Thumbnails of the Contents of
The Parke Society
Newsletter Issue 2002 - Vol. 39 No. 2

Parke Society 2002 Convocation Set for July 25-28 in Arlington, VA

This year our convocation will have a new format, in the language of the flyer, "specially planned to afford a maximum of time to take advantage of the great genealogy resources in the city of our Nation's Capitol."
... (page 1)

James Parks Last Will and Testament

by Jean Churchill PS#934
Parke Society member C. Carson Parks PS#745 (descended from John Parks (1733-1788) of York Co., PA) of Waynesville, Haywood Co., NC, brought a copy of this Will and its envelope to our Salisbury, NC Parke Society Convocation in July of 2000. It had been found behind a baseboard in a house and given to him by Betty Worley of Haywood County. ...

James Parks was born in 1810 in Mecklenberg Co., North Carolina, and died in 1897 in Haywood Co., NC. The lineage key given was MX, a provisional line which has been merged into the "K" lineage of Roger Parke (NJ 1682).
... (page 17)


Some thoughts from Your Editor

Since I became editor, several correspondents have commented that they weren't sure what address to use to contact the Society. They just picked one of the addressees identified in the Newsletter, at the bottom of the second page of each issue or elsewhere. That is in fact the correct procedure to follow.
... (page 18)


In Memory

Patricia Gagan Parks
...
Charles Edward Wingate #1119
... (page 19)


Congratulations, Centenarian!

Our very warm congratulations to Mrs. Alice Crandall Park #466 ... a descendant of Nathan Park. ...In 1975 Alice C. Park in cooporation with Avis Park Voss, published Park/e/s and Bunch on on the Trail West, with Allied Families: Benton, Duvall, Foster, Greenwall, Jones, Loveless, and Tally (432 p., indexed, with charts: Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore).
... (page 20)


My First Convocation

By Barbara Parkes Kohler #1365 (LK=WQ)
Having just joined the Parke Society, I was thrilled that the Convocation was planned for Ft. Wayne, Indiana, July 26-29, 2001. (See Newsletter, 2001 Vol 38 No. 3, page 40, 41, and 44.) Since my cousin ... lives in Ft. Wayne, and it's been 18 years since we were together, this would be a wonderful opportunity to see her while being a part of the Parke Society activities. We recently discovered we were both doing family research from various parts of the country. Our dads have one sister left in Connecticut so time is of the essence in gathering information from her. I had to do some finagling wth my work schedule, but off I flew to Ft. Wayne via Chicago.

For some reason, I had the Parke Society address in my files since the late 1970s. After my mother ... died in December 1998, I discovered a July 1966 issue of the Park/e/s Family News. That year the annual meeting was in North Stonington, Connecticut (my birth state), and David L. Parke was president. I don't know why Mother never joined, but she kept the publication in her family notes.

The Ft. Wayne Convocation gave me an opportunity to learn about the Society and to observe the corporate meeting. As a new member, I needed to know about the By-Laws, the organizational structure, the various offices, and the profit and loss statements. Even more, it was interesting meeting all of you and listening to your various stories and the unique ways you've procured information needed to complete your family trees.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Allen County Library and researching in the Genealogy Library. The tour of the Lincoln Museum was indeed an interesting journey back in time. The highlight for me was the presentation
... (page 20)

(We note: The 2003 Convocation, to be held the last week of September in Ft. Wayne, was overwhelmingly approved at the 2002 Arlington Convocation Trustees meeting. Please see "Announcements" elsewhere in this Web site.)


Research in the New York State Archives and County Seats

By Jean Churchill #934, Librarian
Orange County, New York, is an important area for genealogy because of its geographical location. It has a very active genealogical society which is located in the 1841 Historic Courthouse at Goshen. The Orange County Genealogical Society is not only very researcher-friendly, but also presents a yearly series of lectures. ...

... One of his opening comments was, "If you are not having trouble with your New York roots, you are doing something wrong!"
... (page 21)


Dana Parks Jr. Memorial Circulating Library

By Jean Churchill #934, Librarian
(Four new books are reviewed.)
...our Newsletter Editor, and also a 6thcousin to these researchers, will be reporting more fully on this excellent manuscript in future issues.

I was very much impressed with the following statement written by Doug Park on the appreciation of one's family history: "Whether or not the blood of these ancestors flows through your veins is immaterial in many respects to the realization that the most important, though least recognized need of the human soul, is to be 'rooted' - whatever your lineage may be. The more you know about your ancestry, the more you will come to value and understand about yourself and the role your own family played in the history of America and the land from which they came."
... (page 22)


Possible Irish Roots of Hugh Parks of Rowan Co., N.C.

by Percival D. Park #140
In the last Newsletter (2002 Vol. 39 No.1, p. 1), we considered Hugh Parks (Sr.) (1716-1780) (LK=FT) of old Rowan county, N.C., and his family, as presented in a book by Hugh's descendent Mrs. Betty Jo McDowell Garrett #1028 of Salisbury, N.C., Hugh Parks (1716-1780 of Rowan county., N.C., First Five Generations (2001). We focused particularly on evidence indicating that Hugh and his wife Margaret Young Parks were from Ireland, and that Hugh therefore is the immigrant ancestor for this lineage. We had planned to continue our account of the family with an article on the family of Hugh Parks, III, grandson of Hugh, Sr. However we now intend to save that for another time, as some interesting new information has come to light. ... (page 23)


Learning About My Father: Part 2

by David L. Parke #13
As I left the story in the last issue (2002 Vol. 39 No. 1), my father, Rev. Hervey Coke Parke, Jr. (formerly Hervey Willard Parke), was the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. The doctors had found him to be with tuberculosis that they considered would be terminal within a year. The climate and services at the TB sanitarium to the east of San Diego, California, might prove helpful. So he was soon moved out there.

A local clergyman, the Rev. Dr. John Gayner Banks, D.S.T., often visited the sanitarium and thus met Father. Several years earlier Dr. Banks had moved to the United States from England.
... (page 24)


Family of Rev. Hervey Coke (Willard) Parke, Jr. (1873-1951)

JOHN PARKE (b. 1760, Chatham, CT; Rev. War; d. 1819, Manlius, NY), 6th gen. desc. of Robert Parke (MA 1630) (Thomas2, Nathaniel3, Joseph4,5), marr. (1784) Bathiah Smith (b. 1762, d. 1802, both at Middle Haddam, CT). John and Bathiah had five children, including:
... (page 26)


A Shackleton Connection

by Kathryn E. Parke #10, wth additions by Percy Park #140
Recently revived interest in the life and exploits of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) (two or three books, including Caroline Alexander's The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expidition (1998), and Shackleton's Way (2001), by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell; a National Geographic article; a documentary motion picture, "Endurance"; and most recently, another made-for-TV film, "Shackleton," with Kenneth Branagh in the title role, A&E Network, Apr. 7, 2002) sent me back to some records I've squirreled away concerning my great-grandmother, Mary Shackleton Park, the wife of Benjamin(8) Park of the family Robert Parke (MA 1630)(1), in the line of Thomas(2), (3), (4), Josiah(5), Thomas(6), and Daniel(7).

Mary's original Shackleton immigrant forebear is said to have come to New Jersey many years before Sir Ernest's birth, so we may not claim any closer cousinship with the explorer than the sharing of a name--a name which is not very common.

Information about Sir Ernest is available from many sources. He was born in 1874 at Kilkee, County Clare, on Ireland's west coast.
... (page 28)


My Adventures on the Internet

By Barbara Parkes Kohler, #1365 (LK=WQ)
Grandparents: Edmund Henry Parkes, Jr. & Jane Evans Parkes

When Ellis Island website became a reality in 2001, a new route was open to me to check on my grandparents, Edmund and Jane Parkes (and their first two children) who arrived in the United States in 1910 on the Lusitania from Liverpool, England. However, when I typed in the Parkes name there was no listing. My dad's only living sister gave me the name of the ship and the date of its arrival. After much checking, I learned that my aunt apparently forgot to mention that my grandparents took the name of Yarrington (Grandpa's stepfather's name). ...

I plugged in the name Yarrington, Edmund and Jane and children, Edmond III and Beatrice. Success! There on the screen was the confirmation I needed for my family research.

I requested a copy of the ship passenger arrival record from the National Archives ($17.25 fee). The ship registry contains a wealth of information, including family name, given name, age, marital status, calling or occupation, ability to read/write, nationality, race or people, last permanent residence, name/complete address of nearest living relative or friend where originated, final destination, whether having a ticket to final destination, who paid the passage, whether in posession of $50 or, if not, what amount, whether ever been in the U.S. before and if so when and where, whether going to join a relative or friend and their complete name/address, ever in prison, whether a polygamist, whether an anarchist, health conditions, mental and physical, deformed or crippled, height, complexion, color of hair and eyes, marks of identification, place of birth, etc. With this information, I discovered Grandpa had been to the U.S. before, in 1886 (as a child).
... (page 30)

Queries

John and Nancy Barr Parks of Orange Co., IN Ms. Charlene Cleveland Shields seeks information about her ancestor John Parks (LK=RZ). John may have been born during the period 1795-1804. ...

Moses Parke (LK=K) Book Wanted Rollie W. Taylor #900 would very much like to buy a copy of the out-of-print book Moses Park 1738-1828, His Descendants and Related Families Vaughn and Wilcher (1991: Gateway Press, Inc.), by Clara Cammack Park and Wilbur Goolsby Park, Sr.
... (page 32)

 

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