DNA

 Here are family members that have been connected for Henrik Rasmussen II's autosomal DNA test. This includes all blood relatives within eight degrees of separation — up to sixth great-grandparents and out to third cousins.

Top portion of the list:

Lue (Taylor) Berg Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 8 Nov 1893

Elmer Borden Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1901

Minnie (Taylor) Borden Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~1.56% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1885

John Boren Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 6 degrees ~1.56% b. 1750

Rosie (Rich) Boren Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 16 May 1887

Abinodla Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 1760

Absolom Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1751

Anne (Dorsey) Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1685

Chaney Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 1769

James Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~0.78% b. 16 Nov 1714

Sarah (Boston) Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~0.78% b. 7 Feb 1729

Thomas Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1687

William Boring Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1736

Hillard Boston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1703

Mary (Eskridge) Boston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1707

James Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 4 degrees ~6.25% b. 1818

James Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 5 degrees ~3.12% b. 1773

Myrtle (Hensley) Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 2 degrees ~25.00% X-Chromosome DNA 50.00% b. 10 Mar 1894

Queen (Smith) Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 3 degrees ~12.50% X-Chromosome DNA 50.00% b. 26 May 1867

Rawls Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 2 degrees ~25.00% X-Chromosome DNA 50.00% b. 29 Sep 1889

William Bowen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 3 degrees ~12.50% b. 15 Apr 1859

Clara (Taylor) Bullard Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 17 Nov 1904

Nancy (Taylor) Cashion Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 24 May 1791

Mandie (Taylor) Dennis Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~1.56% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 23 Mar 1861

Louise (Renegar) Derrick Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1910

Aliza (Taylor) Dodd Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~1.56% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 14 Aug 1877

Amos Dodd Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 5 Nov 1899

Charely Dodd Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 10 Jun 1902

Ruby Dodd Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 20 Oct 1907

Ida (Rich) Eldridge Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 1889

Joel Ethridge Stubblefield Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 6 degrees ~1.56% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1780

Ethyl (Renegar) Gilbert Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 18 Jan 1898

James Hensley Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 3 degrees ~12.50% X-Chromosome DNA ~25.00% b. 1845

Joseph Hensley Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 4 degrees ~6.25% b. 1804

Naomi (Smith) Hensley Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 3 degrees ~12.50% X-Chromosome DNA ~25.00% b. 27 Oct 1865

Nancy McClure Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 5 degrees ~3.12% b. 1781

Texanna (Taylor) McGuairt Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% b. 25 Jan 1902

Maud (Rich) Meyers Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 27 Feb 1883

Camilla (Taylor) Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~1.56% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 5 Aug 1855

Charley Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 15 Jan 1887

Claud Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. Dec 1890

Dora Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 29 Jan 1877

Kate Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 1 Feb 1880

Mary Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 29 Dec 1896

Maud Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~3.12% b. 3 Feb 1883

Ollie Pennell Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1 Aug 1894

Private person managed by Brown-29467.

John Poston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1724

Margaret (Baldridge) Poston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1719

Robert Poston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1751

Sarah (Cunningham) Poston Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 7 degrees ~0.78% X-Chromosome DNA ~6.25% b. 1760

Rachel (Boren) Price Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 8 degrees ~0.39% b. 1758

Living: Henrik Rasmussen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 0 degrees 100.00% X-Chromosome DNA 100.00% b. 19 Jun 1948

Mary (Bowen) Rasmussen Find Relationship ancestors descendants Autosomal DNA 1 degree 50.00% X-Chromosome DNA 100.00% b. 1930

Solomon Smith

 Great-Grandparents, Solomon and Martha Smith, and Grandfather Solomon Smith, 

by Ivah Smith Winegarner

It has been said that "distance lends enchantment" and upon looking back through the years, I believe that this is quite possible. Hamlin Garland wrote of his boyhood in Iowa, Boy Life on the Prairie, in a most fascinating way, and Hal Borland wrote of his childhood experiences in eastern Colorado in a manner equally interesting. Miss Louise Erdman has related the story of her life as a little girl in Life Was Simpler Then.

I'm going back a little further and shall try to record in a limited fashion something of the lives of my grandparents who, I believe, experienced the ups and down of pioneer men and women of their day. (If our grandparents were, as Thoreau says, "rich in the things they could do without," they were rich indeed. Or did we all enjoy "Genteel Poverty'?)

Solomon Smith, my grandfather, was born on November 25, 1817, in Spartanburg District of South Caroline. His father, also Solomon Smith, was said to have come from Virginia, but this is as far back as we have been able to trace the Smith family. Great-grandmother Martha Smith is a relative of whom we know very little. Grandfather Solomon was the 8th child in a family of 9 children. His mother was quite ill when he was very young, and he nursed a Negro "mammy" until his mother could care for him again. When he was two or three years of age, his parents crossed the Smokey Mountains and moved almost directly west into Tennessee, into Lincoln County, near what is now Flintville, or possibly a few miles east of Fayetteville. There they lived on a farm for ten years. Their Post Office at that time was "George's Store" but it is now a thing of the past.

Two or three of the older children married in Tennessee and stayed on in that state, but the rest of the family, in 1829, migrated to Illinois, settling about six miles northeast of Salem, where they lived for a number of years. 

It was here, so the story goes, that Great-grandmother Martha used to have attacks of the "hippe," or, according to Webster's Dictionary, was "hipped," or depressed. In my daughter's world, it would be said that she had "cabin fever." The depression was caused by loneliness, too large a concentration of domesticity, and probably little or no association with distant neighbors. Her lot was probably "just hard work."

It is said that at such times, Great-grandfather would hitch up the oxen and take her for a little ride. Great-grandmother also made ginger bread to sell when a buyer could be found. All of the above moves were made in covered wagons, as there were few railroads at that time. One record says that the Smith Family came to Illinois in four-horse wagons. Another tells of their driving oxen. Probably both horses and oxen were used. My great-grandparents never left Illinois, but lived out their lives in Marion County. Both are buried in a small, now-abandoned cemetery, about a half-mile south of U.S. route 50, at the edge of a woods, southeast of the old Stringtown School house.

Grandfather grew up on the home farm in Marion County and at the age of sixteen began driving a stage on one section of the route between Vincennes, Indiana and St. Louis, Missouri. This he continued to do for three years, through rain and mud (sometimes so deep that four horses were often used to draw the stage). 

Once, while driving through a lonely and wooded stretch of the route, with the trees close in on every side, he saw in the road in front of him a tall, black silk hat directly in the path of the stage. He was quite sure that this was a ruse to stop the stage, so, instead of stopping to pick up the hat, he urged the horses to greater speed. If there were robbers nearby who planned to hold up the stage, no one ever knew.

On this stage route, my grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Holstlaw, lived with her family, seven miles east of Salem. Grandfather, while driving the stage, often stopped at the house, supposedly for a drink of water. I suspect the real reason was for a chat with Elizabeth Ann. Be that as it may, they were married in 1837, when Grandfather was twenty years of age and Grandmother was sixteen. Grandfather quit the stage driving job and went to farming. In 1837 farming in Illinois was rough and most difficult. There were no markets and poor equipment.

At the age of forty-four, Grandfather and two of his sons marched off to war--the Civil War--where they served for three years in the Union Army. Grandfather served a First Lieutenant in Company G, 22nd Illinois Infantry, under Colonel Daugherty. He was a charter member of the J.D. Moody Masonic Lodge in Iuka, Illinois. This may have saved his life. At one time, while on a southern battlefield, Grandfather had stopped to help a wounded comrade when a Confederate soldier rode up and demanded his surrender at the point of a gun. Grandfather indicted by some sign that he was a Mason, and the Confederate quickly rode away.

At one time, he was captured, but after learning that he had had experience in nursing the sick, he was released and sent to the home of a southern officer who was ill or wounded. There he was treated as one of the family. Grandfather was said to have been an excellent nurse, and he ministered to many in his home neighborhood. He was at one time or another Post Master, merchant, and farmer. He was a charter member and elder in the old Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Iuka. 

I never knew my grandfather, but his family and friends surely held him in high esteem. Father said, "I never knew a better man." At the age of 64, in 1881, his life work was ended, and he was laid to rest in the Old Bethel Cemetery, southwest of Iuka. A rather tall stone just back of the church building marks the graves of my grandparents.

Another fun connection.

 

Patsy Cline the singer

 Myrtle Hensley Bowen was my grandmother. Her Hensley family has some interesting history. Just for fun, the singer Patsy Cline was born Patsy Patterson Hensley. She married a Cline.

John Dorsey Boren

 John Dorsey Boren (1750-1838) left Maryland. He may have first gone to Alabama. A John Borin is listed on a 1785 map of land plats in what is now Huntsville, Al. His son James Boren is believed to have been born in Alabama in 1773. The family apparently relocated to Huntland, Franklin County, Tn., which is just across the state line from Huntsville.

Nicholas Boren

 There is a Nicholas Boren that shows up in some Boren trees. He is often said to be from Irealand. I doubt that is correct. Many of the names of his decedents reflect the family that was in Washington County, Md.

Tracking Generations

The numbers after some names are a system I use to track generations.

Borens also settled in Washington County, VA

 I am continuing to research the Bowen/Boren/Boring/Boreing line. I have found information indicating the following.

The Boering clan apparently arrived from England, at Norfolk, Va. From there, a portion moved north to the Baltimore, Washington County, Md. area and claimed land being granted to new settlers. This was in the 1600's. 

Another portion of the immigrants moved south, first to Currituck County, NC, later to Orange and Caswell and Rowan counties, all further west in NC. Some of that group eventually went to SC and from there to Tennessee.

Borens also settled in Washington County, VA, a county in the southwest tip of Va. Those then moved into NE TN, Kentucky, and central TN around the Nashville area.

Here is a link to an article describing much history of this group.

Boren Family of SW VA

Bowring to Bowen

 John Bowring was born in 1590 in Somersal Herbert, Derbyshire, England. He had one son with Elizabeth Bowring Fraser in 1615. He died on November 20, 1635, in Chellaston, Derbyshire, England, at the age of 45.

Bowens May Be Borens

 In that 1860 census book a few pages away, meaning not far away by address, is a William Boren and he and his wife are listed as born in Geo. (Georgia). Daniel is 41, this William is 45. Perhaps they are brothers.

William Rich Bowen

 I recently wrote here about William Rich Bowen, my great grandfather. I noted that his middle name apparently was related to a Rich family that lived nearby.

 William Rich Bowen married Anne Smith (my great grandmother, who's mother was Lavina Taylor, who had a brother named Charles, who had a daughter named Margaret. Margaret married a Rich as aslo did her sister Mary.

So, we actually have connections to this Rich family through both my great grandfather and great grandmother.

Huntland in Franklin County Tenn

After reviewing many death certificates, marriage records, etc. I feel very confident in the relationships show here. Daniel Bowen is how he was apparently known. He was born and lived at Huntland in Franklin County Tenn.  Still continuing to try to find more on Daniel's father.

Evolving Counties

 One thing that makes researching families confusing is that counties started out large and eventually were divided into smaller counties to maker it more convenient for citizens to access government facilities such as courthouses.  I was reading a land survey document about land owned by John Bowen, father of Daniel Bowen. It says his land is in Bedford County, TN. Later documents show him in Lincoln County. Bedford was divided and Lincoln and Moore counties were created. The Bowen family was mostly in Lincoln County and the Hensley family was in Moore County. The Elk Mill sat on the bank of the Elk River near the county line. My grandparents, Rawls Coston Bowen and Myrtle Hensley worked there as children. They later (1920s) married and eventually moved to Roanoke Rapids, NC for better paying jobs at the new J.P. Stevens Mill. Later they moved to Durham that built new mills.

Bowen/Boren/Boreing/Boring/Bowring

 Today I received several documents I have not seen previously which give  a great deal of detail on the Bowen/Boren/Boreing/Boring/Bowring line. All of these surnames are actually the same family. They are apparently NOT related to families that came here as Bowens from the UK. 

Ronnie Bowen, my cousin, did many years of research on the Bowen family. He reached the conclusion that our Bowens were actually Boren at one time. I believe he was correct. These recent documents give what seems to me to be the missing link between our Bowens and the Boreings who apparently arrived via Baltimore, Maryland.

I will be sharing more details here. But for now, here is a very brief outline:

Boreings arrive from England at Baltimore, Md. about 1656. They became owners of large tracts of land just north of present day Baltimore.

One of the Boreings later served in the War of 1812. After the war he received a grant of land in Washington County, NC which is in present day Tennessee. Rather than move there, he sold it to a son, who did relocate there with a wife and other family. This is apparently the point where our family arrived in TN. Today there is a small community there named Boring, TN.

One of the Boreings wrote some family history in the 1800's and mentioned that he and one brother had dropped the 'e' from their name and now wrote it as Boring.

One of the Borings in his will left portions of his large land holdings to his sons, except to one son he left only one shilling. Apparently the father and son had had some sort of falling out with one another. It was the son who was not left any land that bought the land grant in Tennessee. Once in TN this son shows up with his name being Boren and his son is recorded as Bowen. Perhaps this was a clerical error. Boren might sound like Bowen and Bowen was a prominent name in TN at the time, there being a Governor Bowen with very prominent war heros in his family (not related to our family).

I am very excited about these new documents to study and will share more details soon.

James Daniel Bowen

 James Daniel Bowen

He is listed on the 1860 Census as Daniel Bowen. A newspaper article referred to him as Dan Bowen.

He had two wives:

 #1 Clementine Bradley 7 children (she died 1860)

 #2 Nancy (McClure) Ethridge 6 children (she was previously married to Mcclure)  James Bowen married her in 1872.

My line is through wife #1

My cousin Brenda Mason Campos in Colorado who is a member of this Facebook group is of the line through wife #2.