Christopher Childs
Honor Code SignatorySigned 6 Nov 2016 | 23,897 contributions | 1,756 thank-yous | 2,152 connections
Signed 6 Nov 2016 | 23,897 contributions | 1,756 thank-yous | 2,152 connections
tested
Christopher Childs
Born 1940s.
Ancestors 
Son of Charley Childs
and Ellie (Jones) Childs
Brother of
Hank Childs, [private brother (1930s - unknown)], [private brother (1940s - unknown)] and [private sister (1940s - unknown)]
[children unknown]
Profile last modified
| Created 2 Oct 2016
This page has been accessed 6,450 times.
Biography
Christopher Childs is a writer/activist, and a sometime actor who has specialized in historically-based theatre, television, and film. He is the former National Speaker for the U.S. branch of Greenpeace, and is the author of The Spirit's Terrain: Creativity, Activism, and Transformation (Beacon Press, Boston); he served as a volunteer leader for the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club in Minnesota, and for the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society, between 2003 and 2010. He has toured nationally both for Greenpeace, and with the one-man show Clear Sky, Pure Light: an Evening with Henry David Thoreau, whose source material was published as a book by Penmaen Press in 1978. While he has been aware since childhood of the history of various branches of his ancestry – most notably, of his Quaker paternal ancestress Mary (Barrett) Dyer, and of his family's maternal Mayflower and Great Migration forebears – only in recent years has he delved seriously into the genealogical details.
A past thespian credit of his that may be of interest to genealogists with a particular focus on Salem and its infamous 1692 trials – especially those who have forebears who were victims of those proceedings – is his appearance in the mid-1980s PBS miniseries, Three Sovereigns for Sarah, which starred Vanessa Redgrave and vividly recreated the trials; he played the somewhat memorable, if appalling, Rev. Nicholas Noyes (see Noyes-531) of Salem Town. He was, perhaps fortunately, unaware at the time that he was a descendant of Susannah (North) Martin (see North-25), who was among those accused... and executed.
Now largely retired, in an average week, he devotes several-score hours to work on WikiTree, and is a member of the PGM Project Research crew.
Note: Christopher should not be confused with his near-namesake Christopher Child (no "s"), a well-known professional genealogist with the famous New England Historic and Genealogical Society. While Christopher Childs is a member of NEHGS, and aspires to meet professional standards in the results he logs on WikiTree, he does not think of his work as comparable to that of Mr. Child.
(It is however a curious irony that NEHGS is literally just up Boston's Newbury Street from Childs Gallery, the art gallery founded by Christopher Childs's father, Charles Dyer Childs, in 1937.)
Christopher Childs is a descendant of Mayflower Passenger Richard Warren.
Descendant of PGM migrant Elizabeth (Walker) Warren, Roger Williams, Mary (Barnard) Williams, Mary (Barrett) Dyer, William Dyer II, Lawrence Southwick, Cassandra (Burnell) Southwick, Susannah (North) Martin, George Martin, Obadiah Holmes, Katherine (Hyde) Holmes, Richard Ingersoll, John Ingersoll, Thomas Jones, Mary (Unknown) Jones, Francis Bushnell, Jr., Dea. Francis Bushnell III, Marie (Grombridge) Bushnell, William Dudley, Jane (Luteman) Dudley.
My WikiTree Directive
To aid WikiTree in the administration of my account should I be incapacitated, or in the event of my death, I hereby give permission for all private and public profiles I'm presently managing to be transferred to community members on my trusted list, or to the Leadership Team to be farmed out to any interested party or parties (format from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sheppard-2686)
Sources
- First-hand information. Entered by Christopher Childs at registration, with edits and additions at later dates.
Only the Trusted List can access the following:
- Christopher's formal name
- e-mail address
- exact birthdate
- birth location
- images (1)
- private siblings' names
- spouse's name and marriage information
DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships by comparing test results with Christopher or other carriers of his ancestors' Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA. Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships by comparing test results with Christopher or other carriers of his ancestors' Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA. Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree:
- Christopher Childs: Family Tree DNA Y-DNA Test 111 markers, haplogroup J-M172, FTDNA kit #636396
-
100.00%
100.00%
Christopher Childs:
Family Tree DNA Family Finder, GEDmatch T127155 [compare], FTDNA kit #636396
-
50.00%
100.00%
Peter Childs
:
23andMe
-
~1.56%
Scott Thies :
Family Tree DNA Family Finder, FTDNA kit #908579
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum posts about Christopher:
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Dec 5, 2022.
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Jul 24, 2022.
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Feb 2, 2022.
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Feb 27, 2021.
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Apr 11, 2019.
- Christopher Childs is a Wonderful WikiTreer Mar 20, 2019.
Featured National Park champion connections: Christopher is 12 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 17 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 12 degrees from George Catlin, 18 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 23 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 15 degrees from George Grinnell, 23 degrees from Anton Kröller, 15 degrees from Stephen Mather, 22 degrees from Kara McKean, 18 degrees from John Muir, 16 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 27 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
C > Childs > Christopher Childs
Categories: Mayflower Project | Mayflower Descendants on WikiTree
Thanks for your contributions to Puritan Great Migration (PGM) project profiles.
Like all WikiTree projects we check in with team members periodically to find out about their continued interest in the project. Would you please respond by February 5, 2024, to let us know about your interest:
Please respond to this comment on your profile, or if you'd like, send a private message to either Bobbie (Madison) Hall or S (Hill) Willson.
Thanks for all you do for PGM and WikiTree!
Regards,
Bobbie and Sharon, Co-Leaders, Puritan Great Migration Project
No current suggestions offhand for priorities but if I think of anything I'll let you know.
I have only just learned about the Southwicks, and am engrossed and appalled. My link to them is through the Hutchins, known to me for some time.
I am inspired to look into my Sawyer family's move from Lancaster to Connecticut, then up the Connecticut River to Vermont. I was never told about this specifically (like many, I waited for both parents' deaths before investigating!) but I assume they were not fervent Puritans.
My maternal grandmother was adopted by Mayflower descendants--she was the abandoned daughter of a domestic servant in their family. The father of my cousin, however, was descended from Alden and Mullins.
Perhaps it was sour grapes, but I know my Puritan family always felt superior to the rebellious Pilgrims...
Best, Margaret Shirley
What we don't know (because we don't have exact dates) is whether she left Nathaniel Sylvester's house before or after the Southwicks' deaths. Whether or no, it seems reasonable to me -- though it is clearly conjectural -- to think that their plight, and/or their deaths, my have weighed in her decision to return to Boston and confront Endecott one more time. In my imagining, I can envision that she might well have been more greatly angered by Endecott's treatment of the older couple than by his harshness toward her. But, again, we do not actually know the details.
What we do know is that my maternal and paternal Quaker ancestors met and, to whatever degree, got to know each other... 270 years before my parents met... in Boston. And I find this early connection both rather striking, and heartwarming.
More later....
Cheers, Christopher
Jean Barto here. I checked things on my end and revised the birthdate, marriage info, and death location for the William Williams profile (Williams-56194) we discussed last week. I have Zilpah Wilder as the only wife for William Williams. Please continue to do what you are doing on the profile. Are you certain about the parents for Williams-56194? I looked at William Williams/Miriam Tyler but did not revise anything. I have the same in my tree on Ancestry and on my iMac, but with our previous discussions I wonder if it is accurate. I hope my reaching out again today is helpful.
Thanks for contributing to Puritan Great Migration profiles over the last six months. Every little bit helps, so please keep those edits coming!
Like all WikiTree projects we check in with team members twice per year and it's that time again. Please respond within the next two weeks to let me know:
If you'd like to tell me about a particular project or family you're working on, I'd love to hear about that as well.
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message on WikiTree. I look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks!
Brad Stauf, PGM membership coordinator
Yes! -- I’m happy to continue as a member of the PGM Research crew.
I’m still spending anywhere from, say, 20-80 hours per week on WikiTree, but I’m afraid not much of it is visible to PGM folk. A lot of it (like the tree I’ve been immersed in for the last few weeks) consists in trying to connect downstream lines-of-interest far enough back upstream so they’re connected to PGM ancestors.
[The latest effort involves the tree of the wonderful, once-famous Maine author Louise Dickinson Rich (Dickinson-4598) -- a distant cousin of my Dickinson spouse, and an acquaintance of my own Maine-author aunt -- and her husband Ralph Rich (Rich-6214) -- a distant cousin of mine -- and I am now so far out in the branches that I’m not sure I remember how to get back to the trunk. :oP :o) ]
Discord, I’m afraid, just left me cold, and I haven’t checked in over there for more than three months. For slow-reading (and -writing) me, it was just one more chore to go to the site and try to sort out wheat from chaff. I’m much happier communicating via email (as in the reply note I just sent to Ken Nagel -- the fellow who just inquired about the rationale behind Solomon Keyes’s (Keyes-29) PGM status -- and copied to a pair of PGM group addresses, tho’ I’m not entirely sure whether both are functional, post-Discord). ... I at least skim every comment-related email I get via PGM, and save the ones that relate to profiles of particular interest. And once in a blue moon, respond.
That's the latest from out here in the T.C. (Minnesotan for Twin Cities). Still at it, even if my visible PGM appearances are limited.
Cheers, Christopher
Thank you for the feedback on Discord, some people enjoy it and are using it frequently and others are in your same boat, which is fine. The Google Groups are still active and used on a daily basis so we want to keep all communication channels running, we don't want to "force" people onto a particular platform. I like email too and use it as often as possible but I understand a lot of folks don't like spreading their email around since the spammers will always find a way to grab it. Oh well, the internet is a blessing and a curse.
Thanks again and have a good day! Brad
I have an Anna Anna Nichols on my tree and she has a bunch of ancestors. Just in case you haven't already checked them out. Good Luck, dusty
I replied to your message, I guess you didn't get it (yet)? I have too many profiles, about 2500. I would really appreciate it if you would take over as manager of any of the Nichol's profiles on your tree. Thanks, dusty
states that the master of Angel Gabriel was unknown. If you know otherwise, it would be great if you corrected the record (uncle to Burnham bros.) I have read about the ill-fated Angel Gabriel and would like to know the answer. Thanks.
John
Saw your recent comment at the Fuller-682 profile. I'm wondering if you're particularly familiar some of the early Fuller lines from colonial Massachusetts Bay. There are three Sarah Fullers on my mother's side....one of whom is a total mystery. Perhaps born in Plainfield, CT around 1780. This may be too far along. Just curious. I have more background if interested. Thanks. Dave Jenkins