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The Parke Society Newsletter Issue 2007 - Vol. 43 No. 3 |
You've read about our plans to hold the 44th Convocation on September 27-30 at Chatanooga in the previous edition of this Newsletter. and our agenda just keeps getting better. Please do plan on being there with us! We’ll send out a special mailing so you’ll have one of the nice brochures from the Chatanooga Choo Choo, selected as our lodging. We’ll also post the announcement and agenda on our Web site, together with links to the Hotel’s Web site and visitors page.
New additions to the agenda include a Saturday morning symposium "Park/e/s in the South: Where They Came From, Where They Went" and a special visit to Chickamauga Battlefeld. As in the past annual meetings, we’ll have our Society resources to research our lineages and learn the latest information on our DNA project. There will be an á la carte menu for our Banquet and Reception on Saturday night. You can also extend your stay so you’ll have time to do additional genealogy research in Chatanooga, take a river boat cruise, shop for antiques, or just enjoy the fall scenery in the area. While at the hotel, you have some great railroad memorabilias to explore as well as a large HO model railroad layout.
As it stands, the registration will be a total of $85 for the full event, which includes the reception on Thursday evening, and the reception and banquet on Saturday evening. The hotel accommodations are $87 for rooms (single or double) and $137 for Rail Cars plus applicable sales and hotel taxes. There will be a short à la carte menue for those who might just be coming for the Saturday events. If you don’t receive a packet by the end of July, email Fr. Michael Parks right away at 70741.2122@compuserve.com and he’ll be sure to get one off to you immediately. Please be aware that it is in your interest to pre-register for the Convocation so we can have your individual materials with us and best be able to help you all.
Hope to see you there!
(Page 33)
Coloniel Bill is a direct descendant of Dr. Roger Parke, Sr. (LK=K). He and his son are outstanding researchers of the Ebenezer Park (1747-1839)/Tabitha Mills (1752-1826) branch of this lineage. Early newsletters have published parts of the meticulous research undertaken by him and his son, Doug, PS#1305 (who has now published his book). William is also participating in our DNA project.
However, our interest here is centered on "Coloniel Bill" and The Honorable Order of Kentucky Coloniels. This order, founded in 1932 by Govener Ruby Laffoon, now is officially incorporated as a charitable organization. The Govener and the Lieutenant Governer of Kentucky serve as the Commander-in-Chief and Deputy Commander-in-Chief respectively. All officers serve without remuneration.Pequot Plantation. The Story of an Early Colonial Settlement by Richard Radune (Research in Time Publications, Branford, CT, 2005), has been donated to our Society Library by PS#914 Mrs. Elaine Burney. This softcover book of 349 pages has a table of contents, bibliography, notes, an excellent index, a map of the general area as it was in the 1600s and a Table of English Colonial Money and Measurements. Genealogies and stories of several families are included.
...
Robert Parke had been given land on both sides of the Mystic River, but about 1654 moved to the east side after working out a deal with his son-in-law Rev. Richard Blinman. One of Rev. Blinman’s grants was on the east side of the river, too far from his New London Meeting House, so he exchanged this land for Parke’s New London property. Robert Parke’s barn had already been purchased by the town and converted into a makeshift meeting house for religious services and town functions. The author also covers other surnames and their properties in detail....
The author points out that the maritime route established in the 1600s along the
Thames River from Allyn’s trading post down to the harbor has now developed greatly.
Yale University and Harvard University both have boat houses not far below the site
of the traiding post. Continuing down to Groton where the Naval Submarine New London
Base is located, one comes eventually to the United States Coast Guard Academy, and
beyond that the New London Harbor area. Mr. Radune stresses the importance of learning
our country’s inception and early history because as he quotes the historian David
McCollough, "a nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual
with amnesia."
(pages 35-40)
The Descendants of Hugh Alexander Park
Mrs. George Mack (Jeannie) Park PS#1344 is the researcher of this lineage. Her husband has participated in the Parke Society Volunteer DNA project and the results have shown a 67-marker match with PS#848. This is the Alexander Park lineage (LK=KY) John Park Gordon, who lived in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. However, Jeannie is still searching for the paper trail link.
Hugh Alexander Park was born ...
Hugh served in Company G, 3rd Alabama Regiment—Capt. Hassell's Company from April 19, 186(4?) until his death from pneumonia. This was a company of seniors—Hugh was 47 and enlisted under H.A. or Alexander Park for the duration of the war. There is only one roster card in his records, and he received no pay....
Hugh Alexander Park/Margaret C. "Peggy" McDaniel had seven children: ...
Jeanne Park has provided excellent documentation as well as including research from others
who are searching the given names Hugh Alexander or Alexander, and also Robert. For more
information in this Missing Link, please contact Mrs. jeanne Park, 1220 Little Florida Rd.,
Farnham, VA 22460-2021 or Jean Churchill, sdtjs2001@yahoo.com.
(page 41)
Robert Parks/Laban Parks (LK=WR)
I was very surprised and honered to receive The 2005 Annual Lola Parks Spohn Nielson Award
from the Robert and Labon Parks of Ohio Group in December 2006. Mary Jane Perisho designed the
Haw Tree flower which appears on the plaque. This unique design represents the land actually
called "haw Patch" by the early settlers, and a tract of property that the Parks family purchased
and lived on in Indiana. Lola Spohn Nielsen was the first active researcher of this lineage and
was convinced that the ancestry went back to Robert MA 1630. I found her letters in a number of
genealogical research files on my travels here in the east and wish I could have met her in person.
So far, the DNA results point to the likelihood that Robert/Labon is part of the Robert MA 1630
lineage. I know she would be pleased that her research is being carried on by this active group
which now has a Web site and a newsletter.
(page 42)
Long-time member, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award in 2000, Jean Carolyn Churchill, PS#934, has announced her resignation as Society Librarian and Trustee for Region III. Jean has held these positions for a number of years, and rendered a great service to The Parke Society.
...
Jean was recruited by the former newsletter editor, David L. Parke, PS#13, not long after she became affiliated with the Society, and was soon the authority for all things concerning the Society’s library operations. Previous library experience enabled her to quickly set up a book accessioning and loaning logistics and give us a very smooth-running closed-circulation library.
Jean’s comprehensive knowledge of our library holdings was a big plus. With that in hand, she was usually able to steer individual members to books that might be of use or interest to their work, thereby saving them much time and effort. She further helped the Society by being present at just about every convocation with an appropriate selection of books, pamphlets, and other materials pertinent to the location and focus, and geared to those members who had registered for the convocations.
Her extensive knowledge of our lineage binder system, and the many lines we are currently tracking was a super assistance to me as the Historian, in that she could often directly help members who came into the research room during our convocations.
If that were not enough, Jean has over the years compiled a number of "Missing Link" articles, putting into print what we know about the various fragment lines for consideration and review by the Society’s wider membership.
... Thank you, Jean, for your efforts over the years, and a job well done. You have helped in
a large fashion to make the Society what it is today.
(page 42)
We are pleased to announce that Ronald Neil Parks, PS#1458, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, has volunteered to assume the duties of Registrar for the Parke Society and was unanimously elected to that post, effective 1 June 2007. He will succeed R. Dan Park, PS#1422, who passed away unexpectedly on 1 February 2007. Dan held the post since late in 2003.
Ron is the fifth generation of one of those fragment lines, this one being Lineage Key "GP" that starts with John Parks (b. ca. 1830) and Rebecca Gibbs (ca. 1834-ca. 1915), thence to David William2 Parks, William Wesley3 Parks, Walter Charles4 Parks, and to Ronald Neil Parks....
He remains very active as a volunteer at the Huntingdon County Historical Society research library. Recently he started collecting and sorting information they have on the various Park/e/s lines in Huntingdon County, some of whom were there when the county was formed in 1787. Currently his two main focuses of research are the Hugh Parks family of Franklin County (trying to find a connection to John), and the family of David Park/s who probably died in 1828 or 1829, based on tax records.
... (page 43)
We know have 114 participants in our database, with new members continuing to join every month. As the 2007 Convocation approaches in September, I am preparing a comprehensive report on the status of each group in the project to submit to the Society, and we will publish that report in a future issue of this newsletter.
I will list below the Lineage Keys (LKs) currently represented in the project and, as always, invite any member who does not see their LK represented to either join the project themselves (if eligible to donate a DNA sample) or contact a male Park/e/s relative who would be able to submit a DNA sample representative of your particular Park/e/s line.
Even if you do see your LK in the list below, we welcome your participation, as more members from each LK help to identify branches on the family tree.
[Forty LKs are listed, indicating the earliest ancestor off that lineage, and the number of
the DNA project participants of that lineage.]
... (page 44)
Right now, our avocation of genealogy seems to be at its zenith. We generally have available to us more resources, both in type and volume, than we probably have had since people started to ask, Who are my forebears? But as I said in my last piece, the continued existance of these resources is not by any means guaranteed. They are threatened by a number of circumstances.
In the last issue, I talked about libraries and societies, how they are important to us, and why we need to keep vigilant in making sure they don’t disappear from the landscape. In this piece, I want to talk about some resources that can be very important to us, and are often on the endangered list.
Dead men don’t vote—but do tell tales.
The real hole in our research efforts comes in the form of cemeteries, And that is because most of us are probably under the mistaken notion that cemeteries are permanent. That may not be the case with any cemetery, and especially for "private" cemeteries that are located on private land. And believe me there are a lot of those, especially in the eastern part of the United States. Belatedly, the Society has awakened to the fact that this grave (pun intended) misunderstanding of this situation could and does have dire consequences. The rude awakening came about by two separate cases.
The first situation related to Robert Parke (MA, 1630) burial plot in Mystic, CT. It is a small ...
I could go into quite a treatise concerning the "law of Cemeteries," but the long and short of it is that the statutes contain less than one might think. ...
...
However, there are some things you, the individual members, can do, and especially affiliations of members who have a common interest in a particular burial plot, such as Robert, Richard (MA, 1635), Roger, or whoever: [four guidelines are detailed].
In the next issue, I’ll discuss some further sources of information that are very
important to our avocation of genealogy, and the threats that exist to its continued
availability, post-9/11, with Homeland Security and the rise of identity theft.
(page 46)
Over the years, it has come to our attention that some members have dropped off our active list because of dues non-renewals, or apparent changes in address with no forwarding address available. Resources now available on the Internet have given us the ability to go back and check on these members, and we have discovered that a number of them have passed on. We extend our sympathy, sometimes belatedly, to the surviving family members.
[Nine former members, PS#s 466, 771, 706, 1051, 735, 106, 379, 475, and 197 are recognized, including our own brief obituary.]
(page 48)