View from my Desk

New view from my desk

I enjoy a beautiful view from my desk out through a window to the garden but now I also have a new view straight ahead of me through an internal door. Until last Wednesday I could only see a blank wall but due to Mr GeniAus' obsession I have a pretty sight to see.

On several occasions I have blogged about Mr GeniAus' clockmaking ancestor, James Gowans (1806-1886), and our mission to find clocks made by James. We affectionately call this old chap "James the Clock". I wrote in February 2010 about James' clocks and expressed a wish that one day we would own a clock made by James.

Over the years I have devoted several posts to the  "James the Clock" saga. If you have a spare few hours you can read them, otherwise just skip over the links.

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/james-clock.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/tick-tock-we-think-weve-found-gowans.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/on-road-again.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/2000-km-to-see-clock-was-it-worth-it.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/two-men-and-clock.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/a-4x-great-grandfather-clock.html 
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/and-now-there-are-six.html
http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/and-now-there-are-seven.html

If you have read all the posts you will know that the cousin we met through social media had a Gowans clock with provenance; his clock has been passed down through the Gowans family. On our last visit to England in June the cousin told us that it was time for us to take the clock home. He has no offspring and decided on one of our earlier visits that, as we have four offspring and a tribe of grandchildren, the clock had a better chance of staying in the family than if it remained with him. We were thrilled that he was ready to say goodbye to the clock, we had not wanted to rush him.  On arriving home in Australia we contacted shipping agents and with the assistance of the cousin organised for the clock to join us at home.

Another plus is that the clock is a completely different style from the one that is is our living room.

Although the clock arrived on the wharf in Sydney nearly two months ago it spent some time with customs and agents and was released to make the hour's journey to our home last week. Our cousin was relieved when we told him that it had finally been delivered but wasn't so excited when I said it was in our kitchen. I reminded him that it was a very nice kitchen.

I was out when the clock arrived but Mr GeniAus unpacked it and put it together and it was ticking away beautifully by the time I got home. It bongs loudly (one couldn't call it a chime) on the half hour and hour with the midday and midnight performances being quite long. I don't mind the noise because it is such a pretty piece and lovely to look at. Take a look for yourself.

And Now there are Seven

With a team of eleven grandchildren I receive, as the family historian, requests from time to time to provide information on ancestors, family heirlooms, the olden days etc. Last year I was invited into one of the grandson's classrooms to speak aboout Family history, that was so much fun.

This morning's request is for information on our Gowans' grandfather clock.  As it is several months since I wrote about Mr GeniAus' quests to find clocks built by his ancestor James Gowans or "James the Clock" as he is affectionately known in family circles  I am updating the information I have on his clocks.

At the time of my last post we had only identified six clocks but several months ago we found  a seventh, that had a repeater movement, up for sale. Mr GeniAus signed up for the auction and submitted what we thought was a generous bid but the clock went for twice that amount. Mr GeniAus didn't feel inclined to spend a King's ransom to purchase that clock which brings the number of Gowans clocks we have found to seven.

So that my grandson can put together his story on James and his clocks I am collating a list of links to my previous posts:

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/james-clock.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/tick-tock-we-think-weve-found-gowans.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/on-road-again.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/2000-km-to-see-clock-was-it-worth-it.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/two-men-and-clock.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/a-4x-great-grandfather-clock.html

http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/and-now-there-are-six.html

On reviewing these posts I can see there is an omission, I can't seem to find a post about the clock we purchased in 2010.

Several months after purchase and with the help of Mr GeniAus' English cousin the clock arrived at our home in November 2010. It was a coincidence that the cousin was visiting us downunder at the time of the clock's delivery.

Surprise Packages

A Pretty Face

And a Handsome Case

We found a clock restorer who came and collected the clock and got it going for us, last year we sent the cabinet away to be refurbished. The clock which is proudly displayed in our living room is a constant reminder of our ancestry.

The Restorer installs our Clock

A Man and his Clock

The Face

Standing Proud

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

On the Road Again

I've been neglecting the blog for a few days but have been very busy discussing and sharing family information with various members of my husband's family.

Around eight years ago we connected via Genes Reunited with a branch of the Gowans family from Scotland. We have visited our new cousin in England on a number of occasions and he has finallly made the trip down under. We have been dragging this poor chap all over the countryside to meet cousins and see the sights. We are now en route to Melbourne for a very exciting meeting before we pass him on to his friends.

I have previously blogged about my husband's ancestor, James Gowans, who was a clock and watchmaker in East Linton, Galashiels and Hawick. A serendipitous result of a Google search for "Gowans clock" a few months ago was the discovery that there was a Gowans longcase clock in The Scienceworks Museum in Victoria. So today I am accompanying two rather excited gentlemen on a journey to meet the clock made by their direct ancestor around 170 years ago.

Hopefully I will be back in the bumpy backseat this afternoon blogging about the meeting.

James the Clock

"James the Clock", as we affectionately know him, is James Gowans my husband's 3rd great-grandfather.

Born in 1806 in North Berwick James grew up to be a clockmaker in East Linton (1837-1850) and Galashiels, Scotland. Since we learnt of James' trade we have been anxious to find a clock made by him. Having an object crafted by James or his son James b. 1836 , my husband's 2nd great-grandfather, would add an extra dimension to our family history. James the clock's first son, John Gowans b 1832 who emigrated to the United States was also a watchmaker .


We started searching the internet for a Gowans clock around 2002 and discovered one on a British clocks website. We willingly paid the 99p subscription to view the site and download the photos of our first "Gowans" clock find. An email to the site did not elicit an answer so we were unable to find contact details for the owner. The clock's description states " There are four handpainted 'castles' one in each corner of the dial. It has Roman numerals. In the arch it has a picture of a farm-girl carrying two pails on a shoulder yoke with a cottage in the background." The photographs are by Mike Fuss.

We would have loved to see this clock "in the flesh" on a visit to the UK but had to content ourselves with photos. Just today I paid another 99p and went back to this website to check on James' entry that had been updated in 2009, I found an inaccurate and unsourced biographical entry. I was most disappointed and sent an email off to the site.


Not long before setting out on an excursion to the UK in early 2006 a Gowans ancestor contacted us through the Genes Reunited site. After a flurry of emails in which we discovered that he had inherited a Gowans clock from an elderly aunt we made arrangements to visit him to share family history and documents and have a viewing of the clock and James the Clock's family bible.

We had a wonderful visit with my husband's 3rd cousin (1 time removed) in his charming cottage in the English countryside. We have established a friendship with him and have subsequently stayed with him on another visit. As well as the clock and bible this cousin had a photo of an elderly James the Clock (above) as well as letters and documents from later generations. Oh, to have spinster aunts who live into their nineties and are bowerbirds to boot.

We have continued to scour the internet and have made contact with clock dealers on three continents in the hope of sourcing a Gowans clock. We regularly scour auction sites in the UK. Our English cousin has been on the lookout for us and helpfully placed an advertisement in an English clock magazine. We have yet to find a clock for sale.

Early this week I did another series of searches for Gowans clocks and got a new hit. This Gowans clock is in Australia at Museum Victoria; it is only 1,000 miles away. We immediately sent off an email to the Museum outlining our relationship to the clock's maker and asking if it would be possible to view it.

I was so excited to get a response from the Museum this morning thanking me for the biographical information supplied and indicating that we may be able to visit the clock at a time to be arranged. When I have photos of this new clock I will post them on my family history website and this blog. This news will make my husband's day.

I won't give up hope....one day our clock will come.