U.S. Governors Project - November 2023

Question

It is with great pleasure that I announce that, with the connection of 43 more profiles in October, we are now officially down to a single state governor in need of connecting on our Deceased U.S. Governors List. That's right, just one more governor left! That gentleman is Gov. Frank Litch the first Jewish governor of Rhode Island, who served 1969-1973. He has a CC7 of 96, but still no connection.

Another gentleman on our list is William Kennedy, who served as acting governor of New Jersey in 1815. For some reason, Kennedy is omitted from many official governor listings, despite the fact that he acted as governor for more than four months.

Then we have the territorial governors, of which twelve remain on our list of unconnected: two from American Samoa, four from the Northern Mariana Islands, and six from the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

And finally, we still have 174 living U.S. governors left to connect. These are a challenge because several still have living parents who are not Notables themselves, and a few even have living grandparents. 

Wouldn't it be great if we could have all 188 of these remaining governors connected by the New Year? I know it's a tall order, but it's certainly not impossible.   

Comments

I just connected William Kennedy to his parents who were already connected on Wikitree.  He should show as connected tomorrow.

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Wow that's amazing! We have been struggling to figure out his identity for a long time. We can now say that all deceased United States state governors have been connected to the WikiTree!

We now have eleven deceased territorial governors remaining (all from American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Viriginia Islands), along with 137 living state governors and 21 living territorial governors.

Total profiles remaining = 169.

Answer 1

On the living unconnected list - already showing as connected are

#74 Delaware

#42, 45 Florida

#37 Iowa

Comments

#34 Oregon

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Thank you. I'll update the chart.

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Virginia #66 will show as connected tomorrow

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78 Georgia is connected

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32 Idaho Otter connected (picked up his aunt’s & cousins unconnected branch as well)

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#75 Maine Mills is connected cc7 = 1,225

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#45 michigan Blanchard connected

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#36 nebraska orr connected

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Congrats again!

Answer 2

FYI. Louisiana will have a new governor on January 8, 2024.

Comments

Thanks Tommy. I believe Kentucky and Mississippi are holding gubernatorial elections today.

Answer 3

I just created profiles for Terry Branstad's parents. His father's parents were already on WikiTree but not connected so will still need work. Can someone from the notables project please connect Branstad-2 to his newly added parents?
Father: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Branstad-15

Mother: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Garland-4906

Thanks to Scott Fulkerson who was able to add the parents to Terry's profile.

Comments

Terry Branstad's Wikipedia article states he is a second cousin of Attorney General Merrick Garland. I was hoping he already had a profile but I didn't find one....

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I have created a profile for Attorney General Garland and have opened it for public viewing. I have also added profiles for his parents so we can try to get him connected Governor Branstad and the Big Tree in general. Lots of info available on this family.  

Answer 4

As today's election results come in, it looks like Kentucky's Andy Beshear and Mississippi's Tate Reeves will both be returning to their respective governorships in 2024. Barring the unexpected, that leave us with just one new incoming governor- Jeff Landry of Louisiana. His profile has been created, but he currently has a CC7 of 0. The first challenge will be to identify his parents. Their names are not listed on Wikipedia, so we'll probably have to turn to the newspapers.

Comments

Jeff Landry's story

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Landry

Parents:  https://www.newspapers.com/article/teche-news/36835579/

Find a Grave:  Paternal Grandparents

Great-Grandfather:  https://www.newspapers.com/article/teche-news-obituary-for-luke-landry/134826756/

WikiTree (GGGrandparents):  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Landry-3441

Answer 5

Now I'm wondering what impossible task you're going to take on next: making sure that every Olympic medallist ever has a profile and is connected? Or maybe every Noble laureate? Oooh! I've got it: national and state archivists! They're a furtive bunch.

Comments

Or maybe every mayor of Washington, D.C., all the state and territorial capitals, and the 56 largest non-capital cities in the U.S. That ought to keep you busy for at least a year.

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You ask the same question I've been asking myself for the past few months. When I took on this project, I never expected we'd be done in under a year! Special thanks to Chris Miller and all the other amazing WikiTreers who helped us reach our initial goal so quickly.

We still have a handful of living state governors left to connect, and a few territorial governors. Once we finish that, I expect to go back and do a "profile clean-up". Many of these governors have zero biography. Others are lacking sources beyond Wikipedia. Some have no succession box. And some just look messy.

But for those who love connecting, where do we go next? I doubt I'll be tackling state archivists anytime soon, but what about Supreme Court Justices? Cabinet Members? U.S. Senators? Or shall we move away from politics altogether? For those who haven't already, you can check out my monthly sports legends and classic television star challenges on G2G. And stay tuned for my new Global Project coming in January. It will feature project pages - including unconnected notables - for all 195 nations of the world.

 As I contemplate what direction to head next, I'd love to suggestions for others.