To date, mainly

TL;DR -- This post looks at two major themes: origins and technology. There will be others to look at later. The issue of origins came about due to additional digitization of records which is an advance in several technologies. Going forward, technological improvement will be more generally available and useful to the point of being problematic since the matter of complication always lurks.  

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Right now, as we pull Gardner's Beacon, Vol. XIII, No. 1 together, we are looking at themes from this year's work and at major themes from the beginning. We have two huge changes coming. One deals with origins which has been a puzzle. This year we have need information to process which requires that we rework the story. The other category needing attention is our future focus in a world of increasing technology. Of course, the principal portions will deal with family and country. But, there is also culture and the roles of the U.S. Included here will be technology. 

With regard to origins, we applied a rule that we saw early: those here need to focus on U.S. records and do it right; that related to the other side of the big water is the responsibility of those there. With technology now, we can broaden our scope. In fact, we need to in order to fill in the pieces that have puzzled for centuries. Sherborn records have been quite helpful albeit shaking the foundation. Gardner research will step up to helping with the work and related discussions. We have used the WikiTree Magna Carta project as an example. However, ancestry's work on images is to be acknowledged. 

In terms of the second point, we have the colonial times to research, including New Spain: Hernando de Soto, for example. Then, there is the time of the colonies leading up to the Revolution whose remembrance is coming up in 2026 (247th of the U.S.). Along with the development of the country, we can look at education (Harvard and its Leaders, for example). 

After the Revolution, we have subjects like the frontier and lost generations to research. This came up while researching applicant heritages for DAR/SAR. Research now will have heavy computer assistance that will continue to get better over time. Noticable prowess that increases is one piece of evidence, such as we saw the the November of 2022 release of ChatGPT.  

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One of our recent posts has gone up the list of reads to be second overall since the beginning which was back in 2010. We went to look at the numbers by time and confirmed the report. The image shows the first five posts on the list (see the menu area on the right of the blog). The most popular is still about the marriage of Thomas and Margaret (2014). Since then, we have seen the baptism of all of the children come to the fore due to digitization. The second item is this post: A(rtificial) I(ntelligence) researched properly (2021). The occasion was the usual review that we have done with respect to choices along the way with respect to how we handle and manage technology. The thing to note is that the post was over a year before the arrival of ChatGPT. Later, posts cover the topic of the generative approach. We will use the term xNN/LLM as we discuss this further. Then, we have the one from yearend of 2011 where were going back over the activity of the year. The 2013 post (Plus or minus the arrival) was from our research dealing with origins. Turns out that this topic is still on the plate. Then, early on, we looked at Gardners of various types. That was in 2010. Again, this is a recurring theme.  

Remarks: Modified: 08/22/2023

08/22/2023 -- Added image and verbiage about technology, especially AI. 

247th of U.S.

TL;DR -- With the approaching 250th of the United States and the time of the year, the focus is on Patriots and their times as well as their progeny since then to now. This year is the 247th of the start of the revolutionary activity that was public. There had been prior activity that was taken by the ardent though at considerable risk to themselves and their families. 

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In the colonies, here, there were stirrings earlier, but it was in July of 1776 when those there got to the notion of independence, what it might mean, and started the process. This was the time of the remaining of the 4th generation, the majority of the 5th generation, and the starting of the 6th generation. 

As we have noted, it was the 5th that bore the responsibility of establishing the United States. 

Today, we gather research material, such as Dr. Frank's writings to support future research work with regard to the three generations. Below, we provide information from the 1907 edition. The 1933 edition is about the family of George Gardner, who as a 2nd generation son of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. 

We point to The Massachusetts Magazine in which Dr. Frank wrote, for each issue, about the regiments that served at Bunker Hill. Works of Dr. Frank include the following:

1907 edition, 

1933 edition

The Massachusetts Magazine

In the 1907 book of Dr. Frank, the 5th generation starts with #87 Habakkuk Gardner (1707-1763) who died before the start of the Revolution. Next was #90 Capt. John Gardner (1706-1784) who served both in the French-Indian conflict as well as supported the Revolution. The last person in this generation in the book was #137 Samuel Gardner (1763-1796). 

Before we sample some of the Patriots from the 5th generation, let's look at other resources. Some of these will be by region, such as the original colonies that became States. Researching the Revolution brings one into contact with lots of information. Some States made an effort early to gather data from records with regard to their citizens. This list is from Massachusetts. There are seventeen volumes. Below we will be looking one of these, Volume 6 (Fr - Gy), where we will find information on the Gardners. 

Index to on-line volumes (thanks to archive.org - seventeen volumes)

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution

       v1 (A - Ber), v2 (Bes - Byx), v3 (C - Cor), v4 (Cos - Dry), v5 (Du - Foy),

       v6 (Fr - Gy), v7 (Ha - Hix), v8 (Hm - Jy), v9 (Ka - Lsu), v10 (Lua - Mop),

       v11 (Mor - Paz), v12 (Pea - Raz), v13 (Rea - Sey), v14 (Sha - Sth),

       v15 (Sti - Toz), v16 (Tra - Whe), v17 (Whi - Z)

First, though, let's point to two other resources. The Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) and the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.) both accept applications from descendants of Patriots. One of the contributions of these groups is that they help verify lineage. Right now, we are talking over 12 generations for many of the older folks up to 17 generations for the younger set. For the latter, D.A.R. has an organization called Children of the American Revolution. 

These are the research facilities offered by both groups which we will use below. 

• https://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/Search/ - one can search for Ancestors or Members. A Descendants search allows one to query intervening generations about their pedigree information. 
• https://sarpatriots.sar.org/patriot/search/ - S.A.R. has a similar search strategy. For those Patriots in both databases, the S.A.R. report has a link to the D.A.R. record. 

Now, using generation five, let's look at those whose service was mentioned in Dr. Frank and link to the on-line information about descendants. Both groups will show lineage details except for the last three generations. 

Though both the fourth and the sixth generation have Patriots who supported the Revolution, our current study focus is on the fifth. 

• #121 Lt. Thomas Gardner (1731-1788) - pg. 189; MS&S Vol 6, pg. 281; DAR - A043895; SAR - none. 
• #123 Ebenezer Gardner (1737-1832 - pg. 191; MS&S Vol 6, pg. 264; DAR - A043683; SAR - P-164034. We wrote of Ebenezer earlier.  
• #129 Simon Stacey Gardner (1743-1787) - pg. 195; MS&S Vol 6, pg. 278; DAR - A043882; SAR - P-164145. 

We have used one book and have included only Patriots that are in the MS&S and the DAR database which means that a female descendant has applied successfully. In our research, we have found many Patriots who are not documented in the normal fashion. Then, some did not have descendants, or the descendants have not applied successfully. 

Using the 1933 book, we can add a few more Patriots. These follow the descendants of the daughters. In this case, we use information from Dr. Frank and MS&S and/or DAR and/or SAR. 

• #26 Elizabeth Gardner - her son, Jonathan Gardner (1728-1791), pg. 76; MS&S Vol 6, pg 272; DAR - ; SAR - . We wrote of Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner earlier. 
• #26 Elizabeth Gardner - her son, John Gardner (1736-1816), pg. 77; MS&S Vol 6, pg 270; DAR -__ ; SAR- P-164077. 
• #30 Hannah Gardner - her son, Samuel Holton, pg. 78; MS&S Vol 7, pg. __; DAR - A057441; SAR - P-184238. 

For this month, we will look more at Patriots after having a post that gathers all of the material about the Revolution that we had had so far in our thirteen years of work. 

Too, we will be looking at earlier incidents. We already have looked at the Crown's training of the officers via their involvement in the French-Indian conflict. But, some events like the Boston Tea Party are of interest. There is now an effort by the NEHGS to find descendants of the participants. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/26/2023

08/26/2023 --

Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remarks: Modified: 07/01/2023

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

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

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

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