WOW, my family history!!
 

I was on another forum and they were talking about old landmarks in San Antonio, Texas. I called my mother because she grew up there.

She told me to ask about Bowen's Island which is my grandmother's maiden name.

My Uncle John Bowen bought the property and renamed it Bowen Island in San Antonio and you will see on the plaque that he was a Unionist and helped fugitive slaves!!!! I am so thrilled to know this!!

He became the first United States Postmaster in San Antonio!

He also founded the town that I grew up in and we have a plaque there on the town square. I've never seen this until today!!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...ctive%26sa%3DN

http://www.granadahomes.net/pages/history.htm

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

PO, genealogy can be so fun! It's a real lift when you find ancestors who did wonderful things, as yours did.

On the flip side of that, imagine my reaction when doing my genealogy and finding out that my gr-gr-gr grandparents on my mother's side were plantation owners in Virginia who owned a number of slaves. The first time I read that, I literally got sick to my stomach!

The thing that really galls me is that I have a photo of this particular gr-gr-gr grandmother now and guess who I look almost identical to! Geesh! She would have to be the one with the strong genes!!

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

Who cares?

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

But do you know if they treated them badly? They could have taken very good care of them like Harriet Beecher Stowe's family.

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

Lord, go take a long walk off of a short pier! :club :ursofunny

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

You just want me to visit that island... can't fool me.

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

:ursofunny:ursofunny:ursofunny

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

Wow, I think that is awesome!! :) I have a cousin and sisnlaw who absolutely love to do geneaology work!!

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

I really do wish that I knew how they treated them. That MIGHT make me feel a little bit better. But it still bothers me that they would have thought that it was acceptable in any form or situation for one human being to "own" another human being.

I'll tell you a funny story. My grandmother was very dark complected (is that the way you spell that?) Anyhow, she had dark skin :) So are most of the rest of us (her descendents). In the summer when I am outside much, I get VERY dark. So much so that one year when I lived in Pontiac and worked nights in a nursing home, I was working with several black people. One night a lady who I'd worked with regularly came to me and asked, "Who's black, honey? Your mama or your daddy?" She couldn't believe me when I said neither.

Anyhow, I digress..........

My grandmother had grown up in Detroit (by the Ambassador Bridge). In her days, to be Italian meant "mafia" in the area she grew up in. So if someone said to her, "You must have alot of Italian in you", she considered those fighting words.

So when I found out about her great grandparents and the slave connection, I went to her one day and said, "Grandma, do you suppose that your complexion might have come from one of those slaves?", she was just fine with that. I had to laugh at her. Not that it was funny. But I said, "it makes no sense to me that it's ok with you if your grat grandparents took advantage of one of their slaves, but you get all bent out of shape if anyone even suggests to you that you might be part Italian. No sense at all.

I guess where you grow up makes alot of difference in your perspective of things, eh?

Re: WOW, my family history!!
 

You seem to be a very sweet lady.......I'm sure that came on down from your grgrgrgrgrandma too! :) I'm sure they were very good to their help....most were.