New France

TL;DR -- Nutfield Genealogy motivated this post with their post. Amazing maps has been in our sight for a long while. The one we saw today is about New France which has not had the attention that is needed. So, we correct that. 

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When we started, our focus was New England. Then, we got into New Spain due to the California influence. We mentioned New France and probably ought to have looked further since we ran into it many times. One theme/meme that will continue is the long reach of New England. Also, all things Gardner is on the plate. Technology? What happened in 2025? AI is everywhere with mature voices with mathematical knowledge finally weighing. We'll take part in that discussion and the followup work. Another theme? The 250th U.S. as represented by D.A.R./S.A.R. and those of the other sides (loyalists, for example). 

Lots and lots of things to do, but here is a list of subjects which suggest future work.  

• Using Cape Ann, we learned about the commercial influence of the Dorchester Company. There seemed to be agreement about the events such as the 1623 overwintering, the 1624 arrival of the settlers, John Endicott's arrival, and then John Winthrop who disliked Salem and sailed off to Boston. In 2014, we found records in Dorset, UK. In 2023, a researcher went through all of the known records to find Gardner references. Pending is going through that and posing means to get the story in line with what we know and can know. See, Why is 2024 quiet? 
• President Jefferson dealt with Spain with regard to the Louisiana Territory. We can use Missouri as the focus for several reasons. Our research was focused in the middle of the country, with St. Louis being somewhat of a gateway, though there was movement both along the north and the south. Speaking of the south, regular coach traffic occurred between St. Louis and San Francisco. 
• We have to mention that the coach that ran across lower Arizona into California stopped in Los Angeles in the area now known as DTLA. We found out that a hill had been named after the battle site in Boston, Bunker Hill, which battle was part of the period of over a year noted as the Siege of Boston. Named Bunker Hill West, the area now hosts the skyscrapers associated with the LA skyline. Those bringing in the traffic from St. Louis and points east were of New England. That route met up with traffic from the lower part of Texas. And, in LA, there was serious New England influence. But, New Spain, too, was there earlier, leaving many place names of Spanish origin. 
• We looked at rivers, extensively which brings up a notion (below). Gardner River got attention a few years ago. But, the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers will be featured with respect to travel to and in the central and west parts of the U.S. 

Today, we saw a share by another blog (Nutfield Genealogy) that got our attention. It showed the extent of New France which is far beyond what we consider when discussing the French-Indian affair or the Revolutionary War. This map comes from Amazing Maps which can be accessed through various social media. Using FB (Meta), one can access this map. 

We had written several years ago about the French being down in the Arkansas area at the same time that Thomas Gardner and others were founding New England which was a little bit of land shown in grey on the right. The blue shows the wanderings of the French. One tales recalls that a crew had crossed the Great Lakes to the area of nowadays Wisconsin, portaged down to a river than ran into the Mississippi. When they got to where the Arkansas River (out of the Rockies) met the Mississippi, the Frenchmen started to see the Native Americans with artifacts from Spain. They were not far from nowadays New Orleans at that time. 

Too, up in the northwest, later, there was disagreement amongst the travelers then, trappers and mountain men, about where the U.S. and Canada split. This was not settled until the 1840s. Those representing Canada's rights were of New France. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/02/2025

10/02/2025 -