John Farmer

Beacon "Vol. II No. 6" and "Vol. III No. 1" used an annals format to present material. We want to continue with that format for a few more times, as a chronological layout can be helpful for relating material and for determining places to fill in. And, we can see who said what when.

At the same time, as "Vol. II No. 6", we started a bibliography which has been updated a couple of times. The idea here is to make the references available through on-line access as much as possible. Where we cannot, we'll cut an image (see this example - I saw TAG 30:156 misquoted (it turns out) many places and decided to go look for myself one day -- we'll make it part of the procedure to show originals).

Farmer on Gardner

Today, I added John Farmer's book. He is the one who everyone has pointed to in studies that followed his. But, John published in 1829, so he was there long before later writers (for instance, Savage was 30 years later; Perley was 100 years later; on the other hand, Felt was two years earlier - he the one of the Salem Annals which has many references to the contributions of the Gardners; Folger says that the Gardners were from Dorset), and his work has some things are of interest to our endeavors.

Too, John shows his own set of references in the Preface (Hubbard, Hutchinson, etc.). Here is a pointer to the book: Farmer, John (1829) A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England (digitized copy via Google).

The image on the right is from the book's page on various Gardners. The Gardiner entries were on the just prior page. 

There are a couple of things to note. John said that Gardner came from Scotland. Note, though, that, he's talking two Thomas' in the sense that Dr. Frank mentioned in his book (see this post). I have seen many references to Thomas (the father of John, Richard, Samuel, Sarah, etc.) coming over with his father (note: I'll start to collect these in a later post). 

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At some point, the annals bits will be merged together. As well, there will be smaller ones devoted to a theme (sound like a database application in the making?). One on-going effort will be a survey of material and work by individuals. Suggestions (and help) are welcome. 

Remarks:

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.

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

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

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

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

Modified: 07/12/2015

Endless genealogies

Could have used the title: Anything new under the sun?

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I got into the subject matter from reading a post at the Nutfield Genealogy blog about the Top 40 sites (of which NG is one) as rated by Family Tree magazine. I had earlier run across another site mentioned in the post: (stale pointer to Dick Eastman's Newsletter removed).

As I revisited Eastman's site, I looked at a few posts. One that caught my eye mentioned Adam and Eve. We all have run across family trees that purport to go back that far. Eastman points (stale pointer removed - time limit) to a couple of papers that ought to be required reading. Here, I must add a pointer to one important article: Robert C. Gunderson, Feb 1984 (scroll to the second article on the page). His message is to not go back prior to 1500 (AD, of course).

We can let scholars fill in the pieces earlier than that. However, at this time, the Merovingians (ca 450-752) are about as far back as experts can follow documented sources.

Gunderson also counselled that we ought to fill in our trees as much as possible coming forward.

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As an aside, Gunderson quotes Paul (c. 5 to 67) which is where the subject comes in. Look at this page to see various translations of the Biblical text:
             http://bible.cc/1_timothy/1-4.htm
What struck me was the "endless" concept used in the context of "genealogies" (showing just how old is the interest in ancestors - who begat whom).

But, we can see this interest even earlier, to wit Chronicles (350-300 BCE). But, even earlier, we had Genesis (written 500s BC).

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So, if there was an interest 2500 years ago, what do we know, or have, now that is truly different. Science/Technology comes to mind. Anything else?

Hint: Based upon your world view, you would answer, lots of things. The question is do any of these have anything to add to the genealogists' mixed bag?

Remarks:

05/04/2020 -- It's time to grasp the bullet and lay out the new ideas that are so much wanting. To do that, we have to reflect on the past: Vanity genealogy.  Then, we can go forward wisely.

06/23/2015 -- Gosh, a couple of years between posts: Auras, etc. Removed links to stale pointers; updated others.

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

Modified: 05/04/2020