Help us find and improve next week's Connection Finder profiles: US Senators [closed]

Question

To commemorate the recent death of US politician and World War II veteran, Bob Dole, we're featuring him in the Connection Finder next week.

We're looking for other notable US Senators to feature with him.

Here's who we're getting started on:

• Hiram R. Revels (needs connected)
• Rand Paul
• Rebecca Latimer Felton

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature everyone mentioned (we only have room for eleven per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

To help us plan future themes, see the 2022 Example Profile Plans post here.

Comments

I understand the honouring of Bob Dole - but is there a reason it has to be just US senators?  Other countries also have Senates (or Upper Houses), and Senators (Canada, Philippines, India, Belgium, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia).

I think it would be terrific to include folk such as Enrique Fernández "el Senador" de Castilla - who is Connected, but needs a bio and a profile image.

Sadly, the mother of the Roman emperor Elagabalus - Julia Soaemias Bassiana (180 – 11 March 222) - doesn't have a profile.

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Who was Bob Dole was my first question when  heard on Wikitree that he died, not a big news item where I live.

and err the term American centric pops up again in my mind. If you are really trying to get rid of that tag please accept Melanie's proposal.

so we have Florence Isabel (Gilmour) Bjelke-Petersen (1920-2017) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree from Australia from Queensland

and see Andrew Archibald Macdonald PC (1829-1912) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree hes from Canada

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Melanie, as I noted below, even among U.S. Senators there are many with international origins.

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I thank you for that thought, but they were still Senators in the US, even if born elsewhere.  My suggestion was to also include those who were Senators elsewhere.

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I grew up in Bob Dole's hometown and I can help on some of those references and resources.

Answer 1

It might be good to get a Kennedy in there. Teddy is an obvious choice, because of his time in the senate and his notable liberal orientation, but JFK was a senator as well.

Comments

So was Robert.  Not to mention an incumbent from Louisiana, John Kennedy.

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John Kennedy from LA is not the same Kennedy family, though.

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I think for US Senator, Ted is the best choice. As  the "liberal lion" of the Senate he deserves the honor. JFK already has a profile as US president. RFK's time was much shorter (& he was a far less effective senator.)

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Nice to know there is more than one Kennedy family in the United States, D.  Wouldn't want to be too Northeast-centric. 

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Thanks, everyone!

Answer 2

From Louisiana  - Huey Pierce "The Kingfish" Long, Jr.

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Long-8298

Comments

Thanks, Tommy.

Answer 3

Arthur I Boreman of West Virginia was Senator during a very interesting time in the state's history.  Connected, has photograph.

Nathan Goff Jr, also of West Virginia, was a Major in the Union Army and was held prisoner at the notorious Libby Prison.  More of his bio was published here.  He is connected and has a photograph.

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Edit to add:

Benjamin Gratz Brown (1826-1885) was a Senator from Kentucky and is the grandfather of Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon.  Connected, has photo and bio.

Answer 4

All of my suggestions need connecting, which I'm happy to work on this week, but from my state there's Warren Magnuson, our longest-serving Senator, who also served in WWII, in addition to being responsible for several important pieces of legislation, including the official repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, & fishery protection work, which is very important to our state.

Since we're including living people, there's always Bernie Sanders. Regardless of how anyone feels about his politics, I don't think anyone can deny his prominence in the present day.

Tammy Baldwin is the first openly LGBT+ member of the US Senate.

Comments

Happy to now be able to say that Warren G. Magnuson has been connected! Unfortunately, the connection is only spousal, as his birth record is sealed, such that we do not know who his birth parents were (he was adopted into the Magnuson family).

I will begin working on a biography for Magnuson now, & when I'm done, I'll begin looking into how to connect Sanders & Baldwin.

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Thanks,Thomas!

Answer 5

Not so sure about Rebecca Latimer Felton:

"Felton, like many white southerners at the time, promulgated the unfounded, virulent, and racist belief that black men were more likely to commit sexual violence against white women. Making baseless assertions, she blamed the use of alcohol to purchase the votes of Black men for what she said was an increase in threats to white women. Her views drew national attention when she said in an 1897 address that “if it takes lynching to protect women’s dearest possession from drunken, ravening human beasts, then I say lynch a thousand a week.”^4"

Comments

Not ideal!

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I agree!

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Thanks, C. She was just one that popped up as the first woman in the Senate, but she definitely wasn't the most savory character.

Answer 6

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) - an anti-slavery Republican caned on the floor of United States Senate by Preston Brooks.

Comments

Thanks, Roger.

Answer 7

Apparently there have been 73 U.S. Senators born outside the U.S.  Maybe some people would like to develop their profiles.

Comments

see Edward Dickinson Baker (1811-1861) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see James Burnie Beck (1822-1890) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

i am working my way from A to z

see Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Judah Philip Benjamin QC (1811-1884) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Charles Dominique Joseph Bouligny (1773-1833) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Pierce Butler (abt.1744-abt.1822) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree err i do not like him

see George Washington Campbell (1769-1848) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Eugene Casserly (1820-1883) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see John Conness (1821-1909) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Jean Noël Destréhan (1759-1823) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see James Graham Fair (1831-1894) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Francis Robert Gooding (1859-1928) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (1906-1992) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

see John Percival Jones (1829-1912) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

so far I have only added those that are already connected and now i will have a break

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Thanks, Will!

And please keep it up.  This is great!

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i am getting tired

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Thank you for what you've done so far. 

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So, a number of these "born abroad" people were either born somewhere that is now part of the US (Louisiana) or happened to be born abroad to American parents. 

Hayakawa is good - if someone could expand his profile a bit, it would be great.

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i found the names of his parents from family search records and they were born in Japan, but that is all for now, he does have a wikipedia entry.

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I remember Hayakawa!  He was the controversial President of San Francisco State College (as it was called then) in 1968, a year of protest.  (I was quite young; my first time at college.)

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S.I. Hayakawa is easy to explain. His brother-in-law's second wife was Stalin's daughter, but his first wife was the half-sister of Frank Lloyd Wright's daughter.

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interesting connections there and i really like the houses Frank Lloyd Wright designed

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Thanks Will, for your list and for efforts in coming up with a creative way to add a global twist to an seemingly All-American topic. Sometimes we just need to think a little outside the box.

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Thanks, Will. Most of these are great starts, but without more complete bios, it's unlikely we'll be able to use many. Maybe they can be worked on more for future features.

Answer 8

Daniel Inouye, US Senator from Hawaii.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Inouye-1

Comments

I endorse this choice (I came here to add him if he wasn't here already). Among his distinctions, he was the first Japanese-American to serve in the U.S. Senate. And he has an OK profile, he is connected to the big tree, and he has a good photo that is not restricted from republication.

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Me too Ellen! One of my heroes - he was an amazing man and served Hawaii and his country well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Inouye

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I agree. Great choice. He was also a member of the United States Watergate Committee.

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Thanks, Mark!

Answer 9

Surely you must include Elizabeth Ann (Herring) Warren.

Comments

Thanks for the star Megan!

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I removed the Best Answer star. Threads like this are not eligible for Best Answers.

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Thanks, Herbert.

Answer 10

There is already a helpful answer above with examples of those US Senators who were born outside the United States.  In the opposite direction, we could feature William Bingham, a Pennsylvania-born US Senator who died in England and whose posterity is mostly found in Canada, France, and the UK.

Comments

Lets add Nancy Langhorn Astor, Vicountess Astor, an American woman born in Danville VA who became the first woman elected to serve in the UK House of Commons in 1919. She was the subject of many of Winston Churchill's witty comments to which she replied with equal wit.

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Thanks, Greg.

Answer 11

I would like to see Margaret Madeline Chase Smith https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chase-2926, "The Lady of Maine", included. She was the first woman to serve in both the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate. Elected rather than appointed. She was a powerful voice of conscience denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism tactics. She sought the Republican nomination for president in 1964. She's also a descendant of Mayflower passengers Henry Samson and Richard Warren.

Comments

I agree! I nominated her for the same reasons as well.

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She would be an excellent choice, because of the reasons you've stated, and there is already a profile for her as Margaret Chase Smith & she is already connected!   (Chase-2926).
(Personal note: She & I are 7th cousins 2 removed :) )

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D. Jensen, Thank you.  She's my 6th cousin 2x removed. I'm originally from Maine.

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You and I are 11th cousins once removed through Margaret Grazebrook Sewell (1556-1629) of Warwick. Senator Chase and I are 14th cousins 3 times removed through Thomas Green (1400-1462) of Northampton.

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When I was a college kid, I wrote a letter to Senator Smith asking for help with an assignment. Then in her ninties, she promply wrote me back. Her letter is still one of my most prized possessions. Even more amazing, not to long ago I contacted the Margaret Chase Smith library in Maine and discovered they still hold my original letter to her in their archives!

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Hello Marilynn Tobash, Nice to "meet" you. Cousin. 

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David Randall, That's wonderful!

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The Margaret Chase Smith library is a wonderful resource; if anyone is working on her profile, contacting them for answers is a good starting place.

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B.J. Jamieson, Thank you! Great tip.

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Thanks, Faylene.

Answer 12

Blanche Kelso Bruce. Hopefully there are other connected profiles for Black US Senators (Barack Obama being another obvious choice), this is just the first I thought about.

Comments

Another great one: Edward Brooke.

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I agree about Edward Brooke!

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I also like Edwaed Brooke

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Thanks, Isabelle.

Answer 13

I'm not at all familiar with US politics so please excuse me if the suggestion is a poor one - while looking for women Senators I remembered one with not-too-distant French ancestry who Greg was at some pains to get connected. Wonder if she could be included in the lineup? Mary Landrieu. A little work on the bio would be good.

Comments

Mary's father, Moon Landriue, and brother, Mitch Landrieu, are also important U.S. political figures, so she would give us three for one.

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Thanks, Isabelle.

Answer 14

Another Kansan, Native American Charles Curtis, 25 Jan 1860 - 8 Feb 1936. No profile here, that I can find; but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis.

Found it: Curtis-1647

Comments

Thanks, Sue. Creating one for him will give him a better chance of being featured in the future.

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Unsure if Abby would see an edit.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Curtis-1647

Answer 15

If someone can open the profile of Senator Shelley Moore Capito, which is Moore-28258, she can be connected through her father and her husband.

John Glenn https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Glenn-16 is my third cousin once removed.

Comments

I think both John Glen and Shelly Moore Capito are great nominations.

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Hello Margaret,

She cannot be opened if she's living, but if you send me the ID of her husband, I can connect him to her. Her father appears to be connected to her.

Thanks!

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Her husband's profile is Capito-31 (living)

Thank you,

Margaret

Answer 16

Margaret Chase Smith and Barbara Mikulski, women (meaning the plural as more than one) should be on the list and they are both deserving. The list should be balanced by sex and by where they stand on the political spectrum, both the Americans and world wide politicians.

Comments

Hello Marilynn,

Thanks. I'll need the links for those in order to consider them.

Abby

Answer 17

I am not entirely sure about the idea of living senators in general.  I notice of the 3 senators mentioned, one is living, the one female senator is controversial for racist language, and one is not connected.  
None of the are particularly well-known.  If people are going to be in the company of Senator Dole, let's give him a cohort worthy of his honor.
Maybe start this list over, and put Ted Kennedy and Margaret Madeline Chase Smith toward the top

Answer 18

Have you considered Ben Nighthorse Campbell? This would also show inclusion of People of Color.  (He is Cheyenne.)

Comments

great suggestion!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Campbell-19265

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Nighthorse_Campbell

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Sounds great, needs a connection though (parents may be added by contacting Scott)

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Thanks, D and Liz.

Answer 19

Senator Tammy Duckworth would be an interesting profile to work on. She's a person of color, Army Lt. Col., Retired. There are so many to chose from!

Comments

Thanks, Katherine. Do you have a link to her profile?

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She needs an image (this one is in the public domain, but I cannot upload it to her profile) -- https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Duckworth-1014

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Thanks for submitting that information, Melanie. Unfortunately, the profile is project protected, so that will need to be done by someone there. She deserves a more complete profile.

Answer 20

I haven't seen many suggestions of earlier senators. What about Stephen Arnold Douglas https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Douglas-3130 ?  Senator from Illinois. Famous for his debates with Abraham Lincoln. He articulated the "Freedom Doctrine", which held that territories could effectively exclude slavery, despite the Supreme Court's ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sanford.  He had initially endorsed the court ruling.  His profile has a great biography and photos. His paternal tree connection is good. Could use work on this maternal side. 

Comments

Thanks, Faylene.