Thanks!
January 31, 2007
My interest in genealogy and family history started when I was a young boy listening to the wonderful stories my parents, aunts, and uncles told about our ancestors. They painted vivid pictures of every event and inspired me to want to know more.
When I started my genealogy research, I interviewed my father first. But it wasn’t until I interviewed his oldest sibling, my Uncle Elmer Bowles, that I really made progress He not only had a better recollection of the stories than my father, but he also had a collection of old family pictures from the turn of the century and original family documents dating back to 1859. His greatest treasure was a family Bible that had belonged to his Grandmother Elnora Van Cleve, in which she had recorded births, marriages, and deaths beginning as early as 1845. Uncle Elmer gave me the Bible and family documents, which have been used to trace our earliest Mitchell ancestors back to Ireland in 1637. Had Uncle Elmer not preserved these precious family documents, the stories of my ancestors may have been lost forever.
I also owe a great deal to both the Sons and the Daughters of the American Revolution who maintain and preserve the records and history of the patriots of the Revolution. I would never have known where to find the records I needed for my own research without the help of genealogist Thomas Bresnehan of the local SAR. Tom is now deceased, but I will always appreciate the help he and the Sons of the American Revolution gave me.
Well-known genealogist and historian Dennis Kulvicki helped me to find needed documentation that provided much of the material for the Westward Sagas.
The Guilford County Genealogical Society was very helpful in my research in North Carolina, and the Jonesborough and Washington County Genealogical Societies are valuable resources for my research in Tennessee.
My brother Roger Bowles encouraged me to write the family stories and even helped with costs of research and restoring family documents. Other members of my family – some I’ve known all my life and some I’ve only met through my research or my book – have filled in blanks and occasionally corrected errors.
Many other people – family, friends, and members of the genealogical and other organizations I belong to – have helped me immensely. The books in the Westward Sagas carry my name as author, but they would not have received the accolades for accuracy from genealogists and historians without a lot of help from a lot of people.
[tags]genealogy, Mitchell, Bowles, Sons of the American Revolution, Guilford County Geanealogy Society, Jonesborough Genealogical Society, Washington County Genealogy Society, Dennis Kulvicki[/tags]
Tagged — I’m It!
January 26, 2007
I’ve just learned what an Internet meme is. Dictionary.com defines meme as “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.” Quite a mouthful! Often memes are spread spontaneously by word-of-mouth. In the blogosphere, memes are often intentionally spread by one blogger posting something and tagging others to post on the same topic.
Miriam Midkiff at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors tagged me to share five things about myself that you don’t know. Then I get to tag five more bloggers to do the same.
So here are five things you probably don’t know about me:
1. I carried on the ranching tradition in my family until November 1999, when my ranch hand left for another job. I was not physically able to do the work myself, so I reluctantly sold the ranch. My dad always raised cattle, and I grew up with ranching in my blood. I raised registered Red Brangus cattle, and I still miss going to the cattle auctions – in fact, I miss everything about ranching, even though it paid about as well as writing does.
2. Since I haven’t made my fortune in genealogy, ranching, or writing, I own a business to pay the bills. dabow-inc. has provided credit card processing to business owners in San Antonio since 1990. Now the business is online as well and serves customers around the country.
3. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most in life is traveling throughout the western US and Canada on my Gold Wing Touring Motorcycle. In July 1997, I wanted to escape a very hot summer and go someplace cool, so I headed north. I spent the night in Chama, New Mexico, and met a family from Corpus Christi, Texas headed the same direction in their van. The next day, we kept passing each other on the highway. That night I was eating dinner in a restaurant when the family came in. They had seen my motorcycle in the parking lot and decided to join me. The kids were thrilled when I let them sit on the motorcycle.Â
The lady asked me, “Where are you headed?”
North,” I answered.
“Where north?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I’m not there yet.”
We continued to travel the same road, waving as we passed each other from time to time, all the way to Missoula, Montana. Then they split off, and I headed up to Lake Louise, Canada.
On the return trip, I stopped in to visit my friends Bob Watts and Phil Phillips northwest of Idaho City, Idaho in the Boise Mountains. They were gold miners – they didn’t pan; they used modern gold mining equipment that I thought was supposed to make it easier. I worked with Bob from 8:30 in the morning til noon – shoveling mud from the creek to the slew – and at the end of the morning, I’d mined about $35 worth of gold. I decided gold mining wasn’t the way to get rich quick, either! The evenings were spent at Diamond Lil’s in beautiful downtown Idaho City, and I spent two nights at the gold camp. The third night, after sleeping on the hard ground long enough, I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Idaho City that originally had been a house of ill repute. I still have the little vial of the liquid gold as a souvenir of my one-day career as a gold miner.
4. I’ve always been active in the community. I was named Business Leader of the Year in 1994 by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and the next year appointed to the White House Conference on Small Business by Congressman Lamar Smith. The first civilian appointed by City Council to the San Antonio Police Review Board, I’ve served as a Commissioner on the San Antonio Crime Commission under four different mayors. I belong to several genealogical and historical societies and am Vice President of the San Antonio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
5. A fifth generation native of Austin, I moved to San Antonio in 1968 for a temporary job during Hemisfair … and I’m still here.
Next up, I’m tagging three genealogy bloggers and two writing bloggers:
Jill Fallon at Legacy Matters
Becky Wiseman at kinexxions
Sasha Mitchell at Memory Lane
Helen Ginger at Straight from Hel
Lillie Ammann at A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye
Tell us five things we don’t know about you.
Lights, Camera, Author!
January 22, 2007
If you’re in the Houston, Texas, area, I hope you can join me for the 7th Annual Book & Author Dinner – Lights, Camera, Author! – sponsored by the Literacy Council of Fort Bend County.
I’ll be a guest at a sponsor table and have a chance to meet and visit with everyone at the table.
[tags]literacy, Fort Bend County, Houston, books, authors, David Bowles[/tags]
Carnival of Genealogy, 16th Edition
January 17, 2007
Lots of wonderful family and food memories – and some great recipes – in the current Carnival of Genealogy.
[tags]genealogy, recipes, food, memories, family[/tags]
More from the Guilford Genealogist
January 15, 2007
I wrote earlier about how excited I was for the great review in the Guilford Genealogist. That post was quoted in the current issue (Vol. 33, No. 4, Winter, 2006, Issue No. 115). Bradley R. Foley used my comments to encourage other authors to submit their works to the journal for review. Once again, I concur that the Guilford County Historical Society and its quarterly journal are great resources.
[tags]genealogy, history, David Bowles, Spring House, Guilford Genealogist, Westward Sagas[/tags]
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