Notables - January 2018

Question

Hear ye, hear ye! If you are interested in people who are famous, notable, noted, significant, important, historic, heroic, or otherwise fascinating, then the Notables Project might be for you!

The idea behind this post is for anyone who needs help with connecting Notables to the tree to post and ask for help. Or if you just want to tell us who you have successfully connected up.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Notables

Above is the Notables Project page where you can find unconnected Notables who have profiles and who need to be connected to the tree.

Since I have missed out on doing a Notables shout-out for November and December 2017 - I do apologise for that - I am starting this one for January EARLY - so that I do not forget!! LOL

No theme this month - just any Notables who have a Wikipedia page.

Any Notables you have connected for November and December will be gratefully receive on this thread - Thanks.

Any notables you have struggled with, can also be mentioned here as well.

I am going to start with a Notable actress who died 2 days ago on Xmas eve. Her name was Heather Menzies - she played Louisa in the Sound of Music Movie..

I posted a question about Heather already.

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/527933/heather-menzies-died-on-sunday-xmas-eve-2017

Please note that Heather has no parents or any ancestors attached to her profile at all. And she also has 2 profiles. The early private profile needs to be opened up so that the more recent profile can be merged with the older one.

Comments

Actress Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) has a profile but isn't connected yet -- her mother's family was landed gentry so a decent chance at connecting through the Euroaristos.

Ridley-638

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Singer/song writer Molly O'Day AKA Lois Laverne Williamson. She has been iducted into the WV Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Williamson-6916

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I think I got punk icon Darby Crash (aka Jan Paul Beahm) connected via an in-law. Waiting on the system to update. His mother was married a minimum of three times and his father was another man entirely (allegedly a Swedish sailor named William Bjorklund) so Darby's family should be one that connects to a lot of others.

Answer 1

Last week I entered the lineage for Louis PASTEUR, the French biologist. The source was a french genealogy magazine which was discussing who were his oldest known ancestors & included his known line. So now the names for about 8 generations are there but I don't have access to records from France & I was hoping someone that did, could take it further by adding sources.  Thanks!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pasteur-13

Comments

Thanks - I would have put this on my to-do list, but, unfortunately, Pateur's family comes from Jura and this department has no online archives yet.

I could check his marriage record and research his wife, though.

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Completed Pasteur's descendants, except for one of his grandchildren who died young. Not much hope of a connection except maybe through his grandson's wife. Her grandfather was a mathematician, he has a Wikipedia page - Gaston Gohierre de Longchamps.

Also tried to research his wife. Her great-grandfather Antoine Gelinek was a musician for the court at Versailles, but that doesn't lead me anywhere, so far.

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Thanks Isabelle for working on the PASTEUR profile & moving it along ! :)

Answer 2

The polar explorer Roald Amundsen was connected now in December.

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

Comments

I guess I can stop trying to connect this one then. LOL

Answer 3

I connected G.T. Ridlon(Ridlon-117) to the wiki-tree. Which was very challenging due too so much disumbiguation caused by repetitive first names and multiple spellings for last names with the most minuet leads. It was a jigsaw puzzle to connect him. (Even though he has written several genealogy books, it seems as though he purposely made a puzzle for you too figure out his "Riddle" in connecting him) He only wrote down hints in "Saco Valley Settlements"(1895), And History of the Ancient Ryedales (1884). And special Thx (: too Jo Gill (Gill-3793) for doing some fine editorial work to this profile. Which I give 95% of that credit too her!!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ridlon-117

Comments

You are too kind ... and thank you very much  ^^

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XD take care Jo Gill.

Answer 4

I currently have these notables still unconnected.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kepler-71

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Daimler-1

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kasem-1

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wells-6898

and the "B.I.G." one

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wallace-6373

Answer 5

Over the last few weeks I have done some work on the ancestry of (Robert) Laurence Binyon - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Binyon-25 - who wrote the familiar words used at Remembrance ceremonies, “They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old....” I have got the main paternal and maternal ancestral lines back to the 18th century, but not yet been able to link him to the main tree. I will continue doing research, but help would be welcomed! Both his father’s and mother’s families were Quakers, mostly from Lancashire, England.

Answer 6

I have a number of Notables on my plate, but I am going to take yet another run at Jackie Robinson to connect him to the global tree. I've put together his tree, and many many cousins trees with no connection in sight as of yet, but I remain hopeful that there's somewhere I haven't looked yet that will break this one open. If anyone wants to help, his profile is:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Robinson-13

Comments

I looked at the Jackie Robinson family tree which has Nelson Robinson born 1829s at the beginning of his line.

I recently worked on one of the large unconnected branches & ran into a similar problem that you might be having because I couldn't get past the 1800s with African American individuals. And it probably is because of their slave ancestry with few records. Emancipation was in 1865.

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Every time I go back to it I find a small branch somewhere that has a few additional leaves I can add to it. They still don't connect to anything, but I remain hopeful that one day, I'll bump into a connected branch and BINGO I'll have a whole ton of new cousins to meet.

Answer 7

One thing I could use help with is moving people to the next level on the Notables Project page. For instance, if you create a profile for someone listed in the People In Need of a WikiTree Profile (Iron) section (or if you find a profile that somebody else has already created for that person), please edit the page and move that person down to the Notable Profiles in need of Notables Project markers (Bronze) section.

In the Bronze section, the columns are: 

1. Last Name (this should link to the profile)
2. First Name (this should link to the profile)
3. Notability (This should be one sentence, link to this person's Wikipedia entry, and include the year of birth [and death, if applicable].)
4. Template (Whether or not the {{Notables}} template has been applied to this profile.)
5. Privacy (For deceased notables, this should be Open. For living notables, it should be Private with Public Biography and Family Tree. Also, wikitree-notables-project@googlegroups.com should be added as manager if the profile isn't Open (although I add it even if the profile is Open, so the project gets notifications of all changes to notable profiles).)
6. Wikipedia/Wikidata (This should be marked as "Added" only after links to both that person's Wikipedia and Wikidata entries have been added to their WikiTree profile, and their WikiTree ID has been added to their Wikidata entry.)
7. Categories (At minimum, this should include place of birth [and death, if applicable], occupation [especially since this often constitutes why that person is notable], any military units they've served in [if applicable], and any honours they have been awarded [such as an Academy Award, Order of Canada, Victoria Cross, Nobel Prize, etc.].)

If all of the columns are complete in the Bronze section, then the profile should be moved up into the Silver section, which has its own columns. But I think moving people from Iron to Bronze would be plenty of achievement for one month.

 

And, for what it's worth, I have added a profile for Vladimir Komarov, the first human to die during space flight. (Who, incidentally, chose to fly in a capsule that he believed to be unsafe in order to preserve the life of Yuri Gagarin, who was his designated backup.)

Comments

Speaking of which, it would be really cool if we could get Yuri Gagarin connected to the main tree in time to make him the Profile of the Week for the week which contains April 12, since his flight into space took place on April 12, 1961.

Answer 8

I'll work on adding sources for supercentenarian Jeanne Calment and her ancestors.  When I looked into her background, I noticed that most of her ancestors had been orphaned and had only links to Geni and similar sites.  I'll research in the online Bouches-du-Rhône archive to validate and correct information as necessary.

I will certainly try to find a way to connect her, but she will likely be difficult to connect to the global tree.  It's often difficult to connect notables within France-sometimes it's easiest to find cousins who moved to the US or other countries where there are more profiles to connect to.

Comments

Good idea - I'll work the other end of the tunnel, so to speak, and try to expand the tree of the only other (if you except Bosonids and other medieval folk) Arlesian on Wikitree, Eugénie Faure

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I'm so glad somebody is working on Jeanne Calment!

I did a bit of work on her family a year or two ago, but I found it incredibly difficult given my rather poor grasp of the French language! I was relying mostly on secondary sources, so decided to leave it to somebody more able and knowledgeable in French genealogy.

This link may be useful to you as it has a list of relevant sources.
http://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/09s.htm

Answer 9

I'm working on Butch Van Kirk, the navigator on the Enola Gay.  No luck connected after a day of searching, but!  I've added many relatives, back to ggggrandfather through an SAR membership application.  I'm moving on to wives to maybe find a connection.

Answer 10

Notables in the news recently:

• David Johnston
  • Kay, Jonathan, "What does it mean to be Canadian? David Johnston knew." National Post, July 21, 2017.
• Robbie Tookalook
  • Page, Julia, "'He was a visionary': Inuit leader remembered in Northern Quebec." CBC News, October 12, 2017.
• Daphne Caruana Galizia
  • "Malta journalist Caruana Galizia: Anti-corruption warrior." BBC News, 17 October 2017.
• Cathy Elliott
  • Ghonaim, Hala, "Canadian arts community mourns loss of Indigenous playwright." CBC News, October 17, 2017.
• Paul Weitz
  • Rincon, Paul, "Paul Weitz: Skylab and shuttle astronaut dies aged 85." BBC News, 24 October 2017.
• John Mollo
  • Fashingbauer Cooper, Gael, "Star Wars costume designer John Mollo dies at 86." C|Net News, October 29, 2017.
• Harriet Tubman
  • Craggs, Samantha, "Harriet Tubman's former church is in dire need of repairs." CBC News, October 30, 2017.
• John Ware
  • Snowdon, Wallis, "Playwright digs deep into legend of Alberta's pioneering black cowboy." CBC News, November 1, 2017.
• Karolina Cohn
  • "Schoolgirl who died in Holocaust, little known until last year, mourned in ceremony." CBC News, November 13, 2017.
• Michael I of Romania
  • Murphy, Brian, "Michael I, last king of Romania and a Cold War exile, dies at 96." National Post, December 5, 2017.
  • Clej, Petru, "Romania's King Michael: A democrat in the face of totalitarian regimes." BBC News, 5 December 2017.
• Bruce McCandless 
  • "Bruce McCandless, 1st astronaut to float untethered in space, dies at 80." CBC News, December 23, 2017.

Comments

Re: Bruce McCandless

I tried to get on his trusted list on 22 Dec 2017 but no response from manager, Cheyenne Boggioni.

I looked at her contributions, and the last one was a year ago, 13 Jan 2017. Anyone been in touch with her?

Answer 11

I connected Pierre Dugua de Mons (governor of Acadia) but I'm not happy because the connection goes through the parents previously - and daringly - added to his wife. I tried to source the connection (i.e. find a source clearly identifying Judith Chesnel's parents) but IMO it's too weak. If someone finds a better source, I'll be happy. That said, the parents were not difficult to connect to the big tree, so if they are legit the connection is good.

That follows the connections for Joseph-Louis Montcalm, Louis de Buade and Jean Talon - they were all connected together before being connected to the big tree. There are potential errors in the family of Jean Talon, though.

I've been assigned Saint Charles Garnier as my next New France mission. Haven't looked into that yet.

Answer 12

I have the following notables that I could not connect to the overall tree and could use your members help please:

Ludwig-979

Herbert-2613

Hall-29508

Witherington-61

Czech-30

Knight-10033

 

Answer 13

I was trying to improve/connect Forrest Silas Petersen, US Navy Vice Admiral and X-15 pilot. One of his sons had a name with a familiar ring to it - Nels Christian Petersen, so I thought maybe he was named after an ancestor. There are 11 on FindAGrave, mostly born in the 1800's, many born in Denmark and lived in Utah. Was not able to connect any to Forrest.

Further, there are 30 Neils Petersens there

Another issue is that Petersen may also be Pedersen or Peterson.

Answer 14

I thought I'd pop in and let you all know what I've been up to last month, and this month. It's been sort of half Notables project, half Connectors project.

I've been busy working on various British nobility with a loose focus on hereditary peers. It's amazing how many of the more well known, or notable peers who already have Wikitree profiles can be connected to each other through the marriages of their children or siblings.

It feels rather like fixing holes in a fishing net!

Answer 15

I have finally connected 2 notables to the tree - connections should go through tonight!!

This was funny to me. I was planning on creating 4 new profiles to connect one man to his great grandparents. As it turns out, the parents and grandparents were all already on wikitree but none of them were connected despite having been created back around 2015!!

So all I ended up having to do was to make 2 small connections!! I just had to connect Caleb (for whom I had requested trusted list access) to his mother. The mother was already connected to her parents, but her parents were not connected to anyone. So I make that connection as well. Now the whole line is connected!!  As I said, the connections should all go through tonight.

Who were these Notables?

Emily and Zooey Deschanel.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Deschanel-3
Zooey

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Deschanel-1
Emily

They do not yet have the NOTABLES TEMPLATE either!!
Notables team, please take note!! They ALL have wikipedia pages!!

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

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

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

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

Thank you!!

Robynne Lozier

Comments

I fixed Zooey - will work on the others a bit later.

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Thanks Scott. Much appreciated!!

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Coincidentally, I'm working on a Deschanel homonym, French president Paul Deschanel.

There are unfounded rumours that they are all related. I hope to find time to clarify this issue.

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Yes, I did wonder about that.

I look forward to your discoveries in this area.

Thanks Isabelle.

Answer 16

Willem Dafoe should be connected to the global tree once the links update tonight.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dafoe-222

Comments

Excellent. Well done Scott!!!

Answer 17

I recently connected a bunch of notable authors from the Beat Generation, William S. Burroughs (Burroughs-836), Neal Cassady (Cassady-242), Ken Kesey (Kesey-5), Paul Bowles (Bowles-2134).

Answer 18

I deal with dozens upon dozens of notables each month, finally got Sydney the 1st and last Earl Buxton properly sorted after watching his profile sit as an empty public profile.

In other related Notables news, Coky, Mel, Kasia and their father Michal are connected (BIG story behind their upbringing!) Just need to work on their bios!

I could list every notable profile I've connected over the month (haha last week!) but it would be a while...

Comments

What an interesting family - those Poles. Thanks Richard.

Answer 19

quote> No theme this month - just any Notables who have a Wikipedia page.

I am new to the Notables project & just want to check if I am doing something right. I found someone in the Lost & Found Project who has a Wikipedia entry. So using the above definition, is it correct for me to have added the Notables template ? Is there anything else I have to do to notify the Notables Project that there is a new person added ?

Flaxie PINKETT was a political activist involved with civil rights in Washington, DC

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pinkett-25

Comments

I'm not sure about what else you can do about the Notables project, but you could also take at look at the Activists & Reformers project to see if there are narrower categories where she would fit.

Answer 20

Today's Google Doodle honours Zhou Youguang, who developed the Pinyin system for writing Chinese using the Roman alphabet. He also lived to be a super centenarian, and was a thoroughly interesting person. And, thanks to Nicholas, he also has a profile on WikiTree.