Genealogy
A few years ago there was a rather devastating death in our family. In the aftermath, I found myself wandering aimlessly through my days.
For Christmas that year, I'd received some family history software. One day I sat down and started looking at it. I began filling in the blanks and generated a simple family tree. As with any family story, once you lay it out, questions pop up. So it was with mine. I became intrigued.
Three years later, I have a tree that contains 10,000+ people and if I keep at it will continue to grow for a long time. One of my family names is Davis. Another is Coulson. Another is Bowen.
Here's one of those gems you come across after you've chased your tail for what seems a good chunk of forever ... Davis is the 8th most popular name in the United States ... 3rd most popular name in Wales (original country of origin for my much of both sides of my family). Want another little gem? Naming patterns. And it seems that every branch of my family was seriously into sticking to the pattern.
Take the Davis family ...
In what would become Somerset, Pennsylvania lived a Joshua Davis. The first mention of him is in the military rosters for the Revolutionary War. He is my first Joshua, although I suspect from subsequent behaviour that he was named for another Joshua, possibly his father. At any rate, this Joshua begat a Joshua, a William, a John, and Catherine. For four generations, Joshua, John and William were the most popular names in that family. Each Joshua produced a Joshua, and often a John or a William. The Johns, not to be out done, contributed their quota of Johns and/or Williams. As did the Williams. Sometimes they even threw in a Joshua just for fun (I think).
I'm considering "The Joshuas" as the title of the Davis family book I plan to write.
Then there's the Bowen fun and games. 'Tis my considered opinion that every family that can date its arrival on these shores from about 1830 or so, has at least one (if not more) John Bowen somewhere in its branches. I finally found mine on a census with a middle initial which helps weed out some of the possibles. What a freaking nightmare that was when I first started out. And all the possible origins for the name "Bowen". Aiiieeee!!!!
Another bag o' fun is the Vines crew.
If I ever meet my great-grandfather Jesse Thomas Vines in the hereafter, I'm gonna slap him up against the side of the head. I swear that man made a lifestyle out of avoiding leaving any trace of himself behind. And his son, Jesse Thomas Vines (my grandfather) went all out to keep up the tradition. Jesse the First even went so far as to leave his wife, Mary Elizabeth Cashon Vines, in an unmarked grave and then drifted back and forth across the landscape 'til he finally died in an asylum somewhere in Missouri. I haven't been able to trace this family back further than 1850 ... yet. But then I haven't bent my mind to it much yet. That Jesse really bugs me.
Besides, for me, the really interesting person in that family is my great-grandmother, Leona Matilda Coulson Bowen. Her daughter, Mabel, married Jesse the Second. Leona fascinates me. I think she "got a bad rap" in the family. And I think telling her story might heal a lot of wounds. I hope so ... 'cuz that's the story I plan to tell eventually.