American Ancestor database

We will be getting back to our bibliography and other collections in the near future as we work toward defining our 'app' view. There was a query the other day about the motivations for people coming here. We mentioned Albion's seed where the Plymouth, Cape Ann and are Massachusetts efforts were seen as reconnaissance. Nice to be pigeon-holed. But, we have written other posts on this theme: Black death, Origins - motivations, and more.

But, the discussion got back to this History of Massachusetts post: The Great Puritan Migration. We like the site; too, we get a local focus which is nice, albeit we do have to broaden the scope as we go forward. That is, of the underlying database which needs to be inclusive. Then, filters would be one of the many options offered to tailor views. Of course, always have some thread back to Thomas Gardner, Cape Ann, and those early times. With we need to add, filler material that follows families all the way to now. We have already started this with The Gardner Annals.

Recently, the American Ancestor's database was updated with TEG vol 34 issues. It was in the Spring of 2014 that we put out our first article in a common framework. That went on for over a year after which we got involved in activities that were associated with the purpose of a wider view. Too, it was then that the Quora facility became more popular, hence we have published many posts there that relate to the themes of our research. Plus, Quora is an interdisciplinary framework upon which are great looks at any of the technological advances that face us while many times being a puzzle. One truth is, 'code' is needed for proper management of truth, or maintenance, in other words.

So, due to the availability of the first three articles, here is a pointer to them within TEG v34 (each link requires one to be logged into NEHGS' site). Next up, we hope would be Vol. 35 with more articles, one on Dr. Frank.

• The Graves Family of Ipswich
• John Sayward/Soward of Gloucester/Ipswich
• Trials of the Wilson Family

Remarks: Modified: 07/12/2020

07/12/2020 -- Earlier notifications dealt with the articles being indexed within the NEHGR: v34 in 2016, v35 in 2017. 

7th Generation

In the last post, we looked at a lineage for the GSMD and decided to pay some attention to the parents, first. That got us to looking a the 7th generation which is motivated by the Mayflower 5th generation project which we looked at with respect to the question of "how long is a generation?". In the case of the Plymouth folk, that generation went from before 1698 until after 1757. That is, much longer than people talk about a generation. 

However, here, we are looking at a broad-scope generation rather than for the 25-year assumption that can be used for a family. Before getting back to the 7th generation, we have to note that the 5th generation from Thomas' time was responsible for the start of the U.S. Here are some posts related to the theme of the Revolution and its follow-on conflict, 1812. 

• Regimental History Series (July 2015)
• Spirit of '76 (March 2018) 
  
• Henry Gardner, the Loyalist (October 2016)
• USS Merrimack - 1798 (June 2012)
• Gardner-Pingree house (and murder) (December 2011)
• Samuel Knapp Gardner (July 2011) 
• Ebenezer Gardner of Maine (March 2011)

There have been several issues of Gardner's Beacon with the theme of the Revolution. Given the sacrifices of the 5th generation, we can set the tone for looking at the 7th. In this list, some are related to the time of Thomas and Margaret. Otherwise, they may be related to another colonial which we will identify. 

The original list has been pared down to two entries. We will update this list for the near future as we write several posts as we look closely at the issues of identity, lineage, and such. 

• Lyman was born in 1819 in New England and died, and was buried, out west. In between, he was in several states, so we have to go through that. Too, Lyman's father was out west, died there, but was taken back east for burial. Some of Lyman's brothers were out west too; enough were in the east so that we can do a major east-west (least-best) summary of things. After all, this is mandated by the 'flyover' thinking that is still around. 
• Another family of that era had a traveling preacher (see below) who was born in 1814. This was the time when the data of frontier was captured in church records. We will look at that family more closely, later, as it involved Mayflower, to boot. 
• For Dr. Frank, the seventh generation is his father, Stephen Wilson Gardner (a late 1835). BTW, Dr. Frank is related to Lyman who was from the same Porter family as was Dr. Frank's ancestor who was married to the sister of John Hathorne and who tried to help Rebecca Nurse before she was 'hung' (using that, folks, as this is an old word - modern connotations are bogus) by the neck. 
• In his tree, John Lowell Gardner, born 1804, is in the seventh generation. Dr. Frank wrote of this family in his 1933 book, so we'll be back to them. 
• Tying into the look at Elizabeths, we would have Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard as the fifth generation with the seventh being her granddaughter: Elizabeth Cabot Blanchard (born 1809). 
• The daughter of Lucretia Mott would be of the early seventh generation having been born in 1793. 
• Aldophus Greeley, of the Two cousins, would be seventh, too. However, he is of the later time, having been born in 1844. We will look at his cousin.
• Last year, we saw a photo in an on-line situation where old photos were discussed and detailed. We identified the person: Thomas Needham Gardner who was born in 1804.  
• ... many, many more will be added

The 7th generation is a nice start since we now have people approaching the 12th generation. Too, we are close to the 250th of the U.S. Revolution. Next up, we will look at Lyman and his wife, Caroline, prior to revisiting their daughter, Chloe. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/04/2020

07/04/2020 -- The 4th was involved with the Revolution, as well. They were trained for this via their support Crown in the French Indian War of the 1750s. We will look at that generation, next. 

Deeper dive

This post will start a more close look at the lonely grave out west in which is a descendant of the group that came into Plymouth in 1620. And, he is noted in the GSMD books as is one of his daughters as well as is his brother. So, the theme deals with the issues and problems of the western expansion that was the reality of the U.S. whose start is celebrated this week.

Now, this will get involved, but we are going to take a couple of decades and look at part of the life of a young woman who is the daughter of the above descendant, however she came about before those western locales were doing records correctly. In many cases, they were destroyed. But, we saw this back in those eastern realms of so much pride, too, say Essex County. In any case, the overarching framework is the U.S. which has been doing the Census from the get-go. So, we will look at that part of the deal as well as some other bits of data.

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Before we take the deep dive into the short life of the young lady, let's set up a more grand scope with which to have a discussion. Like, GSMD is un-American? Kidding, only in part. We'll go into this quite extensively, hang on as we set up the situational aspects. We mentioned the lonely grave. It is occupied with the remains of Lyman Porter who was the father of Chloe. Chloe, of course, is the young lady with whom we are concerning ourselves.

May we have a photo?

Silver Book, Alden

This introduces Noah Porter who is in the Silver Books. That's five generations. And, he is the grandfather of Lyman Porter, so Lyman is the seventh generation. We will pick that one generation and do a sweep across the landscape of the U.S. in terms of the conditions of life, technology, etc. Where, too, we use known families, including Gardner to set the tone. 

Now, that is 7th from the first entrant. For Lyman, we have Ruth Alden, Sarah Bass, Sarah Thayer, Marcy (Dorman) Porter, then his grandfather. This list has the first two entries. See the subsequent post (7th generation) for the list that is more full. 

• Lyman was born in 1819 in New England and died, and was buried, out west. In between, he was in several states, so we have to go through that. Too, Lyman's father was out west, died there, but was taken back east for burial. Some of Lyman's brothers were out west too; enough were in the east so that we can do a major east-west (least-best) summary of things. After all, this is mandated by the 'flyover' thinking that is still around. 
• Another family of that era had a traveling preacher (see below) who was born in 1814. This was the time when the data of frontier was captured in church records. We will look at that family more closely, later, as it involved Mayflower, to boot. 
• ... many, many more (see 7th generation)  

So, this might be a good generation to look at. So, we will be expanding this list across the children and the related families.

As an aside, Lyman is the 2nd after the Revolution. This will be important as one of our projects is to map early settlers with their offspring during the time of the upheaval (DAR's bailiwick) and down to now. As in, the stories abound, many have been ignored, some of the ignored ought to be raised to awareness, and, folks, this stuff does not get done without someone stepping up (TGS, Inc.) and actually making an effort. 

Next up, we will pursue this generation a little with a further look at Lyman and his wife, Caroline Hopwood who was a native of Virginia. This is setting the stage for looking at Chloe and how notionally wrong is the GSMD in many senses. If they don't see this, well, we'll hope to detail issues to get the proper discussion taken place with necessary changes (bringing science to genealogy in unexpected ways). 

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Being exposed to the ways of the GSMD and running into families that were of the north and the south, what arose was an interest in western expansion which started with those who arrived on these shores, was constant throughout the early periods, accelerated after the jaunt of Lewis & Clark, and continued apace even into the middle part of the 20th century. People who were at the forward edge were always outside of normal reporting schemes. So, what we might know of them is sparse, in fact, and can be considered as missing. The above case? A girl being born before a western state started to collect vital records.

There were various ways that people might have left traces, such as the family bible. But, another was the circuit rider who was a minister who visited remote folk in a periodic fashion. His notes would have been recorded in church records. The Wikipedia article is Methodist in orientation, but other denominations did this, too. And, for those families, the church is the primary source for information. It's funny. In a family with several brothers, two are well-documented. I need to try to see  how to leverage this information for the unknown brother who was a circuit rider, too. Of course, he's in the church records but has little known about him otherwise.

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As well as lonely graves, we have run across several instances of defunct cemeteries of late. That topic was hot and heavy early last year (2019) as we determined that Thomas' grave had been lost.  Then, we learned that Essex County had several examples of burials being moved, etc. to the extent of losing any information of the current whereabouts of the remains. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/03/2020

07/03/2020 -- Split out the 7th-generation work. As, with the 5th (U.S. Revolution), we can juxtapose with the 7th which  might have been the start of the thing of 'spoiled brats' that is so much American. Wait, we might go back to the start of Harvard (early animal house), but that can wait for a reawakening of the theme. 

Of the times

On the portal (TGSoc.org), we scroll textual information that runs through the timeline of interest to the TGS, Inc. which is the gamut from here back to the time of the Magna Carta. Right now, there are several modes, that are not connected. We'll be looking at an app approach to organizing this a little more, say where the portal does open to a type of 'semantic web' under which would be an unending supply of information, both curated and not.

We are looking now at the 400th of the start of colonial effort. Soon, there will be the 250th of the beginning of the U.S. And, there are many other milestones that we can pinpoint. In the meantime, part of the activity of the blog will be to collect material which we have been doing for ten years now. A couple of years we were looking at the 1918 Spanish Flu. Who would have forecast the current situation?

Scene near Gardner's bridge. 

And, given that many have just had an experience with a constrained type of living, there ought to be some better understanding of The First Year. That post was just last year (2019) in April. At the time, we were settling, finally, on the absence of Thomas' grave, plus we were looking for paintings that showed early Salem and its surrounds.

The left painting is the area where the bridge went over Gardner's brook.

Gallows Hill

The painting on the right is from the high point just southwest of where Gardner's Hill was. The view includes Gallows Hill as there was a U that looped over to where Harmony Grove is now. However, the point is that Thomas said that he could see the water from his favorite spot on Gardner's Hill. And, we can think that he wasn't talking Gardner's brook or Strong Water brook. There are other paintings scattered through the posts that will come back into focus from time to time.

Keeping with the COVID-19 theme, we can consider this photo of the English adaptation of the wigwam that would have been the living situation for the early arrivals. Imagine being crowded into this situation with howling winds outside plus several feet of snow accumulated by the time spring was about to arrive.

English wigwam

Some of us might have had similar conveniences in the camping mode. But, this was the reality for Thomas and Margaret during the early times, except for when they might have been in the Great House after Roger moved everyone over to the Salem area (Cape Ann, Retrospective).

Salem has had many house themes over the years. These stories deal with the families who owned and lived in the houses. There are many other themes that can provide insights about how we are now in terms of the whys and what nots. Technology has progressed sufficiently for us to try to bridge generational information in ways that are unprecedented and formerly beyond reach.

Remarks: Modified: 06/29/2020

06/29/2020 --

Hundred years

The person for whom I was doing some research related to her Mayflower ancestry turned 100 years old this month. I thought that a recap of some of the posts related to that might be in order. As well, this will allow me to look at the posts and tie them together.

Incidentally, the lady is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret through their son George.

In brief, the issue with the Mayflower group was absence of primary documents for one generation, however there were plenty secondary ones that allowed analysis of the lineage. We can start with a later analysis.

• Genealogy and Bayes (November 2019) -- It is encouraging to see papers being written on this subject. Lots of  attention has turned to chemical biology (DNA); however, we still have the 'meme' side of things with a strength that has not been understood. Lots to discuss on this matter. 
• Mayflower pure (November 2016) -- When I started, there were two. Now, there is only one who reached a major milestone. Of course, this post is a reaction to the response by the authority figure. We all know of vanity genealogy. Well, the TGS, Inc. is not about that. Rather, we need to look at the total of the history of the U.S., what it might mean, and what the future entails. Lots and lots to look at. So, in this case, 2020 was to be a huge series of huge affairs. But, the virus came around. From another view, I have seen many who go back to the beginning and who have no Mayflower links, except for those of a 'step' relationship, or an in law, or such. That is what the 'pure' means, in this sense. Let's celebrate that 'rare' (or not) set of events (coming 'oh so close' through the years and generations. 
• About generations (October 2019) -- There have been continual efforts at research in this vein from early on. With the explosion of interest related to the 300th (a 100 years ago), we saw this type of thing become more organized. The 'silver' books were published, for instance, covering five generations. Now, speaking of which, the NEHGS had a nice post that looked at the question of 'How long is a generation?' It's interesting from several views. For one, we need the computer and data. The silver books plus updates gave the second. The computer's prowess with respect to crunching provides the first. And, that nexus is at the core of both good things to come and terrible stuff. In that latter regard, we look to consider, what would Thomas think?, a post from 2015 that will be a central theme. 
• NEHGS as mentor (April 2018) -- About this time, several years had gone into planning the 400th. Trips were coming up, related to looking at particulars of the European experience of those involved prior to the sailing of the Mayflower. There was an early look at the parties which included the Native American tribe that lived in the area. So, we were looking at a coordination between four nations: Native American, England, Netherlands, plus the U.S. 
• Flyover country (November 2016) -- The red/blue aspects really were at the forefront at this time. However, from the perspective of the lady applicant, there was the personal history of her families moving westward. Of late, I have had the opportunity to study many of these families. One organization has it right; the U.S. Census is full of good information about the people out west. Some might quibble nuances, however, if you are a U.S. citizen interested in history, then, the U.S. Census would be part of this. On a regular basis, the government tried to assess the citizenry; good citizens participated. Say, name the head of the household, the spouse, then the children in order of birth. Time, and again, this was true. And, you can see it in this case. Too, there is a lonely grave out west in which was interred the body of a Mayflower descendant. Do those back east care? Well, again, this theme is part of those meme'ish deals that we will look at. 

There are more posts. But, this gets the look back started. And, there is a dissing going on here with respect to a lady who died too young to leave much of a paper trail. A complication was that a step-mother came into the scene not long after the lady died. Of  course, this lady was 1st-ggp of the one who recently got the three digit age accomplished. And, the sister of this one being dissed is in the rolls of the Mayflower organization plus are her children; as well, an uncle of this lady is in with his progeny.

Stupid is what I call this type of thing. Oh yes, there has been a move by the NEHGS to provide material support in these cases (for huge fees - I work pro bono) where the Mayflower organization had to accept the determination of the NEHGS researcher, despite the Mayflower group's supposed superior processes. So, perhaps, there is some learning going on here.

Remarks: Modified: 06/27/2020

06/27/2020 --

The future

The 2020 festivities have been muted all around. Everywhere one looks, there is something about COVID-19 and its impact. We lost our spring this year of which this is the last day.

Here is a collection of COVID-19 articles from the IEEE Spectrum (COVID-19 -- Your IEEE Resources). I wanted to point to another article dealing with Control Theory which is apropos to our work, several ways. However, that is a discussion for another time as we, basically, are stumbling toward the future as a whole. These times show that looking forward is hard, virtually impossible, except we seem to forget that (the sun rises in the east in the morning). No one expert, or set of experts, can tell us how this will unfold.

So, we look backward. Which is what the TGS, Inc. has been touting since its beginning. One post of note would be this one: A new science. As well, we need to dampen anything vanity. Of late, we have been using WikiTree for our work due to its open nature. Many ways to work are heavily controlled which can limit. We need to work a balance.

Notice that in the above article from the IEEE Spectrum they mention GitHub, in particular, a model. We ventured into GitHub and its technology (see link at our portal - TGSoc.org) last year and will be using it more (or some equivalent, perhaps, at some point). It's a way to handle management of content, usually thought of as being technical in nature. That does not have to be, as any type of content can be managed.

If you look, you will see that lots and lots of ways to do things have been offered. Some type of acceleration took place after the mobile approaches got enabled. We did our initial look a few years ago and will pivot that way more due to the lessons learned the past few months. That is, apps are in the future, but we will be looking at issues of sustainability through time. There has been enough done the past decade and one-half to make decisions that can lead the way into the future.

We are still looking forward to 2023/24 (400th) and 2026 (250th) with a perspective of establishing a more solid presence via media (in ways un-thought of, yet). Lots to do.

Remarks: Modified: 06/19/2020

06/19/2020 --

Back to DNA II

A recent comment at a post that was done last fall (Back to DNA) does redirect our attention back to DNA, in a timely fashion. Briefly, there are so many people that some of the matches are almost inevitable. Too, underlying the whole basis of this work is micro-biology and its chemical reality. We might impose our thinking top-down which is what science does from its theoretical sense, yet the reality of the situation is always something to consider respectfully and with caution. Lots to discuss. In short, though, we are more than our chemical selves. How this might be will be part of the discussion. It turns out that genealogy and history as a focus can allow a more full look. Stay tuned for how we'll introduce those topics. Or, one might say, the cultural unconscious cannot be reduced to mere memes though we have seen lots of attempts arise the past decade.

Gardner R-U106 DNA Project

On the other hand, the genetic studies do tell us something which needs to be respected. The comment by Bob Gardner, pointed to his WikiTree page on Gardner DNA which we are happy to see. A few gents related to Thomas Gardner of Salem (subject of this blog) are noted toward the bottom of the list with a J2 haplogroup. Whereas, the DNA project that Bob is doing has a focus of R-U106 (R1b) which relates to an ancient European line that is much older than many considered earlier.

One Thomas Gardner descendant that we know has done two DNA tests. One of these matched up with the FamilyTreeDNA study. On the other hand, another descendant, via Samuel, and closely related did not match up, at all. There are many more stories to pull together, as well as getting a good reading list together.

As a reminder, we are pursuing the 'science' of the matter and want to remove the marketing influences. Actually, as we have said, this stuff ought to be non-profit. There are enough examples to show that this can work. In the meantime, we will work to help establish a 'neutral' position that we see as necessary to remove some of the contrived contention that people like to create when they are motivated to do such, for many reasons.

Looking forward to digging deeper into this work thanks to Bob's reminder.

Remarks: Modified: 06/04/2020

06/04/2020 --