Monday, December 30, 2019

Posts 2018, 2017, 2016

Post lists: 2018,17,16 ;   2015,14,13 ;   2012,11,10 

This is the third image of this type. Note, the order is descending with the year then the months and the posts. That is, it's a push-down list where we go from now backward in time. That allows us to see how we got to where we are in terms of what these posts cover. Most posts relate to research.


Remarks: Modified: 12/31/2019

12/31/2019 --

Posts 2015, 2014, 2013

Post lists: 2018,17,16 ;   2015,14,13 ;   2012,11,10

This is the second image of this type. Note, the order is descending with the year then the months and the posts. That is, it's a push-down list where we go from now backward in time. That allows us to see how we got to where we are in terms of what these posts cover. Most posts relate to research.

Remarks: Modified: 12/31/2019

12/31/2019 --

Posts 2012, 2011, 2010

Post lists: 2018,17,16 ;   2015,14,13 ;   2012,11,10

We were browsing through the tens years of posts and saw this one: Backbone and more (from Dec. of 2011). We referred to this elsewhere at the time and later. We'll recover that thinking. Later, here is another of the same theme: Written out of history (from Aug. of 2012). That latter one was in response to reading material where Thomas was not mentioned.

Actually, there is a post on this, we have to be thankful to Rev. Hubbard for talking to and including Thomas in his review of early Massachusetts. He wrote in the 1680s. The manuscript didn't the light of day until the mid-part of the 1800s. Hence, the motive, in part.

Lots of these types of themes have recurred over the past ten years. Lots of the posts were about things discovered or uncovered. And, as we mention in the coming issue of Gardner's Beacon, we'll be relooking this year. After all, when does a decade end/begin? We really do not have a zeroth year. Or, did not prior to abstraction-philes of mathematics brought it to bear.

The image is of the titles of posts for the first three years. We'll do the subsequent years, shortly.

Note: The order is descending (2012,11,10), with year then months and posts within months. So, it's like a push-down stack. One reason for doing this is that the order is chronological from now backward. That is nice from the perspective of considering progression.

The light colored lines are those read of late. One thing is that July 2012 is missing. Need to see what was going on during that month that kept TGS work to a minimum. We will report on this.  

We will also update this chart: The metrical. How do we all like the modern way, the means of which is due to computation, of putting an endless supply of numbers on ourselves?

Oh yes, there is a Backbone category (needs to be updated). Backbone? Where the rubber meets the road. In other words, reality versus the brain-laden misdirection that has been so much of an issue over the eons.

Here, two methods are used, the page (for structure) and category (accumulation of a sort). There are more which we want to explore, describe, and demonstrate. Thomas and Margaret, and the American Dream, are the motive; life and times are the focus for ways and means.

Remarks: Modified: 12/31/2019

12/31/2019 -- Made the years to be descending. Reads better.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Summary, 2019

We have done some type of summary since 2011. We missed 2017, for some reason. Until last year, these were in a similar format. This year, it's different (mobility's influence).

Last 3 months                                All time                            
Another difference is that we are using 'Last 3 months' rather than last 30 days. The new mode has more options than there were before. It is interesting to see that the "Marriage of Thomas and Margaret" post is still on top. Last year, it was also on top for both the past month and for all time.

We will put links for all of these, soon. Also, when we look at Summary, 2014, we see a more thorough review. We'll have to get back to that sort of thing. Expect it here, later.

Recaps: 2019, 2018, 2017 (missing), 201620152014201320122011.

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2019

12/29/2019 --

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Gardner's Beacon, Vol IX, No 3

This issue of Gardner's Beacon looks at our decade of work and recaps a few important items overall as well addresses activities within the last year. We find our plate full of accomplishments yet the todos are a large set, too.

On a review of Dr. Frank's books, we see that the 1907 book looked at some descendants of all of the children, however most were of Samuel's line. The 1933 book followed George. We need to fill in five generations, at least, for the remainder of the children, as well as, adding more lines from Samuel and George. We have started to use WikiTree for this purpose.

GB IX, 3

The fifth volume of The Gardner Annals is in preparation. We expect to have two issues of this volume. Then, we can take the entirety of the material and re-frame for a book that is suitable for libraries. We are looking for articles.

---

See Vol. IX, No. 3 of Gardner's Beacon for ... Sources.

Remarks: Modified: 01/02/2019

12/28/2019 --

Decade start

So, we have four days left in 2019, including today (12/28/2019). After Christmas, periodicals start to review the past year. Like the USA Today reviewing all of those lost during 2019. It's interesting. The article published in the 12/22 edition but was updated. Don Imus is included now. He was 79. Why mention him? He was a Marine (U.S.).

When a '9' year rolls around, then the decade can be reviewed. For instance, the movies of the 2010s. That then gets pushed further (our love of abstraction and its levels) to things like the best of all of the Star Wars movies (11 releases - starting in 1977 - remember where  you were? Elvis died that year - we have not seen any of these - in the theaters, perhaps, on the telly).

Our last post said that we are going to be reviewing our work over the past decade (Elizabeth (Gardner) Dabney Bridges Stevens), but no timeline was given. It will be an on-going thing. In this case, 'Elizabeth' was picked due to a recent article (NEHGS - American Ancestors) got us looking at our records. Too, it got us looking further at WikiTree where we're supporting the documentation of descendant of Thomas Gardner (and looking at origins, to boot). All of this type of non-profit work needs regular attention and energy applied.

But, let's step back. Was the first year zero? No. That whole concept came later after lots of thinking and discussion. In a technology sense, we'll get back to that (one of our goals will be supporting research - via technology as well as with other means - lots to report, over time - the theme with this little discussion). So, being more humanistic-ally oriented, we are suggesting that we don't have four days to get things done before the new year. In fact, 2021 will be the start of the decade. We'll have some things done by the 1st (we hope). The reviews of the decade will go through mid-year, at which point, we'll transition to what's next over the next decade. Then, next year, at this time, perhaps, we'll have a better framework from which to launch to the future.

Now, let's back up another way. From the beginning, we heard of Bosworth. There was a Wikipedia page that was later removed. Our first post on this was Historical genealogy. This will be a theme going forward. Other posts were: Richard III and Gardner (Richardson points to this topic in his books), King Slayer Court (tone of all things Gardner, supporting the work of David T. Gardner), and a few more.

On of these looked at the discovery of a body that is believed to be that of Richard III (A new science?). With DNA, we are taking a technical focus so as to remove that which leads to hype. Want to know a parallel? AI (which will come into our focus, too). Hence, our first post was a summary: DNA and genealogy.

So, it was interesting to run across John Ashdown-Hill's review of the Richard III study. It is dated 22 May 2017, so is recent. He was encouraged by historian, Philippa Langley, who asked him to lay out his arguments for where to look and why (Clare Priory). There is more information in the Wikipedia article. A subordinate page looks at the discussion of who of Henry Tudor's men was responsible for the fatal blow.

This example is one of many themes that relate to the history and genealogy of Thomas Gardner and his wife, Margaret Fryer. Technology has allowed a huge change in mode from the time of Dr. Gardner (1907 chart) a 110 years ago. It's anyone's guess about 100 years from now. However, just like we can refer to, and respect, his work, the current work can be of the same quality.

Too, we can change to other modes, such a historic fiction. We'll publish part of a novella, situated in Ipswich, MA in the next issue of The Gardner Annals.

Remarks: Modified: 01/05/2020

01/05/2020 -- We have reviews on a continual basis. One of the first post of last year was this one: Tenth year.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Elizabeth (Gardner) Dabney Bridges Stevens

As mentioned in the post on Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner, we have started to review our decade worth of accumulation. One focus of research has been to fill in Dr. Frank's tree more than he did in his 1907 book. In 2018, we made progress with this mother's heritage. Another has been oriented toward collateral families, including those who moved outside of New England. That gets us to looking at the western expansion among other things. Another theme was 'All things Gardner' as we have heard from many of the Gardner families that Dr. Frank mentioned. Then, there was an interest in what came before: origins and more (FAQ provides a summary and links to further material). And, that encompasses the fuller view of England (and Europe).

How we proceed is an open issue. We will be scholarly and fund research for others (see our Portal (to truth) and the support button). We expect a lot more posts. We have experimented with different blogging methods as well as produced the Gardner's Beacon and The Gardner Annals (GB Vol IX, No 3 and TGA Vol V, No 2 undergoing construction - still time to contribute).

Organizing will be a continuing task. Presentation will continue to be on the www as well as by print. After we finish five volumes of The Gardner Annals, we intend to prepare a printed version beyond our current volumes. This will consolidate information to be more suitable for future research.

WikiTree has been really helpful, for several reasons. However, as with any of these tools, what one gets dependents upon the care and quality of the work. The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has been using WikiTree to document descendants of those who were part of the Great Migration. As well, they have a focus on Gateway Ancestors. In this case, there is an effort to build proven threads back to the Magna Carta Sureties. Lots of work to be done. Technology can be a great assist. Effort is a major factor.

Dr. Frank's work was phenomenal. We have mentioned that. Too, we are using his work as the basis for what we do. Other works, such as the NEHGS provides, are complementary. We will correct (extend and amend) Dr. Frank's material. And, we'll be using our 'Portal to truth' (which has a basis not unlike other things of theoretical interest).

Which gets us to Elizabeth (Gardner) Dabney Bridges Stevens. After we looked at Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard (post describes the motivation), we found a few more Elizabeth Gardners. There are other names, but this one search allowed us to look more closely at the 1907 and 1933 books (we'll have a new table of comparison drawn up). EGDBS was found on page 178 of the 1907 book (see image). She was 1-#159. The entry was short. One line said that Elizabeth married Ebenezer Stevens. Per usual, we go to look via search (a technique that has been honed). One thing we found was a reference to a portrait of her (Item #2043).

1907 book, showing
correction by Dr. Frank
Well, that suggested that she might very well be in the 1933 book. She is 2-#56 in the later work. There was more text describing her marriages. On further looking, though, Dr. Frank had included some of the new material in 'Additions and Corrections' section. In the image, the left side is a copy of the page from the 1907 edition; on the right is the correction from the same edition.

Her first husband, Nathaniel Dabney, was a loyalist. We have a couple of posts on that subject, for instance, Henry Gardner. But, there were other loyalists who have ties to the Gardner families or are of interest to our work.

Right now, we just want to emphasis the thoroughness of Dr. Frank. In the 1933 edition, he expands information about the other two husbands, including their parents.

We will be looking at this topic further after we find more information about Elizabeth.

Remarks: Modified: 12/27/2019 

12/27/2019 --

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner

We have another Elizabeth (probably, several more) to look at. We just did a post on Elizabeth Gardner (1-#197, 2-# -58 - married Blanchard). Also, we had an earlier reference to Elizabeth Gardner (2-#147 - married Amory) who is noted by Dr. Frank as being the originator of the 1st Governor argument. We had intended to follow up on all of the descendants that we have encountered during the past decade's research. Of late, given the Clapp story (and there is reference to this family in the 1933 book) story in the recent NEHGS publication, we wanted to get back to our original focus on collateral families which brings the mothers into focus. Also, we can see a more full picture of how all of these people relate to each other.

Speaking of Dr. Frank's book, we are using the copy found at Hathi Trust. That is, that will be the source for the numbers. We did a comparison between the 1907 and 1933 (overview) editions one night. Doing this review brings out how the 1907 book is mostly about the Samuel line that Dr. Frank was more familiar with (he had done the research).

Note: As we go forward, we will need to update the table to show changes between 1907 and 1933. As well, when this was done, I was a newbie with both books at a desk and just typed in numbers as I saw them. In columns. I see, now, that the numbers changed per book for persons in each. BTW, after ten years of research running down many paths, it's time to consolidate all of this. Of course, The Gardner Annals is our planned vehicle for delivery of the material.

Note: We'll use '1' for the 1907 book and '2' for the 1933.

The Elizabeth of this post (1-#89, 2-26) is a descendant of George (John, Samuel, George, Thomas). She married Jonathan (1-#73) who was a descendant of Samuel (Abel, Samuel, Thomas). She was fifth generation; her husband was fourth generation. They were born only six years apart.

Her children were Jonathan, Elizabeth, Samuel (died young as did three other children), Sarah, John, Mary, Lydia, Samuel, Hannah, Margaret, Benjamin (died young).

It was her son, Jonathan (1-#105), who was eulogized by Dr. Bentley. Her son, Jonathan, and his wife, Sarah Putnam, are buried in the Charter Street Cemetery, in the Gardner annex that we will be looking at further.

Note: We are attaching a 'Research' tag to this post which will be used to flag additional work.

Remarks: Modified: 07/01/2023

12/26/2019 -- We have started a WikiTree for Jonathan (Gardner-14318). We will continue with Elizabeth's Profile as we get material together. These threads a great for working out these types of  relationships which can be involved.

12/27/2019 - Some changes due to an edit review.

10/16/2020 -- Her great-grandson, Richard Crowninshield Derby (Descendants of Samuel, How to handle the frontiers), was killed at the Battle of Antietam, MD. 

07/01/2023 -- Elizabeth is featured in this post: 247th of U.S. At least, two sons were Patriots. 

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard

We got to this lady by a circuitous trek. The latest issue the American Ancestors Magazine (Vol 20, Num 3) had an article titled thus, In Her Own Words: "The Life of Elizabeth (Clapp) Withington (1816-1845)." She was a granddaughter of Lemuel Clapp of Dorchester about whom we know a bunch. Elizabeth's diary was found and was the basis for the article. The tales were a repeat of what happened 100 years before which we will look at more closely. The main theme of the issue was women's voices which have been lost. We might say the same for the silence of Thomas and Margaret.

Now, the Elizabeth of the title of the post is not this Elizabeth.

So, continuing, Elizabeth's father, Lemuel, was an early patriot whose military career has been the subject of several papers. So, the thought was, did Dr. Frank mention him in the series on the Siege of Boston? These appeared in issues of The Massachusetts Magazine. We found no reference to Lemuel, himself, though several from the Clapp family were mentioned. It may be that Lemuel's organization was outside of the focus area (his group helped fortify Dorchester Heights).

The next step was to see if Dr. Frank had mentioned Clapp in his 1907 book. Also, we looked for Withington as this was the family into which Elizabeth married. Well, not that either, but Winthrop is there. Of course, John is mentioned with regard to the early years of Salem and its surrounds. However, another Winthrop name, that is familiar, shows up.

Before we look at that, this reading of this history today got us to Israel Porter. Now that name rings a bell since Dr. Frank has it in his lineage (Houses of Salem). Too, there are Gardner/Putnam going-ons from way back. What was new was a Journal with an article about the reputation of General Israel. This bears our attention. Israel had been a farmer. So, he wasn't of the clan (military officers). Some of the opinions will tie into that theme. Lafayette weighed in to. Well, Americans are celebrating that old guy (we'll put a link here, French student's work on following the General - Note: 07/29/2020 - here it is - The Lafayette Trail). Yet, we allow merit to be a factor in the rise of an individual. The American dream? Some think so (it'll be a part of the conversation, too).

In our ten years, we have covered a lot of area. Most of this was looking back, however, along the way, new stuff was being created. So, we are a point where we can use our work as a backbone and fill in the new material. In short, again, no lack of work to be done.

Well, back to Dr. Frank's book. Where R.C. Winthrop was mentioned was in the section for Elizabeth Gardner (1-#197 - 1907 book). Okay, we have seen that name before. Our first step was to look at WikiTree. What? There is very little information there. We could see how she descends from Thomas on one side, but there is also a descent on the other to bring out. That WikiTree information needs to be updated.

What about find a grave? Sure enough, Elizabeth Blanchard (1759-1816) is there. She was born early enough to remember the War of Revolution. Too, F.A.G. has a record for her son who married Mary Anne (Cabot) Lee. Their daughter, Elizabeth (she of the post), married Robert Charles Winthrop (1834-1905). He is a forebear of John Kerry through a granddaughter. Also, he funded Winthrop University in 1886 to teach young women. It is considered South Carolina's top university.

There is a lot more to look at, but Elizabeth's father, Samuel Blanchard, was a physician who studied with General David Cobb. We do have a Wikitree entry for him (Cobb-1762), as there is an effort to on WikiTree to identify people who had served during the War of Revolution.

---

If we might proceed on Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard's line further back toward Thomas and Margaret on the father's side (John 1-#139), we see that her grandfather was Samuel Pickering Gardner. His grandparents were John and Elizabeth (Putnam) Gardner, and his son was John Lowell Gardner. We want to look at further at his sister (see Remarks 12/25/2019).

---

Elizabeth Blanchard is a grand-niece of a descendant of Samuel (Jonathan who married Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner),  as well, as being descendant of George (through her father). Looking at all of these associations, Samuel Gardner (son of Thomas) owned Gardner Hill. It was Samuel Pickering Gardner (descendant of George) who visited in the 1830s and was upset with the destruction of grave sites.

Now, looking at Putnam (mentioned above), Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner's grandmother (Elizabeth Putnam) was a cousin of General Putnam. But, her grandmother was sister-in-law, too, as she married the General's brother (her first marriage).

---

In eight days, we can acknowledge, once again, 29 Dec. 1674.

Remarks: Modified: 07/29/2020 

12/25/2019 -- Closer look at the sister of Samuel Pickering Gardner: Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner (WikiTree - husband Jonathan). Also, we have a WikiTree profile for Elizabeth (Gardner) Blanchard.

12/26/2019 -- One of the ways that Clapps comes into the Gardner tree is with the 1704 marriage of John Gardner and Elizabeth Weld. Elizabeth's grandmother was Barbara Clapp.

12/27/2019 -- Some changes after an edit review (not the final). Put in the new reference for people and the book (1907 will be 1-#number which is the Dr. Frank assigned number; 1933 will be 2-#number). Clarified the relationship between EGGardner and EGBlanchard.

07/29/2020 -- Added link to the work on Lafayette's Trail. Also, Elizabeth is of the sixth generation.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Houses of Salem

Houses of Salem? There are many. Some have put these into periods. We'll start with what's called 'Period One' and venture around a little. We'll be at this, for a while, so stay tuned.

What precipitated this little journey was an article posted on the Stanford University site. It was titled: The Salem Houses of William "Old Billy" Gray. The author was a descendant who missed a chance to see one of the houses of his ancestors while he was in the area as a student back in the '60s.

And, the principal focus of the article was the area of Essex Street in Salem, near where the PEM is now. Having been following Sidney Perley's work the past couple of years, we have to compare notes with the information that the Stanford author used. Sidney roamed the archives, walked about the area, drew up maps, and left very good records for us to study.

But, first, how did we get to Old Billy? Well, looking a Loyalists was the key. After we looked at Abigail Gardiner, we went looking for other Gardner Loyalists. Abigail had been painted by Copley. Well, we found a good example of Loyalists: Henry and Weld Gardner. Old Billy had dealt with this family. The Grays were in several of the  towns in the area (William Gray of Salem and Samuel Gray of Medford) and were of note (Our First Men). Billy was quite successful as a ship owner and lost business due to the Revolution (see Gardner-Pingree house as an example - this was the following conflict - War of 1812).

The Old Billy article had a map from 1780. Sidney drew one up from records for the time period of 1700. We provide a snap of those maps below. The great thing about Sidney's look is that he tells us what the records say about each of the lots.

Now, this look is cursory as we will be digging deeper. Just as we mentioned that the Gray family was spread around, so too was Downing. Turns out that Emmanuel sold land to John Porter. It's in Danvers and known as the Porter-Bradstreet homestead. This Bradstreet is of a later time (Revolution), so this all pulls together.

John Porter is an ancestor of Dr. Frank. John had two daughters marry sons of William Hathorne. A granddaughter of William married a grandson of Thomas and Margaret. Sarah (Porter) Gardner and her husband were buried near Thomas in the Gardner Burial plot. Harmony Grove has their stone, but it's unclear what happened to the bodies. That was work being done late last year and earlier this year.

As said, we'll dive into this more. This area of little Essex County is just full of stories waiting to be told. Such as? A lonely grave in the west having a remains of a descendant of John and William (as in, Porter and Hathorne, respectively). That is, a cousin of Dr. Frank (and Ann). Too, though, he's a descendant of Alden and has a granddaughter who married someone from the Brewster line (one of his daughters is already in the database of members of MF).

However, seems that those (or some types of) western-moving people get dissed. I'm sorry, but we are facing a situation that needs attention (yes you, Mayflower people and NEHGS). As if, someone has to pay $1000 or so for a genealogist. We did this work (and a whole bunch more) pro-bono.

Let's get intellectual, too: Genealogy and Bayes. This is one of many examples.

As said, everywhere we look, there is something to dive into. So, we have no lack of work to do.

Remarks: Modified: 12/25/2019 

12/25/2019 -- Found out about the Lost New England blog, today (Gardner-Pingree House).


Monday, December 9, 2019

All things Gardner

We haven't had a post on this theme that pulls thing together. So, this is it. We have used 'all things Gardner' since 2016. For now, let's just have a list of posts that refer to the concept which we will use as source for a review.
  • Gardners and Gardners (Sep 2010) - Early on, we had queries about Gardner. In some cases, we helped people identify their families. In lots of cases, we pointed people to the most likely place to look for information. Say, tracking all of the Gardner references in the Mormon records. That is, those who did the trek by foot, say. Some took the loafing way around by boat, except one had to go through Central America, by one method. And, once to the west coast, there was the journey to Utah. Lots of other examples. 
  • Historical genealogy (Nov 2010) - First look at some early stuff. Turns out that Richardson has looked at this, too. 
  • Places (Nov 2014) - First place was Gardiner, Oregon. After that, several more. An open bit of research is to get several viewpoints documented. Then, we can see which might be more true than not. Interesting conundrum? 
  • DNA and genealogy (May 2016) - We have had queries about DNA for a long time (we'll get the first of those references). Having a technology focus, we have been slowly diving in. Heavy in? Not really, until a bunch of questions are answered. Questions? Yes, we'll have those. In time. 
  • Bosworth and more (May 2016) - This has the theme related to things in the old countries. Early on, we ran into stories. They are still being considered. 
  • Gardiners Island (Jul 2016) - We have looked at places with the name. As well, we have looked at people with the name. A recent post? Gardner River
  • Continuing work (Sep 2016) - MHGardner, as an example. We need to link in some recent material related to a house that he owned (had built - 1800s) that is being remodeled. 
  • Privileged or not (Nov 2016) - Loyalists. We've barely scratched the surface here. 
  • U.S. and us (Feb 2017) - We have several open research projects going. Our focus deals with the collateral issue, not just Gardner (and variations on that theme). One basic piece of the territory is Cape Ann and all matters related to that effort. BTW, we mention some of the names that are being studied. 
  • Summaries (Nov 2018) - Like we're doing here. 
  • ... we will have more ... 


... more edits on the way ...

We got news that a book on Gardners has been printed. It is Vol. 1; there will be two more.
  • GARDNER Vol. I: Commandos and War Heroes details the history of the surname and contains 45 biographies on warriors, mercenaries, knights, commandos and war heroes with the last name, ranging from generals to fighter pilots to Navy SEALs with the last name Gardner. 
See: Amazon for more details. Looking for a review.

Remarks: Modified: 12/09/2019 

12/09/2019 --

Monday, December 2, 2019

Gardner River

This river flows into the Yellowstone River near Gardiner, MT. As such, these waters flow into the Missouri River and then the Mississippi. Yes, that is a long waterway. Lewis & Clark went back up the other way. Post that, more people went west. One of them was Johnson Gardner for whom the River and the area were named.

Gardiner, MT 
Gardner River: Starts in Yellowstone Park, at 10K feet, flows 25 miles, but has a 202 sq mile basin.

Johnson Gardner was a cohort of Jedediah Strong Smith, Hugh Glass (read about The Revenant which names some of the characters), John S. Gardner (killed in 1823 when Hugh Glass was wounded - letter from Gen. Ashley) and others. We are researching families related to these folks.

We started by looking for places with Gardner in the name (and will look at other associations): Gardner, KS, Gardner, CO, Gardiners Island, Gardiner, OR, and others. We'll pull these together some time. The idea is that we might be seeing the 400th recognized; however, the 200th covers a whole lot more territory in more ways that one.

On looking further at Johnson Gardner, we find out that he is out of Virginia. We will be looking further at that.  But, we want to consider the New England influence as we see via all of those names that come out of the area (starting with Cape Ann) and are found in the huge western expanse.

Here's a quick example which will be written further in its own post. Not far from where Gardner River starts, there is a change due to the Continental Divide. And, we find Conant Creek (Wyoming - known as Berry Creek) that flows into the Snake River (History of the Teton area). There's another Conant Creek in Idaho that flows into the Boise River that flow into the Snake River.

This water goes to the Pacific. The namesake of one of the Creeks arrived in the area in the latter part of the 1800s. We will look further at the family history.

Roger Conant is a gpp of Dr. Frank.

Further reading: Human influences on the Northern Yellowstone Range, ...

Remarks: Modified: 06/20/2022

02/15/2021 -- We are looking further at rivers as means of transportations as well as being barriers starting with the Mississippi River system. Shortly, we will update this with regard to how the Gardner relates to the other two flows from this area that do not go to the Yellowstone River. 

02/16/2021 -- There was another Gardner in the area who was with the Gen. Ashley group. We will look at all in that party. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company had been founded by Ashley. It employed Jedediah Strong Smith. We will look at the North American fur trade, in general. 

06/20/2022 -- Recent flooding due to snow melt and heavy rain. Clobbered the area. 

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Joseph Gardner

Joseph (WikiTree) was the youngest son. He was born in New England.

Joseph married Ann Downing who was the niece of John Winthrop. They did not have children.

Joseph was a lawyer as was his wife. Joseph was killed in the King Philip War. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. She drew up a pre-nup for him prior to their marriage.
  • King Philip, Joseph and Ann - John Goff looks at the time of the war. 
  • Aunts, uncles, cousins - we will take a special effort to remember this couple. 
  • Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No 1. - featured this couple and their house which was given to them by Ann's mother. They lived there for years. After Joseph died and Ann remarried, the house was known as the Bradstreet house. It was Ann's house. She left it to a nephew, son of her brother-in-law (Samuel, line of Dr. Frank). 
  • Houses, again - we have done several posts on houses. This one was motivated by a post in the Streets of Salem blog: First-period Fantasy. Many call this house the 'Bradstreet House.' Streets of Salem used 'Downing-Bradstreet' which is more correct. See image. 
  • Chronicles of old Salem - the book mentions Joseph ( 1675) being killed. We are using it to fill in our text scroll (see the portal to truth). 
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Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): ThomasGeorgeRichardJohnSarahSamuelJosephMiriamSeeth.

Remarks: Modified: 04/02/2022

12/01/2019 -- Added the image of the house of Ann and Joseph. Plus more links. We'll be updating these posts of the kids through time.

01/07/2020 -- Streets of Salem, on the house. Our comment. While searching, today, for more information about Joseph and Ann, we ran into two cases that prompted a look at the need for a Gardner's Gate. More on that (Gardner's Gate). Also, we found an interesting paper on JSTOR on the Downing family by George Crutcher Downing (dated 1908).

04/02/2022 -- Two references to Joseph and Ann: The Downings, Lorenzo and Peggy.

John Gardner

John (WikiTree) was the third son; he was born in England or in New England. There was been some controversy on that.

These posts of the children will pull together recent research as well as provide links to former work.
  • John and the Merrimack survey - John was out as a young man with a crew that went to survey the Merrimack. No doubt, he was the muscle, however he would have learned a lot from the experience. 
  • Mary (Gardner) Coffin - John's daughter married Jethro Coffin. Some say that this helped solve a long problem between two groups on Nantucket, namely the first settlers and the late-comers. 
  • Sherborne - it was the brothers on Nantucket who kept the information about Sherborne as the place of origins alive. 
  • Stories and unwindings - the Gardners had a good reputation on Nantucket. They were noted to have been educated which did not come from Harvard. The best guess? Their parents, especially Margaret. 
Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): ThomasGeorgeRichardJohnSarahSamuelJosephMiriamSeeth.

List of descendants of John

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2020 

12/09/2019 -- John and siblings was featured at our portal to truth (see Roll).

10/31/2020 -- Descendants of John. Friend of John: Giles Corey.

George Gardner

George (WikiTree) was the second son and was born in England.

 After he wrote his 1907 book on Thomas Gardner, Dr. Frank worked on the Gardner Memorial book (1933) which looked at the descendants of George Gardner.

These posts of the children will pull together recent research as well as provide links to former work.
  • Gardner-Wyman-Peabody - this mill was owned by a descendant of George. 
  • Gardner-Pingree - this house was owned by a descendant of George (and his brother, Samuel) and was lost by the family during the turmoils of the War of 1812 with its blockades that interrupted commercial naval activity. 
  • Ruth Gardner - George's daughter married John Hathorne. 

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): ThomasGeorgeRichardJohnSarahSamuelJosephMiriamSeeth.

Remarks: Modified: 12/12/2020

12/09/2019 -- George and his siblings have been (are being) featured at our portal to truth.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to a list of descendants of George. 

Friday, November 29, 2019

Thomas Gardner

Thomas (WikiTree) was the eldest son, born in England. His parents (Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer) look to have been married in Sherborne, Dorset in 1617. There were baptism records in that area and time for Thomas, George, and Richard.

Thomas has several mentions in Salem records. Along with George, Samuel and Joseph (his brothers) he was "ordered to survey and measure from the meeting house to a meadow along the river Westerly from Salem." As well as being a cordwinder, Thomas kept a "merchandise store" with "10 pages of inventory" which was recorded at his death.

Thomas married 1) Hannah  in 1641 and 2) Elizabeth Horne in 1665. He had ten children.

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, GeorgeRichard, JohnSarahSamuel, JosephMiriamSeeth.

We are looking at the descendants of each child

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020

12/13/2020 -- Added link to the descendants of Thomas. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Richard Gardner

We have a page for some of the children and will have one per. Why? There is open research being done, and post are a good way to collect material and comments.

There was an earlier one in which Richard and John featured. That dealt with Nantucket issues. Some of Richard's descendants were mentioned, such as Folger (coffee company) and Macy (store with the red star). we got to looking at Richard while tracking down the ancestry of the namesake of Fort Worth, TX: William Jenkins Worth who was a pre-Civil-War officer in the U.S. Army. One of his forebears married a descendant of Richard; however, she had died, and a new wife was involved. Those close-calls are interesting.

As we were collecting Thomas descendants (Wikipedia page), Richard's (WikiTree) descendant line was touched upon more often than it was for others. For instance, look at the category of "Academic/science/arts" for an example of this.

Richard named one of his daughters Miriam. He had a sister, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, so we just added some information about the niece.

One open issue is where was Richard born? It might have been England, however some claim that he was born here, in New England. This is an example, like that of Margaret Fryer, of work to be done by the family rather than from researchers looking at the wider scope. There are more which we will itemize.

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): ThomasGeorgeRichardJohnSarahSamuelJosephMiriamSeeth.

List of descendants of Richard

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020 

11/27/2019 -- The kids (each will have link): ThomasGeorgeRichardJohnSarahSamuelJosephMiriamSeeth.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to a list of descendants of Richard. 

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

The blog and the metrical

Remember when blogs were new? It was not that long ago. Nowadays, this means of information conveyance seems to be part of the structure of material on the internet. Start a new website, and a blog is included (albeit, optionally).

To us, our blog is like a huge, annotated outline of future material plus an evolving index. We are at a point where we'll look back on a regular basis as we have 10 years coming up from the first post (Welcome - 25 Sep 2010). As with many genealogy bloggers, for example Nutfield Genealogy (Heather Wilkinson Rojo' genealogy site), we have collected and provided some numbers over the years. Example: Summary, 2018. These were overview types. However, if you look deep, you will see that all of the ISP-level activity is logged to excruciating levels.

So, there will continue to be metrics shown and discussed. For starters, there is now a page related to things metrical. Why pages? They allow additional structure; one can get lost in the sea of posts; even keywords don't help that much.

Another aspect to look at is size of the post. As well as writing the post, we have been adding Remarks over the years. Some of the posts have increased in size. An example is the one that has collected material with respect to a shipwreck, The Gardiner that was, which is about 2,500 words which includes a lot of links. This is an area of open research.

BTW, we have a couple other blogs going and will report on those, too.

Remarks: Modified: 11/26/2019

11/26/2019 --

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Salem's start

Next year is the start of a whole lot of 400th commemorations; in 2020, we'll be looking at the Mayflower's arrival. Coming up will be other locations, such as Gloucester. There is a emphasis with a larger view: Massachusetts 400.

Recently, we see that the 1st occurrence of Salem Ancestry Week which is planned to be an annual affair has been announced (May 1-4, 2020). For details, see SalemAncestry.org. This is a collaborative effort by several groups including the City of Salem: Peabody Essex Museum, Essex National Heritage Commission, and American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Theme: celebrate genealogy and ancestral connections to Salem, Massachusetts, during a weekend of lectures, tours, and research.

At a recent Board meeting of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc., we talked about having a meeting in that area next year. Stay tuned for details on that event.

The Salem announcement mentioned two Nathaniels, Hathorne and Bowditch. We will add to that list. But, Sidney Perley is definitely worthy of recognition.

Remarks: Modified: 11/26/2019

11/26/2019 -- Added image from the Salem blog so as to enter it into our index by images (portal to truth).

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Inflow and then ebb

That was the pattern according to an article by The New England Historical Society: In 1640, More Puritans Left New England Than Arrived. We liked this article for several reasons. One is the format where they link to prior articles. We have been trying to do that, except a post can become full of links. Another is that the subject relates to the focus of TGS, Inc. in a general and personal sense. In terms of the latter, there is mention of George Downing. His sister married Joseph Gardner. The couple was childless and deserves attention. Too, Elihu Yale was a returnee as a child; his grandmother married Theophilus Eaton, brother of Nathaniel who is a forebear of Dr. Frank. We could pull more out of the article.

According to the NEHS, the inflow was due to the policies of Charles I. We know many came over as indicated by the size of the publications by the NEHGS on the Great Migration (note, NEHS is not NEGHS).

Then, there was the English Civil War and the ebb. Lots of questions could be asked and answered: What happened in the British North American colonies during the English Civil War? One thing that we can note is that for a period, there was a lot of intermarrying of families in New England as the influx of new people went to almost nil. When it did pick up later, the rate was much smaller.

The NEHS article provided a few numbers. One can say that 21,000 immigrants came to New England before 1640. The majority of these were after Winthrop's 1630 arrival. Between 1640 and 1650, the number of people in the area would have been between 13K and 17.6K. By 1650, the number was over 22.8K. Some of the increase came through large families; there is a case of one couple having 25 kids. As the NEHS article mentions, some of the 'baby boomers' lived to be quite old with a huge amount of kids themselves.

In regard to this in-breeding, the article ends by noting that the immigration between 1640 and 1845 was only 1% which a very slight inflow.

Remarks: Modified: 11/21/2019

11/21/2019 -- Need to add in some information about the southerners: Stephen Tempest, graduated Oxford.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Winter Island

Part of our work will be a deep review of things related to Salem. We have lots of examples of this type of work since 2010 and will go back to organize the material. However, it will be good to have some type of focus. Fortunately, Sidney Perley's work is there for us to use. He deserves a whole lot more credit than we have seen given to him during my own diggings into Salem. More on that later.

Earlier this year, we were trying to understand just where Gardner Brook was. It had a bridge over it that allowed people to go from Salem to the north fields. There were several paintings. Example: Gardner's Bridge. Dr. Frank's 1907 book showed this area. Turns out that we're talking the upper part of North River where it was more of a brook. And, the water way had several names over the years. Of course, Sidney had mapped this area.

Then, we saw where Sidney had mapped part of Salem Common along North River. Per usual, Sidney showed plots which he determined from his walk abouts plus his reading of records. This is being mentioned at that is the area where Roger Conant and crew spent their first winter: Massey's Cove. At the time, we took notice of one of the lots that had been in Gardner hands at one point. This area was bounded by North River and Collins Cove. Also it ends at Danvers River.

Across North River are the fields that will be of interest, too. In particular, Greenlawn Cemetery is where Dr. Frank's remains are interned.

Today, while reading on Samuel in order to get three more of the children covered at the portal to truth, there was a mention that in 1864, he was "granted permission to erect wharves at Winter Island" along with his brother, Thomas, and his nephew, Samuel son of his brother George. Interesting. Others being granted the right are: Gedney, Price, Hathorne, Higginson, Hirst, English and Pilgrim. We'll look at each of those. Hathorne and Higginson have been looked at due to family ties.

Where was that location? Ah, research required. This bit of land is off of Salem Neck. We found that Sidney had mapped this area, as well. There is a lot more to look at but here are some references to note.
In looking at this subject, we can see that Sidney published Thomas' descendant, no doubt in collaboration with Dr. Frank. See Old Planters Society, Remarks 11/20/2019.

Remarks: Modified: 11/26/2019

11/26/2019 -- Added image for index to be used at our portal to truth

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Dr. Frank, Veteran's Day

Earlier, we pointed in a post (FindAGrave record) to Dr. Frank's profile (Dr. Frank at WikiTree). Our post, and the profile, referred to Harmony Grove Cemetery as the location of the Gardner plot.
Mark Stevens photo
November 10, 2019

Mark Stevens of Salem, MA brought to our attention that the reference was wrong.

Today, we started to change all of the references that we have made to Greenlawn. Actually, we were there as well as at Harmony Grove. How we got this mixup is a long story; we actually took photos. These allow us a comparison of the current state with 2010.

So, we'll have a list of Gardners for these two cemeteries. At the same time, there are Gardners in all of the Salem cemeteries that we will study.
Google map zoom
from Liberty Street location

This snap from Google shows the location of the plot. It is visible from the Liberty and Appleton Streets in Salem, MA. This is the old "North Fields" area and ought to be quite interesting to study. Thomas owned some of the land; one family's view: Division of North Field - Salem.

This Gardner/Dennett plot had its first burial in 1880. The latest one was a few years ago.

Remarks: Modified: 09/20/2020

11/11/2019 -- With the Veterans Day theme, this list is of Profiles of which we can do more: Nathaniel BowditchRuth GardnerAdolphus Greely and George William Coffin, John Goff and Alfred L. Gardner. At our portal to truth, we are doing little snippets. Today, there is one for three of the kids: John, Sarah, and Joseph.

11/12/2019 -- One of Dr. Frank's grandsons is buried in the plot: Paul Warman.

09/20/2020 -- Added the Category. 

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Cultural heritage

The mission statement in our Corporate documents has this:
    (a) to establish and to maintain a persistent presence in order to honor the accomplishments of the Cape Ann party (1623/24)2 lead by Thomas Gardner; to promote, and to sponsor, scholarly research of a cultural, biographical, historical and genealogical nature, with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the origins and the lives of New England immigrants; to provide means for, and to foster, discussion, and dissemination of, information on those themes; to publish materials periodically and as necessary;
Notice that 'cultural' is first; also, this was written in 2014. That was due to being aware of trends that accelerated with the advent of the mobile devices around 2008. But, of late, we see even more discussion about the computer's impact on us.

In essence, people and computers go together. In the future, we won't have one without the other, despite all of the gloom that we see pertaining to robots taking over. In programming, there is a joke about whether a bug is really an error or whether it is a feature. If it is the former, it may be fixable. Trying to fix might introduce more errors. Finding a feature, though, might be the start of a learning something new.

AI, with its machine learning, is following that path. Right now, we're at a state where solutions, and discoveries, seem opaquely configured. Imponderable.

But, we see that knowing about people is going to help which implies that efforts like history and genealogy will have an impact. That is, more than mere presentation of tools for people to use when modeling the relationships of their ancestors.

Going to the basics, we can look at a couple of academic views: The Ethics of Cultural HeritageEditorial for Inaugural Issue of JOCCH. The first looks at definitions and some issues in a context that is becoming more visible. The latter is an example of an effort to study related matters. They got started one year before our onset.

Speaking of which. We were mainly filling in a hundred-year gap since the work of Dr. Frank. Too, the notion was to use technology. The tie-in to the 'American Dream' didn't take long to determine with the first action of looking at D.A.R. due to its visibility in the matter.

But, the theme of retelling history has really gone viral of late. There are lots of examples, some of which we have linked to from this blog.

Remarks: Modified: 11/07/2019

11/07/2019 --

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Genealogy and Bayes

Let's do a recap to set the basis for the post. We are addressing a case that concerns a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins; he is buried in a small cemetery in Nebraska. Lyman Porter is his name. He is #37963 in the database offered at alden.org.1 He married Caroline Hopwood. His parents were Noah Porter #20029 and Nabby Cumins. Lyman has a brother, Reuben, with descendants in the Mayflower organization (MF). Lyman has a daughter, Anna, who has descendants in the MF.

As an aside, we are building a reference database for this work on WikiTree using the great-granddaughter of Lyman and Caroline (Gladys Helen (Gill Defibaugh) Long Murray). Gladys gave MF a little problem, too, as did her mother. Chloe and her daughter, Myra, both died young. Chloe's granddaughter (Gladys) was an infant when Myra died; she was raised by her father's (Arthur's) mother, Phylura, until Phylura died; then, Gladys was adopted by friends (Defibaughs - also neighbors) of Phylura; Gladys married twice. But, all of this is documented. It's Chloe generation where care needs to be taken (more below).

In the fall of 2015, we saw a line from Alden to Porter being mentioned in a letter to the editor of a heritage group publication. Someone had noted that they had joined the MF organization via Anna, daughter of Lyman and Caroline. Okay, we matched up Anna's sister, Chloe, and asked the applicant to put in the original query. You know, fill in the form, pay, and then wait. So, we were contacted and assigned a researcher. The interaction and work was all done via email and DropBox.2 There was a flurry of activity in early 2016 as we gathered documents. By summer of 2016, we were essentially done and had a slew (lots and lots) of stuff.

Well, things bogged down with respect to the MF interfacing. On the suggestion of the MF person, we did further work by doing a probate search. We found out some additional information, but that did not get us off the bottleneck.3 For us, though, it was a learning experience. Too, the Court records actually confirmed up some of the information. So, that is a positive (see below discussion). Some material shows that Chloe's family and that of her husband, Thomas, were quite prominent in the count and state of their residence when she married, had a baby, and died. How did Chloe get forgotten?

We are at 2019 which is three years later after the last bit of work. Things are just sitting in limbo. In 2016, we wrote the first article as this seemed to be a case of problems related to western expansion not being as appreciated as they might be. Some romanticized the whole notion. Others were such as to leave lasting lessons in endurance. In fact, at the time (2016), there were some talking as if history, and especially that of 400 years, was of no consequence. Too, though, my thought was that the MF ought to be looking for descendants of their ancestors rather than playing membership games (do you see me now? more below). The first article was published; a second one provided another look and was published; finally, we will get to the details with another article.4 The articles, to date, are: Flyover Country, Pseudo Wall (not brick at all), and, at least, one more that is in the works.

So, we have our recap with this brief review.

Now we can get to the gist of the issue. What is the hold up? Well, in retrospect, we probably ought to have worked through the Alden group (more below) since they do consider the whole family. But, let's look at some reasoning about this.

Chloe is the daughter in question. She is not documented with respect to birth. Neither was her younger brother, George. But, George died young and is recorded, at death, as the son of Lyman. Chloe died young, too, but as the mother of a young child. Chloe is not even recorded for marriage or death. We have a photo of Chloe's grave stone which names Thomas. We have Chloe and Thomas with the baby, Myra, in the 1870 Census (US). BTW, Chloe (name misspelled) is in the 1850 and 1860 Census (US) with her folks and siblings.

One question is: can we take those people in the Census (US) as related? May we look at the milieu? If we look at the Census (US) of this family, they were consistent in their reporting. Really, as we would expect a citizen to do to help the government. George was in one Census; he died; in the next one, he's not there. Chloe's younger sister, Emmira, was not in the first; she is born and documented as daughter of Lyman and Caroline; she's in the next Census (US) as we expect, birth order.

BTW, the State of Chloe's birth did not record these events until after she was born. Be that as it may, in the 1850 Census (US), when Chloe is an infant, there are some other people in the household. Some we know as her siblings by later census records. But, there was an older woman, Permelia, and five younger people. Who were these folks? Given what we know, they were Chloe's grandmother and Chloe's cousins. The husband of this family (Chloe's grandfather) is recorded as having died. Guess what? We are talking Caroline's siblings (and her mother) in her household with Lyman. One of the sibs was four years old. Permelia was 44; Caroline, herself, was 23.

20th and 21st century genealogists, at their little tubes, have no clue about the reality of these situations. However, one thing to note. The birth order was there. As in, filling in these things, there were ground rules, which the Census (US) taker would have known. That's a strength as it persists across several Census (US) occurrences.

We could itemize other strengths. That is things that confirm, albeit, not overwhelmingly. But, these can be thought of as additive. For instance, Lyman notes that Myra is his granddaughter. In fact, on both her marriage and her death records, Myra is referenced as the daughter of Chloe and Thomas. Court records indicate that Myra is the heir of Thomas. And, Court records indicate that Myra, after her father's death, was living with Lyman and Caroline in Nebraska. Then, there is a Census that names Myra in the household of Lyman and Caroline.

There are many little tidbits, of various types, that add to the notions about Chloe's family. So, let's transition, a little, before looking at those.

Rev. Bayes (his bio at St. Andrews - see footnote for a look at the use of Bayes and its importance to the modern world's complexity)5 has made a great impression on the modern age. Computing? The past decade plus, we have seen systems relying on his approach. In fact, lots of the problem now can be attributed to this being taken too far, however, Bayes will continue to be of importance. What the Rev. argued is that we can improve our view of a probability by considering related information. Take death.  An older person can be said to have a higher probability of dying than a younger one. That is, given a number of other conditions being left out (accident, disease, ...). However, at some point, some older persons actually start to have their probability of 'not dying' (in a particular year) go up. Hence, we have the very old.

Bayes' ideas were around for a long time. Why their attraction now versus before? Well, I was using his ideas five decades ago. But, it was hard to do this stuff by hand. Typical situation. The evolution of the computer got to where there were easier methods (algorithms improved). Too, the need came up; Bayes fit the need; the modern minds over fit the situation. Another story altogether.

In genealogy, this case is an example. We might say that we're looking at the probability of Chloe's membership in her family. Let's look at the positive side; then, we'll go to the other.

You know, certain minds would take an official document as 100%. Ah, we know of problems there. Transcription errors (even wrong recordings). Illegible mess that is not readable. There is a whole lot more. Essentially, we go from 100% to 99% or less. The thing is that the 'lead feet' syndrome of expecting complete certitude is not realistic (some relaxation might actually be productive).

Given that we do not know when Chloe was born via official views, we can use the accumulation of material to build up some 'belief' in her status. That is why I used positive influences, above. In the last go-around, when dealing with details, this will be more thorough. Actually, having Chloe's grave stone says a lot. it gives her name and middle initial. Also, it names her husband. And, it gives her age. She was 24 years old when she died and left her daughter.

Flyover country
Why might she have been forgotten? A step-mother came into the picture. Then, Thomas died, too. So, that is the story of Guardianship for Myra and the Probate process. This can all be told and taken from the view of Chloe being the daughter of Lyman and Caroline.

As fortune may have it, we were able to get the Probate records for this case. They paint a fairly good picture of the situation. However, we know that the brother of Thomas was named guardian of Chloe's daughter. We know that another brother of Thomas handled (was executor for) the estate in the Probate dealings. As I said, these guys were well known. The step-mother? She fled but got a settlement. Myra came out okay in the deal. She graduated from Monmouth College. She taught music. Ah, but, Myra married a railroad man. Know where this is going? Luckily, this Arthur's mother took Chloe's daughter in. But, Phylura was elderly.

Now, are there other ways that one could think of this case other than that old thing of checking boxes? You bet. Remember, we ranted at the MF people for not respecting the wishes of their elders who would have wanted to know their offspring. Too, I called it dissing. Three generations of women, scoffed at. However, we now know that the family organizations connected with MF have extended the work. Such as, the Alden group has data out to eight generations. And, we can feed them more information.

But, let's just pause a moment. We will put four alternate views here. And, look at them. What will we see, then?
  • Chloe was found in a cabbage patch? Oops. Did we write that? Or, she dropped from the sky? Why this? We're talking a pioneering family. They were not sitting on their fat behinds back on the east coast of Plymouth and surrounds. Chloe was her mother's oldest daughter. Caroline lived long enough to die in LA with her daughter at her side. That is, Chloe's sister. Lyman had died (his lonely grave in the countryside - broken stone). So, Caroline saw early Hollywood. We can tell stories about that. You know, Chloe named her daughter after her sister who is documented, by the way. That is, the sister that Caroline was living with in LA. 
  • Chloe was dropped off by another family? We know of these things. We can talk a case of a woman not knowing her ancestry as her father had dropped her off at a western household (she was an infant; her mother died) saying that he would return. Never did. We can dig deeper into the local history. Oh yes. The MF person says to me: "you're interested in the history (fuller picture); we want so show pedigree" (sure, would be my response, with antiquated thinking - we can write that since the NEHGS has weighed in to help MF. Recent paper where NEHGS did the heavy work of handling the circumstantial information. Oh yes. MF took it. Well, MF, there are other researchers than NEHGS around. Pro-bono, too.). 
  • Chloe was Caroline's sister? You see, Permelia was of child-bearing age. Her husband died in 1849. What was going on? Lots to look at there. But, it does not pertain to the MF stalemate. There were other siblings of Caroline. Perhaps, they were too much for her mother. 
  • Chloe had a father other than Lyman? Bite your tongue. Caroline was the backbone of this family way into the 20th century.   
You see how ridiculous all of this gets? They would have varying probabilities but would weigh on the negative side. Actually, they are too close to zero to consider. The accumulation of the positive material (there is a slew, as said) would push out a fair description of this family unit, of whom one is wrapped already in the MF arms - is that hug worth anything?

John and Priscilla are watching, we might say. How long before they can see the offspring from Chloe added to the 'official' MF roles as if that really meant anything?

Notes:

1. The group has presented its Caveats about use. Our own caveats: we are not genealogists, but John knows modern research methods including how to program and to solve mathematical/logical problems in a slew of technical domains. We started this work in 2009. This blog is meant as a record of work and findings. It is partially indexed at our portal to truth via images: https://TGSoc.org.
2. This summer, we helped a DAR applicant with her eApp. It was all done at the DAR website and the phone. The approach was fantastic. We finished the application in September and submitted it. By the end of October, it had been verified (there was a wait in the queue). A week later, the person was a member. That was the latest example. We have filled in, successfully, all sorts of applications for many friends for many of the organizations under the Hereditary Society Community. Frankly, we started doing applications to confirm our work (all pro-bono). Some genealogists who reviewed the applications noted how thorough these were.
3. We just had all of the material of this case reviewed by another person who saw no hole in the presentation. In fact, the term 'preponderance of evidence' necessary was used. Our next step is to document this with all of the material shown. The two articles mentioned in the text are overviews. The next will be highly detailed. Why? Gladys and her two prior forebears (Chloe and Myra).
4. These articles were published in The Gardner Annals and are in print form. See "Publications" for how to order.
5. There has been a lot written about Rev. Bayes and the use of his ideas. For a simple introduction, we can look at this example (Remarks 11/08/2019 - common sense and Bayes - flirting) or a better one from D. Joyce (of genealogical fame - his was a site that we visited often as we got into the work in 2009). For a more advanced look, Griffiths of Berkeley and Princeton offers a nice view chosen since it predates the latest trends: Bayesian models in Cognition. We'll get to the more recent (at some point, for now: Manifesto from 2014).

Remarks: Modified: 12/30/2023

11/07/2019 -- Gladys (see above) will be the focus of a major study. She has Alden through Porter. But, she has Brewster through Gill on her father's side. So, that's a merge under the western sky. ... Say "Genealogy and Bayes" quickly (or with the proper tongue) and hear genealogy and bias. This study can be used to weigh in on truth engineering as it pertains to the mischief out of 'silicone' valley.

11/07/2019 -- Added links to material, both introductory and more advanced, on Bayesian ways and means. Leaving aside, for now, the question of how all of this applies: Cultural heritage.

11/08/2019 -- Went looking for a good example and found several. This one stood out: Flirting -  An exercise in Bayesian statistics - at Medium. If you don't want to read the intro to Bayes' thoughts, go down about 1/2 of the page to the "flirting" part. It starts after this: "Every time you change your mind because of new evidence, you’re using Bayes’ Rule." I pulled out this piece (please read the whole post):
    So what does this have to do with flirting? You’ve probably guessed it by now. Flirting is a high-stakes, emotionally-charged manifestation of Bayes’ Rule. There are a couple of ways to think about this.

    First: you want to figure out if your love interest likes you back. You start out with a relatively uninformed prior, just a random guess as to whether or not they like you. Maybe you had a bad first impression, and you set your prior at P(they like me) = 25%. That’s way to uncertain for your taste to go declaring your love. You want more information first.

    So you hang out more, you go on dates, you see each other more often, and in each of those instances you’re collecting data. Maybe they hugged you tightly — the probability of that happening if there was a 25% chance they liked you is pretty low — maybe you underestimated yourself in the beginning and now you update your prior of 25% to a posterior of 27%. Maybe you touched them and they instinctively recoiled in disgust → update that prior and reduce it to maybe 5%. And on and on we go.
What we have is the need to update our priors so that we can have a better posterior. Tricky. Now, in reference to the theme of this post, how many have been dissed?

11/11/2019 -- Changed to using names to reduce the reference stacking.

08/07/2020 -- Cumberland Pass in the west has the same name as that in the east known as the Gap. However, they represent the movement across the country which established the country. So many stories. Too, they created instances like poor Chloe being dissed by Plymouth people squatted in eastern Massachusetts. It's a large country out here, folks. So, I have now seen oodles of families with the same problem from the tip (Canadian border) all the way to the lower part of Texas. Has anyone really awakened to this? Not that I can see, otherwise I would not have the need for this type of post (Genealogy and Bayes).

09/28/2020 -- We have started to look at Chloe, again and her "brick wall" using one generation's huge bucket of data. 

11/01/2021 -- John & Priscilla image disappeared from the MF site. So, now the MF people have a database of those in applications to 1900. And, guess who is there? Lyman and his daughter, Anna. These are the father and sister of Chloe. And, the applicants who were in their 90s? Deceased. 

12/30/2023 -- Changed photo of Alden house to source at Wikipedia.