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Archiver > WHITNEY > 2004-07 > 1088689454


From: "Mike and Annette Poston" <>
Subject: 2004 Reunion
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 09:44:14 -0400


Although attendance at the 2004 reunion was very much smaller than that in
2002, it proved to be an enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable experience.

We began with a social hour and dinner on Friday evening (June 25). Under
the direction of Robert Ward as M.C., this was followed by a general
introduction of attendees and a brief self-delivered biography. The
principal discussion of the evening was that of Allan Green who talked a bit
about the history of the Whitney Research Group and the greatly appreciated
assistance of its supporting panjandrums (among others): Jon Aston (the
Whitney gedcom database), Jeanne Muse (a long-time database provider),
Michael Whitney (listowner of the WRG), Robert Ward (editor and massager of
the website), and Tim Doyle (provider of the webserver for the website).
Allan then talked a little about his own database and his continuing goal of
combining and correcting all Whitney vitals from New England (especially
Massachusetts). His current project is the locating and identifying all the
marriages of Whitneys and Weatherbees in four towns in Massachusetts. It is
extraordinary how many intermarriages there are between these two kindreds
(often, as a result, the marriages are between cousins).

On Saturday morning, there were two discussions that held most of the group
enthralled. Robert Ward (as low key a speaker as you could ask for)
reviewed what is known about the ancestry of John Whitney, the Puritan
immigrant. As the calmly and quietly presented material began to
accumulate, it was obvious to us that Robert has made a series of really
important
deductions, some based on the genealogical explorations commissioned by
Tim Doyle and made by Paul Reed (author of the paper which complements
the criticism by Donald Lines Jacobus of the published ancestry of John
Whitney). But it is the insight of Robert which seems to have presented the
probable ancestry of John through his father Thomas and his father Robert
(but not the Robert who married Sybil). It is for Robert to present the
details of this exciting work on the website, so I'll not try to outline it
further.

The second discussion on Saturday morning was by Whitney Keen who has been
coordinating the Whitney DNA project. It is early days for this project,
but it is clear that there are at least three kindreds showing up in the
haplotypes of these DNA analyses, those of John, those who are from Henry
and Samuel, and others. Whitney made a good case for more people who are
Whitneys on paper (i.e., whose genealogy is good enough to point to a given
line) to help flesh out the different groups and, for those who have no clue
as to what
ancestral line they may link to, there is a good chance that knowledge of
which group
they belong to may give them a method of seeking further connection.
Whereas there
are quite anumber who descend from John and Elinor, there are only a handful
who come
from Henry and Samuel. (It is from this handful that she suggests that
Henry and Samuel are closely related and not as closely related to John.
That may be so, but the statistics are based on such a small sample that
drawing that conclusion is fraught with peril.)

In the afternoon of Saturday, Ken Whitney discussed military records (what
they are and the wheres and the hows of obtaining them) and showed how he
had made use of them in writing up the family history of his own line of
Whitneys.

Robert Croxton Whitney then discussed the relatively recent emergence of
double barrelled names, i.e., those folks who use hyphenated surnames. He
provided a generous sample of folks in entertainment (calling on movie
credit lines) to illustrate his points.

In the evening, many members of the group took advantage of the concert of
the National Orchestral Institute being held on the neighboring campus of
the University of Maryland. They reported that the affair was excellent and
featured works by Lutoslawski (a modern composer) and Berlioz. The
Washington Post reviewer generally agreed with them, but, in the manner of
critics everywhere, had to show an ability to find a fault or two.

On Sunday morning, Robert Ward discussed the future of the WRG web site and
some of his dreams for the future. His audience agreed that his dreams were
wonderful, but short of having an army of volunteers to assist in the
laborious tasks, they probably should remain dreams if Robert is to have any
life other than that of restructuring the website. If it were not for the
wonderful search engine on the website, the audience might have been more
supportive of his dream.

Finally, the few remaining attendees discussed Ken Whitney's frustrated
attempts to deal with Josiah Whitney and his puzzling family. Ken seems to
feel that we helped, but it is probable that the mere exercise of
marshalling his thoughts was enough to help him toward a different approach
or two. Whether we helped or not, the discussion was enlightening and
revealed a few ideas to the audience that were not previously considered for
their own research.

The week-end was very good and it was a great pleasure to renew
acquaintances with cousins and meet a couple of new ones.

Mike Poston
Rockville, Maryland

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