You would think that these Owen women would all be related, but they aren’t. What? But how can that be? They all lived in Harrison County, Virginia and all migrated to Champaign County, Ohio. Then, there are also the Owen and Owens on my dad’s side of the family, who also migrated from Virginia to Champaign County, Ohio. They aren’t related either.
What a confusing mess! It has taken years to sort out most of this confusion and I’m not sure that all of it is resolved yet. I’ve looked online at trees and message boards to see what others have and from what I’ve seen, these Owens have baffled everyone at one time or another and there is still a lot of confusion about them.
Originally, I had Keturah, Elizabeth and Catherine all in the same family as cousins. A cousin of mine, who works with me on the Cheney family, always thought something didn’t seem quite right with Keturah ’s placement in this family. Keturah was born in New York. She was the only Owen we had who was born in New York. A few other “facts” we had about Keturah did not seem to fit in with the Owen family in which Elizabeth and Catherine belonged. My cousin did some deeper digging and discovered that Keturah came from another, unrelated Owen family who was, in fact, from New York.
I did have Elizabeth and Catherine placed correctly as first cousins, once removed, in the right Owen family. Some of the other members of this family have been more difficult to place under the correct parents.
Elizabeth was the daughter of John Owens II. and Mary Probst. Catherine was the daughter of Owen Owen. John and Owen were brothers and the sons of John Owen I. and Ann Horner.
To complicate matters more, researchers get John Owen, husband of Ann Horner and John Owens, husband of Dulcabella Bunbury mixed up.
My poor, little brain gets strained sometimes trying to sort out all of these people of different families with the same name, but isn’t that part of what sparks our curiosity and keeps us hooked on researching our ancestors?