New France

TL;DR -- French-Indian War? Which one? New France? We find out more about this colonial effort by France that covered a larger area than New England. 

---

Our research focus started in Essex County as Thomas Gardner was a central figure. From there, we branched to Massachusetts and surrounding areas as people moved west and south (to us, families include collateral relationships whether by blood or marriage). For instance, families from Ipswich were out in Ipswich Canada early on (puzzling, at first). Too, there were pioneers who went out to southwest Connecticut and then New Jersey. Then we got to follow families to the southern New England and then out west. Finally, we started to take a look at the groups that came in later, prior to the Revolution, and expanded our scope to "All things Gardner" somewhat. Then, we looked at families post the Revolution both in New England and across the U.S. The western expansion got a lot of our attention due to the long reach of New England throughout the States. Looking at these families led to considering events prior to the Civil War and after. 

All the while, we kept ourselves to looking at English culture in the various forms here while staying within an adage for researchers here to not look over there (let's the Brits handle things). Well, that didn't last long, as we saw with the Magna Carta celebration in 2015 that groups in the U.S. were a main motivator for getting celebrations going and sustained. The ABA sponsored placement of a memorial at Runnymede. 

We never looked closely at conflicts in terms of parties and motivations. Except, we did look closely at the years going back between Cape Ann and King John's time, we saw lots of conflict. Much of this was cousin quibbling. 

As well, Dr. Frank noted that the leaders of the U.S. Revolution had been trained by the Crown by their involvement with the French-Indian war. Then, later, we were reminded of the Queen Anne war, basically through reading about the Pamphlet War. There is always research being done, however continuing improvements in technology will facilitate lots of work that was not possible before. Examples abound which will be included in our bibliography. 

Reading of the Queen Anne war got us looking at the particulars of what went on. English-French ties are ancient, way before William I's incursion. Too, though, we started to look at the history of different areas of the U.S. where families of English heritage were moving. And, that got us reminded of other cultures. Of course, we had already discovered that there were Gardner descendants who were of American Indian heritage. The cultures that were here prior to Europe will be the basis for presentations as we go back that fill in the pieces related to events and people. This is an example (Wikipedia is probably the best curator of disparate information and views on the planet; do you support it?).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Indian_Wars  

These are separated out by centuries. We have already mentioned some. Such as, Joseph Gardner being killed in the King Philips's war. He, and Ann Downey, had no progeny so they will get special attention. 

But, conflict here, in the early days, also was going on in Europe. We have mentioned Spanish influences a time or two. But, there was one huge absence. Fortunately, we don't have to venture far to find a connection. New Hampshire was considered part of New France at one time. We have not paid attention to that much, seeing it mainly as where Rev Stephen Bachiler went to get away from Winthrop and friends. 

So, let's correct that. First, let's use a 1681 map from Joliet's and Marquette's journey out west in 1673. That was one year prior to Thomas Gardner's death. We just looked at that, briefly, noting that they went from upper Lake Michigan to Green Bay to the Fox River and down to the Mississippi. We will have a post soon on that and an update about Gardner River further west. This map shows the Arkansas River where they turned around as they started to see evidence of Spaniards being around and about. 

Map of Joliet's and Marquette's tour, 1673

This next map, we love. It's from 1688, and shows how huge New France was compared to New England, both north and south. Of course, upper New England was more populated in certain areas. We will look at that. However, that this was mapped out so early is astounding. However, the left coast is not in the picture at this point in time (claimed by the Spanish). 

Early view of New France

Now, these maps are from the latter part of the 17th Century. Things really changed the next century which as 100 years before the Louisiana Purchase which we looked at last year in terms of how people moved. 

We mentioned that we have many generations to look at. The 5th generation bore the brunt of the Revolution. The 4th was there, leading. The 6th was there as a transition. After that, New England mostly was maritime which we have looked at. Now, we can look at the landlubbers which we started to do from the perspective of D.A.R. with its 250th celebration of the Revolution coming up. D.A.R. itself dates from the latter part of the 19th Century. 

We are going to look very closely at the 150 years from the Revolution back to the Cape Ann times (upcoming 400th). And, given now the broad sweep across the continent, there is a lot that can be done. 

Not only can we consider families and their genealogy, we can look at generations and their times. The main boon of the internet (the reason for its existence) is knowledge sharing. So, we will see more research and reports from such, many taking avenues that are creative and unexpected. There are media issues for which we have a technology focus, to boot. 

But, stories of the characters of those times, generation by generation, will be something to look forward to. 

Remarks: Modified: 02/27/2021

02/27/2021 -- Further on the western rivers (and the Missouri River). Changed to using American Indian. Put in the TL;DR line. Looked at New Spain.