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Tuesday, 22 December 2015

Arts & Humanities: Genealogy: “Question: Could this image be of one of the revolutionary war soldiers named Peter Cline?” plus 5 more

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Arts & Humanities: Genealogy: “Question: Could this image be of one of the revolutionary war soldiers named Peter Cline?” plus 5 more

Question: Could this image be of one of the revolutionary war soldiers named Peter Cline?

Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:24 PM PST

From what I've read about Pieter Klein, he may have been born in the Palatinate region of Germany, he had lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and he lived in Pike County, Kentucky, and was likely buried in Mingo County, West Virginia after his death.

It appears to me that there is some resemblance between the man in my picture and William Johnson, a.k.a. William Cline.

http://clinejohnson.com/yahoo_site_admin...

Picture is on the clinejohnson website.

Question: What does the surname Bowers from German descent mean?

Posted: 17 Dec 2015 10:45 AM PST

Bowers Name Meaning
English: variant of Bower.

and

Bower Name Meaning

1) Scottish: occupational name for a bow maker, Older Scots bowar, equivalent to English Bowyer.

2) English and Scottish: from Middle English bur, bour 'bower', 'cottage', 'inner room' (Old English bur), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in a small cottage, an occupational name for a house servant who attended his master in his private quarters (see Bowerman), or a habitational name from any of various places, for example in Essex, named Bower or Bowers.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

There are two obvious possibilities for a German using "Bowers" (and an infinite number of non-obvious ones).

1) The original German surname meant "someone who lived in a small cottage" but was basically impossible for his fellow Americans to pronounce, so he translated it; that is usually more common for straight-forward surnames, like "Zimmerman", which means "Carpenter" in German.

2) The original German surname meant "Tall fellow who lives by the river" or something equally improbable, but sounded very much like "Bowers", so he spelled it that way.

With rare exception you'll never know, really. Some of the rare exceptions:

1) If you find someone named "Zimmerman" in the 1910 census and the same family is "Carpenter" in 1920 (substitute any German occupational name and its translation), the family changed their name in response to the anti-German feelings during World War I.

One of my ancestors was an Adams. He started using "Addams" and let everyone know he wanted his line to be distinct.

Another of my ancestors was a Huguenot named "Souplis". He started spelling it "Suplee" in Virginia so that his English-speaking neighbors wouldn't pronounce it "soup-less".

Question: Is the father of my great great grandfather's wife also my great great grandfather?

Posted: 17 Dec 2015 07:07 AM PST

It's a lot easier to number them, and, yes, as long as they are your biological (not step) great grandparents, the chain keeps on going.

The parents of your great grandparents are your 2nd great grandparents.
The parents of your 2nd great grandparents are your 3rd great grandparents.
The parents of your 3rd great grandparents are your 4th great grandparents.
The parents of your 4th great grandparents are your 5th great grandparents.
And so on.

If you cast caution to the winds and believe everything you see on Ancestry.com, Charlemange, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - the one who died in 814 - was my 42nd GGF. It turns out some of the links in that particular chain are questionable, so I've stopped making the claim.

Adding one to the number of greats is true for great grandfathers and great grandmothers equally.

You managed to confuse me, which is easier these days than it used to be. "the father of my great great grandfather's wife" sounds like your 2nd great grandfather married at least twice, that you descend from the first wife and the father in question is the father of the second wife. In that case, he is a step 3rd great grandfather you aren't related, although if the step 3rd great grandfather was Ulysses Grant or Robert E. Lee, you would probably mention it at cocktail parties.

Question: My grandmother has a niece. I m my grandmother s grandson. What is the niece to me?

Posted: 16 Dec 2015 05:43 PM PST

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