On New Years Eve, the U.S. Governors Project's most devoted member, Chris Miller, connected our final governors of 2023, thus bringing our grand total for the year to 498 connections!
Of the more than 2000 men and women who have held governorships since America's founding in 1776, we have now successfully connected every deceased state governor (including territorial governors who held office before statehood), and the vast majority of still-living governors and former governors. Here's what's left:
*21 current state governors
*92 still-living former state governors
*32 territorial governors - 21 living/11 deceased (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands.)
That's just 145 remaining profiles in all!
But this remaining group of governors has a few extra challenges than the prior group did. These challenges center around issues of privacy and record accessibility. As living individuals, we have restrictions on who can access their profiles and why. Many of these governors have parents (and perhaps even grandparents) who are still living, leading to additional privacy considerations. On top of that, while governors are inherently public figures, their families are not, meaning that their profiles often cannot be displayed at all. And then we have the fact that more than half of the remining governors were born after 1950. Thus, we are unable to rely on U.S. census records to make our initial family connections. All of this increases the difficulty in making these connections, but in my book increased challenge equals increased fun!
If you are interested in helping us connect our final batch of governors, we can absolutely use your help! Head over to our Unconnected Governors list to see which governors still need connecting. Or head over to an already connected governor and see what you can do to improve their profile, Many have little or no biography, while others lack links to parents, siblings, spouses, and children. Remember, every contribution helps make WikiTree that much stronger.
