Anyone interested in starting a Thayer Name Study?

Question

I know that I'm one of several people working on helping to clean up some of the Thayer lines (I know several people in the Puritain Great Migration have been working on this).

I don't have any Thayer's in my tree, but got involved because there was crossover in my Wheelock line.  There are so much misinformation on the Thayers, it seems like having a project set up might be a good way to help inform future users of the best sources and some of the pitfalls.

Since its not my main focus, I probably wouldn't be in it for the long term, but I would be interested in putting together an annotated sources list, a list of common mistakes, and some background on the groups of New England Thayers.

Is there anyone else interested in a Thayer Project?

Comments

I would like to participate in a Thayer project. They are in my tree. I acknowledge that some of the most useful sources offer information that conflicts with other sources. This would be a good puzzle.

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David,

That's great.  It seems like there's probably enough interest to move ahead.  I'll ask that it gets set up after Thankgiving.

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Thanks for asking about this, I'm fairly new to wikitree but would be willing to participate.  I've got Thayer, Wheelock etc. ancestors.

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Brad is really good and should be a huge asset to the Name Study.

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I have a line of Thayer's in my Holbrook line and would be interested in participating.

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Great.  Looks like we're getting a good group of people!

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Do it! I will add the ones I'm working on.

Answer 1

I do have Thayer's in my family, & will try to help. But the wiki conventions confuse me. I used to be a Capt. flying 747's, now instructing pilot's on the C5 for the military, which I do understand.

Comments

That's funny.  You're contributions would be most welcome. (And thank you for your service!)

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Seems to be a Thayer family trait!  My Dad flew for the Marine Corps as Navigator and was a private pilot as well.

Answer 2

If you or anybody else is interested in starting a Thayer Name Study, please sign up to the ONS request thread here:
https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/686810/one-name-studies-project-request-your-name-study-here

Comments

Yep. Will do.  just trying to gauge interest first.

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According to the rules, I cannot sign up because I have not yet made the required number of entries.  To be frank, I've found a lot of erroneous information in WikiTree and have been using it at a last-ditch source when I hit a brick wall.  It seems to be improving, but I still find myself confused by the format for referencing others (using Ferdinando Thayer as an example).  A person has the ability to "improve" upon or edit an entry, yet there is nothing denoting an accurate record which should be a Final record.  As an only child, I am the final authority on information regarding my parents. In all of my research, it seems some people just import wholesale from a match they have with trees on other genealogy sites without verification.

Answer 3

I'd be happy to help, especially with Braintree Thayers. I do have a Thayer line, but it's pretty far back and it has not been a main for focus for me.

Comments

Excellent.  I think that's the case for a lot of people.  The Braintree Thayers have a lot of descendants, which is why they need a little support so they don't get twisted.

Answer 4

I have a few Thayer generations who are ancestors of my maternal grandmother Hemenway.

Richard thayeer born august 2, 1562, at Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England. He was the father of Richard Thayer Jr. who was b. April 5, 1601, also born at Thornbury. Richard Jr. was the father of Richard Thayer III bor in 1623/24. Richard III was born at Thornbury and married (wife not known) on Dec 24, 1651 at Braintree, Norfolk, MA.

Richard IV born 1655 was the father of Benjamin b 1683 who was the father of Margaret Thayer b 1705 who married Amos Stetson. Benjamin was the last male Thayer that eventually led down to my grandmother Hemenway who was born in 1889.

Comments

I could provide a few more details if there is interest.

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That Richard Thayer is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thayer-39

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Frank:

The Margaret Thayer  you cited is my 6G grandmother (one of my several Thayer ancestors).

Seeing you mention her, I thought we might be relatively close cousins, but I don't see you as a descendant of hers. Are there some missing pieces in your ancestry here?!?

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Margaret Thayer m Amos Stetson and had Rufus Stetson 1735, Rufus m Comfort Paine Thayer and they had Mary Stetson 1770.

Mary Stetson m John Thomas and they had Henry Freeman Thomas 1811. Henry Freeman Thomas m Alice Hayward and had Sylvia Jane Thomas 1847. Sylvia Jane Thomas m Frederick Cabot Hemenway and had my grandmother, Sylvia Conant Hemenway 1889. My grandmother married Dwight Richard Bell and had my mother Elizabeth Marsh Bell.

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Hmm...

Mary Stetson-183 isn't connected to any parents at the moment...

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I have Mary Stetson's parents as Rufus Stetson and Comfort Paine Thayer.

Mary and her husband, John Thomas, first had a son named Samuel b 1803, then Rufus b 1806, and third, Henry Freeman Thomas, my ancestor b 1811. Daughter, Mary H. was born 1819 and John  Quincy Adams Thomas was born in 1823.

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She's connected to her parents now, Frank.

However, I note that I don't see any evidence for giving her mother the middle name of "Paine."

PS - And you and I are now mapped out here as 6th cousins once removed.

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Thanks,Frank & Ellen.  Ellen, I know that you're really busy with other projects, but I hope to have your input as you've been very helpful with Thayer info in the past.

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There are multiple Thayer lines traced in my ancestry -- I have descent from two different sons (Richard Jr. and Thomas) of Richard Thayer and Ursula Dimery of Thornbury, plus multiple Thayer connections on the Richard Jr. line (because those Thayers liked to marry Stetsons). And I keep a copy of Sprague's Genealogies of the Families of Braintree handy. My Thayer ancestors still need plenty of researching and documentation, and when I'm working on a family I usually branch off onto other relatives, so I'll continue to interact with this one-name project, although the name study won't be a major focus for me. 

Answer 5

I would participate on behalf of my husband's Thayer lineage back to Braintree, Mass. I'm a current member of the Thayer Families Association, so can help from that angle if needed. We're also part of the Thayer Y-DNA project, and he's matched with other confirmed Thayer descendants.

Comments

Great, Holly!  We've got the page up and running now.  Send a Trusted List request to the Thayer Name Study page if you want to follow changes in you Family Activity Feed (The Free-space Pages don't seem to be tracked by the name tags)..

I'm going to be adding to the page to set add an area for people to add what they're working on.

Answer 6

The Thayer Name Study is up and running.  My focus is on untangling the tangled mess that is the Thornbury Thayers.  Of course, a name study is much more than that and if anyone would like to take on other projects, please jump in.

The page currently has a complete modern transcription of every Thayer/Tayer/Tawier in the Thornbury parish registers.  They are being used for a reconstruction of these Thayer families.  Please note that the Ojeda and Holman sources are so flawed that they cannot be used.

Comments

Joe, thanks so much for giving us a running start.  I suspected that you were basically doing a one-name study on your own with the Thornbury Tayer/Tawiers.

When I came across the conflation of the immigrant Nathaniel Thayers almost a year ago, I remember looking at the Thornbury records and thinkng "What a mess, someone should really look into that."  I learned a little bit about it, but decided it was way to "thorny" for have much success.  You're doing some really excellent work in sorting them all out.

Answer 7

I created a free space for the will of Richard Dymery and have a G2G question here. It is supposedly key to identifying the wife of Richard Thayer as Ursula Dimery.  I think the evidence is so weak that she should be Unknown Unknown.

I am putting this here to draw attention of any Thayer researchers to it.  I could use help in getting a complete transcription.

Answer 8

I have one Thayer line in a tree not related to me. There is currently no profile but if anyone has interest or when you make it into the 1800's I would be happy to connect them.

Susan Jane Thayer, 1835 England - 1925 Ontario, Canada. Daughter of Joseph Milsom Thayer & Mahala Hodges.

Answer 9

I am also interested as they are my paternal line.  The last volume of published Thayer history that I saw was Volume 5 from the Thayer Families Association.  One first cousin in Rhode Island has been working on genealogy for years, so I know her information is accurate.  I found mistakes in information for my parents in this volume, and I am sure there are other mistakes as well.  I don't know who provided the information on my parents, but they were obviously making a stab in the dark.  I've taken my research back to the brothers who arrived from Thornbury circa 1637.  I've seen some of the information from Thornbury, have been working on the ones who came to Mendon, MA and beyond before going further back.  

Since I am still relatively new to this, I'd like to know a bit more what participation in the project entails. I have Wheelock, Holbrook, Dimery and Wheeler, among others, in my line and am directly descended from Thomas Thayer (1596-1665) and Margery Wheeler (1600-1673) who arrived 8 April 1637 aboard the "Blessing".

Comments

Cinde: Thanks for your interest!  I need to do a better job on the general set up of the study so its clear how to get started.

Participation really depends on your interest. As a starting point, you would probably finish building out your own Thayer line, being sure to document with primary sources (and adding notes to any common mistakes found in the most commonly used sources).  (If you already have research you're working from, I prefer to find where my line connects to wikitree, and work forward by adding parents to children.  That way WikiTree automatically adds birth, parents and death info into the bio).

Any source, even those which are recommended as reliable will have mistakes.  Between factual errors and editing errors, no source (inculding primary sources) can be expected to be error free.  That said, there are some sources that have lots of errors.  They may still have valuable information, but really need to be viewed with skepticism and checked against other sources before being used.

The Thayer Families Association maintains a corrections page for their Comprehensive series: https://thayerfamilies.org/cpage.php?pt=145

I'm sure they would love to have the correct information for your parents.

I'd be interested to know where your Thayer tree would connect with WikiTree, and who your Wheelock ancestors are.

Answer 10

I'd like to help too.  I have a connection to the Braintree Thayer, and as it happens I just spent the day sorting out one conflated profile--two Otis Thayers and their forebears.  Perhaps we should start by grading the 19th century Thayer sources. They are all tough to work with, and some are glaringly wrong at times