MILITARY MONDAY~Civil War Pension File of Wilson Bowen Boggs 1819-1900

 

Page 1 of the pension file

Wilson Bowen BOGGS is my maternal 3^rd great granduncle.  He is the son of Andrew Elliot BOGGS and Hannah Jane BOWEN.

Born about 1819 in Gallia County, Ohio, he was the youngest of 9 children born to Andrew & Hannah.  Six boys and three girls, who all lived to adulthood.

Wilson’s older brother, William Allen BOGGS, is my 3^rd great grandfather.

Wilson went by his middle name of Bowen, according to nearly all records I’ve located.  I’ll refer to him by that name for the rest of this narrative.

I don’t find any of Bowen’s brothers serving during the Civil War.  And, in fact, Bowen would have been about 42 yrs old when he enlisted. 

He served in the Indiana Volunteers, as a Private in the 85^th Regiment, Company B.  Here is his Pension Card.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

The pension file card for Bowen Boggs #125,177

When I review a pension file, I like to use a spreadsheet to keep track of the pages of the file that I think are important.  And, I take screen shots of those pages to add to my blog posts.  This helps when you go back to look at that pension file again at a later time.

My Excel spreadsheet for the pension file - please click on it to enlarge it, if you need to

As you can see we have uncovered quite a bit of good information about this ancestor/soldier. Here are some of those facts:

·       His address, the dates he applied for the pension and later the increase of pension, his physical description

·       A list of his injuries and various physician’s certificates

·       His children’s names and dates of birth

·       The date of his death

Below are the images of some of the pages described above.  I have made no improvements to these images so you can see what they look like after nearly 150 years in storage.  

How fortunate are we that these records have been saved?

 

On the left - a letter from Bowen Boggs to the Secretary of the Interior, dated 25 Sep 1899 and on the right, page 18 - a Physician's certificate outlining Bowen's health issues

On the left - page 72, with children's names & dates of birth and on the right page 114 the original invalid pension request May 1871

I collect signatures of my ancestors from any source I can find them - left is Bowen's son, John A. Boggs and on the right of course Bowen Boggs himself

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

WEDDING WEDNESAY ~ Finding 2 marriage records when you were only looking for one–and some TIPS

In locating the image for the marriage of Hannah ARMSTRONG and David DALLAS/DALLA, I also found the marriage record for Martin WILSON and Mary “Polly” BOGGS.

TIP:  This is yet another reminder of why we MUST look at surrounding records, whether on a census sheet, a marriage record or a probate record.  I’ve definitely learned, over the years, that this method pays off.

Case in point.  I already had a marriage date for a couple I was looking at.  In fact, I had the index for that marriage, which took place 25 Jun 1815.  As we all know, just because an image wasn’t available when you last looked, doesn't mean it's not online now.

This was the case for Hannah Armstrong & David Dallas/Dalla.  I thought I’d check on Ancestry and Family Search to see if an image of the record was now available.

 

Here’s the index I had located a few years ago.

Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993
Name:    Anna Armstrong
Gender:    Female
Marriage Date:    25 Jun 1815
Marriage Place:    Gallia, Ohio, USA
Spouse:    David Dalla
Film Number:    000317652

And, here is the record I located when I checked again on Ancestry.

(YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

On the left hand page, indicated in red, you can see the Dalla/Armstrong marriage.  I could have just downloaded it, added it to Legacy and sourced it and moved on.  BUT, I read ALL the entries on those 2 pages.  Look at the right hand side, indicated in green.

Don’t you know…..there, on the opposite page, is an entry for a Polly BOGGS marrying Martin WILSON.  Mmmmm…Boggs happens to be one of my direct lines and they were located in Ohio, Virginia & West Virginia.

I looked in my Legacy tree, and there they were.  Same as the other couple, I had found the indexed record of the marriage, but not the image.

 

Ohio, Marriages, 1803-1900
Name:    Polly Boggs
Gender:    Female
Spouse: Martin Wilson
Spouse Gender:    Male
Marriage Date:    8 Jun 1815
County:    Gallia
State:    Ohio

Here are cropped images of both those marriage records.

David Dalla & Anna Armstrong married 25 Jun 1815

Martin Wilson & Polly Boggs married 8 Jun 1815

There are a couple of lessons here.  One I already mentioned, is reviewing all adjacent records.

The other, is to look closely and read what the record says.  You’ll notice that the date that jumps out at you on both of these records is August 1815, at the end of each entry.  BUT, that’s not the marriage date, it’s the date the record was given a seal or recorded.  How easy it would be to record the wrong date.

I’m very happy to have located these images.  I always seek to view, with my own eyes, any record.  I don’t want to rely on indexing or some other transcription if I don’t have to.  Sometimes, though, it is all we have.

I hope this information has been helpful.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

HELPFUL TIPS FOR USING LEGACY

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

ANCESTORS IN THE NEWS ~ A Newspaper Query from 1971 for Susannah BOWEN, my maternal 4th great grandaunt (abt 1776-1834)

Today I’d like to share a newspaper article I located for my maternal 4th great grandaunt, Susannah Bowen.

 

Susannah is the daughter of my 5th great grandparents, Anthony BOWEN (my DAR patriot) and Alice HAMILTON.  She was one of 8 known children born to this couple.  She and her sister, Hannah both married men named Andrew Elliot BOGGS.  Imagine how confusing that was, when I began my research.

Here’s what I located on newspapers.com.  This query was placed in 1971, back before the internet.  Back when our family histories took a lot of ground work, letters along with newspaper and periodical queries in hopes of finding information.  I have total respect for those genealogists who came before us.  We still need to do the groundwork, in person, as well, but oh my, we have it so easy.

The Indianapolis Star had a column by Pearl Brenton, called HOOSIER ANCESTORS.  This column took up half of page 103 of the paper, except for a couple of large advertisements.

Here’s the whole page with the portion mentioning Susannah Bowen highlighted.  What I like about this column is that the author had all the surnames capitalized.

 

Kind of difficult to see the article when viewing the entire page.  So here it is cropped.

Now, here is my transcription of the query:

Q-0402 - Where in Henry County is burial place of Susannah (BOWEN) BOGGS who d. 5-4-1834?  Wife of Andrew BOGGS and mother of Jane Sharp who m. Joel LONG and settled in Kosciusko County.  Was also mother of Anthony Bowen BOGGS b 8-12-1795 Greenbrier County, Virginia, d 1873, Geyserville, Calif., m. Mary FRIEND 9-17-1816 Gallia County, Ohio?  Did Anthony own land and run saloon in Henry County?  Was he brother to Cynthia BOGGS b 10-26-1803, d 5-22-1857 near Leesburg, m. 10-25-1824 to James Hale in Jackson County, Ohio?  Will exchange - Mrs. Marilyn Schuelzky, 2530 North Lyon Street, Springfield, Mo 65803.

How valuable is this query?  Let’s evaluate the information contained in this one little short entry.

• We have a possible location of Susannah’s burial
• We have her date of death
• Her husband’s name
• The name of a daughter, Jane, and who Jane married and where they settled.
• Another child, Anthony is listed as well as his birth and death date and locations,
• Who Anthony married, when and where
• Reference to a business that Anthony may have owned in Henry County
• Question regarding a possible sister, Cynthia Boggs with her birth & death date and who she married and where

Holy cow!!!  I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.  This is a lot of information that can be followed up and verified.

Some of the information I already have, but not all of it.  I’m looking forward to following the leads from this article.  I can’t enter the data in my tree until I VERIFY all of it.  But, I have wonderful leads to follow.

I wonder if Marilyn Schuelzky of Springfield, Missouri ever got any responses to her query?

I LOVE newspapers.  How about you?  What have you found lately that can help you in your research?

A link to my other Ancestors in the News posts is here

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TREASURE CHEST THURSDAY ~ Transit Permit for the remains of Wm. A. Boggs (1815-1899) – My 3rd great grandfather

I found this record several years ago, thanks to a friend from our San Diego Genealogical Society, who told me about the West Virginia Culture website.  The website contains birth, marriage and death records for thousands of people.  I’ve found a lot of my ancestor’s records there.

But a Transit Permit was something altogether new to me.  My first question was, is this the correct Wm. A. Boggs.  My 3rd great grandfather was William Allen Boggs born 28 Sep 1815 in Gallia County, Ohio.  He married on 11 Apr 1839 in Lawrence County, Ohio, Nancy Delilah Lunsford.  Nancy was born 8 Nov 1819 in Virginia and died 10 Apr 1895 in Huntington, Cabell, WV.

 

Four years later, had William moved to Kentucky?

Yes, it seems he had, according to the 1898 Lexington City Directory.  I notice that he and Nancy had also lived in Kentucky back in 1869.

1898 Lexington, KY city directory, page 335 - Wm. A. Boggs

The fact that the Transit Permit give the address as 34 Forest Ave. and the directory lists him living at 39 Forest Ave. doesn’t bother me.  We all know that mistakes are common on many of the documents we locate for our ancestors.  It’s the evidence taken together that bring us to a reasonable conclusion.

I have not located a death record for William, with my latest search having been conducted today.

 

William and his wife Nancy are buried at Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia.  There are no headstones for them.  The person who entered the dates on the memorial (Ernie Wright, RIP) entered William’s death year as 1899.  Further proof that the Transit Permit is for him.

You may visit William’s memorial here #58500265.

Would you have come to the same conclusion regarding that Transit Permit?

Here is the evidence that I used to come to my conclusion.

• The Transit Permit has his name correct – Wm. A. Boggs
• The place of interment is correct – Huntington, West Virginia
• The place of death is at 34 Forest Ave. and in 1898 William was living at 39 Forest Ave.
• His age at death is given as 84 years, which coincides with the year of birth I already had for him – 1815
• I cannot locate William in the 1900 federal census
• His findagrave memorial gives his year of death as 1899

If you have further information on William or his family, or are connected in any way, please contact me.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Sibling Saturday - 16 Siblings - William's wife Nancy's family

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017 Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FOLLOWING LEADS ON ANCESTRY– One thing leads to another

How many of us have those shaky leaves on Ancestry.com?  Sometimes there are 2 on mine and sometimes there are 32.  I think it all depends on how much I’ve worked on the site in recent days.  

Today I thought I’d check a couple of leads that had popped up on a particular branch of the family. 
The first thing I do is click on the shaky leaf and see what kinds of records they are referring me to.  Then I go to my Legacy database and see what information I have on that person.  

NOTE:  I use the Ancestry tree for the purpose of connecting with cousins and others who might be researching my line.  And, for the shaky leaves that refer me to records that I can follow up on.  My primary family tree is on my personal database on Legacy.  ALL my research notes are on Legacy, as are most of my sources and the majority of my images.  I absolutely DO NOT rely on the family trees on Ancestry as sources.  They are merely possible leads.  That’s a whole other blog post.  But, trust me when I say that there are more errors on those trees than you and I can even count.

What I found today was a shaky leaf for Elliott H. BOGGS.  He is a 3rd Great Granduncle and I’m very interested in knowing more about him.   All I had in my database was his approximate date of birth & place and his wife, their marriage date and 6 children. 

Here is a screenshot of what I have in my Legacy database for Elliott & his wife & children.



As you can see, there is a LOT of missing information.

Here is one of the leads that showed up in Ancestry.  I have him as having died in Iowa in Sep 1882, which is very close to the death date listed here.  



When I clicked on that lead, here is what came up.



I didn’t know where he was buried.  Is this really him?  What should I do next?

I decided that my next move would be to go on FindAGrave.com and search for Oliver Cemetery in Monroe, Ringgold, Iowa.

Here is the result of my search:



I clicked on the cemetery.  It shows the 392 interments and that it is 94% photographed.  I entered Boggs in search  box for last name and clicked on “search.” 

NOTE:  I rarely, if ever, enter a first and last name when I am searching for someone on findagrave.  The site has a very narrow margin in it’s search engine.  In this case less is always better.  I’d rather see 100 Boggs come up and pick the one I want, than have none come up because I entered Elliott and the memorial spells the name Eliott.

In this case I got the dreaded “Sorry, there are no records.”

WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?

• Give up?
• Assume that the record on Ancestry is incorrect and he isn’t really buried here?
• Look for other places that might have records for this cemetery?

YUP!  That last option sounds good to me.

I conducted a search on Google for “Oliver Cemetery in Iowa” and got the following results:



Are we having fun yet?  I know I am.

I reviewed these entries before clicking on any of them. 
- The first one looks promising. 
- The second one is Mount Olivet in Dubuque County, Iowa, so I don’t think that’s a hit. 
- Nor is the next entry from wikipedia.  

Let’s click on that first entry and see what we find.



OH NO!  There are no Boggs listed here at all. 

SHOULD I GIVE UP NOW?

Heck no!  Let’s scroll further down the list from Google and see what else is there.



I like the looks of that second entry with a reference to the GenWeb Project.  In my 10+ years of experience I have found that GenWeb projects can contain a lot of good information.   Based on my experience I will click on that one.

NOTE:  If you don’t have years of experience, you would probably have to click on each of the results found on Google to see what they contain.  We learn as we go.

Once I clicked on that second entry here is what I saw:

 --------- You can always click on any image on this blog to enlarge it ---------

 A close up shows that they have Oliver Cemetery Transcriptions – with links to gravestone photographs, biographies, obituaries and family pages. 

What?  WOW!  I sure hope they have a listing for Elliott Boggs.

I clicked on the link shown in blue “Oliver Cemetery Transcriptions.”  They had all the letters of the alphabet, so I clicked on “B” with my fingers crossed.  Here goes……..

I scroll down the page of B surnames.

THERE HE IS!!!!!



Am I excited?  You bet I am.  As I quickly review what is listed here I realize this is, more than likely, the correct person and matches my entry in Legacy.  Not only does this give Elliott’s name and his location in the cemetery, but there is his wife, listed right next to him.  And THERE’S MORE.

This listing contains:

• Both Elliott H. Boggs and his wife Elnora H. McCoy Boggs.
• Their location in plot 62 in the cemetery.
• A full date of birth for Elliott and a place.  And a year and place for Elnora.
• The full date of death, place of death & age for Elliott and the full date for Elnora.
• In the comments area we have the name of the parents of both Elliott & Elnora, but also their marriage date & place.

This is quite a bit more than what you will find on most of the cemetery listings that I have seen.  The bonus is the names of parents and the date & place of the marriage.

WHAT WILL I DO NEXT?

Once I’ve gotten over the excitement of my find, I will begin looking for other records to confirm what is here.  

How does it compare to what I already know?

If there are conflicts, are they small ones or major?

What other records can I locate that will help me confirm this information?  Maybe a death certificate, marriage record, probate record.  

Is the cemetery still in operation?  I’ve made many a phone call to cemeteries all over the country and had some wonderful results.

I’m pretty convinced that this is “my” Elliott Boggs.  Small discrepancies like years of birth being off, Eleanor McCoy being listed as Elnora, his death year listed as 1893 and not 1892 as in my database, the marriage being listed as 18 Apr 1849 and not 18 Apr 1839 are not reason enough for me to believe this isn’t “my” Elliott.  

That being said, I have a LOT of proving to do.  So, off I go to find more records. This has been a good day of research and very rewarding.  

LESSON: NEVER give up.  Keep on looking and keep on clicking until you’ve exhausted all possibilities.  

What if I would have given up after that first search on FindAGrave or Google that turned up nothing?

Happy Hunting

Michigan Girl


Copyright © 2013  Diane Gould Hall