The Boswell Family

Ever wonder how a funeral card ends up miles away from the place of burial? The Boswell funeral cards are a case in point.  The Ebay seller pm6694 is located at Redlands, California and has acquired 5 documents from a recent estate sale. Also, the set of cards are being sold along with a photograph of the Drum graves and a photograph of youngsters, May and Andy Carter.

Briefly, I will explain the research techniques used in this funeral card quest. First clue, I assumed--three cards--same surname equals the possibility that John A. Boswell, Mary R. Boswell and Emma Boswell may be related to each other.  All three deaths occurred before 1910, therefore, the 1900 United State Census search is a good place to begin.  For some reason, I chose Emma Boswell's funeral card information for the search criteria with Ancestry.com search engine.  Known facts from the funeral card included her name and age.  With the genealogy software date calculator, I was able to determine that Emma was born 18 July 1873 (entered 1873 +/- 1 year).  Scrolling down the list, the 14th hit, shows an Emma Boswell with family members, John A. and Mary R. Boswell of Linn, Washington, Kansas. Hmm, I think I will take a closer look at this family.  Bingo, ages of parents agree with their funeral cards. Additional documentation, to support that I am on the right trail, is needed. On to my next favorite research site, Find-a-grave.  Search query centers on Washington County, Kansas.  Amazingly, buried there is John A. Boswell and Emma Boswell. 

Five family trees were connected to Emma Boswell in the 1900 census.  Alicia Burrie, creator of Burrie/Redman Family Tree sent the following email. "How thoughtful! Thank you so much. I have purchased many of my family photos and possessions on Ebay!  I will check it out. Thanks again for your help." 

We do live in a mobile society.  Still remains the question whether the cards were saved by friends or family that moved to California.