As all of you of course, are researchers of ancestors in the Owen county
area. I am certain that I am not alone in the question I am about to ask; so
none of you will think that I have completely lost my mind. (Misery loves
company).
In hitting so many different brickwalls in my researching, I have to
occassionally wonder:
What on earth happened to so many different people in Owen county in the mid
1850-1860 time frame? And yes, in aggravation I sometimes wonder if they
just vanished from the face of the earth.
I know you all have them...no parents, no death, no land sales, no
burial....JUST GONE. WHOLE FAMILIES!! Sometimes these persons were quite
prominent in the local areas, I am not, of course, referring to persons who
were involved in the Civil War, those at least are explainable.
I am finding at least 7 different lines, that for no apparent reason just
ceased to exist in the Owen county areas.
By this I mean, there appears to be no burials, no death records, No land
sales, no census ANYWHERE, no wills/probate records, no obits.
I realize there were large land movements (homesteading, etc) but some of
these don't appear to be that or at least not consistent with the
conventional times of homesteading. Or even if it were, wouldn't they appear
"somewhere" else in the US Census records?
I will be posting surnames/families/persons who I cannot find after a
certain point for whatever reasoning.As many times occurred, persons left an
area with another family or traveled in groups, I am hoping that by posting
these names, perhaps someone has families that traveled with these families.
I would like to invite EVERYONE who has had persons just "appear to
disappear" from Owen county to make a posting of the following information:
SURNAME/PERSON'S NAME
AREA THEY RESIDED IN
ANY DOCUMENTATION ON THE LAST KNOWN "SIGHTING"
ANY SURROUNDING CIRCUMSTANCES KNOWN
FAMILIES THAT THEY MAY HAVE BEEN TRAVELING WITH OR KNOWN TO HAVE TRAVELED
WITH.
Keep in mind, these are people that we are finding no traceable records on,
perhaps we can make some matches or there will be some common ground and we
can make some sense of it.
Debbie Jennings