Putting 'meat' on the bones

When you first began this peculiar, maddening, almost addictive hobby, you may have had one goal in mind: Find your family line as far back as you can. But, if you're like me, something happened along the way to change that goal, or rather, to add to it.

Oh, sure, I'm still interested in tracing my direct ancestors back to Adam, if I can. But what has added to the fun, and made the search more interesting, is learning about the people themselves ... I mean the individual person ... what did he or she look like? What kind of person was he? What trials did he go through in life?

This is the part of your genealogy that takes a little more time and comes with years of research on a particular family. You may also find yourself becoming a bit of a historian along the way.

When I realized this, it shocked the daylights out of me because history was my absolute worst subject in high school and college. Mr. Johnson, my high school history teacher, is, no doubt, grinning in his grave because I know my lack of interest and understanding of his subject caused him much anguish and frustration.

Finding gravestones, death certificates and census records just gives you the basic information ... names and dates, if you will. But putting "meat" on the bones takes a little more effort. You have to depend on not only your own family's stories, but also those of other family members to get a true picture and put character in the soul of your ancestor. One family's story may say one thing, yours may say another, but by blending the two, and adding the known facts, you can come up with a pretty accurate picture of your ancestor ... and fill in some gaps in your family's history.

One thing I never really cared about was military history, much to my late husband's dismay, since he was a career Army officer and thought all history, especially military history, was the greatest thing since peanut butter. He would be happy to know that I am quickly becoming a Civil War buff and loving the heck out of it. I even contacted a former classmate (all the way from kindergarten through college) who I knew was up to his ears in Civil War matters and inquired about the subject. I know he probably fell off his chair when I called because I was such a flibbertigibbet back then and was concerned more with boyfriends, clothes and hairdos than history.

When I was putting together the Fowler history, there was a big gap in time ... the family's move from Gwinnett to Campbell County about 1861 and the subsequent move to Cleburne County, Ala., about 1878. We knew two brothers, Kelly Fowler and Zephania(h) Fowler, fought and died in the Civil War, but my direct ancestor, John Fowler, who was not too old or too young, seemed to have no records about that time. He was in the Gwinnett census in 1860, in the Campbell census in 1870, served on a grand jury there in 1873, and died before 1880, when his wife appears in the 1880 Cleburne census as a widow. We had the facts but no rhyme or reason.

Well, I was browsing the Rootsweb WorldConnect files one evening and came across the file of a John "Albert" Fowler who was said to have been a Colonel in the Civil War. The file was loaded with copious notes, the memoirs of a Vera Bradberry Munson, as told to her son. Most surprisingly, this John Fowler was said to have been married to a Sarah Ann Norris and had relatives in Cleburne County and Carroll County.

I knew this had to be my GGgrandfather, but I had never heard of any of this other stuff. I wrote to the owner of the file and she sent me the complete information with all Mrs. Munson's stories. Although these were her memoirs as she remembered things, there were many errors of fact, including John's name which we knew was not Albert, but at least we had the Fowler story from a different perspective and now had information which might fill in our time gap.

I sent copies of the file to my cousin Vicky and she did some digging. Lo and behold, we did find a John O.W. Fowler who was with the Georgia State Guards, mustered in as a lieutenant and mustered out as a lieutenant colonel. The original information said he enlisted from Jackson County. We would never have thought to look there. Also in the same information was the listing of a Reuben Fowler, known to be the name of John's brother. We didn't have any war service for Reuben either. Vicky has since found other information which indicates they served from Gwinnett County and she is still researching it.

Mrs. Munson's story was from the view of her grandfather, Joel Fowler, who was only five years old when Col. Fowler returned home from the war. She related how frightened Joel said he was of this large, "raggedy" man whom he had never seen before. Mrs. Munson also told of the family's hardships after the war and how the reconstruction activities caused them to lose their farm. She told of how John suffered from tuberculosis and died when Joel was barely a teen.

All of a sudden, my GGgrandfather had become a person. I could picture a tall man dressed in tatters returning to his family in ill health. I could feel their anguish at losing all their land and probably a lot more. Mrs. Munson's story had put "meat on the bones" and added character to my John.

The point is this: Search for living relatives of your ancestors' siblings and in-laws. Beg for family stories. Even though they might not match yours 100 percent, you can sift through them and correlate events with known facts. Save even erroneous information as it may be a basis for a later fact. For instance, it is a fact that John "Albert" Fowler was a son of the above Joel Fowler (but not his father), named after his maternal grandfather, Albert Ballinger, father of Eliza Ballinger, who married Joel Fowler.

There are many more facets to this story which match up with the facts, but I won't bore you with more Fowler stories. If you are interested in Fowler research, write me privately and I'll be happy to share the information with you.

If you're looking for your Georgia ancestors or have a local family history to share, write to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. I'll be happy to share it with others and maybe help you "find your folks."

Until next week, happy hunting!

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