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 scanned data, 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: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Minor correction, will be back for more. 

Gardner Family Trust

TL;DR -- This post announces the Gardner Family Trust site and provides notice of the first post which deals with Gardiner, MT which is a historic site near Yellowstone National Park which saw a lot of history that we can and will study. But, the choice of this example deals with the history of the Gardner family over more than a millenium and is a U.S. example which represents continuing work in the history the U.S. presented in a modern way through progressive means. 

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In an earlier post this month, we wrote of our joint efforts with David T. Gardner: On Gardners, redux. We here at the TGS, Inc. are fairly new to this work. David on the other hand as been at this since his youthful days. Prior to our contact with David, we had applied this adage to our work:

Americans need to focus on their side of the pond and get their several generations of genealogy documented to be correct. In other words, let the orginis be done by those over there. For one thng they have better access to records. 

Even though we had a late start, by that time the influence of the internet was growing as the industry kept the thing going while supporting work of millions of users. One large impact was that the ISPs were digitizing documents and records. Our results of our 2014 work on the marriage of Thomas and Margaret was a result. At the same time, we had posts on the subject of Origins and What we know (see FAQ). 

Recently, we looked at an organization started after the 2nd World War by members of the FASG (Society of American Genealogist). One of their members wrote the background whose first paragraph covers some of the historic dynamics as shown in this image (left - a page from the paper; right - transcription). 

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In that same spirit, we are supporting the efforts of David to publish his work with respect to history and the Gardners: Gardner Family Trust. As we have mentioned, we had looked at the battle of Bosworth and about the death of King Richard III. The news at the time was loaded with reports on a body being found and identified. At the time, we loosened our American focus to provide information that we thought was pertinent to our work. 

Last year, David was able to start to use one of the GenAI/LLM to assist in his work. For one thing, lots of that work is transcribing old documents into a workable shape while ensuring that the fidelity of the representation is sound which task includes fixing things as necessary and then doing OCR on the updated image of the document. 

Along that line, the TGS interest in technology comes into play. We published an overview in December of 2025: Research, using the internet and AI. David has collected a lot of material. Our focus will be to help him with his analysis of provenance and general truth of the newly digitized as well as documents from earlier work. 

There is a lot to do which we will raise the priority on. So, going back to the theme of over there and/or here, we will take the latter for a while. As David provides new posts, we will be doing a regular walkthrough and discuss the ins and outs to emphasize, for one thing, the 250th and its significance. 

This post is an introduction. We will follow with regular reporting and commentary on methods and ways to handle the new information going forward in order to leave a proper legacy for Gardners and their progeny everywhere. 

   

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For his 1st post, David writes of Gardiner, MT through which Gardner River flows. We have had many posts on rivers including Gardner River  and the area, Yellowstone, plus. It is a beautiful area with lots of history. We are grateful to have David's contributions. 

Gardner Family Trust

Gardiner, Montana: 

The Living River Machine

Still Operating in 2026

There were several reasons for chosing this site. We are dealing in endless history, in a sense, where technology will allow us new views to hopefully fill in missing information. But, the choice of this example deals in particular with the history of the Gardner family over more than a millenium and is a U.S. example which represents continuing work in the history of the U.S. presented in a modern way through progressive means where people rise to attention. 

Note: More detail will be forthcoming as we shadow David's work with the Gardner Family Trust with documentation of provenance, method, annd tradeoffs that might have been made. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/26/2026

04/26/2026 -- 

April Awareness Day - English

TL;DR -- Awareness is a good thing. Days abound with respect to official recognition. Women's History month just completed. Black History month was before that. Besides looking at history and current affairs over the years, we can be aware of the reads that are taking place daily. 

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We have been paying attention to awareness months for a few years. For each month of the year, the focus can be on many themes. For instance, one theme in March was Women's History (06 Mar 2026 post). We have a post that we will be updating each year: Awareness months. 

So, April has Mathematics/Statistics. But, it also includes the English Language Day on the 23rd which is related to the birth and death days of William Shakespeare. Another day is Easter Sunday was this past weekend but can occur as early as March 24th. In April, it can be as late as the 25th. 

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Now, we would like to switch to another type of awareness which relates to readership counts with respect to our blog and other publications. The image comes from a snap of three views that are always updated with presentation of the information (position in image and title): Left - All time, popular; Middle - Recently popular; Right - Last week. 

Post read count
by period

In order to support our Portal to Truth (to be defined and described), we have been adding an image to each post. This helped us determine an icon for the post to use in lists. The order relates to the number of reads. Starting from the left, "All time, popular" goes back to the start of the blog. For a long time, the post "Posts of interest - 2011" was the most read. It summarizes the status of the blog at the end of the 2nd year or the 2st full year. But, in 2014, after the discovery of the marriage record for Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer, that post slowly crept up and has been most read for quite a while. 

In the middle column, "Recently popular" looks at the same collection of posts but only counts reads within the past month. It is a different list. Early on, there was an overlap between all time and recent. But, of late, things have changed so much, and we have new readership due to Linkedin posts, the lists are different. We are happy to show that "Women's History Month, 2026" is on this list. 

On the right are the posts most read in the past week. So, these are mostly topical. One that we want to call attention to is "Truth, what is it?" which is also on the "Recently popular" list and deals with technology's (TGS focus) recent influence that mostly caught everyone by surprise. Even the vendors had no clue. But, from our view, we immediately saw the potential unwanted side-effects. That is a long story which will be even more of interest as the hype gets tamed down a little. "knowledge" systems have been really effective from day one. That is AI with an emphasis on expert humans as opposed to a general search for machine intelligence that might compare with what humans do. 

There is a lot of work to be done in this regard. Our basis goes back to a project that accomplished the first digital design of a major airplane (this was in the '80/'90s - the Boeing 777). We will only touch upon a few details as our focus is not the plane; it's on the process that got the work done which resulted in a plane that astonished those who saw it up close (this we'll briefly touch upon, too). 

Jumping ahead, though this has already been expressed, the run after AGI and its issues would not have been troublesome at all had the "knowledge" proceeded a few decades ago. We will tell the tales in that regard about decisions and their ramifications. This will be from a general viewpoint mostly presented in terms of a "dialog" covering the whats and what ifs. 

In the "Last week" list as well are two older posts: Descendants of Sarah; Old Planters, Beverly. These relate to the Salem 400+ theme for 2026. Sarah married Balch who was an Old Planter. Some of Thomas' children and grandchildren married Conant. There were other families who intermarried, as well, at that time. 

There is a theme to readdress. Thomas was not on the "old planters" list. One family suggested that he had returned as some moved from Cape Ann to Namkeag. Other tales need some attention. Our recent work involves the timeframe for the family that will show that Thomas and Margaret had the time to come over here for the year plus. What are those specifiics? Well, finally, we have a starting point and will use that to begin again in looking at Origins.  

In terms of topic and focus, we will do a more regular periodic look at these lists this year. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/06/2026

04/06/2026 --

Salem 400+

TL;DR -- During the time that we look back at the years from 1626 to 1629, the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. will focus on the story of Cape Ann as well as that of Salem. 

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It's here. Another 400th in the timeline of Massachusetts. This time? The movement from Cape Ann to Naumkeag which was renamed to Salem in 1629. 

Salem 400+ on Facebook

We have a lot of reseach to do that is related to this theme in terms of the stories accumulated over the years. In 2023, a thorough study of digitized records from Dorset, UK showed that Margaret and Thomas had all of their children in the UK, except for the last child, Seeth, who was born in Salem. 

The WikiTree page has a record of the research and discussion. The Thomas Gardner profile was split into two: the Thomas married to Margaret is one: the other refers to an unknown person. We have made many comments about what supports the notion that there was one person involved as Thomas Gardner.  

So questions abound: how long were he (or they) here?; if they, what conditions did they face?; .... 

An example is the gap between the births of John and Samuel which was sufficient to allow Thomas (with or without Margaret) to be here. Notice for John, there is a "minor" extra marking which may have indicated a later than normal report. As in, John was born here and was introduced into Dorset records when the family returned. 

John and Samuel Gardner

In any case, the Thomas Gardner (and Margaret) of Salem was here in 1636 and documented by many over the years, including Dr. Frank. Their children are in the records. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/22/2026

03/22/2026 -- Clarified the TL;DR section. 

Salem, 1626

TL;DR -- The 250th is well-known by now. So, it's time to get back to the 400th. 

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The 250th is everywhere now getting attention which is great. We are not yet to the Day of the Declaration of Independence so ought to be paying attention to the events that came before July 4 of 1776. Our last post on "Knox Sunday" is an example. We will have more posts with the team but have been covering the 250th for over a decade. 

May we step back to the 400th? With regard to Essex County of Massachusetts, the initial settlement attempt was in the 1623/24 timeframe. Gloucester celebrated their 400th in 2023. 

As the story goes (told by many), the crew that came over with attempt of Thomas Gardner, for a couple of years, made a go of it without much success. For one thing, the land was not suitable for farming. Evidently the fishing and some planting/forging went well for subsistence. But being a commercial enterprise, the "money" behind the effort expected early returns. 

Roger Conant came to town to get things right but could not overcome the obstacles; he got permission to move to what became Salem. 

Roger and some of his crew did that move in 1626. So, we have been waiting for this year. We wrote of the transition earlier in a post about Massey's Cove in 2019. We included this painting which was done in the 20th century to accompany an article on the perils of this attempt. 

Of course, later there were various criticisms of the painting. For one, the houses were better configured than we know from reality. We wrote of that recently quoting the reaction of Anne Bradstreet as she got off the ship that was with the Winthrop Fleet. This was her introduction to Salem.  

Anne noted that some in London had mislead them: Hype, 1600s. What we got out of the stories was that Winthrop was feated in the "Governor's" great house. Anne and others went to Cape Ann to pick wild strawberries. The Governor would have been John Endicott who came in to replace Roger Conant. 

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Where was Thomas? Evidently, he had returned after his intitial effort to London. He and his family returned sometime before 1635 as his last child was born here. At the time of Cape Ann, it would have been Margaret and the older boys. See "Themes that persist" to watch for particulars as we go along. 

We have mentioned Roger Conant several times and will relook at the start of Massachusetts this year as we continue with the 250. As the commemoration of the Revolution continues through 2033, we will step through the early years of Naumkeag which became Salem in 1629. The next year, Winthrop came through and did not like the area. So, he went further down the coast to Boston. 

So, for the next few years, we will focus on the origins of the crew at Cape Ann plus resolve the issue of the unkown Thomas Gardner who was a Cape Ann in light of the Thomas Gardner who came over in the mid-1630. Ann is a descendant of Roger both Conant and Thomas Gardner. Those relationships will be looked at as well, as we go forward. 

With technology as a major focus, we will use some of the modern stuff. Mainly, it would be to discuss the issues related to use and misuse which is a common characteristic of people and their involvement with all matters of life, it seems. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/21/2026

03/08/2026 --  Some correction of typos and phrasing mishaps (as in, touch typist - fingers walking the keys following ruminations in the mind - one reason that publishing processes have proofreading - rather than the know-it-all-ish nature ot the buckets'o'bits). 

03/21/2026 -- Made link with Salem 400+. 

Themes that persist

TL;DR -- The past few years have seen lots of changes. These will be handled in a more categorical manner with respect to our mission and the research that supports such. 

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In late 2024, we posted a summary of the situation: Restart, somewhat. One theme dealt with the 2023 impact of GenAI/LLM. Another dealt with research that found that Thomas and Margaret had the marjority of their children in Sherborne. After some analysis, the WikiTree profile for Thomas Gardner (Cape Ann, Salem) was split into two: Thomas (Cape Ann); Thomas (Salem). We know little of the first one. The second one is the progenitor of the Gardners who were the original focus of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. We have expanded to cover Essex County, Massachusetts, New England and in some contexts, All things Gardner, with respect to the 400 years of the culture that celebrates its 250th this year. 

So, some reorganization of information will be forthcoming. On the other hand, there will be a broader scope which is expected to emerge in 2026, at least from a cursory sense. In any case, we will be paying more attention to Origins than we had before.

Also, the post "Renovation, plus" gives some perspective of the mix of themes and how they interrelate.  

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Update on 17 Jan 2026. See Sherborne.html. 

After the above was written, we went to review the past three years. In doing so, we took a closer look at the records of the births. It turns out that there is sufficient time for Thomas to have come over in the timeframe described by Dr. Frank. 

There are two years and
seven months between
the births of John and Samuel

At the WikiTree profile of Thomas, we left this comment and will be researching this further. Needless to say, we do not agree with the two-Thomas view. That is, the arguments given three years ago go too far given the less-than-stellar strength of the data from the records. 

This is the comment at WikiTree:

If we look at the births, John appeared in Dec of 1624. Samuel (our guy) was born Jul of 1627.

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In 2023, I got involved with the advent of GenAI/LLM on the scene for a bit which was distracting. But, I am back on this. Old notes, to be updated.

                      https://tgsoc.org/tech/2023/04/02/research-notes/

The following is preliminary (and conjecture, of course - based upon the short list of what we actually know), but the potential is what we are looking at, for the moment.

Given the lore, the 1624 crew would have left in the spring. The couple may not have known that she was in circumstances at that time. Too, there are ample references to a Thomas Gardner being here for a year or so.

Later, Thomas and Margaret slipped right into Salem when he came back. Their kids married kids of Conant and such.

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Thomas could have come with Margaret and the oldest boys. John may have been born here, and the Sherborne records updated when they returned. From the research of the Paine family. 

So, we have two scenarios: Thomas alone; Thomas and Margaret with the boys. The second makes sense in terms of what was written, WikiTree's response notwithstanding. The first one would require more research with respect to who took care of Margaret while Thomas was gone. 

Myself, I prefer the second and intend to argue that the Thomas Gardner Society will follow that line unless we find something that is more clear about another alternative. Too, we will update now all of the records (which is less of a job given the obvious likelihood changes with a closer look).  

Paine family's research

Remarks: Modified: 03/07/2026

01/17/2026 -- Brought in an image snip from the Sherborne records. Also, pointed to the Paine record. 

03/07/2026 -- Comments on Salem, 1626 which needs attention even with the great focus of the 250th.

Charlotte (Coffin) Gardner

TL;DR -- On FB, I saw an article that reminded us that the author had created a related blog which contains very good articles. On browsing, we ran into Charlotte (Coffin) Gardner. She kept a journal on her 3-year voyage with her husband and son. Along the line, she mentions New Englanad folks and natives as well keeps record of their progress along the continents to the Cape and back up. Names overlap our earlier research. So, we will recoup the interest level. 

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An article today on Facebook got me to looking at the articles of Melissa Berry on her blog. Here is an example article in American-Archives. The topic is a wive who went on a three-year voyage with her husband from New England around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco and Washington State. 

These links point to pertinent material about Charlotte and to a Journal that she kept during the voyage. She is a descendant of John son of Thomas and Margaret. Her husband is a descendant of Richard, brother of John. 

• Journal of Charlotte (Coffin) Gardner
• Charlotte's profile on WikiTree

One thing that is of interest would be to use Google's map to follow her on the voyage. The next link goes to a view of the western hemisphere with a location marked.  

• Google map to find and link to locations noted in the Journal 

There were many stops mentioned in the book. Here are three Wikipedia articles. We will have more. In addition, Charlotte marks her location on a regular basis as the above Google map shows. 

• Isla_de_los_Estados
• Strait_of_Juan_de_Fuca
• Port_Ludlow,_Washington

In the articles and in the blog, there are many names mentioned lots of which are familiar from our studies of New England with some being kin of various sorts. Too, we have a theme of the long reach of New England which our posts on Bunker Hill West which is in Downtown Los Angeles show. 

A few years ago, we did posts on the barque, Bostonian, that was owned by Hentry Gardner and his brother. In that material, we learned a little bit about the nautical ways after spending lots of time looking a movements across the middle of the vast area of the U.S. The Bostonian wrecked in 1850 along the Oregon coast. The pilot was noted as Capt. Boyling. 

Charlotte, in her blog, mentions Capt. Boyling which got our attention. So, as well as studying her Journal, we will pick up our study of the barque, Bostonian. Again, here are a few related postts. 

• The Gardiner that was
• Some info on merchandise handled by the Gardners -- 
•           Gardiner’s Rheumatic and Neuralgic Compound
• General search on the Bostonian

Several themes were mentioned here. What this represents is that the 250th has lots of open research pending. But, in general, here is no end to the study of  New England.    

Remarks: Modified: 11/13/2025

11/13/2025 --

Fifteen years ago

TL;DR -- We started in 2010 with our website. The blog came about in Sept of that year. As we learned about history and genealogy, we custom built our website in a minimal fashion in order to spend more time on the domain knowledge. Time and technology has changed. The need for bespoke modes has not and will again be recognized. So, we'll continue down our nonAI approach. Pending research deals with origins. We touch upon the subject and our plan for the future. 

-- 

With the new world of computing being pushed upon us, mainly from the GenAI/LLM incursion on our thoughts in November of 2022 and the ramifications associated with its arrival, we are reorganizing our information. In fifteen years, we have ventured down many paths, made some discoveries, but found more questions than answers. We'll briefly look at origins and son John, because he and Richard were of Nantucket which kept good records.  

Our first post was on 25 Sep 2010 (Welcome). At the time, we had been using Blogger (later purchased by Google) for three years. According to our What's New page, our site was started in September of 2010. This was our first report on that page: 

09/01/2010 -- A blog will be started soon. Questions to ponder will be one topic, such as where was Thomas between 1626 and 1637 (freeman status)? Where is Thomas now (in terms of remains - or, at least, the stones of Abel, etc.) since pavement was put in over the old Gardner burial ground?

Just from the questions, one can see that we had already started to research. The Whereabouts of Thomas became a regular theme and is a now a meme of lost graves. But, number of wives was up there too. This we made progress on thanks to the internet and the appearance of digitized documents from Sherborne, Dorset, UK. 

Our site, originally, was on Microsoft's service of the time which we had for a couple of years. One reason for the choice was to use C# of Asp Net. MS provided their users with a nice tool for creating and managing the information related to small business. We liked that. But, MS decided to move to what became Microsoft 365. 

We decided to drop back to Linux given John's Unix background. But, it was clear. Given how much we needed to learn and organize, we had to spend lots of time on information (domain knowledge). There was little time for development and fiddling with the architecture or actions of the site. So, John snapped little graphics from the Microsoft site and use them in a new page where positioning was handled by the table facilities plus a little CSS. We are documenting this bit of activity (see "Requirement" on this page - technology and practice). Then, as we got better organized, we brought in JS to add actions to our site. 

Again, more time was spent above the floor of configuration and use for knowledge processing with the below the floor technology being done hurriedly. For a HTML editor, we used Sea Monkey. For JS and some HTML and CSS, we just picked up the file with Notepad. Testing was clumbsy in the beginning. But, Google's Chrome's support for the developer's needs improved through time. Once we got into the Google Development session, we were reminded of the full-blown workbench for the developer. 

However, that overload can interfere with proper focus on the knowledge involved. It's a case of hats with each dealing with some domain (technical or conceptual or ...), and the juggling of hats can be fun but eat a lot of time and energy. We'll be back on this topic due to LLM's (and its companions) influence on the environment of computing and on people's and user's understanding of such.  

 ---

On 13 Oct 2010, we mentioned the Folger family. Earlier that year, we had been in Salem, MA and saw a book on John, son of Thomas and Margaret. We have had several posts on John, such as this one: John Gardner and the Merrimack River. Here we asked the question: was John better off with the mathematicians who were doing the survey than his cohorts in Harvard learning about the number of angels on a pinhead? Or partying as we see higher-education affording the opportunity for youngster, many times for the first time. That type of question is as true now as it was then. 

So, we will look at John and the Folgers, primarily due to John's emphasis on the use of Sherborne on the Island of Nantucket. There is a reference to John saying that he heard of it from his father. For starters, here are two pertinent pages. 

• Stories and unwindings - mentions the Folger research which is documented at this site. 
• Nantucket Historical Association: William C. Folger Genealogical Record Books, circa 1850–1900, E – L, circa 1850–1900 Pages 870-945

As we go along, we will discuss a new format and how to structure it. AIn't is apropriate until we hear of substantive movement in the realizations from research. At the same time, we will lay out the basis for the current hype plus explain a working approach of which there will be many proposed over the coming years. 

Post note: Cannot let this post go without mentioning the 15 years of change. Quite frankly, we miss some of the sites that we saw in the 2010 timeframe that represented research by Gardner families over the years. Some sites are still there. Many are not. As we try to build a comprehensive database of Gardner information, we will attempt to disciover some of the older sites through services like the wayback machine (Intenet archive which we have used a lot). At the same time, we have to bring in the modern and futuristic modes being talked about and done. Quite frankly, maturity seems lacking in a lot of these approaches. But, that's a side issue. At regular points, we'll review our progress and trace the pros/cons. Right now, we see no reason to not continue with the bespoke approach. Anyone who wants to touch code can help. Tools? We have minimal but that can change. Vibe coding? Prompts? Some of that is reasonable. But, people are the core of interpretation and judgment. Not machines. Yet.  

PS (sort of thing): With the huge Rorschach Test thrown upon us about three years ago (Nov 2022) and the ramifications seen and potentially realized, I never went with the offer of LLM's enticement of  purty prose. Nope. Actually, except for spelling, these posts will not be checked except by human editors without tools other than pen (real or imaginary). Too, we retain the right to update grammar, et al, as time pases. All edits will be noted within remarks as we have been doing from the beginning. ... People are going to be the focus.   

Remarks: Modified: 09/06/2025

09/06/2025 - Spelling correction. PS added. 

2021, time of the pandemic, II

TL;DR -- Continuation of the pandemic theme from before. We look at posts from the remainder of 2021 and at the themes covered which are of a wide variety. 

--

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1). 

In 2020, restrictions changed our activity. Like most, we did computer work over the time of the pandemic but had been doing such work anyway. What was different was the focus. 

We looked more at local issues. But, we had anyway (to wit, our post of Flyover country). By 2021, we were rolling along and did more posts. Part 1 looks at those from Jan through Jun. Now, we'll pick up with posts from Jul through Dec.

The 250th came more into focus. We also spent a little time looking at S.A.R. which is the sons version of what the daughters did with D.A.R. But, AI started to come into focus after almost a decade of making headway (according to some views - the jury is still out) and claiming attention: Jeopardy win; Go win; modeling complicated lab work (Google had several of these); ... 

But, we had a post (Carving the land) which was motivated by our study of the activities out of St. Louis which was a hub for land management of the U.S and its west.  At the same time, Gloucester was approaching its 400th. We had an interest in that as the Dorchester crew came into that area in 1623. But, the great northwest? Michigan was approaching its 200th. 

Another twist was diving into the history of Harvard starting with an introduction to James Bryan Conant. He was a chemist and professor. He had wanted the Rumford chair. But, ended up in Europe and came back to become a Head of Harvard. At the same time, we decided that the long reach of New England was a theme of interest, as we had settled on All Things Gardner (22 Aug 1485) with respect to the many families with the name. 

Oh yes, AI was proposed for genealogy work. Again, that is an ongoing bit of study. But, we started to look at the genealogy of Harvard Heads. Many were of old New England families. D.A.R. found an interest in the 400th as well by starting work on identifying Patriot to Passenger (in this case, Mayflower) families. We took on Cape Ann to Patriot. 

Houses? While looking at the Dudley family, we got into houses of note. There were two in New Hampshire of interest. Both were built by relatives of descendants of Thomas and Margaret. One is now associated with the Society of Cincinatti. That brings up the other side of a coin. We honor the Loyalists of the family. Count Rumford mentioned above was a Loyalist who found success in Europe and left money to Harvard. 

The technology focus became more prominent. IEEE had an article: How dumb is AI? A few years later, we saw a general amount of interest. One observaton? Humans degradate themselves to make technology look good. Yes. Expect to see that theme periodically. 

A photo of the grandmother Dr. Frank (and 2nd great of Ann and her siblings) was found. We got that published. Generations? An eternal topic. Looking at this, we can say that the Revolution (250th now in progress) was done by the 5th generation. More on these. 

We picked up Dr. Frank's series on the Siege of Boston that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine, with issues four times a year for a decade. He started the series with Col. John Glover of Marble head. One of his vessels was the first vessel of the U.S. Navy. 

We continued our interest in rivers, as we mentioned in Part 1. The trails and railroads are always of interest, as well. But, jumping to technology now, we looked at John's favorite site dealing with the mathematics of physics. It was of the old style until a few years ago. The old stuff is still there and serves as the basis for the new. 

Aside, we are seeing lots of websites being done using new methods. Our prediction is that this method is not as stable as claimed and so have failures that are hugely visible and that will have negative repercussions. But, other than be aware, we have to wait and see. 

Why? If one looks at the whole campus of techies, there is no solution yet. Experiments have become a mainstay of life. But, take a plane, experiment types of these are not used to carry passengers. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/01/2025

06/01/2025 - 

Eric W. Gardner

TL;DR -- Eric Wright Gardner, descendant of two sons, George and Samuel, of Thomas and Margaret, died recently. We offer condolences to the parents, family and friends of Eric and provide some information about Eric. His father wrote of the Magna Carta for The Gardner Annals in 2016. In that regard, we find ourselves at another milestone for that memorable document. 

--

We have covered a sampling of descendants through the generations since time of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. Our brief look at each of the children and their descendants can be considered a start. 

As an example, the following link is to information about the 5th son and his descendants over the four centuries.  

Samuel Gardner -- Dr. Frank, the author, whose work led to the 1907 and 1933 books is of this line. As well, Dr. Frank was an editor, and a major force behind the publication, of The Massachusetts Magazine.  

Today, we commemorate Eric W. Gardner (1965-2025) who is a descendant of both George and Samuel, through his mother and father, respectively. In terms of the book, the 1933 edition was of the family of George while the 1907 book principally covered known descendants of Samuel. 

Obituary

A nephew of Ann, Eric grew up in Fort Worth, TX and attended school in TX and OK. Eric's career as a weatherman was inspired by Harold Taft of Fort Worth and took him from Texas to Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota where he was a meterologist at KOTA-TV of Rapid City. 

Eric's other interest were music, cooking, and wine. With his musical interest in the piano, Eric continued his involvement by helping to arrange local performances for visiting pianists. He held regular broadcasts concerning recipes, healthy eating, and cooking lessons. He was knowledgeable about wine and arranged local support for wineries of NAPA Valley and other locations.   

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Eric's father, Jonathan Gardner, authored our article on the Magna Carta (800th Anniversary), The Gardner Annals, Volume III, Number 1. In 2025, we have the celebration of the 810th aniversary related to King Henry I, son of King John, and his interest in the Magna Carta which needs an update related to technology (Magna Carta, technical).  

Remarks: Modified: 05/21/2025

05/21/2025 - Visitation/Memorial, today. Guestbook. 

Nobel, Chemistry, 1901

TL;DR -- Significant to us were the Prizes for Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. In this post, we point to the 1901 award. As such, that is a good start with van der Walls and Hoff for physics and chemistry. 

--

We mentioned the 2024 Nobel Prizes earlier with more references to the Physics award which dealt with  machine learning. At the time, we emphasized the importance of the one for chemistry and for medicine. 

This post looks at the 1901 prize. It can be categoried as dealing with theoretical chemistry. After studying the advance of science and pondering what might bridge the gaps that are currently found in knowledge as we see observe the problems of technology, we settled upon theoretical chemistry as a central theme. Looking at the first Nobel prize in Chemistry is a good place to start. 

Nobel, Chemistry, 1901

In Physics, van del Waals was the first Awardee for his work in thermodynmics but focused on his PhD thesis from 1873. Contemporary with van der Walls in doing the early work in thermodynamics was Josian Willard Gibbs who was an American and who we wrote of as a descendant of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer through their son George. 

In Chemistry, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (Wikipedia) was the first Awardee for his work in the "the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions" and demonstrated the importance of physical chemistry. 

Tying back to the 2024 Prizes, we see that the mathematical aspects of physics and its kin has advanced tremendously with an acceleration that accompanied the growth, recently, of computing prowess. Both the physics and chemistry prizes acknowleged advanced computing which applied knowledge brought forth by studies in mathematical physics. 

Another topic that will be constantly at hand is the Philosophy of Physics. Wikipedia provides a good overview, except the material is rated as "original research" as an indication of value, improperly source information, and perhaps even viewpoint. There is also an article on the Philosophy of Chemistry (Wikipedia) which does not have the problem. They quote Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling as their first philosopher. One interesting twist? Is it thing or action that is important? That issue resonates to this day. A resolution was to accept both and make the situation the focus. 

BTW, philosophy of science is important by default, almost, to the upcoming discussions. 

Note: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Chemistry; Modeling and Chemical explanation).  

Remarks: Modified: 12/30/2024

12/30/2024 -- See post (Nobel, Medicine, 2024) for link to those for Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine.  

Josiah Willard Gibbs

TL;DR -- Josiah is a descendant and a well-known contributor to the development of a major theory in physics: thermodynamics. We will look at both his work and his pedigree. 

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In our studies related to the Science of Technology, we will be running into many names. Some will not be American (such as Noether). Some will be American, and, of those, we will look for New England associations. The series on the Harvard Presidents is an example. We started this when we ran into a New Yorker article on James Bryant Conant. That got us to looking at all of the Presidents. 

Recall, one motivator for this work related to technology is machine learning (ML) masquerading as artificial intelligence (AI). But, in general, we want to follow the evolution of STEM along with the advance of the U.S. whose 250th is coming up. 

The Nobel prizes this year were a motivator,as well, with the focus on computation: Physics (neural nets); Chemistry (protein folding); Medicine (microRNA).  

Now, back to New Englanders, some will be descendants of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. We ran into one this week. Josiah Willard Gibbs (Wikipedia; WikiTree). How did we get to him? In our technology studies, we are looking at the foundations of science. In that regard, thermodynamics is important. There are many other types of dynamics. Right now, we are considering those related to science and engineering but will broaden the scope as we go along. 

A well-known treatise on the subject was written by Max Planck (archive.org). Planck references several prior researchers, such as van der Waals. But, Gibbs is a frequent reference. On looking further, we found his association with James Clerk Maxwell (well-known contributor to mathemattican physics) and one of his detailed books on entropy that published his experimental work: On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances. We will use this work to leverage several discussions about knowledge and machine learning. 

So, Josiah will feature in future posts. He is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret via their son George. He is mentioned in later edition of Dr. Frank's book (1933: pg 63). 

Postnote: It is fortunate for us that we can use a Thomas descendant to scrutinize machine learning along several frameworks in our technology research. As such, this focus will cover both the U.S. and European contributions, indexed according to the times of the Nobel prizes with Planck's efforts as central to the discussion. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/28/2026

12/21/2024 --  Added Josiah to the "Descendants of George" list. 

12/18/2024 -- Gibbs is on this graphic from the Geometric Science of Information site. 

01/26/2025 -- Gibbs was first in traisping through vector spaces: The Stargate Project. 

04/28/2026 -- Updated links and image. 

Alice, of the Nantucket bunch

TL;DR -- Alice of the show (Brady Bunch - not that of Carroll nor of the others that we will look at from time to time) gives us a serious New England family history to study. Hang on as we put technology to proper use guided by the "true" spirit of the American experience which we will look at (again and again). 

--

Better late than never, one can say. With our technology focus, we have to look across the board, including the chain from marketing (those who would have us believe enough to spend money) down to fictional shows as we see on TV (those who would have us believe their story and spend money as led to the decision by the marketing folks). 

I have been slowly collecting descendants of Thomas and Margaret, as they become, more or less, proven, that is, their lineage. See Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner; Joseph Gardner (youngest son); Thomas Gardner II (eldest son); ... Notice, recent research (see Comment, this day) shows that Seeth was born here whereas the other children were born in Dorset, UK. 

Now, let's take one show that was heavy on the cultural horizon: Brady Bunch. Alice was a well-known figure due to her role. She was portrayed by Ann B. Davis (Wikipedia, Wikitree - to be researched). She passed on in 2014, as many may remember. Today, I saw that Famous Kin had a profile of her; here is Ann's link to Thomas Gardner through son, John who married Grafton. She has a serious New England background, including lots of families of Plymouth.  

The show did a good job of presenting the U.S. from the viewpoint of a city on the west coast. Too, it aired from 1969 to 1974 which puts it right in the middle of lots of cultural transformations. 

It might not need saying, but we are seeing something similar now with AIn't and its manifestation through GenAI with all of its faults. The next two years will be fun. 

In the meantime, we'll be researching the scope of associations for descendants of Thomas and Margaret in order to tie technology and its pretenses with the phenomenal aspects of people and their long history on the planet. 

Generations and their dynamics? Lots to learn on this folks. Perhaps, the computer can help. It can serve as an ultimate objectifier, as we watch the wannabe try to attain some state which we do not even know how to describe yet. Whether we can or not (attain what AI seems to have accomplished, by the estimate of ts purveyors and supporters) is a basic question needing attention. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/21/2024

10/21/2024 -- Lewis Carroll was a logician, mathematician (influenced by Boole). 

Birthplace of the US Navy

TL;DR -- Where was the U.S. Navy born? Several sites have reason to make the claim. there was a discussion this year about the topic. Turns out, though, that the U.S. Navy has decided. It was not in New England, proper, though Philapelphia is close enough. 

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In 2015, there was continued discussion of a controversy in New Hamphsire history, who was first? That is, which site could claim the earliest settler? This question might have been resolved for the 2023 commemoration that did not get the attention given to the arrival of Cape Ann's crew (Gloucester 400). 

• Rev. Hubbard (2 May 2015): In the Remarks for 4 May 2015, we mentioned that Dover and Portsmouth were candidates. 
• Evidently, Portsmouth came into the lead. 

Coming up is the 250th of the U.S., so comparative themes of this sort will continue. This year, in May, discussion of a "great debate" was sponsored by the Essex Heritage Society pertaining to who could be touted as the birthplace of the Navy. This graphic shows some detail about the occasion. 

We can use the Navy's opinion for the answer: Birthplace of the U.S. Navy. The official answer is Philadelphia, PA since that is where the Continental Congress was in session, making decsions, and providing for funds. In their write up, the Navy diplomatically mentions the other towns and their contributions. 

Early on, while looking different categories of descendants of Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner, we considered the Sarah Balch family (see post, See Descendants of Sarah). Her descendants were Chaplains of both the Continental Navy and the U.S. Navy.  

Remarks: Modified: 09/30/2024

09/30/2024 --  

Restart, somewhat

TL;DR -- Two events in 2023 were seminal; these carried over into 2024 which is 8 months old. The two relate to each other. And, pending changes to our material has been pending. Time to start that process. 

--

In 2023, Gloucester has its 400th. Some felt that it would be 2024. We will look more into that as the closes out. 

Since early 2023, we have adapted to two things: possibly, there are two Thomases; GenAI came on the scene and changed the world in ways that can be taken positively or negatively. Let's look at these two.

• The first was the result of research that the TGS has been doing. In March of 2023, we were looking to have Margaret Fryer Gardner as a focus. But, on looking at WikiTree, we saw that in February of 2023, we saw that research had identified birth records of the children in the records of Sherborne, Dorset, England. Those who discussed the findings decided to split the Thomas Gardner profile into two with the first Thomas being here for the start of the effort by Dorchester Company while the second Thomas was the husband of Margaret and father of the kids. See the post (New not old planter). After a little more reading, we decided that we see these two as one. However, we will make the demarcation (two profiles) now, in our records and websites. Further research then will be documented. At some future point, the hope is to have sufficient information to make a decision. In the meantime, we can discuss why we think it's one guy. 
• In November of 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to extreme acclaim and got millions of people to sign on. We missed that event for several reasons that might be of interest. It was not until February of 2023 that we became aware of ChatGPT. In our first session, we told ChatGPT about Thomas Gardner and Roger Conant (at the same time, the research at WikiTree was progressing). Since then, we have interfaced with various GenAI systems (we like Bard and still are using Gemini for testing), reviewed the mathematical basis for the claims, discussed means to get maturity brought to the action, and a lot more. Basically, this goes along with our decision to focus on technology.  
  
  
  

So, now, we will restructure. Per usual, we will continue to have the FAQ which will be brought up to date. Also, we will release issues of Gardner's Beacon periodically, hopefully with more of a regularity. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/28/2024

09/15/2024 -- People will always be the focus, rather than technology. 

12/28/2024 -- See updates in GB, XIV, 1 for 2024 updates. 

Why is 2024 quiet?

TL;DR -- 2023 saw Gloucester, MA celebrate its founding in terms of arrival of a crew from England. 2024 continues that activity, somewhat. 

--

We have had several posts on Gloucester, MA who did their 400th last year. The Cape Ann crew arrived in 1623, overwintered, and others showed up in 1624. 

So, the modern Gloucester continues their celebration into the 2nd year. What happened to the TGS, Inc. involvement? We support their lookback. Dr. Frank and Ann have ancestors who were with the original crew. Two that come to mind are Conant and Woodbury. There are other families. 

What of Thomas Gardner? In 2018, there was an article that we commented at: The Settlement of Cape Ann: What is the Real Story?

300th celebration of the
Cape Ann arrival

Recently, we commented again. Here is the content of our comment: 

A year ago, we were chasing information related to the appearance of GenAI. That kept us busy. In the meantime, a researcher found the birth records of all of Thomas Gardner’s children in Sherborn, Dorset, UK.

See https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2023/04/in-summary.html (Apr of 2023).

We added a few more words this year as we absorbed news of a changing world.

See https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2024/02/current-status.html (Feb of 2024).

The technology work continues. It’s time to get back to Thomas Gardner and Margaret Frier. On WikiTree, the profile of Thomas was split into two. Daughter, Seeth, was born here. So, did they arrive around 1636? That’s the 1st Thomas. The 2nd one is for the unknown Thomas Gardner who was here according to scattered pieces of information that we have seen.

I argue that there was time for Thomas to come over and go back between births of two of the children. There are various ways to continue the research. It’s time to get this on the plate, I would think.

https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2023/12/thomas-gardner-puzzle.html

https://thomasgardnersociety.org/html/Research.html

....  end of comment .....

So, we have research to do. And, we are reconstructing our sites and blogs to fit the story. 

With respect to Thomas and Margaret, we will be looking for evidence that he came over here alone, at least twice, before he came over with Margaret and the children except Seeth who was born here. 

In the meantime, watch WikiTree for commentary and research results as well as our legacy site. 

Now, Chelsea, MA has its 400th this year. We will look at that shortly since the date is set for September 21. There have been activities so far this year that we can catch up on. 

Also, there are other towns to celebrate over several years: Quincy (2025); Salem (2026). 

400ths for Massachusetts 

Remarks: Modified: 07/14/2024

07/14/2024 -- Aside: the Salem History for the 400th does not mention Gardner. The 300th had a focus on the old planters who were not of the group associated with the Beverly land grant. The 200th would have been after the Revolution and 1812 Conflict and probably muted. The 100th? Worth looking into. And so, for the 500th, will we have something to add? As in, look to fill in some of the missing pieces. 

More than STEM, we need MSET+

TL;DR -- STEM ought to be MSET+. Too, we see science in practice everyday. A Thomas Gardner descendant was recently honored at LSU. On the other hand, an old name from Harvard is apropos to analyzing the times and their turmoils with respect to computing. It's time to raise the level of discussion. 

-- 

The conglomeration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has gotten a lot of press, of late. Magic ensues when one considers the potential based upon the proficiency of the practice. 

Wait, nope. Nope. AIn't is all of the evidence that we need. The main mess is attributable to mathematics. You know, the sequence ought to be this: Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Technology (MSET). Okay? 

So, this post is to start a discussion and the followup actions, over a large scale. First, though, we will mention two parties. Second, we will have a brief look at how the two mix in this day and age. 

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In this photo, we see Alfred L. Gardner, Ph.D. giving his acceptance speech for the award. To the right is the Dean of the College of Science, LSU: Cynthia Peterson. The award dinner was held on 19 Apr 2024, at the Baton Rogue, LA campus.  

LSU COLLEGE OF SCIENCE CELEBRATES
20 YEARS OF HONORING TRAILBLAZERS
IN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Alfred is Ann's twin brother; they are descendants of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer and are 1st cousins of Dr. Frank in being descendants of Samuel. Alfred has been supportive of our efforts with regard to accomplishing the mission of the TGSociety. 

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The second person is Benjamin Peirce (SEP article) whose son, Charles Sanders Peirce, we have paid attention to. Today, we honor Benjamin, himself. We have had lots of posts on technology over the last decade and many just from the last year. GenAI and its foibles were the theme. Mainly, the problem is that AI is not some creature. Look, we are dealing with buckets-of-bits. Even if there is the robotic side of things, those are buckets-of-bolts, albeit plastic many times. 

So, let's clarify the issue using Benjamin's work. First, observing over the past two decades has shown a decline all around. Quality has gone away. The only way to find it now is with the "bespoke" methods that are custom done by those who care. Companies are whole-hog adopting AIn't with deleterious results that can be seen all around. 

They are forcing their customers into untenable situations. Actually, they are treating their workers even worse. And, at some point, the illusional mindset that is allowing this will burst its bubble. We'll see tears all around. 

So, may we prepare? No less an authority than Bourbaki noted the importance of the Peirces. As said, we ran into C.S. Peirce long ago in the context of computational intelligence. But, his father is noted as being instrumental in taking Hamilton's notion (quaterions) and bringing it forward. Look, this was in the mid-portion of the 1800s. What happened since then? We will look at that. 

For now, here are two sites offering Benjamin's paper: MAA Mathematical Treasure; Linear Associative Algebra. We will focus on Benjamin and his son, for a bit, as we get the situation described. 

Benjamin and his son are Thomas Gardner descendants, too, with two children in their pedigree: George and Seeth. So, we will be looking at that further, too. 

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Now, to a brief bit of the necessary discussion, our last post was the forebear of the message: map-territory. That is partly philosophical in nature. But, mathematics threw out the old way. Let's bring it back. 

The reason for these two being tied together stems from our interest in truth engineering which will be another piece of work on the table for taming AI which is computing and mathematics going aground. That is, they got grounded but in an improper way. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/21/2024

04/28/2024 --  Added pointers: Quora article on quaternions; the SEP article on Benjamin. 

12/21/2024 -- Updated quaternion image (the old one had disappeared).