focus.

Aside: popular media abounds with stories of hacking, et al. Where was the media interest over the time frame of the internet's expansion/evolution(?) from the wild west frontier to its current state of disarray?

---

Earlier, I used Dr. Frank's line: grandmother and aunt. I have just completed the ahnentafel for his grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner which will be published soon. In his 1907 book, Dr. Frank has a summary of ancestors, and early arrivers, for each of the spouses who married into the Gardner family. Except for one, Rebecca Knapp's (spouse of Simon Stacy Gardner) heritage is strangely missing.

We have filled that in and have found it to be interesting (for one, Nathaniel Eaton - who needs to have his story retold and appreciated).

Mind you, when I say ahnentafel, I mean a fully sourced lineage. Too, thankfully for Dr. Frank, the vast majority of the material is on-line (which is to be expected as we (and society) progress).

---

Dr. Frank did seminal work. It is very much appropriate that we use him as the focal point to describe, analyze, discuss, and, hopefully (as in not be like Congress) resolve these matters.

Remarks: Modified: 02/27/2015

11/16/2014 - For the two ahnentafel charts mentioned above, we intend to have a hyperlinked version on-line. Some of the source material is freely available; others of it are not (we will provide the URL anyway as a point in time marker). Persistence is the name of the game; fluidity seems to be the major vogue; ...; structure ought not be held as inimical (not categorically) by web heads (old guy talking here) or anyone else.

11/18/2014 -- Inspired by Nantucket work.

11/25/2014 -- Will be doing a special study of Nathaniel Eaton who was a graduate of Padua University and ancestor of Dr. Frank A. Gardner and many more. One thing we will present are Harvard Crimson articles (over the years, the tone differences are interesting). ... This story needs to be told from a neutral viewpoint that presents all of the sides. Take the "rod and child" view so prevalent in Christianity and so much in the news (NFL and more). Or, the right of naval captains to flog. Not to mention that both Winthrop and Endicott and more did not abstain from the practice (Quakers and more). We have a long list to consider. Then, take Rev. Nathaniel Ward's (uncle in the long chain of lineage) son who was flogged. For theft. Note, that Nathaniel Eaton is quoted in this article about his belief in his "absolute right" to punish, ... By the way, heard anyone talking of an elected official adopting an emperor's stance, of late? ... Dr. Frank did not elevate awareness of his ancestor due to his times (and, he was of Harvard). ... Yes, the Gardner story is central to all themes, of the U.S. story and beyond. ... Related view (America, Thanksgiving, ...).

02/27/2015 -- Discussion continues.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Places and names

Context: Gardner place names

This week, there was a query from Dr. Stuart Gardner Garrett of Oregon about the "1850 Gardner connection" with the ship, Bostonian. Did we know?

Well, no; however, there is an interest in places as they involve people. And, this story is very interesting. Too, Gardner Research has this as one of its foci.

From one account, a ship coming up from San Francisco found another that had run up on a sand bar in a river in Oregon. One story was told by a descendant of a passenger on the later ship, Kate Heath. The ship that was lost was the Bostonian.

Firstly, there were no lives lost; the crew had saved the cargo which was of a very useful variety. As well, the crew had begun to dismantle the ship which was used to build structures in the town that was to be. The cargo was stored on shore under the ship's canvas. At that place, the town was built using the ship's lumber and part of the supplies.

The town? Gardiner, OR. It was named after the New Englander, named Gardiner, who had funded the ship. The descendant's account said that Coffin was captain. Actually, the captain was George Snelling who was a nephew of Mr. Gardiner. Another thing of note is that Winchester, Payne & Co. was involved.

The History of the Pacific Northwest (Volume 1) had a nice coverage of the story. But, they did not have much about Gardiner. There were various suggestions in many later writings.

Finally, research done for the National Register of Historic Places pulled things together (see page 8) in 1994. They identified the owner as Henry Gardiner, also Coffin was captain of the Kate Heath. Later work, added an initial. So, we have Henry D. Gardiner.

But, who was, and whence came, he? To be studied further.

There will be regular "Places" posts, due, in part, to the stories associated with them. Descendants of New England's Gardners can be found everywhere in the U.S. New England towns drove all sorts of settlements (to wit, Ipswich Canada which covers the area near Gardner, MA but fairly remote in the 1600s). Lawrence, KS has a main drag of Massachusetts Avenue due to the influence of the founding folk. Not far away is Gardner, KS. Perhaps, a list of cities/towns named Gardner/Gardiner in every state ought to be done.

Back to Henry, though. Unfortunately, "Bostonian" was popular for names of all types of boats (oops). Too, did no one in Oregon ask particulars about Henry, at the time? This seems so much like the case of hidden information about Thomas.

Remarks: Modified: 02/09/2020

11/19/2014 - Henry D. Gardiner and his life/times.

12/23/2015 -- Places to research origin of: Gardner - CO, IL, KS, MA, ND, TN, WI, NJ; Gardiner - NY, MT, ME.

03/17/2015 -- Timeline of the barque Bostonian

04/07/2015 -- Article submitted for review (see Timeline).

08/07/2016 -- Gardner, KS; Gardiners Island; Gardner, CO

08/17/2018 -- The 2nd wife of H.D. was Caroline B. Turner (see note this day at this post) of Maine and not Caroline C. Turner of Nantucket.

03/02/2019 -- Update of information (lots - Gardiner that was, Historic Puzzles). Added the image as we're building an index via images at our portal to truth.

02/09/2020 -- A couple more places: Gardner, IL; Gardiner, MT.


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Status and focus

As we continue our emphasis on research and review which can involve a long period of quiet, we thought that a status update might be in order. There are a lot of things on the plate.

As we proceed, we will continue to use this blog for posting general reports and for commenting of things of interest to the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. The technical blog will be used for those things dealing with the details whether of content, configuration, or other.

---

The following addresses a few things that are of special interest.
    - This year, the Thomas Gardner Society will offer two types of membership: descendant and supporting. The former will offer a means for those who descend from Thomas and Margaret to provide supported documentation of their lineage. We are preparing the application process. 
    Those are interested in membership, or in making contribution to the Society, please contact Ann at algswtlk[@]aol[.]com. 
Vita Bevis image
Arrival, by year, ancestors
of NEHGS staff members
    - Some NEHGS offerings are of special interest, given that we are working on an application process. For one, a recent video talks about lineage societies and how one applies to them: How to Apply to Lineage Societies: Tips from NEHGS. This can be used as an introduction to the general ideas. 
    As an aside, we are going to ask for documentation from the applicant's great-grandparent out. That is, more recent information related to the applicant and spouse(s), the applicant's parents, and the applicant's grandparents ought to be considered private and privileged, and handled thusly. From what we have seen (to be discussed) so far (many applications), we wonder just how respectful are these storage methods. 
    There is much to discuss, but those pieces of recent information ought to be collected and verified once. By whom and how? Then, whoever might need the information would get redacted results. There are (ought to be) ongoing discussions on this matter.  
    So, the applicant can expect to offer a lineage from about three generations out to Thomas and Margaret. We will collect these into a fully-sourced, accessible, document (technical choices under review). 
    Prior to submitting an application, though, one needs to have details about one's lineage and its acceptability. We will address this further (technical post, soon). However, R.C. Anderson, recently, published a book on his methods (Elements of Genealogical Analysis) that were developed through the Great Migration effort. 
    The technical post (see Remarks, 10/31/2014) mentioned in the prior bullet will deal with the format for supporting documentation. We, personally, have submitted packets of 50+ pages in support of applications (with some complaining of the size - however, one genealogist did say that the application that we have submitted was one of the best that he has seen in terms of supporting material presenting a cogent story). 
    At the same time, an organization that allows use of another society's information can result in a much smaller packet. For one example that we can show, a D.A.R. Record Copy can replace 17 pages. In the 50+ case, that would leave 33+. For some reason, many genealogists don't seem to trust others (this is something to analyze, to boot). 
    On the other hand, we can also show an application with a mere 7 pages with the D.A.R. Record Copy. That later case may be too small, but not if it references easily accessible information. The support material, essentially, consisted of links to on-line material with a small snap-shot from each source. 
    Silly? No. Let's use Rich Hall's work (see below). He has the "famouskin" site (take off on some works by G.B. Roberts of NEHGS) which shows how celebrity and its attention motivate filling in genealogical pieces. So, finding famous cousins may offer help to researchers. we have found it to be so. 
    That is, have you not heard that the rich and famous get the genealogical attention? Or, the corollary? Many with pedigrees have been ignored due to several reasons, such as lack of resources, nobody interested, etc. 
    In the top box of the Edith graph, mouse-over either Emanuel Downing or Lucy Winthrop. Notice the drop-down menu. Also, notice that you can transition over to a lot of the sources and read the material. That will be a focus of the presentation that we expect to pursue. 
    Now, having said that about sources (prior bullet), we will use the ahnentafel of Lucy Foster Wilson Gardner who was the grandmother of Dr. Frank A. as the means to demonstrate the ideas. There are many ways to approach the task, but we will convert the PDF material to a linked HTML file. Notice that the ahnentafel is fully sourced with footnotes. Just about all of those source references are to on-line material. 
    ---
In the application process, we expect to use about a third of the pages (see above application reference, 50+ pages). That requirement comes from requiring a snapshot, in time, of the source material, principally to overcome the latent fallibility of the web, non-persistence - there until we see semantic approaches have more wide-spread use in genealogy and family histories.


Remarks: Modified: 08/04/2020

10/28/2014 - The 400th anniversaries are a more remote focus. 

10/31/2014 - See start of technical discussion: Supporting material.

03/02/2019 -- We're build an index via images at our portal to truth.

08/04/2020 -- Updated the link for the image of arrivals of ancestors for the staff.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Savage et al

This is the first of many posts. It is basically meant to show what James Savage (wiki intro) wrote so many years ago (source for the following image:
          www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/newengland/savage/bk2/gardner-garven.htm).

Savage (1784 - 1873) pre-dated Dr. Frank's (1861 - bfr 1940) career.

Anderson (Great Migration) does use Savage's work; Dr. Frank's work is missing from the series (at least, from the part dealing with Thomas Gardner).

Notice, in the image, that Savage mentions Margaret Fryer. Now, this is not the first time that I looked at Savage's work. For the most part, it has been helpful. I marvel at his stamina (put yourself in his shoes, in his times, and in the limited milieu - technologically speaking - within which he worked --- by the way, same goes for Dr. Frank's later work) and productivity.


Remarks: Modified: 03/02/2019 

10/12/2014 - Subsequent discussions will consider the Tabula Raza issue, for one thing. Also, our focus on collecting what was known (or thought to be known, say, for example, whence) and when it was known (and how supported) and by whom (over the whole of the almost 400 years - see Annals, for starters) and all of that (including what the Great Migration project documented) is apropos to the state of knowledge. Savage did have his head in the 18th century as did Rev. Felt.

03/02/2019 -- We're building an index via images at our portal to truth. We have more information about Margaret Friar and her folks.

Friday, October 3, 2014

WikiTree and the like

During the past five years, I have seen lots of sites. Some of these have been around awhile and show their age. Others are too new to know how they will persist (as in, be more than a flash in the pan).

Now, Wikipedia has been evolving quite well: Thomas Gardner (planter) - the critical remarks will be there until we redo the page (imminent). Be aware that there are subsidiary pages to maintain, such as Old Planters, Great House (Cape Ann), and more. 

So, running across WikiTree (Thomas Gardner) today caught my interest. Notice that there have been comments introduced on the pages of Thomas and Samuel. 

Rather than start our own WikiTree (see discussion), ought we lean into what has already been done? 

Remarks: Modified: 11/21/2019

10/03/2014 - I have seen this before, but it looked incomplete given what has been published. For instance, there was nothing for Samuel. Dr. Frank A. (1st cousin, twice removed) is a descendant and filled in the information in his 1907 book. That brings up a question: why did the Great Migration Project ignore Dr. Frank A.'s work?

10/06/2014 -- Early Families of New England study of NEHGS. We can do something similar for Thomas descendants. On a wildcard search, there were 7,289 records (some are mentions, only, in the profiles of others). Still, the project is moving forward. So, that means that I'll spend some time reviewing what they have for the trees that I know (Lucy, Susan, ...). Plus, some of the "planters" such as Humphrey Woodbury - he has five pages - and others related to Cape Ann. ... Introduction from American Ancestor, Spring 2013.

08/26/2015 -- Changed pointer to site for the Early New England Families Study Project.

05/31/2018 -- Changed the NEHGS FS link. Added regular look for Comments to the blog maintenance process. And, got re-inspired to visit WikiTree (comment to Sherborne, Dorset).

11/21/2019 -- We have used Dr. Frank as the focal for Gardner Research. There have been lots of updates on Dr. Frank1907 chartWikiTreeFrank signed his father's copy of the 1907 book, and Dr. Frank's remains.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Gardner Annals, Vol I No 2

This post introduces the second issue of The Gardner Annals (Volume I, Number 2). This issue provides a look at part of an extended family; as well, ahnentafel charts (fully sourced for births and deaths) for two individuals cover six generations. In one case, the ahnentafel is fully defined. Several Cape Ann families are represented.


The Gardner Annals supports the interests of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc.'s purpose: to honor the accomplishments of the Cape Ann party and to promote, and to sponsor, scholarly research of a cultural, biographical, historical, and genealogical nature, with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the origins and the lives of New England immigrants.

Submissions of articles for consideration are encouraged: algswtlk[at]aol[dot]com.

Remarks: Modified: 11/21/2014 

11/21/2014 - Switlik, John M. "John Sayward/Soward of Gloucester/Ipswich" The Essex Genealogist (TEG) Vol. 34, No. 4, November, 2014, page 210; In 1791, John Graves of Ipswich, MA married Elizabeth Sayward. Who was she? To answer that question, we need to look at Elizabeth’s parents. The article shows that her parents were John Sayward and Elizabeth Leatherland, of Ipswich, and, then, answers the question: who was John Sayward?

Includes ahnentafel of an aunt of Dr. Frank A. Gardner, author. An earlier article covered his grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson. Next up, his grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Marriage of Thomas and Margaret

Dr. Frank A. wrote the following over 100 years ago: Various writers, including Rev. Joseph B. Felt, have stated that her maiden name was Fryer (or Friar), but the writer has thus far failed to find the authority for this statement.

Today, we can announce that the "authority" may have been discovered. That is, Rev. Felt may have been correct; even though, we do not know how (from whom?, etc.) he got the information (early 1800s) for his assertion.

Where was this authority found? In the records of the Sherborne parish. Attached is an image from the record of April 1617 that shows Thomas Gardiner and Margaret Frier marrying on the 28th. Not only do the records show this, they have the following: the birth records of Thomas, Richard, George, and John; Wills of interest; and more, We have Margaret's parents: Walter Friar and Grace Mullins. And, there is a record that may show Thomas' parents: Thomas Gardner and Christine Saule.


All this information was discovered within the last week by a researcher, John Cook of Minneapolis, who only recently (comparatively) completed his link to Thomas Gardner through son Richard. He had written with queries about what we knew about the origins of Thomas. We had a discussion of the "whence" issues (also, what we know).

Too, we mentioned John Gardner's push to get Gov. Lovelace to allow the use of the name of Sherborne on Nantucket. Part of this tale came to us by the Folger family. There was opposition on Nantucket to the re-naming, of course.

Now, speaking of Sherborne, you can find the marriage of Thomas and Margaret on this list of marriages in the parish from 1600 to 1619.

   http://www.opcdorset.org/SherborneFiles/SherborneMars1600-1619.htm

Sherborne will be a focus of concentrated work, for awhile. Some of the records have been transcribed. OPC Dorset has a nice starting page.

   http://www.opcdorset.org/SherborneFiles/Sherborne.htm

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To recap the issues, a little, we can start with the Two Wives. Earlier viewpoints accepted that there had been two wives following Felt and others. Recent work (NEHGS) called that notion into question. As in, the modern claim was that Margaret was not the mother of the children. Granted, the NEHGS work mainly used already existing sources.

But records are expected to settle these types of arguments. With the Internet and records being digitized and indexed, we can expect that a lot more material will be coming around that can be scrutinized to firm up what we know (or to raise more issues).

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In this case of this marriage and the related families, expect that more information will be provided as we go along with respect to provenance of the sources, the methods used for search, the actual before and after view related to the transcription, and more.

Too, one task will be to follow what was known or thought through the years which provides us somewhat of a trace.

Finally, a closer tie needs to be made between the Thomas and Margaret of the marriage with the kids who were born shortly thereafter.

Remarks: Modified: 09/25/2018

09/25/2014 - Sherborne? Well, for one, capital of Wessex so it was the main stomping ground of Alfred the Great. ... Also, we need to get more material about John's knowledge (learned from his parents). I do remember seeing a book in Salem (at the Essex Institute) that mentioned Sherborne. It had "Captain John" in the title.

09/26/2014 Added Thomas, Jr. to the list of births. The firstborn, of course. ... About Felt, he had access to Rev. Hubbard's work and notes. Was it there that he saw this? Or, being only 150 years removed (closer than we are), perhaps, some scuttlebutt was around and about. ... The key item is that the information comes via son John.

10/03/2014 -- Comment posted to WikiTree (Thomas Gardner).

10/13/2014 -- Tabula raza, and more, will be of concern.

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints.

08/01/2018 -- The past few days, I have been on WikiTree. We are looking at settling issues for the profile of Thomas (and his spouses). These profiles are being set up and maintained by the Puritan Great Migration. Expect an update blog post within the next day or so. Notice the recent comments (the 'unknown' is because I juggle many email accounts and was in the wrong one - it's not that I'm old).

08/28/2018 -- After some discussion, we settled that we had Margaret's folks, her baptism record, the marriage announcement, and baptism of their kids, prior to them leaving Sherborne. So, we have the post "Margaret, anew" which updates "How many wives?" Now, the question moves to whether or not we have the right couple (Children with what wife?, Further discussion).

09/15/2018 -- Gardner Research published four articles in The Essex Genealogist. These were republished in The Gardner Annals which just released Vol. IV. Last fall, we printed TGA Vols I and II. Soon, we will print Vols III and IV. Included with the TGA were Gardner's Beacon issues. Of late, we have experimented with one approach to a database, namely WikiTree using Dr. Frank's information. As mentioned in that post, we have established that Thomas had two wives as we found information about the marriage of Thomas and Margaret in Sherborne, Dorset, UK.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Diversion, Gloucester - Charles Olson

First, how could Gloucester be a diversion? In fact, it is where the Cape Ann crew, led by Thomas Gardner (1624), spent their "almost" idyllic time. And, it is from there that the crew, now led by Roger Conant (1626), went to Naumkeag, soon to be Salem. So, the area ought to be of interest to the TGSociety.

Further, the area was visited by people from Winthrop's boat (1630) when they were partying in celebration of making a successful voyage. Notwithstanding that, the place (Essex County's southern shore) was seen as disagreeable, so the power core moved west. Those who partied at Cape Ann, picked, and enjoyed, the fresh strawberries (extolled by Anne Dudley Bradstreet) of June. And, there are many more stories to tell.

Speaking of which, in the context of earlier research, I ran across Charles Olson (Worcesterite by birth, but Gloucesterite by choice) a couple of times. Then, I ran across him, again, today on another topic. This time, I stopped to look more closely.

And, the look motivated several things, a couple that we follow up on here. The following links are a good introduction. The first link is to a guide; the last two are a description of a meeting and a book review. The other three are to Charles' own writings (small sampling).
Having run across this, the notion strikes me that we need to encourage, support several types of works that would relate to Thomas and the Cape Ann crew. And, this approach would allow for a better presentation of insights in a persistent manner (not talking technology). 

Now, that is a fairly open bit, yet, we'll contrast it further (below). However, there is enough given to motivate (I might dabble myself).  

[Note: 07/15/2015 -- see Remarks] As opposed to some more logistic/numeric approaches (consider, if you would, the emphasis on DNA (and similar studies) to fill in our being as it has been framed and given to us by the collective of our ancestral mix), we need to not lose our soul, so to speak (no disrespect to genealogy's attempts to make itself more empirical). Too, though, the above suggestion would help in creating emergent views from the minimal basis (see earlier reference to Tabla Raza). We also used paleoichnology as an example; principally, the ability to use knowledge, plus limited data, to develop a reasonably founded view of a complex system, such as were the dinosaurs.

This is sketchy, from certain aspects. It is not from the tone of someone such as Charles.

Aside: Essex County, of course, is the principal focus, where we let Salem (rightly or wrongly) shine (Gardner's Beacon has many meanings). We mentioned Ipswich, earlier. As it were, Gloucester was as important in that research (adjointness). So, we are giving it more attention. But, there will be more to come: Newbury and the other northern "buries" (several); Lynn, of course; Andover, well, we did mention that; and more.

Remarks: Modified: 04/23/2021

09/21/2014 - Idyllic? No church, no state, benign leader, adults surviving, effectiveness on display. First occurrence within the English culture? Albeit, short of duration. As Roger brought John L. and more. When Roger came, the boisterous group was not cowered by the elements nor by the American Indians. ...

07/15/2015 -- Paleoichnology deals with "trace fossils" which have been found. Some findings have more to tell us than others might. However, the sparsity of the fossil has not impeded conjectures that, then, allow modern models to come about. And, some of these are fairly elaborate. ... Do we not, as a public consumer, take a lot of these at face value? Oh, how would we be critical if not an expert? ... Now, similar techniques can get various labels that are more pejorative than not. Say, "wishful" thinking of families about their ancestors. Reaction to that has caused over-emphasis, we will show, on supposed "empirical" methods (even though, the deepest look ought to make one aware of quasi-empirical concerns). ... So, in our new work (Sherborne, Dorset), we will be using abductive means which were legitimatized by a Thomas descendant, namely Charles Sanders Peirce. ... Stayed tuned.

08/29/2016 -- More on Cape Ann, 1623.

06/06/2018 -- Need to prepare for 2023/4. Some, of literary inclinations, have looked back 200 years: American Jeremiad. But, we need to go back to the Cape Ann times and before.

01/05/2019 -- About the same time as I wrote this, a site via WordPress appeared: Enduring Gloucester. How did I miss this? I guess, the focus on the western expansion that still has tales needing telling. There are posts on Charles Olson.

01/13/2019 -- Left a comment about this post at the Gloucester post.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 3

Recently, we introduced The Gardner Annals & Research. The use of Annals has several meanings, one of which was demonstrated in Vol. I, No. 1 and has been a regular feature of Gardner's Beacon issues since late 2012. Another use relates to reports of activities and, as we will allow, presentation of research results.

Our purpose is to have material available on-line to support work related to the extended family of Thomas and Margaret Gardner. At the same time, some of the research work sponsored by the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. will appear in The Essex Genealogist (esog.org).

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In regard to research, we will publish a list of open issues regarding the first three generations (let's say, in order to set an initial limit) that require attention. Now, what might be an issue? Well, it can be of a range of things that we hope becomes more clear as we gather material.

Some of the issues have already been addressed in posts in this blog (say, How many wives?). Of late, there have been many queries about origins, or the "whence" issue. Today, a researcher pointed to a source for the baptism records of son, Thomas and George, implying, of course, that Thomas, Sr.'s location would be known.

Too, though, one emphasis has been on collecting all of the Gardner-related works (and their conclusions) that have accumulated over the years. Of these, some have stood the test of time. Why this is so needs to be explained. Others may have some element of truth but are problematic.

As an aside, the method would cover all. If something is swampy, then it'll be noted as such.

Pet peeve: People running down research paths, learning lessons, taking what they want, but, then, leaving no records as they venture elsewhere. Some things seem to be quicksand; markers ought to be left behind in these areas. Now, how this type of thing might be done is not clear. Is it necessary? That can be shown, given enough time.

By the way, hence we have the leaning toward on-line access and marking.

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See Vol. IV, No. 3 of Gardner's Beacon for a consideration of interests and goals of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. related to research and publication.

References: see Sources (Current Issue)  

Remarks: Modified: 09/19/2014

09/19/2014 - Ann Downing and Sarah Kimball are mentioned as being subjects of further research. One of Sarah (Kimball) Leatherland's grandmothers was Sarah (Whipple) Goodhue (yeah, Stories from Ipswich). Upcoming article in The Gardner Annals and TEG 34 (November).

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Next Gardner's Beacon issue

The next issue of Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 3, is in the works. Per usual, there will be an update to the historic record in the "annals" format. Also, some details regarding the Corporation are provided.

A couple persons of interest who are mentioned in the issue are Ann Downing who married Joseph Gardner. They are an example of those who did not leave offspring and whom we ought to make a special effort to remember. Ann is a fascinating subject and will be featured again.

Perley provided maps of Salem with his book. On one map, he used Ann Bradstreet to mark the owner of a lot. Ann had married Simon Bradstreet after Joseph was killed in the Pequot War. It was her property prior to the marriage and belonged to her mother, Lucy, earlier.

Perley took the time to trace transactions for the property, including partitionings done during Joseph's time and later. When Ann died, part of the estate went to Joseph's heirs who were sons of his brother, Thomas.

Another interesting person is Sarah (Kimball) Leatherland who raised her kids after her husband, John, died when the kids were young. Sarah had to later go to court to get custody for son, John, who then joined, at a young age, the Ipswich military during the time of the French & Indian war which event some claim was practice for the later conflict with England.            

Remarks: Modified: 09/15/2014

09/15/2014 -  More references use Lucy than not.


Friday, August 29, 2014

Gardner research

Recently, research performed under the auspices of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. culminated in papers that were published in The Essex Genealogist (2014, Volume 34). 
  • "The Graves Family of Ipswich" TEG, Vol. 34, #2, Pg. 92 (Update of TEG (2000) Vol. 20, #4, Pg. 226)  
  • "The Trials of the Wilson Family" TEG, Vol. 34, #3, Pg. 155
A subsequent paper ("John Sayward/Soward of Gloucester/Ipswich") will be printed in the next issue of The Gardner Annals. 

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See Annals/Research for an ahnentafel for Lucy Foster Wilson Gardner that accompanied the Wilson family paper. Lucy was the grandmother of Dr. Frank. A. Gardner, the original Gardner researcher.   

The ahnentafel is full through six generations and is fully sourced for births and deaths. At this time, the material is in a PDF file. The intent is to have a Gardner database that will be sourced (when possible), persistent and maintained.  

In the meantime, this format can be easily parsed and could be used to begin to collect information about Gardner roles in history. Dr. Frank A. is a descendant of son Samuel. It would be a good milestone to have one of these for each of the children of Thomas and Margaret.   


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We are inviting contributions of data related to Thomas Gardner of Salem and his descendants (algswtlk [at] aol [dot] com). 

Remarks: Modified: 09/15/2018

09/15/2018 -- Gardner Research published four articles in The Essex Genealogist. These were republished in The Gardner Annals which just released Vol. IV. Last fall, we printed TGA Vols I and II. Soon, we will print Vols III and IV. Included with the TGA were Gardner's Beacon issues. Of late, we have experimented with one approach to a database, namely WikiTree using Dr. Frank's information. As mentioned in that post, we have established that Thomas had two wives as we found information about the marriage of Thomas and Margaret in Sherborne, Dorset, UK.

09/17/2014 -- Modified the email.

09/17/2014 - The next issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol. IV, No. 3) will have an Annals/Research focus. The use of Annals before Research denotes several things, one of which is that the Annals is expected to publish more than results from Gardner's Research. ... The next issue of Gardner's Annals will reprint an article from TEG Vol. 34. Too, it will print an article that is expected to be in the November, 2014 issue of TEG.

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

10/03/2014 -- WikiTree and the like.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Content, again

A lot of focus has been on organizational issues, configuration, and such. So, one has to ask a question, motivated by McLuhan: is configuration the content? Some might argue so; it will be interesting to look at this further.

We're about ready to get back to the matters at hand. Right now, let's start a list of topics to discuss. Links will be put in later.
    On method, and being motivated by Anderson's work, we can say this: genealogy cannot be any more empirical than are the social sciences. As many with brick walls might say, it's as dismal as is economics. Yet, given the prominent worldview with which NEHGS deals, honoring the ancestors ought to be of prime-most importance. Of course, more on this.   
    Even if the biological is brought into the equation, there are still many things to cover that are outside of the mainstream. Now, the issue ought to be how to make these less problematic. Is that hard to do? Depends upon many things; it is worth the effort. In fact, it is just that sort of discourse where real insights into our past and those in it will (ought to) come into play. 
    On Puritan Roots, deep and otherwise (again, Anderson), we will have to weigh in. Why? Not being secular, so much, but Thomas and his crew were probably the FIRST (and, we can research this) occurrence of a peaceable, effective mix (this we can argue and will) of adult humans who were without state and church (to be defined and described as necessary). For this accomplishment, which would not be seen as such by Puritans, secularists, and other limited viewpoints, Thomas and the Cape Ann group ought to have our eternal gratitude (and for their role as one source of the being of the descendants). 
    The Cape Ann folks were without CHURCH and STATE despite machinations by their southern neighbors. Too, we can look at how Conant arriving with his minister in tow changed the environment. Yes, Roger the peace maker, it is said. For one thing, that shows that the Cape Ann crowd was healthy and boisterous. 
    Despite the ruminations of Rev. John White (a lot more to add here), Thomas and his crew were successful. Rev. John mixed in those who were mid-way twixt the Cape Cod bunch and those of Cape Ann (Merry Mount, if you must ask) plus a few others. That he could not see the truth very much needs another look or two. 
    John Endicott's arrival set the stage for the dire winters. Too many people at once swamping the resources is one thing that we will see. But, that influx could not be contained for almost a decade; no wonder the American Indians (those who were here) were frictional in an increasing manner.
    ...  
The upcoming Gardner's Beacon will deal with some of this. Too, The Gardner Annals will provide some genealogical looks which are intended to motivate Thomas Gardner descendants, and others, to submit material. 

More later. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/23/2023

08/26/2014 - The following is being added for future reference. Limits of Genealogical Research (Genealogy's Star blog asking this question: Are there limits to genealogical research?): Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Whence, again

This post is a comment about a recurring subject about which there is not as much known as one might hope, after so many years. However, there is interest in getting the necessary work accomplished to fill in (some of) the blanks.

Recently, there have been queries about Thomas and his pedigree. Each of these generated a little discussion. In one case, the discovery of the remains of Richard III (see Remarks 04/03/2015) helped bring one of these (a Tudor connection) to the light of rational explanation and some type of closure. There are several others.

We intend to gather all of the views, considered so far, and their related material. Why? Just as this Wiki page demonstrates, it can help to have the discussions very visible for current and future use (if you can ignore the derisive tone of many comment'ors, especially of experts who, many times, seem to lose their patience).

So, that type of thing will be a continuing bit of work. However, let's look at one example since it has interest from several viewpoints. For one, it is the work of another family, so we need to see what is what here. Too, it brings to fore the work that is needed. So, this is what we discuss below.

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Earlier, we mentioned that several proposals have been made about Thomas' sister, Rachel (2nd bullet). The image shows her and her pedigree (which, of course, if there were a relationship would implicate Thomas). I have marked the image which shows a gap. The problem generally is that many will close gaps without proper support for their argument (age-old problem).

Now, having said that, just like we let experts make grand claims about life thousands of years ago, based upon current observations (as in fossils, etc.) and what is known (as in, very large extrapolation, folks), so, too, can (ought) families be allowed to explore their ancestral space (all sorts of metaphysical notions can come into play) in a rational fashion and do it safely. It is a meme issue (and, one goal is to explore this issue more deeply).

Safely? Yes.

Again, having said that, some fortunate (?) ones have (or can show) lines that do have documentation. This is nice as we can, at least, look, homologically, and find parallels. That means a couple of things. For anyone, relating to past events for your ancestors by looking at someone's experience (vicariously) is a human right.

Now, for the genealogists, there is only this comment. Life is not documentation (notwithstanding the idiots of the cloud attempting to record/store everything - oh, they even record themselves recording?). In fact, we can look at Thomas, given the blank slate, from a more full phenomenological sense than those who left trappings from either their writings or their doings. Trappings? Yes. Doings? Consider John Endicott thinking of Mary Dyer as he went before St. Peter. Writings? A whole other realm to ponder.

Additionally, though, genealogical experts, what was does not need documentation in order to make it right.

Now, that statement ought not be misconstrued as condoning fictional presentations (that are labeled as fact, as fiction is a proper human endeavor - we see historical fiction everywhere being written). What it means is that the posturing, and such, of the experts has very little to do with the being-ness (then and now) of the ancestors. Have a little humility, gals and guys. Even if you bring in science, be a little philosophical about it.

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So, back to the image; there are several open generations that need attention. I recently read a 1921 paper (NEHGR, v79, p 358 - pointer to americanancestors.org) by G. Andrews Moriarty titled The Royal Descent of a New England Settler. He is talking about William Sargent of Malden. But, there are many other examples that could be used. The paper gives one a very good idea of the depth of attention that is required.

Too, if this paper were rewritten today, it would be different. William Sargent is not on a lot of lists (of which there are many).

Now, that, then, brings up the end of this. There have been many books and authors dealing with this subject. Frankly, I like to query those that are on-line. I am only going to use one book, for now.

Thankfully, Richardson's books are available. At least, in the preview mode, on Google, one can see a summary of results, even if the page cannot be seen. So, here is one of Richardson's books (there is a search box - Neville, a whole lot to look at). Now, let's use Wikipedia. This page points to the Ralph Neville born in 1456 (you can trace back his pedigree, if you like, just follow both parents at each node - yeah, Wikipedia, from the world's oldest wiki'an). He did have a son, Ralph. But, the information on Wiki stops there (see image, and the upper arrow - there are five generations to prove). Has some researcher filled in the information? Notice the references, on which list you will find Richardson.

Aside: There are people who go missing from family trees. I have several examples to show for this. But, getting them back into the tree requires making a strong case (lots to discuss there). On the other hand, lots of unfounded insertions have been claimed, as in children not known to have been of a couple's issue. Then, some of these are out of whack as biological facts are not considered; miraculous births are not expected to be accepted in genealogy (but, see the above comments on rational explanations).

In short, there is work to do. What is not well-founded are any notions that the questions raised so far have been properly resolved. The important thing, though, is not all questions have been asked.

The adage: When does a mathematician give up on trying to prove a theorem? Unless it is something pretty trivial, never, as long as there is reasonable interest, of course.

Remarks: Modified: 09/25/2018

08/12/2014 - To complete this post, let's take the Neville line three generations further, Ralph, grandson of the Ralph above, had a daughter, Margaret (d. 1559), who married Henry Manners (1525-1563) as his first wife. They had issue. Source: Cokayne, George Edward (1949). The Complete Peerage, edited by Geoffrey H. White XI. London: St. Catherine Press.

Henry Manners is not mentioned in Richardson's book which implies that no one over here has claimed he and his wife, yet. One complaint that I have seen is that a lot of effort has gone into proving lines that relate to people of interest (not my description), such as the rich and famous. But, even if that were not true, there would be many lines still unexplored after all of this time. In just five years, over here, I have found plenty of ignored people and, in fact, just completed a paper on one of these.

There is an adage. Would you rather be of the set of those who are still looking or of those who made early claims that were later shown to be problematic (no need, really, to provide examples)?

So, the work is, by no means, over.

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

04/03/2015 -- Recently, the remains of Richard III were laid to rest. Ever since they were found, there has been a lot of research done (some a renewal, some new). At the burial were some descendants of his sister (see Vita Brevis). Of course, that brought up the hypothesis of William Gardner being the one who did the fatal stroke. That was addressed in the Historical Genealogy post (and other posts). There have been many hypotheses offered, such as the one covered in post. We will take those (all of them) and bring in the facts and known state of research.

About William, see this discussion (on the Richard III Talk page) and this note on the deletion of the William Gardner page on Wiki.

The context to find, enumerate, analyze, report, and keep the information sound is Gardner Research (asking questions). The framework for publishing results that are well-founded will be The Gardner Annals and a FAQ.

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints.

07/12/2015 -- We mention abductive approaches (my career was spent in advanced computing - software and modelling, essentially). Please refer, at least, to C.S. Peirce's (we mentioned him in an earlier post - Benjamin Peirce) work in the area. [Love it: From Ugly Duckling to Swan]

01/23/2016 -- More information about Rachel and Thomas.

08/06/2016 -- More on All things Gardners.

09/25/2018 -- Recently the Profile for Thomas Gardner on WikiTree changed to only have the two wives. This was due to research and discussion to which Gardner Research contributed. Earlier, there was a post that summarized the issue and accomplishment: Margaret, anew. Thanks are extended to all who made this update possible. The Profile is managed by the Puritan Great Migration Project sponsored by the NEHGS, publisher of the Great Migration books. So, Sherborne, as John said (see this page for images of documents).