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The Parke Society Newsletter Issue 2006 - Vol. 42 No. 1 |
Lineage Keys. What are they, how do they work, and why do we use them? As the title of this piece states, it's one of the greater mysteries of Parke Society operations. Basically, it's the way the Society has solved a problem that most family genealogists don't have to face: how to sort out the various Johns, Samuels, and Georges, of different ancestral lines, without losing our minds. Actually, they're not all that hard to understand, but it seems to baffle our membership to the extreme. So now we'll unravel this mystery, and give you all a secret decoder ring to understanding the Keys.
The Problem
The first thing we must realize is that there is no common thread or ancestry for all persons who bear the name Park, whether it is spelled with an "e," an "s," an "es," or as just plain Park. And you do need to bear in mind that up till the early part of the twentieth century, surname spelling was quite variable at that.
The surname was a late invention in terms of human identity. It arose of necessity as the population increased, and people started to come together in villages and towns. There had to be a way to distinguish, in every day social intercourse as well as official records, between this John, that John, and the other John down the road.
...
Keys to the Kingdom
As the society continued to grow and to gather information about various Park/e/s, two things became apparent. First, there were a whole lot more immigrant ancestors by the name of Park/e/s than we had anticipated. Each time we came across another immigrant Park/e/s, a new Lineage Key would be set up for them and their offspring. These are referred to as Immigrant Lines. ...
So the Lineage Key system expanded and now includes well over 250 different keys, documented in about 40 substantial binders in the Society's Milwaukee office.
Family Group Sheets (FGS)
And so we have Lineage Keys. Now come the Family Group Sheets. Let's take Richard, Lineage Key "R" as our working example. All the group sheets for Richard have the letter R in the group sheet number. The first group sheet is for the immigrant (or founder if a fragment line), and we place in front of the Lineage Key the Generation Number, starting with the first generation. In our example, Richard himself is the first generation of that line to appear on our shores, so the Generation Number for him is "1." Following the Lineage Key is a purely... (page 1)
AP (#1406 - Ken Parks, DNA Admin.) Henry Parks (c1800- ...
FP (#1452) Jonathan Parks (c1785- ...
XQ (#1415) John Park/es (bef 1800 - ...
EV (#1010 and #1446) James Parks (c1728 - ...
(page 5)
It's an exciting time for this lineage (LK=WR). We now have several probable connections within our current membership as well as from incoming members. Two members from the established Robert (MA, 1630) lineage have participated in our DNA project and the results may prove to be very interesting to the Robert/Laban group. Watch for more definite information from myself and our DNA Administrator Ken Parks in the next issue of our Newsletter. (page 5)
I'm happy to announce that we now have seventy (70!) members in the Park/e/s DNA surname project, and we seem to be adding new members on a weekly basis! At this pace, we may be able to reach our goal of doubling the number of tests in our database by the end of 2006. I'd especially like to thank our Parke Society members, as the majority of recent tests are from our own membership—thank you for your support!
New look for our Webpage
I invite everyone to take a look at the project's webpage, as we have recently made changes which I hope will show the information more clearly:http://www.familytreedna.com/public/park-e-s
The grid showing the test result numbers now has matching tests grouped and color-coded to make comparisons easier, and the results page showing each participant's lineage information has been reformatted to match the results grid. Please note that the webpage now uses tabs at the top of each page to navigate the site, rather that being on one page as before.
New 59-marker test from FTDNA
Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), our testing firm, recently introduced a new 59 marker Y-DNA test and lowered the prices on some existing tests. While I do not yet have specific information on how much further this new 59 marker test will allow us to refine our ability to find the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA), needless to say the addition of 22 markers should prove quite valuable. ...
Reaching beyond "The Big Pond"
One of our goals as family historians is to trace our ancestral lines back to our
immigrant ancestors and beyond. DNA testing can be a valuable tool in this
search for cousins overseas, and we are going to be making efforts in the coming months to
find Park/e/s descendants in England, Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere to join our DNA
surname project.
...
An Analysis of the Roger Parke (NJ, 1682) LK=K DNA test results.
As of this writing, there are thirteen test participants in the Park/e/s DNA database who show a common genetic link. Most can trace their ancestry back to Roger (NJ, 1682) through his two sons, Roger II and ... (pages 6 - 8)
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb, copyright by Broadway Books, 2004.
Many of our Parke Society members trace their Park/e/s and other ancestors to Northern Ireland, reflecting a Scots-Irish heritage. The history of the Scots-Irish may be well known to some of our members, while others may be less familiar with that story, both overseas and in America. I could certainly include myself among the uneducated prior to reading this book. James Webb, the author of six best-selling novels, is also a filmmaker (Rules of Engagement), an Emmy Award winning journalist, and has taught literature ... (page 8)
Our library is available to all active Parke Society members. If you have a question about a particular book or manuscript, please contact me at the above snail or email addresses. Please provide your Parke Society number when requesting information. I'm willing to search a particular volume for your ancestor but my success will greatly depend upon the amount of information you are able to provide. Name of spouse, geographic location, and time period are very helpful.
Two new manuscripts have been added to our library:
Armstrong, Colonel (Ret.) Jimmy D. Descendants of King Cyrus Alexander "KCA" Park, Sr. 2006. 000/ARM
A longer review of this excellent material will appear in a future newsletter. The Missing Link for this lineage appeared in 2000 (Vol. 40, No. 3, p.36). Mrs. Melinda McGregor, PS# 1095, and Mrs. Janie Roesner, PS# 1228, are descendatants of this line.
Harmon, Shirley A. James and Elizabeth Davis Parks: Ohio Pioneers pub. November, 1999. 000/HAR; (LK=TZ); Index; (Loan fee: $3.).
The Missing Link for this lineage appeared in 2001 (Vol. 38, No. 1, p. 8) as well as in a book review of James Parks (1781-1861) and Elizabeth Davis (1782-bef.1860), edited by Lois Iams Blake. It was followed up by an article written by W.W. Parks, PS#1367, and his brother R.R. Parks, which appeared in 2001 (Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 39). ...(page 9)
The Chattanooga Park family (descended from the K line of Roger (NJ, 1682) through John I and John II) reunion of 2005 really began in 2004 when, with a few first cousins, we cobbled together a reunion of first cousins, and managed to interest some third and fourth cousins at the same time. This event was enthusiastically received, and in the effort to pull cousins together, it became evident that there were a great many cousins in the Chattanooga vicinity. We also became aware of the Park Family Reunions of 1918 through 1923 from newspaper articles, complete with the group photos. At this reunion, the seeds were planted to resurrect the type of reunion held long ago, but little did I know what I was getting into!
...
... We ended up with cousins coming from Washington State, California, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, and throughout the southeast. The attendance numbered about 115, counting the various parts of the reunion they attended.
Even though we over-scheduled activities at our reunion, I was proud of the things we attempted. Our base was a hotel in Chattanooga, from which we made an interesting trip to Frank Shaw, Jr's historical homestead in Kensington, Georgia, a few miles west of Lafayette. About half the participants made the trek to Kensington, and all who made it were thrilled. Frank has preserved the homestead of his great-great-grandparents, ... (page 11)
For several years, I have been trying to discover more about the ancestry of my great grandfather, John E. Parkes, who was born in 1826 and died 27 Feb., 1899. He is buried in Flint Cemetery, Belle Rive, Jefferson Co, Illinois. My searches on the internet put me in touch with a distant cousin, Sandy ... (page 14)
This museum located in the village of Erin (Chemung Co, NY) on the corner of State Route 223 and Rodbourn Place. It is open Sundays, June 4th to September 24th from 2-4 p.m. The Museum will be open by appointment for research or just to visit by contacting Patricia Wainwright, Curator (607-7391642) or by email: rodopat@juno.com. This year's exhibit is "Churches and Religions of Erin." This includes a large file of James Smith's (a Park descendant) research on the Erin Methodist Church. This will be of interest to those Parke Society members who are descendants of this Park lineage who came to Erin from New Jersey. (page 16)