Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Started by Private User on Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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Sorry Anita, maybe you're name never made the list? I just put you on.

I went to rename the others and didn't refresh, so didn't see your messages before my last post. I found some references too, so left it that way. Interesting. Just saw your signature post. Nice. Long signature :)

I'll look at the non R-Z then. I wanted to get the wiki updated and rename the people that we did have. I'm still working on the Mayflower passengers, but beating my head against the wall from the lack of ability to do anything.

Cool Brendan. I have a list of profiles that need a LOT of work...multiple entries, differing info. I will get a good list of the problems together and get it on the Wiki (I like what is on the Alden/Mullens Wiki page...they listed out issues to be resolved), then start working on those. If you find any to add, message me and I will add them to my list and then work on cleaning up those messes.

Where are we at on the Benjamin Harrison mess? I haven't looked at it lately, sorry.

Heading to bed...be back tomorrow night! Have fun!!!!

Brendan - BTW - can you update my name name with my wiki name? My wiki name is

answerstoeh

I love to see you and Anita run with this!

Did you notice that most of the profiles are just C&P from Wikipedia? Surely we can do better than that.

Meg Verner is a curator and has joined the project from her laptop on the road for work. She is wonderful and has been a geni-vet a long time. So she'll just "swap curator" for anything she wants to work on herself.

I did notice the Wikipedia copying. I think the www.ushistory.org and www.colonialhall.com sites both have the same basic info (at least on the one's I have seen), but no references and usually not as well written. The US congress site has GREAT info, but crappy writing skills, and again no references/sources other than the general info the site mentions as used for all. At least Wikipedia has some sources referenced.

It would be great if we could find one main central source for biographies. I really haven't been looking for bio info, more so for names and dates to confirm I had good profiles.

Brendon...what did you do on the Presidents...use a particular site, or just whatever you could find?

That's it...I am DONE for the night...Erica...go to bed!!!

Erica, do you want both names on the wiki, or just answerstoeh? Your name is all over the project, profiles and discussions, so removing it from the wiki isn't going to hide you.

Anita, you stayed up another 40 minutes? I reached my limit at 12:35am. Hope you're not on the East coast.

On the Presidents, others like Gene, Daniel, Robert and Kim did most of the profile work and I just did the wiki.

With all of these projects, I think we should continue to concentrate on cleaning up the tree by merging duplicates and fixing mistakes. You used to get tons of hits off of a search of any of these people. Now, you generally get one, which is great. Once the tree is clean, we should clean up the about me sections and the rest of the profile.

Brendan...Ohio. Hit the sack at 1:30, back up at 8:30.

Agreed on the trees first...am bookmarking web pages as I find good sources for bios.

Off to the jousting!

Agree on the work flow:

1. locate profile, make MP, load to Project, merge dups, fix errors
2. clean families (that's where I get caught and end up concentrating)
3. build quality MPs

For a division of labor I suggest I stick with the merge dups / clean families aspect while you guys move on to building out the MPs and fixing the relationship errors.

Brendan, I just need the WIki name for the Wiki. You need to be a geni member to really see anything about me. The Wiki is for anyone and by using the wiki name, I reduce SPAM from email harvesters.

I'm going to put up a suggested "about me" template on the Project page.

Great news that the "merging the dups" is helping search. I also think designation MPs makes it so much easier for Geni members.

Hi!!

Brendan...how far did you get on the R-Z profiles? I can work on them this afternoon.

Jousting is BOOOOOORRRRRRING, but the sword play and the mud pit were fun...and funny. Maybe it is the geni thing, but as I walked around with 100s of peeps in Old England costumes, I couldn't help but think of my 23rd great grandparents dressing like that!!! Kinda cool!

Stopped at the library...got "Genealogy Online for Dummies", "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick, and a "Colonial America Almanac" which is a time line type history of North America....will start gathering interesting tidbits for profiles. Dummies is from 2004...must have 1000 web addresses in it. Let me know if you are looking for something special...

Colonial America Almanac sounds fantastic!

Have I mentioned that I want to get into Signers of the Watauga Compact and the creation of the state of Franklin? (Did anyone know we had had a state named Franklin?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_franklin

This is actually my direct ancestors stomping grounds. If I got it right, swindled some Cherokee, tried to start their own country?

Erica, all the wiki has is a link to your Geni profile. It doesn't have your email address. I can remove it though. Since we have a project, none of us have to be listed on the wiki. Maybe I should just remove all names.

Anita, sounds like a crazy (and fun) morning. I haven't done anything else on the signers. I'm still in Mayflower land.

Ok...I will finish up the Signers R-Z, then work on the one's that I didn't find on the first search.

Does our name on the wiki give us any privileges on the wiki we would lose if you took our names off? If not, I say dump them.

Doesn't do anything. We listed them before Projects was created so people would know who is on the project. I removed the section on both wiki's.

I think there's a way to link the wiki name to the geni ID thru a tag in double brackets. That is useful for geni members who also use the Wiki. I just prefer an alias on the Wiki to avoid the email SPAM harvesters.

That's what was on there. Just a link to your Geni id. There was no email at all. It was the same link as all the profiles we are linking to. I don't let my email address out there either. Either way, we don't need to put project members there anymore, so they've been removed.

Bjorn helped me fix this profile:

Matthew Thornton, signer of the "Declaration of Independence"

And it's been added to the Project. Meg Verner will curate it and the family.

OK, gimme more to add to Project!

Here is a letter that was from my Great Aunt Pearl to another lady on a Rutledge web site..I did put parts of this on the profiles of Thomas Rutledge and Jackson Rutledge..
From Pearl Rutledge (Mrs. V.H. Rutledge, 946 17th Ave., Longview, WA
98632) in a letter dated 2/28/1979:
"I have a letter written to a Mrs. Hyde by Wiley Blount Rutledge. Chief
Justice Wiley was the g.son of this Thomas Rutledge. This Thomas was the
son of Jackson Rutledge, who was the son of Edward the signer. (I just
rec'd inf. the other day that this was the Jackson that they said had
died young, but was not true. He lived to be quite old and had a son
Dwight that died in the past year or two in PA that was a half bro of
Wiley Blount Jr. So looks as though he married twice. I have other
records showing that Edward the Signer had 3 children, I always thought
he just had 1."

[Note: The previous sentence is rather confusing...I believe Pearl took
a "mental shortcut" and went from talking about Jackson Rutledge to Wiley
Blount Rutledge Sr. in the same sentence.]

Pearl says in a letter dated 4/1/1979...
Mrs. Dwight Rutledge told me that they made a trip to Pikeville, TN,
where Dwight's father was born, but could not find where this Thomas -
his grandfather - was buried, nor even when he died for sure. She was
about my last hope to find out the name of the woman who married Thomas
Rutledge first - ___ Wilson. She said that Dwight did not know the name
either. She gave me the name of a lady in Fla. working on the Rutledges,
but didn't think she could help.

From Bill Gdisler to Pam Smith 1997:

I believe that the information on Thomas Rutledge is totally correct. My
problem is trying to figure out who was his father. As I understood it
Pearl Rutledge had a theory that his father was the son of Edward
Rutledge. This son was reported in some letter to have died young.
According to Pearl, (as given to me by William Rutledge of OK) this was a
cover story to protect the child as his father was a prisoner of the
British during the Revolustionary War and that this child (Jackson
Middleton Rutledge) later married and was the father of Thomas
Rutledge....
....
I have had a copy of the narrative of Stephen Wilson Rutledge for many
years. It was typed by my aunt Ruth, who I beileve is the cousin referred
to in the publication. She was a cousin to Virgil and Jerome moved his
family to Arkansas about that time, so it all seems to fit. The
information in Stephen's narrative seems to be 100% correct. I've found
rosters of his unit which list him and a number of the people that he
refers to and have confirmed the movements of his unit to be exactly as
he describes them. He was a private in the 32nd Tenn Inf. and the book
Tennesseans In the Civil War verifies everything that he said about their
movements....
......it goes on . . ."I am not absolutely positive of the date of my
grandfather's birth. Although from such information that I have, that I
was able to secure from my father before his death, he Thomas Rutledge
was born in about 1804 in Hawkins Co., TN. The date could not be far
wrong, as my grandfather died during the Civil War at about 60 years of
age. From a list given to me by my father in 1938, Thomas Rutledge's
first wife was a Wilson, given name not remembered. Their children were:
James, Thomas, Stephen, Joseph, Cornelius, John, Mary, Nancy Jane and
Sarah Ann. Father knew nothing further about James and Thomas. Stephen,
Joseph and John located in Texas Co., MO. Cornelius located in Columbus,
OH. My father visited Cornelius there when he was a student at Southern
Baptist Sem. in Louisville, KY. . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
In Hawkins Co., TN on the 1830 census, Thomas was living next to Sarah
Rutledge, age 50-60. The third house away from Sarah was Stephen Wilson
age 40-50. In 1840 Hawkins Co., TN, Thomas was living next door to John
Wilson, age 30-40. Several houses away were Stephen Wilson, age 60-70,
then Stephen T. Wilson, age 20-30. I believe these were Thomas'
father-in-law and brothers-in-law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel D. Clemons wrote:

"From the book written by J. C. Harris, Jr, "The South Carolina Rutledge
Family - Their Kith and Kin

Jackson Rutledge, b S.C. 1777, m Sarah Lucy Singleton. They settled in TN
in land that was partly in Franklin Co. and partly in Coffey Co.
Their children were:Emanuel Rutledge, Lorenzo Dow Rutledge, Lucy Rutledge
and Thomas F. Rutledge.
Thomas F. was b in 1803 and was married three times, m/1 a Miss Wilson,
m/2
Jane ----, m/3/Jane Hall Pope. Emanuel lived in Hawkins Co.,
Thomas F. Rutledge, b 1803 in VA but as a baby traveled with his parents
to Franklin Co., TN where they established their home. Children by his
first wife, the former Miss Wilson:
1Nancy Jane, b 1831, m a Mr. Miller, their home was in MO
2Stephen W. b 1833, m Mary Massey
3 Sarah Ann b 1835
4 Joseph B. b 1838, made home in Texas Co., MO.
5 Mary b 1840, home in Missouri
6 Cornelius b 1842, home in Columbus, OH
7 Catherine b 1844
It goes on to name 2 children by 2nd wife and 8 by 3rd wife.
He follows Stephen W. Rutledge's line and Lorenzo Dow Rutledge's line.
Several pages."

[Kathye's note: I don't believe Thomas had more than 2 wives. All the
census records from 1850-1880 show the same Jane, age consistent,
birthplace the same. The 1840 census shows a different age for Thomas'
wife than Jane would have been, but the same age range as the first wife,
shown on the 1830 census. It is possible that he was married twice
before he married Jane Hall Pope, but the second marriage would have to
have been between Cornelius and Catherine for his second wife to have had
two children...unless he married Jane #2 immediately after Jane #1 died,
and then Jane #2 got pregnant immediately after the wedding. Harriet and
Emilie are too close together in age to be from two different mothers.]

Lynette Dawn (Rutledge) Lynch

That document is fascinating, particularly since I have Hawkins County TN ancestry. I have to see if I have Wilsons in my tree and you should do a "path between" us.

I think my major family for Hawkins County are the Hankins, but I'll post more back on that when I look at my tree and their associated families.

I found that looking at the census reports gives you the neighbors, and the neighbors gives you the marriages.

What's your particular area of mystery focus?

Great work, keep it up.

I changed the display name on some of those profiles, but don't have rights to the others. Most still need MP and all need to be added to the Project. Then, I'll rename and add to the wiki.

When we are ready, here is a link to a page of nice short encapsulated histories of the signers AFTER the constitution...might be nice for our master "about me" setup...

http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?section=declaration&page=abou...

All the signers listed have been added to project except Gen. Whipple, a work in progress!

Is there anyone missing?

Great find Anita!

Oops - similar bug in the system for James Smith, signer of the "Declaration of Independence" as for Gen Whipple.

Can someone see if there's another James Smith, or find his family to connect him with? (Wife or father / mother).

Many thanks. We made a lot of progress, many thanks to the team.

There are a TON of other James Smiths...I will do that one.

Did you get George Taylor worked out then?

I will work on Whipple...guess I missed that we needed a common ancestor on that one...

The wiki has been updated
http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Signers_of_the_Declaration_of_Indepe...

I'm off to London for work for the week and will be mostly unavailable until Friday. Have a great week everyone!

Thank you so much for your efforts this week Brendan. We've gotten a lot done (even if it doesn't always feel like it:)). More importantly, I feel organized and under control instead of frazzled and over my head, and that's due to you, dude. Thank you.

Yup, we overcame the tech snafus for George Taylor.

Anita, we're almost there! This is so cool.

London??? Enjoy!!! And ditto Erica...thanks so much!!!!

Thanks Erica and Anita. It's been a great team effort! I'll have a lot to catch up on when I get back.

Anita, I work for RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), so going to meet up with coworkers. I was just there a month ago too and may be going mid November. At least it's business class, so I'll be sleeping laying down on the flight later. :)

Not getting very far on James Smith. I sent his 4th great grandaughter an email to start discussions...didn't ask for a public profile yet....

Found some reference to a descendant online, but not sure what the footnote is referencing...this might take some time!

Anita the detective! LOL.

So -- grab a Signer and start documenting! I'm putting in a suggested template to use for the "overview" tab on the Project page. Check on it in a couple of hours for the guidelines.

Showing 121-150 of 213 posts

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