Author: bowlesf1976

I grew up with the belief that there would be no more noble thing than to wear the uniform of one of our nation’s military services. I didn’t know for sure which uniform I would wear – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard – but I was sure I would wear one of…

My most memorable Christmas as a child was the year we gathered at Aunt Helga and Uncle Ernst’s house. I don’t remember the exact year, but it was before my sister Jennifer was born, which was 1966, so it had to be in the early to mid 1960’s.  Uncle Ernst was actually my Morfar’s brother,…

Exactly 50 years ago, December 2, 1972, was a Saturday. On that day Army upset Navy 23 to 15 at JFK stadium in Philadelphia, PA. I was a “plebe” then, having entered the academy on June 2, 1972. In those days plebes had very little freedom, and Army-Navy weekend was the first time we were…

As I mentioned in another post, my foray into genealogy was prompted by my wife, Laura’s request that I find a Revolutionary War ancestor for her so she could qualify for the Daughters of the American Revolution. As yet, I have not been able to do so. Laura’s mother’s folks come from New Brunswick, Canada,…

Artists depiction of John Hoar (sometimes spelled Hoare) negotiating the Nipmucks for the release of Mary Rowlandson from captivity. John Hoar, one of my ninth great-grandfathers, was born in 1622 in Gloucestershire, England. The exact date of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he emigrated to Scituate, Massachusetts when he was about 20…

People have always been fascinated with their family history. Even the Bible lists two genealogical lines for Jesus, one matriarchal and one patriarchal. The people of New England always have, in my experience, been particularly interested in their ancestry, many tracing their family history back to the Mayflower. The last few decades, however, have seen…

In 1851 Herman Melville wrote his classic novel, “Moby Dick.” One of the primary characters in the novel is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker who is chief mate aboard the Pequod, a whaler out of Nantucket. Many of Melville’s characters are named after people who can be found in the Bible (Ahab, captain of the ship, Ishmael, a…

My paternal grandparents, Andre and Othla Andersson, were Danes who had moved from Copenhagen to the United States. They become naturalized citizens of the United States in the mid 1920’s. They were living in Warren, Pennsylvania when my mother was born on February 8, 1927. When my mother was a child, sometime in the 1930’s,…

This is my Dad’s mother, Patience (Haney Bowles Richardson) Karlson. “Uncle Karl” was her third husband. They are standing just outside the front porch of their home in Gray, Maine. Grammie was born on May 12, 1908 in Caribou, Maine, and she died at the age of 84 on October 10, 1992.       …