Philly

TL;DR -- Adaptability is a quality of life. With the 250th here, we have many ways to turn for material to consider.  Today, we let the announcement of the closing of a Museum give us pause as we consider the many roles of Philadephia. The public access might be stopped, but the Academy involved is now associated with Drexel University and will continue with its research. 

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Our focus was Essex County of MA in the beginning. Then, surrounding counties were added. And, the State of MA. And, then New England and its genealogical and historical perspectives. Then, the northeast was the area. A sidetrack of "All Things Gardner" came to be due to queries from researchers. Then, the approaching 250th got the whole of the US in perspective driven by the years after COVID where we focused on the interior plus the left coast way out there. 

This past summe, we saw this theme, time and again: visitors come in; want to bounce out from NY to LA. By car. In a few hours. The social media is full of videos with this theme. Having driven all over the country from there are lots of tales that can be told. 

That's the interesting thing now. Communications has come a long way. Some still talk "literature" in terms of research in the academic style. Books, in a row. Libraries. Hopefull, that will not quit. 

But, the new index is on the buckets'o'bits with a little more. The training has lots of the "literature" plus flim-flam from 20 years of collecting tidbits on the internet, say with social media. Screen scraping became a way of life (though not condoned nor seeming allowed). 

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Then the 250th came. Philadephia was the focus of activity then. We have had a few posts mentioning the town but will have more. 

Today, we mention an academy that was founded in 1812, in Philadelphia, with a museum that opened in 1828: Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences.  In 2011, the Academy became associated with Drexel University. 

The Academy and its collection will still exist, though the Museum is closing to the public on 30 Sep 2026. 

As we have mentioned, the 250th event kicked off seven plus years of special interest. Philadelphia will feature in this blog until 2040 (and after). That was when the U.S. Capital was moved over to Washington D.C. 

From the end of the conflict in 1783 to 1790, Philly will  have governed. Too, we can go back now and look at the pre-Revolution time from the perspective of Penn's town.   

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Back to the 250th, the President in 1812 was James Monroe from a southern state. In 1828, we saw the focus switch back north. The President was John Quincy Adams (cousin of Grizzly Adams). 

Remarks: Modified: 09/26/2026

09/26/2026 -- 

22 Sep 1692

TL;DR -- Streets of Salem published a post about this day and the hangings in Salem, MA of witches. We have had several posts on the subject. Two of those victims are in the pedigree chart of a TGS, Inc. Founder. 

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We have had several posts on witches: Gallows Hill (2019); Essex Recollections (2013); Pressing Day (2018); Imagine a meeting (2012); Meeting, again (2013); ...

Donna Seger wrote recently on the hangings of the 22nd in her blog, Streets of Salem. She pointed to several poems written about this day. 

At the top of Donna's post is a list of names, minus one which she adds later in her text. On that list are two names that are in the lineage. One was Mary Parker who was a widow with sons and property left her by her husband. 

Evidently, that property was motive. After the boys matured, they got their land back in court. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/25/2026

09/25/2026 -- 

KBE_ICAD_MSJO

TL;DR -- GenAI/LLM was on the horizon and now is actively involved day to day. Concerns for advanced software continue which need attention. Pushing forward can cause a break with former methods even if they are crucial to necessary qualities. Let's look at recapturing some of the former ways in terms of future stability. 

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Since Nov of 2022, the world has adapted to the biologically-framed "nightmare" of GenAI/LLM. If you have not paid attention, we'll summarize. There are post here going back to Feb of 2023, when I first heard of the event of Nov of 2022 and went to look at ChatGPT and others. 

Why was I not paying attention? My first reaction was, what? Idiocy. One AI Researcher of note said: this is a train-wreck waiting to happen. Some jumped on the bandwagon. I went back to review all that I learned the past 20 years as computing morph'd to use the gifts of DoW/D, namely TCP/IP, GPS, and  more. Like, the GPU. And, more. 

Lately, there is a post, who pays (9 Aug 2026)? We have to look at that. We said, technology will be our focus. It has been for a while. But, we're getting more specific as time goes along. 

This image shows a Gemini response. Note, it's labelled. I am not using AIn't (with its 'tAIn't) for writing or research. This was merely to see if work of the past few weeks has taken hold. 

These three items will be heard of constantly. A few decades ago, AI (with the provenance going back to Dartmouth) had a good handle on things. One of those things was mathematics in the applied sense as it pertains to things like tools of design and analysis (CAD, CAE, ...), machining (CNC, ...), and more. 

While CAD vendors were working to close the gap between the 2 1/2D state and full 3D modeling, people had to still do the work of modeling. And, one project pushed the envelope with respect to model requirements that had to meet the strict was of solid geometry. ICAD helped in that case. And, MSJO (multiple-surface join and offset) was a particular approach to allow hugely complication collections of surfaces to be pulled into the framework of a solid model while meeting the requirements of fit, form and function. 

 

One caveat? We didn't try to build a general intelligence. Nope, the focus was to support engineers in their work while honoring decades of software development of a mathematical and engineering nature. 

More to come. The "agentic AI" of late is full of errorful ways. We were able to meet precision necessities and to actually develop and deliver complex products, some of which are still extant in term of superior performance. 

That type of thing ought to be the goal anyway. 

Cornerstone project: Truth Engineering. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/06/2026

09/06/2026 -- 

Announcement

TL;DR -- Our cousin, DTG, has switched to another LLM with provenance on his mind. One area of focus will be Dorset in the time before and after the Dorchester Company's effort on these shores. 

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Announcement, at WikiTree

This is the "announcement" mentioned in WikiTree as a Comment in the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile. It pertains to the two-person choice and how we will proceed in our work using modern techniques. 

David Todd Gardner, for the past two years, has been working with one of the GenAI/LLMs (we'll reveal later). We had reported on his work with the Richard III incident. Was there a Gardner involvement? The TGS blog has posts on this topic. 

DTG noted by Mar/Apr of 2025, that that LLM (using the vernacular of those heavy into "agentic AI" which I will write about, too, having spent several decades in KBS/KBE where knowledge systems were powerfully effective with precision that engineers dream about. Of course, the approach was engineering support. What happened there? Essentially, for those interested, digital engineering came forth but is now being seen as messy. Lots to discuss there.) was more than 95% not verifiable. Actually, less than 2% was okay. 

Typical. Frustrating. ... But, on discussing this result, we agreed that DTG would start over and put more emphasis on provenance. How to do that is an ongoing task to figure out. 

How does this pertain to this Profile? Well, the US gave the world this stuff; the US ought to help clean it up. And, the US of 250 years (ink on paper, folks, the turmoil went on until 1783)? It was principally New England (south - VA and north - MA) that got it started. 

Back to DTG's work. He is now using Gemini/Gemma. And, DTG reports seeing records related to a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company that references Thomas Gardner. Well, we knew a Thomas was here. 

Now, we don't need to conjecture, yet. But, on the coming over, being brought back from here to there for that review would bring an interesting set of conditions. 

Related post in the blog: Modern techniques. Also,we will report our progress in DTG's blog as well as our own. 

A whole lot of adjustment will become known with respect to this technology. How much real reward can result from the efforts? At least, the work will be entertaining.

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Truth Engineering, a historic view -- post to summarize and to start to bring the old back to fore for several motivations. 

 

Modern techniques

TL;DR - Techniques related to research will continue to changte along with technology as it progresses by whatever means drives that energy. So, with respect to "origins", we are seeing an LLM used to ferret out information from that time based upon records that were digitized. Of late, information about the children was discoverd in recently digitized records. On the other hand, there was a house associated with Thomas Gardner. A proxy for this? Of course, the Fairbanks House, oldest wood structure in the US.  

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Some background on the "Announcement" today at the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile of WikiTree. 

Back in the beginning, I puzzled about missing information. Say, as compared to some families with respect to origins. The NEHGS series (Anderson) had come out before our time. Some of the information in that series conflicted with what we saw with Dr. Frank's efforts. We had started there, as he was 1st cousin of a grandfather. 

But, we had more than those 2 books, we had the articles in The Massaschusetts Magazine (principally from Dr. Frank's sister, Lucy Marion Gardner - Lucie following Sidney, May, 2017) where she picked up the work of Sidney Perley, the great walkabout of Essex County. There was more. Having started in 2010, the internet had only a few years of Web 2.0. Older material was there. I have pointers based upon general trolling back when the "search engines" were behaving. Too, there were notes from families about the material that they had accumulated (some living in the UK, and even near to Dorset). 

Early on, we knew that there would be the 400th. We'll look at that. How would it compare to the 300th and the Pageant of Salem (6 Jun 2018)? As we went to look at that effort where people of Salem played roles from 300 years prior, we added the Label of OpEd (Opinions count?, Dec 2023) as we explained after the 2023 reveal of data from Sherborne, Dorset, UK.  

As an aside, we added "OpEd" to this post in order to associate it with the ongoing research. Okay, to the gist of the matter. We look at two items which represent a slew of potential work and information. It's a matter of work. 

• Let's start with Gardner Family Trust (Apr 2026). In late Mar of 2025, we heard from DTG about his work with one of the GenAIs that had come on the scene in late 2022. 
• I was not paying close attention to that crowd (and still consider the release to be premature). The 400th of Gloucester was approaching and we were considering what to do. Having finally settled on the notion of featuring Margaret (wife of Thomas Gardner and mother of the children that we know), we were working on that set of material. On 1 Feb 2023, I heard of that release from a friend and went to look (mainly focusing on ChatGpt and Bard).This is all documented. 
• So, I knew of the AI/ML hype (biological pipedream); due to having known this stuff for decades I was amazed and appalled at the uses that people were discovering. So, mark that up for human creativity and the US as founded by those ones of Cape Ann. Anyway, DTG's work was along this line. He had found lots of information from digitized records in the UK; retrieved the scanned data, used OCR to transcribe, and then even worked translations (from Welsh, Latin, et al). It was remarkable. ... A little later, after some scrutiny, it was hard to tell the reality with most of the content being fictional. ... We discussed matters and decided for him to start over while concentrating on provenance. 
• Of late, DTG has switched to Gemini/Gemma. As such, he has been verifying the information. He confirmed the news about the Gardner involvements at Bosworth and Richard III's demise. There has been a lot of information on the London side of the family. Too, he found Thomas of Sherborne. ... Now, keeping this brief, for now, one bit of information deals with a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company in which Thomas Gardner is involved. That has my focus, right now. 
• Thomas was here, at Cape Ann. Now, was Margaret and the three boys here. If so, John was born here. The family went back. Or if he came alone, she had John in the UK. His baptism was delayed until Thomas returned. We favor that the family came over. Thomas and family then came back with the children except for Seeth who was born in Salem. 

Now, technology will be the key. We are doing this right. Who knows what data will come to fore. The information of the births was a nice surprise as John, himself, said that his father had told that they came from Sherbourne. Sure enough. The response of WikiTree? The two person split is okay, for now. But, as we find out more, we'll make sure that it is published. 

A recent post looked at the Fairbanks house which is in Dedham, MA. It dates from the 1630s. The image is from the website for the Fairbanks House. 

Jonathan Fairbanks (WikiTree) came to Boston in 1633, stayed a few years, and settled in Dedham in 1636. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Minor correction, will be back for more. 

Themes, categories

TL;DR -- We touched upon the rivers of Texas as part of our continuing theme of the rivers of the U.S. We have also looked at houses, including one brought over to Cape Ann in 1623. This was moved to Salem by John Endicott when he arrived. Winthrop then was feted in 1630 in the house when he showed up. He left Salem and went on to Boston. Today, we look at a house on the other side of Boston from Salem. It was built by the Fairbanks family and still exists in Dedham. 

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Yesterday, we looked briefly at the rivers of Texas having covered some of the U.S. rivers that are central to the history of the U.S. and its settling of its interior out to the west coast. Texas plays heavy all around and will be in focus many times. So, that's a theme but has no category involved yet. A topic that is both a theme and a category? Houses. We had a post about the house brought to Cape Ann by the Dorchester Company crew. 

This was known as the The Governor's "Fayre House" (named such by John Endicott). This mention by the Bigelow Society will get more attention: 

It is well known from contemporaneous evidence that Capt. John Endecott, upon his arrival, had floated up from Cape Ann a frame house that had been erected there for use at the fishing settlement. This seems to have been the best house in the infant settlement, as the early cabins and cottages built by the fishermen from Cape Ann, along the shore of the North River in Salem, had all disappeared by 1661.

We have had several posts on that house. Thomas Gardner's crew brought the material from England. Later reports mentioned that it had been constructed and built for transportation. The Conant family was there for a while. After being moved to Naumkeag, it hosted Winthrop (see Hype, 1600s) in 1630 while he decided on whether Salem was suitable. Later, the Downings extended the house. Their daughter (Ann) married the son (Joseph) of Thomas Gardner; the couple lived in the house. Joseph was killed in a conflict with the natives. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. The house got his name. 

At some point the house was torn down; some buildings in Salem had been built with the wood. This link may have been lost in the Salem fire of 1914. 

Today, we look at another house which is in Dedham MA and appeared in 1637. This was built by Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks. Now a museum, the original house is there with extensions made over the years. In terms of location, Dedham is on the opposite of Boston from Salem and was incorporated in 1636, same year that Salem got its name. 

Fairbanks House
Bigelow Society

This area is close to where Thomas Gardner of Roxbury lived. In terms of interest, we start with CapeAnn and Salem and then Essex County. After that, Massachusetts is the focus along with New England. Of late, interest is being directed toward the 250th viewpoint, but we will be stressing the 400th and other mileposts along the way to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2026

08/23/2026 --  

Texas and its water

TL;DR -- As the 250th goes on, we will look at what we have done and discuss the future. One focus is technology. Part of that deals with real assets, such as waterways. This post considers Texas, and its rivers, briefly. 

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This post reviews prior work in the context of the 250th this year. We have had many posts about the waterways of the U.S. Some of these served as a means for transportation (say, the Ohio from PA to MO and further). They were barriers, as any that is too deep for fording, even if only a certain time of the year. They were sources for food. And, definitely, human life and health relied upon clean water. 

Somehow, we forgot Texas. As the map shows, it has many rivers. All drain to the Gulf, from the Rio Grande on the west to the eastern rivers (such as the Red River) that head to the Mississippi River first. Everything is larger in Texas, as the map illustrates: 191,000 miles of rivers. 

Texas Truths and Tall Tales
FB (Meta)

The Trinity River starts north of the Dallas area and flows toward the southeast to the Houston area, emptying into Galveston Bay.  

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2026

08/22/2026 --