Announcement

TL;DR -- Our cousin, DTG, has switched to another LLM with provenance on his mind. One area of focus will be Dorset in the time before and after the Dorchester Company's effort on these shores. 

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Announcement, at WikiTree

This is the "announcement" mentioned in WikiTree as a Comment in the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile. It pertains to the two-person choice and how we will proceed in our work using modern techniques. 

David Todd Gardner, for the past two years, has been working with one of the GenAI/LLMs (we'll reveal later). We had reported on his work with the Richard III incident. Was there a Gardner involvement? The TGS blog has posts on this topic. 

DTG noted by Mar/Apr of 2025, that that LLM (using the vernacular of those heavy into "agentic AI" which I will write about, too, having spent several decades in KBS/KBE where knowledge systems were powerfully effective with precision that engineers dream about. Of course, the approach was engineering support. What happened there? Essentially, for those interested, digital engineering came forth but is now being seen as messy. Lots to discuss there.) was more than 95% not verifiable. Actually, less than 2% was okay. 

Typical. Frustrating. ... But, on discussing this result, we agreed that DTG would start over and put more emphasis on provenance. How to do that is an ongoing task to figure out. 

How does this pertain to this Profile? Well, the US gave the world this stuff; the US ought to help clean it up. And, the US of 250 years (ink on paper, folks, the turmoil went on until 1783)? It was principally New England (south - VA and north - MA) that got it started. 

Back to DTG's work. He is now using Gemini/Gemma. And, DTG reports seeing records related to a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company that references Thomas Gardner. Well, we knew a Thomas was here. 

Now, we don't need to conjecture, yet. But, on the coming over, being brought back from here to there for that review would bring an interesting set of conditions. 

Related post in the blog: Modern techniques. Also,we will report our progress in DTG's blog as well as our own. 

A whole lot of adjustment will become known with respect to this technology. How much real reward can result from the efforts? At least, the work will be entertaining.

Remarks: Modified: 08/26/2026

08/26/2026 --  

Modern techniques

TL;DR - Techniques related to research will continue to changte along with technology as it progresses by whatever means drives that energy. So, with respect to "origins", we are seeing an LLM used to ferret out information from that time based upon records that were digitized. Of late, information about the children was discoverd in recently digitized records. On the other hand, there was a house associated with Thomas Gardner. A proxy for this? Of course, the Fairbanks House, oldest wood structure in the US.  

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Some background on the "Announcement" today at the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile of WikiTree. 

Back in the beginning, I puzzled about missing information. Say, as compared to some families with respect to origins. The NEHGS series (Anderson) had come out before our time. Some of the information in that series conflicted with what we saw with Dr. Frank's efforts. We had started there, as he was 1st cousin of a grandfather. 

But, we had more than those 2 books, we had the articles in The Massaschusetts Magazine (principally from Dr. Frank's sister, Lucy Marion Gardner - Lucie following Sidney, May, 2017) where she picked up the work of Sidney Perley, the great walkabout of Essex County. There was more. Having started in 2010, the internet had only a few years of Web 2.0. Older material was there. I have pointers based upon general trolling back when the "search engines" were behaving. Too, there were notes from families about the material that they had accumulated (some living in the UK, and even near to Dorset). 

Early on, we knew that there would be the 400th. We'll look at that. How would it compare to the 300th and the Pageant of Salem (6 Jun 2018)? As we went to look at that effort where people of Salem played roles from 300 years prior, we added the Label of OpEd (Opinions count?, Dec 2023) as we explained after the 2023 reveal of data from Sherborne, Dorset, UK.  

As an aside, we added "OpEd" to this post in order to associate it with the ongoing research. Okay, to the gist of the matter. We look at two items which represent a slew of potential work and information. It's a matter of work. 

• Let's start with Gardner Family Trust (Apr 2026). In late Mar of 2025, we heard from DTG about his work with one of the GenAIs that had come on the scene in late 2022. 
• I was not paying close attention to that crowd (and still consider the release to be premature). The 400th of Gloucester was approaching and we were considering what to do. Having finally settled on the notion of featuring Margaret (wife of Thomas Gardner and mother of the children that we know), we were working on that set of material. On 1 Feb 2023, I heard of that release from a friend and went to look (mainly focusing on ChatGpt and Bard).This is all documented. 
• So, I knew of the AI/ML hype (biological pipedream); due to having known this stuff for decades I was amazed and appalled at the uses that people were discovering. So, mark that up for human creativity and the US as founded by those ones of Cape Ann. Anyway, DTG's work was along this line. He had found lots of information from digitized records in the UK; retrieved the scana, used OCR to transcribe, and then even worked translations (from Welsh, Latin, et al). It was remarkable. ... A little later, after some scrutiny, it was hard to tell the reality with most of the content being fictional. ... We discussed matters and decided for him to start over while concentrating on provenance. 
• Of late, DTG has switched to Gemini/Gemma. As such, he has been verifying the information. He confirmed the news about the Gardner involvements at Bosworth and Richard III's demise. There has been a lot of information on the London side of the family. Too, he found Thomas of Sherborne. ... Now, keeping this brief, for now, one bit of information deals with a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company in which Thomas Gardner is involved. That has my focus, right now. 
• Thomas was here, at Cape Ann. Now, was Margaret and the three boys here. If so, John was born here. The family went back. Or if he came alone, she had John in the UK. His baptism was delayed until Thomas returned. We favor that the family came over. Thomas and family then came back with the children except for Seeth who was born in Salem. 

Now, technology will be the key. We are doing this right. Who knows what data will come to fore. The information of the births was a nice surprise as John, himself, said that his father had told that they came from Sherbourne. Sure enough. The response of WikiTree? The two person split is okay, for now. But, as we find out more, we'll make sure that it is published. 

A recent post looked at the Fairbanks house which is in Dedham, MA. It dates from the 1630s. The image is from the website for the Fairbanks House. 

Jonathan Fairbanks (WikiTree) came to Boston in 1633, stayed a few years, and settled in Dedham in 1636. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/26/2026

08/26/2026 --  

Themes, categories

TL;DR -- We touched upon the rivers of Texas as part of our continuing theme of the rivers of the U.S. We have also looked at houses, including one brought over to Cape Ann in 1623. This was moved to Salem by John Endicott when he arrived. Winthrop then was feted in 1630 in the house when he showed up. He left Salem and went on to Boston. Today, we look at a house on the other side of Boston from Salem. It was built by the Fairbanks family and still exists in Dedham. 

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Yesterday, we looked briefly at the rivers of Texas having covered some of the U.S. rivers that are central to the history of the U.S. and its settling of its interior out to the west coast. Texas plays heavy all around and will be in focus many times. So, that's a theme but has no category involved yet. A topic that is both a theme and a category? Houses. We had a post about the house brought to Cape Ann by the Dorchester Company crew. 

This was known as the The Governor's "Fayre House" (named such by John Endicott). This mention by the Bigelow Society will get more attention: 

It is well known from contemporaneous evidence that Capt. John Endecott, upon his arrival, had floated up from Cape Ann a frame house that had been erected there for use at the fishing settlement. This seems to have been the best house in the infant settlement, as the early cabins and cottages built by the fishermen from Cape Ann, along the shore of the North River in Salem, had all disappeared by 1661.

We have had several posts on that house. Thomas Gardner's crew brought the material from England. Later reports mentioned that it had been constructed and built for transportation. The Conant family was there for a while. After being moved to Naumkeag, it hosted Winthrop (see Hype, 1600s) in 1630 while he decided on whether Salem was suitable. Later, the Downings extended the house. Their daughter (Ann) married the son (Joseph) of Thomas Gardner; the couple lived in the house. Joseph was killed in a conflict with the natives. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. The house got his name. 

At some point the house was torn down; some buildings in Salem had been built with the wood. This link may have been lost in the Salem fire of 1914. 

Today, we look at another house which is in Dedham MA and appeared in 1637. This was built by Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks. Now a museum, the original house is there with extensions made over the years. In terms of location, Dedham is on the opposite of Boston from Salem and was incorporated in 1636, same year that Salem got its name. 

Fairbanks House
Bigelow Society

This area is close to where Thomas Gardner of Roxbury lived. In terms of interest, we start with CapeAnn and Salem and then Essex County. After that, Massachusetts is the focus along with New England. Of late, interest is being directed toward the 250th viewpoint, but we will be stressing the 400th and other mileposts along the way to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2026

08/23/2026 --  

Texas and its water

TL;DR -- As the 250th goes on, we will look at what we have done and discuss the future. One focus is technology. Part of that deals with real assets, such as waterways. This post considers Texas, and its rivers, briefly. 

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This post reviews prior work in the context of the 250th this year. We have had many posts about the waterways of the U.S. Some of these served as a means for transportation (say, the Ohio from PA to MO and further). They were barriers, as any that is too deep for fording, even if only a certain time of the year. They were sources for food. And, definitely, human life and health relied upon clean water. 

Somehow, we forgot Texas. As the map shows, it has many rivers. All drain to the Gulf, from the Rio Grande on the west to the eastern rivers (such as the Red River) that head to the Mississippi River first. Everything is larger in Texas, as the map illustrates: 191,000 miles of rivers. 

Texas Truths and Tall Tales
FB (Meta)

The Trinity River starts north of the Dallas area and flows toward the southeast to the Houston area, emptying into Galveston Bay.  

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2026

08/22/2026 --  

Who pays for technology development?

TL;DR -- Who does pay? That will always be an important question. But, the 21st Century has already brought new factors to the table beyond what we thought that we knew last century. But, the 400th is here along with the 250th. So, exploring the roles of the US is always interesting. 

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Of late, we have had a technology focus and will look for things on that subject to commemorate (the good, bad, and ugly of technology, let's say) under the guise of the 250th of the US. We have already had this but want to go back to 400 years. 

And further, in terms of the western philosophical views on mind and matter which is being brought to fore with the issues brought by the agentic ways (on a slop basic, GenAI/LLM). But, companies are hiring  philosophers now. So, we'll venture there already. 

Maxwell and Gibbs

We can show lots of posts on these subjects, here are three: 

• Spinoza - he is from the 400th period but in the Netherlands. His Ethics will be the subject. 
• Peirce - the son, C.S., who was instrumental in the logic that is applicable to computing of the type that AI will need when done maturely. 
• Gibbs - early thermodynamics worker in the US. 
  

One focus will be taxpayer funding of advances that are implemented in a government or military sense. There are plenty of examples worldwide to use. And an agency of the DoD/W handles the administration of most projects of this type: DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). 

We will look at the influence that DARPA works has on our culture. There are plenty of examples. One that we will go into in depth is "truth maintenance" where DARPA paid for a paper and released this to the public. A Stanford offshoot developed it. John got involved with that and related technology. But, despite progress, the motivation for the work dissipated yet still has an impact. We can discuss how the lack of the notions brought by truth are missing in the approach that gave us the likes of ChatGPT and its brothers.  

That leads to this discussion: is the market approach better? Such an approach has a tendency to reward ca-pital-sino'istic thinking. That is, more effort goes into milking the system than into doing the work. Well, we have now seen examples on the other side of that spectrum in many places which deals with conflilcts of major world view. 

From an independent sense, we can discuss sustainability and economics which goes along tightly with technology and its pursuits. Too, the results of the past four years have already brought many discussions to the fore. As well, mathematical insights have both taken a hit and became broader. Not to mention, the legal ramifications are probably the largest set of unknowns. 

Yet, the benefit of technology is that things pale in the light of the technical details. At play are concepts related to higher-level classes after the post-secondary experience. So, these will need to be explained at many phases plus with respect to choices involved. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/09/2026

08/09/2026 --  

Purple Heart Month

TL;DR -- Today is Purple Heart Day in the US. As the remembrances of 250 and the 400 years continue into the foreseeable future, we will increase our awareness of the commemorative events that ought to have regular attention. 

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MacArthur's
version

We have been observing Awareness Months and add another month (August includes Purple Heart Day). 

Here are a few links on the subject of awarding the honor initiated by General George Washington in 1782: see "Purple Heart Day" (next) "Badge of Military Merit ... as a way to honor enlisted men deserving of recognition".

Purple Heart Day - Say thank you to those who sacrificed. 

Military Order of the Purple Heart - a congressionally chartered (Title 36 USC Chapter 1405) United States war veterans organization. 

Honoring Purple Heart Month - The mission of the Purple Heart Foundation is to enhance the quality of life of Purple Heart recipients and other honorably discharged veterans and their families. 

National today -- Purple Heart day - a solemn occasion to honor the profound sacrifices of U.S. service members wounded or killed in combat. 

Finally, Soldier's Angels Org. "Celebrate 250 Years of Service. Join us in celebrating America's 250th birthday by honoring those who have served." 

Remarks: Modified: 08/07/2026

08/06/2026 --