My Journey Researching Gardiners

I started researching my family back in the 1970s as a child.

My mother was one of the best genealogical researchers I ever knew, and she taught me the process.

Through census records and Washington DC directories, she was able to trace my paternal Gardiner ancestry to James Gardiner, b. 1827 in Baltimore, with a sister, Catherine.

Sometime in the 1980s, my mother found this biography in a Baltimore collection:

The two elements of this bio that I immediately began to research were the "six brothers" who came to Baltimore, and the Gardiner connection to an Irish Earl.

In the Matchett's Baltimore Directory for 1829, I found Isaac and three other Gardiner men living together on French Street
https://digital.americanancestors.org/digital/collection/p15869coll21/id/12987

In subsequent years in the Baltimore Directory, I found also James Gardner and Thomas Gardner living on French street. The "six brothers in Baltimore" anecdote seemed to be corroborated by the primary evidence.

I began to document everything I could about these brothers: census, wills, passenger lists, graves, obituaries, etc. Francis Gardner's will corroborated the brotherhood further:

Will of Francis Gardner, 25 September 1860, Baltimore

Wife: Mary Gardner

Nephew: John Thomas Gardner, son of my brother, John Gardner

Nieces: Mary Gardner and June [Jane] Gardner, daughters of my brother, James

Indenture from John B. Porter

Indenture from William M. Willis

Witnesses: William A. Stewart, Elizabeth Elphring, Thomas J. Young

Joseph Gardiner's will of 1851 mentions brother Francis. The wills positively connected Francis, James, John, and Joseph as brothers--all who lived on French Street together in the 1820s and 1830s. There was a Thomas on French Street with them in 1835.

What about Isaac? He was on French Street with the others in 1829. He also filed for insolvency that year.

A Gardiner descendent my mother found named Orris Frazee, now deceased, confirmed from her own records to my mother that our Isaac died in the cholera epidemic of 1832. But his residence with the other four brothers on French St in 1829 leaves little doubt that he was one of the six.

The next hurdle was to discover where in Ireland these brothers originated. That was a monumental challenge.

In the early 2000s I found that James Rick Gardiner and his sister Mitzi were interested in finding about our Isaac, as they were also his heirs. Here is a 2002 post from James Rick Gardiner:

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/gardiner/941/

I exchanged quite a few messages with Mitzi and a few with Rick. We also got connected in with Marvin Anderson, a close Gardiner relative to Rick, who was such a dedicated, insightful, and hard-working genealogist.

Marvin told us that it was his mother who wrote the Isaac Gardiner bio about the six brothers and the Earl of Lovejoy. Marvin set out to help us climb the next hill. Marvin shared that his records indicated that our Isaac was married to Martha Edwards Leake.

The biggest hill was the origin of the six brothers in Ireland. We worked on that question for years. On February 21, 2014, I received the following note from Rich Brown:

I noticed you made a correction to the census record for Francis Gardiner. I have to tell you... he's been a thorn in my side in that I know he's related to me, I just don't know HOW he's related. He lived in Baltimore and died here in 1860 if that helps. Can you shed any light on this mysterious fellow? He's buried on my family lot in Baltimore Cemetery. Thing is, his last name is spelled Gardiner and my family's Gardner. He's on the lot, my great grandfather Wiliam, his wife Cecilia, my great-great grandfather's second wife and their 2 children. I know the lot was bought in 1850 by Francis because the records at Baltimore Cemetery say so, but my family didn't show up in Baltimore until 1866. My 3-g grandfather was William L. Gardner born in 1811, his son was John L born in 1840, and his son William born in 1872. If you crack this case I will be eternally grateful!

Rich sent me the primary document, a Greenmount cemetery plot, showing that his ancestor, William Laird Gardiner, and Francis (of the six Gardiner brothers) were buried in the same plot.

Rich was hopeful that this was an indication that his William Laird Gardiner was the son of Francis. Though that was not the case, what resulted from this connection was much better! Rich found William Laird Gardiner's parentage, and all of us found the Irish home of our Gardiners. Here is the obituary of William Laird Gardiner that I dug up and sent to Rich:

How marvelous! How wonderful! This Gardiner family was from the town of Raphoe in Donegal County, Ireland. William L. came to the U.S. in the 1830s then returned to Raphoe until 1866. While he was away in Ireland, he got married and his children were born. When he died, he was buried with Francis Gardiner at Greenmount Cemetery.

So I quickly looked at Donegal records for this man. Here is what I found:

Bingo! Francis was not William's father after all. Francis was his uncle. According to this marriage record, William's father was Francis' brother, John. This comports with the 1850 Baltimore Census record for John Gardner with his wife Mary. William was married to Sarah Craig in the Raphoe Presbyterian Church in 1839. Sarah was the daughter of John and Nancy Craig. Sarah died in 1861 in Tullyvinny. She never came to Baltimore.

Now that we had a clearly identified hometown, I began to attempt to corroborate everything I could. Look at what I found!

There is our Isaac in Cregan, Raphoe, Co. Donegal with his wife, Martha Edwards. There is my James' sister Catherine. There is another child named Francis.

I also got in contact with a genealogist in Raphoe named Adrian Johnston. Adrian was quite certain that William Gardner, who was documented at Creggan in 1796, was likely the progenitor of our family. He sent me documentation that these Gardiners are buried together in the Convoy cemetery:

Wm Gardiner from convoy Buried 02/05/1820

Sarah Gardiner from Creggan Burried 06/06/1849 aged 65 married

Robert Gardiner from creggan burried 1852 aged 62 widower

Suddenly Adrian sadly ceased communicating. He was quite old, and I suspect he either died or became incapacitated.

So Rich and I began to comb through the records in Raphoe. There were all sorts of records of the family with Robert Gardiner (b. 1793), Creggan, as the head. We began to piece all the records together and developed a family group sheet that led us to suspect that this was brother number seven who did not come to Baltimore.

Indeed, the more we discovered, the more the picture emerged. Rich discovered that four of this Robert's grandchildren actually DID come to Baltimore and lived among William Laird Gardner's family! The reason was obvious: William Laird Gardner did not come to Baltimore until 1834 when he was 23 years old, and then returned from 1839-1866. William L. lived in Raphoe without his father for forty years. Being without his own father, surely his Irish "uncle" Robert and his family were the people William Laird lived with when alone in Raphoe all those years. William likely thought of Robert as more of a father than his own.

Furthermore, as we looked at the marriage records, etc., we discovered that Sarah Craig Gardner's brother, Hamilton, was a witness to Robert's family rituals. Many other individuals were found on both family's documents. John, William Laird Gardner's father (and one of the six brothers), named his first son William, and his second son Robert.

The conclusion became unavoidable: Robert Gardiner was the seventh son who did not migrate to Baltimore.

As we traced Robert's family to present day Gardiners still in Raphoe, Rich and I began to correspond with our Irish cousins, descendants of Robert. Derek Von Gardiner and Andrew Gardiner both filled us in on their current families. One of these cousins confirmed Adrian Johnston's information that Robert and William Gardiner are buried near each other in the Convoy church cemetery.

William, who died 32 years before Robert died is buried next to him. A logical conjecture is that William was Robert's father. And if William was Robert's father, and Robert was the seventh of the brothers, William was the father of all seven.

I know Rich had reached out to Marvin Anderson and James "Rick" Gardiner as well, and Rich moderated a Facebook page dedicated to the Gardiners of Baltimore. He found several cousins, including Joann Panzer Gardner, a descendant of Robert of Creggan, who ended up in Baltimore. We connected with Sharon Gardiner Crisafuli, whose DNA matches to Raphoe.

In the middle of these wonderful discoveries that were largely due to Rich Brown's research, I received a horrifying Facebook message that Rich and his wife had been murdered in Baltimore. He had attended his granddaughter's second birthday celebration and was killed on his way home. Rich was one of the most friendly people I had every met in my life. I started to refer to him as my favorite cousin. I tried to keep his Facebook page going, but I was not as strong as Rich.

It must have been about this time that Paul Gardner received a DNA match with James Rick Gardiner. They were in contact and began to collaborate.

I discovered Paul via this message he posted in July of 2021:

https://irelandxo.com/ireland/donegal/raphoe/message-board/gardnergardiner-family-and-around-raphoe

I contacted Paul and we began an email exchange.

Paul, who is simply brilliant, has been working on the mystery of his Gardner ancestry with a passion. DNA links Paul and Rick, meaning that Paul's Irish ancestor is likely from Donegal.

Paul shared with me several pieces of documentation he has uncovered. He first showed me that the townlands of Cornagillagh and the townland of Creggan are adjacent in Raphoe. Then he sent me the will of Robert Gardner of Cornagillagh.

Here it is:

Being a genealogist for almost 50 years, I have developed the art of transcribing difficult to read documents. Here is my transcription of this will:

1752 Raphoe. Robt Gardner of Cornagilagh, part of Raphoe, County Donegal,

Will 3 July 1752, D 8 July 1754.

Considering mortality of my body as that it is appointed for all men once to die, soul to God, + body to be buried in Christian and decent manner, not doubting that it shall be raised again at the great Res. by the Almighty power of God.

Wherefore, wife Isabella = ½ of all. Excepting that short coat which I leave to my Sisters Wm.

Brother William + Son

Son William

Witness

Jos. Gray

Mat. Scott

William, who lived at Creggan, and who is was buried at Convoy in 1820, was likely born 1735-1765. The chances that William was the son mentioned in this will of Robert are high. If, however, William was born after 1754, the chances that he is Robert's grandson are quite high as well. I think the fact that William was born earlier than 1754 is derived from the fact that William was listed as a voter in Cornagilagh in 1761.

Provisionally, then, my tree shows that William who d. 1820 Raphoe, was the father of Isaac (and his six brothers), who died in Baltimore in 1832; and Robert, who died Raphoe 1754 was the father of William, and a contemporary of Luke Gardiner (see below).

I believe Paul's commitment to DNA evidence may be the strategy that helps untangle all of this.

LUKE GARDINER

The bio of Isaac Gardiner written by cousin Marvin's mother, implied that our Gardiners were "near relatives" of the "Earl of Lovejoy."

There has never been a peerage in the U.K. called "Lovejoy," but there was one called "Mountjoy," and Luke Gardiner was the peer.

In Britain an Earl and a Count were synonyms: they ruled a county. One step below was a Viscount (Vice-Count), who ruled a parish. Luke was not Earl or Count, but Viscount Mountjoy. The title came down to him from his Grandmother, Anne Stewart, who was the sole heir to the Mountjoy estate.

Anne Stewart was born and raised at the Mountjoy estates in County Tyrone, Ireland. As a young girl a servant (coachman, footman) was hired for her. That servant was Luke Gardiner, grandfather of the Viscount. It is a reasonable conclusion that Anne Stewart's servant was hired from among the poor locals. Mountjoy's estates are within 40 miles of Raphoe, Donegal. The likelihood that Luke Gardiner, servant to Anne Stewart, and Robert Gardner of Cornagillagh, were near relatives seems highly plausible.

Now with DNA and as we uncover more sources, perhaps the vindication of Marvin's mother is on the horizon.