The Proeger Family · Generation 8 — Earl's earliest known

Abraham Thomas

Probable father of Lucy Ann Bowles

Abraham Thomas

Probable

Probable father of Lucy Ann Bowles

Born
Not found
Died
Not found
Sources
6

Research status

Research status: PROBABLE — accepted by Earl 28 September 2026 pending more evidence. On 28 December 1821, in Madison County, Kentucky, the clerk's memo on Will Bowles's marriage bond records that “Abraham Thomas the father of the within Lucy Thomas gave his personal consent to the match” S854. FamilySearch indexes the same bond and consent S855. Lucy Bowles was 45 in 1850, so about 17 in 1821, the age at which a father's consent was needed S155. What is weak: no record gives our Lucy Ann's maiden name or calls her the Lucy Thomas of 1821, so the tie rests on the couple's names and her age; Find a Grave calls her Alumbaugh, without a source.

Evidence: The 1821 Madison County marriage bond memo names Abraham Thomas as the father of the Lucy Thomas who married Will Bowles, and FamilySearch indexes the same bond; Lucy Bowles's age in 1850 fits a bride of about 17. Weak or missing: No record gives our Lucy Ann's maiden name or calls her the Lucy Thomas of 1821; the tie rests on names and age, and Find a Grave's Alumbaugh is unsourced. Not yet confirmed. Know more? Confirm or correct this →

Life in the order the records give it

Census1810
An Abraham Thomas headed a household of nine in Madison County in 1810, among the Muddy Creek entries, with one enslaved person S765; in 1840 an Abraham Thomas is on the same Estill County sheet as the household of Wm Boles S766. Both censuses name only the head of the house
Birth
His birth and death dates are not in any record read. The dates online trees give him are unsourced and are not used here

Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it

Probable
Probable father of Lucy Ann Bowles, wife of William A. Bowles
Probable
🆕 Probably him in 1830: Abraham Thomas, aged 50–60, heads a household in Estill County, Kentucky, three lines above William Boles Probable confirm or correct → S1013. Evidence: the Thomas and Boles names side by side, as on the 1840 Estill sheet S766. Weak: 1830 names only the heads, and Abraham Thomas was a common name. If this is he, his age puts his birth between 1770 and 1780. A Cornealius Thomas, 30–40, on line 16 of the same page may be a son. Know more? Use “Add to this record”. added 29 September 2026

In the record Generation 8 — Earl's earliest known

Abraham Thomas · Sources

Citations

Sources cited on this card

6 of the record's sources are cited here. The numbering is the record's own; the full list, with where else each is cited, is at Sources.

  1. S1551850 U.S. Federal Census — Wm. A. Bowles household, County of Owsley, State of Kentucky. Ancestry collection 8054, record 17453547. SCHEDULE I.—Free Inhabitants, enumerated 10 September 1850 by Luther Br---- , Ass't Marshal; dwelling and family 367, lines 9–16. Read from the image at full resolution — 3550 × 4514 px, 22 September 2026. Wm A Bowles, 63, M, Farmer, real estate $1,200, born Virginia; Lucy Bowles, 45, F, born Virginia; then Thomas 23, Hugh[s] 21, James, William 14, Sarah 8, Margaret 5, all born Kentucky. 🔑 This sheet is the reason a sixth generation now stands on the Bowles line. It is the earliest document that places James Daniel Bowles in a household, and the household has a head and a wife born in Virginia — the only Virginia birth anywhere on this line. ⚠ It is published as PROBABLE, and the reason is on the page itself: a census household list states no relationship. The columns give name, age, sex, occupation, estate and birthplace, and nothing else. No document read in this research yet uses the word "son" for James against Wm A. and Lucy. What carries the identification is arithmetic on a second page: the three older boys of this house reappear on three consecutive lines of the 1863 draft list for the neighbouring county S156 at exactly the right ages — Hugh 21 → Hughs 34, William 14 → W. A. 27, James → 32. ⚠ James's own age digit is genuinely ambiguous: at native resolution it reads 11 as readily as 19, two plain strokes. The index says 19; the 1863 page is what fixes it at 19, not the digits. ⚠ Wm A Bowles here, 63 and born in Virginia, is NOT William Anderson Bowles (b. 1858), James's son. Two men, the same initials, two generations apart. ⚠ No occupation is entered for any son, and only the head holds real estate. ⚠ Jackson County was cut out of Owsley, Clay and Estill in 1858, which is why the 1863 residence is a different county and not a move.
  2. S7651810 United States Federal Census, Madison County, Kentucky, p. 893: household of Abraham Thomas. Ancestry record 690356. Image examined, read 22 September 2026. Probable Abraham Thomas, head, among the Muddy Creek entries: males under 10 (2), 10–15 (1), 26–44 (1); females under 10 (2), 10–15 (1), 26–44 (1); one enslaved person. Only the head is named. Madison County is where an Abraham Thomas consented to Lucy Thomas's marriage in 1821. The girl aged 10–15 or one of the girls under 10 could be Lucy, born about 1805, but the census does not say so. The index agrees with the image.
  3. S7661840 United States Federal Census, Estill County, Kentucky: household of Wm Boles. Ancestry record 2098703. Image examined, read 22 September 2026. Probable Wm Boles, head (last line of the sheet): males under 5 (1), 5–9 (1), 10–14 (2), 15–19 (1), 50–59 (1); females under 5 (1), 5–9 (1), 15–19 (1), 30–39 (1). An Abraham Thomas is listed seven lines above. Only the head is named. The man of 50–59 (born 1781–90) fits William A. Bowles (63 in 1850) and the woman of 30–39 (born 1801–10) fits Lucy (45 in 1850); the Abraham Thomas on the same sheet is circumstantial. Boles is the image's spelling of Bowles.
  4. S854Kentucky County Marriage Records — Madison County marriage bond and consent, Will Bowles and Lucy Thomas, December 1821. Ancestry collection 61372, record 1351996784 (image TH-1-10015-831-18; FHL film 000183308). Image examined, read 28 September 2026. Confirmed Docket “Bowles to Bond, Commonwealth”. Consent memo: “Memo. The within Will Bowles of lawful age, and the within Abraham Thomas the father of the within Lucy Thomas gave his personal consent to the match. Decr 28th 182[1] … Ch. Shackelford DC”. The index dates the marriage 29 December 1821. First read 24 September 2026 for William A. Bowles; re-read 28 September. The memo names the bride's father; it does not give the bride's age.
  5. S855FamilySearch index — marriage of Will Bowles and Lucy Thomas, Madison County, Kentucky, 1821. FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:V5ZZ-H4V and ark:/61903/1:1:V5Z6-SWG. Index only; no image read (checked 28 September 2026). Probable Indexes the same Madison County bond and consent, naming Abraham Thomas; the second entry is another indexing of the marriage. Not independent of S854; it confirms the reading of the names.
  6. S10131830 United States Federal Census — Estill County, Kentucky, page 250. Ancestry record 1789998. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 29 September 2026. Probable Line 9: Abraham Thomas, male 50–60, with males under 5, 15–20 and 20–30, two females 10–15 and a female 50–60. William Boles is three lines below; Cornealius Thomas, 30–40, is on line 16. 1830 names only the heads of households.

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Compiled for the Proeger family

Living adults appear by name and relationship, with the year only: no full date of birth and no home town on any page that search engines index, and a living person’s own page is kept out of search engines. Minors appear by name only — no date of birth, no birth year, no age, no school, no place, no address, no other identifying detail. A minor may be named and may appear in a family photograph; nothing further about them is published. Where it is not established whether someone is an adult or a minor, the minor rule applies.

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