Ken, Thank you again. I have to say that the listers involved in the Huron community are absolutely the most helpful of any I have met!!! I took off with your idea and researched the Thorpe next Norwich area and came up with some terrific information. As you may know, besides being farmers, my Bowles family ran a tavern by the railroad tracks on the property that they owned in New London. I do not yet Know the name of it. I beleive that I found my Richard in 1841 in the village of Great Yarmouth, Norwich, along with other family members who of all things were tavern keepers. As I "traveled through time" I found who is perhaps his father, another Wm. Bowles owning several taverns including, The Britannia Beerhouse in 1819, The Coach and Horses in 1830-1835 and the Sawyers Arms in 1839. I understand that it was destred by fire in 1854. Richard and Diana Bowles arrived in New London between 1854 and 1860. It made sense to me that perhaps Diana returned to an area where she ha! d family or fond memories or perhaps owned some property. I am now researching this area for records and have joined the Norwich mailing list on rootsweb in hopes of finding more If anyone is interested in studying up on old pubs and taverns I found a terrific site . It is www.norfolkpubs.co.uk . Interesting, cool pictures and educational. Thank you again for your help. I am coming to New London for the 4th of July to meet a sister who grew up there. She was adopted at birth and I accidentally stumbled across her records of birth in my genealogy research. Now that is a find! I am looking forward to my visit to your county. Best Regards, R.L.Bowles-Meentzen Kwsroots@aol.com wrote:For Randi Bowles-Meetzen. Hi Randi, I believe I have found the death date for the Diana Bowles listed in the England Census of 1881 as a widow, age 72, born in Gibralter, and living on Bishop Bridge Rd., Thorpe next Norwich in the county of Norfolk, England. The date is March, 1883. It can be found on the web site for FreeBMD (births, marriages, deaths). The site is: freebmd.rootsweb.com. There are five entries for Diana Bowles. Besides the death date mentioned, there is a birth date given which appears to relate to the birth of your Diana Bowles' son George Bowles in Shardlow, Mar 1852. (According to your posting of 3 Jan 2005 to Ancestry.com's message board, subject: Bowles in Shardlow 1850's.) If you're not familiar with FreeBMD, the first page of the web site states that it is a project to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births. marriages, and deaths for England and Wales, and covers index records for the period 1837-1983. (When filling out the search criteria for Diana Bowles I filled in "All Types" for the different records, "All Districts," and "All Counties." Here are the five records for Diana Bowles. Read Name, Age (when given), District, Volume nr., and Page nr.: 1.Births Mar 1852 Diana Bowles, Shardlow, 7b, 321. "The district Shardlow spans the boundaries of the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire..." (Appears to relate to the birth of George Bowles in 1852.) 2. Deaths Mar `1883 Diana Bowles, age 74, Norwich, 4b, 88. "The district Norwich can be found in the county of Norfolk..." (Seemingly relates to the Diana Bowles who appeared in the 1881 England Census at age 72, living in Thorpe, next Norwich, Norfolk, England. May or may not be the same as Diana (Smith) Bowles) 3. Births Jun 1874 Diana Maria Bowles, Norwich, 4b, 117. "The district Norwich is in the county of Norfolk..." 4. Marriages Mar 1897 Diana Maria Bowles, Norwich, 4b, 260. "The district Norwich is in the county of Norfolk..." (Presumably the same Diana Bowles as in 3. above.) 5. Deaths Sep 1883 Diana Bowles, age 1, Fulham, 1a, 140. "The district Fuham spans the boundaries of Greater London, London and Middlesex..." (Appears not to relate to the above listings) I also made a quick search of the freeBMD web site for listings of Richard Bowles. There were many of them, but none I could pin down as being your Richard Bowles. Maybe you will have better luck. (Unless he died in the U.S.) Regards, Ken Shute (kwsroots@aol.com) ==== OHHURON Mailing List ==== Enjoy your stay in Huron County, OH If you feel you must unsubscribe from the list mode send the word 'unsubscribe' to OHHURON-L-request@rootsweb.com