When I first started digging into my genealogy I had a clue to my Bowman ancdestry from a letter my paternal grandfather had written to me when I was a teen.
My grandfather has spent some years exploring his ancestry after he retired back when you had to travel to dusty old archives in courthouses and libraries.
Back when we found out about him and met him, he gave each of us grand kids a mimeographed(look that up if you are too young to know what this means lolz) booklet he had printed up of his paternal genealogy.
Of course when I was 15 I had NO interest in this booklet and it disappeared from my life a long, long time ago.
I wish this booklet was one of the things my mother squirreled away over the years but it wasn't.
Sigh.
But I had that old letter still where my grandfather named my 3 x great grandparents so let me introduce y'all to them now.
Robert Spencer Bowman was born in March of 1825 in Ireland, we suspect somewhere in a northern county.
Sarah Redfern was born in April of 1826 in Ireland, we suspect in County Derry.
They wed on 10 December 1847 in Ireland according to the records.
The marriage record gives us both of their fathers' names--Robert's father was Matthew Bowman and Sarah's father was John Redfern.
The year of their wedding is smack dab in the middle of the "Great Irish Hunger" or what many call the Great Potato Famine.
They had 4 children together before fleeing Ireland in 1855(3 lived past infancy). After coming to America, they went on to have 7 more children.
Robert and Sarah aren't that interesting, not when compared to Sarah Redfern's father, her siblings and half-siblings.
The Redfern saga started in County Derry, Northern Ireland when John Redfern was born in 1805 and spans across America to the Pacific Coast.
It has taken me years to track the movements of this Redfern family down.
More tomorrow on my Redfern ancestors.
I am off to have a pint.....
Sluggy
I wish I could smell a freshly mimeographed test right now!
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