RootsChat.Com

Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Meath => Topic started by: caoimhin on Wednesday 23 February 11 18:53 GMT (UK)

Title: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: caoimhin on Wednesday 23 February 11 18:53 GMT (UK)

Looking for parents of Nicholas Bowens, Shepherd, of Kentstown age 46 in 1911 census and family/maiden name of his wife Margaret, aged 41 in same census.
Any leads would be appreciated.

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: shanew147 on Wednesday 23 February 11 19:03 GMT (UK)

The best place to start is with a search for a birth of one of the children to establish Margaret's maiden name. Once you have this a marriage search is much easier. I had a quick look for possible birth index matches for some of the children, but haven't found any good matches yet..

see : Introduction to Irish Records (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,442233.0.html)

here's the family on the 1911 census for reference : Bowen family - 1911 (http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Meath/Kentstown/Burtonstown/727405/)

Have you located the family on the 1901 census to confirm their ages ?


Shane

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: myluck! on Wednesday 23 February 11 20:34 GMT (UK)

1901 census for all Bowens in Meath
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=bowens&firstname=&county=Meath&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

Marriage Nicholas BOWNES to Margaret WALSH Drogheda Apr-Jun 1893 Volume 2 Page 423
from familysearch.com If correct couple marriage cert will give Father's names

If second family in area is related the 1901 census could help here

No obvious birth records for children or NIcholas but only just briefly looked

Best of luck

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: shanew147 on Wednesday 23 February 11 20:42 GMT (UK)

There's actually a second possible Margaret on the same register page :

 Name: Margaret Johnson
 Registration district: Drogheda
 Event type: Marriage
 Quarter and year: Apr-Jun 1893
 Volume: 2 / Page : 423



Shane

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: caoimhin on Thursday 24 February 11 16:46 GMT (UK)

Thanks Shane and Myluck!, I will keep investigating with the leads you have supplied. I know there are still Bowens in Meath who are descended so will also contact them.

I believe I found Nicholas on the family search but haven't found the marriage details you quoted yet.

Thanks again for your help

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: myluck! on Thursday 24 February 11 17:24 GMT (UK)

just to note that the Nicholas Bowens I found the surname was spelt BOWNES

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: caoimhin on Thursday 24 February 11 18:44 GMT (UK)

I always used to think my mother was wrong when she spelt the name Bownes, whereas the family of today spell it Bowens, I know spelling used to be random, maybe it was in this case?

Title: Re: Nicholas and Margaret Bowens, Kentstown
Post by: myluck! on Friday 25 February 11 09:00 GMT (UK)

Could well be my mother (in 70s) spells her maiden name different to her brother! and their cousin died recently and I noticed his obituary showed a different spelling again.
In old records so much was based on phonetics and local knowledge there are variants of nearly every name