Number 10 - the New Arrival

Various Scottish directories and census records told us that Mr GeniAus' ancestors James Gowans and his son James Gowans were clockmakers. Another son, John Gowans,who emigrated to the US, was also a clock and watchmaker in New York. The youngest son, William Gowans, was apprenticed as a watchmaker but left that profession to become a doctor. 

James Gowans Senior worked in Linton and Galashiels whilst James Junior worked in Hawick. Just one of the clocks, Number 8, was made in Hawick. 

It was not until we met and visited a new cousin in England in 2006 that we sighted a "Gowans" longcase clock. Once Mr GeniAus knew that there was a possibility of owning such an heirloom the hunt was on. He contacted several clock specialists in England and subscribed to a number of auction sites. Over the past 13 years we have learnt of 10 clocks made by one of the two James. (The numbered list below gives links to details and blog posts about these ten clocks).

 Last month there was much excitement when Clock Number 10, made in Linton, was delivered to our door. This clock will eventually be going to live with our elder daughter. 

Art, a restorer from Virginia,USA, who had bought clock 10 at an estate sale emailed me in July: 

"Jill--I was searching for information on James Gowans after purchasing one of his clocks at a local estate sale recently.  It is very close in appearance to the one you posted some time ago.  It is mahogany and the painted dial is very similar to the one in your pictures.  Right now I am in the process of restoring the movement (I am a clock restoration person, so it is good hands.)"

I passed Art's message on to Mr GeniAus and they corresponded back and forth. Of course, Mr GeniAus had to have the clock! Art accepted his offer and began to work on the restoration. During this time and up until the days after delivery Art was an excellent and caring communicator who sent along many progress reports and photos. I was outside with my camera when the delivery truck appeared with its precious cargo. We must commend DHL for the efficient handling and delivery of our cargo.

The delivery chaps had never delivered a heavy coffin shaped parcel before

Mr GeniAus smiling like a Cheshire cat as he prepared for the grand opening

Phew - there wasn't a body n the box

Such a pretty face

A Family Heirloom - over 150 years old and standing proud 

 Ten Gowans Clocks

1. In Clocks Magazine http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/02/james-clock.html

2. Cousin's House now with us
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/02/james-clock.html
https://geniaus.blogspot.com/2016/11/view-from-my-desk.html

3. Museum Melbourne.
https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/405410 Visited November 2010
 https://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-road-again.html
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/11/2000-km-to-see-clock-was-it-worth-it.html
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/11/two-men-and-clock.html

4. Our first Purchase  now with our younger son. http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/05/tick-tock-we-think-weve-found-gowans.html Arrived November 2010.

5. Elder son's Clock http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-4x-great-grandfather-clock.html
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2014/06/and-now-there-are-six.html

6. Drew in Omaha Nebraska bought his clock at an Estate Sale and restored it himself. Emailed August 2014
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2014/06/and-now-there-are-six.html

7. Mr GeniAus bid for a Gowans Regulator Clock at an online auction
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2015/03/and-now-there-are-seven.html

8. Georg in Germany found me via this blog and wrote about his clock. "My father bought it in 1975 in an antiquesstore in Nordhorn, in northern Germany."  Email February 2017

9. Cousin's new clock was purchased at auction in England around 2017.

10. Our new clock was bought by a restorer in Virginia, USA at an Estate Sale. The restorer contacted me by email after reading my blog.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Mr GeniAus rarely takes to the dance floor but last night found him waltzing down our hallway to pay a visit to my study. He could barely contain his excitement.

The GeniAuses last whirl round the dance floor

We've had over a week of wet weather so Mr G. hasn't been able to get out into the garden and play on his tractor. Co-incidentally he had volunteered my services to help a couple of friends solve some geneamysteries. I didn't want to be distracted so I showed him how to use Ancestry and a few other tools to help these folk out. Once he had done this I suggested that he look for articles about his grandfather  in Trove, that has kept him amused and satisfied for hours as there are lots of snippets about Ern's trotting horses. Mr GeniAus doesn't 'do' genealogy!

Last night Mr GeniAus was very quiet until he came dancing down the hall. He had been on Ancestry (I hope it's ok for there to be two concurrent users on a personal account from the same house) trying to demolish a brick wall that had been bothering us for some years. It wasn't for a close relation but it was a case of someone disappearing into thin air that had us baffled. We could find no trace of Maria Gowans, daughter of Mr GeniAus' 3xGreat Uncle John Gowans, we still can't find her on the 1920, 1930 or 1940 US Censuses.

Why the excitement? He had found this death record from North Carolina:

Name:	Marie Gowans Grosvenor
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Age:	88
Birth Date:	27 Oct 1867
Birth Place:	New Jersey, United States
Death Date:	10 Dec 1955
Death Location:	Asheville, Buncombe
Father's Name:	Unobtainable
Mother's name:	Unobtainable
Residence:	Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina

I tried to calm him down but he was convinced, we knew Maria was born in NYC around October 1867 but still..... Off he went down the hallway again, after a while he returned with a marriage to a Charles A Grossenor (transcription error?) from the New York Marriage Indexes and a burial record for Green-Wood Cemetery, New York where Maria's siblings are buried. I checked the grave number for Maria's burial to see if she was near her parents. 

BINGO - she is interred in the same plot. It's the grave we visited in New York last year, it is a fine grave with a substantial memorial but Maria's name is not etched upon it. We were standing at her grave and didn't know it. When we asked at the Green-Wood Office for information on the grave they would not tell us anything, we had to write in and hire a genealogist to get further info, I would have happily paid a small fee on the spot for someone to pull the record. Wouldn't have been nice if they had given some assistance to two Aussies who had travelled halfway around the world in search of their ancestors. I need to purchase the marriage certificate, find a probate record and see what I can dig up on her husband but I am fairly sure that we have found Maria. She married late in life and probably had no offspring so there are no living Gowans cousins for us to find from that branch. 

Mr GeniAus at the Gowans grave April 2013

Back to the dance floor, I think that Mr GeniAus now understands why we genies get so excited when break down a brick wall. He certainly enjoyed his first Genealogy Happy Dance.

Cousins in New York

We did something crazy last week - we collected a rental car in the middle of Manhattan in New York and had to negotiate our way out of the city. People in search of ancestors do silly things.

After negotiating our way down a busy 7th Avenue from Times Square we found 261 West 20th Street, the home of Mr Geniaus' 2xGreat-Uncle, John Gowans between about 1872 and 1882. John's wife and daughter lived at this address up until 1902.

Gowans home - 261 West 20th Street, New York

Our next stop was in Brooklyn and was the reason why we got a rental car to travel south rather than taking a train or 'plane. We wanted to visit John's grave in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Through the Brooklyn tunnel we went, down a couple of freeways, around a block or two and we found ourselves at Green-Wood. The first entrance we tried was closed for repairs.

First try at accessing Green-Wood Cemetery

After negotiating a few one-way streets we found ourselves at the imposing main entrance to this cemetery which is a National Historic Monument that is the final resting place for over half a million former New Yorkers. The gateman who welcomed us was incredibly helpful, he gave us maps, guidance and answered our questions with a smile. What a wonderful ambassador he was for the institution; how welcome we felt. He directed us to a computer where we entered the names of the deceased we were seeking; after doing this we were rewarded with printed maps with an x making the exact location of each grave we were seeking.

Inside the impressive main entrance of Green-Wood

A drive around the perimeter of this beautifully maintained cemetery brought us near the location of the Gowans grave. With our map in hand we located the Gowans grave within a few minutes. Of course we got a surprise. The monument was rather grand (although much smaller than some of the others at Green-Wood); as expected we found that John, his wife Anna Regina Bouton and their son James Gowans were interred in  the plot. We discovered that Anna's parents were also interred n the grave but  that Ida Rust (Anna's sister) who was also buried there was not mentioned on the monument.

Mr Geniaus at the Gowans grave

The information etched on the monument has given me extra clues as I continue the hunt to find Gowans cousins in the US.

My next stop was to find the grave of a Gowans niece, Agnes Korwan, who was mentioned in Anna Bouton's probate record that I had found earlier in the week at the New York Surrogate's Court. This grave was more modest than the Gowans one but it gave me approximate dates of birth and death to follow up.

Korwan grave

At our next stop we were looking for the grave of a Gowans Great-niece, Edna Germer, who was also mentioned in the probate document. Unfortunately we could not locate this grave as I imagine there was no headstone.  We then went back to the cemetery office to seek more information about the graves, their inhabitants and to see if we could find any clues to assist us. We did find another Germer grave near the site of Edna's resting spot; I need to find out if these people are relations.

Not the Germer grave I was seeking

The woman who dealt with us in the cemetery office was the complete opposite of the man in the gatehouse. She was as cold, uninterested and unhelpful. After our interaction with this woman we left the cemetery office  feeling rather flat. We had travelled half way around the world to seek information and all she would give us was the email address of a researcher which was not what we needed; we needed advice on how to access the information in the cemetery records and were quite prepared to pay for this help and information. This woman who did not listen to us and did not try to ascertain what we wanted also gave us the 'phone number of the Municipal Archives that we had already visited; I doubt that these archives would give us answers to the questions we had. This woman was an exceptionally poor representative of a most impressive site.

We were most impressed by the standard of maintenance that was evident throughout Green-Wood Cemetery, the gardens and monuments were in good order. The management are to be congratulated on their attention to this historic site.

One of the lakes at Green-Wood

View of Lady Liberty from Green-Wood

Blurred vision brings bounty

My new glasses just don't seem to be doing their work as my eyes are very tired......but the bounty received has made the discomfort worthwhile.

Together with Mr Geniaus, my research assistant, I spent quite a few hours at The Family History Library looking for info about his 3 x Great Uncle, John Gowans, who moved from Scotland to New York around 1860. We are particularly interested in locating any descendants.

As time is short I printed out all the information I have on John and his two children and told Mr Geniaus to ask one of the mob of consultants/volunteers in the library for assistance while I set about other tasks. After talking to three helpers who were very friendly but not too fmiliar with New York records Mr Geniaus realised that he could search the catalog all by himself.

While I found a number of references in newspapers and directories and to John and his son James Mr Geniaus found some promising microfilms and repaired to the US Floor to take a look at them. Bingo! He found three death certificates: one for John, his son James and his wife Anna Bouton. I just googled the cemetery, Green-Wood in New York, in which Anna and James are buried and found that thye have a database of burials on their site. I now have the location of their shared grave. I am sorry that I am not visiting New York on this trip - I guess we will just have to return to visit the graves.

We already knew that there was a daughter Mira or Maria who we have found on three censuses, the latest being 1900 and was hoping to find either a marriage,