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

SLAVE NAME ROLL PROJECT ~ Releasing Names from the probate of James H. Bowen, Greenbrier County, Virginia - 1851

“It’s Honorable to do…You’re RELEASING their Names and their Souls for their Descendants to hopefully find them one day.  Every time this Happens they are Rejoicing.  They have been in a book or what have you for so long.”    

          ~ True A. Lewis

This is my first post where I will be “releasing” the names of slaves owned by my ancestors.  This is a project that many bloggers are participating in, thanks to Schalene Jennings Dagutis who writes the blog, Tangled Roots and Trees.  She has a tab on her blog page “Slave Name Roll Project” where you can find links to all the posts regarding the names of slaves.
 
Why do this?  Because our census takers did not list household names (other than the heads of household), on census records prior to 1850.  Therefore, all you will find on these records is a tic mark indicating family members of what age.  This includes any slaves on the property.  Then, the Civil War took place along with the Emancipation Proclamation. Many of those freed people took the last name of their previous “owners.”  In order for their descendants to find them it is up to all of us to “release” the names as we find them on probate and other records.

Here is an example from the 1840 census for my 4th great granduncle, James Hamilton Bowen, a land owner in Virginia.

Name:    James Bowen
Home in 1840 (City, County, State):    Greenbrier, Virginia
Free White Persons - Males - 60 thru 69:    1
Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14:    1
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:    2
Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39:    2
Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49:    1
Slaves - Males - Under 10:    2
Slaves - Males - 10 thru 23:    2
Slaves - Males - 24 thru 35:    3
Slaves - Females - 10 thru 23:    2
Slaves - Females - 24 thru 35:    1
Slaves - Females - 36 thru 54:    1 
Persons Employed in Agriculture:    5
No. White Persons over 20 Who Cannot Read and Write:    2
Free White Persons - Under 20:    3
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:    3
Total Free White Persons:    7
Total Slaves:    11 
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves:    18

James Hamilton Bowen (son of Anthony Bowen & Alice Hamilton) was born about 1779.  He married first Jane Mann McClintic (1782-1832) on 24 Dec 1800 in Bedford, Virginia.  He next married Nancy McClintic(1795-1866) on 29 Oct 1833 in Bath Co., Virginia.

Here are the names of the slaves listed in his Last Will & Testament from 1851.  The will is dated 26 Aug 1851, with the codicils being dated 26, 27 and 31 Aug 1851.  This will can be found in Will Book 2, page 524, Greenbrier County, Virginia.

I have listed the names as they were written.

“I also give to my wife Nancy, the following slaves, to wit, Charles, Hannah, John and Jullia.”
“to my daughter Jane Pollock’s children, one negro boy named Lewis.”
“I also give to my son, Allen Bowen’s children, tow negroes, Jesse and William.”
“I also give to my daughters, Polly and Eliza, two negro boys, Henry and Alexander.”
“To my daughter Peggy Bright’s children, four slaves, Allice, her son Washington, Peyton and Jimima.”
“I give to my daughter Sally Johnston’s children three negroes, Vina, Samuel and Mary.”
“I give to my daughter Susan Brown’s children three negroes, Willie, Jand and Franklin.”
“I give to my daughter Mirim Wallace three negroes, Rosetta, Minty and Nathan.”
Codicil 1 – “I give to my daughter Jane Pollock a negro boy named Franklin.”
Codicil 2 – “I give to my daughter Susan and her children a negro woman Alice and Washington, formerly given to Peggy Bright. And to Peggy Bright,  Mitche first given to Susan Brown.  I also give a negro named Jane, lately given to Susan Brown to Jane Pollock.”

It is my hope that in participating in this project the descendants of these individuals can find them.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA

It’s that time of year again when we celebrate America, our independence from Great Britain and the rule of King George III. 

This site has a great timeline of the Revolutionary War http://www.revolutionary-war.net/revolutionary-war-timeline.html

I am a very proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  My patriot ancestor is Anthony Bowen of Virginia.

A little bit about Anthony Bowen.  He was born about 1745 in Greenbrier County, Virginia to parents I have yet to discover.  He married Alice Hamilton born about 1740, daughter of Andrew Hamilton.  

He did not serve as a soldier, but gave supplies to the troops.  Some records have him supplying mutton and corn.  The people who supplied the troops were considered very important in the war effort.  

Anthony & Alice had 8 children, Andrew, William, Anthony, Jr., Hannah Jane, Susannah, James, Mary and Betsy.

He left a will, which he signed on September 11, 1787.   The will was probated at the Greenbrier County court on October 30, 1787.  The will is located in Will Book 1, page 39.  

(click on any image to enlarge it)

  

There is still a lot I don’t know about Anthony Bowen and his wife Alice aka Ellis Hamilton.  If you are reading this and are a descendant of this family, please contact me.  I’d love to hear from you. 

There are other Revolutionary War patriots in our family.  I will be adding to my DAR membership once I submit the supplementary applications. 

There have been some great documentaries on TV about the revolution.  I love to watch them and imagine what it was like for our ancestors back then.  You can watch these on YouTube too.  Here is a link to one of them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISQhKxdBnpE

Did you know that some of the people from that time in our history lived long enough to have their photos taken?  Maureen Taylor, a well known photo identification expert has published a book called The Last Muster.  I have it and it’s really fun to read about these men & women and see pictures of them.  

Here is a link to Maureen’s blog about photo identification  http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/photodetectiveblog/ and a link to Amazon where you can purchase her book The Last Muster http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AMaureen%20Taylor

In the meantime enjoy the 4th of July celebrations and please remember those who served and died that we might live in a free nation. 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

 

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION