Contents
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Showing both families — every line on the page. Pick a side to hide the other
family's ancestors; Earl, Kristin and their three children stay on either way.
Person · William A. Bowles
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationWilliam A. Bowles
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
- Born
- about 1787
- Married
- Lucy Ann
- Sources
- 2
Research status
Research status: PROBABLE — added 24 September 2026 and entered in the family tree the same day, labelled probable there too; the 1850 Owsley County, Kentucky, census
S155 has Wm A Bowles, 63, born Virginia, and Lucy, 45, born Virginia, with James in the household; three Bowles brothers are listed together on the 1863 draft; nothing states “son”. Her maiden name: the 1821 Madison County marriage bond's consent memo says Lucy
Thomas, her father Abraham Thomas; Find a Grave says Alumbaugh, unsourced — so it is held as “Thomas?”
Evidence: The 1850 Owsley County census (Wm A. Bowles, 63, with James), the 1863 draft list, and the 1840 Estill County census (Wm Boles, 50–59). Weak or missing: Nothing states “son”; census co-residence only; the 1840 census names only the head, so it fits by age alone. Not yet confirmed. Know more? Confirm or correct this →
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1787
Born about
1787, Virginia; a farmer with $1,200 in real estate at the head of dwelling 367, Owsley County, in 1850
S155; husband of
Lucy AnnCensus1840
🆕 In
1840 the census lists the household of
Wm Boles in Estill County, Kentucky, with a man of 50–59 at its head and a woman of 30–39, which fits William (born about 1787) and Lucy (born about 1805), and eight children and young people under twenty
S766. Only the head is named, so this is probable, not proved; an Abraham Thomas, perhaps Lucy's father, is on the same sheet. added 26 September 2026.
Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it
Probable
two men with the same initials, two generations apart
In the record
Generation 7 — Earl's earliest known
- 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.
- 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.