Dr Frank A Gardner

A few notes (see Remarks, below, for log):

Finally got around to filling in Dr. Frank's tree, using WikiTree. His Gardner line is fairly complete, in terms of data entry. Starting to fill in his Woods (maternal) line using Dr. Frank's handwritten notes. The focus now for this work is having nodes (profiles) in place and linked (pick the Ancestors button). Then, we'll be adding bios, etc., plus verifying sources, as in, this will be the 'bible' of his lineage. We fill in sources as we go along adding profiles - to be extended later with further research by Gardner Research. However, we don't own all of the profiles, so we need to double check those. So far, finding interesting stuff, like - Dr. Frank is a descendant of Demaris, too, the last wife of Thomas.

Link to on-line versions of Dr. Frank's books and some of his publications:
                              1907 edition, 1933 edition
                          The Massachusetts Magazine

Gardner pedigree for Dr. Frank and his sister, Lucie M. (with ahnentafels of their grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner, and grandmother, Lucy FosterWilson).

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Several posts have mentioned Dr Frank A. We will use his line quite often as we fill in the tree.

Dr Frank's book is now available via the Internet Archive in several readable forms, including PDF. Here is the link:

• archive.org
• google.com

The 'Read online' option provides a nice interface that has a fast search; the results are given with easy to use bookmarks. See next, for an example.

Dr Frank's book gives descendants for Essex County and New England "lines to the eighth generation and Nantucket lines through the fourth generation" and includes his father's siblings (page 286 has information about Dr Frank's father, Stephen Wilson Gardner, and his mother, Marion Wallace Woods).

Fortunately for us, this book provides sources which is important for resolution of questions. In many cases, records are missing for a variety of reasons in many areas. Essex County seems to have been able to preserve a lot of their records.

The Gardner families were spread widely, according to the book. It will be interesting to see the locations mapped out as they were at the time of the book and at this later time.

Remarks:

12/28/2024 -- See "Restart, somewhat" from September of 2024 for a summary of the issues about early information and about technology which is our focus. 

11/11/2019 -- Got Dr. Frank's FindAGrave profile updated: Frank Augustine Gardner, Veteran's Day. Early, we had pointed to Harmony Grove Cemetery, but the Gardner / Dennett plot in which Dr. Frank's ashes were interned in in Greenlawn.

05/01/2019 -- Saw notes by Stephen Wilson Gardner in his personally signed copy of the 1907 book. SWG was the father of Dr. Frank. For the first time, saw the plate that had been reproduced. On further research, found a color copy. The area is significant in that it's near Gardner Hill. Looking for other material that has something to offer about the area.

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.

09/07/2018 -- Added note at the top about the WikiTree work.

09/08/2016 -- People in Dr. Frank's book.

12/17/2015 -- Life of Dr. Frank is featured in The Gardner Annals, Vol. II, No. 2.

12/13/2015 -- Find A Grave - Gardner.

05/21/2105 -- We will feature Dr. Frank in our research. For now, we have the ahnentafels (fully sourced) for his paternal grandparents. One of his activities was editing and promoting The Massachusetts Magazine.

03/20/2015 -- Add links to the on-line copy of the books (1907, 1933). Fix a stale pointer.

03/12/2015 -- Image from 1933 book (7 pages) on Gardners.

03/11/2015 -- Sourced ahnentafels (published in TEG and The Gardner Annals): Thomas Gardner of Salem descendant (Benjamin Brown Gardner - grandfather of Dr. Frank) and Thomas Gardner of Roxbury descendant (Susan Charlotte Graves Gardner - aunt of Dr. Frank).

02/27/2015 -- Dr. Frank's paternal ancestry completed. Turns out that Dr. Frank is a descendant of Nathaniel Eaton. Being degreed in the theological framework, as well as having the M.D. and a general Ph.D., puts him in a different light, one might think.

01/03/2015 - Note, Dr. Frank A.'s Gardner Memorial book is digitized and on-line (Hathi Trust).

10/03/2014 -- Dr. Frank A. will feature in the future. Was he right about Thomas and Margaret (their marriage record found, recently)? Why did the Great Migration Project ignore him?

08/29/2014 -- Dr. Frank's grandmother's ahnentafel (six generations, fully sources for births and deaths).

04/29/2014 -- Dr. Frank's grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson.

11/13/2013 --  Phippen would be part of the slate fill.

06/15/2013 -- John Farmer wrote that Thomas was from Scotland. Origins are, and will be, a focus.

12/25/2012 -- Added Google Docs version.

12/24/2012 -- Thomas, unlike Conant, was not overshadowed in the world of being. We'll spend some time characterizing this fact and what it means to reasonable folks.

08/07/2011 -- At a later time, we'll look more fully at Dr. Frank's tree, such as this one of his grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson (Goldthwait, Adams, Conant, ...).

05/08/2011 -- The image is from page 74 of Dr Frank's book where he mentions notes for a future book. It would be interesting to see these notes. Where might they be?

Modified: 12/28/2024

1907 chart

Dr. Frank took the time to fill in his ancestral chart using a approach patented by Rev. F.W. Bailey. So, we have an early 1900s analog of a printout from one of the modern apps. And, it is in his hand. I checked what he had against what I found out in my research. We agree. I just have access to more information, due to technology.

Nowadays, we can work from our desk whereas he had to travel and thumb through documents, many times. We have access to books that were being written in his time, albeit many of these are not worth much. Alas. Dr. Frank may have known several of these authors and have known their results. But, his efforts were contained to work in New England. The 1907 book dealt mainly with the family of Samuel.

Note: See "person list" for names in the 1907 book compared to those in the 1933 book (Gardner Memorial).

These are the main pages of the book that Dr. Frank filled in. Following are the ahnentafels for his Gardner grandparents. We will prepare these for his mother's side.

Cover of book

Gardner

Woods

                       Ahnentafels
Paternal grandfather - Benjamin Brown Gardner  
Paternal grandmother - Lucy Foster Wilson

Again, one reason for starting with Dr. Frank was to leverage off of his work. In his 1907 book, we had the children and grandchildren for the other children of Thomas and Margaret. We really need something that pulls together the first three or four generations.

I propose using The Gardner Annals. We will be printing Volumes III and IV, soon. There is still time to offer something. An ahnentafel is easy to write.

Aside, Dr. Frank does include Anna Eaton. So, he knew. This subject will be further researched. That is, Dr. Frank and his cousins being descendant of Nathaniel Eaton. Yes, a story that needs a relook. Looks like fun.

It might be of interest to know that we intend to cover the Sir Christopher Gardner story, to boot.

Remarks: Modified: 03/14/2019

09/07/2018 -- Finally got around to filling in Dr. Frank's tree, using WikiTree. His Gardner line is fairly complete, in terms of data entry. Starting to fill in his Woods (maternal) line using Dr. Frank's handwritten notes. The focus now for this work is having nodes (profiles) in place and linked. Then, we'll add bios, etc., plus verify sources (as in, this will be the 'bible' of his lineage - we fill in sources as we go - to be extended later with further research by Gardner Research). Finding interesting stuff: Dr. Frank is a descendant of Demaris, too, the last wife of Thomas. 

03/14/2019 -- On WikiTree, added information about Dr. Frank's first wife: Caroline Louisa Read who was the daughter of John Franklin Read and Caroline Louisa Chase. Changed burial for Pauline Gardner Donnell, his daughter, to Newcastle, ME.

The kids

Let's start to look at the full Gardner tree using the children, in order of birth as given to us by Dr Frank. For each child, we can have pointers to existing work that is readily available on the web. This post's information definitely will expand in time, so expect the post to update on a regular basis (perhaps, at some point, we'll have a category for each of the siblings). From time to time, another post will start, but we'll keep them linked.

Given that not discussing the living is smarter than not (see below), then, we can use Dr Frank (for Samuel) to look at how the Gardner tree expanded through time.

• Thomas (1618-1689) - see Dr. Frank's book (page 21), Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathaniel Bowditch

• George (1620-1679) - see Gardner Memorial book, John Lowell Gardner

• Richard (1621-1688) - daughter Miriam, son Nathaniel & daughters Sarah, Deborah

• John (1624-1706) - see Gardner Memorial book, Dr. Frank's book (page 52)

• Samuel (1627-1689) - see Dr. Frank's book (page 74) which includes Dr. Frank's father, Stephen Wilson Gardner whose mother is Lucy Foster Wilson. We can use his tree (see WikiTree) as an example to discuss the unfolding of America as represented by New England. One of his grandmothers was the sister of Hathorne; there are many other ties (no accusers, though) to the madness of 1692 (for example, Mary (Ayer) Parker, Sarah Lord, Samuel Wardwell) which we'll collect.

• Joseph (1630-1675) - casualty, King Philip's war (page 92)

• Sarah (1631-1686) - descendants of John Balch, namely Benjamin and Sarah (Gardner) Balch's progeny. Note, that the old planter list includes Balch, Conant, Woodbury, Palfrey, and Trask. This list shows up in many places. Every occurrence of this list is another overlook of Thomas (sort of like negative royalty).

• Miriam (1634-1664) - married John Hill, daughters Miriam, Susannah (stale pointers). 

• Seeth (1636-1707) - married Joshua Conant, 2nd John Grafton (daughter Mary)

There is a lot more that can be collected in regard to the kids. Perhaps, a task might be to browse Dr. Frank's book and collect those here around the turn of the 20th century. That is, they would be along the same level in the overall tree as Dr. Frank and August Peabody.

Another thing to do would be to estimate the number of descendants of Thomas which would include those from the daughters in the tree. The count would have to be in the 10s of thousands. That is, at this current generational level, assuming 3-4 generations concurrent. How many can we identify? Of course, the number would be smaller for those with the name of Gardner.

Now, in total, that is, for an accumulative number from the nine kids, we would be talking high 6 figures to low 7 figures. Easily. We have our work cut out. Fortunately, Facebook, with its current status of 1/14 humans registered, shows that we can work with sets of that cardinality.

Aside: in regard to public exposure via the web, no amount of cyber material encompasses the physical. At some point, perhaps, common sense will kick back in. Though, in the Facebook age, one wonders to where common sense might have fled. Anyone know what adolescent angst will be fired up due to ones earlier years being documented in a public mode?

Remarks:

10/25/2020 -- Descendants, finally. We're getting back to work. 

11/26/2019 -- At the portal to truth, we're featuring the kids. So, this post will be updated.

01/18/2019 -- Added to the index at TGSoc.org.

12/07/2018 -- Dr. Frank and WikiTree. Using his hand-written notes, we filled in his mother's line this past summer. Too, we are going to focus on filling in the gaps. 

10/25/2018 -- We have a new look: TGSoc.org. And, we are using WikiTree (example of Samuel/Abel) with the goal of getting the first five generations documented. Some of these links may be stale (will be checking). 

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).

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.

01/03/2013 -- Updating pointers to rootsweb databases.

08/29/2011 -- A little more about Miriam.

08/11/2011 -- Descendants lists for Seeth/Joshua Conant (Conover, Conant, Carter).

03/17/2011 -- Another descendants list (Langsdorf, et al) for Sarah.

03/16/2011 -- Nathaniel Bowditch could start a list of major contributors.

10/29/2010 -- We can use the first couple of generations as the basis.

09/26/2010 -- Counting was mentioned. However, using the computer for this would be the smart thing. If people have files to submit, that would be great. I can also look at rootsweb trees. The main problem is to have a method for verifying what is there. We really want to have the strongest information available. But, too, some like Kathleen (thanks) have done us a favor.

Modified: 10/25/2020

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. 

A Thomas here and a Thomas there

This post continues our look at Gardner families and considers only the Thomas Gardners who arrived early.

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But, first, here are four posts dealing with the subject of Thomas of Salem. They are in order with the latest post first. However, the book that is the principle focus of each post has an inverse order (somewhat, this is the result of taking data items back to their source; if we can grab the complete view, then the correct telling of the story will come to fore).

• Thomas and Thomas (Jun 2013) - Felt suggests, from his review of the materials, that the Thomas of Salem came over with his father, who was also named Thomas.  Felt also notes that the older Thomas came from Scotland. 
• John Farmer (May 2013) - Farmer has two Thomas Gardners in Salem. The older one was the lead at Cape Ann, Farmer says. And, the son who was the husband of Damaris died in 1674. 
• Stories and Unwindings (Oct 2010) - One expects to find misinformation on the web; it's a different thing when such is published. But, first, one has to establish what is misinformation and what is not. Mention is made of Dr. Frank's books and one by William Folger about Nantucket settlers. Too, though, a 1999 article by the Jamaica Plain Historical Society mixes the Thomas Gardners. 
• Gardners and Gardners (Sep 2010) - Dr. Frank's book had a list of the early Gardner families in which there were two Thomas Gardners: Salem (1624), Roxbury (died 1638). Dr. Frank also mentions what he considers an error: that there were two Thomas Gardners (of Salem), the earlier of whom died in 1635 (see image on post from Dr. Frank's book; elsewhere, he used 1638, but are people talking two old Thomas Gardners?). 

Note: Statements, by earlier writers, that turn out to be less than correct ought not be suppressed. Rather, we need to bring these to fore so that the reasons for their incorrectness is accessible. The cloud/web seems to allow such methods with its large storage capacity. The problem? Given that the proper view is established, where does one put it? Where does a researcher go to find the most-supported view?

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Roxbury to Salem
Massachusetts

Now that we have reviewed what has been gathered so far, let's look at the early arrivals, and we can point to the two Thomas Gardners who are mentioned in Dr. Frank's list (Salem and Roxbury). Some researchers have suggested a relationship between these two families. Others seem to have their descendants mixed up. The map is included for those who may not be familiar with the area.

Note: The crow distance must be about 14 miles or so. Yet, the terrain would have slowed any movement. Perhaps, the fastest way would be to get down to Dorchester and take a boat to Salem. Nowadays, these two are on an arc, somewhat; one can take a highway in an almost circular path around Boston. That distance is 50 miles or so.

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What is the true picture? How can we find out? Well, data gathering, analysis, and discussion is one mode that we will continue to pursue.

For now, let's use the NEHGS-published Great Migration books. The format of this material that has been followed for all of the principle arrivers is Origin, Migration, First Residence, Return Trips, Occupation, Church Membership, Freeman, Offices, Education, Estate, Birth, Death, Marriage, Children, Associations, and Comments. People who are not handled separately are still mentioned along with a reference to source of the material. As we have said, this series' look at hundreds of people is exemplary in presenting only items that can be supported. That being said, there are other sources that might have enough weight to make a reasonable stab at filling in gaps (as long as they are not too big - formally, interpolation).

• Thomas Gardner of Salem (died 1674) is covered in the early volumes: 1620-1633, Vols. I-III, pg. 731 (6 pages). His children are as noted by Dr. Frank, albeit with a different placement for Richard. 
• Thomas Gardner of Roxbury (died 1638) is mentioned several places. He is noted as the father of Peter Gardner (died 1698): 1634-1635, Volume III, G-H, pg. 14 (4 pages). (Note: Thomas had several children, including Thomas Gardner of Muddy River who married Lucy Smith). 

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The next thing to look at will be all of the Thomas Gardners that were in the area up to about 1700. To get an idea of how many there were, we can look at Savage: Before 1692, Volume #2, Gardner-Garven. Just in this section, Savage mentions seven Thomas Gardners.

Of course, there are other works to consider.

Remarks:

01/18/2019 -- Added to the index at TGSoc.org.

03/11/2015 -- Sourced ahnentafels (published in TEG and The Gardner Annals): Thomas Gardner of Salem descendant (Benjamin Brown Gardner - grandfather of Dr. Frank) and Thomas Gardner of Roxbury descendant (Susan Charlotte Graves Gardner - aunt of Dr. Frank).

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

08/25/2013 -- On a site dealing with descendants of Alice Freeman, Abigail Gardner is on the list due to marrying John Wise. Hence, her father and grandfather are there, too. Thomas (before 1595 to 1638), father of Thomas and Peter. The site, by Chris Chester, is wonderful in its use of sources; too, I really like the format. We need to do something similar for the Thomas Gardners.

08/22/2013 -- Forgot to mention: nothing new under the sun.

08/21/2013 -- Other works would include contributions by researchers, such as we find from Heather Rojo: Nutfield Genealogy: Amanuensis Monday - A mystery from Rev. Bentley's diary. On-line is not bad, by definition, old genealogists (gosh, I'm 71 and know better than that).

Modified: 01/18/2019

General John Glover

 TL;DR -- Everyone in the U.S. knows of the crossing of the Delaware, at least by name. Some of the details may suffer, but the internet provides the means (if things are done right) to fill in as necessary. The New England Historical Society wrote of Moylan and the "United States of America" in a recent feed. We see that Washington had told Moylan to work with Glover. That latter name means something. The first two of a series of military articles in the Massachusetts Magazine dealt with Col. Glover's regiment. In these articles, the regiment, its officers and campaigns are covered. The officers have a little of their history mentioned which information is of interest to family researchers. By the time of the Christmas Eve crossing, Gen. Glover was there with his men who were boat handlers. One of their accomplishments had been to 'privateer' British vessels. In doing so, got nine.  

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Col. Glover has been mentioned three times in posts of this blog: 

• Massachusetts Magazine (May 28, 2014) -  this is when we first ran into Dr. Frank's magazine, TMM.
• Research examples (Jun 7, 2015) -  we had seen a book, Embattled  farmers, about revolutionary soldiers and listed the military articles in all of the issues in the first two volumes of TMM. 
• TMM, Vols. I and II (Jul 1, 2015) - we provided links to the Table of Contents for all of the issues of all of the volumes of TMM. 

Earlier this week, we saw a reference to Col. Glover's regiment. Then, The New England Historical Society sent an article that mentioned Col. Glover's outfit. The date of the article is uncertain, however the Society has regular mailings of a collection of articles. 

So, the article was titled "Stephen Moylan, the Irishman Who Coined “United States of America.” It gives some details about the life of Moylan. He came over here to Philadelphia after being educated in southern Europe. At the outbreak of the troubles, a friend referred him to George Washington who made him muster-master general. Also, he was ordered to work with Col. Glover's unit. At the time, Washington was quartered in Cambridge.   

General John Glover

So, recalling that we had seen Col. Glover mentioned by Dr. Frank and desiring to keep TMM in focus, we went to look. Sure enough, Dr. Frank mentions Moylan in his first of the military series: Colonel John Glover's Marblehead Regiment (via archive.org). They also were headquartered in Beverly. 

Something of interest was that Glover had been ordered to capture British ships. They got nine which was the start of the Navy of the United Colonies. In his articles, Dr. Frank mentioned the officers of the outfit and some of their campaigns. Glover's regiment served in the New York areas as well in New England and New Jersey. As well, Dr. Frank writes of the origins of the personnel. Gen. Glover was born in Salem; his family moved to Marblehead. Glover had two brothers who also served in the colonial army. 

The article continues from TMM Vol. I, 1 to TMM Vol. I, 2. In the later period, Gen. Glover was in charge of prisoners throughout Massachusetts. He also was asked to join Gen Washington at Valley Forge. Dr. Frank did not include his references, but we can compare his notes with the modern version like we did with the link to a Wikipedia article on Washington at Valley Forge and as crossing the Delaware. Too, the officer list is a who's who that would be useful for research and reference with respect to the focus of SAR and DAR.  

In many issues, Dr. Frank also included an article titled "Department of the American Revolution" which provided additional material and discussion with specifics related to the times and the events. Expect that we will be visiting TMM issues more frequently as we go along. 

Remarks:  Modified: 05/02/2026

05/02/2026 -- Changed Colonel to General. Also, this link to Nutfield Genealogy: My revolutionary war patriots, Daniel Glover, Marblehead, MA  (brother of the General). 

 

The Hebraist

In his 1907 book, Dr. Frank filled in part of Samuel's tree down to his parent's generation; the 1933 book expanded upon the descendants of George (see comparison of persons in the 1907 and 1933 books). At each generation in his line, he briefly mentioned some of the colonial ancestors of the wives.

Here is an example showing Abel who was the great-grandson of Thomas through Samuel and Abel's son. Abel married Priscilla Stacey. Dr. Frank mentions some names, such as Rev. William Worcester.

Now, when he gets to Abel's son, Simon Stacey Gardner, he only mentions the parents of Rebecca Knapp. Now, her father, Nathaniel Knapp, was of Newbury and has a diary published related to his experience in the Second Siege of Louisburg (Nathaniel's Diary, Wikipedia). Given that Dr. Frank did a series of monographs on the Revolutionary effort in Massachusetts, one wonders why he didn't look further at Rebecca's pedigree. I certainly did, as a newcomer to all of this. Dr. Frank, himself, mentions that the 1758 events were considered a training ground, somewhat. As in, the King's troops learned what they needed to get free.

I am sure that Dr. Frank did look at this part of his history. He could have been mentioned some names, many from the Newbury area. But, he wished to ignore one. Who? On a closer look, we see Nathaniel Eaton. Nathaniel Knapp was a grandson of Benoni Eaton, son of Nathaniel. Benoni had been raised in Cambridge after his family had left. We discussed Nathaniel Eaton earlier when we filled in the ahnentafel for Dr. Frank's grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner (TGA Vol II, No 1 - May 2015).

So, given the time of Dr. Frank, who would have wanted to mention Nathaniel Eaton? Well, we will, now. A post (Benjamin Brown Gardner) from that time provides a little information about Nathaniel. After his Harvard ordeal, Nathaniel was in VA for a while. Then, he was at Padua and got two more degrees (MD, PhD).

And, so given that Nathaniel is yearly on the hook (one-sided affair), perhaps, we can re-look at the whole thing and tell the tale properly. It is interesting that in the Wikipedia article, there is some allusion to Nathaniel, perhaps, enduring an early witch hunt.

This time, the study will be done by a descendant. All sorts of viewpoints have been expressed over the years. Below, there are pointers to recent material provided mainly as an example. In doing a brief search, I have found that the subject has been much debated over the years. So, we will be collecting these thoughts and writings.

Williams, G.H. (2014) - Divinings: Religion at Harvard, ... - evidently Nathaniel was on the same boat as John Harvard. Nathaniel's brother, Theophilus, and friends fled south and were founders of New Haven, CT. ... Nathaniel was no slouch (he studied under William Ames at Franeker).


Celebrate Boston - quotes Dutch visitor to Harvard. "We found there," our Dutchman reports, "eight or ten young fellows sitting around smoking tobacco, with the smoke of which the room was so full, that you could hardly see, and the whole house smelt so strong of it, that when I was going up stairs, I said this is certainly a tavern . . . We inquired how many professors there were, and they replied not one, as there was no money to support one. We asked how many students there were. They said, at first, thirty, and then came down to twenty: I afterwards understood there were probably not ten. They could hardly speak a word of Latin, so that my comrade could not converse with them." Why mention this? Nathaniel, evidently, had some runup against youth who may have been rebellious (much discussion will arise here); a question to explore is this, was Harvard the first true experience of the ensuing sense of freedom that is only the privilege of the 1% (or less)? Of course, the Dutch visitor was much later (1680); yet, given the scene, one has to wonder (say, my query asking a comparison - John Gardner and the Merrimack River).

Love it or loathe it: It's Harvard's birthday - mentions Eaton and the early years. Too, puts things into perspective.

Aside: Look on the Talk page of the Wikipedia article (find JMSwtlk) for recent entries, such as students complaining about having to eat the same food as did Nathaniel's Moor.

Last year's research also brought up another character that needs another look. Namely, Sir Christopher Gardner. There are conflicting viewpoints. Gardner Research wants to help set the record straight, or to as close as may be done at this late date.

Remarks: Modified: 10/10/2021

04/04/2017 -- The topic of late? Bro' culture of Silly Valley. Plus, frat house thinking. Was this an American phenomenon? If so, Harvard got it started early. Imagine. Someone with a PhD level educational experience being short-tempered with brats. Ah, do we not see that every day? But, to think, nothing new under the sun. And, America's roles are sorely in need of further analysis. BTW, I was in the U.S. Army as a 17-year-old, hence my particular characterizations of the matter. We really need a draft and some type of national service. How else can a proper understanding get a basis (that is, what is 'America' and why?)?

06/19/2017 -- There has been a lot of Eaton family research. Hopefully, we can get Nathaniel another look or two. From such, what will ensue?

09/27/2018 -- Recently, put Benoni in WikiTree, ancestor of Dr. Frank. An earlier post about a citation in TAG.

03/07/2019 -- Added an image from this post to our portal to truth.

10/10/2021 -- The Count features in our history of Harvard (a special project dedicated to Nathaniel Eaton). 

1900 back

In logic, using a tree, it is easier to trace back from some node (leaf) to a basis node. And, in trees, the basis can move around. The inverse is much harder; that is, trying to expand any tree forward. Same thing goes for lots of problems, in general. It is harder to find solutions than it is to check them (core of the complexity issues related to CompSci).

Do not believe me about this? Take armchair quarterbacks, as an example (or anyone being critical). In another view, look at the Mayflower group's Silver series; this work has been on-going for a century and is still being updated. Mind you, that is look forward only five generations. We have talked about such an effort for the descendants of Thomas and Margaret (search on 'generations') and have proposed two to three generations. And, one thought was to try to get up to 1900. If you look at Dr. Frank's books, his 1907 issue was mostly of Samuel with a little George thrown in; 1933 was of George's contributions.

Now, compare the coming forward with the ease (relatively) with the look back needed to prove some lineage -- I have done dozens of these and saw one estimate (same contextual framework) claiming 90% success when there is a good database, barring the conditions that we see leading to brick walls, whether these are real or of some attitudinal shortcoming.

Of late, we spent considerable time looking at heritage using a known database which supports applications. In one case, the merging of three lines (snip, paste) resulted in a documented line from an applicant to an ancestor about eight generations back. Usually, these new nodes (where the snip/paste happened) need some additional work. Why? The originals might have used one of the parents whereas the new look goes with the other. So, lessons learned there.

Too, we used WikiTree to do Dr. Frank's lineage back. It is fairly complete (Gardner-11627). Where there are holes, we have things to stuff in once they are confirmed. As well, we have run across several descendants of Benjamin Brown Gardner and Lucy Foster Wilson. There were papers related to this that got mention in the NEHGR 2017.

In one case, we have corresponded with a great-grandson of Dr. Frank. A post on Dr. Frank last Veterans' Day showed stones of another great-grandson. These were descendants of both wives of Dr. Frank. Then, part of the WikiTree work that we have adopted was done by another descendant of BBG. Starting with Jeffry's node on Abel, son of Samuel and grandson of Thomas who was buried near him in Gardner's plot, one gets to BBG. There, one finds two sons, for now: the father of Dr. Frank (Stephen Wilson Gardner) and his brother (Walter B Gardner). Ann's great-grandfather, Joseph D. Gardner, was their brother (see image).

From this generation, we can build family records and match up across the tree. For instance, we saw a descendant of Benjamin Brown's brother last year when a photo of him was published in a FaceBook group dealing with old photos: Thomas Needham Gardner. Thomas was a great-uncle of Dr. Frank and Ann's grandfather.

We started a series looking at people of a particular name. In one case, we used Elizabeth. We expect that a consistent approach like this will allow us to document a whole lot of the tree. We want to hear about the work of others, too.

Remarks: Modified: 07/28/2020

07/28/2020 -- Have done several posts related to generations: 5th generation, 6th generation, 7th generation, 1900 back, American 100s, First five, and About generations.

Elizabeth (Gardner) Dabney Bridges Stevens

As mentioned in the post on Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner, we have started to review our decade worth of accumulation. One focus of research has been to fill in Dr. Frank's tree more than he did in his 1907 book. In 2018, we made progress with this mother's heritage. Another has been oriented toward collateral families, including those who moved outside of New England. That gets us to looking at the western expansion among other things. Another theme was 'All things Gardner' as we have heard from many of the Gardner families that Dr. Frank mentioned. Then, there was an interest in what came before: origins and more (FAQ provides a summary and links to further material). And, that encompasses the fuller view of England (and Europe).

How we proceed is an open issue. We will be scholarly and fund research for others (see our Portal (to truth) and the support button). We expect a lot more posts. We have experimented with different blogging methods as well as produced the Gardner's Beacon and The Gardner Annals (GB Vol IX, No 3 and TGA Vol V, No 2 undergoing construction - still time to contribute).

Organizing will be a continuing task. Presentation will continue to be on the www as well as by print. After we finish five volumes of The Gardner Annals, we intend to prepare a printed version beyond our current volumes. This will consolidate information to be more suitable for future research.

WikiTree has been really helpful, for several reasons. However, as with any of these tools, what one gets dependents upon the care and quality of the work. The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has been using WikiTree to document descendants of those who were part of the Great Migration. As well, they have a focus on Gateway Ancestors. In this case, there is an effort to build proven threads back to the Magna Carta Sureties. Lots of work to be done. Technology can be a great assist. Effort is a major factor.

Dr. Frank's work was phenomenal. We have mentioned that. Too, we are using his work as the basis for what we do. Other works, such as the NEHGS provides, are complementary. We will correct (extend and amend) Dr. Frank's material. And, we'll be using our 'Portal to truth' (which has a basis not unlike other things of theoretical interest).

Which gets us to Elizabeth (Gardner) Dabney Bridges Stevens. After we looked at Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard (post describes the motivation), we found a few more Elizabeth Gardners. There are other names, but this one search allowed us to look more closely at the 1907 and 1933 books (we'll have a new table of comparison drawn up). EGDBS was found on page 178 of the 1907 book (see image). She was 1-#159. The entry was short. One line said that Elizabeth married Ebenezer Stevens. Per usual, we go to look via search (a technique that has been honed). One thing we found was a reference to a portrait of her (Item #2043).

1907 book, showing
correction by Dr. Frank

Well, that suggested that she might very well be in the 1933 book. She is 2-#56 in the later work. There was more text describing her marriages. On further looking, though, Dr. Frank had included some of the new material in 'Additions and Corrections' section. In the image, the left side is a copy of the page from the 1907 edition; on the right is the correction from the same edition.

Her first husband, Nathaniel Dabney, was a loyalist. We have a couple of posts on that subject, for instance, Henry Gardner. But, there were other loyalists who have ties to the Gardner families or are of interest to our work.

Right now, we just want to emphasis the thoroughness of Dr. Frank. In the 1933 edition, he expands information about the other two husbands, including their parents.

We will be looking at this topic further after we find more information about Elizabeth.

Remarks: Modified: 12/27/2019 

12/27/2019 --

Gardners and Gardners

In his book (pages 1-3 1907, pages 1-7 1933), Dr Frank (and using WikiTree) lists the Gardners who were in New England early enough to be concurrent with Thomas' life. His list is shown here (see TGS.org for images). We will collect other lists, to boot, to account for the additional information that has become available the last 100 years.

My wife is descendant from both Thomas of Salem (direct) who provides the main theme for this blog and Thomas of Roxbury. For now, we don't know the relationship (if any) between the different families. At some point, perhaps, like some families who have tried to identify commonality, sometimes via genetic matching (to wit, Graves, Frost, and more), there may be a Gardner effort.

As many people admit, it's easy to get the families mixed up. In fact, as Dr Frank mentions in his book (1907, pg 16), some have confused, in the Salem family, Thomas the son with Thomas the father (we will look at this further, later).

Gardners and Gardners, 1933 (Dr. Frank)

Gardners and their arrival.

• 1620 - Richard Gardenar of the Mayflower
• 1624 - Thomas Gardner of Cape Ann and, then, Salem
• 1630 - Sir Christopher Gardiner was in Boston for awhile, on Winthrop's list of infamy
• 1631 - Henry Gardner of Kittery, Maine
• 1635 - Edmund Gardner of Ipswich who James Savage says came on the James
• 1635 - Lion Gardiner of Saybrook, Conn and Gardiner's Island
• 1638 - Thomas Gardner of Roxbury, ancestor of Col Thomas Gardner
• 1638 - George Gardner of Rhode Island [Wikipedia]
• 1641 - Samuel Gardner of Wethersfield, CT (from 1933 book)
• 1642 - Richard Gardner of Woburn 
• 1650 - John Gardner of Hingham (related family)
• 1661 - James Gardner of Gloucester
• 1661 - Lt Thomas Gardner of Pemaquid (from 1933 book) 
• ...
• 1650+ - Thomas Noble (son of Rachel (Gardner) Noble) 
• 1687 - Thomas Gardner of New Jersey (new, 12/11/2014)
• ...
• 1600s - Gardners/Garnet/Garnett, in Maryland and south 
• ...

For each of these, we'll provide a pointer to major work that has been done for the family. And, we'll show how they might have melded over the generations.

Remarks: Modified: 10/11/2018

10/13/2010 -- Added a few links. For each of these, we'll have a separate post.

10/22/2010 -- We can add in other Gardner families who may have arrived later. An example would be Jasper Gardner.

10/27/2010 --Cyndi's List is a great resource. She has three Gardner-related links.

• Site related to George Gardner of Rhode Island (mentioned by Dr. Frank).
• Daniel Gardner (c 1750) of Virginia
• Samuel Gardner (c 1787) of New York

10/31/2010 -- There are several views to look into further: Thomas and Thomas (see above image), pedigree from Albert Meyers (pointer, page contents can change, recoverable by using the index), ...

12/23/2010 -- Would be derelict if I didn't mention, and use, this site by Roderic A. Davis, 2nd.

03/07/2011 -- Will note when I run across work being done for the other families (example pedigree for a grandson of John of Hingham).

03/30/2011 -- George E. Kimball III is a descendant of John of Hingham.

05/02/2011 -- At some point, we need to look at the ancestry of Thomas (and Margaret). There is one book that suggests a relationship between Thomas of Salem and George of Rhode Island (published 1907) without saying how.

05/05/2011 -- Did Thomas of Salem have a sister, Rachel?

05/08/2011 -- Updates will be collected in a new post.

04/23/2012 -- Conjectures are nice, if supported; in fact, we'll have an example of that shortly in regard to Thomas and Margaret. There are too many gaps, in many cases. We can't just fill these in without some thoughtful reason. Some families have on-going research that is supported by DNA analysis. One that I found to be interesting is the Gordon family's work. 
11/27/2012 -- George is written up in Wikipedia.

12/14/2012 -- This has been a popular post. Also, see Pg. 22 of A home of the olden days (1872) for an example of the two Thomases that Dr. Frank was mentioning.

01/11/2013 -- The question was first asked on 05/05/2011: Did Thomas of Salem have a sister named Rachel? Put her on the list, as she and her husband, Thomas, came over in 1630 (we need to identify female Gardners, too, who arrived early). See Gardner work being done at familytreecircles.

06/15/2013 -- John Farmer wrote that Thomas was from Scotland. Origins are, and will be, a focus.

06/15/2013 -- Was there a Thomas and a Thomas?

08/22/2013 -- The start of a look at what was what in early Salem (and New England) as far as Gardners is concerned. --- Also, added a caption to the image (which will be standard henceforth - plus edit of existing posts to make sure that images are clearly marked).

08/25/2013 -- On a site dealing with descendants of Alice Freeman, Abigail Gardner is on the list due to marrying John Wise. Hence, her father and grandfather are there, too. Thomas (before 1595 to 1638), father of Thomas and Peter. The site, by Chris Chester, is wonderful in its use of sources; too, I really like the format. We need to do something similar for the Thomas Gardners.

11/06/2014 -- Gardner Research will have this topic as one of its foci. Too, whence: general and particular.

01/03/2015 -- Benjamin Gardner of Boston/Salem (ancestor of Heather Wilkinson Rojo).

03/11/2015 -- Sourced ahnentafels (published in TEG and The Gardner Annals): Thomas Gardner of Salem descendant (Benjamin Brown Gardner - grandfather of Dr. Frank) and Thomas Gardner of Roxbury descendant (Susan Charlotte Graves Gardner - aunt of Dr. Frank).

03/12/2015 -- 1933 Gardner Book (update of Gardner list - see above). Dr. Frank's work between the first and second books is obvious from these images.

06/23/2015 -- Looking further at Rachel Gardner.

07/04/2015 -- Walter Goodwin Davis is a descendant of James Gardner of Gloucester.

05/27/2016 -- Lots more information now.

07/16/2016 -- Related work: Gardiners and Gardners.

08/01/2016 -- King Slayer's Court.

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

10/11/2018 -- For a long time, this was our most popular post. Then, it was surpassed in readership by Marriage of Thomas and Margaret and Plus or minus the arrival. And, these are continuing research subjects. We have taken a theme of All Things Gardner, somewhat. Plus, we have to deal with whence, motivation, and a whole lot more as well as document the first five generations.

Generations, again

TL;DR -- Starting with  Dr. Frank's 1907 book, we begin a look at the generational stack with the intent to go to WikiTree, next.

--

Lately, the generation theme has looked at major events in the U.S. history, starting with the Revolution. That was the ordeal of the 4th and 5th generations. Then, we had the 6th and 7th that were involved with the expansion of the American sphere of influence both internally (western expansion, et al) and in the world. Part of that was generating wealth, unbounded, for some families. At the same time, there were turmoils to consider. So, we will be trying to organizing these topics and the corresponding studies with respect to generations using several (actually many) families.

In terms of time spread of the generations, we can use the Mayflower example for comparison. Say, during the Revolution, we would have had people from the 4th, 5th, and 6th generations involved. Too, there may have even been some remnants of the 3rd and early entrants of the 7th generations around and about. The theme is, though, that 'cohort' is a useful concept which can be used to help with the categorizations. Using generations allows us to have a focus on families.

In his 1907 book, Dr. Frank starts the 3rd generation with #12 Lt. Thomas Gardner (bp 1645 - 1695), son of #2 Lt. Thomas Gardner ( - 1682) and Hannah (pg 101).

• He starts the 4th generation with #61 Thomas Gardner (1671 - 1696), son of #12 Thomas (pg 134). This generation includes #69 John Gardner (1681 - 1732), son of #22 Samuel Gardner (1647 - 1724) and Elizabeth Browne (pg 140). 
• He starts the 5th generation with #87 Habakkuk Gardner (1707 - 1762), son of #62 Capt Habakkuk Gardner (1673 - 1732) and Ruth Gedney (pg 162). This generation includes #105 Capt Jonathan Gardner (1728 - 1791) who served in both the French-Indian and Revolutionary wars (pg 178). Also, included is #129 Simon Stacey Gardner (bp 1743 - b 1787) who is the 2nd-great-grandfather of Dr. Frank. (pg 195). 
• He starts the 6th generation with #139 John Gardner (1739 - 1805), son of #90 Capt John Gardner (bp 1706 - 1784) and Elizabeth Putnam. (pg 198). This generation includes #188 Jonathan Gardner (bp 1773 -1839), son of Simon Stacey Gardner (pg 283), and concludes with #192 John Gardner (1793 - 1834), son of #133 Joseph Gardner () and Anna Edee (pg 301). His daughter, #368 Harriett (1833 - 1887), is the last person named in the 1907 book of Dr. Frank. 

In the details for generation six, Dr. Frank gives information about the children and grand children. That gets us to the 7th and 8th generations. Given that we want to use Thomas' children as the 1st generation, Dr. Frank has given us a start on looking at the first of the seven generations. In that last generation, we will be looking at the U.S. Civil War.

Earlier, we did a table that listed the names in the two books. This list will be extended.

Remarks: Modified: 07/29/2020

07/29/2020 -- See next post for a Table of names from above.