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The Parke Society Newsletter Issue 2006 - Vol. 42 No. 2 |
My search for our Parke/Parks ancestors began with an old newspaper article and fragmented stories my father told about his grandfather, Frank Rufus Parks, 1854-1941. The newspaper article stated that Frank ...
... Frank was a hunter/trapper/trader and participated in one of the Oklahoma Land Rushes, known as the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. Here, he maintained his homestead, continued in hunting/trapping and trading and opened a Jewelry store in Fairview, Major County, Oklahoma. ...
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.
We didn't know who Frank's parents were, nor where or when he was born. After spending countless hours on researching census and vital records for Parks, we found nothing. I turned to searching for information about the Landerkings. I found Henry listed in the 1850 census in Byron Twp., Kent County, Michigan. Here Henry was living with ...
... listings of Iowa Civil War unit histories and rosters. Volume III, lists Henry and two of his brothers-in-law in Co. D - 26th Iowa Infantry. Armed with this information, I was able to obtain Henry's Civil War Pension file from the National Archives Administration, as well as that of his brother-in-law, John Quick, who married George's sister, Jeanette Landerking. Contained in these files is a treasure trove of information. It turns out that Henry and Frank's mother's name was actually Lorena Kimball. From information gleaned from the pension files, we were able to assemble a time line as to Henry's whereabouts after his Civil War experience with bits of interesting information about Frank Rufus Parks.
...
This part of the search led me to "The Parke Society." At the public library in Phoenix,
AZ (where I was living), I found a copy of The Parke Society's Newsletters, volumes 1-25.
In the 1987 Newsletter, Volume 24, No. 1, page 1, is an interesting story,
"John Wesson Park—Pioneer in the Dakota Territory," by Harold R. Christenson PS#458.
John Wesson Park was the son of my Rufus Park from his previous marriage to Julia Dewey.
Mr. Christenson outlined Rufus' ancestry through John (6), Amaziah (5), Benjamin (4),
Robert (3), Samuel (2), to Robert Parke (MA 1630). This interesting story contains a
wealth of information, but Mr. Christenson did not have any information about what became
of Rufus.
... (page 17)
Wethersfield was indeed a home of Robert and his son Thomas for some years, but there are other nearby places that you should visit.
Our ancestor Robert followed his son-in-law, Rev. Hindman, to the port city of New London, where the first church services were held "by beat of a drum" in his new barn. I think there is a historical marker about this, on New Londonıs central park square. The old mill below the large bridge over the Thames River was originally constructed with timbers from Robert Parke's property, and with the participation of his son Thomas and perhaps others of his sons and maybe grandsons. The whole area surrounding New London, CT and up to Westerly, RI was thickly inhabited by early Parkes and their relatives on the female side, such as the Averys.
Robert himself is buried in the old cemetery under the edge of a major highway just north of Mystic, CT A notable monument marks his grave. Some of his immediate descendants may also be buried there, but most are probably buried in the Avery Cemetery at Preston (City). Very near the entrance of the old Mystic cemetery there used to be an old wooden mansion, red-painted when I saw it, several years ago, which was known as "Whitehall." This probably doesn't date back to the 17th century, but the fact that we know Robert's family in England lived at a place still known as Whitehall Farm or Park Farm makes me wonder whether this Connecticut house was related to the Parkes, at least sentimentally.
In the last footnote of Tad's excellent introductory article about Lineage Keys, in Vol. 42, No. 1, he says that Robert "purportedly" came in 1630 "with the Winthrop Fleet." I believe there is documentary evidence about this, probably located in historical or genealogical archives either in Boston (near which Robert first settled briefly), in Hartford, or in New London. A letter from him reserved passage in Winthrop's fleet for himself and his son Thomas and some "coues." This letter may be in an archive, perhaps the New England Genealogical Society.
Other historical items about Robert include the fact that at the then-advanced age
of 50, he went back to England to deal with the merchant group that sponsored Winthrop's
expedition, and returned with some privileges for the colony.
I'm sorry that Iım not in a position to confirm these facts by reference to the respective
archives, but I do believe that visitors to the Convocation should be interested in history
as well as genealogy, and should be encouraged to drive around some backroads between
New London, Mystic, and Westerly, RI, in order to get a feeling about our antiquity.
(page 21)
Indexing the Family Group Sheets [FGS]
In the last issue of the Newsletter we discussed how The Society organizes and keeps sorted out the various Park/e/s lines that have come to North America from the British Isles. While this clever scheme may at first seem unduly complicated, it has been a real blessing for The Society, and a lasting tribute to its originator, David L. Parke, PS#13. Hopefully the explanations in the last article have removed the mystery of what these Lineage Keys represent, and why they are so important to us as a research organization, an organization trying to sort out all the different lines and connect every member to the proper immigrant ancestor.
It's one thing to have this nice organization set up, but quite another to be able to find a particular ancestor quickly and efficiently. When I first came into the Society in 1980 as the Historian, we had Lineage Keys in the single letter block (A to Z), the double letter block (AA to ZZ), and in the AX to ZX group. Since David Parke, PS#13, and myself had intimate daily contact with the Lineage Binders, it was fairly easy for us to locate individuals, basically by raw memory. ...
The Givename Index has continued to grow and currently has well over 21,000 records in
the base file consisting of all Park/e/s surnamed individuals found on the Group Sheets
in the Lineage Binders. If they are shown in the Binders, then there should be
an entry in the INDEX. We continue to add to the Index as new family group sheets are
created, or existing ones are changed.
...
How we use the Index
When processing lineage papers, or any new materials that might be sent my way, I look for names, places, or dates that might clue me into the individual as we might have them in our current catalogue. If nothing comes to mind in that initial effort, I then turn to the Givename Index. My favorite starting point there is the spouse name. We have a lot of Johns, Georges, or Samuels, but hopefully only one of those Johns married Ann Grady in OH in 1844.
If I don't come up with any hits on the spouse name, I start to slice and dice the entries by location or year of events. Sometimes I have gone to a later generation and occasionally I find the connection there which will lead me back to the true parent and the true line, at least as how we perceive it in our Lineage Binders.
Of course, it is always possible that the individual we are looking for is not in our Lineage Catalogue. After 40 years of gathering records one would think that we had pretty well tracked down all of the existing Park/e/s on this side of the pond. Not so. New Park/e/s keep turning up here, there and everywhere. So faced with a new name, we set about creating a new Lineage Key, writing up family group sheets, and finally, indexing the entries into the Givename Index.
Remaining questions
I realize that some of you (perhaps many) are wondering why all of this information isn't already in a genealogical computer program. Probably the most straightforward answer to that question is that we have a terrible lot of information and the actual process of keying this data into some program would be very formidable indeed. While some lines are being put into a genealogical program, usually by the assigned Lineage Leader, most of our data remains in hard copy form on paper family group sheets. There are other issues here that have slowed us down from even starting a conversion. Some of them are technical, some practical. ...
It has been our practice, at least since I have been in The Society, always to bring the Lineage Binders to each Convocation. ...
We bring them so that the members can see for themselves just what all we do have.
They can look ...
(page 22)
Public libraries are an excellent Internet research source. Most of them subscribe to a professional genealogical service. This service allows the patron to browse through all the United States Census data from 1790 through 1930. Also check out the following website: http://www.heritagequestonline.com/prod/genealogy/images/censusbook/Section%201.pdf
This is a good source of information about the U.S. Census. It is a PDF copy of The Census Book: A Genealogist's Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules, and Indexes by William Dollarhide (Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 2000).
Section 1: Historical U.S. Censuses, Early Census Losses will tell you what censuses are really lost or unavailable anywhere. The entire Historical section is worthwhile reading because it contains interesting information about many of the censuses over the years.
Other recent census books are: ...
Missing Link Update
Robert Parks/Laban Parks (LK=WR) - additional information and a breakthrough!
This Missing Links first appeared in 2001 Vol. 38 #2, pp. 26-28, followed by an update in 2003 Vol. 40 #3, pp.40-41. I took a fairly active interest in this lineage because I mistakenly thought that it would be easy to trace Laban, which is not a common given name. I visited several historical societies in northeastern PA and eastern Ohio and everywhere I went, I found letters from Lola Spohn Nielsen, an early researcher, in their Park/e/s files. She was sure this lineage went back to Robert MA 1630, but she could not find the connection.
The Parke Society has been encouraging members, including those of an established
lineage, to consider providing DNA. DNA has established a 12/12 match for those of the
Robert Parks/Laban Parks group and additionally they match with PS# 1176 with ...
(page 26)
With new members joining the project weekly, our database now has eighty participants. At this rate I feel confident we will have at least one hundred members by the end of 2006. The support from our Parke Society members is most gratifying, and the resulting body of DNA evidence from all of these tests, combined with the lineage information compiled by the Parke Society and its members, is a boon to all Park/e/s researchers whether they are direct participants or not.
New 67-marker test from FTDNA
Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), our testing firm, recently introduced a new 59-marker test level, as announced in our last newsletter article. Somewhat surprisingly, they have now 'upped the ante', so to speak, by bumping that 59 marker test level up to 67 markers. If anyone has a 59 marker test on order, or an upgrade to the 59 marker level, FTDNA will automatically increase that test to the new 67 marker level. The price for the 67 marker test is the same as previously announced for the 59 marker test.
...
An analysis of the Robert (MA 1630) LK=T DNA results (with related LKs=GU-WQ-WR)
As an adjunct to Jean Churchill's Missing Link Update on p. 27-29, I will include some
analysis of the actual test result numbers of the above mentioned lineages. For the actual
lineage information on these lines, see the Missing Link Update article or visit the
"Results" page of the PARK/E/S DNA Surname Project website:
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/park-e-s
As Jean mentioned in her article, we have two tests in the database from known descendants
of Robert (MA 1630) LK=T. In addition, there are four tests in the database which show a
genetic connection to the LK=T line.
...
Though it can be frustrating when DNA testing seems to raise more questions than it answers, we need to step back occasionally and recognize how much we have already learned from this method of research. It is hard to know whether traditional research methods would ever have linked these seemingly disparate Park/e/s families, yet DNA testing has revealed that to us. Now it is up to us to find that connection, and whether it ultimately proves possible or not, genetic genealogy has provided us with an exciting new avenue to explore! (page 29)
Many and profuse thanks to all regular and new contributors to The Parke Society Newsletter. As we steadily catch up (with this issue, we're only one behind), it's gratifying to see how faithfully you all support the effort. I know it can be a chore for those of you with regular columns (Jean Churchill PS# 934, Ken Parks PS#1406, and Fr. Michael (Tad) Parks, PS#435) to double your normal output for this year: yet you never let it show. Your articles are spot on and vital to the Society. On behalf of the membership, I can't thank you enough.
Special thanks are due contributors who sent in individual articles, notably Kathryn E. ("Kay") Parke, PS#10 (yes, ten!), whose piece on some places of interest to descendants of Robert (MA 1630) should inspire some exploring by attendees at the 46th Annual Convocation in Wethersfield, CT. Our other contributor, Bob Blakeslee PS#1358, has the lead article this month for his interesting account of genealogical researches and lessons learned.
If you've got a story to tell of interest to the Society, please don't hesitate to
send it in. I may not be able to use it right away, but be patient: I will, I will!
(page 32)