U.S. Governors Project - April 2023 [closed]

+18 votes
1.2k views

March was another great month for the U.S. Governors Project. We connected 41 governors this month, which is really something to be proud of. That brings the total number of governors connected since the project was revived to 163. That's pretty amazing! But we are far from done.

About once a week, I add another state to the project. We are now at the half way point with 25 states and two territories on our official roster. That leaves 25 states and three territories still needing to be inventoried and added. Inventorying entails reviewing each governor's profile for completeness, proper categorization, succession tables, and of course connection to the Main Tree. I don't necessarily fix all these things, but I do take note. Once the inventorying is done, I can create a state governors page, but this too has to be done manually - typing in names, dates, profile numbers, and links to images (not to mention designing the page itself). As much as I enjoy the process, it is time consuming. So for those who have inquired, you can see why can't simply add all 50 states at once.

As of today (April 1) 11 states are completely connected - that's up from six last month. These sates are: Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. [Note that these numbers reflect deceased governors only (both territorial and state). While we do work with current and still-living past governors, we handle them separately due to privacy and accessibility issues.]

As for the remaining states currently on our roster, here are the number of deceased governors who still require a connection to the Main Tree:

Kentucky (1)

Oklahoma (1)

Guam (1)

Illinois (2)

Alabama (3)

New York (3)

Oregon (3)

Tennessee (3)

Alaska (4)

California (4)

Ohio (4)

Georgia (5)

Puerto Rico (5)

Iowa (6)

New Mexico (10)

New Jersey (20)

The U.S. Governor's Project is always welcoming of new participants. We are an informal project and don't have any stringent requirements. Simply head over to our Project Page and either click the link for the state of your choice, or go to the Unconnected Governors List to see all of our unconnected governors. Then feel free to work on any governor profiles you wish. All we ask is that you keep us posted of your achievements here on the G2G thread.

I will continue to add more states to our roster as I get their pages completed. If there is a state you would like me to prioritize, just let me know.

WikiTree profile: Space:US_Governors
closed with the note: May thread opened
in The Tree House by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
closed by David Randall

15 Answers

+10 votes

The last deceased governor of Oklahoma should be connected when the system updates.

by Roger Stong G2G Astronaut (1.8m points)
edited by David Randall
Congrats Roger, and all of those who worked on completing the Oklahoma connections.

For those interested in Oklahoma history, many of our Oklahoma governors are still lacking biographies. If you are a bio-writer, the U.S. Governors Project has a real need for your services.
+11 votes

Clyde Herring of Iowa will be connected tomorrow morning. His father-in-law was already in the database.

by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
edited by David Randall
Thanks Jelena!
+10 votes

Former Tennessee governor Don Sundquist is now connected.

by Nan Starjak G2G6 Pilot (428k points)
edited by David Randall
Thanks Nan!
+9 votes

I have a way to connect Indiana former Governor Mitch Daniels, but it's a long connection to England. The profile I'll end up connecting to is John Bytheway, born 1693 in Shropshire. Just need to build the 5-7 profiles between his Wilkes' maternal side and there.

by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.6m points)
edited by David Randall
Found a slightly shorter route through an existing Bytheway born in Pennsylvania. He should show up as connected tonight.
The further away the connection, the more profiles we get to add to WikiTree. I'll be curious to see the connection.
Governor Eric Holcomb will be connected once the links update tomorrow. He is the last unconnected Governor for Indiana.
Hurray Indiana!
+9 votes

Ohio governor Michael DiSalle is now connected.

by Christy Melick G2G6 Pilot (135k points)
edited by David Randall
Thanks Christy!
+10 votes

FYI: I recently updated our Unconnected Governors List to include the birth and death dates for each of our governors. The governors can now be sorted by birth year, enabling you to more easily look for governors who lived during your era of interest and/or expertise. Birthdates of our deceased governors currently range from 1747 to 1930. Our youngest living governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was born in 1982.

by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
edited by David Randall
Great idea, David!
+7 votes

Truly impressive progress. Bravo to everybody taking part!

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (771k points)
+6 votes

There are reasonable biographies for Illinois Governors 1-11.  I will keep working my way through them.  I'm not good at extensive bios and I'm sure more can be added, but at least they have more than just born, married, died...

Iowa...I connected

by Donna Baumann G2G6 Mach 7 (73.2k points)
edited by David Randall
This is great Donna. We have a very talented team of "connectors" on the U.S. Governors Project, but only a handful of bio writers. Sadly, many of our governor profiles currently have literally zero biography. I am always grateful when someone like you comes along a gives these profiles some much needed TLC. Thank you.
Sounds like motivation for a pop up challenge at some point!  or maybe the bio builders would make governors, presidents, mayors, etc one of their rmonthly challenges...
+7 votes

Colorado now has its own Governors Page. I've added eleven more deceased governors and three living governors to the unconnected list.  

by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
Colorado Governor William Ellery Sweet is now connected.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sweet-2395
Great job Mark!
+7 votes
New Mexico #9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20 are connected (18 will show tomorrow). have not updated chart.
by S Stevenson G2G6 Pilot (282k points)
connected - New Jersey #19, #21, #25, #28, #29.2 (Voorhees), #30, #32, #34.2 (Fielder), #35, #41, #46, #47

sorry forgot to let you know these were done, table has not been updated.

fyi #39 is on list three times, in his correct spot, than again after #40, then again after #41.

and #36 reappears in between #42 & #43
New Jersey #37 connected
Wow! Great job. I was wondering if anyone was ever going to tackle our  New Jersey governors. This likely puts April in the lead as our most productive month yet, with two more weeks still left to go.

I will update to roster and will check on those duplicates. May have been some cut and pasting gone wrong.
It turns out that Gov #39, Harry A. Moore, served three non-consecutive terms as New Jersey's governor. New Jersey is one of several states that does not assign multiple numbers for multiple terms. So, while in other states Moore might have been Governor #39, #41, and #43, in New Jersey he was just Governor #39, three times.
+7 votes
Congratulations to Christine Miller who connected our 200th governor today. Christine has been doing an amazing job making connections on almost a daily basis. As a team, we've already connected 36 governors in the month of April, and the month is only half over. We've also added six more states to our "completed" list, which brings our grand total to 17 completed states!

But we still have lots of work to do. I count 77 unconnected deceased governors on our current list and I still have about half the states left to add. I just added 5 deceased Puerto Rico governors today and will soon be adding 8 still-living Puerto Rico governors.

I count 94 still-living governors still needing connecting. Since access to these profiles creates some significant obstacles, I'm spending some time trying to add each of these governors parents. That will allow participants to extend their family trees without having to go through the process of requesting trusted list access from profile managers.

Great job everybody!
by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
edited by David Randall
awesome work. i'm going to work on new jersey during the connect-a-thon.

Great! It's always cool when you can help out multiple projects/events at the same time. 

Note that we have numerous still-living governors who also still need to be connected (8 from New Jersey). They can be found in a separate table located below the deceased governors list on the Unconnected Governors page. We are limited in our ability to grant direct access to these "private" profiles, but we can help you by connecting parents and other direct relatives so that you can begin extending their trees. If that is something you'd like assistance with, just let me know.

+5 votes

I got a two-for-one deal - when the connections update, Ohio Governor John J. Gilligan and his daughter Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebellius will both be connected. I've also spent some time sourcing and writing bios for John and a lot of their ancestors, although there's still more ancestors that need sourcing and bios - this tree was in pretty rough shape.

I think Ohio's down to 2 deceased and 2 living that still need to be connected, and I think I have a connection path for Dick Celeste (living). I'm going to try to work on that during the 'thon this weekend.

by Christy Melick G2G6 Pilot (135k points)
edited by Christy Melick
FYI - Nancy Hollister (Ohio, living) is on the Unconnected Governors page, without a connected date. I got her connected sometime in March.
And now Dick Celeste is connected too.
+6 votes

Florida's Governors Page is now up. I've added seven more deceased Florida governors to the unconnected list as well as five living governors. 

by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
+5 votes
Today, for the first time since we re-established the project at the end of last year, we must move one of our governors from the table of living governors to that of the deceased.

Former New Mexico governor Jerry Apodaca passed away today at the age of 88. May he rest in peace.
by David Randall G2G6 Pilot (474k points)
+3 votes

George Sebastian Silzer of New Jersey is connected via a paternal ancestor of his wife.

by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
Thanks Jelena. April is turning out to be a record month for us. I'll be announcing our final count on Monday. Let's see how many more we can connect by then.

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