Hi Mary, May I horn in on your conversation? I'm definitely a newbie to this genea logy thing, and when I first got online seven years ago looking for ancestors all I knew was that my maternal grandpa's mother's name was BOLES, and that she said she was French? She married my great grandfather Louis Thomas GABBARD, gave birth to four children and died when my grandpa was about 7 years of age. I never even considered the spelling BOWLES until finding it on Ancestry. Diann from So Cal Boles/Bowles/, Bowman, Cain, Carson, Cooper, Conner/Connor, Conely/Connelly, Dickens, Dittemore/Detterman, Gabbard, Gentry, Goheen, Grindstaff, Hedrix, Hertzel, Hughes, Jones, Kimbrough, Lick, Marcum, McLorie, Nehs/Neas, Penland, Pheiffer, Shipp, Sutton, Thomas, Wilkerson, Wilson, Wood, Zirkle and so and and so forth (0;