When I started researching my family history and first same to a point where I was no longer dealing with generations where I had documents with names handed down to me from my grandfather that he got from his sister, it was me working to figure out who Eva Mae “Bornell”’s parents were. At least, that was the name on the transcribed version of Obed Earl Moore’s birth certificate that my grandpa had. Obed Earl Moore was his father, his grandfather was Obed Merill Moore and his wife’s name was actually Eva Mae Bowell. I guess the original handwriting of that name somehow had a “w” that was confusing and looked like “rn”.
After some time researching, I found them in the 1880 census and learned that Obed M. Moore died in 1899 when Obed E. Moore was just a baby. I won’t get into details on that here since this is about the Bowell family line specifically. At some point I came across a portrait of Eva which looks shockingly like my mother, and a photo of her and her sister where she looks so much like my grandfather.
After some time and some really bad math in stating her daughter, Beatrice, was Obed’s daughter even though she was born in September 1903, Eva eventually married a neighbor called David Brown in 1912. So she became Eva Mae Bowell Moore Brown. Really. Once understanding her name was Mrs. Eva Brown, it was easy to find that she is mentioned in her brother Charles M. Bowell’s obituary and it also mentions she was living in Wisconsin. His obituary was published in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area.
It took a while to find her there but she appears in the 1860 census incorrectly enumerated with the first name “Emma,” (if you look at the entire town’s census record she would have been the only Eva but there were a LOT of little girls named Emma, so my guess is the enumerator had some muscle memory of writing that name) along with her sister Estella. In addition, she is enumerated as living in her maternal grandmother’s home – Redessa Sparks Washburn, with the last name Washburn. Her mother, Almeda Diantha Washburn is also in the home as are two of Almeda’s sisters, Electa and Eunice. Conveniently next door is the Bowell family. When I contacted the Susquehanna County Historical Society they said this doesn’t necessarily mean they families actually lived that way, it could have been a number of reasons but the bottom line is that it simply could be who was present in that house at the time of the enumeration not who actually lived there.
After coming into possession of Thomas Bowell’s Civil War Pension file, I am questioning if they did any sort of marriage ceremony at all or just considered themselves to be married yet they were neighbors. Why? Because he wrote on the government’s form that he was married once, to “Diantha A. Washburn” and that no record of that marriage exists to his knowledge. Also, there were two women called Almeda Washburn in the area, one is this one and the other married a man called Thomas Ball. This has lead people to think they are they same people but no, once seeing Find a Grave of their gravesites and extensive documentation of family reunion minutes and other documents from the historical society, it is very clear. The historical society theorized that she used “Diantha” as her name in order to help be distinguished from the other Almeda Washburn who was her second cousin.
So still I needed documentation that directly tied Eva to both parents, and I got them when I received her marriage certificate for when she wed David Brown. Then in the Civil War Pension file of her father, Thomas Bowell, he mentions her name and birthday and that she is his daughter, so that has been put to rest. By the way, David Brown gave random information when acting as the informant of Eva’s death on the death certificate, in regards to her parents’ identities. Honestly made me wonder just how much he cared or was he in such shock she passed; who will ever know?
But now I have questions surrounding Thomas. I’m going to save the rest about him until my next post.
Update! Just now, on her birthday, I have FINALLY found Eva’s obituary! She was mentioned as “Mrs. Dave Brown.” So we not only finally have her obituary but also her burial location for the first time since whatever happened that apparently no one passed down this information. I have made a memorial for Eva Mae Bowell Moore Brown on Find A Grave, as a result of this new information.