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

Question

The exploration ship, the Endurance, was recently found, so we're featuring polar explorers next week in the Connection Finder, starting with Ernest Shackleton.

Here's who we're getting started on:

• Barbara Hillary, needs a picture, connection, and  a bit more bio
• Jean-Baptiste Charcot
• John Rymill, needs a picture

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

John Rymill, needs a picture

Done.

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Thanks, Melanie.

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Henson-2207#. Matthew Henson,  first African American explorer to reach the North Pole.  Need verification of his parentage.  There is much speculation on the web with no verifiable sources.  One source I do have shows his father's name as Samuel,  with a brother named Samuel.   Not a lot to go in, but any help greatly appreciated.  Matthew is also part of the Black Heritage project.

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The title should be Polar Explorers, so as not to exclude the Southern Hemisphere. 

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Thanks, Herb. I'll make the update. Some weeks I am at a loss for appropriate terms :-)

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Barbara Hillary, needs a picture,

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Now has a profile picture, and I've alerted the USBH folk to see if we can get her Connected. 

Answer 1

Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic): bio, images, connected.

Lawrence Oates "I am just going out.  I may be some time." (and of course he never returned, sacrificing his life so his colleagues might survive). Bio, image, connected.

Dr Edward Wilson (polar explorer on Terra Nova Expedition). Images, connected - bio needs some expansion.

Comments

Thanks, Ros.

Answer 2

Roald Amundsen, Amundsen-236, the first person to have reached both the South Pole and the North Pole. He spent  time in Inuit communities, and adapted/adopted their technologies and survival skills.

Would be good to include an indigenous person.  For example, Tookoolito and her husband Ebierbing were Inuit explorers of the 19th century who significantly contributed to non-Inuit’s knowledge of the North. The Canadian Government has recognized Tookoolito and Ebierbing as National Historic Persons.  No profiles at present.

Comments

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Amundsen-236

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Fridtjof Nansen, who preceded Amundsen and greatly influenced him.

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Thanks, Paul, Melanie, and Herbert.

Answer 3

I would propose  Maurice Snellen, Leader of the first Dutch Arctic expedition in 1882- 1883. Their ship froze in the Karalsea so they had to stay during  the   Arctic winter. The ship broke in the ice so they went to the south on sledges and reached an island. Althuogh they didn't get to the Northpole, they brought home a lot of scientific information.

His profile has an image, a biography and is connected to the tree.

Comments

Thanks, Eef.

Answer 4

Robert Peary - has photo and bio and is connected.

Richard Byrd - has photo and bio and is connected.

Comments

Thanks, Chase.

Answer 5

Two other people that reached the north pole were Neil Armstrong and  Edmond Hillary together on the April 6, 1985. Both are however known for other exploits. But i though some people might be interested in this trivia, also along with them was   Steve Fossett, and Patrick Morrow also known for other exploits.

Comments

Thanks, Will. Links to WikiTree profiles are very helpful, when you can find them.

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I only threw those in for interest, the the first person on the  moon and the first person to climb Mr Everest together at the North pole. Steve Fossett first to fly around the world in a balloon and Patrick Morrow the first to climb all highest mountains on each continent

Answer 6

Vitus Baring (1681-1741) - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bering-63

Comments

I've added a primary image, but it'd be wonderful if someone from the Nordic Project could update his biography.  

(My current Connection is in the mid 20s, and goes through my mother's line, not (as is more usual) my father's.)

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Thanks, Roger and Melanie.

Answer 7

John Franklin's expedition has been in the news a lot over the past few years, now that his ships have finally been found, so he'd probably be the number one suggestion from Canada.

And, of course, Alexander Mackenzie was important in exploring Canada, including following the river that was named after him to its mouth on the Arctic Ocean.

Since I visited the St. Roch on a school field trip (and on my own since), I'd like to see Henry Larsen in the list.

I wish we could get Matthew Henson connected, because he is on the list of 100 greatest African-Americans.

Willem Barentsz would be another candidate if he was connected.

Comments

Thanks, Greg.

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Franklin Expedition engineer John Gregory, his remains have been identified by DNA and paper genealogy connecting him to a descendant.

Here is an interesting blog post about tracing Gregory's family in the UK census and public records.  

Not sure whether we have a profile for Mr. Gregory here yet.

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Matthew Henson had a son with his first wife, Eva Flint. That son (Matthew William Henson Jr.) married and had four children. I have created profiles for Eva and their son, but I have not yet created profiles for the son's wife (Annie May Lee) or their kids, and I did not get real far looking for Eva's family.

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Ellen, I can find no solid sources that show this child is actually Matthew Hensons.  In his book it states that he divorced Ellen for infidelity when she became pregnant while he was away for months on a trip.  If this child is  illegitimate, then the connection to Matthew is false.

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Matthew Henson was married to Eva Flint at the time of the birth of that child, so the child was born as the legitimate son of a married couple, even though Matthew did not acknowledge him as a son. I have not seen a record of his birth, but there is a good record of his parents' marriage, and Social Security Administration records named his parents:

U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/9554165:60901. Data: Name: Matthew William Henson Jr. Gender: Male. Race: Black. Birth Date: 15 Jun 1893. Birth Place: Germantown, Pennsylvania. Father: Matthew W Henson. Mother: Eva Flint. SSN: 577123858. Notes: May 1937: Name listed as MATTHEW WILLIAM HENSON JR 

I marked the child "non-biological" because of the indications that he was not the biological child of the legal father. The middle name of "William" is not consistent with "Alexander," but that may not be consequential. Many of the records for "Matthew Alexander Henson" do not include any middle name at all, although the name "Alexander" does appear in the record of marriage to Eva. I can imagine that Eva didn't remember her husband's middle name when she recorded her son as Matthew William Henson Jr., or perhaps she was no longer on the scene whenever the son was first called by that name.

I have not actually seen any reliable documentation of the grounds for the divorce of Matthew and Eva. Most of the biographies of Matthew Henson are aimed toward middle-school audiences, so they do not get into those sorts of details. (I don't recall seeing the pregnancy mentioned in the online version of his own book.)

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Point taken Ellen, however, if in the situation that Eva was in (pregnant with an illegitimate child of her current husband) I too would give him the Henson name to save face.  Only a DNA test will confirm parentage.  SSA records are entered with information from the informant, who uses information they are given from birth records that may or may not be accurate.  It's been proven that birth records have been fraudulently created to cover certain births which may be the case here.  Until DNA can prove the exact parentage of Matthew Jr., we have to assume that the story given by Matthew Henson to his biographer is the most accurate.  Why would he disavow his own flesh and blood if the child was actually his.

As his name doesn't follow the exact name of Matthew Alexander Henson, should we include the suffix of "Jr." in his profile?

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In the end, it doesn't matter whether the child was Matthew's or not. Matthew was married to Eva, and Eva was the mother of Matthew Jr. So Matthew's connection to the main tree is still valid, just a step longer: instead of going straight through Matthew Jr., the connection path goes from Matthew, through Eva, and then through Matthew Jr. (Granted, more connections from Matthew to the main tree would be nice, but this one still works, so thank you, Ellen.)

Answer 8

Hey, this theme was a really cool idea and it kept being delayed because of topicality. Any idea when it will be featured please? The French team connected Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) for the theme, and we wrote a pretty detailed bio too!

Comments

Unless something else happens between now and next Sunday, Abby has posted that this theme is for next week.

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No, things got rearranged again but it will be used at some point. I can't say when yet, though.

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Again?  When I saw https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1363751/which-mononymous-notable-are-you-most-closely-connected-to (now hidden) it pointed to this thread for next week.

So what're we doing instead?

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We're trying to get back to the original schedule, but with the intent of sticking the polar explorers in at some point. That means next week we'll work on notables with alliterative names.

Answer 9

I submit Matthew Alexander Henson (1866-1955).  

Matthew Alexander Henson, the first African-American Arctic explorer, was an associate of Robert Peary, with whom he spent eighteen years in expeditions. He and Peary were part of the small expedition that was the first recognized party to reach the geographic North Pole in 1909.

He has a photo, but is not connected. I'll work on that in case he is chosen.

Comments

Thanks, Lucy.

Answer 10

Sir Ranulph Fiennes - somewhat distant cousin of actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is known to be the first man to visit both the north and south poles by land.

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

His profile could be opened up as a living notable.

http://www.explorapoles.org/explorers/profile/fiennes_ranulph_sir

He is on wikitree, and connected, but the profile is unlisted - (black privacy).

Below is his FATHERS profile

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes-18

Comments

Thanks, Robynne.

Answer 11

Is this theme on next week?

Juha Soini has just connected Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. I'll do some work on the biography.

Comments

Yes, it is. Thanks, Eva!

Answer 12

Nicola White recently did a video on her mudlarking adventure featuring a tale about the doomed Franklin expedition to the Arctic.

Sir John Franklin was the explorer.

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

His expedition was described as "lost".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin's_lost_expedition

And, finally, a link to the Mudlarking video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpXdBGW18o

Comments

Thanks, Frank.