Marilynn, Chuckle!!!! My Gardners were put into a pot and stirred when they were confined to life on an island for about a century, each generation multiplying geometrically so that I have ancestor male Gardner marrying ancestor female Gardner cousin, Susanna Gardner with William Gardner (who married on Nantucket and moved to NC). As to collecting names, I can see the value of each of us presenting all the names of our ancestors in a particular time and/or place, giving all others the opportunity to make the connection. I cannot see how it can be very worthwhile for any one person to be responsible for making the connection for people who are not related instead of letting the people who are related make their own connections. Regarding Gardner headstones in NC, are you saying that the oldest one that you know of is 1847? I wonder if there are any from the 1700s when my Gardners migrated to NC. On Nantucket, one of the Gardner headstones is stored in one of the historic houses. In Salem the Gardner headstones were re-located to a historical preserve when the freeway was routed over Gardner Hill Cemetery. I hope to go see them at both of those places someday. I would appreciate photos of any headstone of any Gardners of my line. I would be glad to share photos and info to anyone downline from the ones available to me. So far, most of those are immediate relatives, who are already sharing. Muriah _____ Marilynn Masten wrote: > Muriah, someone long ago put all of the Gardners into a big pot and stirred. > Therein lies the problem. One kind soul offered to take John. Nobody else > has come up with any offers. Come on, you guys. Gimmie a hand. > > If you looked at our Web Site www.usroots.com/~gardners/index.html you would > see we have NO idea where the first William came from, his religion nor > political persuasion. Head stone? Don't even know when he died. Just > where. And that he apparantly DID die eventually. > > Oldest headstone I never went to look at (afraid of snakes in the tall > grass) but I believe it is the one for Willliam Hoyle Garadner, son of > Thomas, son of William, who died in 1847. Our Web Site is full of Gardner > stories. Don't believe all of them. > > Marilynn

That's the oldest headstone we have found. You know they were usually buried in the back 40. All Gardners married other Gardners. Nobody else was suitable. I married my own first cousin--my husband's mother and my Dad were brother and sister. Of course, this is after we were previously married and had our idiot kids by other people. Marilynn----- Original Message ----- From: "muriah" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 11:33 AM Subject: Gardner Headtones Re: [GARDNER] NC GARDNER > Marilynn, > Chuckle!!!! My Gardners were put into a pot and stirred when they were confined > to life on an island for about a century, each generation multiplying > geometrically so that I have ancestor male Gardner marrying ancestor female > Gardner cousin, Susanna Gardner with William Gardner (who married on Nantucket > > > > > > >

Hi, Marilynn! > That's the oldest headstone we have found. You know they were usually > buried in the back 40. All Gardners married other Gardners. Nobody else > was suitable. I married my own first cousin--my husband's mother and my Dad > were brother and sister. > Of course, this is after we were previously married and had our idiot kids > by other people. LOL! There is, incidentally, one known first-cousin marriage in my husband's paternal ancestry. :-) Seanette