Saturday, December 31, 2011

Posts of interest - 2011

Did a summary of summaries in December 2019. Started metrics a little later: the metrical.  

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As a means (an attempt) to freeze a point in time (which we know is not possible), the last post of 2011 will list the top four posts in terms of having been read (well, views, anyway). Perhaps, this will be a yearly event.

Aside: As said in Mission and Method, posts are to contribute to a theme, though there may be divergent ones from time to time. Blogs allow categories, but these are problematic since they collect and present in a time order. From time to time, there ought to be a super-post that gives a more coherent view (here is an example - Truth, Fiction, and Finance). Perhaps, that type of thing will be done more often in the coming year.

Of course, I would be derelict if I didn't opine on why the interest.

Posts of interest, as of today:
  • -- Gardners and Gardners -- what's in a name? I have found off-spring for a lot of those on Dr. Frank A's list. Some writers have suggested relationships between these Gardners. Of course, there are some not in the book (they now appear in internet searches -- what would Dr. Frank A. think of the new resources?). One of our goals is to look further at these types of things. It cannot be done without going back across the water. Following paperwork can be problematic, as the genealogists know. 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. 
  • Historical genealogy -- it is interesting that a very recent, and popular, series of books (at least, one of these was filmed) by a Santa Fe writer was based upon the War of the Roses. However, the tales were fantasized such as to appeal to the modern mind. Actually, just re-looking with a new eye ought to be very informative. That is one of our goals.
  • Welcome -- being a new blog, this post would still pop up. At some point, hopefully, another thread will supersede. Any predictions? 
  • Two generations -- we use nine children, as did the Great Migration study (six pages on Thomas). Some have added others. We will include all of the grand-children here, at least in a list, this coming year. We, inadvertently, had one featured this year: Ruth Gardner. That was due to my happening upon Frances Hill's book.  
Recaps: 2018, 2017 (missing), 20162015201420132012, 2011.

Remarks: Modified: 07/30/2021

12/29/2012 --  Summary - 2012.

02/26/2013 --  See Wikipedia for a discussion about William Gardner whose page has been deleted.

12/15/2018 -- Added in links to recaps from the beginning.

12/29/2018 -- This post is the 2nd most read of all time, after the post on the marriage of Thomas and Margaret.

01/12/2019 -- To support an indexing by thumbnails, we needed an image. This post was multi-themed, so none stood out. However, motivations are always on the table as is the 'whence' issue. The image is from a post in 2013, however this post is still on the most-read list and is a good marker for us in continuing our work. The post: Origins - motivations. We started this blog from a blank state; we found out in our research that Thomas is a hard nut to crack. He was here, left progeny, but never left us his writing (beyond a signature). But, he was supportive of Conant when he arrived, Endicott when he arrived, Winthrop when he arrived. But, Thomas could only endure one session of the General Court. That is a story to look further into (we will). Later, changed to the image of Archbishop Gardiner.

5 comments:

  1. Query - I know that you work off the work of Frank A. - what are your views on the George McCracken article about Damaris Shattuck Gardner and the wives of George Gardner? It is in American Genealogist, Vol 30, if you haven't seen it. Very interesting.

    Kerry

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    Replies
    1. Sorry about the delay. Good questions.

      Will need to read more about George? I posted a link about your questions in the post (next) about Margaret.

      It seems a good time to bring up Margaret and Unknown. Why is it that TAG 30:156 is quoted as saying to NOT use Margaret? See red markings in the image. We can, at least, use her first name.

      http://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2012/09/about-margaret.html

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    2. This is an interesting bit of discussion to read. It piques my interest to dig deeper.

      On a quick read, Dr. Frank's thoughts hold up throughout the article. What I see (in his efforts) is an attempt, 300 years after the fact, to piece together a coherent story from fragments of information, some (a lot?) of which was suspect. Seems to be the state of the art for genealogy (except, DNA studies can offer some semblance of empiricism).

      So, we can put together a reasonable story (or, many stories, depending upon several things, such as viewpoint) to use, many times. The 'brick wall' (more common than we would like) prevents this, many times, too.

      Dr. Frank did not extend his thoughts, too far, as McCracken points out. Following collateral families is one thing that might have been stressed a little more. But, given the amount of work that Dr. Frank had to do (and what has been done in the 100 years since his work?), his reports are (almost) seminal (hence, thought to be a basis).

      'too far' subsumes all of those types of traditions that we see that don't pan out (and using Margaret is not within this category), many times. In a sense, it's a matter of 'extrapolating' way beyond what the data might suggest that is the problem (and, we see it all the time -- even in the 21st century).

      Our hope is to have a firm structure with regard to Thomas and Margaret and their offspring. However, looking back to their ancestry is another undone task (why? is my main question -- brick walls?, no interest? ...). Some families have made great strides using modern tools (DNA, ...). I haven't run across this yet for Gardners. Please advise me if there is such being done.

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  2. I am a direct descendent of Thomas Gardner 1592 and have persuaded my male Gardner cousin to take the Y-DNA test for the Gardner DNA project. Lots of Gardners have participated.

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  3. This is one of the things on our list of todos.

    This site put a Thomas descendant into J2b M205+. There are other sites.
    https://www.familytreedna.com/public/GardnerGarner/default.aspx?section=yresults

    I will lean toward taking a technical approach.
    https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2016/05/dna-and-genealogy.html

    Computational phylogenetics, anyone?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_phylogenetics

    In particular, machine-learning which is all the rage,now.
    https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000093

    Then, the necessity for some philosophical discussion has become quite apparent.

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