About generations

Stages in the American Dream
400 years or so

Last year, when we did the Fifteen Generations post, the notion was to estimate how many generations are there now back to Thomas for people who are currently alive. Of course, we may have three  generations of a family to consider. So, one range would go from twelve to fifteen, with the exceptional occurrences of four generations going eleven to fifteen.

One of our goals is to identify and document the first two to five generations from Thomas and Margaret where generation two would be the grandchildren. In his first book, Dr. Frank mostly covered some of these persons and Samuel's line down to the generation of Dr. Frank's father.

The Mayflower Society has books out to five generations. The data is not complete as I have verified. However, they are now focusing on two generations at WikiTree: Project:Mayflower. That was nice to see actually, as this society has been working for a century. Early on,  I noted that Dr. Frank was not complete with his view of two generations, a 100 years ago: The kids.

Related article on Quora: How many years are there in a generation? The NEHGS has used some of the data from the 5th generation database to look at the length of a generation. As well, we can see the average length per generation and a few other things.

From Vita Brevis: How long is a generation?

So, we are not late. And, we can use WikiTree to build this database to be the basis for further research and some interesting studies. The intent is to publish the first three generations within the next year or so.

This falls within the category of the numbers games that have become quite addictive.

Note: Article from the International Society of Genetic Genealogy: Generation length.

Remarks: Modified: 07/28/2020

10/24/2019 -- Notes in Vita Brevis article briefly touch on some technical (statistical) issues, such as incomplete data (actually, the reality of this type of work). I would add another. It's a conflation of information about more than one generation and is more of a cultural view than that of nature. It would be interesting to separate out the three groups: elderly, mature, and child. For the last, I would use Richard More (uncle). The first, Brewster comes to mind. The computer (and its ability to hoard (yes) will allow all sorts of studies - to wit, data science). Then, the idea would be to use the birth dates, when known, of the individuals. Some of these would be, it is noted, before 1620.

07/28/2020 -- Have done several posts related to generations: 5th generation, 6th generation, 7th generation, 1900 back, American 100s, First five, and About generations.

Generations, again

TL;DR -- Starting with  Dr. Frank's 1907 book, we begin a look at the generational stack with the intent to go to WikiTree, next.

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Lately, the generation theme has looked at major events in the U.S. history, starting with the Revolution. That was the ordeal of the 4th and 5th generations. Then, we had the 6th and 7th that were involved with the expansion of the American sphere of influence both internally (western expansion, et al) and in the world. Part of that was generating wealth, unbounded, for some families. At the same time, there were turmoils to consider. So, we will be trying to organizing these topics and the corresponding studies with respect to generations using several (actually many) families.

In terms of time spread of the generations, we can use the Mayflower example for comparison. Say, during the Revolution, we would have had people from the 4th, 5th, and 6th generations involved. Too, there may have even been some remnants of the 3rd and early entrants of the 7th generations around and about. The theme is, though, that 'cohort' is a useful concept which can be used to help with the categorizations. Using generations allows us to have a focus on families.

In his 1907 book, Dr. Frank starts the 3rd generation with #12 Lt. Thomas Gardner (bp 1645 - 1695), son of #2 Lt. Thomas Gardner ( - 1682) and Hannah (pg 101).

• He starts the 4th generation with #61 Thomas Gardner (1671 - 1696), son of #12 Thomas (pg 134). This generation includes #69 John Gardner (1681 - 1732), son of #22 Samuel Gardner (1647 - 1724) and Elizabeth Browne (pg 140). 
• He starts the 5th generation with #87 Habakkuk Gardner (1707 - 1762), son of #62 Capt Habakkuk Gardner (1673 - 1732) and Ruth Gedney (pg 162). This generation includes #105 Capt Jonathan Gardner (1728 - 1791) who served in both the French-Indian and Revolutionary wars (pg 178). Also, included is #129 Simon Stacey Gardner (bp 1743 - b 1787) who is the 2nd-great-grandfather of Dr. Frank. (pg 195). 
• He starts the 6th generation with #139 John Gardner (1739 - 1805), son of #90 Capt John Gardner (bp 1706 - 1784) and Elizabeth Putnam. (pg 198). This generation includes #188 Jonathan Gardner (bp 1773 -1839), son of Simon Stacey Gardner (pg 283), and concludes with #192 John Gardner (1793 - 1834), son of #133 Joseph Gardner () and Anna Edee (pg 301). His daughter, #368 Harriett (1833 - 1887), is the last person named in the 1907 book of Dr. Frank. 

In the details for generation six, Dr. Frank gives information about the children and grand children. That gets us to the 7th and 8th generations. Given that we want to use Thomas' children as the 1st generation, Dr. Frank has given us a start on looking at the first of the seven generations. In that last generation, we will be looking at the U.S. Civil War.

Earlier, we did a table that listed the names in the two books. This list will be extended.

Remarks: Modified: 07/29/2020

07/29/2020 -- See next post for a Table of names from above.

"Generations" and its use

TL;DR - An article in The New Yorker on recent generations motives a look at the dozen or so generations since John Winthrop's arrival. We have had several posts on generations and find the divisions to be of use. 30 years or 25 years? The graphic shows 30 years. With our database, we will be able to see how much of a range there is similar to the Mayflower data that showed the long span of their fifth generation. 

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Meaning, of course, that the use of generation is arbitrary. A classical value was 30 years for a long time. We sort of stumbled on 25 years for various reasons. 

In a recent New Yorker, Louis Menand of Harvard reviewed a couple of books on the subject. His article was titled, It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations” , and covers some interesting points. Louis is a Professor of English. He was at Harvard Law before going over to Columbia for his Ph.D. His mother wrote a biography of Samuel Adams, so we will look at him further. 

With respect to the reviews, his graphic is an eye-catcher, showing the last four generations as we see in the press: Boomer, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z. Each of these four is considered to be about 15 years. Louis argues that these are very arbitrary giving not much more information than one finds with astrology. However, generations do make sense. In the graphics, we have a 30-year generational look that shows the Boomers to be in the 12th generation which is about right as looking back at Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer that is how many lines get filled in, say for an application to a heritage society. 

This post wanted to bring in motivations for looking more closely at generations. Too, this will be a regular type of study and report. We have had many posts so far on generational themes. Here are a few. 

• Fifth generation - From July of 2020 when we were diving into the databases of SAR/DAR as well as looking at the particular families who were associated with events. The 5th bearing the brunt? Lots and lots to look at there. 
• Hundred years - From June of 2020 as we got to looking at a spectral approach. Going backward from now: 100th (Dr. Frank's time), 200th (western expansion), 250th (Revolution), 300th (not long after the Witch fiasco, 400th (Weymouth next year, then Gloucester, then rolling on). 
• America's Lost Generation - From November of 2020 when we realized by looking at families as we helped people with their applications that lots and lots of problems arise when people move several hundreds of miles away to someplace without infrastructure. Then, genealogists, in their antiquated logic, blame some brick wall when it's their thinking on the issue. Lots to discuss. If Lyman Porter is a sore spot, so be it. The recent database has him, a daughter, and brothers. Database? Yeap, from MF applications that were accepted. 

The frontier century was over 100 years long and potentially spans from three to five generations. We will be looking at that. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/08/2023

11/02/2021 --  Updated the graphic. 

11/03/2021 -- Lucy F. (Wilson) Gardner is of the seventh (or sixth) generation.  

01/08/2023 -- We had another icon (Charles Thomson) come up for our 250th (1774, Continental Congress) and 400th (Cape Ann as one of the first of the capitalization attempts of history). 

1900 forward

TL;DR -- As we head to the 400th of Gloucester, MA which will start at the end of December of this year, we can pull things together to start our next phase. We have several memes to discuss, but a continuing theme deals with generations. In 2020, we noted that the 5th generation work of a Mayflower descendant helps bring out some of the common issues through time (hence, modulo is very much apropos). 

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Back in 2020, with Covid and other factors at work, we had a lot of time to do work dealing with generations as mentioned in our last post: 8th generation. It was in the work where we started to list generations from Cape Ann to events of U.S. History. And, the 5th generation was identified as the most involved of the U.S. Revolution which 250th is coming up. The 8th generation post came from looking in more detail at what we knew of Judge F.M. Thompson. F.M. was Civil War time. 

Another post of the time was 1900 back. In that post, we looked at Dr. Frank mentioning his father, Stephen Wilson Gardner, in his book. Stephen's father, Benjamin Brown Gardner, was the grandson of Simon Stacey Gardner, DAR Patriot, and of the 5th generation. That would make Benjamin to be the 7th generation, Stephen to be the 8th and Dr. Frank would be of the 9th (as is Ann's grandfather). Stephen, then, would be the cohort of F.M. (of the last post). 

Also, that allow us to establish some relations with what we know. Namely, this would be the two massive affairs driven by technology, somewhat: WWI and WWI. And, we get to Dr. Frank's generation and their WWI draft registrations. Too, back to Harvard, and its chemist involved with chemical warfare; he, kin, was a President of Harvard, later (James Bryant Conant was of the 9th gen). That establishes the parents of the boomers to be the 10th generation. 

Now, why all of this? One major meme deals with the 1960s where dynamics all over the world erupted in ways not seen before; those energies persisted in their ways until this very day where we have no seeming platform left in any of the classical senses; except, we do have an emerging focus that is related to technology having reared its head in the last decade and one-half, namely computational emptiness. 

As we saw with the New Yorker overview, there are different ways to look at generations. We will categorize and do simultaneous looks as technology allows us to do. But, the spread through time, almost modulo perfect can make a lot of sense. This graphics uses the four generations that the New Yorker article touched upon. Yes, the contents of graphic is taken from the periodical.  

Just like we can track through Harvard's footprints on history, we can do the same thing with people (families) and with the imprint of technology. Our work of late showed us that there are several places where information gaps occurred. Post the Revolution, we had several generations, centered around the 7th, where descendants of early families seemed to have dropped off the earth. 

At the same time, newer families were arriving, constantly. Many times, with the same or similar names so as to create confounding moments. We will look at that further but, for now want to just identify that there is a major lost generation. Fortunately, many times we can tie together sufficient information to build back family relationships or to give someone a little recognition. There are many cases of the unidentified across the landscape. 

In particular, our next post will identify a few Gardner generations around the 1900 timeline. We picked that for privacy purposes where most things before then could become public knowledge if it had not already been lifted to view. However, looking this way from then, the release of the 1950 U.S. Census data does open several doors. 

Before proceeding, using F.M. as an example, we want to document some threads of families with the name of Gardner and folks of collateral families. 

Too, the upcoming 250th is important for many reasons. So, we will support DAR and SAR and others. Then, we will map families from Cape Ann to the Patriot and to now, as do several organizations. At the same time, we have some open business with regard to the Mayflower event which has a similar project of Passenger to Patriot. For us, we can use the Five Generations work for these comparative studies. As a reminder, we will venture into New Spain (first due to size) and New France as we work.  

Remarks: Modified: 07/09/2022

07/09/2022 -- 

8th generation

TL;DR -- We have several threads that relate families to events and their themes. For instance the 5th generation did the Revolution, guided by the 4th and assisted by the 6th. Post the Revolution, the western activity kicked into higher gear. The 7th generation was involve out west early. Now, with the 8th, we can bring in the Civil War and further looks at western activity. 

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We have used generation often without much definition, example - Fifth generation (the Revolution). Then, we talked of others, such as the 4th (leadership during the Revolution) or later generations. Of course, this is a topic which will always be with us: "Generations" and its use, About generations. As well, we are using a thread about the History of Harvard to follow 400 years of the U.S. 

So, it's time to put 'generation' to work on a usual basis. Today, after looking at our post on Judge F. M. Thompson, we looked at his generation. F.M. contributed to the Massachusetts Magazine. Too, some of this material was collected into a book, Tenderfoot in Montana. Now, his mother was a Adams (WikiTree) so we will now use the Adams family to compare lives of cousins, like we did with those in the lineage of Grizzly and John Quincy and with Dr. Frank's book.  

In short, F.M. was of the 8th generation. As such, his western jaunt is of interest as this is the second wave where the first wave consisted of the earlier group, such as Jedediah Strong Smith. Jedediah's group were the early explorers out west; too, they got the carving of the land started with its result of a century of the frontier. If we were to pick a major event in the U.S. related to this generation, it would be the U.S. Civil War. 

Seal of the 
Territory of Montana

F.M. was in New England at the start of the conflict. He was on the west coast and at in-between locations for a lot of the duration of the war. We will let him describe his experiences for himself. For now, here are a few posts related to F.M. and his jaunts. 

• The Indelible Mark of Francis Thompson (2015) -- offered by the Montana Historical Society, this posts gives us some flavor of his impact in that region. 
• Sesqui-centennial (1903) -- F.M. celebrated by Greenfield, MA. 
• The NEHGR (1917, Vol 21) -- Memoirs of the NEHGS 

We will be back to this post as we define more generations and their contributions. Generations overlap. So, we can talk a mid-point and spread. Then, how about some fuzzy logic, such as: mostly late 7th and somewhat early 8th? There are other methods that could be used. Too, we need to pick one of two choices: either the generation of Thomas and Margaret are in the count or not. We have mixed this a little, to date, and will get that issue settled before we bring generations further into our model for discussing dynamics of change in the sense of history. 

So, following up on John Quincy Adams, we find Mary Gardner (Adams) Quincy. On looking at the Gardner connection, she is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret of Cape Ann and Salem. In terms of Grizzly Adams, his son, Seymour Adams, served in the Civil War. That shows some credence for our counting this type of segregation. 

Let's check the Harvard connections. The two Presidents during the conflict were Cornelius Felton (1860-1862) and Thomas Hill (1862-1868). We have not looked at these two as of yet. For now, let's take Felton whose brother, Samuel, was a railroad engineer. He was President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad during the "pivotal Civil War" era. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/29/2022

07/09/2022 -- Add NEHGS Proceedings entry for F.M. that appeared in the 1917 NEHGR.  

09/29/2022 -- Col. T. W. Higginson was of the 8th generation. 

1900 back

In logic, using a tree, it is easier to trace back from some node (leaf) to a basis node. And, in trees, the basis can move around. The inverse is much harder; that is, trying to expand any tree forward. Same thing goes for lots of problems, in general. It is harder to find solutions than it is to check them (core of the complexity issues related to CompSci).

Do not believe me about this? Take armchair quarterbacks, as an example (or anyone being critical). In another view, look at the Mayflower group's Silver series; this work has been on-going for a century and is still being updated. Mind you, that is look forward only five generations. We have talked about such an effort for the descendants of Thomas and Margaret (search on 'generations') and have proposed two to three generations. And, one thought was to try to get up to 1900. If you look at Dr. Frank's books, his 1907 issue was mostly of Samuel with a little George thrown in; 1933 was of George's contributions.

Now, compare the coming forward with the ease (relatively) with the look back needed to prove some lineage -- I have done dozens of these and saw one estimate (same contextual framework) claiming 90% success when there is a good database, barring the conditions that we see leading to brick walls, whether these are real or of some attitudinal shortcoming.

Of late, we spent considerable time looking at heritage using a known database which supports applications. In one case, the merging of three lines (snip, paste) resulted in a documented line from an applicant to an ancestor about eight generations back. Usually, these new nodes (where the snip/paste happened) need some additional work. Why? The originals might have used one of the parents whereas the new look goes with the other. So, lessons learned there.

Too, we used WikiTree to do Dr. Frank's lineage back. It is fairly complete (Gardner-11627). Where there are holes, we have things to stuff in once they are confirmed. As well, we have run across several descendants of Benjamin Brown Gardner and Lucy Foster Wilson. There were papers related to this that got mention in the NEHGR 2017.

In one case, we have corresponded with a great-grandson of Dr. Frank. A post on Dr. Frank last Veterans' Day showed stones of another great-grandson. These were descendants of both wives of Dr. Frank. Then, part of the WikiTree work that we have adopted was done by another descendant of BBG. Starting with Jeffry's node on Abel, son of Samuel and grandson of Thomas who was buried near him in Gardner's plot, one gets to BBG. There, one finds two sons, for now: the father of Dr. Frank (Stephen Wilson Gardner) and his brother (Walter B Gardner). Ann's great-grandfather, Joseph D. Gardner, was their brother (see image).

From this generation, we can build family records and match up across the tree. For instance, we saw a descendant of Benjamin Brown's brother last year when a photo of him was published in a FaceBook group dealing with old photos: Thomas Needham Gardner. Thomas was a great-uncle of Dr. Frank and Ann's grandfather.

We started a series looking at people of a particular name. In one case, we used Elizabeth. We expect that a consistent approach like this will allow us to document a whole lot of the tree. We want to hear about the work of others, too.

Remarks: Modified: 07/28/2020

07/28/2020 -- Have done several posts related to generations: 5th generation, 6th generation, 7th generation, 1900 back, American 100s, First five, and About generations.

Numbers, again

The last post looked at numbers in relation to what is known about ancestors. In that case, the number was the percentage of known ancestors in the 10th generation (see image in prior post). At that generation, one had one-thousand-twenty-three (1,023) ancestors (allowing for duplication due to possible intermarriage during the later generations).

After we have a brief review of the approach, let's take another look. What was of interest was that the range for people responding to a query went from the teens, and below, up to a whopping 83% (Yvonne - missing post). The query was posted by Randy Seaver in his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post at his Genea-Musings blog. Randy, himself, had a number about 53%.

Again, on the approach, the idea is to count from yourself backward through the earlier generations. So, you have two parents; they have two parents, and so forth. So, it's a power of two (minus yourself) that you have each time.

Some generations can have a 100% number, if everyone is known. We usually expect that with the earlier generations (closer to you). As well, if you take your four grand-parents, what you know about their heritage will differ. For some, you may know a lot. For others, you many know little.

What has been noted is that many, with New England ancestry, know a lot about their ancestors. The high number, reported above, was for someone who was from Quebec (Canada).

Fore note: Randy had four columns: possible - #1, sum1; identified - #2, sum2. He reported, for each generation, sum2/sum1 (times 100, to get the percentage value). In the below, what is reported is #2 over #1 (adjusted, accordingly). With this, we can see what we know for each generation.

To the prior table, I added three columns (see image in this post). Each of these will show "Percentages of known, by generation." The first column gives the ratio (converted to percentage) by generation, in toto. In this case, 45.7% of generation-nine ancestors are known (117 of the 256 possible). As one can see, this percentage drops off as we go backward in time. So, too, does the accumulative numbers drop (51.3%, which is 262 of the 511 possible at this generation).

Percentages by grandparents
(of which, of course,
there are four)

Now, here's the thing. We can break out the contribution by each of the four grandparents. In this case, both of the grandmothers were members of families who arrived later (1800s). So, we can then focus on the two grandfathers (1600s arrival).

The next column is the number for the paternal grandfather. Then, we have a column the maternal grandfather.

The first thing to notice is that we have 100%, for these two, out through generation seven. Then, we get the drop off that is expected. But, notice, too, that the percentages are high for a couple of generations, above 80%. After that, the paternal side goes down more quickly.

The big reality is that, after generation eleven, we get a huge drop off. It might be good to compare these generations against the trees of the better-studied individuals (rich and famous, for whom genealogists like work).

Caveat: Generation 10, in this case, is for someone who was born toward the middle of the 1900s. Since then, trees for many might be talking generation 12, or more, for the same ancestor (immigrant).

Remarks:  Modified: 12/23/2024

08/13/2015 -- Another example, using the generational count.

08/14/2015 -- I will do the chart using Dr. Frank's ahnentafels (BB Gardner and LF Wilson).

10/25/2019 -- I'm now GitHub'ing so plenty of pending technical work and its detail are in the offing. Still at it with the numbers. 

08/09/2023 -- Removed link to the "numbers" post at Yvonne's blog. She is taking a breather. 

The progeny

The list of descendants will be large for Thomas and Margaret. One goal will be to fill in the tree, completely, to about the year 1900. That would cover over 250 years on this side of the pond.

Too, there will be posts dealing with the RD theme. Why? Looking at associated families can help us fill in Thomas' past. As said before, I'm going with Savage's view, for now. So, expect to see pointers to work done by other families.

Of course, work will continue for the period from 1900 to 2010. But, for the next few posts, the blog will focus on the earlier times.

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We hope to put out interesting stories from time to time as they are found.

The intent is to have GEDCOM files, at some point, with confirmed data; the organization of these files is still an open issue as they will need to be partitioned, I think. By the way, GEDCOM (below are pointers to trees that intersect the Thomas') is a standard way to document genealogical data. But, there need to be an interesting way to present the data. The below examples are from the RootsWeb site.

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Before we show some RD links, let's talk numbers again. Going back to Thomas and Margaret would be around 10 to 12 generations for people living now. So, if there were a fully developed tree going back from oneself, you would start with your two parents, then your four grandparents, then eight 1ggps. That's three generations, so we're using 2**3 (or 2 to the 3rd power). 2 to the 12th power is 4,096. You'll see example trees below. The actual number can be much lower due to things like intermarriages.

But, when we come forward, from Thomas and Margaret, it is not binary. In fact, there are nine kids at the first generation. Yet, if we considered that there were only four, for each generation coming forward, by the time of 12 generations, there would be 16 million cousins for your self. Or, as they say, Thomas and Margaret would have that many descendants living. In total, as one summed over the generations, total descendants would be 22 millon.

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Now, we'll start with a Samuel descendant named Simon Stacy Gardner (Plumer tree). Simon is on the Daughters of the American Revolution list of patriots and is only four generations from Thomas and Margaret (Thomas/Samuel/Abel/Abel). Simon's father was Abel whose grandmother (Elizabeth) was a sister of John Hathorne. But, Elizabeth, and her husband's family, not fevered by the mania and did sane things, like try to save Rebecca Nurse.

If we look at work done by various families, we can find charts like this example pedigree chart for Simon 's mother's grandfather (Thomas Stacy - Smith/Goodale tree). As mentioned before, these types of charts will be verified. But, for the point of RD, notice that Margery Eyre (Caldwell tree) is in the tree; her grandmother is shown to be Elizabeth Fitzwilliam (Bevan tree).

By this time, the tree has really expanded. Poking around brings up a lot of royal links, such as this for Henri I, of France (Bevan tree). Wikipedia has a chart for his ancestry.

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Given that we went backward (with an expanding tree, remember?), how do we know that the link from Elizabeth back to Simon Stacy can be supported? We'll go into that next time and use another example that leads back to what is called a gateway. That is, a number of immigrants had documented histories. Many families knew this, at the time. For many, the knowledge was lost. But, if one can map back to a gateway with documentation, then one can consider RD for one's self.

The rule, according to the NEHGS, is for us to handle this side of the pond (back to the gateway). Then, issues over there will be resolved via their methods. And, through time, there is progress as missing information comes to fore (we'll later use the example of a Mayflower passenger who seemed to have been lost but was later found to have lived in Salem).

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Again, the reason for following this method is that the closer one is to a royal line the better the sourcing material. Then, from those one can try to fill in gaps. But, it is not always possible to do so (examples abound).

Remarks:

10/25/2020 -- Descendants, finally. We're getting back to work.

12/07/2018 -- Dr. Frank and WikiTree. Using his hand-written notes, we filled in his mother's line this past summer. Too, we are going to focus on filling in the gaps. 

10/25/2018 -- We have a new look: TGSoc.org. And, we are using WikiTree (example of Samuel/Abel) with the goal of getting the first five generations documented. Some of these links may be stale (will be checking). 

01/06/2013 -- Ten years ago, The Atlantic had a nice article on Humphry's work. I ran across his site in the last couple of years, at some point, so it was nice to run across the article.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

04/27/2011 -- We'll get back to the pedigree of Simon Stacy Gardner. One of his grandfathers was Thomas Maule.

03/16/2011 -- Nathaniel Bowditch could start a list of major contributors.

12/24/2010 -- Need to answer the question about Ebenezer (Maine, Samuel/Abel/Thomas). Plus, here is an interesting page.

12/23/2010 -- Would be derelict if I didn't mention, and use, this site by Roderic A. Davis, 2nd.

12/06/2010 -- Another tree for Simon would show RD from Thomas through Samuel / Abel / Abel (Dollhopf family). This lineage has John White who, according to Bevan, descends from Henry III (Wikipedia ancestry chart). -- If we skip forward, to Frank A (who will have his own page), his grandmother (Lucy F. Wilson) has John White as an ancestor, as well. This is through Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. William Walton (Bevan - we'll get to that when looking at Frank A.) . Benjamin Brown Gardner, Lucy's husband, was Simon Stacy Gardner's grandson.

11/12/2010 -- RD example using a gateway.

11/11/2010 -- Ole Larson is back for one RD reference. His genealogy site is a good example.

11/10/2010 -- The Bevan trees will be used a lot. The family's chief immigrant is on the list of gateways. A claim is firmed by using confirmed gateways, however there is missing information that can be discovered at any time (Richard More, for example). Too, efforts like the D.A.R. of verifying pedigrees (essentially a linear projection) and then matching these up to build a tree will allow holes to be identified, and filled.

Modified: 10/25/2020

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 --

Julia (Ward) Howe

TL;DR -- We saw mention of the song in an article and went to look as the names were familiar. How did the person relate? Our focus is onioned with Cape Ann at the core and the U. S. further out with the world as the final layer. 400 years covers a lot of territory (space and time). Since we were looking at WikiTree, we tried some of their analysis-and-graph techniques. 

---

This post continues the theme of preparations for the next issue of The Gardner Annals (Vol. V, No. 1). Last post, we were looking at Dr. Frank and Henry VIII in terms of connections along the line of the Kevin Bacon deal (ALGS is about 3 degrees from Kevin). Those types of connections are open as they include common types of relationships.

We're looking at relationships in terms of nature and nurture. In the former, there would be some DNA linkage such as being descendant from or having a common ancestor. Then, we have the slew of cultural relations. In the above, we saw that Dr. Frank links with Henry VIII through his sister and three of his wives. The graph is on WikiTree and was easily attainable since they compute these for featured Profiles with Henry VIII being the current focus. To isolate some of the other connections, we went and used Dr. Frank's great-grandparents.

This analysis is supposed to work with any two Profiles, however several failed since they had a restriction on 10 links (takes lot of computer time and memory). Today, we were reading an old review in the WSJ about 'Songs of America.' One in particular is the Battle Hymn of the Republic, with lyrics by Julia (Ward) Howe (Wikipedia, her genealogy). Julia's husband (Samuel Gridley Howe) was one of the secret supporters (they went underground as the Feds came north, following rumors) of John Brown (she used the tune of John Brown's body), as was Col. Thomas W. Higginson about whom we wrote three years ago. The Colonel worked with Dr. Frank and his sister on The Massachusetts Magazine. So, there is a relationship right there.

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Aside: Both Julia and her husband are cousins. The below looks at her husband, with the intent to match up a family somewhere in the past. But, the focus was technical, not genealogical. As with any work, we can note that WikiTree researchers can do things right. The Magna Carta project is an example where they are proving one thread (path) from a gateway focus back to a Surety or other person there. So, trust but verify? We have not done the second part yet. Actually, we can point out some missteps that occurred in the analysis that we overcame manually. 

Given that we wanted to test WikiTree, we used another Profile (that of ALGS' 1st-great). An earlier model had showed her connected to Henry VIII through his sister. That particular link came in via the Howe family. So, we tried to show the relationship twixt the grandmother of ALGS and the husband of Julia. It went through 66K profiles to form this graph.

#7 is Rev. John Wise (Thomas Gardner of Roxbury), the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence according to Calvin Coolidge. Here is another view.

This is interesting as just two generations removed from Abigail is the Howe connection (see below). This type of analysis is not as easy as it looks. Many times, as in the case of Henry VIII, many links are computed and stored. The query is merely looking for a match within a few generations. WikiTree has been doing this analysis for awhile. It'll be worth while to see how many of those have been stored so that we can retrieve the information.

As well, this is a connection search which has fewer constraints than would the relationship one have. Now, to do a manual search, we can get both profiles (Samuel Howe and Abigail Swazey) and do an ancestor graph. Then, we can match up nodes that will show the common ancestor.

So, starting with these two, we go back four generations.

Since Samuel is younger than Abigail, we see that in three more generations for him, there is the same ancestor as two more generations for Abigail. So, Samuel's 5th ggp is the same as Abigail's 4th ggp.

Samuel's and Julia's time was the U.S. Civil War. Abigail was the War of 1812 while her father was the Revolutionary War and the French-Indian War.

BTW, the great-uncle of Abigail's husband, and his wife, were the couple who were featured in McCullough's look at the Revolutionary War. McCullough used the The Letters of Joseph Hodgkins and Sarah Perkins – Historic Ipswich to build a story.

Aside: technology of the compute ilk will be a thorn in our sides forever. Something like the genie being let out of the bottle. So? What to do? Learn to be wise and not be led by the wizards and others who would wish such roles for themselves. 

---

One motivation for this [type of] analysis will be to write stories related to the extended family of Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner.

Aside: D.A.R. has been working for 100 years to have their database allow matchings to ease the work of applying. Great effort. S.A.R. is now following along. Good decision, fellas. Oh, databases were not there 100 years ago? Tsk. Ever heard of content versus configuration? We'll touch on that more. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/10/2022

08/02/2019 -- Looked briefly at Ezra Pound's link to Thomas and HVIII.

10/10/2022 -- Added the TL;DR. Too, looked at the Secret Six, again. ... Added the "Asides" to note the digression with intent which is how we build [on] our knowledge. 

First five

1st 5 (or so), we might add. In the latest Gardner's Beacon (Vol. IX, No. 3), we mentioned that we want to have a focus, for as long as needed, to get the first five generations filled in for the children of Thomas and Margaret. This has been discussed before (About generations) in the context of the story of Thomas and Margaret. We would include the collateral families. One example is our look at the Elizabeths () which will be expanded by other names.

A question might come up about format. In the initial stages, there are not many restrictions. Let us see what you have. Too, for your ancestor who is a descendant, please find the latest entry that you can on WikiTree. And, let us know this.

Examples to discuss:

• Richard on WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gardner-127
• Dr. Frank, ahnentafels (grandparents, both handcrafted):
•                 Benjamin Brown Gardner and Lucy Foster Wilson 
• Correction to The Essex Genealogist: Graves Family of Ipswich, Ahnentafel (handcrafted)  

There are other formats. We're looking for articles for the next two issues of The Gardner Annals (to be completed by February - note: not, a virus struck). After that, we'll reformat and print as a book. So, right now, the material can be rough.

The key thing is to have sources, as much as possible. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/27/2020

01/04/2020 -- As we do this work, we will still be looking at origins: Margaret's family. 

07/28/2020 -- Have done several posts related to generations: 5th generation, 6th generation, 7th generation, 1900 back, American 100s, First five, and About generations.

10/27/2020 -- Slowly getting ready to edit Margaret's WikiTree profile. 

Two houses

TL:DR -- A tale of two houses within one family and common timeframe. Too, we get to consider New Hampshire in a way that will be persistently fair and equitable with regard to its larger sibling to the south. One house is maintained by the Society of Cincinnati but built by a ggp of Ann and her kin. 

--

We mentioned doing research with a New Hampshire focus. It is about time, as we started to run into families who went up to NH very early when we first began to research New England. Rev. Bachiler is one example of someone with lots of families associated with him. He appears in this work but is not the focus, yet.  In a few lines from now back to the beginning, we have a collection of twelve generations and are taking a good look at generations eight and nine. The other ones are well covered. 

It is typical in this type of work to run into problem areas. For about a year, we were looking at the frontier issues related to people following the expansion west after the Revolution. In that case, the interior was carved over a century's time, with St. Louis as a focal point. There are issues that could be better handled by the experts (we'll get there - modernize the thinking, a little). With tongue in cheek, we could say that the practice for the real west was done in that pseudo-northwest that is on the wrong side of the Mississippi. 

Also, we have pointed out that the Revolution's brunt had been borne by the fifth generation with the fourth providing some guidance and the sixth hanging on for their dear lives. With the seventh, we started to see the enjoyment of the fruits of the labor of the earlier generations, in part. 

Okay, we are now putting our attention back into New England's milieu. Having mentioned the 400th parties for Massachusetts several times, we will now correct that by bringing in New Hampshire. What about ME and CT and the rest? We'll get there. Right now, we can say that lots of these families were in the Kittery, ME area prior to wandering west. 

There are many ways to go about looking at this topic. For this post, we will consider two houses. Same family. We'll list the one of glory, first; then we can balance with a look at other views. BTW, that latter? Well, with Harry being over here, we can really start to look at the commonality of ourselves and that Mother country. 

Both houses are in Exeter, NH and were built in the early 1700s.  

• Ladd-Gilman house -- We knew of this house years ago. What got our attention recently was the association with the Society of Cincinnati. The owner of the house at the time of the Revolution was a founding member of this organization. So, we will get back to that theme, too. Right now, let's look at the families. Nathaniel Ladd, Jr. (who is the builder) is in Ann's lineage. Nathaniel had married a Gilman who was a daughter of the Hon. John of note. They, Nathaniel and Catherine, sold the house to the grandfather of the signer in the family (Nicholas Gilman, Jr). The grandfather was the 1st cousin of Catherine. The house is now used as a private museum and for meetings by the Society of Cincinnati which is one of the members of the Hereditary Society Community which is oriented toward preserving history and our knowledge about it. 
• Gilman Garrison house - This is our balance for several reasons. It is contemporary, somewhat, as the Ladd-Gilman (1721) was built about a decade after this one (1709). However, one can see that the times and styles were somewhat different. Now, the people. Hon John Gilman was the first tenant of this house built by the family for security. A couple of generations later, Brigadier General Peter Gilman was the occupant. He was well-known for his service in the French and Indian Wars. However, come the Revolution, and he was a Loyalist. That subject needs further attention. For now we have this overview: The American Loyalists (1847). If one scrolls up a little in the file (to page 315), there is a list of the Gardner Loyalists, such as Henry and Dr. Sylvester. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/09/2021

10/09/2021 -- Form with details for National Register of Historical Places. The house is 300 this year; somehow did not see that earlier. Great work, Nathaniel Ladd. 

Veterans Day

TL;DR -- Veteran? We forgot the connection to 'Armistice' that was there in the beginning. We have covered topics related to this theme from the beginning but mainly point to the work of late. Related to the conflicts are the generations involved. A chart looking at the timeline rolls several generations together in a range of birth years. Our view, taking that route, tries to pull out this detail, such as the 5th generation (say, from Cape Ann) bore the brunt of the Revolution while the 4th led, and some of the 6th participated. In any case, we can see the endless nature of this aspect of ourselves. 

--

In the spring, we have started posts related to Memorial Day (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) which occurs on the last weekend of May, in the U.S. The holiday, early on, had a Civil War focus. Some of our posts were of that category: Jonathan Letterman, Young captain, Secret Six, STL to SFO (using a modern vernacular), and others. 

We only have had one with a Veteran's Day theme: Dr. Frank's burial place. Given the memorial focus, we also have had several posts on cemeteries and their issues: Howard Street Burial Ground. Several posts were involved with the theme of "Where is Thomas?" that involved a decade-long quest to understand what happened to the old burial plot noted by Sidney Perley and others. 

In particular, the focus of Veteran's Day is related to military service and the sacrifices thereof. Originally, this day was a remembrance of World War I: Victory Gardens, Ground zero, Frank Balch, James Bryant Conant, and more. 

Indirectly, we have mentioned other conflicts of a wider, than personal, nature. After all, the tragedies and turmoil of the western movement were huge individually and collectively. We who look back have no notion of the extent of this (say, pondering the English Wigwam of early New England). Too, conflict with the American Indian was almost constant. 

Yet, there have been major conflicts that impacted the whole of the U.S. from before and after the frontier century. We are coming upon the 250th of the Revolution (see SAR/DAR). After that, there was the continuation in the events of the War of 1812. 

These recurrences are generational in scope. We will spend more time looking at this. The fifth generation bore the brunt of the Revolution; the sixth endured the 1812 problems. In general, generations will be of interest an almost uncountable number of reasons. The existence of Mayflower data has brought to fore several types of analysis: About generations. 

So, to the theme of the post, what is a veteran? We have the general definition related to being old or experienced. But, the norm now ties the word to a military usage, hence the Department of Veterans Affairs of the U.S. Rather than point to the [dot]gov site, we let Wikipedia show its stuff with respect to coverage of something. 

Today, on Facebook (which seemed to come from the blog post that references Flickr which shrugs its shoulders (404) - we need a new focus - show provenance, give credit), I saw this chart which shows the conflicts which the U.S. has been involved with. Then, for each, it provides the expected birth year and a range. At the same time, the span of time for serving in the military during the time of each conflict is given. 

The chart only goes to the Vietnam era. There, participants were born from 1914 to 1955. As we saw, there were some WWI, but mostly WWII and Korean veterans were serving in the military. The civilian population had a different mixture. Over a two-century span (remember, the Viet event is the context), the nine conflicts amount to over four conflicts per century which maps to conflict one per generation. 

Let's see, has that carried on or accelerated?  

We will continue to help document details from these past conflicts as we go forward with the several observances that are annual. At the same time, we have to bring in the world view, starting with our British cousins. Four hundred years ago, while our forefathers dabbled in a new environment and survived, that old world shook continually with conflicts, large and small. Some of that tension came over here over the long period.  

Remarks: Modified: 11/12/2022

11/12/2022 --  We will follow one veteran and his spouse as they venture west over the timeframe that included the Civil War and events before and after. That, too, brings in New Spain and New France. 

Two generations

These posts may appear irregularly, for awhile; that is due, mainly, to the large amount of material that needs to be read, digested, correlated, counted (the mind has a metrical basis) and such.

Thomas was an early arriver (1623/24); then, the tree for his direct descendant that I'm working on has several hundred New England families in it that were here before 1650. That means that these families have many generations here, too. Fortunately, a lot of these families have researched their history both here and on the other side of the pond.

For Thomas' past, before his arrival (which we'll get to), I am going to consider that James Savage was the most insightful as his family originates from the area that he proposed for Thomas. In fact, some of the trees associated with the Gardner one that I'm working have a Savage somewhere in the line. We will have posts looking backward, hopefully for Margaret, too.

In total in the above-mentioned tree, there are almost 100 families claiming royal descent (Ole's blog, example), some of these are on the NEHGS list. The interplay of the plebian and the aristocratic will be a story that we will have to feature from time to time. One modern analyst made the claim that a source for recent problems can be attributed to aristocratic notions being maintained in England and being brought over here by some.

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As mentioned before, Thomas, and his life, can be the foundation for very good discussions that may have a lot to add to understanding the current quandary brought on, for the most part, by those considered to be the 'best and brightest' (give us a break).

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Now, to consider this side of paradise, let's go forward from Thomas. Like the Mayflower group, with their list for three generations, we'll start with Thomas' kids and carry this forward a couple of notches as a means to identify gaps.

In the below list, we'll start first with information from Dr Frank's book about spouses and children. There may be pointers to work done already, for some, but only as an example (meaning, of course, to be verified). Also, the pointer may be only to partial information. At some point, the goal is to pull this data together, hopefully with a full tree that includes both genders' offspring. That is, for each generation, fill in the information for all siblings, to the extent possible, of course.

Note: The links for Thomas' grandkids below (bold and larger font) came from the work of Kathleen Hall Boyce who spent 2010 looking at the Gardners.

• Thomas - m. 1st Hannah __ (Mary, Thomas, Eliza, Abigaile, Bethia, Hannah, Jonathan), Elizabeth __ (David, Susannah, Dorcas)
• George - m. 1st Eliza Horne (Hannah, Samuel, Mary, George, Bethiah, Ebenezer, Mehitable, Ruth), 2nd Mrs Ruth Turner, 3rd Mrs Elizabeth Stone
• Richard - m. Sarah Shattuck (Joseph, Richard, Sarah, Deborah, Damorice, James, Miriam, Nathaniel, Hope, Love)
• John -m. Priscilla Grafton (John, Joseph, Priscilla, Benjamin, Rachell, George, Benjamin, Ann, Nathaniel, Mary, Mehitable, Ruth)
• Samuel - m. 1st Mary White (Mary, Eliza, Mary, Margaret, Samuel, George, Jonathan, Hannah, Abel), 2nd Elizabeth Paine -- This is the descendant tree that I'm following. rootsweb.com is interesting. Here is a descendants chart for Samuel and a pedigree chart for Abel, his son. Some pedigree charts are a little more extensive (to be checked edited 04/16/2012).
• Joseph - m. Ann Downing
• Sarah - m. Benjamin Balch (Samuel, Benjamin, John, Joseph, Freeborn, Sarah, Abigail, Ruth, Mary, Jonathan, David)
• Miriam - m. John Hill (Miriam, William Hascall, Susan)
• Seeth -m. 1st Joshua Conant, 2nd John Grafton (Mary, Joseph Hardy, Seeth , Abigail, Jehoadam, Margaret, Nathaniel)

Remarks:

10/25/2020 -- Descendants, finally. We're getting back to work.

11/26/2019 -- At the portal to truth, we are featuring the kids. So, this post will be updated.

12/07/2018 -- Dr. Frank and WikiTree. Using his hand-written notes, we filled in his mother's line this past summer. Too, we are going to focus on filling in the gaps. 

10/25/2018 -- We have a new look: TGSoc.org. And, we are using WikiTree (example of Samuel/Abel) with the goal of getting the first five generations documented. Some of these links may be stale (will be checking). 

02/01/2013 -- Update rootsweb link to Larson tree. 

04/16/2012 -- Changed link, Samuel. When these databases get updated, pointers change. So, we really need to have a query-based approach. In the meantime, go to 'Index' and enter the name. In this case, it was "Gardner, Thomas" which then brings up the right person. The graph is via Pedigree. 

08/29/2011 -- A little more about Miriam.

03/17/2011 -- Another descendants list (Langsdorf, et al) for Sarah.

01/09/2011 -- We'll have posts related to the madness of 1692.

12/20/2010 -- For Ruth, daughter of George, see post on the Hathorne connection.

12/16/2010 -- A descendants chart for Miriam: Susan

11/28/2010 -- The pedigree for Thomas Gardner (Salem) at the Boyce site changed. So, the link has been removed. Since databases at rootsweb are updated regularly, pages can change. Hence, the procedure might be to do an image capture of the tree, or a portion, with a link to the current tree. That, folks, is one maintenance item that will be required for web-based approaches. This is a type of degradation. Another item removed today was a pointer that was to a local file rather than to a web-based file.

11/10/2010 -- Ole Larson is back. His genealogy site.

10/31/2010 -- About cousin calculations.

10/31/2010 -- For RD example, switched from the excellent example of Ole Larson (his blog has disappeared -- evidently he died in August, 2010) to the blog of the Slovak Yankee, for now.

10/29/2010 -- Another thing to look at will be the famous cousin game as it seems to be ubiquitously present; that is, it is found seemingly everywhere that there is a genealogical site. We have already started a list of Thomas' descendants which can be extended as we learn more. Cousins can be extracted from that list. As well, interplays between all of the families brings in another set. So far, I've identified relationships in the tree with 27 of the Presidents of the USA. Then, the list of luminaries is large, many in the arts and sciences. Of course, attainment in some religious sense is represented, too. Then, we have that for which Salem is famous.

Needless to say, and given that Thomas was in Salem early, we'll need to look at the mania of 1692 which, by the way, is apropos to the topic of two generations. We've already shown that [Nathaniel, offspring of] John Hathorne (the main judge) was a descendant of Thomas. And, many of Thomas' descendants have a number of those involved in the Salem area troubles as grands (parents, aunts, and uncles) in their tree.

Modified: 10/25/2020