Researching your family history? We pool our resources and help uncover the past as it really happened!
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 can lead to a lot of confusion: 1) It has multiple origins in Ireland and England and many genetic lines. 2) It's not small or local enough to yield satisfactory results from a brief study, nor important enough–in the case of most of its lineages– to be well documented in primary sources going back centuries. 3) A thorough study of the historical record is time-consuming and expensive. But walls are for climbing over!
The Solution: A Worldwide Bowes (and variants) Surname Study
A comprehensive, centralized surname study covers a surname and its variants worldwide to develop a complete and accurate record. 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, and variants. Our study will be a work in progress for some time.
Our Approach
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, so we follow the dual documentary and DNA approach outlined in this article.
Martha Bowes