This is a good idea... I live in Oklahoma City and have access to the Oklahoma Historical Society Library and archives. I do work a full time job so my time spent at the Library would be limited to Saturday's. I could use some research help in Coffee County, TN. Not with my COWAN line but a line that married into my COWAN line. I need to determine the parent of Samuel Wiley Redden b. 1836 in Coffee County, TN. I suspect his father is Mark Redden/Reddin/Redding but I don't have the proof as of yet. Thanks Ronda Redden

Hey folks. A while back we did a roll call of folks on the list to see what branches of Cowan everyone was working on. I would like to where people on the list live as well. It might be helpful to know who has access to certain records repositories, cemeteries, etc. If you make regular trips to other areas that might be of interest, or work in a job where you have special access to records or tools, you might list that as well. To start things off, I live in Nashville (technically Antioch) TN, and have access to the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA). I am a frequent visitor to Tullahoma, Coffee County, TN, and a less frequent one to Franklin County. My wife works in the town of Franklin, Williamson County, TN. I am a grad student at MTSU in Murfreesboro,TN, but as my coursework is complete and I am just working on my thesis, I do not get down there as often as I did in the past. I also make trips a few times a year to various TN counties to check on the condition of cemeteries. I currently work for the Grand Ole Opry Museum doing archival work (a temporary(?) position) and manage a church archives and special collections, but I also have worked for several other local archives and museums, including TSLA, and have some knowledge of their collections. The Southern Baptists and Disciples of Christ both have major archives here. There is a Methodist archives for the Tennessee Conference UMC as well (I serve on their commission.) I am familiar with some of the county archives in TN, and will say that they vary greatly in quality and scope of their collections. Jim Havron "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." -- Douglas Adams (If you forward an email, please delete all names & addresses in the header to protect them from being added to Spam distribution lists.)

TAPS If any of you have ever been to a military funeral in which taps were played; this brings out a new meaning of it. Here is something Every American should know. Until I read this, I didn't know, but I checked it out and it's true: We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, "Taps". It's the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes. But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be interested to find out about its humble beginnings. Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician. The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as "Taps" ... used at military funerals was born. The words are : Day is done.. Gone the sun. From the lakes. From the hills. From the sky. All is well. Safely rest. God is nigh. Fading light. Dims the sight. And a star. Gems the sky. Gleaming bright. From afar. Drawing nigh. Falls the night. Thanks and praise. For ourdays. Neath the sun. Neath the stars. Neath the sky. As we go. This we know. God is nigh. I too have felt the chills while listening to "Taps" but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn't even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song and I didn't know if you had either so I thought I'd pass it along. I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before. Remember Those Lost and Harmed While Serving Their Country.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DMQ.2ACIB/1136 Message Board Post: I have a Christmas card that Tommy and Elaine sent to my parents, Trav and Ruth Skallman. There is no date but it is probably from the 1940's, maybe early 1950''s. They had a daughter Becky and son Brian, and the note on back is written when Brian was a baby. I would like to send this to the family if I can find them. Please email me at MandMWilda@aol.com Wilda Shelly

The Castle Garden Database is now online. You can presently search New York passenger arrivals from 1830-1892. http://www.castlegarden.org/ There are far too many matches to post to the list; Cowan - 825, Cowen - 209, Cowin - 39. Reported in the database results are Firstname, Lastname, Occupation, Age, Sex, Arrived, Origin, and Ship. The website says, in part: CastleGarden.org offers free access to an extraordinary database of information on 10 million immigrants from 1830 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened.... From 1855 to 1890, the Castle was America's first official immigration center, a pioneering collaboration of New York State and New York City. CastleGarden.org is an invaluable resource for educators, scholars, students, family historians, and the interested public. Currently the site hosts 10 million records, and support is needed to complete the digitization of the remaining 2 million records, beginning in 1820, from the original ship manifests. Have fun! Valorie

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: cowan Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/mbexec/msg/5538/DMQ.2ACIB/1135 Message Board Post: does any one have any info on the cowan family who lived in liverpool in the 1870's to 1900's.john was from edinburgh and his wife isabella was from dublin.i would love any help finding their families. thanks, hazel cowan

British Have Changed Little Since Ice Age, Gene Study Says James Owen for National Geographic News July 19, 2005 Despite invasions by Saxons, Romans, Vikings, Normans, and others, the genetic makeup of today's white Britons is much the same as it was 12,000 ago, a new book claims. In The Tribes of Britain, archaeologist David Miles says around 80 percent of the genetic characteristics of most white Britons have been passed down from a few thousand Ice Age hunters. Miles, research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford, England, says recent genetic and archaeological evidence puts a new perspective on the history of the British people. "There's been a lot of arguing over the last ten years, but it's now more or less agreed that about 80 percent of Britons' genes come from hunter-gatherers who came in immediately after the Ice Age," Miles said. These nomadic tribespeople followed herds of reindeer and wild horses northward to Britain as the climate warmed. "Numbers were probably quite small-just a few thousand people," Miles added. These earliest settlers were later cut off as rising sea levels isolated Britain from mainland Europe. New evidence for the genetic ancestry of modern Britons comes from analysis of blood groups, oxygen traces in teeth, and DNA samples taken from skeletal remains. Ice Age hunter-gathers also colonized the rest of northwest Europe, spreading through what are now the Netherlands, Germany, and France. But Miles said differences between populations can be detected in random genetic mutations, which occurred over time. The most visible British genetic marker is red hair, he added. The writer Tacitus noted the Romans' surprise at how common it was when they arrived 2,000 years ago. "It's something that foreign observers have often commented on," Miles said. "Recent studies have shown that there is more red hair in Scotland and Wales than anywhere else in the world. It's a mutation that probably occurred between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago." Stonehenge Manpower Britain's population in the late Stone Age may have much been larger than historians once supposed. For instance, scientists have calculated that it would have taken around 30 million hours to create Stonehenge. "By the time Stonehenge was built you'd had about a thousand years of farming," Miles said. "The population's expanding, and people are getting together to form big labor forces to put up these big public buildings." Population estimates based on the size and density of settlements put Britain's population at about 3.5 million by the time Romans invaded in A.D. 43. Many historians now believe subsequent invaders from mainland Europe had little genetic impact on the British. The notion that large-scale migrations caused drastic change in early Britain has been widely discredited, according to Simon James, an archaeologist at Leicester University, England. "The gene pool of the island has changed, but more slowly and far less completely than implied by the old invasion model," James writes in an article for the website BBC History. For the English, their defining period was the arrival of Germanic tribes known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons. Some researchers suggest this invasion consisted of as few as 10,000 to 25,000 people-not enough to displace existing inhabitants. Analysis of human remains unearthed at an ancient cemetery near Abingdon, England, indicates that Saxon immigrants and native Britons lived side by side. "Probably what we're dealing with is a majority of British people who were dominated politically by a new elite," Miles said. "They were swamped culturally but not genetically." Genetic Continuity "It is actually quite common to observe important cultural change, including adoption of wholly new identities, with little or no biological change to a population," Simon James, the Leicester University archaeologist, writes. One such change is the emergence of a Celtic identity in Britain. There are no historical references to Celts in ancient Britain. Miles explained that "Celts" was a name applied to tribes in Gaul-modern-day France-though their language shared the same root as those spoken by British tribes. "In the 18th and 19th centuries, as Ireland, Wales, and Scotland started to assert national identity, they began to talk about themselves as Celts," Miles added. Miles acknowledged that the techniques used to explore genetic ancestry are still in their infancy and that many more samples are needed to fully understand the origins of the British people. "By mapping the genetic variability of humans around the world, geneticists can begin to track their dispersal, migrations, and interrelationships," Miles writes.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: cowan Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DMQ.2ACIB/1134 Message Board Post: Looking for info on the Jesse D. Cowan family tree. they are out of Polk and Butler County, Nebraska. Need photos, obits, family lineage.. anything you got for me! rkslperez@aol.com

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cowson Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DMQ.2ACIB/1133 Message Board Post: COWAN, John Royalist soldier captured at Worcester. Transported from Gravesend to Boston on the "John and Sarah", master John Greene, 13 May 1652. (NER) I am not related to this person, I am just passing on this information, which comes from a book titled "Scots Banished to the American Plantations 1650-1775" by David Dobson. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore. 1983. pg. 234. Joyce

John Cowan (I) died in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1788. I know he died leaving 4 minor children. I don't know how many (if any) children he had of legal age. John Cowan (I) died without a will and according to a court document John Cowan (II) was guardian of Alexander Cowan. David Forster took Isaac Cowan. William Cowan took Joseph Skiles Cowan and Thomas Cowan took Esther Cowan." My question for the Forster researchers out there is did any of you have a David Forster who was possibly married to a Cowan, Dobbins, Graham or a Skiles Woman, and who also adopted (or took guardianship of) the young Isaac Cowan, a minor, in or about 1788 in Rowan County, North Carolina? My thinking here is that possibly David Forster was an UNCLE of Isaac Cowan, which means he would have possibly been married to a Cowan woman (or a Dobbins, or Skiles, or Graham, or????) I have not been able to find any information from the Cowan direction, so I am hoping that by going in through, so to speak, "the back door" through the Forster's that somebody may know something about this Cowan family. I am related to Joseph Skiles Cowan, son of John Cowan (I). I am also very interested in finding who John Cowan/en was married to. This has been my blank wall for quite a while and I'd like to find the missing woman who married John Cowan/en. Maybe my John Cowan married a Forster woman? Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Thought I would post this in case anyone out there would like to see it. It deals with Alderman John Cowan, Stewart family, Robert Cowan, etc. _lond_eo.htm_ (http://www.proni.gov.uk/records/private/lond_eo.htm#top)

I'm looking for a William L. Cowan born abt. 1813-1815 in Scotland, married to Ruth A. Prescott in New York. I have most info from him arriving in New York to Death. I am searching for where he was born in Scotland and who his parents were. Also possibly what ship he came over on... This would be my ggg-grandfather Any help would be appreciated very much Thank you kelley v. cowan _kcajun63@aol.com_ (mailto:kcajun63@aol.com)

I'm looking for a William L. Cowan born abt. 1813-1815 in Scotland, married to Ruth A. Prescott in New York. I have most info from him arriving in New York to Death. I am searching for where he was born in Scotland and who his parents were. Also possibly what ship he came over on... Any help would be appreciated very much Thank you kelley v. cowan _kcajun63@aol.com_ (mailto:kcajun63@aol.com)

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: FOSTER, COWAN, EBERSOLD, HARVELL Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/DMQ.2ACIB/1132 Message Board Post: Looking for any information on Lillian A. Cowan. She lived in Wichita Co, TX in 1920 in the household of her Uncle Elie E. Foster. She signed as a witness for the marriage of her cousin, Leona Foster Harvell, later that same year in Eddy County, NM. She is the daughter of Bettie Mae Foster and William T. Cowan. She had a brother named John Albert and a sister named Mittie (Ebersold). Did she marry? When and where did she die?

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DMQ.2ACIB/55.396.2 Message Board Post: My grandfather is Albert Cowan grandson of Eli Cowan by way of Alfred Cowan. I also have info on burial site etc. Please email me @ dhguess @yahoo.com. Thanks.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: COWAN, BROWN, REDMON Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DMQ.2ACIB/330.336.613.615.2 Message Board Post: Eli Cowan is my gggfather. His grave is in Sullivan Ky. I would like to get more info. I have pictures of graves for Eli and Sarah and others. My grandfather is Albert Brown Cowan adopted son of Alfred Cowan, son of Eli. Please email me.

In a message dated 7/24/2005 3:22:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, sandyned66@sbcglobal.net writes: sandyned66@sbcglobal.net Hi Sandy....I am a Cowan also. I must not get all the COWAN-L messages but I noticed you were writing to a Ray. I do not have an e-mail # for him, but I do have a copy of the Cowan's Whiskey Poster if he wants it. Carolyn Cowan Oberle..... casu01@aol.com

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cowan Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/DMQ.2ACIB/1031.2.1 Message Board Post: Craig, This Cowantown/Cowentown still shows on some current maps. Go to Mapquest and type in the address of 1812 Appleton Rd, Eklton, Maryland 21921. This intersection is what's left of Cowantown.

My wife has John Cowan born about 1765 who married Leah Lewis. They had daughter Margaret Cowan born about 1793. She married into the Hill Family (James Hill) of Jefferson County, Tenn. -------------- Original message --------------

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cowan Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/DMQ.2ACIB/1008.1.2.1 Message Board Post: No, I don't recognize any of the names you mentioned. None of these people appear in my research. Thanks for replying though. Janett