Reflections From the Fence: Annie Belle Bowen, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Annie Belle Bowen, Research Report, the As It Is Series

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors. This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report. It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin

Meet - - Annie Belle Bowen

I certainly do not know much about little Annie. She is the only sister of my grandfather, Hayden Eugene Bowen. Her birth date comes from Minnie Maude (nee) Remley Bowen's bible, which is in my possession. She recorded the births of all three of her children. It is presumed she entered the names and dates, but, I have no known handwriting to compare to, so it continues to be a presumption, dangerous on any good research day.

The place of her birth is unverified, again, presumed to be Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia by virtue of city directories and census enumerations placing her parents in Savannah from about 1891 to at least 1901.

No birth record has been located.

Her death information is also taken from her mother's Bible.

For years I have read this date as August 11, 1903. As I usually do when preparing a post, I review, review, review. I go to Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch and Find A Grave. I usually also check Newspapers dot com and GenealogyBank.

I did so tonight searching for any new hints on Annie.

FamilySearch has recorded her death as August 11, 1905. There is no source for the date, and it appears that FamilySearch is the "contributor". My first reaction was, wowie, wonder where they came up with that? Finding no source was deflating.

I then pulled up my digital copy of the Bible record and I can see where someone would read that as 1905.

So, I rechecked all my resources using both dates, of 1903 and 1905. Still nothing new.

So far, no memorial at Find A Grave.

Next step was to dig that Bible out of the cupboard. After some digging I was able to take a color photo of it with my phone and edit and enhance it a bit. I stand by my date of 1903.

Rest in peace my little Annie Belle. I am still hunting for you, you have not been forgotten.

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors. I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct. Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink. Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs. As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed. If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

**** I hope the usual happens, within hours, sometimes minutes, I do another search and something shows up. Well, I can hope.