I last looked at these in November of 2023. Here is what I have as of then:
Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo are my 5th great-grandparents. They were born in the first half of the 1700’s, so well into the colonial period of Massachusetts. Penealope descends from the White family which goes back to the Mayflower. I grew up in Rochester where Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo were born, so this is local history for me.
My Cowen ThruLines
I do not see these three people on my chart. Israel marries in 1795:
I can go down from Israel or up from the three matches which is the more proper way. I am hoping that Charles fits into the Cowen line, so I will put him in my tree as a ‘floating tree’. That means that he will be unconnected until I find his connection. On Thelma’s wedding record, her parents are given as:
Unfortunately, Ancestry transcribes her father as a Gifford also, where the last name is omitted and assumed to be the same as Thelma’s (Butts). Here is my floating tree:
Ancestry is loading up my tree with hints. My ThruLines say to follow the Butts Line. Here is Earle’s marriage Record:
The person who married him had the first name of Hartley. Next, I shift ot Calvin Butts. He was a carpenter in New Bedford in 1900. Calvin is recorded in a book of births for New Bedford:
That gets the name back to Polly Cowing. At this point, it would be helpful to have a marriage record for Polly Cowing:
I did find a death record, but Polly’s parents are listed as Zenas and Mary. So I guess I won’t be adding Charles to by Cowen tree.
Sharon and Robert
My sister Sharon matches Robert;
I already have Shaun in my tree. I ruled out Dawn on the Seth Crapo Line. I assume I already evaluated Shaun, so it is safe to add in Robert:
I had noted on a previous Blog on Cowen ThruLines that Shaun is also related on my Hathaway side. This makes sense as Excperience Cowing married Joseph Hathaway on my line. That means that we don’t know whether the match is on the Cowing side or Hathaway side or both. I say it could be both as Sharon matches Robert in two different segments of DNA. Technically, the DNA could be from Cowing, Crapo, Hathaway or Hiller. It gets complicated as I am related to Hiller on the yellow chart above also.
Cousin Joyce’s Cowen ThruLines
I have been noticing a few of these lately.
Right now I only have one match under Jonathan Cowing, so let’s take a look at Joyce’s matches under Jonathan.
I already have Kristine on my tree, so Julie is an easy add.
It appears that Jonathan Cowen could have been a Quaker based on his burial place:
Here is some further information from findagrave.com:
This seems to fit in well with Joyce’s Cowen ThruLines.
Joyce and Coynert
It is time for a floating tree for coynert. Here is Annie or Anna living with her family on a farm in Mattapoiisett in 1870:
Here is the floating tree I came up with:
The assumption is that Eliza Hiller is the same as Eliza Cowing. Next I need to merge the two Elizas:
Next, I add the line to my Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree:
Joyce and angiesmom
I already have Abner on my Ancestry Tree:
This looks like a sure bet. Still, I’ll create a floating tree for angiesmom. Angiesmom’s maternal side tree does have a Cowen:
Here is the family in 1950:
Here is the 1920 Census:
Here we see Everett R’s father who is also Everett R was born in Massachusetts. That is a good sign. Here is Everett on Cook Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in 1900:
His father, James was a tool maker:
Confusingly, James Cowen marries a Bowen:
This brings us back to Abner. I merge the two trees and I now have angiesmom line.
There is no guarantee that the DNA that Joyce and angiesmom share is from Seth Cowing or Penelope Crapo as I have not considered every line of both people where there may be other connections. However, it is possible and it is also interesting to see where the different lines of Cowen ended up.
Abner Pease Cowen Born 1825 Rochester
I came across this photo of Abner at Ancestry. Keep in mind that in 1825 Rochester included present day Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester:
Joyce and Seth
I already have Frances and Helen on my yellow tree, so I will add Seth also.
The Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree
This includes only one match from my father’s cousin Maury in the bottom left. It also does not show Maury on the right side of the chart. There are also many more Hartley relatives as my great-grandparents had 13 children. He has many more matches, but I will not look at them now:
However, I note that he does not have descendants of Polly Cowen which I determined were not right above.
Summary and Conclusions
- Recent common ancestors shown under Joyce’s DNA matches resulted in me looking at some Seth Cowen Thrulines
- I found one line that was not right. These were descendants of Polly Cowen. The confusion is probably that there were more than one Polly Cowen born around the same time.
- I was able to expand my Cowne DNA/Genealogy Chart and see where some of the Seth Cowen descendants ended up living.