The Author
Albert J Clarke II2011 - the Aloha Tower, Honolulu, HI
source - Rowena Lincoln
I was born April 28, 1939, in upstate New York, and spent fifty-one of my first fifty-six years behind or in front of a desk in a school building, before finally retiring in 1995. My involvement in the Lincoln saga began thirty years after my birth when I purchased the "Old Doc Lincoln" place in Wilton, NY (1969). Little did I know the consequences of that decision. Having a wife and three children, it seemed like a wise move at the time. For details of this story see the Doc Lincoln House Book.
Doc Lincoln House1969
source - Albert J Clarke II
Another thirty years plus passed before the story was activated and the saga actually began. A request, from the Wilton Historical Society, for the house to be incorporated into the 2000 Wilton House Tour began what has become an extensive and time consuming commitment to learn about Dr. Harry Lincoln's relatives, both ancestors and family descendants. The open house tour initiated an immediate necessity to learn something about the man and his house. This experience infected me with the genealogy "bug". Since my brother was already researching the Clarke family history, it seemed perfectly natural to adopt the Lincoln family as my cure.
The past twenty plus years have been spent relentlessly pursuing the history of Dr. Harry Lincoln's extended family (he left no personal descendants). In general, it is safe to estimate that nearly one thousand hours a year have been committed to my addiction.
Some of the more focused and extensive efforts include a week of research at the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City; a road trip to Taunton, Massachusetts and Togus, Maine and three visits to Hawaii for Lincoln family research (see below). The most intensive project, time wise, consisted of a comprehensive review of the Mormon microfilm collection relative to Hawaii. Between December 2008 and the spring of 2012, I made over 175 round trips (about sixty miles each Wednesday) to the local Mormon Family History Center to rent and review about four hundred microfilms containing Hawaiian records. Most of the material consisted of copies of official Hawaiian records and well recognized genealogical compilations such as the H K Lindsey files and the Cole-Jensen files. Interestingly enough, most of that material (and a huge amount of other data) is now easily available on internet websites.
In addition to research, I must emphasize dozens of serendipitous events that were absolutely crucial to this endeavor, way too many to have been of any happenstance. Major examples include; directions from Rachel Clothier, Corinth Town Historian, that sent me to Mary Earls, a local history collector. She had preserved large numbers of very old (many pre Civil War) local newspaper articles that are one of a kind. They contained massive amounts of data regarding Nedabiah Lincoln Sr. and his extended family. Most of Mary's original data is now in the Corinth Town Museum, carefully guarded by Rachel. Mary graciously allowed me to make copies which are now in my files. Three other such events involved Rowena Lincoln and her brother Vernon. As a young man, Vernon had tracked down the unmarked grave of his great-great-great grandfather, Lorenzo, in the Oahu Cemetery. Later Rowena was responsible for sending me a newspaper article that gave me the proof needed to link the mainland Lincolns to the Hawaiian Lincolns. More recently she enabled my access to the huge collection of family member Clayton Chee and I was able to combine our databases.
So far, I have been fortunate to have made three visits to the Hawaiian Islands. The first was in 2011 and started with a very pleasant cruise with my brother and his wife (my spouse was at home recovering from a poorly timed last minute fracture of her arm). This was followed by five weeks of six day a week intensive research. Four weeks were focused on Honolulu's many resource agencies. The fifth week of research was spent on Hawaii, the "Big Island", the site of the initial Lincoln Family home in Keawewai. I was pleasantly hosted by Vernon Lincoln, Rowena's brother, who lived in Kailua-Kona. Also included, thanks to Clayton Chee, was a very special afternoon of being hosted by the famous Hawaiian musician Mary Ann Lim, a family member who was living in Hawi.
The second visit occurred in 2015, accompanied by my wife, Sheila, and sister-in-law, Nina Tethers. We attended the Lincoln Ohana Reunion in Kailua-Kona and had a fantastic time. After the reunion we spent a week in Honolulu, with the ladies enjoying the sights and me enjoying another chance to spend a week doing research. The third visit was in 2017 to attend the second Lincoln Reunion, again at Kailua-Kona. A scheduled visit for the 2021 reunion did not occur as the reunion was cancelled due to the Covid situation. It is hoped conditions will allow for an expected reschedule for June of 2022.
The past twenty plus years have been spent relentlessly pursuing the history of Dr. Harry Lincoln's extended family (he left no personal descendants). In general, it is safe to estimate that nearly one thousand hours a year have been committed to my addiction.
Some of the more focused and extensive efforts include a week of research at the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City; a road trip to Taunton, Massachusetts and Togus, Maine and three visits to Hawaii for Lincoln family research (see below). The most intensive project, time wise, consisted of a comprehensive review of the Mormon microfilm collection relative to Hawaii. Between December 2008 and the spring of 2012, I made over 175 round trips (about sixty miles each Wednesday) to the local Mormon Family History Center to rent and review about four hundred microfilms containing Hawaiian records. Most of the material consisted of copies of official Hawaiian records and well recognized genealogical compilations such as the H K Lindsey files and the Cole-Jensen files. Interestingly enough, most of that material (and a huge amount of other data) is now easily available on internet websites.
In addition to research, I must emphasize dozens of serendipitous events that were absolutely crucial to this endeavor, way too many to have been of any happenstance. Major examples include; directions from Rachel Clothier, Corinth Town Historian, that sent me to Mary Earls, a local history collector. She had preserved large numbers of very old (many pre Civil War) local newspaper articles that are one of a kind. They contained massive amounts of data regarding Nedabiah Lincoln Sr. and his extended family. Most of Mary's original data is now in the Corinth Town Museum, carefully guarded by Rachel. Mary graciously allowed me to make copies which are now in my files. Three other such events involved Rowena Lincoln and her brother Vernon. As a young man, Vernon had tracked down the unmarked grave of his great-great-great grandfather, Lorenzo, in the Oahu Cemetery. Later Rowena was responsible for sending me a newspaper article that gave me the proof needed to link the mainland Lincolns to the Hawaiian Lincolns. More recently she enabled my access to the huge collection of family member Clayton Chee and I was able to combine our databases.
So far, I have been fortunate to have made three visits to the Hawaiian Islands. The first was in 2011 and started with a very pleasant cruise with my brother and his wife (my spouse was at home recovering from a poorly timed last minute fracture of her arm). This was followed by five weeks of six day a week intensive research. Four weeks were focused on Honolulu's many resource agencies. The fifth week of research was spent on Hawaii, the "Big Island", the site of the initial Lincoln Family home in Keawewai. I was pleasantly hosted by Vernon Lincoln, Rowena's brother, who lived in Kailua-Kona. Also included, thanks to Clayton Chee, was a very special afternoon of being hosted by the famous Hawaiian musician Mary Ann Lim, a family member who was living in Hawi.
The second visit occurred in 2015, accompanied by my wife, Sheila, and sister-in-law, Nina Tethers. We attended the Lincoln Ohana Reunion in Kailua-Kona and had a fantastic time. After the reunion we spent a week in Honolulu, with the ladies enjoying the sights and me enjoying another chance to spend a week doing research. The third visit was in 2017 to attend the second Lincoln Reunion, again at Kailua-Kona. A scheduled visit for the 2021 reunion did not occur as the reunion was cancelled due to the Covid situation. It is hoped conditions will allow for an expected reschedule for June of 2022.
Momentos of the June 2015 Lincoln Reunion
source - Albert J Clarke II |
June 2017 Ohana Reunion Recogntion Award as a Kapuna of the Likana Ohana. The wall mounting was made by the author as an expression of respect and appreciation.
source - Albert J Clarke II |
Momentos of the June 2019 Lincoln Reunion
source - Albert J Clarke II |
Further mention must be made of two more people who have been instrumental in the progress of this quest. First is the special acknowledgement of my wife Sheila. Not only has she tolerated my peculiarities, she has spent hours upon hours proof reading material trying to keep my writings in a legible state.
Al and Sheila Clarke
source - Albert J Clarke I
source - Albert J Clarke I
The other person, an equally important member of our trio is Suzanne DeVries, who has been with us for about fifteen years now and has become a close family friend. She has many rare talents. She understands where I am going. She has become a perfect counter point for ideas and planning and has become amazingly proficient in the actual genealogy. Most important is her computer skills. Without her talent, there would be no website and Volume I and Volume II would be sad shadows of what we have.
Suzanne DeVries and Bamboo
source - Suzanne DeVries
source - Suzanne DeVries
After the 2015 publication of Volume II, it became clear that a single database of "family" members was becoming increasingly cumbersome and unwieldy. A logical decision was to separate it into two databases; one supporting Volume I (the mainland members) and the other supporting Volume II (the Hawaiian members). This was reinforced by the addition of two major sources, the input of some 1150 pages of Clayton Chee's files and a large file from Jensen Apana. An overlap of names (based on Lorenzo's parents and children) is used to link the two databases, which in 2021, exceeded 10,000 individuals. For more information about these projects see the Introduction to the Personal Ancestral File Database Indexes Chapter.
Mahalo nui loa to all my Lincoln family friends, both new and old !
Mahalo nui loa to all my Lincoln family friends, both new and old !
Updated 02/11/22