2015 February Board Agenda

Latest revision as of 00:36, 15 February 2015

[edit] January 2015 Annual Board Meeting Agenda

The annual board meeting of the Dunham-Singletary Family Connections Association is scheduled
for Saturday, 15 February 2015 at 1:00 pm Pacific – 4:00 pm Eastern. If you would like to attend
the conference call please Contact Jeff Dunham at: jeffreymdunham@gmail.com

The Agenda for the meeting is as follows:

Item 1 - Secretarial Report

Minutes from the 2014 Meeting

Passing of John L Dunham Board Member and Secretary 3 Nov 2014

Gratia received a call today from John's son David about his passing

Resignation of of Lloyd E. Dunham

I believe it is time for me to relinquish my position on the board. I have not been at all active to the benefit of the DSFC organization and as only one of two Canadian members have obviously been ineffective as a recruiter. I'm approaching my eighty-fourth birthday and find I am not even that active in keeping up my own research. This was brought home to me when I lost my only sibling, my brother Jack, the Sunday before Christmas and his son-in-law asked me to provide some family background as his children had almost no knowledge of their fathers family or background. I will be going into the hospital on March 6th., for a TKR (total knee replacement) and after recovery for the other knee to be replaced in late summer. I will continue to be a member and hope to put more effort into my research.

I want to thank Gratia, Pat, Audrey and all the other members for the fellowship I have felt in belonging to this very worthwhile organization.

Lloyd E. Dunham, Inspector - Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Rtd)

In case you are wondering why I would sign off this way, it is because my rank is a Royal Commission from Queen Elizabeth. A royal commission is a life long appointment and I am very proud of my English origins.

Item 2 - Treasurer Report

2014 End of Year Report

Item 3 - Proposed new Board Members and Secretary

The following DS-FC members are in good standing and will accept the position as a Board Member if Elected: John Duguid -- Jackie Coniglio -- Bruce Dunham. Bio's follow:

John Dunham Duguid

My Grandfather, Lewis G. Dunham was born in Braintree, Vermont in 1871. He became employed as a trainman with The Central Vermont Railway. My other, Dorothy (Dunham) Duguid was born in White River Junction, VT in 1909. Around 1914 Lewis moved his wife Abbie and two daughters to Canada and began working for the Canadian National Railway as a brakeman and later as a conductor. In 1929 Dorothy married Arthur A. Duguid, a Canadian of Scottish heritage in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario on Lake Superior. Twins, Grace and Glenn were born there in 1930. I was born in 1938, and Charlotte in 1944. In 1948 the family moved to Toronto. After high school and technical training I was employed as a radio operator for the Canadian Department of Transport. In the 1960s I relocated to England and worked as sea-going radio officer in the British Merchant Navy. In 1969 I returned to Canada and was employed in various technical jobs. In 1982 I went back to school for training in computer programming and accounting. In 1993 I moved to Central Texas and held administrative positions with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and with the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. I have been retired since 2005, living in San Marcos, TX, and for the past few years have served as coordinator for our group's DNA Project.

Jackie Coniglio

My name is Jacqualyn (Jackie) Beck Coniglio and I am a cousin of Gratia. My great grandfather, Charles Foster Dunham, and her grandmother were sister and brother. Charles Foster had several Children, Mable, Jessie, and my grandfather, Dennis Rockwell Dunham. Dennis had a large family, eight daughters and a son. One of these died of the Spanish Flu in the 1918 epidemic. The rest survived to adulthood. The third youngest of these was my mother, Edna Norainne Dunham. Although most of this branch of the family had settled in Wisconsin by the late 1800’s, my grandfather traveled west around the time of world war I to work in the gas fields in Elk Basin, Wyoming. My mother was born there in a tent which was the temporary shelter being provided to workers at that time. Within a couple of years they returned to Nekoosa, WI where most of the family lived and my grandfather worked for the paper mill. (Anyone remember Nekoosa Bond Paper?)

I was born in Madison, WI and grew up in various towns in south central WI, Hancock, Wis Dells, and Wis Rapids. I lived in Wisconsin until about 1959 when I moved to Niagara Falls, NY. I married my husband Guy in 1963 and we have two grown children, Lisa, who is an adjunct professor at Binghamton Community college in Binghamton, NY. And Guy IV who is an IT and CAD man for Whirlwind Electronics, here in Rochester, NY. We live in a suburb of Rochester, NY where we have been in our second house since 1973. My husband retired from Bausch and Lomb where he worked as head of IT systems for almost 40 years. I have a younger brother and sister who live in Iowa and Florida and a half- sister in Mississippi and half- brother in Florida.

My descent is from Deacon John Dunham and I am very proud of our extensive and interesting family. My uncle Dennis was one of the males tested for DNA that helped establish our line. I hope I can be of service to all of you interested in your heritage. At 76 I am the second oldest survivor in our branch of Dunhams.

Bruce William Dunham

I am a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder with a degree in History. Born in Casablanca, Morocco and lived in Paris, Washington, DC, Santiago, Chile and Bogota, Colombia before my 12th birthday. My interest in family history originates with my Great Aunt Hilda Rockwood of Bennington, Vt. who traced her side of the family back to Edward Fuller of the Mayflower with connections to the Loomis, White, Weeks, and Rowley families of Bennington, Vt. and Falmouth, Massachusetts. The first picture is of my grandfather Jesse Loomis Dunham and grandmother Hazel Rockwood Dunham which links the Dunham family to the Mayflower descendants. My earliest memories of life in the Bennington area are of the house in Shaftsbury, Vt. where my father grew up and of the Bennington Battlefield Monument where my ancestor Obadiah Dunham (p. 235 of Isaac W. Dunham’s book) of Pownal, Vt. fought in Seth Warner’s Regiment of the Green Mountain Boys.

Line from Deacon John Dunham 1; Rev. Thomas Dunham 2; Nathaniel Dunham 3 of Wrentham, Ma and Hebron, CT; Jabez 4; Obadiah 5; Obadiah 6; Alfred 7; Dewey 8; Herbert Stanley 9; Jesse Loomis 10; Elmer 11; Bruce William Dunham 12

Please note that I have included a direct link from Rev. Thomas Dunham to Deacon John in my lineage. I believe that with Thomas Dunham's disappearance from the Plymouth records after 1649/50 and sudden appearance in the records of Marshfield, Sheepscot, and Saco of a Thomas Dunham/Denham thereafter this is a more reasonable explanation for this lineage. This connection has been suggested by various historians and appears to be more logical than that offered by George McCracken. My DNA results also support this conclusion which I consider more reasonable than a connection through an unnamed cousin or uncle of Deacon John. Hopefully further research will clear this up.

Interim Secretary is need due to death of John L Dunham

Item 4 - 2015 Budget

Annual Corporation Reporting Fee 15.00

Federation of Genealogical Societies 2016 45.00

Research Fees and Supplies - Gratia Mahony 1,800.00

Domain Registration - Donation by Jeff Dunham 0.00

Total 1,860.00

Total Memberships paid as of 9 Feb 2015 --- 65

Net income less Paypal Fees -- approx. $1600.00

Item 5 - DNA Project Report

Here are the numbers from our project as they stand today:

A total of 87 men have been tested.

42 are of the Deacon John line.

3 have been tested to the 111 marker level, 8 to the 67 level, 20 to the 37 level, 6 to the 25 level, and 5 to the 12 level

27 are of the Singletary line.

7 have been tested to the 67 level, 11 to 37 level, 2 to the 25 level, and 7 to the 12 level.

3 are of the G-M201 group.

All 3 are tested to the 67 level.

13 are of the R-M269 group.

3 have been tested to the 67 level, 7 to the 37 level, 1 to the 25 level, and 2 to the 12 level.

There are 2 others, one each tested to the 67 and 37 levels.

The only current activity is Fred Dunham (kit 213189) who has just upgraded from the 37 level to the 67 level. His result should be available about mid March.

Our group has arranged for Robert Dunham (kit 294602), a resident in England, to be tested to the 37 level. He is of the Deacon John line.

John D.Duguid Project Coordinator.

Item 6 - Website Status - DS-FC and Dunham's in America

The DS-FC Website has had several updates in the past several months. DS-FC Newsletter - New index to the issues has been posted and a New Index to the Articles in each issue is in the works. Several older Newsletter where a supplement was required have been combined. Link to:Newsletters

The Dunham Families in America Genealogy pages are in the process of being updated and converted from HTML into the WikiMedia format which will provide easier access. A new Entry page has been completed and can be viewed at: DFIA. This new Entry page is ready to go public and the link on the Main DS-FC page will be updated shortly.

If you follow links for Deacon John Dunham you will be able to see the new pages and some 4th Generation Descendants that have been added. A Name Index with links to the page where that person is first found is in the works. Please let us know your Questions and Comments to:

Jeff, Trudy, James, Gratia

Item 7 - Report of the Bedfordshire Research to date

Gratia will have a report.

Item 8 - Proposal for Dunham Research Funding in England

Proposal for Dunham Research Funding – Request for Board Approval

The following proposal is designed to solicit contributions to fund research on the English Dunham Families in June 2015, by professional genealogist Gratia Dunham Mahony. The contributions would be made to a research account as part of the Dunham-Singletary Family Connections Organization.

Statement of Intent

To investigate the birthplace of John Dunham (b. 1589), son of Richard Dunham (b. abt. 1554), in Pirton, Hertfordshire, England.

To determine if The Old Parish Records in Pirton can reveal the father of Richard Dunham.

To gather information on the family status of this Dunham family, i.e. were they yeomen who owned their own small plot of land.

To determine whether John Dunham had any formal education or apprenticeship.

To learn why and how John Dunham went to Clophill where he married Susan Kaino.

To learn his religious leanings and why the first son of John and Susan Kaino was baptized in Henlow.

To discover if there was any relationship with the pilgrim families of Tilly/Hurst/Cooper of Henlow who went to Leiden, Holland and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

To discover if there was any relationship with the pilgrim Sampson family of Campton, Bedfordshire, England who also went to Leiden, Holland and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Plan of Action

I will be in England from June 1 to June 19, 2015. I am going on a Grand Circle Tour with a group of student members of the University of Alabama Lifelong Learning Group. I will use my own personal funds to get to and from England and for this tour.

My request for research funding is to extend my time in England, to pay my expenses for accommodations, meals and to rent a car so that I can travel to sites in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire where this Dunham family is known to have lived, and to meet with historians in these areas.

Over the past year, the Dunham-Singletary Family Connections organization has paid for the research time of Mary Wooldridge (of Bedford, England). Through that research the baptismal record of John Dunham (b. 1589) was found. Also through Mary’s research the original will of Richard Dunham was found and copied. Mary has worked with the birth, marriage, and death records of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire to try to follow a Dunham family who I believe may descend from a brother of John Dunham (b. 1589). A descendant of this Bedfordshire Dunham family, (Robert Dunham) has participated in DNA analysis, and his test results match those of John Dunham, thus we know there is a close relationship. I would like to meet with Robert Dunham and his daughter who is the person who has done genealogical research on this family.

Mary Wooldridge has been in contact with people who work with historical records in Pirton. They have advised her that research in the existing Old Parish Records located in Pirton would be time consuming and difficult. They do not have either the personnel or the time to do this research. I would like to pursue this research in Pirton with the assistance of Mary Wooldridge. Mary is a volunteer record researcher who helps at the Bedfordshire Family History Society, but she is not skilled in genealogical research of 16th and early 17th century. I believe that Mary and I could work together to search the Pirton records and also to track the puritan families of Tilly/Hurst/Cooper and Sampson in the area surrounding Henlow, England where John Dunham’s first child was baptized. These families all went to Leiden, Holland with John Dunham, and then to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. I propose to do some further research on this Henlow group to see if I can discover any family relationship with John Dunham.

In order to gain further knowledge about these families in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, I plan to meet with professional historians. Some of my questions to these professionals include questions about the puritan religious leaders in Bedfordshire and how a young man in his mid-twenties (such as John Dunham) might have been influenced by their preaching. I have just completed an on-line course given by Robert C. Anderson of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society on the origins of the puritan movement in England. This course presented information on the clerical companies and interconnected family companies who formed the nucleus of both the pilgrims who went to Leiden, Holland/Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the puritan immigrants of the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. I would like to determine who was the minister in Henlow and how he might have influenced families from there or surrounding towns.

Scope of work already accomplished and continuing research to be done prior to my trip to England.

Some of the preparation for the proposed research in England has been done, but a great deal more needs to be done. The online course that I took in October and November of 2014 “Puritan Pedigrees: The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England” by Robert Charles Anderson, FASG, has given me a good background on searching for the connections between early puritan families of England, and learning about the colonial clergy in England. The references listed in the bibliography need to be read prior to my making the trip.

Result of Research

I plan to write an article to be published both in the Dunham-Singletary Family Connections newsletter and in the quarterly journal The American Genealogist (TAG) on the results of my research. The reason for selecting The American Genealogist for publication is because several research articles about the family of John Dunham have been published in previous issues of this professional journal. The results of my research will provide important documentary evidence for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants; the entire Dunham branch descended from John Dunham of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and as a genealogical research example for others researching early 17th century families.

Estimated amount of funds requested for 10 days of research

Lodging @ $100 for 10 days $1,000

Meals @ $50 for 10 days 500

Car rental @ $100 for 10 days 1,000

Research fees/copies, use of records 500

Research time for Mary Wooldridge 500

Total estimate $3,500

NOTE: This does not include any compensation for my own research time but is for expenses only.

Gratia Dunham Mahony

101 Cheval Blvd. SE

Brownsboro, AL 35741

Dunhamgratia007@gmail.com

Cell phone: 937-510-7873

Comments on Dunham English Family Research June 2015 by James A. Streeter Treasurer

I am in favor of setting up a ongoing Research Account.

My thoughts (Personal and as Treasurer)

I believe that DS-FC should set up a Research Account that is funded by contributions for future research from both Members and Non-members. This account would be used to fund The English Dunham Families Research in June 2015 and to provide funding for similar Research in the future.

Accounting Concerns:

A Form similar to the Membership Application would be set up which would allow the Contributor to determine the amount they wish to give either by check or PayPal. The donations would be private or could be anonymous.

A permanent Account would be set up to receive Contributions and then be available to fund Board Approved Research Projects.

Contributions may not be deducted on your Tax Returns, as DS-FC is not a 501(c)3 Non Profit organization - DS-FC did file a request but it was Declined.

Details of Expenses and Receipts would be required. DS-FC could pay Bedfordshire Direct as in the past from the Research Fund. Mary Wooldridge is a research volunteer for the Bedfordshire Family History Society. Advances for lodging, transportation meals, etc. would come from the Research Account.

Any excess funds would remain in the Research Account and extra advances not needed would be returned to that account.

Request for Contributions Letter:

A letter could be sent to the DS-FC Members, Current and Past and a notice could be included in the April Newsletter for this specific project and a ongoing Notice in future Newsletters - with the Board Approval.

I believe that Gratia has some additional non DS-FC members that she has helped with Dunham Research at no cost and other non Dunham Research contacts that she will be contacting about donations to this project.

I did some research and gave her some info on Car rental and getting from Scotland, where her tour ends to Heathrow where she plans to fly back home. This may cut transportation costs a little.