14 Jul 2024 –
It was in Mar of 2023 that we were going to write of Thomas’ spouse (Margaret, equal partner – 9th) with respect to the 400th of Gloucester, MA. They were looking for stories so as to publish their memorial book. There had been one article on Roger Conant. Most of the others were of centuries since 1623.
A few days later, we started to write of Margaret (Fryer) Gardner – 13th) and started to collect links to major articles/posts that we had written over the years. That search included going to WikiTree (Margaret Friar, WikiTree – 30th Oct 2020). We had been involved with some of the work there, especially after the marriage information had been found (Marriage of Thomas and Margaret 25th Sep 2014).
When we got to WikiTree to look for details, we saw that there had been major changes to Thomas’ Profile. Looking at the Comments, we saw that in Feb of 2023, a researcher had stepped through the images of births (records of Sherborne, Dorset, UK) that were on-line, having been digitized. That was quite a chore and took some time. He ended up finding records for the birth of seven of the children of Thomas and Margaret.
Okay, on reporting this, the WikiTree team kicked in as Thomas has been a controversial subject for some time. The end result was that WikiTree had been changed to have two Profiles: the Thomas who married Margaret (New not old planter – 13th Mar 2023) and had the children (all born in England but Seeth) that are the topic of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc.; the Thomas Gardner who was involved with the efforts of the Dorchester Company about whom we know little. WikiTree determined that these are not the same guy.
We said, after looking at the information, hold on. There were subsequent posts stating our position and its possible support: Old, and new, planter – 15th Mar 2023; Square one? – 19th Mar 2023; In Summary – 25th Apr 2023. This year, we did another summary which will be updated soon: Current status – 9th Feb 2024.
It was then that our research attention turned to the 250th of the U.S. which is coming up in 2026. We had been following the flow of people to the south and west of New England noticing the long reach of the area. Having been in San Francisco in April of 1963, we looked at the 18th Apr 1906 earthquake. Of course, that included some attention being paid to the stablizing the situation as well as to the work required for rebuilding. We had already looked at persons from New England who were in the area. One was Maj. Gen. A.W. Greeley (Two cousins – 18th Jan 2011) about whose Artic exploration we wrote. The Presidio of San Francisco (Jonathan Letterman, MD – 21st Mar 2020) was not damaged and provided temporary housing for the displaced.
Later, we spent some time looking at the Bunker Hill (west) region of Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA). In the 1850s, the area was home to early pioneers. Butterfield provided amenities for his passengers and had stables for horses in the area. The Los Angeles Times was founded in the area. A boom brought interest for several reasons which was acccompanied by the building of remarkable houses and hotesl. When the City Hall was build in 1927, the area abounded with these older dwellings. Sometime in the latter part of the 20th century, areas were raised for the construction of skycrapers. Yet, at the base of these monoliths, the old evidence of life is still there.
Why the interest? New England associations which we will be looking at further.