Comment and Criticism

We will have our second print (TGA Vol III and IV) soon as preparatory activities are drawing to a close. We recently got notice of an error in one of the early articles (TGA Vol II No 1 - Henry D. Gardiner and the barque Bostonian). Before that, I noticed some minor errors in the first print edition. For example, in TGA  Vol I No 1, I typed 1935 rather than 1933 (twice) while referencing Dr. Frank's Gardner Memorial book. Then, I noticed that the footnotes ought to have refreshed across major sections. This is corrected in the second print.

But, we had already run into some issues with Gardner's Beacon. In that case, we created Afterthoughts and modifications to handle those. For example, in GB Vol III, No 4, I had used something read on the web without verifying the thing (tsk). The implication that I read was that Damaris' first husband had been discovered. Well, it was not true, and I was too much of a newbie to know the difference. In any case, we later heard from an excited Shattuck descendant wanting to know more. So, I traced my steps which is crucial and found out that the website was gone. Ah.

Incidentally, this happens a lot on ancestry (pity those poor folks) and carries even into WikiTree. It's not the bloom off the rose, but it is tiring. How can we make it better? Well, be more careful. And, there are ways to do this. Too, one sees it in Wikipedia, especially when someone writes an erroneous page to begin with.

So, this from an entry in What's new (general one for TGS, for now).

• 08/17/2018 -- The 2nd wife of H.D. Gardiner, owner of the barque Bostonian that wrecked off of Oregon in 1850, was Caroline B. Turner (see note this day at this post) of Maine and not Caroline C. Turner of Nantucket.

It points to a post on Nantucket and the wonderful work of Eliza Starbuck Barney. The Nantucket site exults on their being true to Eliza's work. Yes. But, as I have seen all over, no one seems to have a way to present corrections. The proverbial tale is that a correction is in small print on page 15 in a 40 page paper. But, we need to do better; and, the TGS does have an interest in this.

So, we will keep with the afterthought approach with Gardner's Beacon. What to do with TheGardner Annals? We'll follow Dr. Frank, hence the title of this post. In his The Massachusetts Magazine, he had a section that was titled, usually, Comment and Criticism. See the TOC of Vol. VII (example from No 4). The sub-heading is "On books and other subjects" which is more broad than handling errata. However, any correction ought to be more than mere overwriting.

So, in the case of H.D. Gardiner, we will write an article on this. Turns out that this wife was a Thomas Gardner descendant, too. And, it involves movement from New England. Ah,  yes, the western migration.

So, there is a page on TGSoc.org dealing with Publications. It will point to this post, however we will be introducing changes to ThomasGardnerSociety.org that will include the facility to meet this requirement.

Remarks: Modified: 09/15/2018

09/15/2018 --