2/18-07 Dear Peter, I have not had any replies yet. However, one person with whom I have had email contact off this list told me that he thought the name Bowna was aboriginal, meaning "big water," a reference to the Murumbigee River. If that is true, then there is no connection at all, I would imagine, between Bonat and Bowna, except pure coincidence of sound. Thank you very much for inquiring of a long-term resident of Bowna. I would greatly appreciate knowing if you hear anything. Best, Carren (Kaston) aus-vic-ne-request@rootsweb.com wrote: >Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Mr. Bonat from the Bowna (Sub)Division in New South > Wales, Albury District (Peter Ross) > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Message: 1 >Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:01:28 +1100 >From: "Peter Ross" <rossof@ozemail.com.au> >Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Bonat from the Bowna (Sub)Division in New > South Wales, Albury District >To: <aus-vic-ne@rootsweb.com> >Message-ID: <004801c74fb2$32d6cf20$0401a8c0@acerb13d74b0ac> >Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > >Hi Carren, > >Have you had any replies yet ? I've been in touch with a long-term resident >of Bowna who has not heard of Mr Bonat but who is fascinated and is doing >some serious enquiring. > >The connection to Bowna seems entirely logical, assuming the French name >Bonat was Anglicised to Bowna whilst he was here (IF he was here). > >Please let me know if you already have an answer to your query. > >Peter Ross > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Carren Kaston" <ckaston@starpower.net> >To: <AUS-VIC-NE@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 5:24 PM >Subject: [AVNE] Mr. Bonat from the Bowna (Sub)Division in New South Wales, >Albury District > > > > >>I am a museum researcher in the United States, trying to find someone >>named Mr. Bonat, who is described in a family diary as "Bowna Div. >>Army man." We only recently learned that Bowna Div. is or was a place >>in New South Wales, a land-holding. >> >>Mr. Bonat married a woman from Quebec named Marie-Louise LeBel >>(born 1876), who migrated with her family to Michigan, in the United >>States, around 1885. We think the marriage took place in the 1890s, >>or a bit later, but not after 1905, since Mr. Bonat was dead by then. >> >>I am very sorry to say that we don't have Mr. Bonat's first name, nor >>the date or place of his birth, nor the precise date or place of the >>marriage, nor his place of death. (We do know a fair amount about >>Marie-Louise LeBel Bonat, who traveled a great deal. By 1905, she was >>living in Philadelphia and listing herself in the city directory as a >>"widow," thus giving us an approximate date for Mr. Bonat's death. She >>lived mostly in the US, with occasional periods in Paris, and died in >>Middletown, Rhode Island, in 1936.) >> >>I have several questions relating to Mr. Bonat that I hope listserv >>members can help me with. >> >>(1) Was the village of Bowna (flooded now, I understand, by >>construction of a dam), or the Bowna (sub)Division, named for a family >>whose surname was Bowna? If so, does anyone have information about this >>family? -- what did they do for a living? where did they came from (if >>originally from some place other than Australia), and when did they come? >>Are there any descendants, or is there a way to track them, to see whether >>one of their ancestors did in fact marry in French-Canadian woman named >>Marie-Louise LeBel? >> >>(2) How can I find out if a man, or a family, named Bonat lived in the >>Bowna (sub)Division, and get more information about him? The name Bonat >>is quite unusual, so that even though we don't have his first name, I >>think he would show up on military or parish lists, census records, etc. >> >>Maybe Bowna or Albury parish records -- do those exist anywhere? >>Or census records for perhaps the 1880s or 1890s -- I would search for >>both Bonat and Bowna. >> >>Note: Before we found out that Bowna is a place name, we thought it >>might be a misspelling of "Bonat," since both words would be pronounced >>the same, if Bonat is a French name. It is also possible that >>Marie-Louise, who was very fond of all things French, "Frenchified" the >>name Bowna so that it came out Bonat. That's why it might make sense to >>search for the name Bowna as well. >> >>Thank you very much for your assistance. >> >>Sincerely, >>Carren Kaston >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>AUS-VIC-NE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >>quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> > > >------------------------------ > >To contact the AUS-VIC-NE list administrator, send an email to >AUS-VIC-NE-admin@rootsweb.com. > >To post a message to the AUS-VIC-NE mailing list, send an email to AUS-VIC-NE@rootsweb.com. > >__________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-VIC-NE-request@rootsweb.com >with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the >email with no additional text. > > >End of AUS-VIC-NE Digest, Vol 2, Issue 32 >***************************************** > > >