Howerton: Proximity Papa

Sometimes answers to questions drop in your lap when you least expect it.

Saturdays sometimes find the Search Sisters spending the afternoon at the California Genealogical Society. The CGS library occupies a beautiful green tiled Art Deco building on Broadway in downtown Oakland.  Sometimes we search a specific item, sometimes we sit in on a seminar to learn a new search skill, and some times we fool around on their computers exploring the online data banks.

This Saturday we were trying out a new tool, one that brought up maps of the first land owners in a particular region.   "Hey, why don't you try War Eagle Arkansas?," I ask.  "Ok", Stella says.  Suddenly we are looking at a plat map that shows the land boundaries with names of the original owners.  Look, there is Jacob Laird.  We both peer at the screen that shows the outline of our 3rd great grandfather's land.

WHOAH!!!  LOOK AT THAT!

A few sections southeast from Jacob S Laird's land is a section marked with the name Howerton. We both instantly jump to the same conclusion.  Howerton is Paralee's papa! Her daddy is "the boy next door." The Search Sisters both have the feeling...the intuition of yes, that comes when the pieces click into to place after a long hard search.  Parenthood proved by proximity.  Perhaps another mystery solved. 

Actually, this piece of geographical evidence clinched for us what we had already suspected.  We had already shaken the Arkansas records pretty hard hoping that a Homerton, or Hameston would fall out as the father of Susan Laird's kids.  Howerton was as close a name match that we had previously found in the record search.  

Since then DNA matching has further confirmed our theory.  Both Search Sisters have a number of DNA Howerton matches, along with our Allison cousin.  Howerton seems like a sure bet for the baby daddy.

Uh oh. New mystery.... which one of the Howerton boys next door?