Help! Several American Founding Fathers are Missing! Help me find them!

Question

The Wikitree Genealogy Guide to American Found Fathers is near completion.  But several of the Fathers are missing profiles from Wikitree.  Become a Patriot for a day and help me create them so I can get them linked to the Guide.  Adopt just one profile and we can get this finished licky spit.

If you can just find one good source, often on Wikipedia and enter just the basic info, that would at least create the profile.  You can add the Special Profile Improvement Projects category for futher profile improvement.  But hey, if you have the time and like the guy, finish him off nicely.

What is left are the guys who left the Continental Convention without signing the Declaration.  There are many interesting and principled stories here.  A great history lesson awaits.

And the other group of guys are no slouches, while not participants in the Continental Congresses they made many significant and unique contributions to our history.  You can't go wrong cozying up to these guys.

The profiles we need are the ones without the links.  Grab one, find his vitals and bring him to life on Wikitree.

Read through these G2G conversations and lets put these guys in their place.  On The Wikitree Genealogy Guide to American Found Fathers .

http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/94314/interested-in-the-american-founding-fathers

http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/114566/special-profile-improvement-project-american-founding-fathers

http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/95481/americas-founding-fathers-profile-improvement-project-common

Comments

Albert Gallatin does have a profile, but it is almost completely blank.  It is Gallatin-34.

I added birth and death info to the profile, as well as a link to Wikipedia.  Will try to add more today from Wikipedia and other sources.

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Cool, thanks.  My 3rd Great grandfather was Albert Gallatin Nelson.  I will have to read more about Albert Gallatin to learn why people were naming their children after him.

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I have a relative sharing the name Albert Gallatin first/middle names too.  It got my interest :)

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I am going to work on James McClurg, a fellow Virginian.

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Hi Henry,  Thanks for the assist!  Let me know when your done.  Much appreciated.

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Perhaps tie this project in with the Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. www.dsdi1776.com. Or the DAR http://www.dar.org/signers-us-constitution.

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Interesting Bob. Probably with this subset of the American Founding Fathers.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Signers_of_the_United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

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And this one.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Signers_of_the_United_States_Constitution

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I added two profiles and edited another, from the list of Delegates who left the Convention without signing.

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Awesome J.!

Thank you very much!  That completed the Delegates who left without signing.

Now we only have 6 left to go in the Other category!

You guys are wonderful!  

Thanks so much for your time and efforts!

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I think I have just completed the project. Let me know if it needs anything else.

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Yahoowee!!!!   We did it, thank you so much J.!!!

Answer 1

Working on Robert Yates [[http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Yates-2279]] and William Pierce [[http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pierce-4978]]. Found information about both. will work on them more later. Will need to input information to start the profile later as well. Having problems opening new tabs in my browser right now.

Comments

Awesome Chris!  Thanks for jumping in!

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Added both. Will continue to work on slowly.

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Thank you kind Sir! You efforts are much appreciated.

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William Pierce might be a relative of mine. I have the Pierce family in my line through the Keener side. Just click on the link in my bio and look at his family tree.

Answer 2

This is an exciting project.  I adopted John Matthews.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention

 

Vicki

Comments

Yay Vicki! You Rock!  Please add these to his profile. and let me know when you are done.

[[Category: American Founding Fathers]]

{{1776}} (for non veterans)

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I have added these categories, but I am looking for the US Poitician Template - can you send me the link?

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http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:US_Politician

Answer 3

I can work on General Israel Putnam.  I recently joined the DAR chapter named after him so it will be interesting to do that

Comments

Cool Beans!  Thanks so much!

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Linda, it looks like the General is already on Wikitree.  Putnam-40

Answer 4

I've adopted William Houstoun (1755-1813) http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Houstoun-4, a delegate representing the Georgia Colony. His surname was also sometimes spelled Houston, but he shouldn't be confused with William Houston (1746-1788), a delegate who represented the New Jersey Colony.

I've found more information that I'll be adding to this profile shortly.

Comments

William Houstoun.  Yeah, pay close attention to the spelling of that last name.  It is correct.  As you saw, right next to him was William Houston.  No relation.  How interesting is that!  Thanks Patrick.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Answer 5

I have done a brief profile of James McClurg, who attended the Constitutional Convention, but did not sign.

Comments

Thanks Henry! Do me a favor and post his Wiki-ID here.  It will help when I come back to check on everyone.  Thanks again.

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McClurg-129

Answer 6

Whew Doggies!  We had a great day today.  We Found and attached over half our missing Founding Fathers Today! 

We only have 14 left to Find!  Now only 6!

A huge thank you to:

S Willson, Henry Chadwick, Chris Keener, Vicki Norman, Linda Spong, Patrick Barnum and Carol Partidge.

They all jumped in and created a profile and/or updated information.

Be sure to check out our Wikitree Genealogy Guide American Founding Fathers.  Many of these still need profile improvements so hop on over and polish a profile.

Thanks again everyone!

Comments

James Iredell appears to already be in WT as Iredell-6.

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Thanks Sharon!

Boy, he needs a good cleaning!

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ONLY SIX LEFT TO FIND!

Answer 7

Fixed up Thomas Heyward Jr. too

Answer 8

I've just created a profile for John Francis Mercer (Mercer-1214), one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress who also attended the Constitutional Convention as part of Maryland's delegation. The profile includes a full biography, sources and photos.

Comments

Awesome Patrick!  Thank you very much.

Answer 9

OK - worked on Richard Bassett.  

Maybe we should have a list of these men and who is assigned/volunteered tow work on them.  Otherwise, we have to check each one.

Regards,

Vicki

Comments

Hi Vicki,

You have been improving the profiles of existing AFF.  This is absolutely wonderful, thank you!

Keep in mind, that what I have been working on is creating profiles of those AFF that do not yet exist in Wikitree.  I have 11 left to create.  They are the ones without the links on the AFF Free-Style page, the Wikitree Genealogy Guide American Founding Fathers.

However!  

Here are all the existing profiles that need improvement.  Anne B set this up for me under the Profile Improvement Project.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Special_Improvement_Projects

Answer 10

I've created a profile for General Tadeusz Kościuszko (Kościuszko-1), Polish hero of the American Revolution and friend of Thomas Jefferson.

Comments

But can you pronouce his name?  Thanks Patrick!

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"Koshushko"

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I live in Kosciusko which is named after him. We say it kosy-s-ko. Not sure that would be the was it was originally but there ya go! I believe there are two towns named after him but he is a big deal in our town. Portraits of him can be found here.

Also, just of note my cousins back a few generations was Wm Dodd who was the 1st Rep for our county in the MS Legislature suggested the name because his father fought with Kosciuzko and greatly admired him.

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I learned the prononciation when I visited the Thaddeus Kosciuzko National Memorial in Philadelphia, PA.  Did you know that he is also a hero of the Polish revolt against the Russians not long after our Revolutionary War?  He is widely remembered in Poland as a national hero. He is man well worth remembering, a hero not only of two nations but as a fighter for freedom!

Answer 11

I've added a profile for Jean-Baptiste Donatien Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, a French military officer who led several thousand French volunteers under George Washington during the American Revolution. Principally remembered for his service at the siege of Yorktown and the capture of General Charles Cornwallis.

Comments

Thank you Patrick.  Can you send me the Wiki-ID?  Greatly appreciated!

Wait...I got it off your activity feed.

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I see Matt had created a base profile as well and you set up a merge.  I am going to link to Vimeur-1 and let the Merge bring in the connection to the detailed profile you created.  Lets make sure we merge Vimeur-2 into Vimeur-1.  

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And you got all the category links right!  Thank you!

Answer 12

I've fleshed out the placeholder profile for General Anthony "Mad Anthony" Wayne (Wayne-27).

Comments

Much apreciated, thank you Patrick.

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Patrick, the bio is well fleshed out and well sourced.  It looks the family is connected as well.  It looks good, thank you.  I am going to remove the Special Improvements Project category as it is now very well done.

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Being a relatively new WikiTree genealogist, I just now saw this. You may be interested in this bit about a town named for the General by John Wallace, a Scotsman, who served under him : "In 1797, John decided to lay out a town and placed 90 lots on the market. He named the town Waynesburg, after General Anthony Wayne, his commanding officer in the war. There were several other communities in the state with similar names and in 1831, when the federal government ruled that the names of post offices in any one state could not be duplicated, our town was re-chartered and took for its corporate title the name of Waynesboro". [http://www.waynesboropa.org/history/]

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Thanks Loretta!  I added your note to his profile in the comments section.  Glad you found us.

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My pleasure! Waynesboro is actually my Mom's home time, and I enjoyed many trips there while growing up to see my Aunt Thelma. Now I live just 12 miles from there.

Answer 13

Celebration Time!!

Milestone Achieved: The Wikitree Genealogy Guide American Founding Fathers is fully linked!!!

Thank you to everyone who jumped in and created the remaining profiles.  I have them all linked now.  J. Salsbery tackled the remaining half dozen. (Thank you!).

Wow that was fun and very rewarding to see so many folks coming together to help find, create and link the many American Founding Fathers to the Wikitree Genealogy Guide.  

Please be sure to thank Ed Burke for starting this project.  It has been my honor to work on it these past many months. Ed is responsible for the Wikitree Genealogy Guides.  Yes there are others waiting for you to discover!

Celebrate!! Take a victory lap.  Prop your feet up and crack open your favorite beverage and share a toast.  To team work and the Wikitree Community.

Ahh....

Now back to work!  As fun as that was, we still have some work to do.  I will now go and Project Protect these profiles so we can be sure any new info gets merged into these profiles properly.  We did a lot to create them now we need to breath a rich life into them so the Guide can be useful to its fullest.

Those profiles that are not connected to the tree or only have a bare minium of information now need to be developed futher.  It will take time to be sure, but perseverance is the key to success.

Many of the profiles are very well done and well connected (Thank you!), now we need to work on the others.  Fortunately Anne B. has created the Special Profile Improvement Projects, specifically for these profiles.  We can go there, pick a profile and restore some glory to these Men (and a few Women!).

Finally, several of you have remarked that learning about them was very rewarding.  I would love to hear what you learned and enjoyed.  Please post a short message on what awaits for those who answer the call to learn more about our American Founding Fathers.

It is a good way to end the day.

Thank you all!