Helen Keller once said, “A man can't make a place for himself in the sun if he keeps taking refuge under the family tree.”
Many of us have deeply desired to discover more about our Parker family our roots. But are we all climbing the right tree? The work goes much faster as we all connect and share information. That means we all get out into and enjoy the sunshine together. To this end, several of the Parker cousins thought it would be nice to form an organization that would keep us all up to date with all that is going on. And it fascinating and inspiring all the things that being discovered and verified.
So this blog was created to attempt to help us all as Parker Dependents climb the right Tree. the concern of one family member," I too have tried to untangle the new.familysearch.org mess. Several months ago, I began trying to separate combined records showing incorrect parentage for Joshua 1809 and Joshua 1778. After many, many, many hours separating combined records, I called the FamilySearch help-line and basically was told they could do nothing considering the amount of combined records. My main problem was that several records listed more than one set of parents, but were also linked to Druscilla or Sarah.
Some had both Joshua's being their own fathers, or showing Sarah as both wife and mother to the same person. Any attempt to separate that records only made more confusion, because the separation would 'create' another person to whom the spouse would be married to since the records contain other relationships. Their best suggestion was to contact anyone who had submitted a line with incorrect parents or other information instructing them to correct it. They were unable to do anything else and said they must consider each submission valid.
"I don't know if this is helpful to anyone, but I wondered if it might apply to our Joshua Parker (1778) who is sometimes referred to as a "junior"......... Apparently in colonial and early American times, the titles of Jr and Sr didn't necessarily mean a familial relationship. It could simply mean two people with the same name in the same area were being distinguished from one another using the titles in reference to their ages, the older being called Sr, and the younger, Jr. I came across this situation while researching a line in Virginia, and found these titles very confusing in a particular situation. A researcher more familiar with the area and time period than I pointed that out to me. So, my question is, where do we get that Joshua is a Jr? Is there anything on his father's first name? Does this change anything if we said his father was not a Joshua? Are their other familial possibilities? I'd love to hear any other insights on this!"
Parker Family research specialist Mr Smith replied to her question...
I don't know if this is helpful to anyone, but I wondered if it might apply to our Joshua Parker (1778) who is sometimes referred to as a "junior"......... Apparently in colonial and early American times, the titles of Jr and Sr didn't necessarily mean a familial relationship. It could simply mean two people with the same name in the same area were being distinguished from one another using the titles in reference to their ages, the older being called Sr, and the younger, Jr. I came across this situation while researching a line in Virginia, and found these titles very confusing in a particular situation. A researcher more familiar with the area and time period than I pointed that out to me. So, my question is, where do we get that Joshua is a Jr? Is there anything on his father's first name? Does this change anything if we said his father was not a Joshua? Are their other familial possibilities? I'd love to hear any other insights on this!
That question has puzzled everyone that has ever worked on the early Parker family. Jerry said he forwarded or attached two PDF books to his e-mail. Open the one titled “Joshua Parker a Family Chronology”. I asked that same question in the late 1990s, In 2005 when I was researching and writing the above thirty eight page booklet.
It appears on page eight (8). I also answered the question. The answer is a strong maybe or probably! There has never been a ‘negative’ response to Joshua born 1778, being a Junior. But would there ever be? There is no evidence that I’m not a junior either or that Jerry is not a junior. Until the father of Joshua born 1778 has been positively identified by some other sources, the information on page 8 is all we have to go on.
As to your thought that maybe it didn’t denote Father and Son but “Older and Younger” Well there were only two Joshua’s in NYC in 1810 (actually throughout all the early 1800s).
Joshua a Shoemaker (ours)
Joshua a Tailor (older than our Joshua)
Now, I did track these two Parkers and although they did move around in Lower Manhattan from 1802 through 1811. The shoemaker was mainly on the ‘Westside’ of NYC and the Tailor was mainly on the ‘Eastside’ of NYC (near city hall and where the Brooklyn Bridge would be built). I found nothing in common between them. If they had lived in the same neighborhood then maybe… but I doubt it.
Familial possibilities??? The oldest son is Daniel (I think). Joshua is in the middle son , and Talmadge was the youngest, followed by two daughters. Now, Joshua born 1778 named his oldest son Moses. Could this be after a father or grandfather??? Possibly, but Moses wasn’t used again in our Parker family. So I doubt it. I suspect that the father of Joshua born 1778 (that most people would call Joshua Sr.) was the immigrant Parker coming from Northern Ireland sometime in the middle 1700s. It would be, or is hard to predict a familial naming without knowing the family in Northern Ireland. Any thoughts or questions gladly accepted. Regards Bob
