Quest for Great-Grandparents: Hymn Writer Edition - Verse 1

+16 votes
776 views

For this week's great-grandparent challenge, I have chosen hymn writers.

None of the people on this list have a full set of great-grandparents listed on WikiTree. In order for us to add this list to the Relationship Finder Quick Links page, each person on it needs to have at least one line going back as far as their great-grandparents (and preferably all eight great-grandparents).

Name Great-grandparents Connected Working on
Hopkin Bevan (Wales) 0 Yes
Horatius Bonar (Scotland) 4 Yes! Richard Shelley
Fanny Crosby (USA) 6 Yes
Charlotte Elliott (England) 2 Yes! Ros Haywood
Samuel T. Francis (England) 0 Yes!
William M. Hutchings (England) 2 Yes Ros Haywood
Martin Luther (Germany) 3 Yes
Francis Lyte (Scotland) 0 Yes RJ Horace
John Newton (England) 0 Yes!
Edward Perronet (England) 4 Yes!
Ira Sankey (USA) 2 Yes!
Horatio Spafford (USA) 4 Yes
Isaac Watts (England) 0 Yes!
Charles Wesley (England) 3 Yes

in Requests for Project Volunteers by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (679k points)
edited by Greg Slade

The task is to seek out, source, and add profiles for as many missing great-grandparents as you can find. As you take on a hymn writer, and add a new great-grandparent, please post a message here, so we can keep track of how we're doing.

If you can add sources, photos, or biographies, add siblings, children, aunts, uncles, etc., or improve the profiles of these hymn writers or their family members in other ways, so much the better!

This challenge isn't specifically about connecting unconnected branches, but rather about adding as many great-grandparents as you can find. Nevertheless, if you can connect one of the hymn writers who aren't already connected to the main tree, that would be a big benefit for WikiTree as a whole.

P.S. I'm not a WikiTree Leader, and have no authority to assign points, credit, or anything like that. My intent with these challenges is for them to be a fun little break from whatever you're doing regularly. (Well, that, and preparing lists of different kinds of notables for the Relationship Finder Quick Links page.) There's no time limit, there are no prizes, and if you have fun finding and adding relatives, then you win. (And WikiTree wins in any case, because the more connected profiles we have, the better the tree is for everybody.)

P.P.S. If this challenge intrigues you, and you think you might like to try finding great-grandparents for other notable people so they can be added to the Relationship Finder Quick Links page, you can find other threads in this series on the How to increase a country's presence on WikiTree page.

I can connect this thread to the Archivists thread.  Henry Maxwell-Lyte's grandfather wrote "Abide with me".

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lyte-30

It's a small world! I have added Francis Lyte to the list.
We studied all these people and more in High School when I was a Junior in 1978. Wonderful class!!

Charlotte Elliott now has two great-grandparents and is connected to the main tree. (Thank you, Ros!) That makes this challenge 18.4% complete in terms of finding great-grandparents, and 52.6% complete in terms of connecting hymn writers to the main tree.

Moving five hymn writers to the Verse 2 challenge improves the numbers on this challenge a little bit. It now stands in 12th place in terms of percent complete at 25.0%, and in 11th place in terms of great-grandparents still to find at 84.

Somebody added four great-grandparents for Edward Perronet, leaving this challenge tied for 23rd place in terms of percent complete at 26.8%, and tied for 24th place in terms of great-grandparents still to find, at 84. (Yes, it has lost a lot of ground in terms of places, mostly since so many other challenges pushed past it. But I did have to subract tow great-grandparents from Martin Luther, because I apparently accidentally counted "unknowns".)

9 Answers

+10 votes
I'll take on William Hutchings.  He came from Devonport, Devon, England - and a lot of my own ancestors came from there as well.  Some of them may even have known him...
by Ros Haywood G2G Astronaut (2.0m points)
Thank you, Ros.
Found his maternal great grandparents! Give 'em 24 hours, and they'll be connected!

W00t! yes

+10 votes
Just a note that Horatius Bonar connects tomorrow through his wives family.
by Richard Shelley G2G6 Pilot (247k points)
Thank you, Richard!

Thought you might like to know I came across William Henry Draper, who is currently unconnected. While he doesn't have any grandparents (or great grandparents), he'll be connected upon the completion of a merge

That's going above and beyond!

Richard, I have 6 of William Henry Draper's greats done, plus some lineage back for 8 gg,  and a bit more to add for 2 ggg, but you're welcome to pile in.

Sherrie
+11 votes
Fanny Crosby's tree has some issues. None of the profiles are sourced and I think the parents they have for her father are actually her mother's parents. At least her DAR lineage says so and I would think she knew who her maternal grandparents were. I've added sources to her mother's profile, but I don't have time to do much more on it.
by Janelle Weir G2G6 Mach 5 (54.7k points)
Wikipedia thinks Fanny herself (who was blind) may have been in denial about her parents being 1st cousins.  So there could be two versions of the truth here.
I should say that I never looked at the ancestors of any of these people. I was just looking to get at least a dozen hymn writers. (Trying to focus on people who wrote a lot of hymns, or who wrote hymns which are particularly well-known or beloved.)
Greg, that's fine. I wasn't critizing. It was more of an FYI if someone else was going to try and work on Fanny.
+9 votes

I will work on Ira David Sankey

by Janelle Weir G2G6 Mach 5 (54.7k points)
Thank you, Janelle!
OK, I think I've gotten as far as I can with Ira. He is now connected to the main tree and has all of his grandparents and two of his great grandparents. His grandfather Leeper was a first generation Irish immigrant so I don't think I'm likely to find records for his parents. His two grandmother's might be possible to trace, but since I haven't found any clues as to who their parents were it would probably take a lot of slogging through probate and Land records without any assurence of success.

Thanks for setting up this challenge! It was fun.

Thank you for connecting him, and adding the ancestors you've found. smiley

Thanks, Janelle.
My dear friend and mentor, Guy Buck, was a college friend of Ira David Sankey Kelly.  They continued their conversations via ham radio, over the years.
+11 votes
Oh, can I start on Isaac Watts?
by Tim Bahula G2G4 (4.0k points)
Absolutely, Tim! The more, the merrier!

Thank you to whoever connected Isaac Watts!

+7 votes

At long last, I found a birth date and place for Henry Francis Lyte's father, Thomas Lyte, whose name is listed on the Wikipedia entry for Henry Francis Lyte (among scads of other articles about him), but in all my looking, I've only found one place that lists Thomas' birthdate. And, ironically enough, that was an article written by Henry Francis' grandson, Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte, who is listed in the Quest for Great-Grandparents: Archivist Edition. It's a small world. (But I wouldn't want to have to paint it.)

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (679k points)
+7 votes

Thank you to whoever connected John Newton!

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (679k points)
+6 votes

Thank you whoever connected Samuel T. Francis!

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (679k points)
+5 votes
I connected Edward Perronet (Perronet-2) but didn't find any grandparents, the connection path zig-zagged all over beginning with his sister's daughter.  Is the chart above something I should update? If so I'm not sure where to do that.
by Lizzie Hill G2G3 (3.6k points)

Thank you, Lizzie! I see that I am 26 degrees from Edward Perronet on my father's side.

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