Hitting Some Brick Walls Studying Your Surname Line? Interested in Your Ancestral Origins Before Surnames Came into Use?
While family lore and the internet are treasure to genealogists, they can both spread oversimplified -- sometimes even false -- family history and surname information. Our complex surname in particular leads to a the lot of confusion. The Bowes surname and its variants have multiple origins; our DNA Project has discovered at least ten different genetic lineages! The Bowes surname is not small or local enough to yield satisfactory results from a brief study, nor important enough to be well documented in primary sources going back centuries. A thorough study of the historical record is time-consuming and expensive. But walls are for climbing over!
The Solution: A Worldwide Bowes Surname Study
A comprehensive, centralized surname study covers a surname and its variants worldwide to form a complete picture. While supporting the single-lineage researcher, it reconstructs the surname's history, applying pedigree and other research to surname characteristics such as origins, distribution and frequency, emigration patterns, variants and the like. Lineage research and a surname study each do best when they work together.
Our Methodology: Objectivity First
This one-name study follows a dual documentary and DNA approach outlined in this article. Many surname studies elect for various reasons not to incorporate the science of DNA to expand and back up their research. Other surname studies only gather DNA results, without reconstructing contextual history through documentary research. We believe a synthesis of results from both increases accuracy.
Martha Bowes