Biography Builders Nov/Dec 2016: Thanksgiving

Question

Sorry for the delay, BioBuilders! Leave it to me to forget my month!

This month, the USA is celebrating their Thanksgiving, which commemorates some relief during hard times for some of our original European settlers. We'll be working on building biographies for profiles associated with the various Thanksgiving celebrations around the world (though we know not all fall in November). Here's a wikipedia article with ideas. For those interested in the US celebration, these Mayflower sub-categories would work well.

Keep in mind some of these are connected to specific projects and some things may need discussion with them-like changing LNABs or merges. Otherwise, writing biographies is very welcome, and that's what we're about!

The goal of Biography Builders is to make profiles as complete as possible with well-written biographies and sources-not just little blips, but extracting as much information as possible and putting it onto the profiles to create as complete a life story as you can for the person. This includes adding categories and links to events and people connected to that profile and citing all those additions. See the first month for examples of how to participate.

Here's our checklist:

Data Section.

birth date/place

names of parents

marriage date/place and spouse name

death date/place

Biography Section:

• Written sentences stating the facts above, adding inline sources to each fact.
• As a general rule biographies should be in your own words. Paraphrase and rewrite, don't copy/paste.
• Baptism, burial, military, and other life events with inline sources.
• Something to "humanize" the person, such as career or avocation with sources.
• List of children with at least one pertinent fact.
• One of the suggestions was siblings. I think this takes up real estate.
• Explanatory remarks, if needed (i.e. Disputed persons sections, Research Notes, whatever needs extra explaining).
• Photos or pictures, background. Not a must, but nice (I own the copyright or are in the public domain).
• Categories/Projects.
• Connection to the Global Tree.
• All duplicates merged or initiated
• Links to persons and events, perhaps from Wikipedia.
• Historical context as related to the person's life.
• Sources, Sources, Sources.

You can see some ideas on where to find some of this information on the Biography Builders space page, linked below.

Comment below with questions.

Comments

Wilbur Cross, who was a governor of Connecticut, wrote a Thanksgiving proclamation each year he was Governor. My eldest brother sends one to all his email contacts every Thanksgiving. I've just adopted Wilbur Cross and am going to write him a super bio. ... As soon as I finish what I'm working on.

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Awesome, Anne! That's perfect.

Answer 1

Really not sure how to apply this to English profiles (the only ones I stand a chance of researching on).  We have Harvest Festival, which is the nearest thing I can think of to the USA's Thanksgiving - but that started in pre-Christian times.  I don't think we have anybody like your Wilbur Cross writing a Harvest Festival proclamation, nor specific profiles to identify with it.

Or should I look at it as if it were Christmas, and say "pick a profile who might have celebrated Christmas at some point in their lifetime, and write a bio"? A bit nebulous... need some guidance on this one.

Comments

Never having heard of Harvest Day I found this "Yes, it's called Harvest Day, although it's a lot less of a big deal. While we usually take a few non-perishables down to our local church and enter our autumn vegetables in competitions," So maybe you could think people who are likely to celebrate a good harvest: farmers, their overworked wives, clergy (they're thankful) I think my Wilbur Cross is a "splashy" example but I'm sure there are plenty of people who might give thanks in a special (or perhaps ordinary) way.

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Ros,

No need to fret too much about guidelines, as Anne pointed out. You can also work on any profile from other regions that might have plenty of sources and just needs someone to look at them and translate them into a biography. Many in the Mayflower categories could use just that. I definitely think farmers would fit in there well for what the UK celebrates.

Answer 2

Here goes.
1. Mary Tinkham-57 Bio and sources
2. Jacob Curtis-6783 Bio and sources
3. Sarah Curtis-6543 Bio and sources
4. Caleb Curtis-6823 Bio and source
5.

Comments

Enjoyed reading about Mary and her son Jacob. Glad you added her marriage and other personal data to the bio narrative.

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Thanks, Connie. Bob

Answer 3

Here's my entry.  Giving a Florida spin to the Thanksgiving story.
1.Francisco Lopez

Here is the rest of the Thanksgiving story. There was more than one "first".  This one is in Virginia 1619.
2.Captain John Woodlief Senior

Ok, here goes, one last contribution to "first" Thanksgiving.  This man was a French Huguenot and even though he never married no doubt he had relatives that someone has or will research so I included him in the Wikitree profiles.

3. René Laudonnière

 My last bio for this month.  It is an actual Pilgrim who was on the Mayflower.

4. John Crackstone

 

 

 

Comments

Oh that's a good story Connie. I'd never heard of him.

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Glad you enjoyed it Annie B.

I will digress here and put in my two cents about this month's theme because I think it is a good one. There were several profiles I would have liked to add bios for that connected with Thanksgiving but they were either PPP or not open profiles so could not be edited. Since these people were born in the late 1500's shouldn't the profiles be open when they are not PPP?  Of course, most of them didn't have birth or death dates so no wonder they are just sitting there empty with no data and have been overlooked.  Lots of good history and info could be added and bios written for these profiles.

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Connie if you find profiles that should be open, (PPP or not) because of dates - Go to the Family Tree and tools tab. then way down to OPEN profile request form. It usually gets done within 24 hours.

Then just because a profile is PPP doesn't mean that it can't be worked on. It means it can't be merged away. It means you can't "willy nilly" add parents. However you can add to the bio. Just make sure that if you add to the bio, that you put your "good" sources on at the same time. If you wanted to you could leave a comment first that you intend to work on the profile, just as a courtesy

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Well, duh.  Thanks so much for pointing out how to do this. My wikitree skill set is still in the infancy stage.  Have been wrangling with getting another profile opened that is unrelated to the bio builders but have been going in circles.  Sigh, I knew on some level there must be an easy way to do it but just hadn't looked far enough for a solution.  Many thanks.

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Your entries this month are great. It was like taking a Thanksgiving tour.

Answer 4

1. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hascall-58
2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hascall-60
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hascol-1
4. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hascol-3
5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hascol-5
6. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Soule-63
7. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Soule-1302
8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cross-5104
9. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Avery-3323
10. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cross-3359 - It took all month but here he is Wilbur Cross

Comments

Very nice and neat.  Your sources look so good!  Wonderful to have the sources clearly available for anyone who wants to dig further.

Answer 5

My 2nd great grandfather was the 4th great grandson of Samuel Fuller who attended the 1st Thanksgiving feast. He was 39 when President Lincoln made the historic Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863. His profile has had ancestry sources for far too long:

1.  Armintus Fuller. (updated bio with linked sources)

2. Abraham Fuller.  updated bio and added categories

3. Joseph Fuller. (updated biography)

4. John Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

5. Edward Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

6.Mary Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

7. Elizabeth (Warren) Murdock. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

8. Sarah (Warren) Sever. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added Data section, category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

9. Alice (Warren) Ford. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

10. Patience Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

11. James Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

12.  Hope Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

13. Penelope (Winslow) Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

14. Issac Windslow. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added categories and sources; Updated biography; 3rd Gen of Mayflower passenger)

15. John Winslow. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

16. Edward Windslow. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

17. Mercy Warren. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and sources; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

18. Mindwell Fuller. (Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

19. Ruth Fuller. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

20. Isaac Fuller. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

21. Grace (Fuller) Cohoon. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

22. Rachel (Fuller) Bates. (Cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category and source; Updated biography; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

23. Joseph Fuller. (Added category; 4th Gen of Mayflower passenger ) after (corrected 811 Uncleaned profile after merge - Needs more sources with viable links)

24. Ruth (Cahoon) Spencer. (Two merges; cleaned up GEDCOM; Added category; need more sources; Updated biography; 5th Gen of Mayflower passenger)

Comments

I always enjoy seeing the migration paths of the Pilgrim descendants. Amazing how they spread out across the country.

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Some families stay put for generations and others like to wander. For instance the Fullers: Abraham and Joseph moved around in Connecticut but Armintus started out in New York, went to Ohio for awhile before settling down in Iowa.

Answer 6

Oh good!  I just noticed that the Thanksgiving theme is for Nov/Dec.  I'm on my first one, but it is not finished.  And the godmother of Thanksgiving is:

[[Buell-648|Sarah Josepha Hale]]

Comments

Hmm... Didn't know that.

Answer 7

Here is my first biography, going for 10

1 Francis Wayland Shepardson-92 Bio and sources and connected his wife to her Whitcomb tree back three generations.

2 Faith Pomeroy-612  Bio, sources. 

3 George Hall-16258 Bio, sources

4 Anthony Hall-16259 Bio, sources

5 Rufus Soule-1024 Bio, Sources, marriage info

6 Henry Soule-1022- Bio, sources

7 Hiram Sterling Pomeroy-613 - Bio, sources

8 George Gardner Hall-16272 - Bio, sources

9 Gardner Hall-16260 - Bio, sources

10 Parker Hall-16265 - Bio, sources

 

Comments

Hi Sue, thanks for joining this month. I made a couple of minor changes to the profile. Look at the changes tab and see how I hid the URL under the words List of his books online. It just makes a biography look neater if URL's aren't hanging out. Here's the help page for creating links. You want the one about linking to other websites. Hope to see you this month for additional biographies.