Content and configuration

TL;DR -- Continuing theme that might become more major than not.  

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It has been encouraging of late to see several things happening, almost concurrently. Let us just list these with some comment. As a reminder, our portal (TGSoc.org) is where we support 'content' for things dealing with all aspects of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. as well as our interest in All Things Gardner. 

With this listing, we have to take little side trips (with curating being done a little later). There have been several studies being done that were disparate for the most part but had overlap, too. That, folks, is how life is. And? The computer has messed things up. Why? It'll provide a nice, beautiful numeric overlay that almost looks real. We can talk two senses, for now: where simulation reigns and appears as if to mimic nature (not, folks, as even with a tightly bound, smart sensor/reactor scheme, there is residue from the operational mathematics underlying the computational - basically, a rephrase of what the academics (CompSci) talk about, but not); or, in robotics, where we have seen the evolution come to machine learning, there is still that reliance upon the numeric/compute dynamic which looks very smart with its quick, huge abacus collective - marvelous -  which by no means approaches intuition of the talented human. 

Now, that's a mouthful, but it's offered liked Halloween candy, yet not. Our problem is how to bring more than hermeneutics into the technical experiences of now. And, we can learn from the past. Need to. The issue, though, is that the past five decades have us now in a bind of unknown proportions and types. This is not a political observation. No, of course, human affairs are complex. And, people have to make decisions. That's the point; offloading our responsibilities to a computer (with origins in Silly Valley or China or elsewhere) does not wisdom make (think Emerson, for one - yes, we have 400 years to look at in terms of the U.S. experience). 

Now, those two studies? One was look at John Gardner's relationship with Giles Corey. That covered a decade where the changes through that time were in parallel with those in the technology world. But, too, we were learning. What lesson cropped up? Curating. We need to start to spend time with that; however, it will be done in the context of content and configuration. Right now, we'll say this: one person's content is another's configuration. There are plenty of computer examples to use. Later. 

Now, the other deals with an adage and breaking it. Namely, we blokes here (norte of the americanas) ought to handle our own stuff. Let us tell you, the frontier experience of the U.S. is even worse than that of the Great Migration for various reasons. Yes. England had no parallel with this. You might see it elsewhere; however our experiences (US) after the Revolution can be a huge wealth of data. So, we look at our stuff here and let the Brits do their thing on their side. But, the focus on Margaret is forcing us to look at the Fryer/Friar family which is not here. The context: Editing Margaret's past. When one looks at Sherborne, there are many Gardner families (Dorset region). Friar seems to be lesser in size of the data set. So that is one motivator. 

However, we are using technology to do this, in a manner that was not available a decade ago. The first notion of this area, beyond reading John's comments (about his talks with his father), was in 2014. There has been some indexing of a slew of images. But, people have warned of these. A lot of the work might just be stepping through images (not unlike scrolling the pages on the micrograph device), except that it's easier. 

How might we say this? Looking at some of the frontier records this past summer was just that. It's astounding that we can do this work and be so blasé about what's under the covers. That is one of the reasons for this type of discussion. We need awareness that is attuned. 

It's funny. we see people realizing that html/css/js is sufficient for a whole lot of stuff. In fact, there are some additions that drive a whole lot of work. Myself, we've gotten to where Julia looks good. It's Python'ish but with extensions that do serious stuff (Lisp'ish). And, it handles the front and back ends. Given the above, of course, we want to discuss the middle out. So much more to look at. 

So, we'll be back to this theme on a regular basis. Curating? It applies to both content management and configuration control. Mind you, both of those have lots of other characterizations. The one truth? Roles are; the needed hat differs by role; balancing hats is what capable people do; the computer comes in and screws up the thinking with its 'magical' chimera'ish nature; many get hurt, led astray, even almost maimed, or driven into slavery (debt, for one); solutions will come from stepping back; we have lots of lessons pending that have been ignored, way too long; independent people will the the key to the future where one needs to know for oneself - 'trust but verify' is part of the solution; knowing how to do this with technology versus people are not the same skill set.  

Remarks: Modified: 11/03/2020

11/03/2020 -- Added image for our portal (https://TGSoc.org). Also, More than fiddling is more on the subject. 

Giles Corey

TL;DR -- Giles Corey deserves our attention and respect.  

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We have had a few references to Giles. Ever since we read of his ordeal, he has been on the list of heroes. We, recently, heard from a descendant of Giles who had some questions. More on that below. 

First, some of the references to Giles Corey:

• Pressing Day (19 Sep 2018) -- Giles died on that day in 1692. 
• Howard Street Burial Ground (18 Feb 2020) -- Giles was buried in an unmarked area in this cemetery which is in very poor condition, from what we heard. 
• Afterthoughts & Modifications (29 Oct 2012) --- In our first fall issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol I, No 4), we mentioned Giles and his sons. We ought to have referenced Giles' daughters and his sons-in-law. Also, we mentioned that Giles wife had been hanged, but that was three days later (Martha Corey). 
• Gardner's Beacon (Vol I, No 4)  (21 Oct 2011) -- So, the error was a year before where we look at Silly Salem and its yearly bowing down to those who want to turn real stuff into Disneyland'ish fare. Last year, at last, they restricted access to one cemetery (Charter Street) which was being destroyed by the yearly on slot. We also mention that the Court asked John Gardner to talk Giles out of his fervor. But, he was trying to save his property for his progeny. 
•  Ruth Gardner (11 Sep 2011) -- While writing of Ruth who married George Gardner (son of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer), we made several additional comments, such as this: 10/19/2011 -- Need to mention Jonathan's son, George, as seen from the Corey side (stale pointer - coryfamsoc.com): The only person who seemed to profit from the witchcraft hysteria was Sheriff George Corwin who confiscated property and pocketed fees collected from the accused and their relatives.
• South (east and central) Essex County (9 Jan 2011) -- we mentioned four people and site. First was Sidney Perley about whom we have written a lot (like figuring out the lynching site - and how Gallows Hill relates - over 100 years earlier than the modern mind). And, then the Trials of 1692, we mentioned that recognition of Giles Corey ought to be universal. There was this thing called "This week in Salem" (defunct?). Finally, John Goff who contributed a lot. 

As noted in 2011, we need to pay more attention to Giles Corey. 

Some questions were about John Gardner: identity, why was he there?, and such. Finally, we got around to trying to document all of the progeny of Thomas and Margaret Gardner to about 1900. Until now, we have been sampling for each child: Descendants of John. An example, we have had several topical post about John, such as being on the crew that mapped the Merrimack. But, we have done the same for each child; we will pull these together like this post for John Gardner. It was John who got us to focus on Sherborne, Dorset, England in the context of origins (latest post on work at WikiTree - Margaret Friar). So, lots of continuing work. 

But, we have questions, too. For instance, how long was the trip (miles and time) from Salem to Nantucket in the 1600s? There are more. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2020

10/31/2020 --

Margaret Friar, WikiTree

TL;DR -- We are taking a closer look at Margaret's family. 

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In this title, we used Friar as that is how it is written in Sherborne, Dorset, England records. Other spellings have been Fryer and Frier. In the below, we describe why we can identify the parents of Margaret Friar, wife of Thomas Gardner, as Walter Friar and Grace Mullins. Also, there is a current effort to learn more about Margaret's family. 

This post is along the line of  a relook at Margaret that we did a couple of years ago. This time, we are going to identify some specifics that have been collected on WikiTree in order to update Margaret's Profile there. A Great Migration project has been working to ensure that Profiles match up with the NEHGS book series (by R. C. Anderson), including recently determined material which are listed below. 

Friar records

This list is part of an effort to support coordination and discussion (Editing Margaret's past) while the changes are being done. As a reminder, in his profile of Thomas Gardner, Anderson had three wives with the first one (Unknown) being the mother of the children, a second one named Margaret Unknown there briefly, as Demaris was the last wife. What work of supporters of Gardner Research have shown is that there were two wives with Margaret being the first and the mother of the children. 

There will be more updates with respect to this work as simultaneously we are updating Thomas' profile  (Coordinating coming edits of the Thomas Gardner page) so as to have a good one going forward that is acceptable.  

There are a few things that motivate this change, beyond the necessity to close up the deal. These are listed below. The notice of the Thomas and Margaret marriage record was written in 2014. At the same time, some of the other records were noted. Since then, there has been a lot more scrutiny and discussion which was under the auspices of WikiTree. So we have records from which to report on the activity over these few years.  

• we have a marriage of a Thomas Gardner and a Margaret Friar (appropriate timeframe - Felt was the furthest back printed source that we saw)
• before that, we have a birth of a Margaret Friar, same area
• then, we have a Will of a Walter Friar mentioning his daughter Margaret (before the marriage), too, he mentions his son Thomas - there is a daughter Grace - is the wife mentioned? if not, did she die?
• then, we have a marriage of a Walter Friar and a Grace Mullins, same area, appropriate timeframe
• then, coming this way, we have births of boys (Thomas, George, Richard, John) with a father of Thomas Gardner.
• later, the family is not in the records
• then, we see that Savage has a Thomas Frier/Friar as a brother, "perhaps", of Margaret, wife of Thomas Gardner.

There's more. And, we are actively reviewing records in order to identify the births of Walter and Grace. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2020

10/31/2020 -- Added images for our portal. 

Filters, and their use

TL;DR -- Again, learning from Lucie and DAR.  

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Earlier, we looked at an approach to working pedigrees back 400 years, briefly, and titled a post - Middle and out. This will all be discussed further, but everything of note has a top and bottom. Implied is a middle. Why? We talk top-down for those things from that position. Ever heard of an executive being operationally effective? And, from the bottom, we find the detail orientation. Does the top care of this? Or even have the ability to know? 

So, we tread that water going as high as anyone wants and as low as is possible (and be sane ;>). Take science. One might say that theory is top-down. Yes. Data, experimenting, et al are bottom-up affairs. Same goes for any discipline, including genealogy. And, we think that the 'lead feet' observation really denotes lack of appreciation of the applied aspects (even mathematics has this). So, to cut this short as it'll be addressed time and again, we look at how 'filters' come into play. 

Aside: some wag might use 'colored glasses' or some other label related to interpretation. We say hermeneutics gets too much short shrift. Okay?  

We have started our look at descendants of Thomas and Margaret (Friar) Gardner. This work will focus on the progeny of each child and will report through various media and schemes. For some, we will use WikiTree if there are collateral families that have already done work. We have been creating profiles, as needed, but that is not necessary. Actually, it might bog down the work since text files would be sufficient, though we will consider a few other formats. 

Aside: On Margaret, a family in Sherborne, Dorset, England has our attention as being Margaret's, for several reasons. So, they used Friar. Felt used Fryer. Some have used Frier. So, we'll use any and all; however, right now, we'll go with what the Brits wrote over 400 years ago. 

The key is that we need sources specified from which we can grade the information. The rating will go from verified to speculative with the latter not being shunned. Rather, we want to fill in the first five generations completely and work down to around 1900. Hopefully, we would have mostly strong referencing done, but we will not shy from using modern techniques, that are sound.

Somewhat, DAR provides examples. It has been at this for over 100 years and has an on-line database. A recent post looks at “Middle out” where information is available. And, we can confirm that this information was provided with source references. We also know that the process will mark information needing attention, rather than throw it out. 

So, take a line, such as that of Dr. Frank’s sister, Lucie M. Gardner (public search is available). Her record stops at the 2nd great-grandson of Thomas and Margaret through their son, Samuel who is #6 in Dr. Frank’s 1907 book. This Patriot's name is Simon Stacey Gardner. His line goes (Thomas, Samuel, Abel, Abel, Simon Stacey, ..., then, we have Jonathan, Benjamin Brown, Stephen Wilson --- all Gardners, with the last one being Lucie's father). So, taking that example, someone wanting to show their pedigree to T&M would only need to reference that database node and how they relate to it. Lucie and Dr. Frank had no other siblings. Lucie had no offspring, but Dr. Frank did. However, for cousins of those two, there are many not in this database. We'll take one or two as an example and see how this might go. 

Relate? Yes, if some member of the organization has a sister who has not been identified through an application or a brother, then one would merely need to show that relationship (of the siblings). It would be that easy. Now, the database might have 7M persons, however there are lots of holes. Take the Massachusetts listing of sailors and soldiers. It is 17 volumes. Many of these people are not known to these types of organizations which has provisions to prove new Patriots. Ann herself has a slew of Patriots not in the database; yes, there are some who have had applications under their name. Rather than go through that process, we might use the method that we're experimenting with to have some  minimal representation so that people can fill in their lines. Even the WikiTree Profile seems excessive. We'll have to see. 

Aside: we'll not get to where everyone is in one database. It's like everyone in the same country or at the same point on earth (like the U.S.). We can, though, think of interchange mechanisms that would help. And, what genealogists do is not what I'm thinking. Actually, we'll use Julia to prototype something akin (or, let's say, inspired by) the semantic web team's effort.  

Besides descendants of T&M, we have an interest in all of the families that were at Cape Ann when T&M were there (arrival 1623/24). We already know some of the persons and their families. For instance, T&M's daughter Sarah married John Balch who came with his wife with the Cape Ann crew (according to some, same boat). There may have been (is) some disagreement about who was actually there, but we’ll be inclusive for now in the interest of helping research go forward. 

Another motivation is that the 400th anniversary of the arrival is coming up whether 1623 or 1624. Despite that, as we see with the Great Migration Project, there were entrants by the ton until around 1640. We can attest that we see lots and lots of people not covered in WikiTree, hence the decision to not use that as a funnel. 

Good old HTML can work once we set up the format, for a while (see Julia mentions that will be cropping up - just determined this due to watching a mathematical physics team use it successfully for non-trivial computing). In time, we will settle on a technical approach for the future. Lots of options exist including doing our own with links to the other resources. That is, a type of overlay from TGS via some service would be where TGS provides an independent access (see colored glasses, above).  

Now, back to filters. There are several example such as those involved with the Revolution. The Mayflower society will be another, though their records are in digitized book form. There are a few others related to New England, however we need to look further as people dropped off at Barbados, for instance, and went to several locations along the eastern coast of the US. Of course, Virginia needs attention. Nathaniel Eaton is an example of this. Who? First head of Harvard who was completely misunderstood. 

Too, though, we need to look at Loyalists who are of the period the the Patriots. We have started a list of those. 

Oh yes, in 2014, we had a discussion under the auspices of the Hereditary Society Community about a database for the first four generations. That is, from the applicant back. Too much personal data gets copied and scattered about. We only need one source that has the proper configuration. We were thinking that the far-out view was too political. Well, not. Taking some point, like 1620 to 1640 (think the NEHGS Great Migration Project), we could provide a good database that covers a couple of generations each way. GMP had a span of two generations (one on each side). Whatever. We have plenty to do, otherwise. Yet this thinking is to help us understand what services are being ignored; there is where you will find us. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/31/2020 -- Add image for our portal. Generalize the verbiage. 

Gardner's Beacon, Vol X, No 1

This issue of Gardner's Beacon provides some details about Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar that are available via the digitization and indexing of records at Sherborne, Dorset, England. Also, we look at recent experiences as an influence on our thinking of how to handle membership, especially proof of lineage. Besides, DAR ought to be quite prominent, as many from New England's early start will have offspring who were either Patriots or Loyalists. We look at both. Then, we remind ourselves of the other families at Cape Ann. It's time that someone did a review of those folks. 

Finally, we feature a look at Richard Crowninshield Derby who died at Antietam and left no offspring. We have a collection of those not to be forgotten, starting with Joseph Gardner who married Ann Downing. 

GB X, 1 (PDF w/links)

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See Vol. X, No. 1 of Gardner's Beacon for ... Sources.

Remarks: Modified: 11/28/2021

11/29/2021 -- Added links to the PDF for more full information presentation. 

The Young Captain

TL;DR -- Our young cousin and his memoir.  

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As we get the latest issue of Gardner's Beacon (X,1) together, we were writing up a little bit of the life of Richard Crowninshield Derby who was mentioned in the post Descendants of Samuel. We picked him as an example of the frontier experience that needs a lot of research and discussion. Many who went west have been dissed, say Chloe Porter (No brick wall), for whom we are doing a 'analysis' ala the mode that DAR uses when some type of reasoning needs to be applied (versus rote types of checking).

DAR -- Richard (WikiTree) - his father (John Derby), his grandfather (Patriot: Elias Hasket Darby). 

In short, Richard, born 1834, was talented and went to college, but his studies were interrupted by sickness. He went west (not quite like Teddy but close enough) on the northern side (WI, MN). When the Civil War started, he got a commission. He was killed at Antietam, on 17 Sep 1862, which is in MD and which was a battle before Gettysburg. Of note is that Harper's Ferry where John Brown was hung is in that area.  

Then, we find out just now that Capt. Richard's diary, with a bio, was published in 1865. It was titled, The Young Captain. We barely skimmed the book and will be looking for other references about Richard, however, the frontier theme was before and after the Civil War. 

Richard is an example of an illustrious family keeping track of their offspring. Some of the experiences that we will detail further went further south from New England (think, diagonal southwest line from the northeast). Some were already in the southern areas and went west. Those families met and merged. Lots of stories to be told and studies to be done. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/28/2020 --

Middle and out

TL;DR -- Lucie and DAR tells us a lot.  

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Our lives have two views that are archetypal, up and down. The wag might say, well, there's around, like the clock. That is true. But, we are going to look, for now, at lineage in relation to people who have helped the U.S. get to where it is. We can use DAR for establishing some mileposts as lineage moved along. Basically, we have a tree with up and down. We are all looking at the 250th coming up based upon 1776. We are interested from there back to the early 1600s and before. 

Actually, we will look this way, too; but, that brings in the around, namely, spanning across trees. One benefit of the modern modeling modes, using the computer, facilities like that of ancestry[.]com can give you these little shaking leaves. Early on, we learned that a lot of those are bosh. And, until some method gets established for common proof schemes, there will be issues. So, table that, for now, as we look to link from the Revolution back to the beginning. 

Take their database, as a start. At this page (genealogy), one can get to a search option on their database. Now, this is open with general information about the persons noted. To get more specific, one has an option to purchase a copy of a record. We are not looking at anything other than the bare necessities provided by the default display, right now, so let's use an example. Lucie M Gardner, Dr. Frank's sister, is a member (can be retrieved publicly) with Simon Stacey Gardner (available off of Lucie's record) as her Patriot. Now, let's look at Simon, first. What you see is some detail about Simon such as his wife (Rebecca Knapp) and children, albeit only the ones for which there have been applications are listed. The database can provide a record copy for each of these that can be purchased that will provide more information. Sometimes, that would include all of the children and their spouses. 

So, let's look at Lucie, next by picking her number. She was the first application for Simon and through his son, Jonathan. Now, if you scroll though the lineage (Lucie's lineage), between Lucie and Simon Stacey Gardner are her father (Stephen Wilson Gardner), grandfather (Benjamin Brown Gardner) and great-grandfather (Jonathan Gardner). There are dates and places, usually, provided by the lineage report. 

Aside 1: This information has been scrutinized quite a bit. One can read about the application process (see above node) and get an idea. However, after more than 100 years of honing the process, the databaser has good data. 

Aside 2: We have been working to document Benjamin B Gardner back to Thomas and all of his other ancestors on WikiTree (Gardner-5912). Between Benjamin and Thomas, we find Jonathan, Simon Stacey, Abel, and Abel. For some of the other family members, we have added them (see the Ahnentafel - handcrafted). But, there is a lot more work to do.  

A couple of years ago, we used Dr. Frank's handwritten notes to update his lineage on WikiTree. His father's lineage is the same as Ann's grandfather's Gardner line. What we did independently, starting in 2010, with nothing other than the 1907 book, filled in Ann's whole tree. This work agreed with Dr. Frank's work done 100 years before (that we did not have), except we had a lot more information. In the good Dr.'s day, there was no Xerox as we see now and no web (it required searching through physical files). In his notes, Dr. Frank had included the lineage of his mother, Marion Wallace Woods, which compared well to work that had been done on WikiTree. 

Before going on, one might pause and look at the state of the information. The data record for Lucie would be fairly sparse, and we will look to see if we can provide more information. Coming forward 100 years, though, later applications filled in the information further. 

Aside 3: If you look at Lucie's lineage (#82537) and some of the later ones, you will see the benefit of the process which improves the data as time goes on. The newer applications might have those  earlier and later generations further documented. And, those improvements would have been collected through other applications that happened during the 100 year period. 

As there can be other family members who are Patriots, the organization encourages members to do supplementals. Now, from that, one can talk about span (see above, archetypal) as future applicants would have more information to leverage. But, this is a work in process. 

Aside 4: BTW, Ann has done and assisted with ten successful supplementals this past summer. It is from that experience that we can tout that the database has good data. Also, we can mention that in one case there were no documents at all added to the application; basically, the application was done by matching up nodes from the database. As far as we know, there is no other organization that has accomplished what we see. That is, verified data being used rather than adhoc collections. 

Aside 5: As you look at the database, you might see comments in red which indicate that some problem has been found with an application. Ann had a chance to handle a couple of those, to boot.

Aside 6: Since we are dealing with generations going back and looking at both genders being descendants, there would be added complications. Some worry about those types of lines, to wit the Mayflower Society 5th generation books that carried lineages from 1620 through five generations. These have been digitized and are available at the NEHGS. Coming forward, we have a different concern. Ann has done several dozen applications for herself, family, and friends. In some cases, the same information has been sent (personal data being handled how?) whereas one could easily conceive of a database that would certify using once proven data. Most of these groups tout that they do not trust others and require their own thing. As does DAR, incidentally. So, we argue that such an attitude is actually quite limiting. The 100+ years of experience helps demonstrate some of the needed capability. A few years ago, we proposed this discussion under the auspices of the Hereditary Society Community and got some interest. Also, we heard the arguments (no one talked the technical issues which are there and real; no, the objections were of the habitual nature, if you look closely - not-invented-here). We'll continue to pursue the discussion.   

So, we're interested in a middle-out approach which we can describe and defend, as needed. But, for now, we're looking back. The forward look will only come from an new view, say another Thomas descendant whose tie to Thomas we need to assess. But, on looking back, there are lots and lots of people who are not members. Usually, they have to assess (then prove) their heritage, to the Revolution. 

We are interested in how many Patriots are missing. That is, just using the Massachusetts book, one can see that it's huge compared to who's been used to establish membership. And, in the work with supplementals, Ann has shown new children for an existing Patriot plus a new Patriot. Again, this type of thing is an ongoing work. 

So, Patriot? We need to look at DAR's definition. We have seen Loyalists of various types. After all, that whole time before 1776 was of the King or Queen (several). Notice that link uses plus or minus. Right now, we're looking back. Coming forward, we are going to go deeply into the frontier. Why? It's been botched, somewhat. Lots to discuss. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/31/2020 -- Shift focus a little to be general. 

Descendants, finally

TL;DR -- This post discusses upcoming work that will continue to extend our efforts. See the Descendants page for related information that will be kept up to date as we go along. 

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Our first posts on this subject looked the kids: The kids; Two generations; The progeny; More progeny. These were all in fall of 2010, our first year. 

We started looking a progeny in 2009 and published on Wikipedia starting in January of 2010. The first persons mentioned were Augustus Peabody Gardner and John Lowell Gardner, as they were both in Dr. Frank's books (mentioned in 1907 and featured in the 1933) and had pages on Wikipedia. We can see the pages from those early times due to Wikipedia's very professional change tracking.  

This is a link shows the first draft of the page (January 10, 2010) which has gone through a long series of revisions since then and has a stack of pending edits waiting to be done. Such as, Wikipedia does not see Dr. Frank's book as a proper reference source. So, we are slowly working to remove that failing. Remember, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. 

Within a couple of weeks of that start, we had created some sections to categorize various descendants. Overall, we found good sources but have removed some people. One example was General Worth for whom Fort Worth, TX is named. His mother was the second wife. The categories on the Wikipedia page for Thomas Gardner (Planter) were the following:

• American patriots (and military) - this section was motivated in part by DAR which has a focus on the Revolution and its supporters. We will be using their database, when we can, by pointing to lineage information. Topical material will be handled various ways, including publications as well as posts. 
• Business - the Nantucket families are associated with several businesses (Folgers, Macy's, Coleman, Stratton). 
• Academic/science/arts - there are many illustrious folks who are in this list.       
• Degrees of separation - this was done before knowing about the facilities of the genealogical databases. See Dr. Frank links that show the capability. 

These have now been brought over to a post for each child where we will start to fill in the tree: Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton  ** Joseph (had no descendants). 

Now, with respect to how we can work the details, there have been many who have researched their families. Lots of different alternatives are available for this type of work, and the material is across lots of frameworks. We might ask for a summary which then points to details. Say, some ancestry tree's nodes being written out (link targets would need to be publicly readable). One goal is to find holes where we can focus research. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/27/2020 -- We will be helping to update the Thomas Gardner profile on WikiTree. 

Thomas and Margaret

TL;DR -- We look further at Sherborne, Dorset, UK.

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When we started, the Great Migration books (Anderson) had already introduced another wife for Thomas, making it three in total. The first one, mother of the children was Unknown. Then, there was Margaret, supposedly married here. And, finally, Demaris about whom we knew. 

Now, as we looked at things, Dr. Frank's writing of two wives made since as it did to Moriarity (of the American Genealogist) and others. So, we took to using Margaret as Thomas' wife. 

In 2014, John Cook showed us copies of records out of Sherborne, Dorset, UK. Those can be summarized as follows in terms of what information that they provide us: Walter Friar marrying Grace Mullins; birth of a daughter, Margaret; Walter's will (prior to the marriage of Margaret and Thomas) which named his daughter, Margaret; Thomas Gardner marrying Margaret Friar; birth of boys in the order that we expected. Then, the records go silent which can be taken as a sign of the family leaving the area. 

In 2018, we finally got around to presenting this material on WikiTree (Gardner-159). Prior to that, we only had made references. We collected what we had found out about Margaret. Also, we updated the tree after obtaining Dr. Frank's handwritten notes on his heritage: the Gardner side agreed with what we had; his mother's side agreed with work having been done on WikiTree.   

After some discussion on WikiTree, in 2019, it was decided to change the Profile of Thomas and Margaret to agree with Dr. Frank and our research. The TGS, Inc. is leading the way in the edits. 

As well, though, it was suggested to submit an article in the NEHGR (see about their 175th) on this regard to set the record straight. That is on the list of tasks for us to accomplish. 

And, finally, we are starting an effort to fill in the tree for Thomas and Margaret using WikiTree. Some work has already be done, but Samuel is a good example. Only two of his children have been added to the tree. One of those comes down to Dr. Frank. 

There is a lot more information, but this post is to announce that we will use the Pages method to handle the work to identify descendants of the children. For now, see the list of our first post for each child. Coming soon will be a review of methods done by several where we point to our requirements to establish a descendants relationship from Thomas and Margaret. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/24/2020 -- 

Descendants of Miriam

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Miriam (Gardner) Hill (ca 1660) --

• 

  Rowland Hussey Macy
  

  Susannah (Gardner) Dow (ca 1657) --
• Lorenzo Dow (married Peggy Holcombe) (ca 1777) - itinerant Methodist minister
• Rowland Hussey Macy (ca 1820s) -- founder of Macy's
• Charles Mark Daggett (ca 1830s) -- early pioneer into Wisconsin 
• Dudley Chase Haskell (ca 1840s) -- Pioneer in Kansas, founded Haskell Indian Nations University. 
• Charles Henry Dow - (ca 1850s) -- co-founded Dow Jones & Company 
• Anthony Lee Dow (ca 1945) -- American actor, Leave to Beaver, for one. 
• ...

  

  Dudley Chase Haskell

We looked at Miriam, briefly, last year and need to dig deeper into her life and progeny.  

    

Remarks: Modified: 07/27/2022

10/24/2020 -- List all of the children.  

03/30/2020 -- Added Lorenzo Dow and his wife, Peggy. 

07/27/2022 -- Added Tony Lee Dow, Wally of Beaver fame. Added Charles Henry Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones & Co., and Dudley C. Haskell (of Kansas). 

Descendants of Seeth

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Joshua Conant (ca 1650s) -- he married (1) Christian More who was a daughter of Richard More considered the 'bastard' of the Mayflower. (2) Sarah Newcomb.  
• Sarah (Ropes) Peirce (ca 1752) -- grandmother of Benjamin Peirce (WikiTree) father of C.S. Peirce. 
• Seeth (Grafton) Andrew Hicks (ca 1810s) -- she is mentioned in Torrey's list of New England marriages prior to 1700. 
• John Albion Andrew (ca 1810s) -- 25th Governor of Massachusetts
• Charles Sanders Peirce (c. 1830s) – philosopher and mathematician. He is also a descendant of son, Thomas. 
•  ...

John Albion Andrew

We looked at Seeth, briefly, last year and need to dig deeper into her life and progeny.  

We will do Miriam next. 

    

Remarks: Modified: 04/12/2022

10/24/2020 -- Added a notice for CSP as descendant of  Thomas as well as of Seeth. 

04/12/2022 -- Updated information about Joshua who married the daughter, Christian, of Richard More.  

How to handle the frontiers

TL;DR -- A cousin went west, during the wild times, and returned only to become a causality at Antietam. 

---

As we work to fill in family information from Thomas and Margaret until around 1900, we will be using WikiTree to map out genealogical relationships with supporting material coming from various web sources that can be trusted. That will be a many-pronged task, as we need to have some guidelines to follow which will differ by context. For now, as an example of the good work of DAR, we can point to some public information that would be pertinent, such as their guidelines, their effort at having a database, and such. A good place to start would be this document (Genealogy Guidelines, Part Two) starting at Page 24 where there is a discussion of forms of documentation. Then, we have the job of looking at all the persons of every generation. 

Let's take an example. On WikiTree's Profile for Samuel Gardner, earlier this week, we saw that Neville Chamberlain was a descendant of Thomas and Margaret. Now, earlier items on the list in this post (Descendants of Samuel) had been looked at years ago (we're finally getting to this work). However, this new one looked interesting and was added to the list without any attribution. That is how work happens, in an incremental fashion, hopefully with notes to do traces and such. We didn't bother as we knew that this post was coming along. As well, we added the name since the list is smaller than for Samuel's siblings. But, we're of Samuel and thought that we would do the others first. Only two more to go (Miriam and Seeth) before getting into details. Which this post is about. 

Well, after a quick look in order to prove that line from Thomas to Neville, we could not. BTW, Neville was the Prime Minster of England prior to Winston Churchill. Not too fantastic, as we can show several modern lines in England that map back to colonial families. We'll have a post on that later.   

Fortunately, we do have Dr. Frank's works. So, we started down through Samuel's (which goes #6 to #59 to ...). And, we saw Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner. She is of George, and her husband was of Samuel (both generation 2). That post on her was done in December 2019. One of her sons was mentioned by Rev. Bentley. But, let's take it a little forward. Her daughter married a Barton. Then, their daughter married a Derby who was a Crowninshield, too. His mother was an Elizabeth, too (look at December 2019 and see a few Elizabeths in focus - but, early this year, remember, the virus happened - besides, we got off on this work of supporting the organization which took a lot of time and energy - from which we learned a few things about how to argue on these issues - which we first brought up in the context of the Hereditary Society Community - so, lots of pending things to do). 

So, we get to a great-grandson of Elizabeth (through her daughter, Margaret, and granddaughter, Sally). His name is Richard Crowninshield Derby who died young at Antietam. Here is his findagrave profile. And, this is a snap of his WikiTree profile.

Richard is seven generations from Thomas, so that is right along with the partitioning that we were talking about with the 5th generation bearing the brunt of the Revolution. As an aside, doing this work, we were heavy into the movements south and west where documentation lagged the people's lives. Lots and lots of times. We'll go on about this until we see better handling. That is, the wilderness of those areas just west of the coast had a whole different dynamic than the frontier (of several sorts) experience which went on for decades (and decades). Yes, that'll be our little focus (people's essence is not necessitated on their having papers - sheesh). 

Now, in this case, given that Dr. Frank was of Samuel, we can somewhat take his work as given. Except not, we're on the record as noting that we need to verify Dr. Frank's work. I have already done this with his direct line and that of his mother (1907 Chart, from May of 2018 - we might be slow, but we are thorough - hence, in a few months, we did (as in, got okayed) a handful of new applications plus ten supplementals - there will be more on this later). 

As said, we'll use WikiTree until we find a better approach. One truth of the matter? This stuff takes work which we have been doing for a decade now. To date, the thrust has been the overview and discovering what has been done for a century and one half. We are in the process of closing up that work and starting to get into more detail in a mode that will be sustainable (as much as we see with the organization and their 125 years or the NEHGS with their 175). Does ten years make us newbies? Not really, as research has been my career focus, so we're talking 1/2 a century (John's gift to the Gardners).  

BTW, John has been digging into the theory of computing (and other things considered theoretical) and will be doing little experiments using our portal. Anyone interested in technology who can adopt and keep independent viewpoints is welcomed to help. Or, just doing drudge work. Computing has that at its core (nothing sexy at all - that's all hype). 

Going back to Richard, he was born in MA in 1834. That 30 years after Lewis and Clark and a few years post Daniel Boone getting to eastern MO. Then, Richard was out in WI and MN. So, that's above IL and MO. You see the timing. At the same time, though, we saw the frontier line going west (KS, NE, OK, and TX - can't forget the upper people, DKs). 

In our little case against the GSMD, Chloe is of the latter part of this generation.  

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/31/2020 -- Generalize the verbiage. 

Great House (Cape Ann)

TL;DR -- The house will get continued attention. 

---

Talk of serendipity. Rather, it's just paying attention. We have been too busy of late to do proper research but are now back in action. One of our goals is to fill in the generations post Thomas and Margaret up to about 1900. It was the 5th generation that bore the brunt of the Revolution with guidance from the 4th gen, if you would. Then, two generations this way is when we saw the blooming of the area (Salem and Boston) with international trade really taking off. 

At the same time, we saw western movement as the middle of the country filled in. Of late, we have looked at plenty of families scattered all over the landscape. And, looking closely resulted in a more full view of the issues of being on the frontier. One huge group sort of points to a little movement, say from North Carolina to Tennessee, as sufficient to cover the rest. That is not so, as we will bring forth. Things were much more shaky the further west one went. Boone, himself, got to the eastern side of Missouri. That was near the Mississippi River. It's a long way from there to Oregon, though there are tales of the old guy going out to the Yellowstone area and back (we'll look at that more closely). 

But, we digress. Earlier, we put a descendant's list out which had not been verified (almost a decade ago). It was suggestive of research to be done, say. So, we're starting from that point where we split the list by child. The last one was Samuel (child #6). Today, Miriam came up. She married John Hill. One of their daughters married a Dow. 

So, we remembered that we have referred to a Dow several times, namely George Francis Dow. This was in the context of the Great House (Cape Ann). There are several posts of early dwellings (The 1st year) which precipitated the Wikipedia article.  After finding the obituary on George Francis Dow (at the site of the American Antiquarian Society), we found his parents (and will look further). But, his wife was Alice G. Waters who did a bibliography for The Diary of William Bentley (mentioned here, a few times: example). 

So, seeing Waters got the notion of how this all relates to Thomas Franklin Waters (writer on Ipswich among other topics). As well, TF Waters was an editor of The Massachusetts Magazine spearheaded by Dr. Frank. So, there are things to pursue in the vein. 

Now, back to the gist of the post. We found this post on GF Dow in the Streets of Salem (Donna Seger's) blog. It has better pictures than I have seen before. Note, the Wikipedia article was started in 2012. As well, the post has pointers to further information. 

Crafting a Colonial Salem
Streets of Salem

Higginson saw the house and wrote of it. So did Anne Bradstreet. Endicott played host to Winthrop as that late arriving group stopped by Salem long enough to express displeasure with the little area. Anne Bradstreet wrote of her shock about the situation. Back in jolly old England, they were told of good houses, paved streets (of gold), and such (tongue-in-cheek). 

Oh yes, Thomas' or Margaret's house? Or Conant's? It was put up by the original crew from material brought over. They didn't have time (or the tools) to do all of the fabrication work. There was one remark that we saw about the material (for the house) having be prepared for transport. When Conant went over to Massey's Cove, the Gardners had Cape Ann to themselves? When Winthrop enjoyed his feast, his crew had gone over to Cape Ann to pick strawberries. Many tales to consider.  

You know, all of the western movements (there were several, and we have the families and their histories to study) faced something similar. And, it was more than just the sod houses of the prairie. 

An aside: many genealogists have no clue, it appears to me, that their paper chase bears little on the reality (essence) of people's lives. How can we correct that lack of insight? 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/11/2020 --  

Support specifics

TL;DR -- We have ten years under our belt with respect to things pertinent to TGS, Inc. futures.  

---

We have mentioned that we look to the NEHGS as a 'mentor' from afar. That is, we pay attention to what they do. For one thing, their NEHGR is still around; Dr. Frank's TMM ran into the events (pandemic) of 1918. Too, the NEHGS did well getting the various parties to coordinate with respect to the Mayflower lookback. The conditions of Covid-19 got in the way of the partying, but the acknowledgement has taken place. Lots of good information was brought out that will facilitate further work. 

In addition, we have looked at the methods used to establish membership criteria for various groups, such as the GSMD. Their efforts at proving lineage is captured in a set of books that cover five generations. In the past, one found these in libraries. Now, the NEHGS provides on-line access through their American Ancestor database. Another research group of note is the LDS (Family Search). There are many others, but the list is too long for this post. 

Before getting to the specifics (this and the next post), we need to mention the Hereditary Society Community. The HSC consists of societies whose purpose is honoring heritage and, for one thing, the culture of the U.S.A. HSC society members gather each spring, in Washington DC, for their annual meeting. An example member would be Mrs. Philip Wendall Bernstoff (Betty Jane James) who was in the same DAR Chapter as Ann. 

Ann has just completed a series of tenures as Historian, Librarian, Treasurer and Registrar for a local DAR Chapter. For several months this year, Ann did the work of both Treasurer and Registrar. Now that this work is winding down, we will have more time for the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc.'s work which would include documenting descendants of Thomas. So far, we have been posting a list of names that came from the Wikipedia collection. The latest post was "Descendants of Samuel". But we want to expand upon the work of Dr. Frank as well as get several generations filled in. 

Part of the work this year as Registrar included working on over twenty applications in the NSDAR context, completing most of them, and concluding with acceptance via the review process. Some of the applications were for new members. The majority were what are called supplemental applications that are done by after membership is attained. That is, one uses a Patriot to join. Then, other Patriots in one's tree can be identified and proven. For an effort related to process improvement, Ann worked on almost twenty supplemental applications with eleven of these being completed for a review process. Ten have already been verified and are in the final stages. 

That depicts work effectivity. As well, we have completed over thirty applications in other contexts for various individuals. Too, we have done preliminary work for a score of others. Given the experience, we are ready to set up some conditions for applying to the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. Stayed tuned.  

With regard to approaches, we have had discussions on this topic where technology is brought into play. Many efforts seen on the public approaches (Ancestry, ...) follow less rigor than one would like to see. As we mentioned earlier, we took the notes that Dr. Frank wrote up about his mother's genealogy and compared it with what had been done on WikiTree (WT). WT is where the Great Migration Project (NEHGS) has been working. For instance, the Thomas Gardner profile there is owned by the GMP. There are lots of missing pieces, including descendants. Samuel's line is fairly sparse. 

Where does one go to find good information. Take an organization, for instance, which supports genealogy studies with their database which is public (Genealogical Research). One limit is that the database is based upon applications. With respect to the supplemental effort, this will fill in lines over time. In fact, it is quite possible now for one to build an application without needing any additional sources since one just matches up existing trees. 

On WT, there has been an effort to identify those involved with the American Revolution (example: Joseph Swazey 1750 - 1816). But, getting beyond New England, there are studies with respect to other interests, such as Magna Carta. As technology improves, we would expect to find better and better representations that can be trusted. That is one goal of the TGS, foster this work and the related discussions. It's one of our many goals. 

And, given that we're back to work, we'll be more regular: Gardner's Beacon, Vol X, No 1, soon. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/09/2020 --

Descendants of Samuel

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

Note: Earlier, we had a list that included a British family in the descendants of Samuel. Now, that turned out to not be easily determined, so we do not have them on the list. However, I have heard from many British families and need to do a post on them. That is, these are Thomas and Margaret descendants who have an ancestor born here who went back.

---

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Jonathan Gardner (c. 1690s) – his Great Pastures became Salem Woods
• Jonathan Gardner (c. 1720s) – Commander of a privateer, French-Indian War, Commander of Minutemen, American Revolution — Described by William Bentley thusly: A most useful Citizen, of amiable temper, inflexible integrity, and a sober friend to all useful, social & religious institutions.
• Ebenezer Gardner (c. 1730s) -- was in Nova Scotia and forced south to Maine in the Revolution. 
• Samuel Knapp Gardner (c. 1780s) – Mariner, captured in War of 1812, held in Dartmoor (HM Prison). His 3rd great-grandfather, Edward Woodman, was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.
• Thomas Needham Gardner (c. 1800s) -- 1st great-uncle of Dr. Frank. 
• William Crowninshield Endicott (c. 1820s) – Secretary of War in the Administration of President Grover Cleveland
• Richard Crowninshield Derby (c. 1830s) - Died at Battle of Antietam, 17 Sep 1862, he is the great-grandson of Elizabeth and Jonathan 
• Elliott P. Joslin (c. 1860s) – founder of Joslin Diabetes Center
• Alfred Winslow Jones (c. 1900s) – created first hedge fund
• Alfred L Gardner (c. 1900) - Smithsonian Institution, Emeritus curator (USGS). 

Descendant of George and Samuel

WikiTree profile for Samuel: Gardner-614. 

Earlier look at Samuel. 

Remarks: Modified: 02/27/2022

10/09/2020 -- Add links and image. 

10/15/2020 -- Added link to WikiTree. Removed Chamberlain until proven. Added in Richard Crowninshield Derby. 

10/16/2020 -- Note the relationship of Richard Crowninshield Derby with Jonathan and Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner. He a descendant of George and Samuel.

10/21/2020 -- Added link to post on descendants of Seeth. 

10/24/2020 -- Add list of children. 

10/27/2020 -- Add AL Gardner to list.

11/03/2020 -- Add Thomas Needham Gardner. 

12/13/2020 -- Added link to earlier look at Samuel (and John Curwen). 

02/27/2022 -- Added Ebenezer Gardner of Maine.