Family traditions

There is always a strong reliance, as a human trait, upon what we learn from our parents. They give us a message which we, in turn, carry forward. For a long part of human history, verbal renditions were the vogue. In fact, a lot of what we see claimed for genealogical data came from tales, some of which were captured to paper or stone (to wit, Runes).

Now, once some bit of fact is in a more permanent mode, is it any truer? That is, stories rely upon memory (suspect for several reasons), ability to repeat (again, information theory has something to say about this), hearing and interpreting issues, and much more. When something is captured to written form, it can endure centuries whether it is right or wrong (to wit, genealogical bits that were shown to be not true, yet persist -- even on the web, we cannot retract easily).

Not to pick on one family, as this problem exists everywhere, but Anthony Potter (see Notes), the 3rd great-grandfather (maternal) of Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a good example. Some have his first wife, Elizabeth Whipple, as the mother of his kids. Whereas she may have died without issue. So, that would make the second wife, Elizabeth Stone, the mother.

When browsing, one can figure these things out by comparing dates, assuming that they are correct. Of course, a mother may have died at childbirth.

The whole point is that there is no absolute certainty (as in proof) about these types of facts. Yet, we can rate things by strength. Too, we can show both the information that supports and that which casts doubt. In fact, that would make the field not unlike any science.

That is, at any point, we can add to a strong state of knowledge or we can weaken a position. But, the fact would not stand alone and would need to have its data package (we'll look at this further).

However, all tales of these types contain some element of truth. Isn't life better with them? And, hoping that some unsupported claim might be true, while waiting for confirmation or not, is better than a practiced, cynical, critical eye that assumes nothing (impossible for the human) until all facts are on the table.

Of course, it boils down to the symbols (artifacts) in hand and their ability to support proof (another whole issue). Will this work always result in some dried collection of bones upon which we need to paint a proper hypothetical portrait (a human trait that is not bad, necessarily)?

Remarks:

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

01/09/2011 -- One would hope that each generation would leave behind some contribution so as to make the family history more solid, that is, reduce misinformation. Modern methods, and computation, seems to suggest such. Of course, disinformation (ought we say, dis-ingenuity) is always a possibility.

01/01/2011 -- We will have a post that points to sites that allow an estimation of strength through notes and such.

Modified: 05/05/2011

The early times

Earlier, we listed Thomas's (and Margaret's) children and grandchildren: Two generations. Then, we used one child to show a line from Samuel to Simon Stacy (DAR patriot): The progeny. Too, we mentioned that we will extend this Samuel line to Dr. Frank A. as we proceed.

But, before we come forward in time, a few posts on the early times are in order. As one collects, for their tree those families who were early immigrants, the family count can go up quite quickly. Some of the interplays between families can be used to illustrate the points (RD, etc.) that have been discussed so far.

So, let's pick the Hathorne example. Here we can look at the descendants of two of the Gardner children, namely George and Samuel. Now, John Hathorne, the judge of the 1692 tribulations, married Ruth Gardner who was the daughter of George. It is from this that we get Nathaniel as a descendant of Thomas. Ruth's brother, Samuel (son of George), was the forebear of the John Lowell Gardners. Remember that the grandfather, William Hathorne, and father of John had come over with Winthrop (1630, Arbella).

Concerning the Hathorne tie, the Neuman-Smith-Goodale family has an interesting tree that shows a pedigree for both John and Ruth. The Ruth expansion, in this tree, shows Stephen which we saw earlier.

---

This post's research affords the opportunity to update the earlier descendants list in which Ruth was blank. We have two that we can show: Putnam, et al and Kathleen's Kousins.

Aside: the current mode is collection (there is a whole lot of material available) and rudimentary analysis which will strengthen as we proceed.

---

Now, another Hathorne tie is with Abel who is a grandson of Thomas, through Samuel. Abel married Sarah Porter. Her mother was John Hathorne's sister, Elizabeth. We can use the Neuman, et al, tree, from above. An interesting note is that Elizabeth and her husband, Israel Porter, led the unsuccessful effort to save Rebecca Nurse.

---

Now, that brings in Simon Stacy Gardner, again, who is Abel's grandson. We had pursued the RD example, using his mother, Phyllis Stacy (Neuman, et al). A Remark (12/06/2010) suggested, also, that there was RD via a White line. We can add another using the Elizabeth through, for example (as there are several), the Capell line (Bevan's work).

Remarks:

03/01/2019 -- We're building an index by images on our Portal to truth.

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.

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

09/04/2013 -- Again, the scene is built as follows. Those who came over are from the 10th to 13th generations back (for the most part) for someone alive now. By the time of 1692, lots of the earlier arrivals had passed on. So, that left the second generation (again, for the most part) as the elders. Now, taking a cohort mix (generational cut) round or about 1692 would give us someone on the current person's tree who would have about three generations living (including the level of their own cohorts). So, we would see siblings/cousins, parents/aunts/uncles, and the greats. In other words, it's a composite person that is built from that cohort mix (meaning, of course, that being on the tree implies ancestry) for which we can identify relationships blood (including 1/2 blood), in-law, and even friends. What Marjorie's chart does is to take someone who is in the mix and look at extended relationships. Now, consider what we would have if we did that for a large part of the composite mix. Would it not be an interesting view?

01/10/2013 -- The Bevan database was updated on 01/05/2013 which pushed pointers around (one of the risks of the rootsweb method). Will take awhile to follow all of these - the correction requires a simple adjustment of the pointer by 10s or a little more.

12/02/2011 -- More on Ruth (Gardner) Hawthorne.

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

02/22/2011 -- We'll be using the Great Migration material a lot.

01/10/2011 -- The Winthrop Society has a passenger listing by some of the ships.

12/24/2010 -- Thomas has 6 pages, starting at page 731 (see NEHGS), in Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III.

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

Modified: 03/01/2019

More progeny

As mentioned in the earlier post, the descendants list would be very large. That earlier post used Frank A's first book (1907). A later book (1933) covered George Gardner's line. The latter book, in part, looked at the John Lowell Gardners.

Following the same approach as before, there are several families who have gathered this information. One example is the Larson tree which shows the Weld, Lowell, Pickering, and Peabody relationships. Another is the Dowling tree which we have seen several times before.

Now, in terms of RD, there are several in this tree, starting with Mary (Gye) Maverick and Percival Lowell both of whom are on the gateway list. It would be interesting to pick through the tree to find all of the possible RDs.

We might try that sort of thing when we do a post on Frank A. (see Remarks, 12/06/2010) that will provide one thread for Thomas/Samuel. Frank A. has several interesting RD nodes in his Gardner tree.

---

The search will continue for more information. At some point, comments will point out missing pieces or, hopefully, will actually offer additions. One goal may be a data base that has been scrutinized, rated, and made available for reference.

---

As we saw earlier, George, Thomas' second son, had eight kids. It is interesting to see this expansion of daughter Hannah's descendants (Larson family). We will be collecting more of these.

Remarks:  Modified: 10/25/2020

12/15/2010 -- Ran across the Larson tree, at this site which will be used again. Larson has descendants for these kids of Thomas (in order of the list): Sarah, Thomas (error?, note marriage to Lucy Smith), George, John, Samuel, Richard, and Seeth.

12/16/2010 -- Note that Charles Sanders Peirce (Wikipedia) is on the Seeth list. Edmund Wilson (Wikipedia) is on the George list. Both added to the descendants list.

12/16/2010 -- Conover's site is pointed to from the at wargs site and has an expansion for Seeth/Conant (Joshua). Here is another for Joshua for comparison. We'll be see trees from these two families as there is overlap with the Dr Frank A tree.

02/01/2013 -- Update for rootsweb reference for Larson tree.

02/08/2011 -- Saw a notice at NEHGS that William Addams Reitwiesner died in November of 2010. His site, at wargs.com, is being maintained by his literary executor.

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

10/11/2018 -- One goal is to have the first five generations documented in one place. We are looking at WikiTree for that.

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). 

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

Historical genealogy

Notes:

• The page on William Gardner (see below) was deleted on 02/06/2013.
•  See Remarks (02/06/2013 and 06/15/2013) for related discussion. A future post will take a brief look at origins (with a reference to this material).
• See Remarks (10/10/2018) for recap. Some of the links in this post may be stale (will look for those, at some point)

---

The end of the middle ages can be linked with the War of the Roses. A key event was the Battle of Bosworth. Richard III of the House of York was killed at Bosworth Field; he was the last of the Plantagenet kings.

Battle of Bosworth 1485

Some say that William Gardner was one of the slayers of King Richard and that William later married Helen Tudor who was the granddaughter of Owen Tudor.

There are several questions to ask about William and Helen. Who were their children? What do we know of succeeding generations? It turns out that there are several viewpoints. Let's look at a couple of these.

In the Who's Who of Tudor Women by Kathy Lynn Emerson, we find this about William and Helen (c. 1459-1488). They were married before the Battle of Bosworth. Their only confirmed child was Thomas (c. 1479-1506) who was a Pryor at Tynemouth. Emerson also says that they were not parents of Stephen (d. 1555), Richard (1486-1546), William (1488-1549), or Alice (d. 1588) Gardner.

On the other hand, the Wikipedia article on Stephen Gardiner says that William was his father. Stephen was twice the Bishop of Winchester. Too, he managed to survive the turmoil of the times. Also, Richard and William (mentioned above) were brothers of Stephen.

I thought that it might be interesting to look at the results of the research of several families. There seems to be a common theme. As before, I have provided links to databases at rootsweb.

• Dowling tree, descendants of Stephen Gardiner shows Lionel's line
• Walker tree, descendants of Stephen Gardiner shows the Thomas of Salem's line
• Knowlton tree, descendants of Stephen Gardiner suggests siblings for Thomas of Salem and ties in the Lionel line. The tree quotes Burke's Peerage and some genealogy work by Thomas Richard Gardiner.

One goal is to fill in Thomas' and Margaret's ancestry. As well, looking at how the Gardner families relate will continue to be of interest.

Remarks: Modified: 10/10/2018

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

12/14/2012 -- This has been a popular post.

02/05/2013 -- Recent interest in Richard III has caused a renewed focus on information about his life. This post from about two years ago was motivated by a Wikipedia page whose content is now undergoing scrutiny. Since this discussion pertains to our work, we'll keep abreast of things as they move along. Note: there is a vote going on about the possible deletion of the page on William Gardner.

02/06/2013 -- The William Gardner page was deleted today (see discussion page). Also, see section on Wyllyam Gardynyr (archived 06 May 2013) under Richard III talk. When making the Remarks yesterday, I had not looked at the article since this post was done and was not aware of the expected time for the deletion. The William "wiki" page was one item on a huge pile of material to review that relates to origins (open topic, future consideration). Also, the author (of the William Gardner page) seems to have had more than one page deleted from Wikipedia. At this point, let me put a link to Wikipedia's Five pillars as a reminder about content to be put there.

06/15/2013 -- John Farmer wrote that Thomas was from Scotland. Origins are, and will be, a focus. ... As of today, this is the all-time, most-read post. Coming in second is Old Planters, Beverly.

06/15/2013 -- For the Wyllyam Gardynyr discussion, see prior version (archived 06 May 2013). At some point, I ought to see what the deleted Wiki pages were all about. That is, looking at origins would encompass the whole bit, out of which would then come the real story. That has not been done, that I can see, as of 2013 is not troublesome. Things come forward all the time. Too, has anyone surveyed the work to date in a comprehensive manner (meaning, of course, scholarly)? One goal will be to start, and sustain, such studies that would augment what has already been done as well as explore holes (which have to be defined, for starters). In the meantime, we'll try to document Thomas' life (such as, pulling out things related to character) and progeny. Also, we ought to look more closely at Damaris Shattuck and Thomas. That he married a Quaker and didn't suffer the wrath of the likes of Endicott says something (Mary Dyer was hung in 1660).

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

04/07/2015 -- We have more questions than answers (research raises both).

06/10/2016 -- There is more to the story than I realized: Bosworth and more. We will have more to add to the FAQ.

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

10/10/2018 -- We just printed TGA Vols III and IV (available for purchase) which contains David T. Gardner's articles about the Gardners, Bosworth, and Tudors. As well, historical author, Douglas Richardson, has William Gardner in his books (Plantagenet Ancestry, Magna Carta Ancestry and Royal Ancestry) with his marriage to Helen Tudor (see Our Royal, Titled, Noble, and Commoner Ancestors & Cousins site).

10/11/2018 -- Most links work (not bad after 10 years). Resorted the Remarks to earliest to latest as this subject will be an ongoing one. And, we can just append a next comment. Just checked on page for Stephen Gardiner, the archbishop. It mentions William as possible father, whereas before it said that John was thought to be his father.

RD example, using gateway

We have seen that genealogy can involve a large number of families and individuals. That is, Thomas Gardner of Salem has thousands (100s of) descendants that could be named. So, one on-going exercise might be to look at the disparate trees that come from research by various families and try to merge these.

D.A.R. has a project that is along this line where threads, from the member to the patriot, are documented at each generation. Then, these ought to establish a tree that has some strength when joined together.

Our problem is that we have to go back before the time of the American Revolution which is the focus of D.A.R. For instance, in Dr. Frank A's tree, there is an ancestor who was at Bunker Hill, 1775 -- Thomas Gardner descendant of Thomas Gardner of Roxbury. What is the relationship between the Salem and Roxbury families? As well, there are many other patriots in the D.A.R database who are documented.

Now, if we could start with a database, like the D. A. R. one, then it might be a little easier. Then, assuming that the different families have done a good job going back from the D.A.R information, we could attempt the a merge, with caution. Some other groups seem to offer this type of possibility, such as the descendants of Newbury founders.

For several reasons, trees that have some RD link seem to be more full and better documented. But, too, having the RD list makes it easier as then the work is just going back to the gateways. Which, with a D. A. R. basis, one is only talking about 100 years or so to fill in.

In this post, we look at a couple of trees that show convergence to a royal gateway for a Thomas descendant. There are many more that we hope to itemize in a separate post.

In this case, the individual is Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (b 1835 - Civil War General) who is a descendant of Thomas Gardner of Salem through his son, Richard. Charles' maternal great-grandfather is Nathaniel Gorham, Jr (of course, also a Thomas descendant), who was a signer of the U.S. Constitution. One of Charles' paternal grandfathers is John Quincy Adams, the 6th U.S. President.

Now, let's look at two of the many trees that have Charles in them. And, remember, each family only expands to the extent necessary for their work (it is rare to find a fully developed tree; is one goal here to get all of Thomas' descendants to 1900, for example?).

One tree is from the Dowling family which shows Elizabeth Coytmore as great-grandmother of John Quincy, the forebear of the President. Elizabeth is on the gateway list maintained by the Brookfield Ancestor Project.

Who is Elizabeth? She descends from Edward III of England. We will look for further information on her.

However, another tree (01/03/2013 - removed link as database is gone) expands the mother's side more and shows Myles Standish, who is also on some gateway lists. Myles is well-known from all the Thanksgiving stories in which he features.

Remarks:

09/09/2021 -- We have been working with the team at WikiTree on several themes. One deals with Gateways and uses Magna Carta Barons as a focus. For each Gateway, a particular path is followed and brought up to date. See Trail Tracks. 

07/20/2013 -- Interesting work, and related database, at PASE.uk, including a database built upon the Domesday Book (can identify old families).

01/06/2013 -- Ten years ago, The Atlantic had a nice article on Humphry's work. I ran across his site in the last couple of years, at some point, so it was nice to run across the article.

01/03/2013 -- One of the rootsweb databases disappeared which is good as it demonstrates the need to consider persistence (both short and the longer term).

04/30/2012 -- We see, in the tree examples, two of the early Thomases (of Salem and of Roxbury). That was not planned, but it is of interest for a couple of reasons. Many have these two related to each other; another view says not. After a couple of years of experience now, these types of nuances become more apparent.

01/14/2011 -- Improve the discussion of a ratcheted method where attempts at closing a gap (more extrapolation than not) would have a stronger basis. Added links.

11/23/2010 -- Necessary studies include prosopography. Charlemagne features so heavily in the royal trees due to the amount of sponsored work related to identifying his descendants.

Modified: 09/09/2021

The progeny

The list of descendants will be large for Thomas and Margaret. One goal will be to fill in the tree, completely, to about the year 1900. That would cover over 250 years on this side of the pond.

Too, there will be posts dealing with the RD theme. Why? Looking at associated families can help us fill in Thomas' past. As said before, I'm going with Savage's view, for now. So, expect to see pointers to work done by other families.

Of course, work will continue for the period from 1900 to 2010. But, for the next few posts, the blog will focus on the earlier times.

---

We hope to put out interesting stories from time to time as they are found.

The intent is to have GEDCOM files, at some point, with confirmed data; the organization of these files is still an open issue as they will need to be partitioned, I think. By the way, GEDCOM (below are pointers to trees that intersect the Thomas') is a standard way to document genealogical data. But, there need to be an interesting way to present the data. The below examples are from the RootsWeb site.

---

Before we show some RD links, let's talk numbers again. Going back to Thomas and Margaret would be around 10 to 12 generations for people living now. So, if there were a fully developed tree going back from oneself, you would start with your two parents, then your four grandparents, then eight 1ggps. That's three generations, so we're using 2**3 (or 2 to the 3rd power). 2 to the 12th power is 4,096. You'll see example trees below. The actual number can be much lower due to things like intermarriages.

But, when we come forward, from Thomas and Margaret, it is not binary. In fact, there are nine kids at the first generation. Yet, if we considered that there were only four, for each generation coming forward, by the time of 12 generations, there would be 16 million cousins for your self. Or, as they say, Thomas and Margaret would have that many descendants living. In total, as one summed over the generations, total descendants would be 22 millon.

---

Now, we'll start with a Samuel descendant named Simon Stacy Gardner (Plumer tree). Simon is on the Daughters of the American Revolution list of patriots and is only four generations from Thomas and Margaret (Thomas/Samuel/Abel/Abel). Simon's father was Abel whose grandmother (Elizabeth) was a sister of John Hathorne. But, Elizabeth, and her husband's family, not fevered by the mania and did sane things, like try to save Rebecca Nurse.

If we look at work done by various families, we can find charts like this example pedigree chart for Simon 's mother's grandfather (Thomas Stacy - Smith/Goodale tree). As mentioned before, these types of charts will be verified. But, for the point of RD, notice that Margery Eyre (Caldwell tree) is in the tree; her grandmother is shown to be Elizabeth Fitzwilliam (Bevan tree).

By this time, the tree has really expanded. Poking around brings up a lot of royal links, such as this for Henri I, of France (Bevan tree). Wikipedia has a chart for his ancestry.

---

Given that we went backward (with an expanding tree, remember?), how do we know that the link from Elizabeth back to Simon Stacy can be supported? We'll go into that next time and use another example that leads back to what is called a gateway. That is, a number of immigrants had documented histories. Many families knew this, at the time. For many, the knowledge was lost. But, if one can map back to a gateway with documentation, then one can consider RD for one's self.

The rule, according to the NEHGS, is for us to handle this side of the pond (back to the gateway). Then, issues over there will be resolved via their methods. And, through time, there is progress as missing information comes to fore (we'll later use the example of a Mayflower passenger who seemed to have been lost but was later found to have lived in Salem).

---

Again, the reason for following this method is that the closer one is to a royal line the better the sourcing material. Then, from those one can try to fill in gaps. But, it is not always possible to do so (examples abound).

Remarks:

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

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). 

01/06/2013 -- Ten years ago, The Atlantic had a nice article on Humphry's work. I ran across his site in the last couple of years, at some point, so it was nice to run across the article.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

04/27/2011 -- We'll get back to the pedigree of Simon Stacy Gardner. One of his grandfathers was Thomas Maule.

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

12/24/2010 -- Need to answer the question about Ebenezer (Maine, Samuel/Abel/Thomas). Plus, here is an interesting page.

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

12/06/2010 -- Another tree for Simon would show RD from Thomas through Samuel / Abel / Abel (Dollhopf family). This lineage has John White who, according to Bevan, descends from Henry III (Wikipedia ancestry chart). -- If we skip forward, to Frank A (who will have his own page), his grandmother (Lucy F. Wilson) has John White as an ancestor, as well. This is through Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. William Walton (Bevan - we'll get to that when looking at Frank A.) . Benjamin Brown Gardner, Lucy's husband, was Simon Stacy Gardner's grandson.

11/12/2010 -- RD example using a gateway.

11/11/2010 -- Ole Larson is back for one RD reference. His genealogy site is a good example.

11/10/2010 -- The Bevan trees will be used a lot. The family's chief immigrant is on the list of gateways. A claim is firmed by using confirmed gateways, however there is missing information that can be discovered at any time (Richard More, for example). Too, efforts like the D.A.R. of verifying pedigrees (essentially a linear projection) and then matching these up to build a tree will allow holes to be identified, and filled.

Modified: 10/25/2020

Two generations

These posts may appear irregularly, for awhile; that is due, mainly, to the large amount of material that needs to be read, digested, correlated, counted (the mind has a metrical basis) and such.

Thomas was an early arriver (1623/24); then, the tree for his direct descendant that I'm working on has several hundred New England families in it that were here before 1650. That means that these families have many generations here, too. Fortunately, a lot of these families have researched their history both here and on the other side of the pond.

For Thomas' past, before his arrival (which we'll get to), I am going to consider that James Savage was the most insightful as his family originates from the area that he proposed for Thomas. In fact, some of the trees associated with the Gardner one that I'm working have a Savage somewhere in the line. We will have posts looking backward, hopefully for Margaret, too.

In total in the above-mentioned tree, there are almost 100 families claiming royal descent (Ole's blog, example), some of these are on the NEHGS list. The interplay of the plebian and the aristocratic will be a story that we will have to feature from time to time. One modern analyst made the claim that a source for recent problems can be attributed to aristocratic notions being maintained in England and being brought over here by some.

---

As mentioned before, Thomas, and his life, can be the foundation for very good discussions that may have a lot to add to understanding the current quandary brought on, for the most part, by those considered to be the 'best and brightest' (give us a break).

---

Now, to consider this side of paradise, let's go forward from Thomas. Like the Mayflower group, with their list for three generations, we'll start with Thomas' kids and carry this forward a couple of notches as a means to identify gaps.

In the below list, we'll start first with information from Dr Frank's book about spouses and children. There may be pointers to work done already, for some, but only as an example (meaning, of course, to be verified). Also, the pointer may be only to partial information. At some point, the goal is to pull this data together, hopefully with a full tree that includes both genders' offspring. That is, for each generation, fill in the information for all siblings, to the extent possible, of course.

Note: The links for Thomas' grandkids below (bold and larger font) came from the work of Kathleen Hall Boyce who spent 2010 looking at the Gardners.

• Thomas - m. 1st Hannah __ (Mary, Thomas, Eliza, Abigaile, Bethia, Hannah, Jonathan), Elizabeth __ (David, Susannah, Dorcas)
• George - m. 1st Eliza Horne (Hannah, Samuel, Mary, George, Bethiah, Ebenezer, Mehitable, Ruth), 2nd Mrs Ruth Turner, 3rd Mrs Elizabeth Stone
• Richard - m. Sarah Shattuck (Joseph, Richard, Sarah, Deborah, Damorice, James, Miriam, Nathaniel, Hope, Love)
• John -m. Priscilla Grafton (John, Joseph, Priscilla, Benjamin, Rachell, George, Benjamin, Ann, Nathaniel, Mary, Mehitable, Ruth)
• Samuel - m. 1st Mary White (Mary, Eliza, Mary, Margaret, Samuel, George, Jonathan, Hannah, Abel), 2nd Elizabeth Paine -- This is the descendant tree that I'm following. rootsweb.com is interesting. Here is a descendants chart for Samuel and a pedigree chart for Abel, his son. Some pedigree charts are a little more extensive (to be checked edited 04/16/2012).
• Joseph - m. Ann Downing
• Sarah - m. Benjamin Balch (Samuel, Benjamin, John, Joseph, Freeborn, Sarah, Abigail, Ruth, Mary, Jonathan, David)
• Miriam - m. John Hill (Miriam, William Hascall, Susan)
• Seeth -m. 1st Joshua Conant, 2nd John Grafton (Mary, Joseph Hardy, Seeth , Abigail, Jehoadam, Margaret, Nathaniel)

Remarks:

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

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

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). 

02/01/2013 -- Update rootsweb link to Larson tree. 

04/16/2012 -- Changed link, Samuel. When these databases get updated, pointers change. So, we really need to have a query-based approach. In the meantime, go to 'Index' and enter the name. In this case, it was "Gardner, Thomas" which then brings up the right person. The graph is via Pedigree. 

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

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

01/09/2011 -- We'll have posts related to the madness of 1692.

12/20/2010 -- For Ruth, daughter of George, see post on the Hathorne connection.

12/16/2010 -- A descendants chart for Miriam: Susan

11/28/2010 -- The pedigree for Thomas Gardner (Salem) at the Boyce site changed. So, the link has been removed. Since databases at rootsweb are updated regularly, pages can change. Hence, the procedure might be to do an image capture of the tree, or a portion, with a link to the current tree. That, folks, is one maintenance item that will be required for web-based approaches. This is a type of degradation. Another item removed today was a pointer that was to a local file rather than to a web-based file.

11/10/2010 -- Ole Larson is back. His genealogy site.

10/31/2010 -- About cousin calculations.

10/31/2010 -- For RD example, switched from the excellent example of Ole Larson (his blog has disappeared -- evidently he died in August, 2010) to the blog of the Slovak Yankee, for now.

10/29/2010 -- Another thing to look at will be the famous cousin game as it seems to be ubiquitously present; that is, it is found seemingly everywhere that there is a genealogical site. We have already started a list of Thomas' descendants which can be extended as we learn more. Cousins can be extracted from that list. As well, interplays between all of the families brings in another set. So far, I've identified relationships in the tree with 27 of the Presidents of the USA. Then, the list of luminaries is large, many in the arts and sciences. Of course, attainment in some religious sense is represented, too. Then, we have that for which Salem is famous.

Needless to say, and given that Thomas was in Salem early, we'll need to look at the mania of 1692 which, by the way, is apropos to the topic of two generations. We've already shown that [Nathaniel, offspring of] John Hathorne (the main judge) was a descendant of Thomas. And, many of Thomas' descendants have a number of those involved in the Salem area troubles as grands (parents, aunts, and uncles) in their tree.

Modified: 10/25/2020

Stories and unwindings

As we proceed with looking at what is known about Thomas, and Margaret, we'll see lots of different views. These all need to be examined, during which time a collection of unknowns will be gathered.

For the most part, the ensuing bibliography will include pointers to on-line publications, where possible.

Early Settlers of Nantucket ... 

We must all be grateful for the organization of Gardner information accomplished by Frank A. Gardner, MD who spent many years on the subject of Thomas' descendants: "Thomas Gardner Planter (Cape Ann 1623-1625, Salem, 1626-1674) and some of his descendants" printed by Higginson Genealogical Books, 1907 (via Google Books). Dr Frank's work will provide the basis for an updated view.

As well, there will be stories from the period. One example would be William Folger's remarks about the sons of Thomas who migrated to Nantucket. These can be found in "Early Settlers of Nantucket Their Associates and Descendants" compiled by Lydia S. Hinchman and printed by J.B. Lippincott Company, 1896 (via Google Books), see Chapter X (image).

Now, in terms of unwindings, there was an article published about the Jamaica Plain (essentially Roxbury) of Boston that we need to look at closely and discuss. The article is on the Jamaica Plain Historical Society site and is dated 1999.

What needs attention is that Thomas of Salem is mentioned, as father of Peter, and his brother, Thomas who settled in Roxbury in the early 1670s. The article mentions Joseph Gardner (to be identified) and John Lowell Gardner who is a descendant of Thomas Gardner of Salem.

Now, 'unwinding' is used as a metaphor for separability. If there is no separation, then the unwinding cannot work. How can we know?

Several personal genealogical sites have the Salem and the Roxbury families intertwined. Was Dr Frank correct in his unwinding?

We can expect that we'll see all sorts of questions arise as we look at these issues. How many there will be, and how many of these we can answer, remains to be determined.

As mentioned earlier, perhaps, there will be DNA-related studies done, at some point, to determine relationships.

Remarks:

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

07/12/2015 -- We mention abductive approaches (my career was spent in advanced computing - software and modelling, essentially). Please refer, at least, to C.S. Peirce's (we mentioned him in an earlier post - Benjamin Peirce) work in the area. [Love it: From Ugly Duckling to Swan]

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.

07/11/2015 -- Point to Pg. 79, of Early Settlers of Nantucket ..., for quote on Gardners.

04/07/2015 -- We have more questions than answers (research raises both).

10/03/2014 -- Recent find of a marriage record for Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar in the records of Sherborne.

08/22/2013 -- The start of a look at what was what in early Salem (and New England) as far as Gardners is concerned.

07/21/2011 -- From whence? Coffin, from Nantucket, said Dorset (Sherborne).

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

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

10/22/2010 -- I got the Folger reference from Sandra (Whalen) Bauer who is a descendant of William Folger.

Modified: 08/06/2016

Where is Thomas?

The problem of 'Where is Thomas?' was asked earlier. Answering that question seemed to be a reasonable task to attempt to accomplish.

Dr. Frank mentioned a 'Gardner burying ground' (pg 11) that had passed through several hands over the years. One thing of interest might have been following all those transactions using the maps from several points in time.

Dr. Frank said that Thomas was buried on these grounds as was Seeth, his daughter. Too, grandson Abel, and his wife Sarah Porter, were there. It might be of interest to collect other names.

I spoke today, by phone, to the Harmony Grove Cemetery and learned a little about the graves that were in the area of Boston and Grove (in Salem). Dr Frank said Main and Grove, but we know that these types of boundaries move about.

According to Harmony Grove records, the graves were moved, sometime in the 1840s. According to Dr. Frank, this was to allow for Grove to be put in.

After the phone discussion, I remembered that there is an ongoing effort to document grave information to allow internet search. Sure, enough, Thomas is on the list along with Abel and Sarah. Gosh, isn't the Internet great? This seems to be an effort, like Wikipedia, where volunteers put in the information.

• Thomas "The Planter" Gardner -- the writeup includes links to one of the pages about Thomas plus to a 1692 map of Salem. Dr. Frank mentioned that the burial ground was near Strong Water brook which would have been the south side of the area marked Northfields.
• Lieut Abel Gardner -- son of Samuel who was son of Thomas
• Sarah Porter Gardner -- her mother was the sister of John Hathorne

We need to find out about Seeth and others who may have been there.

Remarks:

01/04/2019 -- This topic will be followed more regularly this year (344th of 29 December 1674). We will initiate a discussion on WikiTree (see link in sidebar) in support of the research.

10/25-26/2018 -- With a new twist, as bodies and stones were also moved to the Trask site. Add in Sidney Perley's map of Gardner Hill.

Perley on Gardner Hill

08/12/2018 -- Thomas, with others on Gardner Hill, was left where he was. Stones were moved over to Harmony Grove Cemetery. A few of those withstood the move, say that for Seeth. Most did not and are piled somewhere. At the burial site, though, the road was cut through. So, the remains? Well, moved to God only knows. Or, if the burial was away from the road, it is beneath some structure. Lots to think about. Reflect on. How to proceed into this mire?

08/17/2015 -- Response to Wikipedia change that questions the move(?).

06/26/2015 -- Where was and is he?

03/12/2015 -- Dr. Frank's 1933 book (pg. 22) does not mention the move.

11/16/2012 -- In preparation for the upcoming 400th, we ought to find Thomas' stone (Able's and Sarah's, too) and get it set back up in an accessible manner.

02/13/2012 -- Thomas was around here, in 1641. 

05/22/2011 -- Thomas is somewhere in this area.

10/01/2010 -- Too, where is Margaret? Also, we need to pinpoint the exact location within the cemetery for these graves, and stones.

Modified: 01/04/2019

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.

Families, related families, sites and questions

We are going to collect a whole bunch of pointers here. These will be organized, at some point, with commentary, as necessary.

Parts of the family. In his book, Dr Frank mentioned the problem of collecting materials from parts of the family who resided outside of New England. With the web, we ought to be able to point to, or collect, material from anywhere. At some point, a repository will be necessary, it is assumed (Essex Institute, NEHGS, other).

• Rhode Island Gardners -- see Gardners and Gardners
• Maine Gardners -- This line is Samuel/Abel/Israel. My wife's line is Samuel/Abel/Abel.
• Ebenezer's house in Maine -- Samuel/? (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• ...

Related families. For now, pointers.

• Hall Boyce -- a large descendent's chart
• Balch -- see Sarah (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• Stone -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, Sarah
• Behling -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, John
• Kenzie -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, John
• Kimball -- My college roommate was a Kimball. My wife's tree has Kimball appearing several times.
• ...

General material.

• Evidently, Thomas built a house at Cape Ann (there is a book about this written, that I saw at the Essex Institute, by a John Gardner descendant). Did Endecott move this house to Salem? Did it then move to Boston?
• Salem Roll Call -- we'll sign up, using the Thomas Gardner Society
• John White's The Planters' Plea -- when I looked at this, I thought, did he sell his nephew down the river?
• Balch's land grant. Sarah's family. (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• Higginson never mentioned Thomas, though he spent several years in the Salem area. His progeny married into the Gardner family, whence some of the Cabots are on the Thomas list. Too, Higginson Books published Frank's book.
• ...

It's imperative to have a listing of blogs that might be of interest or that might set a good example of how to organize the material.

• Boston 1775 -- we need to collect stories like this
• Ole's blog (olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/category/the-ancient-past) -- liked his take on the royals (RD) -- Ole's site lost its context which was wonderful. If he is deceased, we'll greatly miss this material.
• Turn the hearts -- like the stories
• ...

Remarks:

03/01/2019 -- We're building an index by images on our Portal to truth.

04/07/2015 -- We have more questions than answers (research raises both).

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

08/15/2011 -- Added image for the house (Margaret's house) that Thomas built. Expect to see more about this. The material, of course, was brought over. It was supposedly finished in 1624, taken over by Conant when he got there, and moved by Endecott to Salem. Collecting stories about this.

06/20/2011 -- On methods other than bounded paper.

05/05/2011 -- On Ebenezer plus Balch and Coffin.

12/24/2010 -- Albert and Patricia Ann Meyers' page on Thomas (note, can change, but recoverable by going to the index). [05/05/2011 -- did change?? In general, any trees from rootsweb can change due to re-indexing when there is an update. Our own database would overcome that.]

12/24/2010 -- Need to answer the question about Ebenezer (Maine, Samuel/Abel/Thomas). Plus, here is an interesting page.

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

11/10/2010 -- Ole Larson is back. His genealogy site.

10/31/2010 -- Ole Larson's blog has disappeared (did he die in August, 2010?)

10/29/2010 -- We can use the first couple of generations as the basis to establish the inter-family relationships.

10/13/2010 -- We need to start a bibliography, with categories.

Modified: 03/01/2019