Back to DNA

The last post looked at the issue of two Thomases in Salem. We have two views on this that we will look at further in order to do a comparison. One was from Dr. Frank. As with everything, we have been following his lead as we got our bearings in order. Today, we looked at both of the books (1907 and 1933). His reference to Troup is the same. They had a correspondence, but there seemed to be no update. Part of this effort will be to go back and compare note to note (even between the two books - as we did with the person list).

So, Frances Rose-Troup provided us with her research results. She was working on the other side of the pond from Dr. Frank. She shows that the Thomas Gardner married to Elizabeth White did not have a son named Thomas. He had a Josiah to whom he left property. So, we went to WikiTree and searched on Josiah Gardner (here he is on WikiTree). Well, there is a lot of work to be done with that tree, however his father is noted as a brother of the father of Lionel (Gardiners Island). Too, the profile manager provides his DNA results. Plus, he has lineage documentation.

Earlier, we dabbled a little with DNA and genealogy. The image is from a study as Family Tree. At the time, I got more interested in the technology issues, such as Admissibility, with the thought of getting back to the subject. Now is the time, it seems.

One truism is that DNA does not remove the need for lineage studies and documentation searches. The NEHGS has been publishing interesting studies where they have used DNA to resolve puzzles. We all know the author whose whole lineage was proven to be not true. His book dealt with how he recovered his heritage or the sense of knowing who he was. One might say, scrambling.

There are other sites dealing with DNA, so we'll start to look at those. Too, on WikiTree, there is a One Name Study for Gardner (and variants on the name). I have already added to the list of places with Gardner as name.

We had already widened the scope with the "All things Gardner" perspective (discussed in this post: Renovation, plus). So, the idea will be to be more fully extensive in coverage.

There is plenty to do.

Remarks: Modified: 06/04/2020

06/04/2020 -- "Back to DNA II" looks at a WikiTree Project and more.

Two Thomas Gardners in Salem

We are reviewing research results from the beginning, to now. This will be an iterative task over the next few months as we look at different themes. We will be making changes to our presentation material and format as we go along: Renovation, plus. Since we have a Cape Ann focus and are starting at before the arrival, the first two passes dealt with houses and sources of which there are many. So, as we go along, we will report. But, we will also built a coherent view that seems to be lacking.

Now, another theme dealt with the different Gardner families. There were several views of how many Thomas Gardners there might have been: A Thomas here and a Thomas there. Associated with that issue is this question: Whence came Thomas and [Margaret]? Too, when Roger Conant took the group to Naumkeag, we need to know this: Where was Thomas? What was the story concerning the early times? There is really no end to this.

Our intent is to be thorough, as much as we can, and build coherency as we progress. Too, we will be on the outlook for new material. Example of the latter was the 2014 find by John Cook of the marriage notice. This was taken further in 2018 such that Thomas is seen as having only two wives: Margaret anew.

There are many examples of the first part, that is being thorough. Our bibliography (History of New England) will record what we have accessed and read. We will be adding to that on a regular basis.

Today, let's look at Frances Rose-Troup's study of Rev. John White. This was published in 1930. She spent time looking at records and made some interesting finds. There are two that we summarize.

• The Thomas who was married to the sister of the Reverend went back to England. "Her husband Thomas Gardner was one of two Overseers of her fathers will and clearly close to and trusted by the family. In 1623/4 as a successful yeoman farmer he was employed by the Dorchester Co to oversee the establishment of their first settlement at Cape Ann in New England. After about a year Roger White arranged for governship of the settlement to be handed over to Roger Conant and Thomas Gardner returned to England." This is quoting Rev John White MA (1574/5-1648) which is hosted at Dorset, England. As well, this Thomas did not have a son named Thomas. Too, he died in England and left a will.  
• So, Rev. White is not the uncle of the Thomas of Salem of TGS, Inc. We know that there was the Thomas who was the father of the kids that are the focus of our work. These kids were the children of Margaret Fryer. Too, this Thomas died in Salem and was buried at Gardner's Hill (the status of his remains are unclear at this time). How did he relate to the prior Thomas that was related to the Dorchester Company? 

There were lots of tales of two Thomases. Dr. Frank said that he didn't see evidence of this. But, he didn't see the work of Frances Rose-Troup. The post (A Thomas here and a Thomas there) is a 2013 look at the issue. This needs to be brought up to date. It's early, incomplete, and indicative of why we are in the organizing mode. 

For the important themes, we will collect what we have. Also, we can point to additional work that was mentioned but not done. For one thing, the notion from the start was to be thorough and collect all that has been done. It needs to be brought to light for future researchers to not think that they have discovered some missing piece. 

Times are different than when Dr. Frank was working. It is much easier to do this type of consolidation. Too, though, there are technology aspects that will be of on-going concern. Hence, one goal is to have our work be used as an example. Many have started down this type of road, however, with regard to Thomas and Margaret, we'll cover the basis as best we can. 

So, as mentioned. I think that Thomas was related to the Thomas that married into the White family some way. If you look at the Dorchester investors, you will see Conant. So, Roger was sent to Cape Ann due to a business decision. Thomas was chosen, originally, due to family ties, I would bet. That was the norm in those days. He and Roger were not of the same class. Endicott, from what I can see from my reading, knew Thomas' background (talked to him). Called him Mr. They did several things together long before Thomas deigned (I said that before) to become a Freeman. Even in those day, the Church (of whatever variety and its people) was not all powerful. That has been a continual dynamic throughout history. 

It is significant that Thomas married a Quaker right in front of those ones, such as Endicott who put Dyer to the rope. Of course, they did some little fines with her not going to the services. Anything said about stocks, or whatever? 

Thomas seems to be tabula raza. He didn't leave writings. However, his sons spoke of him. Like, John mentioning Sherborne, Dorset. Too, they were well educated. That was due to their folks. Thomas talked to Rev. Hubbard who also talked to Conant (who bemoaned being handled improperly). We didn't see that published until almost 200 years later. Plenty of folks have reported what they saw or thought they saw. 

We'll methodically go through all of this stuff. Actually, already have. Blogs are the best was to organize this stuff. So, we'll use pages (see above (Tabs): What's new, FAQ, Page map, TMM - there are lots more). Plus, we'll write articles. That is what The Gardner Annals is for, in part. 

While working, we always look for new areas to poke into. So, the tasks build as more are pushed on the stack than are ever popped. And, we will get to (through) that (long list) by funding research. Also, there really is no limit in that all of the Cape Ann families need to be looked at. Right now, Conant, Woodbury, Trask, and Palfrey are covered. Why? Due to their being involved with the Old Planters - Beverly. In the beginning, it bothered me, a little, that these other families never mentioned Gardner. 

What was that? At least, Felt, in going through the records, brought out references to activities by Thomas. Dr. Frank wrote of some of these. So, Thomas was here. The kids are evidence of that. 

Did they talk of leaving? As in, what the Paine sisters wrote? You know, the stories of some going back to England or going to Virginia. Well, Thomas and Margaret and the kids were at Cape Ann. Having a good time. 

Lots to do. The 400th will have an entirely different feeling than did the prior commemorations. Oh yes. The 200th? A parade was mentioned (Chronicles of Old Salem). It coincided with the 50th of the U.S.

Remarks: Modified: 03/13/2023

07/17/2019 -- Changed to using commemoration.

09/20/2020  -- Added the Category. 

03/13/2023 -- See "New not old planter" post with regard to research findings. Thomas and Margaret have children registered in England until 1633. So, there were two Thomas Gardner, just not like we would have expected. But, the jury is still out. 

True stories

We are reviewing our material and looking at common themes, such as houses. While researching for Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 1, we wrote this post: No shadow over Thomas. The gist of the matter was that a researcher was talking about the motivation for the land grant to the Beverly group, Conant, Balch, Woodbury, and Palfrey. It was noted that the gents were worried of losing privileges.

Thomas isn't recorded as having any reservations. So, we need to discuss that. Endicott called him Mr. Gardner. Whether we're talking strength of character, being knowledgeable, pedigree, or some combination of those and other factors, we have found no bad mouthing of Thomas. Well, Anderson noted the thing of some grave conflict. But, that was son Samuel's doing. Thomas was dead at that point.

So, what is this all about? Well, a recent comment, in a blog, says that Roger found a mess when he appeared at Cape Ann. What? They were quite well and taking care of themselves. From notes for Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 6.

That brings up a new view though. Thomas' crew put together a house their first year. Too, they did come prepared and were successful in establishing themselves. The only failure was not having sufficient output to send back to the capitalists in England. What White may have wanted was for them to send what they needed to sustain themselves, but reasonable folks do not do that without the threats of the taxman or strong arm (those who came here were not serfs, in other words).

When Conant showed up, he didn't find starving people. He found a boisterous group. The use of insubordinate shows White's failure (hey, some descendants of Thomas, such as Dr. Frank, have White on the tree more than once). The effort was not a military expedition. It was a plantation building effort.

We also addressed that, here Cape Ann, Retrospective and elsewhere. We need to focus on the events prior to 1623/24 plus a few years after. And, that means looking at the whole of the affairs.

Take Thomas Weston. Briefly, he is run up the mast several ways. The Maypole affair is associated with his group. But, this was a legit attempt at establishing a colony. We'll get back to this below.

First, there are several motivations, but we know of two that need to be re-addressed. Take Sir Christopher Gardiner. When we first read of him, we only saw the Winthrop-influenced take on the matter. Then, we ran into a re-write that is not generally used. And, found another. That is, the story that is told is not the right one. Propaganda?

Then, after we found out that Dr. Frank was a descendant of Nathaniel Eaton, we saw that he had not raised that to general awareness. Why would he? It's a mess, Harvard (and, we'll retell this story from the perspective of descendants). We have written several posts about this plus one summary overview of Nathaniel's life.

Okay, there had been several attempts prior to the Dorchester effort: Sagadahoc (1607-1608), Plymouth, and Wessagusset (1622-1624). Some minor ones will be added as we continue. And, we want to address these as well as other motivations. For instance, we have these notes for Gardner's Beacon, Vol. III. No. 3:

Every March small ships of between thirty and eight tons, manned by crews of twenty to forty men and boys ... carried salt, provisions, equipment. Brought material for their boats. Took two months to get here. Put their boats together and fished.

Split the work between fishing and salting. Fill the hold and return in autumn.

Crews were gathered yearly by the master. Principally young, fifteen to twenty-five years old. Many were trying to get money to get established in their home area.

At first, Newfoundland. Then, Gulf of Maine.

There were lots of reasons for people coming over. Whence, origins, and motivations will be a theme for further research for a long while.

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2020

06/28/2019 -- Added image so that we can index.

12/29/2020 -- A few edits as this is on the image at FB with respect to this date in 1674 (death of Thomas Gardner in Salem, MA). 

Houses, again

Several posts have had a 'house' theme, as did issues of Gardner's Beacon. Early on, there was the realization that a house had been built at Cape Ann in the early period, prior to Roger Conant's arrival.

BTW, a recent blogger said that Roger found a mess when he arrived. No so. I have already written of this and will summarize what we need to do in the next post.

So, that house was the one that Higginson called the 'faire' house. It had been brought from Cape Ann to Salem on the order of John Endicott. Too, it was where John E fed John W upon his arrival. The theme of Gardner's Beacon, Vol. I, No 3 was Margaret's House. An early post said Thomas' house. But, we had it as Roger's house later. Then, of course, Endicott's. Well, Dorchester Company property is what it was.

As we look at the first year, we need to consider this house and things like its use.

There was also Ann's house that she shared with Joseph. Later, it was called the Bradstreet house. Well, it's not around anymore, but a recent blog entry mentioned the house. So, I had to comment: StreetsofSalem.com/2018/03/18/first-period-fantasy/. When Joseph was killed, Ann married Simon. They had a prenup drawn up by her. Joseph was a lawyer, as was her father and brother. So, this story needs a little more attention.

Of course, Sarah Balch had her house, in Beverly. Mary Coffin had her house on Nantucket.

Then we get to the Gardner-Pingree house which still has the Gardner name. I first became aware of this house upon reading the story in the Smithsonian's magazine. The same blog had an entry about this house. Again, a comment: StreetsofSalem.com/2018/07/10/the-most-beautiful-house-in-america-and-the-power-of-place/.

There are others with this theme. Another important post dealt with the Salem Fire of 1914. In reading the Chronicles, we can see that there had been other incidents of such type of destruction.

Remarks: Modified: 12/25/2019

06/28/2019 - Added image to post in our index at the Portal to truth.

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

Renovation, plus

We are in the process of getting the next issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol. IX, No. 2) ready which will review our 10 years of research activity and look to the future. Along that line, the Gardner FAQ is being updated. Plus, we are going back through posts to get the themes back into coherency.

Note: We have a link (see menu, right side) to the WikiTree profile of Thomas Gardner of Salem. This profile is owned by the Great Migration team and is based upon Anderson's series of books plus research after the fact. See Margaret's profile (as 1st wife of Thomas) for recent discussions and changes that stemmed from reviewing Sherborne records.

• In 2011, early on, we were newbies having just started this type of research. After some time getting acquainted with the people and events, we took notice of houses as these were a common theme through the years. Thomas' house seemed like a nice topic. Of course, later, we had to consider it to be Margaret's house. But, then, Roger came along. Finally, John took it from Cape Ann to Salem. Some of the original wood is believed to still be in some current structures. Another theme seemed to recur. It dealt with being forgotten (Written out of history). Looking at what has been written, the first mention of Thomas was by Rev Hubbard who was a contemporary. Of course, he was mentioned in records as we learned from Rev. Felt's review of such. But, there were (have been) many tales told.  
• Back in 2012, we started the What we know post as we read material and received queries pertaining to our research. Why this approach? Having gone through several exercises where we successfully did applications for heritage societies, we had learned 'source' requirements. For issues related to Thomas, there seemed to be more questions than answers as we followed previous work. The attempt at documenting the known state of the matter moved, somewhat, to the FAQ (2015) in an attempt to get the material available in one place with links to discussions and sources. 
• By 2015, we had received queries (Answering questions) with regard to about all of the Gardner families that were involved with the colonial experience. At the time, the notion of "All Things Gardner" came up. Dr. Frank wrote of some families in both of his books (About us/Gardners and Gardners). We started a list of other families in a blog post (Gardners and Gardners - one of our most-read posts) that we heard from or read about. There have been many suggestions about possible relationships between these families. 
• With respect to different views, we will be offering an overview across the board. That is, we will provide links to different sites that are in scope. Too, we will cover stories from the past. As an example, we have found a Thomas/Margaret marriage record. Rev. Felt mentioned this way back in the early 1800s, yet he was ignored. Why is that? One aspect of this will be a timeline of these views. BTW, the 'annals' scroll at our Portal to truth is a first attempt at just that.
• Looking ahead, we have been thinking of the 400th for a while. It was nice reading about the activities related to the 300th (Salem pageant). We think that some momento for Thomas and Margaret is in order this time around. Frankly, building a good web presence for the couple as well as documented research seems to be a good start.  

As we work the next few weeks, there will be renovations done. Hence, we make a little request for pardon. Part of the work will be laying out a longer-term view, including the ToDos, that will help the TGS, Inc. set up for the next decade of work.

Remarks: Modified: 06/25/2019

06/25/2019 - Added in the bullet about houses and who was here or not. Our research has helped us get a coherent story together. But, there are plenty questions remaining to have some consideration, such as Whence. Surely less involved would be getting the first five generations (starting with the first two) documented. We would include collateral families as we tried to show with Dr. Frank's line (WikiTree Profile).

Tale of Benjamin West, the Patriot

The web and blogging has many instances of what one might consider proper information handling. That is, the web was originally to focus on supporting research by helping disparate parties share their material. I like that the NEHGS has a blog, now. One recent post looked at a Mayor running for President of the U.S. in terms of pedigree. So, he's a cousin several times. Then, we have nice city blogs, such as Streets of Salem (post on Salem's maritime past). How did I get to this?

Well, recently, I decided to take a good (rather than skimpy) look at the Chronicles of Salem (CoOS). Gosh, first thing I noted was that it was a gem. So, I included some items for it into our 'annals' scroll at our Portal to truth. There will be a lot more. Two days ago, I saw that Bunker Hill was June 17th in 1776. This reminder was via the History of Massachusetts blog. So, I go to the CoOS and see that Lt. Benjamin West of Salem was killed. Who was he?

Just like Christopher Childs did with the Mayor post, I went looking. Mainly, the  idea is to find a Gardner link or something related to Cape Ann. Well, Benjamin did have an ancestor who was a niece of Roger Conant. There is more, though. We can call this Benjamin, the Patriot.

At the same time, we have a Benjamin West from the southern region, Maryland. He had some northern New England ancestors, too. So, we'll look more closely at that. However, this Benjamin was a Loyalist. He also was a known painter who worked in Europe. He never returned.

There are other Benjamin Wests. As we look further at the Patriot, we will look at these folks, some of whom are not concurrent with the Patriot: Benjamin West of New Hampshire, Benjamin West (autodidact), Benjamin F. West (1818-1854), and Benjamin A. West (shipmaster out of Salem, 1850-1860). The idea for listing these is to look for family ties.

Now, back to the Patriot. There was a memorial put up for Bunker Hill not long after the Revolution. However, Benjamin was not mentioned. His grand-nephew looked into the matter and got him on the rolls. What happened? Well, we'll look further. Benjamin was killed in 1776. It was not until 1895 (over 100 years later), that the State acknowledged this. One thing to note is that Rev. Felt, in his look at Salem records, mentioned Benjamin and his sacrifice. So, how did he get missed?

We will be back with more information about Benjamin, the Patriot, and his family.

Remarks: Modified: 06/20/2019

06/19/2019 - Last month, we did some work related to the U.S. Civil War. The net effect was to get the FindAGrave for Walter A. Ingalls connected to that of his wife which we own and point to research material on WikiTree. This one deals with the Revolution and a patriot.

06/20/2019 -- In the image, the quoted Caleb Foote is Publisher of the Salem Gazette. The West who married a Foote was Martha who was the daughter of Samuel Massey West. Caleb (the publisher) called Benjamin his great-uncle (page 296 - his autobio from the book by Mary Wilder Tileston -below). Also, Caleb Foote was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. So, we can get the proper timeline. More coming as we get the different families lined up (too much fun). Mary Wilder Tileston (sister of Henry W. Foote) wrote of Caleb Foote and Mary Wilder (her parents).

Chronicles of Old Salem

In Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 6 (December 2012), we had our first collection of 'annals' entries with respect to the interests of the TGS, Inc. This particular collection went from before 1623/24 to 2009. One purpose was to show references to Thomas and the Cape Ann crew over time. The last entry was 2009 and pointed to John Goff's book about the Witch House in Salem. He included a few details about Thomas and Margaret.

Subsequent issues of Gardner's Beacon had more entries. All of these were obtained from taking notes while reading and putting them in relation by the year. See our Bibliography for some of our readings. Too, early issues had entries in our Sources page.

By August of 2014, we had about eight pages of these entries which we pulled together and collated for our Vol. I, Issue 1 of The Gardner Annals. The name was appropriate. In subsequent issues, we have been publishing research articles and notes. Starting in 2017, we provided a print version of Gardner's Beacon and The Gardner Annals. So far, there have been two printings (see Publications). We can provide details about ordering our print versions.

Earlier this year, we added a presentation on our portal of entries in our 'annals' collection. We started these with only those entries that were of years within the span of Thomas' life (from 1592 to 1674). And, we added in the other years later. All of these reference TGA, Vol. I, No. 1 (August 2014).

Chronicles of Old Salem

We are now going to add in more entries. These will come from Chronicles of Old Salem by Frances Diane Robotti which published 1948. The publisher was Bonanza Books, of New York. In this book are entries in an 'annals' form that cover the early period down to 1948. I first saw this book in the 2012 time frame after we had received it from Ann's sister. She had found the little gem in a used bookstore. Of course, at the time, I didn't know much about Salem.

However, I did appreciate the format. As, Rev. Felt's writings were similar. Also, Felt was not mentioned, except briefly, and Perley seemed to be ignored. There was no reference to Thomas. Joseph, his son, was mentioned, but that was only because of Bradstreet's house which was really Ann Downing Gardner's that she shared with Joseph before he was killed in the King Philip conflict.

The book sat on the shelf for a while, until I opened it a couple of days ago. What a joy. I'll be quoting from this as well as doing posts. Little tidbits stand out. Such as? Well, the 50th of the American Revolution coincided with the 200th of Salem's start.

Yes, from our current position, we see lots of attention on a 400th coming up. I have been suggesting that we look at the 300th (which was celebrated a century ago, where Dr. Frank was involved). Too, we have the 200th (early 1800s, early times that were partly covered by articles in Dr. Frank's "The Massachusetts Magazine"), and the 100th which would have been of the time of Dr. Frank's and of our grandfathers.

Another thing learned was that there had been many fires in Salem that destroyed multiple buildings, except that we think of the Fire of 1914. There are other pieces of information across the whole of the book that are interesting. These will be added to our scroll on the portal.

We'll report as we add in more text items. This is an example from our Portal (to truth). At some point, we will add some more from Felt's look at Salem's History.

We will identify these.

Remarks: Modified: 06/17/2019

06/16/2019 -

Sidney, his discontinuance

Earlier, I wrote of Dr. Frank's effort at The Massachusetts Magazine and his last issue. In looking at the TOCs for all issues that we printed in two issues of The Gardner Annals, one could see that there was less and less content. Too, Dr. Frank, and his sister, Lucie, were providing more and more of the content. However, the Spanish Flu coming into New England would have been a contributing factor.

Now, of late, Sidney Perley's work has been of interest: links to all of the issues of The Salem Antiquarian. It ran from 1897 to 1909. I mentioned that I was going through all of the issues. Sidney had access to records. Too, he was thorough. In the last issue, he covered the Brown families of Essex county. That is an area of research, so I found it interesting. He had started with the A's and got to the B's before his energy ran out (below). Sidney published Dr. Frank's early work. I have one example where Dr. Frank changed his material, yet the original work is there. And, it has been digitized. So, that is another story to tell. Lucie picked up Sidney's work and published it in the TMM. Sidney mentioned the TMM a couple of times in his issues.

But, please, read his little explanation (Notice of discontinuation - pg 210).

As Sidney mentioned, he did ninety-five percent of the work. The guy got older over those thirteen years of publication. His walkabouts were phenomenal, as we have said. And, Gardner Research will be using them. Already, looking at one map opened up a little avenue of unexpected research which resulted in several posts and a stack of things to do.

To facilitate the discussion, we will be putting out a list of things to do. Some will be easy enough like writing a little bit. There may be some technical things for those who are interested.

Incidentally, after he left his hard work at the Antiquarian, Sidney did more writing, including his History of Salem in three volumes (see copy at the University of Virginia - Volume I, Volume II, Volume III). The text is quite extensive in its handling of the witch trial. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/06/2019

06/06/2019 -

Call for articles, membership news

This is a call for articles for the upcoming issue of Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IX, No. 2 which we would like to have out before the 4th of July. One theme will be the Old Planters Society for which we will start a membership drive (snail mail, in the beginning) plus initiate a regular research focus under auspices of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. and Gardner Research. Too, we are in the process of planning a meeting.

• Post on the Old Planters Society which included a link to the Constitution, the By-laws, and a listing of Officers and Early Members. 

These are thoughts expressed at the first meeting of the Old Planters Society (see page 11 in the above post) with which we concur. 

At the same time, The Gardner Annals, Vol. V, No. 1, is being put together, and articles would be appreciated. Print copies are available for Volumes I & II and III & IV.

• Our publications. 

With regard to membership, we will publish details at our website: https://TGSoc.org as they are settled.  

Please write to John M. Switlik, President / Researcher, TGS, Inc. at inquiries@tgsoc.org.

Remarks: Modified: 06/05/2019

06/05/2019 -

Out of sight

These are images used in the various posts related to Thomas' burial. This list serves a couple of purposes, at least. For one, it gets them into one place. Probably, a pseudo-montage might be in order. Another thing is that gathering these got me to readdress the posts. I have been doing this to build the image index at our 'portal to truth' that will be extended as we go along.  

• The first post was in October of 2010. In it, we asked: Where is Thomas? Note, this was after being in the Salem area and traipsing around Harmony Grove Cemetery. I came away with more questions than answers, however the WikiTree Profile of Dr. Frank has a photo of the plot where he is as are several other close family members.
•  Next up was a post in May of 2011: Where is Thomas, II? We were still running along with the general view of grave movements. However, someone who had visited the Cemetery sent me a picture of where Thomas' remains were (in a crypt). Not. As, the desk person told me another story. And, the reports that I saw (including what Dr. Frank wrote) mentioned the Peabody Gate area. However, at the time, there was still the notion of things having been done right. 
• ... <skipping>
• Coming forward, there was the side trip of determining how far was Gardner Hill from Harmony Grove. One joker said that they were congruent. Not. Sidney had a better grasp. Except, we need to puzzle out what Dr. Frank wrote, too. There is some disagreement. What is clear (confirmed by Dr. Frank) is that some stone were moved due to commercial reasons. And, there had been an unnecessary sale. We have written of this. By the 1933 book, Dr. Frank had dropped the issue of the sale. I wondered about that in March of 2015. It was not until August of 2018 that I made the connection (The remains of Thomas) as I reread the 1933 book. Finally, after talking to some Gardner families (two of them, from Maine), I got informed that people knew of lost bodies. What? On peeking further, I see one researcher (now deceased) had identified lots of graves that were just left after the stones were moved. Do we not have the responsibility to follow up on this.  

Why this? Salem makes hay with its witch connection. But, look, people, hundreds of graves were trashed. Is that not a more gross story? This was done during the commercial mania of the early 1800s. Yes, we have the period in focus and will be providing more commentary as we go along. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/05/2019

06/05/2019 -

------------
Note: This mapping is incorrect, done by a newbie. See the last image which is a correction.

-----
Note: The next two are not Sidney's maps.

-----

Remarks: Modified: 06/07/2019

06/07/2019 - Maps relate to the burial study. Some of these are not from Sidney Perley. I'll put in a link to the specific post where the map was used. 

Technology as imperative

There are two entries in our Devlog dated yesterday and today that are reminders of a reorg in process. We use that for technical notes along with our technology-focused blog which is moving from WordPress[dot]com to be under the TGSoc[dot]org site. As we do this, we're looking at the main site, too (ThomasGardnerSociety[dot]org). This site started in 2010 under the 'apx' regimen of MicroSoft using their OfficeLive approach which was quite nice. We have documented that move with respect to research and decisions in the context of general technical discussions that pertain to technology and its influences.

TGS site over the years

What the graphic shows is our look over the years as we have improved upon a minimal basis. That is, we did not buy into any of the commercial thrusts. Why? Many reasons. Too, we have watched the state of the art with respect to the Open Source efforts. You know what? We avoided that, to date, but are seeing signs that are encouraging.

What? Say, old, experienced eye versus the over-enthusiasm of the youth. Turns out, my contrary way has not been solitary. I watched a video of a meeting at Google which got my old heart palpitating. The message was right on. Or as I just heard a FBI guy say, two days ago, the more complex something is the more it is prone to being misused. We all know that.

In any case, we have requirements that need to be brought together. The original focus was to cover 100 years of research which is since the time of Dr. Frank. And, to look closely at his and his peers efforts in the entirety. Modern means involve the computer (now? augmentation - we were doing that two and more decades ago). There have been enough mis-starts for us to learn. Too, we can show how to address issues and make steady progress, albeit at times things might seem like they are more in disarray than is actually the case.

Who walks into a newly framed house and sees what the end product will look like? Well, we have the modern gal now (Waco) who shows simulation. Not possible without the computer.

So, we are dealing with more than genealogy. History will be redone with newer looks using all sorts of media. In terms of family trees, it was nice to see 'wiki' applied (WikiTree). But, the NEHGS now has their own method which we will be trying and writing about.

Lots to do. Any help would be appreciated.

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Note: With regard to technology, I went looking for material on the ancestry of Sidney Perley (Sidney's Antiquarian, How close is close? II, Lucie following Sidney, Essex County, South (east and central) Essex County, and more). There was a little on rootsweb (at ancestry). However, WikiTree has a Profile on him. He has colonial New England roots. So, that link represents two types of technology that will be in focus. The first deals with presentation which was print for a long time. Various types of on-line presentation methods have evolved with new ones all of the time. I was pleased to see a good one re-emerge after a little absence. The second technology focus will be genealogy and its related history. We have used WikiTree enough to be impressed by its power and the ease with which an expert can work. One can get out of the mouse or touch mode, for instance. But, other technologies? Well, consider genetics. However, we will see more, perhaps, those dealing with the likes of paleoichnology (see note  07/15/2015) will come to fore sooner than we might expect. In any case, our intent right now is to demonstrate a minimal basis with a few extensions of note. Then, we'll be prepared to talk the future in a mode that is necessary. BTW, the NEHGS now has a tree tool, ancesTREES.

Remarks: Modified: 06/30/2019

06/02/2019 - Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

06/02/2019 -- Current location of the new site (Technology blog). Formatting is not final. Too, we need to update pointers to the old site (at WordPress[dot]com). One benefit will be no ads. We will need to do tuning and other technical admin work while we try to determine requirements and performance specs.

06/30/2019 -- While looking at the Pageant of Salem from 100 years ago, I was noticing the names and went to search. Of course, WikiTree came up. And, there was a pointer to some material being hosted by TNG which looked interesting. Here is one example (Kloosterman), which keeps a blog dealing with their effort.