Earl Leroy Owens

Earl Leroy Owens, born April 24, 1888, was the seventh and youngest of Owen’s children. He was in Santa Cruz in 1900, and I was able to find him in the 1930 census in Vallejo, Solano, California. He died March 1965, and was married to Naomi and/or Myrtle. I was not able to find out much about him.

Orville M Owens

Orville M Owens was Owen’s sixth child. Orville was born August 20, 1884 in Iowa. He lived in Santa Cruz during the 1920’s, and sometime after 1918, he married Lucile. He was a merchant, and on his WWI draft registration it says he owned a Billiard and Cigar Stand.

Grace B Owens

Owen’s fifth child was Grace B Owens. She was born November 12, 1880, and in 1900 she was single, living with the family in Santa Cruz, and working as a bookkeeper. By 1910, she was married to Julius Streib, a baseball player, and the lived in Santa Cruz, Seattle, and finally in that year emigrated to Canada, where Julius had a career until his death in Calgary, May 10, 1935. After her husband’s death, Grace returned to Alameda County, California, where she resided until her death on April 25, 1966. They don’t appear to have had any children.

Clark Owens

Owen’s fourth child was Clark Owens, born May 11, 1878 in Linden, Iowa. He was single and still living with the family in Santa Cruz in 1900, working as an electric car motorman. It appears that he married Elizabeth “Bessie” Scott Morgan. Scott is her mother’s maiden name, and often she is listed as Elizabeth or Bessie M Owens, which I believe was probably for her maiden name of Morgan. The WWI Draft lists his wife, and they are married and living in Oakland, Alameda, California in the 1920 census. On that census there are Reichhold and Tuttle families as well, and Clark and Bessie have three children all over the age of ten. The 1930 census shows them as first married about 1903, and Bessie’s sister Gladys living with them. And the 1910 census is where I go crazy. Clark and Bessie have a story to tell, but I don’t know what it is. I sincerely hope that someday I will be able to contact some of their descendants who know what was going on.


I found Clark on the 1910 census, as a lodger, who was married and had been married for seven years. That fits with the 1930 census. He was a lodger with the MORGAN family, of whom Bessie is one of the children and is listed as SINGLE. I’d put that down as a census error, but the 1920 census shows three children all over the age of ten. They should have been listed with their parents, but they aren’t there!!! And I can’t find them elsewhere with any relatives in California. I just can’t think of a scenario that makes sense.

Clark and Bessie’s oldest child is Helen L Owens. She was born December 16, 1904 and died November 29, 1997. The info from the California Death Index lists her Father’s last name as Owens, and her Mother’s maiden name as Morgan. Helen married Clarence Frederick Reichhold, and they had two sons, Jack and Lawrence Morgan. Jack married Marge, and they had a boy and a girl in the early 1950’s.

Their second child was Merle Ruth Owens, born March 19, 1908, died September 5, 1983. Both her birth and death info list her mother’s maiden name as Morgan. The 1920 census lists her incorrectly as a Male. She married Robley Day Gilbert.

Their third child was Morgan Clark Owens. He was born January 4, 1907 and died August 5, 1978 in Contra Costa, California.

Arthur C Owens

Owen’s third child was Arthur C Owens. He is listed as Arthur D in the 1880 census, but other census years and the World War I Draft registration show him as Arthur C. Arthur was born September 15, 1875. There is an Arthur C Owens in the 1910 census in San Francisco that may be this Arthur. He was a salesman for Wholesale Cigars. And he was widowed. He was not living with his parents, and I couldn’t find any other Arthur C Owens that seemed to fit. The 1930 census shows that Arthur was first married at age 31, about 1906. His wife at that time, Grace, was first married at age 30, about 1914, so it appears that Arthur had been married prior to his marriage to Grace, and tends to verify that the 1910 census assumption is correct. I was not able to locate them in the 1920 census, and I have not found any evidence that they had any children. He lived for a while in San Francisco, and during the 1930’s and 1940’s he lived in Alameda County, Calfornia. He died there on September 9, 1956.

Nellie Agnes Owens

Owen’s second child was Nellie Agnes, born September 9, 1872 in Rio, Knox, Illinois. Owen must have moved his family to California before 1983, because Nellie married Orra V Dubbs in Santa Cruz on May 10, 1893. Nellie and Orra were cousins, and according to another Owen’s family member it caused quite a row, so Nellie and Orra moved back to Nevada, Ness, Kansas by 1895. Orra Dubbs, Orra Dubbs, did I say Orra Dubbs? Isn’t there a picture that I thought said Orrie Dibbs? Yes!! There is. It’s labeled Mr and Mrs Orrie Dubbs. Another picture identified!!

Nellie and Orrie continued to live in Kansas until her death on June 3, 1930. Orrie passed away on April 29, 1937. They had eight children.

Ruth M Dubbs (1897-1981) married Charles Leroy Harkness. They had two sons. Vance Bradley (1918-1957) married Lois Wyrill. Keith (1920-2007) married Janelda D Brown, and they had three girls.

Grace K Dubbs (1899-unk) married Mr Petty.

Opal Vera Dubbs (1900-1985) married Paul Huxman. They had two boys, RD and RG, maybe twins born about 1924.

Dora Irene Dubbs (1903-1990) married Lawrence Lloyd Tuttle. They had at least one daughter.

Maye Dubbs (1906-1999) married John E Schertz.

Beth L Dubbs (1908-unk).

Owen H Dubbs (1911-unk).

Dale Dubbs (1913-2003) married Ida Sadie Meek. They had a son Dwight Kay Dubbs, born 1943 in Tulsa, who passed away in May 1967.

John Ayer

“John Ayres of California, Chester’s Cousin” is written on the back of this photograph, and the photographer is in Santa Cruz, California. That wasn’t a name in my family tree, and was just too generic to be able to find with certainty, so I had given up figuring out why it was in my grandmother’s pictures.

“Chester’s cousins, Ray 7 years, Gladys 5 years” was on the back of this photo taken in Santa Cruz, California. No help at all. There weren’t really any cousins on Chester’s side of the family that I knew of at the time I scanned these pictures, so this was doomed to remain a mystery as well.

A couple of month’s ago I was looking at this picture and decided to try a first name search for Gladys in Santa Cruz. Amazing!! I found her and her brother Ray, in the 1910 census, and they were with their parents, Jennie and John Ayers! The two pictures are related to each other.

Is the Ayers Family related or are they just friends? I started a family tree for them to see where it would lead. Most of the time the family name was Ayer, not Ayers. I soon found the California Death Index for Gladys, which gives her mother’s maiden name as Owens. John Ayer had married Jennie Owens, the oldest daughter of Owen M and Sara Catharine Sara Hommon. They are related!

Jennie May Owens was born December 1870 in Illinois and lived with her family in Iowa. She married John Chester Ayer in 1892, and by 1900 they were living in Santa Cruz, California. In 1910 they were living in San Mateo, and in 1920 they were living in Monterey. In 1930 they were back in Santa Cruz, and probably lived there until John died April 5, 1955. I have been unable to find when Jennie died. John and Jennie had the two children in the picture.

Ray Harland Ayer was born December 18, 1892 in Santa Cruz. He was a farmer most of his life. He married Henrietta Maria Carlsen, and they had two girls, Ellen Bernice who married Henry Dick, and Violet. Ray died January 3, 1971 in Stanislaus, California.

Gladys G Ayer was born November 23, 1894 in Santa Cruz. During the 1920s, she married and divorced Charles Melvin Rhoades. In 1930 she was back living with her parents, and did not have any children living with her, so I assume that she never had any children. She passed away in Santa Cruz September 16, 1955.

Owen M Owens

David and Jane’s youngest son was Owen M Owens. He was born February 7, 1839 near Bala, Merionethshire, Wales. He came to the United States with his family in 1842, and settled with them in Newark, Licking, Ohio. I have not been able to find any information on whether or not Owen served in the civil war, but he married Sara Catherine Hommon in 1869. In 1870 they were living in Henderson, Knox, Illinois, where he was a miller. In 1880 and 1885 they were living in Linn, Dallas, Iowa where he had purchased a mill and was farming. By 1900 he had retired to Santa Cruz, California. He lived in Santa Cruz until his death on February 23, 1923. Sara Catharine died in 1937.
Owen and his wife had seven children, Jennie May, Nellie Agnes, Arthur C, Clark, Grace B, Orville M, and Earl Leroy.

Edna Mabel Owens

THREE GENERATIONS

BORN IN

THREE CENTURIES

Robert Owens and his wife, Vania, had one child, a daughter, Edna Mabel Owens.
Edna’s grandfather, David Owens, was born about 1799.
Her father, Robert Owens, was born in 1838.
Edna Mabel was born January 10, 1902.

Edna was born in Nepesta, Colorado. When she was young her family moved back to Newark, Licking, Ohio. She married Orval Francis Thompson on June 2, 1933 in Morgantown, WV. They had two sons. She was living in Mount Vernon, Ohio, when she died in February of 1971.

Robert Owens

David and Jane Owens third son was Robert Owens, born on 2 March 1838 in Wales. He came to the United States with the family in 1942, and lived with them in Licking, Ohio through 1860. I am unable to prove or disprove whether or not Robert served in the Civil War. By 1870 he was living near Pueblo, Colorado Territory. He farmed in Nepesta, Colorado for many years. I wasn’t able to locate him in the 1910 census, but his obituary says that he returned to Newark, Licking, Ohio about 1912 where he lived until his death March 22, 1920.

Robert was single for many years, but around 1901, he married Vania A Lane. Vania was born in Arkansas, February 1878. Her parents were John H and Winnie M Lane, and she had two brothers, William and John. According to the Newark newspaper, she died November 25, 1948.

Jerry William Owens

Jerry William Owens was the youngest of David D and Francis Owens’ children, and the only one to stay in Missouri. He was born September 6, 1875 in Jasper, Missouri, and was listed as Jerimiah in the 1880 census. He was not living with his parents in the 1900 census, and I haven’t found him anywhere else that year. He married Clyde Minnie Umbarger on March 10, 1909, and by 1910 they had settled in Springfield, Greene, Missouri. Jerry was evidently involved in politics and was a Missouri delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1948. He was an insurance agent for Penn Mutual.


He died in Springfield September 3, 1948. His wife died in Springfield, February 8, 1965.

Their children were Mary Frances Owens, born in Missouri on 10 Jan 1911, died 22 Sept 1998 in Michigan, married to Glen Maxwell Wingo, and David Allen Owens born January 1, 1913.

James Bertram Owens

James Bertram Owens was the third child of David D and Francis M Owens. He was born on March 16, 1874 in Missouri. He married Orlena E Elliot after 1900, probably in Missouri, and before 1906 when he first appears in Santa Cruz working as a teamster. Sometime prior to 1910 he starts a Transfer Business with his brother David Arthur. Starting in 1938 he is an Automobile Dealer.


His wife Orlena was born in Ohio on July 12, 1884. By 1900 her family moved to Jasper, Missouri, where she would have met James. She died in Santa Cruz on 21 January, 1956.

They had two children. Their daughter, Frances was born in Santa Cruz July 9, 1906, and she died December 31, 1988 in Alameda, California. She was married to a Russell. Their son, Elliott R Owens was born in Santa Cruz on April 5, 1912 and died in Marin, California on June 27, 1979. He was married first to Louise Annabelle Hocom and later in life he married Mary T Grubb. I don’t know if either of them had any children.

David Arthur Owens

David Arthur Owens, the second child of David D and Francis Owens, was born in Missouri on December 3, 1872. By 1900 he was living in Santa Cruz, California, and working as a driver for the fire department. He married Ida Saloma Doane around 1905, and by 1910 he is the proprietor of an express company that he co-owns with his brother James Bertram. He continues to own and run that business until at least 1944. His wife Ida painted china. They didn’t have any children of their own, but raised Ida’s niece Beverly. I have not been able to find out when they died.


It just dawned on me that driver for the fire department at that time would have been horse drawn equipment, and his business, as well, when it was started, would have been wagons pulled by horse or oxen or the like. Interesting. I have found the business listed in Santa Cruz in the 1970’s, but now I can only find what may be that business operating in Truckee, California and Northern Nevada.

Edwin J Owens

Edwin J Owens, the oldest son of David D Owens and Francis M Stout, was born in Missouri, February 15, 1870. He lived with his family in Jasper until his marriage to Alice Folger on 7 March 1898. In 1900 they were living on her mother’s farm, and he was farming. By 1910 they had moved to the Canyon City area of Colorado where he was working as a butcher and was back to farming again in 1920. By 1930 they had moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he was a proprietor of a furniture business. By 1942 he had retired and continued to live in Santa Cruz until his death on March 16, 1950. His wife Alice was born in Missouri in December of 1873, and appears to have outlived Edwin, but I haven’t been able to verify when she died.


Their only child, David Benjamin Owens was born on December 31, 1898 in Missouri. He was living with his parents in Colorado in the 1910 and 1920 census, but as early as 1918 he was in Santa Cruz, driving truck for Owens Bros Trucking. He was in Santa Cruz during the 1930’s and early 1940’s, sometimes working for his father in the furniture store. After the early 1940’s I am unable to find him until his death in San Francisco on August 30, 1978. He was married around 1925 to a woman named Mildred and they had two children in Colorado before they moved to Santa Cruz. They were Virginia B, born 1925, and Benjamin, born in 1926.

DAVID D OWENS

David D Owens, son of David and Jane Owens, was born in Wales on July 15, 1833. In 1842, he arrived in New York with his parents, and settled with them in Newark, Licking, Ohio. He lived with the family in Licking until 1864, when he served a hundred days in the Civil War as a private with C 135 Ohio National Guard Inf. He filed for a pension after the war, and appears to have received it, but the 1890 census schedule doesn’t list any specific disabilities for him.


He married Francis M Stout of Licking, Ohio around 1869, and they were living in Jasper, Missouri in the 1870 census. They lived near Carthage, Missouri, where he farmed and raised livestock. David and Francis had four children, Edwin Jay, David Arthur, James Bertram, and Jerry William. Sometime after 1900, he retired to Santa Cruz, California, but still owned his 200 acre farm. I wasn’t able to find them in the 1910 census, so I’m not sure when they moved to Santa Cruz, but Francis passed away in Santa Cruz on July 17, 1913. David was living in Santa Cruz with his son David Arthur on January 2, 1920, and he passed away in February of that year.

Jane Owens Evans

Jane Owens, the oldest daughter of David and Jane, was born in Wales on April 21, 1836. She came with her parents to Licking Ohio, where she lived until she married James Evans. They married in 1866 and settled in Big Rock, Kane, Illinois. They didn’t have any children. James died in 1895, and Jane returned to live in Newark, Licking, Ohio. She lived on the “home place” until her death on April 17th, 1915. Her body was returned to Big Rock, Illinois to be buried with her husband.

MARGARET OWENS

David and Jane’s youngest daughter, Margaret Owens is the only one of their children who didn’t leave Licking County, Ohio. According to the 1900 US census, she was born in May of 1846 in Ohio. She was the only one of their children to be born in the US. She stayed with her mother after her father died. She was living with Jane in the 1880 census, and stayed single until after Jane died. She married Elias Davis around 1892. I imagine that they lived on the “homestead” after their marriage, and there are several news articles in the Newark papers showing that they were residing in Newark area. Elias died on October 22, 1909 and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Margaret continued to live in Newark at least through 1915. Her brother’s obituary says that she is living in Columbus, Ohio in 1920, and I can’t find her in the Newark census, but I can’t definitively find her in the Columbus census either. Her sister’s obituary says that she is living in Newark as of January 1922. She died on February 19, 1924 and is buried in Newark’s Cedar Hill Cemetery. The 1900 census shows that she never had any children.


I just realized that the group picture I have that includes Maggie and her husband Elias was taken in Los Angeles California. Some of the other Owens, or maybe some of his family? Yes!! More questions, more research. As usual there are variations on the name, sometimes it was Davies, but usually was Davis, and was always Davis in the newspaper articles.

Sharing the Stories

The reason I’m doing this blog is to share information and pictures that have been left to me by my mother. I’m not interested in posting information that is already general knowledge, but I will clarify or correct that information if I can. I love doing the research part of genealogy, and I probably get just as excited as a gold miner when I find a new nugget of information. I can spend hours going through the things my mother left. What I don’t like too much is actually organizing everything that I have found, and that is bad because the knowledge is only in my mind and that will be gone someday. There are times when I get bored, when I hit dead ends, and when I would rather keep researching instead of organizing. Lots of times I wonder why I bother, because most people don’t really care. But last night when I was looking for more information on line, I was hit hard by the fact that I have information that no one else does. I was looking for more information on Walter Frank Gillmore. What I found were 4 or 5 family trees that knew his name and birth date, but none of them knew when he died. If they don’t know when he died, they don’t know the story of where and how he died. There are a number of family letters written around the time of his death that I have, and I know the story of his death. If I don’t tell about it, then the story will be gone, and for the generations to come that might care, they’ll never know. So, I’d better keep on working, and get as much done as I can. I’ll have to find those letters sometime soon and tell his story.

LOTTIE LEDFORD

I just can’t wait. I should try to find out some more information, but I’m too excited. Two of my grandmother’s pictures have interested me for quite some time. One had been identified as Ida Steadman, but that had been crossed out and it was labeled as Lottie Ledford.

The other one was labeled as Lottie Ledford’s baby. I had no idea how they fit into the family.

I finally realized, though that Lottie was a nickname for Charlotte and finally determined that the picture was one of Charlotte May Turner, daughter of Adrian Elbinas Turner and his wife Margaret F Lely. Lottie had married Millard Bynum Ledford in about 1898. Their son Millard B Leford was born in Baggs, Carbon, Wyoming on May 5th, 1899, and that is where they were living in 1900, where the census shows that her mother Margaret now Tree was living nearby.

After that I couldn’t find anything about her, so I was afraid that she and her baby had probably died, as I can’t imagine that Baggs Wyoming was a very easy place to live in, in the early 1900’s.

Then last night, I was looking at her more closely, and eureka!!! I found another family tree that showed that she had remarried to a Samuel Leslie Ward. Using that name I was able to find her in the 1910 and 1920 censuses and her death in 1947 in Longview, Washington. But what had happened to her first husband and baby? She had written a letter to my grandmother on Dec 10, 1902, and it seemed like she was with her husband and baby at that time. I kept searching, and found a record on the LDS site showing that the baby Millard had died on Jan 5, 1902 and had been buried in Clay County, North Carolina. Had her husband taken the baby and left her?

I searched further, and found a listing for the cemetery in Baggs, Carbon, Wyoming. There I found a record for Millard B Ledford, the father. He had died in October 1901 and was buried in the Baggs cemetery.

Had Lottie gone to visit her husband’s family after his death and her son died while they were there? Did she send her son to live with her husband’s family in NC, where he died? I don’t imagine we’ll ever know.

In her letter to my grandmother in 1902, she says that her brothers, Charley and Adrian (Eddy), are living with her and that “my baby and housework keep me busy”. BABY?? Her baby appears to have died, and he isn’t listed in the later censuses when she has remarried. I have a clue, though. Along with her first husband, I found a record for the Baggs Cemetery for an Alex Basco Ledford, 1901 – 1905. I don’t remember any other Ledford’s in that area in the 1900 census, so I believe that Charlotte had another baby around the time her husband died. I would guess that she may have sent her first baby to his father’s family, as she wouldn’t have had the means to support him and she probably had her hands full taking care of the new baby. I think the picture of the baby is probably Millard B Ledford. I doubt that she had the money to have a picture taken of her second baby, unless her brothers had paid for it.

George Nelson Spates

UPDATE


I looked again at the Soldier’s Home papers, and they put the amputation of the leg as taking place on 1 Oct 1868, in Auburn, Maine.

George Nelson Spates

I’ve been “conversing” by email with a wonderful new friend for a month or two now. His aunt had done a lot of work on the Turner genealogy, and he has continued that work. We swapped information on some of the family genealogy, and I got the better end of the deal. Just today he wondered about the date of death of Hannah Turner’s husband George N Spates, and I decided to do some research since I didn’t have an exact date on that. A couple of hours later, I have that information and quite a bit more. I hope this helps my friend, since he’s helped me so much.


George Nelson Spates was born on 2 April 1845 in Eastport, Maine, the son of Unknown Spates (possibly another George Nelson Spates) and Sarah B (possibly Reynolds). He had two sisters, and a younger brother named Simon Reynolds Spates.

On 13 Nov 1863, at the age of 17, he enlisted in Co K, Maine 29th Infantry Regiment. He served as a private in this unit during the Civil War. He mustered out at the end of the Civil War on 22 August 1865.

At some point in time he lost his right leg because of the war, as noted in the 1880 census. In August of 1894 he entered the US National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at Togus. Kennebec, Maine. In Sept of 1895 he was transferred to the NW Branch Home at Milwaukie, Wisconsin. In Nov of 1904 he was again transferred to the Mountain Branch at Johnson City, TN. He was there until March 5, 1908, when he died at the GHI (Government Hospital for the Insane) in Washington, DC, where he was buried. Whether his body was later moved or that was originally a part of Arlington, he ultimately was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, site #17367.

Again, answers bring questions. His date of death on the papers from the Soldiers homes is 5-3-1908. Normally in military lingo that would be May 3, 1908, but if written or read wrong would be 5 March, 1908 which is the date given on the National Cemetery information.

The papers from the Soldiers homes give his height as 5’ 9” and blue eyes. He is listed as married, but gives his nearest relative as Simon R Spates, his brother, of Markville, Minnesota.

He applied for a military pension in September of 1865 (app# 89.487, cert# 257.040). Hannah applied for a pension on April 28, 1908, which answers the question of when he died. It would have to have been March 5, 1908, because May 3 would have been after her pension application date. Her application number was 891.140, and she received pension cert#668.073.

Among some of the family things that my brother has, is a picture of an unidentified man. The back of the picture puts the photographer in Chillicothe, Missouri. There was another Owens brother who lived in Missouri, but he didn’t live near Chillicothe, but Thomas J Owens lived in Dawn, Missouri, which IS near Chillicothe. I could be wrong, but I will make the assumption that this picture is of Thomas J Owens.

Thomas J Owens

According to the LDS records there was a Thomas J Owens, born to a David and Jane Owens on 8 Nov 1831 in Merioneth, Wales.

During the civil war, he was a private with C 27th Ohio Volunteer Inf, for almost 4 years from 1861 to 1865.

I found a Thomas Owen, age 40, in the 1870 census in Blue Mound Township, Livingston Co, Missouri. I was uncertain whether or not this was the correct Thomas, until I found a book in Welsh among my mother’s things. The book had “Thomas J Owens, Dawn, Missouri” written on the front page. Other items such as his obituary have since confirmed my belief that this is the correct Thomas.

He is listed in the 1880 census for Blue Mound as Thomas J Owens, widowed. All other Census records, and his obituary show that Thomas never married, but this census is definitely marked that he is a widower. I can’t find any information in cemetery records yet to show who he might have been married to. Was he married such a short time that it soon became as though he were just single, or did he not want his family back home to know that he had married? Was it just an error on the census or did he tell the census taker that he was widowed, since there was a young lady housekeeper living in the household at the time?

He is listed in the 1890 Veterans Census in Blue Mound Township. This shows that he suffered a “Gunshot in right knee”, “much disabled at present”. At some point in time he filed for a veterans pension. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, serving for a time as the post’s chaplin.

He was listed in the Blue Mound census in 1900, and continued to live there until around 1909, when he returned to Licking, Ohio.

He passed away on May 10, 1910, leaving the will that was discussed in an earlier blog.

In the 1860 Census, David and Jane are still in Newark Township with their children Thomas, David, Robert, Owen, Jane, Kate (Catharine), and Margrett. The elder David Owens who was with them in 1850 is no longer there. I imagine he died, but I haven’t found any record of that.

I believe that the courthouse there burned down several times, so a lot of information has been lost. Most of what I have I have gathered from Census records and Newspaper clippings that I’ve been able to find on Ancestry.com. I was very fortunate several years ago to contact a grandson of Robert Owens, who gave me as much information as he could, and that has been very helpful in verifying that what I have found is probably correct.

In 1860 there is a David Hughes, 11, living in the Owens household. Who is David Hughes? Where did he come from? Where did he go? I don’t imagine that I’ll ever find those answers. During my research, though, it appears that the Welsh people would often send their children, especially sons, to live with and work for other families, probably relatives, when they were around 12 years old. Conjecture, I could be completely wrong.

Ten years later, after the Civil War, only Margaret is living with David and Jane. Their daughter Catharine, now Thomas, is living nearby with three children of her own. Where are the other children? What happened to Catharine’s husband?

David died before the next census. He died on July 18, 1878, age 79, of paralysis. With the exception of the ships list, all of the census records put David’s birth about 1798-1799, which matches the information from my “cousin”. He stated “I remember a little bit about the Owens family because of one strange fact. Robert Owens' father was born in 1799 in Bala, Wales. Robert was born in 1838 in Bala, Wales. My mother was born in 1902 in Nepesta, Colorado. That makes 3 generations born in 3 different centuries.”

Margaret was still living with Jane in 1880. Jane died of old age on May 27, 1889, at “82 years, 4 months and 21 days” old. With the exception of the 1860 Census Jane’s birth would have been around 1806-1807, the info for her death puts her date of birth at 6 Jan 1807, which corresponds to the information from my “cousin”.

I know about my Great grandmother, Catharine Owens Thomas, and I do have some information on Robert Owens, from my mother and his grandson, but what happened to the rest of the family? There are SO MANY Owens, how can I track them down? Close to impossible, but what I have would have been impossible without that scrap of paper!!

Thomas J Owens Will

I am still trying to figure out David and Jane Owens family. Not an easy task, because there are lots and lots of Owens and often they will be Owen singular as well. They frequently have very common first names as well, such as David and Thomas and Jane.


Just the other evening, I thought I had found someone who had the David D Owens I was looking for in their family tree!! It was the right name, and there were Owens from Dawn, Livingston, Missouri. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right David, but I do have a new genealogy friend, and we may still be able to help each other out. Since a question came up about Thomas J Owens will, I am going to get out of the timeline of my story about David and Jane, and try to clear up the matter of this will.

Thomas J Owens died on 10 May 1910 in Licking County, Ohio, where he had returned to after living many years in Livingston, Missouri.

I found the information about Thomas J Owens will in the Probate Records of Livingston County, Missouri Volume IX on Ancestry.com.

It shows a Thomas J. EVANS, as the Executor of the will. Bond: May 23, 1910 He is a person in my new friends tree.

The heirs were:

Jane Evans, sister - That would have been Jane Owens, who married James Evans of Big Rock, Kane, Illinois

Thomas J. Evans, friend - The above named executor

Margaret Davis, sister - Margaret Owens, who married Elias Davis, and lived, I think, in Columbus, Ohio

Robert Owens, brother - married Vania Lane and had lived in Colorado, returning to Licking, Ohio prior to 1920

Owen M. Owens, brother - married to Kate Hommom, lived for a time in Linn, Dallas, Iowa, moved to Santa Cruz, CA about 1900

David J. Owens, brother - This person does NOT fit. Possibly someone from Dawn, who was a close friend?? There is no mention of such a person in any of the other brother and sisters obituaries.

Catherine Thomas, sister - Catharine Owens, who married James Reese Thomas, and moved to Harvey County, Kansas

David D. Owens, brother – lived in Marion, Jasper, Missouri until 1900, the moved to Santa Cruz, CA sometime after that.

I wish there was some huge family tree that had all the Owens/Owen people in it. It’s tempting to start tracking all of the Owens that I find, but that would be a HUGE task, too big I’m afraid. Hopefully this has helped to sort out a couple of them.

David Owens

David and Jane Owens


There are quite a few discrepancies in dates of birth for the family, but I think some of this can be explained by the fact that the church records might have been using the Gregorian calendar or because of when the New Year was supposed to begin – January for the Julian calendar, March for the Gregorian, and some areas of Wales stuck to the March New Year for some time, even with the Julian calendar. I don’t understand all this, so I imagine it may have caused more than normal confusion when the family was giving their ages for the censuses, etc.

I was fortunate to find a list of Catharine Owens and her siblings on the back of what I thought at first was a scrap piece of paper. With those names, I was able to find their family in a census in Licking, Ohio, and thus find their parents names. I then found the ships list for when they immigrated to the US. I have since found them at home in the 1841 Wales Census.

The 1841 Census for Wales, 6 June 1841, Nantlleidiog, Llanfawr, Merionethshire, Wales, Pen y Cefn or Penllyn lists David Owens, Jean Owens, Jean Owens, Thomas Owens, David Owens, Robert Owens, Edward Jones, and Cathrine Davies. Owen Owens is missing from the family, but the census was for where a person spent that night, and perhaps relatives occasionally took one or two of the children for overnights. He may have been at a relatives home, perhaps with Robert Owens? There is an Owen Owens on the next page of the census with a Robert Owens. Catharine was born about a year after this census.

The Ship Samuel Hicks sailed from Liverpool England, and arrived in New York, New York 15 Jul 1842. It was carrying David Owens, Jane Owens, Cath Owens, Thos Owens, David Owens, Jane Owens, Robt Owens, Owen Owens, and Cath Owens, Who is the Cath Owens age 21? A sister or cousin of David? Is she Cathrin Davies from the 1841 census? She may have been listed as Owens since she was traveling with them. Why did she come with them? Where did she go? I haven’t found her again.

According to my mother “Catharine Owens was born in Bala, Wales, April 30, 1842. She came with her parents to Newark when she was 6 weeks old.” According to the arrival in NY, and her date of birth according to my mother she would have been about 2 and a half months old when they arrived in NY.

The Newark Township Licking, Ohio, 25th July 1850 Federal Census shows David Owens, Jane Owens, Thomas Owens, David Owens, Jane Owens, Robert Owens, Owen Owens, Catharine Owens, Margrett Owens, and David Owens. Is David Owens, 76 a father or uncle of David Owens? When did he come to US?

As you can tell every answer usually generates at least two more questions.

A SCRAP OF PAPER

Catharine is a family name, frequently spelled CathErine, but always with a C. I’m quite proud of that as my middle name is Catharine, after my great grandmother Catharine Owens. Someone at the hospital corrected my mother’s spelling, so I am legally, CathErine. I don’t think I even knew Catharine’s last name for most of my life, but my mother did have it written down in the main genealogy papers that she gave me sometime before her death. She had her birth date written down as well and she came from Bala, Wales. Not too helpful, with names as common as Owens, Thomas, and Catharine. There was a Robert Owens that I had heard my mom talking about in Nepesta, CO but I never made the connection. To make a long story short I didn’t have any hope of ever tracking down anything about that part of the family.


In my life, I had gone with a guy back in High School, who went into the Marines. He came home on leave after his basic training, and we got engaged. It only lasted a couple of weeks after his leave ended, I was all of 16 at the time! I never heard from him after that, and I lived my life. A year or so after my mom died, though he contacted me on face book, and we are together again.

While I was going through some of the papers I had brought home from my mother’s I found a scrap of paper from back in my high school days. I had been doodling and writing his name while I was talking on the phone. Funny to have found that so soon after we had gotten back together, kind of cute, but just a scrap of paper, didn’t need to keep it, toss it in the garbage.

WAIT!!! STOP!!! HOLD ON!!! What’s written on the back of that doodling scrap of paper? A list of names, all with the last name of OWENS!!! AND another column titled married name, giving the spouses name.

It’s amazing what I was able to do with that one little piece of paper that I almost threw in the trash. I would never have been able to do anything without it. I did recently find a really old book that had a bio of Robert Owens in it and it did list some of his brothers and sisters, but not all of them and not their spouses, and as I say I didn’t even realize that Robert Owens was related to my great grandmother.

Having all the children’s names, I was able to find out the ship that they came to the US in, and find them in the census for Licking, Ohio. Once I knew their parents names, I was even able to find them in a census for Wales. And slowly, with the names of the brothers and sisters, I am finding out the descendants of my great great grandparents, and maybe someday, I will actually be able to contact a distant cousin from that family.

DAISY NEFF

I was fascinated by this picture when I found it among my grandmother’s pictures. A friend, but who was she? I still haven’t found the answers I’m looking for. In March of 1895, Daisy is living with a family named Pownell, in Halstead, Kansas according to the Kansas state census. Two months later she is dead from injuries suffered in a tornado. A tornado did in fact hit Halstead, Kansas on May 1, 1895, killing a number of people. Daisy is the only member of her family listed in the Pownell household that year, but a Halstead Independent news article from August 4, 1977 says that “Daisy Neff and her mother were in the chicken house, and were blown over into Smith’s pasture across the road, and through the wire fence.” The census doesn’t list her as being in school or working at any particular job, so I don’t know why she wasn’t living with her family. I think that her family is that of John and E J Neff, living in Rock Creek, Wabaunsee, KS according to the 1895 Kansas census. I have never seen anything about her mother dying, and Daisy is the only Neff buried in the Halstead Cemetery around that date. I have not been able to find that particular family in the 1880 federal census or in the 1900 federal census. The Pownell’s had a son about her age living at home when she was there. Were they planning on marrying? She was about 18 years old at the time of her death. How is it that my grandfather had a picture of her? Was she a special friend? He was single and would have been about 27 when this happened. I did find a couple of answers about this picture, but there are still many questions. Some will never be answered, but maybe someday, I will be able to find out more about her family.

THE ULTIMATE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Working on jigsaw puzzles is one of my earliest memories. It was a fun and competitive family past time, something that I still enjoy immensely. Other childhood memories are of my mother and grandmother and aunts talking about family members that I had never met. I was interested in these unseen people, since I didn't even have all of my grandparents, as my father's mother and my mother's father had died long before I was even born. At least I did have some aunts and uncles and cousins that we spent time with and I got to know, but there were many more that for various reasons, I didn't get to know. As a child though, you don't spend much time worrying about such things. They become more important when you have children of your own, but you’re busy, and you know you will remember things that you hear about. Time passes, and you do ask questions and write some of it down, but all too soon your sources of information are gone, and your memory isn’t that far behind.


My mother saved a lot of boxes of my grandmother’s things, diaries, newspapers, letters, etc. My mother also saved a lot of her own things, diaries, newspapers, letters, maps, programs, etc. When my dad passed away, and Mom was no longer able to stay in her home, good daughter that I am, several cross country trips later, I saved my mother’s and grandmother’s things.

One of the first things that I looked for and tried to preserve was the poetry that my grandmother wrote. That was easier said than done. While trying to locate her poetry in all the boxes, I kept finding all these amazing family things that I didn’t know anything about. One of the first things I found was a box of family photos that belonged to my grandmother. Thankfully, most of them had names and sometimes dates written on the back! But for the most part, I didn’t know who these people were. I vaguely remembered hearing some of the names, but they had very little meaning to me. Were they family or neighbors, where did they fit in?