Can You Help with American Folk Hero Ethan Allen? Collaborative Profile of the Week

Question

The Collaborative Profile of the Week and the Profile Improvement Project Present

Col. Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, and American Revolutionary War patriot, hero, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of the U.S. state of Vermont, and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga early in the American Revolutionary War along with Benedict Arnold.[Source:Wikipedia]

1. His profile needs someone to go on a scavenger hunt. There are several photos on the profile. The photos need sources, and it needs to be determined if they are public domain. If not, they need to be removed. Try Wikimedia Commons and try just Googling Ethan Allen images, then look under Search Tools > Usage Rights > Labeled for reuse.
2. Someone should check his parents' and siblings' profiles to make sure that there is at least one source and hopefully a brief bio.
3. There is a comprehensive bio on Ethan’s profile. Unfortunately, it has been copied from other websites. The material needs to be summarized and rewritten. Make sure that the summary maintains the source material. This is good practice for bio writers and people who want to be bio writers.
4. I’ve also added several other sources at the bottom of the profile, if someone would like to write from something different or wants to add other information.

We’d love to have you help us with this profile. Pick a topic from the list, or something different. Post an answer here first, so we know what’s being worked on to avoid duplication of effort and keep the question fresh.

Profile Improvement Project

Ethan Allen's profile came to my attention, because someone added the category "Profiles Lacking Inline Citations." That's just one of the many categories that are worked on by the Profile Improvement Project. Some of the other categories are "Unsourced," "Gedcom cleanup required," Long "Profiles in Need of Cleanup," and a multitude of ways in which profiles can be improved. This is a lot fun, quite rewarding, and a nice break from working on one's own line. There are also a couple of sub-projects: Unknowns and db_errors. Take a look at the Project Page. Interested? Click here or you can send me a private message.

Thank You

Comments

Thanks, Anne! Great feature.

Right now I'll find an image that we can use on the home page.

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Thanks Chris, good start.

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I'm also going to get rid of the "Entered by Living Large" footnotes and do a few other basic formatting things.

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It's now featured on the home page.

I did some quick edits to the bio. I had to remove the obvious copyright violations. (In my role, I can't knowingly leave those). There are links in the "See Also" section if anyone else wants to tackle quoting from them.

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Speaking a bit selfishly, I'm pleased to see this, because I hope it will help prevent Ethan Allen's grandfather Samuel Allen from being conflated with other contemporary New England men of the same name, as has happened multiple times in the past.

Answer 1

I sourced his father Joseph  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-2.

It appears that the daughter Lydia Allen Murray http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-8   is connected incorrectly to Joseph and Mary (Baker) Allen, (dob before her father) , left a note on his profile and hers.

PS: The children's details on the page are still mostly unsourced, except for births.

Does anyone know how to post this image on Joseph's page???

https://books.google.com/books?id=c-F4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA369&dq=joseph+allen+House:+Mary+Baker&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW5OjYrZbOAhUDLyYKHdRuCZUQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=joseph%20allen%20House%3A%20Mary%20Baker&f=false

Comments

Good work Chris. I found her correct parents and have posted it to the profile also.

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Regarding the picture of the house, I took a screen shot of the page, cropped it and posted it on the profile. Thank you.

Answer 2

Interesting profile! Thanks for profiling one of our American Founding Fathers!

Answer 3

I'm doing a rewrite on the "Green Mountain Boys" Section

Comments

While I was at it I rewrote the section on Fort Ticonderoga Also.

Answer 4

In the list of Sources is a bullet about a "DNA Confirmation for Lynden Raber Castle Rodriguez as Ethan Allen's 4th Great Granddaughter...".

I think that this bullet should be removed, as it is not a source for Ethan Allen. It is ancillary information for Lynden Rodriguez, and her profile, as a descendant.

But I wanted others' opinions on this. Thoughts?

Comments

I wondered about that myself and really don't have an answer. I know very little about DNA.

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It is very unlikely that the DNA connections indicated in that note are valid. Lynden's 6-generation connection to Ethan Allen is not on a direct paternal or maternal line, so autosomal DNA is the only kind of DNA that could be used to trace a connection. Autosomal DNA connections become very difficult to verify past 4 or 5 generations. Apparently Lynden has a DNA match with a man named Bob Allen who may also trace ancestry to Ethan Allen, but the information shown on the profile does not indicate his ancestry, nor who the third person is from whom a triangulated match was determined, nor the details of the 3-way match (what segment of what chromosome the three-way match is on, and how long the segment is).

Additionally, the page http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Wright-296&person2_name=Raber-23 supposedly shows a 16-generation "DNA confirmation" based solely on autosomal DNA, but that's impossible to do with autosomal DNA.

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I'm going to go ahead and remove it then. It's not a source for Ethan Allen.

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However, when WikiTree members successfully establish a triangulated connection to a common ancestor via autosomal DNA, we are supposed to document the details of that connection on the relevant ancestral profiles.

And in addition to removing that "source" note (which should be there to support a "confirmed by DNA" notation), there are quite a few "confirmed by DNA" qualifiers that should not be there. It would be helpful if the user who placed them would communicate here about the data she has and get expert advice on what should and should not appear on these profiles.

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Ok. While I removed it, note that the information can still be found in the Changes log, if it is determined that it should be added back in. I would assume that the information, if added back in, should go under a separate section and not under Sources.

Answer 5

OK - I've got a question. Seth "WARNER" is mentioned in the profile, and so is Seth "WARREN" - same letters, different spelling.

Same person? Different? One appears he could be Ethan's cousin, but I couldn't find him listed anywhere in recent family - I tried to find links back to existing profiles where I could, but wasn't sure what to do with the Seth's. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Comments

Typo on my part, should be Warner not Warren. He was son of Dr. Benjamin, b. in Woodbury. I saw that about he being a cousin but can't find it now.

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Here we go... this works:

http://www.warnersregiment.org/Warner%20Bios.html

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Found it!

They were related through the Bakers. That's got to be it.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=AHN&db=mandygoodman74&id=I19000

Now to prove it. But maybe later... first sleep..

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OK - easier than I thought. He's in here, but his rank appears to be wrong.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Warner-363

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Nice work Scott, I found this article

https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/05/seth-warner-or-ethan-allen-who-led-the-green-mountain-boys/

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OK - I've added links to profiles where I could of all the historic figures mentioned in the bio - I may go back and link up old King George too. I did have to create a profile for Philip Skene, founder of Skenesborough and the guy who pretty much left Ticonderoga undermanned and unprotected during one of the first American Revolution attacks. Poor guy had the habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He allied himself with Ethan Allen during the Green Mountain land grant thing, which went against the crown to an extent - he then founded Skenesborough and got it up and running, came back to England to petition for governorship of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, only to return to find out they were both captured, along with his son. Got his son back, but was held in custody with his son for a year. Returned to England, got a commission to Colonel, came back looking to recruit Loyalists, and got his horse shot out from underneath him. Captured again. Lost his land in the Colonies. Begged England for compensation and received it. Returned to England around 1779-1780 and around 1810 died, probably respected for the fact that he never gave up, but at the same time I can see that he might have been snubbed due to his lack of success.

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Man! You can't make that stuff up.

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The only person I couldn't find any details on was Captain Drylas. I found additional mentions of him as being one of the guys who led troops to seize boats during the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, but then he disappears into history. No mention of his family or of his fate. He was apparently successful in his mission, but that's all I've been able to find.

Answer 6

Worked on sourcing daughter Lucy Caroline http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-12

Looks like son Major General Ethan Allen Hitchcock  needs a merge.  See:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hitchcock-748

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hitchcock-1412

Comments

Thanks Chris, I concur the two Hitchcock's are the same person. Would you just propose the merge?

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ok, done

Answer 7

I couldn't resist the scavenger hunt and went looking for the photos used

I found most of them but I'm still looking for provenance (is it public domain) on
http://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Allen-6073-2  and
http://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Allen-6073

The head shot is part of what looks like a painting, but I can't figure out where or, more important, when the original was done. Anyone know?

Comments

I found the head shot, definitely not public domain. It's coming off.

Answer 8

I'm running through his Error Report while waiting for my traveling companions to wake up. :-)

Comments

I hope you're not finding much.

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Well, since it's his whole line, there's plenty. :-/

http://wikitree.sdms.si/function/WTWeb/errors.htm?UserID=2987

Answer 9

I'm adding a few more sources to his children as I'm able to find them. Just sad that his first two children listed died so young - his first born daughter at 20. His first born son at 11. So much tragedy. I hope that as I look at his other children, he was able to keep them around a bit longer.

Comments

I've always been glad, I didn't live in those times when so many children and infants died.