My grandmother was Frances Ramona (DOW) Ingerson (1934-2004). She was born & raised in the Rockland/Owl's Head area of Maine. Her father was Raymond A. DOW (1909-1034) who died at sea off the coast of Maine in a fishing accident. Until very recently that is as much as I knew about my DOW connection, though I have always been intrigued by the fact that Raymond died before his daughter was born and there was a great mystery surrounding his death.
Last year I made a connection with a another person researching a similar line and found that she too was from the Owl's Head region of Maine, now living in California. We exchanged some emails and have had discussion on and off again about our DOW family and she has helped me fill in a number of gaps in my own research.
A little while after that I remembered a document my mother had that listed all the known DOW descendants of a particular DOW, which included a number of folks still living in Owl's Head. The list had addresses and in some cases phone numbers, so I took a chance. I have always wondered, "What did my Great Grandfather, Raymond A. Dow look like?" I had never seen a picture of him (and there was a family story I had heard suggesting he had some Native American blood and didn't like having his photo taken). So I wrote a letter to one of the DOWs on the list asking about a possible photo of the my elusive ancestor. I left my email address, and of course my mailing address was on the envelope as well. I waited for a while and didn't hear anything, and just when I had forgotten I even sent the letter, I received a reply. The returned letter thanked me for taking the time to right and let me know there was not a photo of Raymond A. Dow that he knew of in the family possession, but said I could call Mr. Dow myself and chat anytime if I wanted more information. For whatever reason, I waited a few weeks before calling him and I was disappointed to hear the family had just had a family reunion the weekend before I called and it was "too bad I didn't call sooner or we could have talked in person." ... But I did get a lead on where a photo might be (turns out it's hanging in the Owl's Head Town Office) which led me to my first ever view of Great Grandpa Dow.
Fast forward 1 year and my father called me a few weeks ago to tell me he had received an invitation to a DOW family reunion. "Sign us up!" was my obvious answer, and in 2 days we'll be heading up the Maine cost an hour or so to meet up with a bunch of people I've either never met, or simply don't remember meeting. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to not only meet some "cousins" and make some connection in ye ol' family tree.
In the meantime I thought I would start this blog, similar to another I have on my ROPP family to outline some things I know (or think I know) and some things I'm trying to find out. And, I'll invite DOW and non-DOW family members to join in the search as we learn about the people that brought us to where we are today.
This is my DOW genealogy.
