USBH branch in the Outer Rim

Question

Salina Summers (Virginia, 1833 - aft. 1870) is currently 67 degrees from QEII, a distance which qualifies for addition to the Outer Rim page. I will wait a couple of days before adding her, letting time for USBH people to maybe fold this branch inwards.

[update 9 Apr 2023] : This branch has been extended 13 steps further, up to David Johnson, currently 80 degrees from QEII.

Answer 1

...or outwards, as we often do! :)

Comments

As we say in French, c'est reculer pour mieux sauter. Google translate suggests : back off to better blow up. Does it make sense?

---

Merely connecting USBH profiles is often a heavy lift.

In a completely different context, seems to me akin to connecting an obscure profile from deep rural areas in France in the 1700s. For such populations, we are still far from the critical density of profiles, and sources are faint, etc.

---

Connecting USBH people to the big [Eurocentric] tree generally means finding a connection to someone who had an interracial marriage or someone who was fathered by a white slaveholder whose identity can be confirmed.

---

I can believe that. But to keep on the comparison, connecting a commoner of the 1800s from a remote France area means, still today, often finding a connection to someone among "notables" (bourgeois - aristocrats - artists, whatever). Even some quite active French WikiTreers have a long time struggle to connect their own branch, and are connected only by a handful of tortuous paths.

As for [Eurocentric] ... I suppose you mean by that European origins rather than geography? Because, seen by European users (at least seen from France as far as I'm concerned), WikiTree is looking like mostly American, not European. If only by language, culture, etc. I would be curious to compare the figures for connected USBH profiles vs connected European profiles (meaning by European here, people living in Europe from birth to death), over a relevant time span such as post-1800. I think that kind of stats should be available somewhere.

---

I'm not sure what you mean by "Eurocentric", Ellen. You may not be aware of this being American, but the classic way to connect an isolated French profile is to look for a relative who migrated to the US (that or a connection to nobility).

Except of course for pre-1800 profiles, my feeling is that Wikitree is clearly US-centric.

---

Isabelle, I think Ellen in the conversation context (we are discussing USBH profiles) uses "European" as an "ethnicity", like e.g., Afro-American, Asian, Latino-American, whatever.

Of course, for us European (citizens) this looks like a vey weird use of "European", since we know well that Europe has been over the last ten thousands years (at least), and is still today, maybe more than ever, a land of migration and (willy-nilly) population mixing. To speak of "European ethnicity" in Europe is at best a fuzzy concept, if not a totally fantasmatic one.

And yes, we and many other European WikiTreers have been saying over and over here on G2G, that WikiTree is definitely too much US-centric.

---

Hi Bernard, yes, I've been following the 100 circles research. I don't always understand it :-)

So the magic number were hoping for is 25! That I can understand.

And yes, when Ellen is using the term Eurocentric tree she means more profiles have origins from Europe than anywhere else. (northwestern Europe being the most common)  We have only about 10,000 African profiles. That means to connect an African-American to the Tree, we have to find a marriage to someone with European heritage. (at least that is how it for now until we increase our profiles in other parts of the world).

---

Emma, point taken. I actually understood Ellen's point, what I'm uneasy with is the ambiguity of the word "European" in this context.

And as you say it, I fully agree. And we have the same problem with modern European profiles with non-European ancestors, Africans, Asians etc. Indeed, the central "hub" of WikiTree is and is bound to stay people of European ascent. Which does not prevent many European WikiTreers to feel a minority in a mostly American Tree. The more so if they are not Anglo-Saxon, and have no close family who migrated to America.

Currently, my main focus is to reconnect modern (post-1800) French profiles directly inside France, because too many connections still go over the ocean and back. And yes, this is an Eurocentric attitude.

---

I haven't found a new connection to existing connected profiles yet, but I did just fold an unconnected family of 6 into this tree. That's a win!

---

My connection is 70 degrees on my paternal side.

Answer 2

I suspect that my connection (75 degrees) may fold outwards, as it currently goes through two half-brothers whose mother had 18 children by her two husbands (ten by the first, eight by the second).  The problem is that all 18 children currently appear to have been born while the first husband was alive and more than nine years before she married the second husband. I'll let someone with better knowledge than mine of 18th century American sources try to fix the dates.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rennick-2

Answer 3

There seems to be little interest in reconnecting this branch - Ms Summers is likely to remain on the Outer Rim for a while, until her branch reconnects itself by chance.

I have however had a look at the profile, and found more sources. It seems that Ms. Summers's LNAB could be Hamilton, as she was living with a Thomas Hamilton, listed as her brother, and a Sarah Hamilton, very likely her mother.

None of this will help re-connect the profile, I'm afraid, and I'd rather leave it to the USBH project to fix.

Comments

We are all constantly adding more family intentionally to these profiles in USBH. However, it's not often fast work. I just spent two hours and was only able to add four profiles to this tree.

That's probably Salina's mother in the 1860 census, but this needs more research to be certain.

---

Emma, you are welcome to prove Isabelle wrong. She's generally a pessimist in words but an optimist in acts.

---

Oh, Bernard, did you know I can't resist a challenge? 

Now I'm going to have to find not one new connection, but at least two!

Answer 4

There are tons of places in these 67 degrees to add more family and add new connections. I'm working from the tree of singer Ruth Lee Jones who is somewhere in the middle of those degrees and adding more family.

Comments

There's potential to add a lot more family around this profile, Sewell Flanary.

---

Sewell Flanary, for the moment, is extending the branch one step further outward (68 degrees from QEII)

---

Excellent, I think I'll keep on branching out from him 

---

Bien joué, Isabelle

Now ... Susan Flanary is 144 Degrees from Khurshid Hamdani (no one is further off)

... and right in the middle of the path sits the fearless King Edward II Plantagenet

---

As of today Silas Coleman is the new challenger Lord of the Rim, at distance 73 from QEII. Not yet close to the outlier Hamdani at distance 88, but further than any other branch.

Curious to see how long he will stay there.