Can you help connect an explorer?

Question

For this connection challenge, I have chosen explorers. (This will probably end up being "Part One" of a series of explorer challenges, because it's such a big list. Despite people saying, "It's a small worId", walking through all of it takes a while. Kind of like building a world family tree, come to think of it. If you want to add more explorers to a later challenge, please send me a private message with that explorer's WikiTree ID. [And, if they don't have a WikiTree profile yet, please feel free to make one. The hardest part of drawing up this challenge was finding 14 explorers who have WikiTree profiles, but aren't connected to the main tree yet. I already have a list of 18 others who have WikiTree profiles, and are connected, but don't have a full set of great-grandparents listed, so there will probably be several "Quest for Great-Grandparents: Explorer Edition" challenges at some point.])  

The goal is to connect each of the people listed below to the main tree:

• Willem Barentsz (Netherlands)
• Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra (Peru)
• Jacques Cartier (Brittany)
• Samuel de Champlain (France)
• James Cook (England) - connected!
• Robert Jacob Gordon (Netherlands) - connected!
• Matthew Henson (United States of America)
• Robert La Salle (France)
• Henry Larsen (Norway) - connected! by S Stevenson
• Ferdinand Magellan (Portugal)
• Jacob Roggeveen (Netherlands)
• Henry Morton Stanley (Wales)
• Abel Tasman (Netherlands)
• George Vancouver (England) - connected! by S Stevenson

Comments

If you haven't worked on connecting before, there are some Hints and Tips on the Connectors Chat page.

If you can add sources, photos, or biographies, build out the family trees, or improve these profiles in any other ways, so much the better!

P.S. I'm not a WikiTree Leader, and have no authority to assign points, credit, or anything like that. My intent with these challenges is for them to be a fun little break from whatever you're doing regularly. There's no time limit, there are no prizes, and if you have fun finding and adding relatives, then you win. (And WikiTree wins in any case, because the more connected profiles we have, the better the tree is for everybody.)

That said, if you manage to connect any of the profiles listed here to the main tree, there's no reason that you can't count that connection towards the Connectors Challenge, if you're taking part in that. (Or, you could count it towards the Sourcerers Challenge if you run across an unsourced profile which is already on WikiTree and add one or more sources to it.)

P.P.S. If this challenge intrigues you, and you think you might like to try your hand at connecting other unconnected branches, you can find more threads like this on the Places to find unconnected profiles page. (Or, if you want the Reader's Digest version, check out the State of the "can you help connect" address thread.)

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This challenge is currently in 14th place at 21.4% complete. The next challenge to catch is Can you help connect a head of state? (Indonesia to Pakistan) at 25% complete. In terms of people still to connect, this challenge is tied for 15th place at 11. The next challenge to catch is Can you help connect a medical hero? at 10.

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Robert Cavelier de La Salle looks like mission impossible, no known spouse, his brother Jean was a priest, parents are there but going further up the line on them appears problematic, unless France project wants to create additional brother who did marry :   https://www.fichierorigine.com/recherche?numero=240752 Fichier origine for him has data on said other brother.

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Yes, this is going to be a pretty hard bunch to connect, since so many of them were born so long ago. I mostly went for the big names, who were very early, so people are going to need a pre-1700, or even pre-1500, badge to work on some of them.

For Canadians, Henry Larsen is probably going to be the easiest to connect.

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lol, born in Norway, better ask the Norway folks for their input on him.  

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Yep... I looked at that list and ran away. I have the required certifications but much prefer to work on 19th century profiles.

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Yes, Danielle, I would love for the Norwegians to take part, but I'm thinking that, since he got married and died in B.C., it might be possible to connect him through his children (if they had any).

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Me, too, Isabelle. I consider the time between 1837, when the British government first started keeping BMD records, until the records disappear under a privacy lock, to be the "golden age of genealogy". As more and more jurisdictions started keeping BMD records and taking censuses (censi?), it gets much easier to source people. Unfortunately, those pesky explorers refused to wait until they got sourced before heading off to find places. Impatient bunch.

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I have added Canadian relatives to Larsen, maybe a Canadian/British WikiTreer can find a connection.

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This challenge is now tied in 11th place with Can you help connect a medical hero? in terms of percent complete. They are also tied for 14th place in terms of people still to connect, at 10.

Answer 1

James Cook appears to already be connected through his sister.

Comments

Sorry about that. But I will have more explorers to connect later. (It's not like there was a shortage of place to explore... )

Answer 2

Vancouver will show as connected tomorrow, via brother's wife

Comments

I don't think I've ever managed to connect somebody in only 8 hours. I am so impressed!

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The book on British Columbia Coast names was a fascinating read (online at UBC), linked to mother’s, brother, and sister-in-law profiles. was interesting how a book on coast (bays and inlets) names helped piece together a family tree.  the book takes a bit to load and you may need to refresh your browser during the process.

thank-you for sending me on that adventure!

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I visited the John Rylands Library in Manchester some years back, and while I was waiting to see what I had gone there to see (a papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, which is the oldest known New Testament manuscript), I spotted the full set of Vancouver's account of his explorations. Instant, hopeless, desire to own it. Oh, yes.

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Supposedly, Vancouver's mother is descended from Richard Grenville. I find it really frustrating when authors of encyclopedia articles make claims like that, but don't trace out the lineage, still less provide any sources. From what I've been able to find so far, it doesn't look like it's true.

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daughter of https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Grenville-178

marries https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Berners-51

per https://www.geni.com/people/Bridget-Berners/6000000051436554875

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Okay, after some hunting, I finally turned up a marriage for a Hatton Berners, then aged about 24, to a Bridget Leach, then aged about 20, on 4 June 1672: https://archive.org/details/allegationsforma2324ches/page/n217/mode/2up

That would make Hatton's birth about 1648 and Bridget's birth about 1652. That's not impossible. It would make Bridget (Leach) Berners about 34 when William Berners was born in 1686, and Hatton about 65 when he died. Although this Hatton's place of residence in St Dunstan-in-the-West and this Bridget's place of residence in St Martin in the Fields are both pretty far from where their respective families were supposed to be living about that time.

Still, Bridget (Grenville) Leach did marry Sir Thomas Higgons after Simon Leach died. 

Ah. Thomas Higgons lived in Greywell, Hampshire, which might be the "Gruell, South^ton" listed as the place of marriage, so maybe this is them.

Still, I'd like a little bit more than one record (and secondhand at that) to go on. Unfortunately, FreeREG doesn't have any of the records necessary to make the link (baptism, marriage, or burial). But maybe some of the pay sites do.

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I set up profile for Bridget Leach

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Leach-6500

with just once source.

I pass the profiles over to you.

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I connected Bridget Leach to Hatton Berners, so now George Vancouver is connected two different ways. (Actually three, because I created a profile for Thomas Higgons and connected him to both of his wives.)

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Oh, hey! And now I show as being 22 degrees from George Vancouver.

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I also got him connected via the Napier family https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Napier-2574 and the Clifford family https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clifford-4348.  So he is well connected.  and we picked up an unconnected unlinked notable as well  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Leach-6356

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Better and better! I much prefer multiple connections to the main tree than a single, tenuous thread. Vancouver is also supposed to be connected to a titled Dutch family, but we don't see that yet.

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you may enjoy this, about his Dutch side  https://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_coevorden.htm

this tree is missing a generation https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/stamboom-baris/I70501.php

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Well, that was disappointing. Since the Wikipedia article on George Vancouver quotes a source saying,

As the name Vancouver suggests, the Vancouvers were of Dutch origin. They were descended from the titled van Coeverden family, one of the oldest in the Netherlands.

I has assumed that the hard part would be sourcing his family back in English records to the point where they emigrated from the Netherlands, and then it would just be a matter of connecting his emigrant grandfather to the right van Coeverden on the Dutch side, and the job would be done. It turns out that there are no van Couverdens on WikiTree, 14 van Coeverdens (all of whom are too late), and 12 van Coevordens. So the Dutch side has a lot of work to do. (The members of the Dutch Roots Project who have been working so hard on the Dutch Quest for Great-grandparents challenges over the past few months assure me that Dutch records go back to 1575, so I'm sure they'll be able to make the necessary connections. But it turns out that is work still to do, rather than work already done.)

Answer 3

I added baptism with source to Robert Gordon and added his siblings as far as I could find (of Robert), born in The Netherlands.

The family or at least the siblings of Robert resided later in Harderwijk I saw. Became member of the church there. Also Menso, one of the children born in (Ieper??) Flanders, Belgium. I think I saw his brother Adam Bernard Smits married in Harderwijk too. He might be the one who gets his brother Robert connected to the tree.

Calling it a night.

Comments

I've been very interested to see how much migration there has been back and forth between the Netherlands, England, and Scotland. John Smyth moved to Amsterdam to escape persecution in England, and ended up starting the first Baptist church there. I also seem to recall that at least one Prime Minister of the Netherlands was of Scottish descent.

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Many Scottish did a lot for The Netherlands, apart from what side you were. Sourcing profiles across The Netherlands showing many Scottish soldiers. But I think, many lived/stayed around Utrecht, but not knowing.

Many Dutch have Schottish roots because of that of course.

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I searched for a John Smyth or someone with this name but different spelling at the Archive of Amsterdam as it is said he passed away in 1612.

The only one I found close to that name at burials between 1611 and 1613 was a Jan Smidt. Begraafplaats; Nieuwe Kerk of Engelse Kerk.

Used at search bar J*n S*.

* are used as wildcards. So John fits in too. And anyone with a last name starting with S. Nothing else close, came up.

What bothers me is I am not able to find this Jan in the original list added there and/or read things there.

Posted my founds in comments at the profile. Obvious it does not fit the John Smyth.Was he (kind of) "doopsgezind"?

Maybe Jan Terink can find more as he is very good at searching in Amsterdam.

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Yes. According to Wikipedia:

Before his death, Smyth regretted the fact that he baptized himself, and wrote a letter of apology. Due to some shared views, including the Christology, he began a rapprochement with the Mennonite church. This resulted in his excommunication from the church by Thomas Helwys. Smyth and part of the church joined a Mennonite church, while Helwys and another part of the church returned to England to form the first permanent Baptist church in 1611.

Answer 4

After adding many family members to WT of Robbert Jacob Gordon, our good ol'connector B.W.J.Molier saw a connection through the husband of the daughter of Robbert Jacob's brother Otto.

Connection is made!  We will see it soon I hope.

Thank you Greg, it was such a wonderful journey through that family but far from finnished. I will work a little longer on that special family.

For those interested in Robbert Jacob, there was an exhibition in 2018 held in Amsterdam and a website esthablished with all work (writings and drawings) of Robbert in cooperation with the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg and the Nationaal Archief in the Hague.

There is also a website launched about the Gordons in 2018 by HetHuisDoesburg.

Happy Treeing all!

Answer 5

I'm sorry, but Jacques Cartier's connection is spurious. It goes through Mathurin Guyon, who is presented as his wife's nephew, but it fact Mathurin Guyon's parents are unknown and he was certainly not related to Mrs Cartier (and not "Karter"... Breton was not spoken in Saint-Malo during Cartier's lifetime!). 

I can't find out when these connection was done, but it should be removed.

Comments

I can't help there. I never did get the pre-1500 badge.

Answer 6

Larsen will show as connected via spouse’s uncle Harry’s spouse

Comments

Excellent! I did find a Norwegian article with the dates for his parents, so I've added them. I also asked for help from the Norwegians.