Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Auras, genealogical and otherwise

Please, please get off of my cloud. Or something like that was ranted by the strutting graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In genealogy, it seems that things can be strict if you are dealing with someone else's lineage. For one's own, there is (can be) an aura.

And, that is as it ought to be (how one responds to that will depend upon the belief and views). People existed; those better documented are not of any better worth (do not read "worth" in the usual money-valued sense).

And, irrespective of the nature and characteristics of that aura, there is a lot more to it than has been considered. Trying to excel in their operational imperatives (they think) via the western mindset, genealogists seem to have descended to numbers (and DNA, think of it, would this analysis even be possible without computational assistance?).

Before casting aspersions my way, just consider, if you would, Dawkins' "meme." It's delicious that he used the term, as one can easily step to me..me (where me[ta]..me and a whole lot more ensues).

However, let's pause a minute and note that memes are all the rage in the Internet's milieu (just like many of the notions related to some advanced computational approaches have a flavor close to Lamarck's ideas - ah, so wonderful). We could talk this issue thus (as in, memes) and keep from that which might be uncomfortable to many. What use is there for this concept in genealogy? Anyone want to propose memes to discuss?

I propose "aura" but am willing to change the term as it gets better understood.

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However, that genealogy is Exodus 20:12 in action, without transitive limits, seems to not get much recognition or respect - to wit, all of these people/companies (oh yes, ancestry.com) running after big bucks.

In short, genealogy is only one of several modern disciplines that could use a few, good gentleman/lady scholars/scientists (and, they are extant). It is where the domains of these disciplines of interest intersect that we need to have some attention placed. ... To be discussed, further.

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There was an earlier comment in regard to this subject: Endless genealogies.

Remarks:  Modified: 06/28/2015

06/25/2015 -- Throwback Thursday, a social media meme. Leary's influence (also, his iconoclastic self's rewards - albeit, late - let's hear it for Berkeley as that which allowed his salvage). Referenced this from that (on auras).

06/25/2015 -- Was this tongue in cheek? No, only suggestive.

06/28/2015 -- Corrected Larmarck's name. On auras, all sorts of operational aspects need to be brought to the fore so that we can have a proper discussion leading to experiments, etc. Put link to London School of Economics.





Rachel (Gardner) Noble

Thomas' sister? We have had a few posts that mentioned Rachel, starting with Gardners and Gardners (via later modifications). In that first post, there is this: "1630 - Rachel (Gardner) Noble, (new, 01/11/2013)"

But, the earliest reference, in that same post, is this Remark: "05/05/2011 -- Did Thomas of Salem have a sister, Rachel?"

The last post dealt with origins which is a source of several research interests.

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In a sense, we have been remiss in not starting this work earlier. Note, though, that Gardner Research is an on-going effort.

We can split this look at Rachel into two major pieces. One part would be to look at her son and his descendants. That review would also look at Rachel's parents and at her in-laws.

Then, her relationship with Thomas would be the other part.

Now, for each of these, we will collect material sufficiently to allow proper analysis. That material will be, for the most part, on-line work, in the beginning. At some point, more in-depth studies will occur, as needed. The goal is to have a coherent view that TGS, Inc. can support going forward.

--- Mentions ---

Note: this collection is being done in the spirit of brainstorming - therefore, critical responses are suspended until we have gathered enough to start our analysis. Too, no work to date is considered exhaustive and indicative that this study does not have merit. 
    - Great Migration. Thomas Noble (purported son of Rachel Gardner and Thomas Noble) is mentioned twice. His son, John, married Mary Goodman. His daughter, Hannah, married John Goodman. Thomas had other children. The Goodmans were children of Richard Goodman (GBM: I to NE 1620-1633, Vols. I-III, p. 786).
    - Boltwood, L.M. (1878) Family of Thomas Noble ... (says parents unknown)
    - Turner, Betty () The Noble Legacy: ...Gilbert Clifford Noble ... (quotes Boltwood)
    - Web page (need to find -- a long-time researcher died; her daughter talked about her mother's work - this was the first time (a few years ago - but, remember, this work started in 2009) that I saw Rachel mentioned as sister - ostensibly, there was supporting evidence - at the time, I was a newbie - sorry about that, now where is that page?)
    - See Chart #5.
    - 48 Charts in rootsweb include Rachel Gardner, married to Thomas with parents of Thomas and Elizabeth. For Rachel Gardner born 1608 +/- 5 years, there are 263 Charts.
    - FamilyTreeCircles - with my comments.
    - Blog: A long time ago! (see Whence, again)
    - Noble discussions: About Rachel (1998)
    - *** Oh, (three years ago) someone paid money to find out that the link is tenuous (justanswer.com)
    - Kershaw family (see St. Patrick's Day 2014) - mentions Tudor, but that is via the Archbishop (and has been shown to be not true - Stephen Gardiner).
    - ...
    - ...
    - ...
    - ...
Remarks:  Modified: 02/24/2021

06/23/2015 -- In my usual mode, I'm casting a wide net to see what pops up. After seeing the lay of the land (in the virtually non-extant cyber realm), a look at real, physical (as in, they occupy space and can be seen in the sense of time) entities ensues. Notice the bullet marked "***" as, perhaps, indicative of the outcome. But, it's too early. Plenty of reasonable people are touting this. Why?

01/23/2016 -- More on Rachel and Thomas.

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

02/24/2021 -- Updated the look. See Rachel, Again

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Vicissitude and life's puzzles

In April, I listened to Douglas Richardson talk about his work. As well, I had a brief chat with him. He is a descendant of Damaris, Thomas' last wife.

One point that he wanted to make dealt with the "vicissitudes" of life. Earlier, I mentioned, while talking about numbers (meaning how many of your ancestors that you know), that Prince William has a fuller tree than most. Some of us have a very little tree.

The vast majority are in the middle; some there quibble about whose lineage is better (? - let's put it this way: that is my observation from six years of doing this type of research).

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There will be lots to talk about, but, as a digression. we'll look at Elizabeth II. On Monday (June 15, 2015), she had her usual busy day. She attended the 800th celebration of the Magna Carta sealing. Later that day, she was garbed up for the Order of the Garter. ... I had wondered if Edward III had made that date. But, no, the Garter Day observance is on the Monday of the Royal Ascot week which is in mid-June. It is by chance that the MC 800th and Garder Day lookbacks fell on the day.

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Now, about the Queen. This page on Wikipedia says a whole lot: Descent of Elizabeth II from William the Conqueror. It looks at the thirty-ish generations from the Norman to the present. And, there are several bits of analysis that relate to the theme.

If you look at the senior direct line, you will see several generations where the ancestor was not of the crown. Or, was crowned in other than England. Then, there is a table that shows why there was a gap (so to speak). A little further down, there are several "shortest paths" given that are of interest.

Finally, there are lines that show how she descends from various known royals, such as Alfred the Great; too, there are enough of these to be interesting from the viewpoint of our work, which is mapping those who came over (whether they stayed or not) back to those times.

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The prime reason for looking at this is that these lines of Elizabeth II are proven. Of course, everyone here (in this day and age) descends from someone who was there (note the English monarchs of each generation - some material dates things relative to a reign) and who was involved. Knowing that there are threads of these types can help us to flesh out the past and to learn.

So, anyone filling in their tree needs to prove (provide sources for relationships, dates, etc.). We will explore how one does that a little more next time. In the meantime, work in progress can still support reporting a number (with the appropriate proviso). What we want, ultimately, is the best number that we can obtain, albeit a lot of times the work in progress has snags (the proverbial, to wit, the brick wall).

Remarks:  Modified: 03/30/2022

06/20/2015 -- With Dr. Frank's maternal grandparents as the root of the tree, we have five generations to consider. We have almost 100% known for Lucy and for Benjamin. In both cases, there is a name known for someone in the 5th generation, but we don't know the parents, yet. And, there are a couple of more unknowns in the 6th generation even though we know something about the related person in the 5th. It is in the 7th generation (not shown) where (currently) unknowns increase a great deal. ... In the table,  we show the counts for the generation of the parents, grandparents, etc. (out to the 3rd ggps). For Benjamin, that would be the generation of Samuel Gardner, son of Thomas and Margaret.

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.

03/30/2022 -- While researching for GB XII, 1, we were looking at the descendants of Miriam and added Lorenzo Dow who was an itinerant preacher (circuit rider). He married Peggy Dow who wrote Vicissitudes Exemplified (1814). 

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Example - General Danielson

While research Dr. Frank's work, I looked at Wikipedia entries when they could be found. In many cases, the entry was embedded in an article on a general topic.

I noticed that Colonel Danielson had only a paragraph on Wikipdia and decided to do an edit. I did notice that there already were references to Dr. Frank's military monographs in some articles. So, we need to increase those.

But, I also looked at MSS (Page 417 of Vol. 4). This image is of that page. The box is the material about General Timothy. Given that hundreds of thousands are covered in the MSS, there is a limit to the amount of information that can be given for oner person.


Now, look at what Dr. Frank wrote about General Timothy and his group. From a personal view, there are two pages about the General (see the Wikipedia page history for some specifics). However, Dr. Frank provided fifteen pages, with several of these providing details about the officers in the group.


We learn, for instance, from Dr. Frank that General William Shepard served under General Timothy (see Vol. II, No. 2, Pg. 74. Dr. David Shepard was the Surgeon.

Remarks:  Modified: 06/24/2017

06/09/2015 -- Add image for the TMM page.

08/18/2015 -- Change "m" to "ph."



Research examples

The recent edition of the American Ancestor magazine had an article by the researcher/author of the "Embattled farmers" book about Revolutionary soldiers of Lincoln, MA (twixt Lexington and Concord). See this public Facebook page (Embattled Farmers). On reading the article, several things struck me. For one, there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of research, not only in the era of the U.S. start but through the whole of the American experience to now.

A lot of this research needs to be done by those who have the interest and time. Meaning? Some of this has to be by labor motivated by more than money.

Naturally, we would point to the goals of Gardner Research. Recently, we took Dr. Frank as a focus and published his paternal line (grandparents: Benjamin Brown Gardner and Lucy Foster Wilson) in essay and ahnentafel forms.

Too, we started to look further at the Massachusetts Magazine (TMM) which he helped start. The magazine was mentioned by Perley whose antiquarian work was winding down about the time of the TMM start.

In each issue of TMM, Dr. Frank provided a military monograph on a particular subject (see below). As well, in the early editions, he offered additional information with commentary in another section of the magazine.

TMM had a quarterly publication schedule so Dr. Frank's effort was exemplary given that he was a practicing physician (and father) during this same time period.

Both Wiggin (author of the above book) and Dr. Frank mentioned Mass Sailors and Soldiers. The multiple volume set is a great resource. I consider it to be an index and brief encyclopedia. For each of the patriots (only some of whom are in the D.A.R. database), there ought to be further information added.

Aside: One of our intents is to start a list of patriots who are (can be) proven (not yet D.A.R. recognized due to no application having been submitted, at this time). Too, we will review each of the works provided by Dr. Frank, and other authors, in TMM.

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Titles, by Dr. Frank A Gardner, in the first two TMM volumes (with Wikipedia links).

    1908, Vol I

    No 1
      Pg 14 Col. John Glover's Marblehead Regiment
      Pg 51 Department of the American Revolution
    No 2
      Pg 85 Col. John Glover's Marblehead Regiment
      Pg 103 Department of the American Revolution
    No 3
      Pg 149 Colonel William Prescott's Regiment
      Pg 195 Department of the American Revolution
    No 4
      Pg 235 Colonel William Prescott's Regiment
      Pg 278 Department of the American Revolution

    1909, Vol II

    No 1
      Pg 11 Colonel Ephraim Doolittle's Regiment
      Pg 45 Department of the American Revolution
    No 2
      Pg 69 Colonel Timothy Danielson's Regiment
      Pg 101 Department of the American Revolution
    No 3
      Pg 141 Colonel John Fellow's Regiment
      Pg 168 Department of the American Revolution
    No 4
      Pg 191 Captain Jonathan Haraden
      Pg 203 Colonel Ebenezer Bridge's Regiment (see John Trull, referencing this article)
      Pg 234 Department of the American Revolution

Now, for each of the volumes, we will get the contributions by Dr. Frank and build an index with comments about context. Too, we will look for citations and such. The initial look will focus on the military monographs with the goal to be done by July 4th of this year. But, all of the other contributors ought to have some appreciative look, as well.

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The last TMM publication was in early 1918 (WWI). Hopefully, we can find some material dealing with motivation for the magazine (Perley's comment) and with the work related to publication (all aspects).

For many volumes, Lucie (sister of Dr. Frank) published genealogies and reports about family groups and their meetings. Perhaps, looking at these would be a good next step.

Remarks:  Modified: 12/26/2021

06/07/2015 -- Updated the Colonel (Major General) Timothy Danielson (Yale graduate) page on Wikipedia. ... Comparison of TMM and MMS coverage of the guy.

08/18/2015 -- Change "m" to "ph."

12/18/2016 -- Articles about research status published in The Gardner Annals, Vol. III, No. 1.

 12/26/2021 -- General Glover and Washington using TMM articles.