The WikiTree profile for Thomas Dewey The Settler (Dewey-54) needs some serious revising, especially so as some famous Americans are descended from him, such as James Dewey Watson (b1928), co-winner (1962, with Francis Crick) of Nobel Prize for work on DNA. I have carried out a lot of research on Dewey history, a significant part relating to The Settler’s roots in England. I have had several discussions with Brad Stauf regarding the evidence I have found and he suggested I use G2G to propose possible changes to The Settler’s profile to the PGM team for review, the main changes are outlined below. I am seeking guidance regarding the possible implementation of these changes; I would be happy to submit possible edits to the profile managers for their consideration and/or be allowed to make the changes myself.
One of the first things I would like to see changed is the removal of the 4 screens worth of text under the 'Research Notes' heading as it is just a cut and paste from Mark Dewey's website (https://www.thomasdewey.org/); The Settler is Mark’s 10th great-grandfather. Mark created his blog about the history of the research which led to the conclusion that The Settler was baptised at Hinton Martel, Dorset in 1606. The blog contains some nice images as well as a number of submitted comments on the history, and the conclusions, of the research. My wife and I met Mark and his family when they came over from the USA to England on a short holiday, taking in a day-trip to Hinton Martel, and we met up for dinner in the evening. I feel certain that Mark would strongly object to the whole of the body text from his blog being cut and pasted. The images were not copied, even though the copied text still refers to the images! And, without any acknowledgement at all! His blog is an interactive website, not just information frozen at some point in time.
I suggest to replace this extensive and unnecessary plagiarism with a link to Mark’s website plus a summary, something like this:-
Mark Dewey has created a website (https://www.thomasdewey.org/) as a blog about the history of the research which led to the conclusion that The Settler was baptised at Hinton Martel, Dorset in 1606. The history begins with the serendipitous find in June 2010 at the Maritime Museum, Buckler's Hard, Hampshire, England (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckler's_Hard), of an old sea chart showing that the town in Dorset now known as Swanage was known as Sandwich in 1781. This research has continued to the present day when DNA evidence is being made use of.
The second change I propose will require an update to the 'Son of' and 'Siblings' fields, and a rewrite of the 'Disputed Origins' section to reflect the research that shows The Settler’s origin is now no longer “unknown”. I have created a profile (my ‘candidate profile’) for Thomas Dewye Senior (Dewye-4) (and one for his wife Mary Moore) which contains evidence, with reliable sources, showing that they are the parents of The Settler. The evidence covers 3 ‘layers’:-
i) parish records going back to the baptism of The Settler’s grandparents
ii) other formal documents such as the will of John Russell, for example; there is evidence that John’s father Robert and Thomas Dewye were both church wardens in 1625 at Hinton Martel
iii) DNA evidence, which is quite extensive and so I would seek some guidance on how best to present it. From Ancestry DNA testing, my paternal uncle, my son, my paternal 3rd cousin and I (all descended from Wiltshire, England Dewey ancestors) between us share Dewey or Moore genes with at least 40 individuals in the USA, who are descended from early settlers.
There are also a number of minor changes that should be actioned, for example:-
reliable sources for data stated in the ‘Children’ section; rationalise the ‘Sources’ section; add links to items of evidence fully described in Thomas Dewye profile.
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