Re: George Bowers, b. 1839, PA
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In reply to:
Re: George Bowers, b. 1839, PA
Layla Schubert 6/23/09
Oh, our great-grandmothers were sisters then - great! We must be 3rd cousins then! I was rechecking some things yesterday and I noticed Frederick and Laura Bowers were listed as George's step-children as well, so they must be Mary Nehls' 2 children from her previous relationship(s). Josephine is listed as the daughter of George and Mary, so my guess would be she was born out of wedlock and they married when she was 3. I'm pretty sure the Mary on the census is Mary Nehls. I've also looked into Mary's family - her parents were August Nehls, Sr. and Sophia Busak. Mary was born in Germany in 1852 and her parents immigrated to Wisconsin when she was just under 10 years old I believe. At some point they moved to upper Michigan and that's how she met George Bowers. I've tried to check the censuses for George Bowers in PA around the time he would have been there (to see if I can find out who his parents are), but I can't find any George Bowers whose parents were born in KY. A family website (http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/a/l/Duane-M-Salbashian-CA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0165.html) says his father was Phillip Bowers born around 1818 in Germany, and I found a Phillip Bowers from Germany with that year, but it's hard to verify he's George's father. Plus that doesn't answer the mulatto mystery. George apparently died in 1908 in Michigan, so that's why he's not in the 1910 census... and Mary disappears too, along with Frederick and Laura. I still haven't seen any information on Drusilla Bowers, but I'll check the censuses after 1883 again. I've got the Bishop side of the family down, but the Bowers side seems to have some shadiness to it!