Oh my darling, Clementine!

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine


The old song says it well. I have a Clementine Bradley in my family tree, and she seems lost forever.

The bulk of five generations have been fairly fast and thanks to ancestry.com, fairly easy to fill out in my tree. But having done that, I am now going back and trying to confirm that I don't have limbs spliced on that don't belong.

The 1860 census of Lincoln County, Tennessee lists a Clemente Boren married to a Daniel Boren. They have several children including a William Boren who is one year old. My family name is Bowen. This appears to be an example of a frequent problem with old census records. The census taker wrote down what he heard when he asked for names. Often, the one providing the information could neither read nor write, therefore the spelling of a name was difficult to verify. This often led to family names being changed for future generations.

I have concluded with some confidence that these people are actually Daniel and Clementine Bowen. I also believe Clementine's maiden name was Bradley. This is based on a marriage record of a Daniel Boren marrying a Clementua Bradley January 9, 1842. The 1860 census lists Clementine's place of birth as "Geo", which I interpret to be Georgia. Her age is given as 41, which would put her birth around 1819-20. Beyond that, I know little else about her.

I had jumped to the conclusion that I had found her parents, a James Bradley and Emelia Horner Bradley. But, there is a problem. This couple appears to have a daughter named Clementine N Bradley, but born in 1833, and marrying an Issac Julian in Missouri, where they seem to have remained.

Much of the information I have was taken from other family trees on ancestry.com. As is often the case much of this information is difficult to confirm and different sources frequently conflict.

So, I am trying to sort out which of the Clementines, if either will remain in my tree.