User:Abburke

This WRG Member was a Volunteer for the Whitney Manor Records Transcription Project. This WRG Member is a Descendant of the immigrant John Whitney. My Whitney Line ThomasA Whitney, m. Mary Bray John1 Whitney, m.(1) Elinor ----- John2 Whitney, m. Ruth Reynolds Nathaniel3 Whitney, m.(1) Sarah Hagar Sarah4 Whitney, m. Charles Chadwick Abigail Chadwick, m. Capt. Henry Spring Mr. Amos Spring, m. Rebecca Judd Capt. Amos Spring II, m. Reliance Snow Erastus Spring, m. Elizabeth Webb Sylvester P. Spring, m. Julia E. Brewer Alfred F. Spring, m. Ella May Winchester Clayton Burton Spring, m. Bertha Nellie Green Dorothy May Spring, m. Harry Donald Maier Dame Beverly Jeanette Maier, m. Capt. Dr. Timothy Raymond Burke Adrian Benjamin Burke, Esq. of New York City

Greetings fellow Whitney cousins and genealogists! My name is Adrian Benjamin Burke and I descend from John Whitney of Watertown, Massachusetts through my maternal grandmother, Dorothy May Spring Mayer. The picture on the left was taken at the dinner following the installation ceremony for my mother, Beverly Jeanette Mayer Burke, who became a Dame of the Order of Merit of Savoy by the Royal Decree of H.R.H. Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Naples, Head of the Royal House of Savoy (Italy).

Genealogy first piqued my interest as a boy when mother would take me to my grandmother's house on the Mayer farm in Attica, Wyoming County, New York. From the front porch we could see at night the brilliant lights of the Attica Prison in the valley below, part of which had been built on former Spring family farms.

In one of the bedrooms there was a book (The Register of Americans of Prominent Descent: Volume I) mixed in with other books and magazines - the first time I saw it I wasn't really old enough to read it and something about it made me ask my grandmother what it was. She said it contained her family history but neither she nor my mother ever read it to me. Many years later when I was home from college, (I graduated from The American University of Paris with a degree in International Affairs) my grandmother turned the book over to me. It contained her paternal Spring line starting with her father going back to John Spring of Watertown, Mass.

Several years passed and I found myself working for an investment bank while waiting to start law school. My job was simple and afforded me some free time which I used to search the web - I had always wanted to learn more about my family history and thanks to the burgeoning genealogical websites I got in touch with a Spring cousin whom I had never met but who was in fact the wife of my mother's first cousin! She was a genealogist as was her sister and brother in law. I became addicted to online genealogical research from then on.

It has been about six years now and I have published two articles on my Spring family's Mayflower lines in the Mayflower Quarterly, and one article on the Irish ancestry of my paternal grandfather the journalist Richard J. Burke in the Irish Genealogist, the principle organ of the Irish Genealogical Society in London, England. I joined the Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Military Society of the War of 1812, the Society of the War of 1812, the United States Military Order of Foreign Wars and in 2002 was installed as a squire in the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, the senior Dynastic Order of the Royal House of Savoy. In 2004 my mother Beverly Jeanette Mayer Burke was knighted by Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy and installed as a Dame of the Order of Merit of Savoy. I served on the board of directors of the New York Mayflower Society for 4 terms before retiring from that position, my mother was the secretary for the Buffalo chapter.

Having traced my Irish ancestry back to the parents of every immigrant and hitting the brick wall of Irish genealogy that just about all Irish-Americans eventually face, and having traced my maternal grandmother's American ancestry back to immigrants for almost all her possible lines, my remaining personal interests are my Sicilian ancestry pre-immigration and the few Colonial New England immigrants of gentry families for whom possible noble/royal descents remain to be discovered. In addition, I am trying to trace the Brewer of Westchester family, the Davis of New York City family, and a few other 18th century upstate New York families.

I got involved with the Whitney Research Group after reading online Robert Ward's presentation at the 2004 Whitney Family Reunion. I was well aware of the disputed ancestry of John Whitney of Watertown but until my correspondance with Robert was not aware that anyone was seriously working on his paternal line. In the fall of 2006 when I realized that the Whitney and Clifford Manor Manuscripts mentioned during Robert's presentation had not been studied I set about getting a copy of the catalogue which details abstracts of every document contained in the massive collection. I contributed to Ward and Doyle's October 2006 TAG article on the English origins of John Whitney and subsequently obtained the first known transcription of the complete will of Robert Whitney, Gent., of Castleton. In addition to continued research of all known Medieval Whitneys I am writing about the Whitney ancestry of Sir Thomas Swymmer Mostyn-Champneys, 2nd Baronet, the reknowned 19th century socialite and a descendant of Robert Whitney of Castleton.

In the January 2008 issue of Foundations, published out of Vowchurch, Herefordshire, U.K., my article entitled, "The Two Wives of Robert Whitney, Esq., Lord Whitney: A Note on the Proof of Royal Descent of John Bevan" appeared. It contains some of the information gleaned from the Whitney and Clifford Manorial Records collection I obtained from the University of Wales, Bangor.

As of Spring 2008 I continue to obtain court records from the UK National Archives and am working on a follow-up article for TAG with Tim Doyle on the origins of Thomas Whitney, Gent., of Lambeth Marsh and Westminster. Of particular note is the case of Cannon v. Whitney which deals with land sold by Thomas of Westminster to Henry Cannon and subsequently litigated by Thomas's two sons Robert and Francis. I have also obtained court cases relating to feuds and petty wars fought between the Vaughans and Whitneys of Whitney.

In the July 2008 issue of Foundations, my note on my prior article Wives of Robert Whitney appeared. This update to the prior article explores the previously undiscovered son of the Lord of Whitney, Robert (I) of Castleton and corrects a couple errors and omissions.

I maintain an archive page of notes I take when I visit the New York Public Library: Adrian's Notes

In the upcoming October 2011 and January 2012 issues of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society's journal Register, my article co-written with Janet C. Wolfe and John B. Dobson on the Stoughton family of New England will appear, tracing the family's medieval ancestry in Kent, England.

A monumental monograph of the Livingston ancestry of the Duncanson sisters of New Netherland is in preparation for publication in The Genealogist, among other things, tracing a royal descent for the Duncanson sisters from Robert III, King of Scots.

Adrian Benjamin Burke, Esq. of New York City