Author: baanums

Posted in Family Members

Bozarth Family Introduction

Posted on by baanums
Aunt Lil, Aunt Buckie, Pop Pop, Mom Mom, Mother, and Aunt Berdie

Meet the Bozarths – a modern, Piney Family. From the town of Vincent(town), they’re a page right out of history (to borrow from the Flintstones). Gordon “Gibby” and Edna (nee Mingin) Bozarth and their daughters, Beulah “Buck”, Lillian “Lil”, Bertha “Berdie”, and Arlene (my Mother).

Include general family history – the ancestors who came over from France. Time in Southampton.

Photo date – probably summer 1947, maybe 1946. Mother looks to be about 2 or 3. Definitely taken in summer. Aunt Berdie’s sundress and the field behind them. Everyone is dressed up.

Posted in Family Stories

Who Am I?

Posted on by baanums

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.

– Oscar Wilde

My name is Robin Heston-Murphy. My mother was a Bozarth and I grew up next door to the house she grew up in. I got interested in family history in high school when I had to do a family tree for my Senior health class. But at that time, I really didn’t know how to find out more information. 13 years later I was thinking about going to Ireland with a friend. I knew that some of my mother’s ancestors were from Ireland and wanted to find out where in Ireland they were from so I could visit there.

I looked at my old family tree from high school and I did not have any information on it about Ireland. My mother had a family tree that a cousin of hers put together in the 80s and I was hopeful that would have information. All it said was “Ireland.” Womp Womp. This was in 2000. A friend said “Why don’t you try the internet?”

After work I searched (“googled” wasn’t a word yet) for genealogy information. I found Genealogy.com. I searched for Bozarths (even though the Irish ancestor was a Hogan, I started with the Bozarths) and found a lot of information from other contributors. Back then you needed specific software to read the trees so I went out that night to Circuit City (the best place to buy software back then) and spent $100 on Family Tree Maker software. Once I installed it, I was able to import the tree and found lots of information on my Bozarth ancestors going back to when they first emigrated from France! I will discuss that in my next post.

At this point I was hooked. Genealogy research is fun and easy. D’oh! Fun, yes. Easy, no. 19 years later and I still have not found out where in Ireland my ancestors are from. The family story is that my ancestors met on the ship coming to America and that John Hogan was originally from Dublin. But I have not been able to confirm that.

And, while I did not end up going to Ireland in 2000 as I originally was planning, I managed to get there in 2003. And we did visit Dublin.I have started this blog to memorialize the research I have done and to assist my other family members who are also doing genealogy research. I have quite a few cousins who are also researching and we can share information this way.