Posts and more

Remember the year end? 'twas not so long ago. All of the bloggers were announcing their counts for the year. Some of these did have reflective comments; not many, but, then, the web rushes forth like water out of a well (why this metaphor? someone has to pump; too, the rest of the country needs to be cognizant of the water issues being faced by California, Texas, and other places) with no one worrying about spillage or (quality).

Perhaps, at some point, that will come about. We can point to twit-ville's spawning of enormous amounts every micro-second - then, later, that same flow becomes foliage for the big-data herbivores (actually, are they not meat eaters?) to munch in order to give us cow patties (crowd behavior).

Now, recall that twits may or may not have had some discernment behind the text bulge. Yet, in the aggregate, things can be seen, though we can argue about speciousness (and other things - some things occur (are) just because they can (can be)).

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Along that reporting line, we have pulled together, from time to time, posts by read count, say the December Summary (2014, 2013, ...). For all the time, the "Gardners and Gardners" post has had the most reads.

In this post, the intent is start to look at content and the underlying motivators. Earlier, we mentioned Gardner Research (in terms of questions) which is fairly broad (why? using Winthrop's little quote, one can see a large domain -- too, Gardner's Beacon?). We stand at a time when people are looking backward (again, and more so) due to upcoming milestones (all sorts - this year, 800th of the Magna Carta).

As with any line of inquiry, especially if there is a large extent over which to gaze, one has choices about what resources to expend, where to focus effort, and that whole litany which commands the time of countless managers everyday (albeit, CEOs eat broadly without doing any real work - yes, explainable).

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So, in that vein, this graphic was interesting when first seen. It gives the count of posts to the TGS blog by month over the past few years (well, from the beginning).

Posts at TGS blog

A pat on the back might be in line given that the maximum month was almost a year in. That does indicate considered thought about research findings. As one would expect, the beginning time was more the case of handling the influx rather than doing specific searches. Once one has balanced all of the incoming balls, then one can take the time to look further. Too, one finally gets to where new knowledge can be sorted and placed where it belongs.

By the way, those early times can be scrutinized in more depth by looking at the timeline of the Thomas Gardner of Salem page on Wikipedia (50 per page, from the start - 10 Jan 2010). As well, though, the elapse of the first year's time and the effort during that period allowed sufficient understanding to start the backbone series and other things related to opinion.

The other time of greater, than normal activity, was last summer (Jul, Aug, Sep) which saw efforts at studying content management issues, plus discussion of research leading to the TEG papers. That little bit of time indicates that winter months do not correlate, necessarily, to larger output on the web. But, then, last year had the most posts.

Remarks: Modified: 04/27/2023

04/27/2015 -- What is not seen in this count are the Remarks put into posts. In some cases, they are pointers from an earlier post to a later post. In other cases, they contain additional information. This post has examples of both (Historical genealogy) types of Remarks. In one blog, the Remark content is several multiples of the original post.

10/13/2018 -- Updated the metrics with some review of the post content.

03/14/2019 -- Put image into our index at our portal to truth.

Sourced timeline for barque Bostonian

The article is done and submitted for review. An appendix is being posted below to encourage further research and discussion.

Gardiner, ME and Gardiner, OR are named for the same family. ME is named for Dr. Silvester. OR is named for the grandson of Dr. Silverster's cousin.

Who? Henry D. Gardiner. His barque, the Bostonian, shipwrecked on the OR coast in 1850.

An article (see TEG, v 35, n 2; The Gardner Annals, v II, n 1), for which the below image is the appendix, will be published soon with the details about H.D. and his brother, C.F.

barque Bostonian, Timeline

Remarks: Modified: 04/08/2017 

04/08/2017 -- See TGA, Vol. II, No. 1 - pg 11, for the Timeline.

Richard III and Gardner

Context: As time goes on and we get more information, this matter will be reviewed: Bosworth and more.

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Before we get to the subject, let's do a review. King Richard III of England was reburied on March 26, 2015. His remains were found on September 5, 2012 after careful analysis suggested where to begin a search. Because of genealogical work that had been done in 2004 to find descendants of Richard's sister, a DNA test was possible which confirmed that the remains were, indeed, Richard's.

This discovery, as would be expected, raised a lot of interest. Who else was related to Richard and how? To descendants of early (and later) immigrants, this type of research means a lot since some of the early entrants did have a documented past. As well, claims of all sorts have appeared on the scene.

So, a moment like this allows a review of what is known and not. As well, we can take a re-look at methods and their findings (to wit, NEHGS on the subject which was posted at the TGS FB site). In the case of the Thomas Gardner descendants, times like this help with motivating, hopefully, the necessary work to collect and to catalog all that has been written.

Some of that work might be exploring the use of modern techniques. To boot, though, these times renew the hope that more substantive material will be forthcoming (to wit, the Thomas and Margaret marriage notice).

--- The question? Did a Gardner knock Richard III on the head?

Before early 2013, there was a page on Wikipedia with the title of "William Gardner (knight)." It told the story of William who killed Richard III and who later married Helen Tudor. Then, their son was Stephen Gardiner who was said to be an ancestor of the Thomas of the TGS, Inc.'s concern. That page was taken down in February 2013 (the delete vote and comments); the main criticism was that the story was of a conflated figure.

Along with the "William Gardner (knight)" page, there was a Wyllyam Gardynyr (get it? Welch-izing the name) who was the same person written up in a story. These pages were there for awhile as I first ran across them in 2010 (when first getting started with the "Thomas Gardner (planter)" page). With the discovery of the remains, though, the discussions quickened (see Richard III Talk page).

Now, notice the criticism. The story of Wyllyam Gardynyr quoted the Wikipedia (sheesh, all over you find sites that just pick up Wiki material - many times not attributing the source) page (referred to, above, as now deleted). That's nice. Write up an encyclopedia article, then quote it as a source.

Well, in essence, the (historic) evidence (as of now) is lacking that a Gardner ancestor of Thomas was at Bosworth Field or that a Gardner was the wielder of whatever caused the demise of the King. There was a comment made to the "Historical Genealogy" post (first written in November 2010) in the time frame of November of 2014 (fairly recent) that says that the story is, at least, 30 years old.

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So, there is still a whole lot to look at, in this and in other regards; re-addressing this topic, and similar topics, is on the plate. In the interest of putting Gardner Research on firm ground, we intend to consider all that has been studied and written up to this point. Future generations and researchers will benefit. Our task is to do it right (or, at least, get the effort started on a good road).

Remarks: Modified: 03/14/2019

04/03/2015 -- The question "Did an ancestor of Thomas help in the demise of Richard III?" has been added to the FAQ.

04/04/2015 -- This is not to say that Thomas did not have ancestors at Bosworth or any of the other battles that occurred during the War of the Roses. We are talking the period from the period from 1455 to 1485 which is 100+ years prior to Thomas' birth. Here are two good graphics that summarize the period.

Wikipedia (War of the Roses) -- Summary of Events. Notice the Lancaster and York columns with battles and outcomes. Margaret of Anjou lost her son (Edward) and died in poverty. Others suffered fates (see beheaded list, section on England).

Threetwoone.org has a nice graph based upon the relationship tree with links for battles and fates.  

As well, here is a pinterest collection (put here as we could use this for material related to Thomas).

07/09/2016 - This year, we obtained further material.

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).

03/14/2019 -- Put image into our index at our portal to truth.