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Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Tanya Owenby (El-Haloui) (View posts)
Posted: 13 May 2003 10:37AM GMT
Classification: Query
My name is Tanya Owenby, born Oct. 9 1979... In the state of California. My father is Ronnie Allen Owenby Sr. (My brother is Jr., born March 19, 1981), born in North Carolina (not sure of the date) to a James Owenby. My father's mother's name was Betty Steinman. They had several children together (I only know some of their names)... Louis... Calvin... Jimmy... (ect...). Please if you know anything e-mail me at princesse1579@yahoo.com. I know nothing about where I come from on my father's side and I am longing to know my family history.

Sincerly,

Tanya Owenby (now Mrs. Tanya El-Haloui)

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 25 Sep 2003 12:13PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: OWENBY
I have only recently found that my great-great uncle's son Orrin Wyman Owenby married a California girl and settled in the Los Angeles area. His father was a James Owenby born in North Carolina(Macon County).There may be no connection but perhaps we could explore the possibility since Owenby is not a common name found in California. Orrin Wyman was the oldest of 3 children born to James Owenby and Thelma Cochran Owenby and was actually born in Montana. But later lived in NC before marrying. Probably met wife during Navy tour in World War II. He died in June, 1978.

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 14 Oct 2003 7:42PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Owenby, Cochran
Mary, your great-great uncle James Owenby is my great-uncle "Jim", my father's uncle. I remember him well since he lived in our home and my mother cared for him for some time about 1952-1953 in Clyde, NC. He was blind and in poor health when he came to live with us, but gradually regained his health. He loved to take walks along the road in front of our house, with his hand on my youngest brother Joe's shoulder. Joe loved to tell him about what the neighbors were doing or who had just passed by in a car.

My Dad rigged up cables or clotheslines from our back porch across our yard to a tree and then along the property line to the front of the house. Uncle Jim would walk back and forth along the lines while my Mom kept an eye on him. Later, we used to visit him in a boarding house or nursing home in either Bryson City or Sylva, NC. (I remember that other older people lived in the same building.)

My late brother Jack knew about Uncle Jim's ranch in Montana, and of how he lost everything when the wheat crops failed.

By coincidence, I was in the Briartown Baptist Church Cemetery in Macon County this past Sunday and thought about Uncle Jim as we looked over the many Owenby graves there. I'm sure I have a photo of his grave in my files.

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 22 Nov 2003 7:42AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Jones Owenby DennyRoper
Barbara Gaffney--please contact me.Almost positive we are related.Maybe we can help previous poster!

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 2 Dec 2003 10:13PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 21 Sep 2004 7:09PM GMT
Tanya, I've been puzzling over your message about your "grandfather" James Owenby. The ages and dates don't work well for that relationship. However, if my great-uncle James R. Owenby were your GREAT-grandfather, not your grandfather, my theory works since it pulls a Steinman in as your grandmother married to James Owenby's son. I'll e-mail you directly since it takes a bit of explaining. I may be completely wrong, or, you may suddenly have thousands of Owenby relatives!

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 3 Dec 2003 2:41AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 21 Sep 2004 7:09PM GMT
Surnames: Owenby, Cochran, Steinman
Tanya, my e-mail to you today at princesse1579@yahoo.com was returned as undeliverable. So, here's a theoretical, abbreviated descendancy that MIGHT link you to James R. Owenby, my great-uncle.
1 James R. Owenby (1875-1971) married Thelma Cochran in
Briartown, Macon Co, NC IN 1919. They went west to ranch in Montana.
2 Orrin Wyman (or William) Owenby (b. Montana 1921-d. Long Beach, CA 1978) married Anna Steinman (or Stienman) in California, probably between 1945-1950?
3 Ronnie Allen Owenby, Sr. married Unnamed Wife, probably about 1978
4 Tanya Owenby married Unnamed El-Haloui.

You mentioned that you remembered the names of Calvin, James and Louis as your father's brothers. I have a William Rick Owenby (1957-1980) who was definitely the son of Orrin Wyman and Anna Steinman Owenby. I also have a Virginia Owenby Sorenson Staggs (1954-1980) who appears to be Orrin and Anna's daughter. Do these names sound familiar to you?

Sadly, William Rick (who was the informant when his father Orrin died in Long Beach in 1978) was killed at age 23 in an automobile accident (he suffered chest injuries when he struck a fixed object on East Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles County in October of 1980). Rick's wife survived him.

Virginia Owenby, his apparent sister, died in Los Angeles County in December of 1980 at the age of 26. I have not yet seen her death certificate so I do not know if she was also involved in the same accident but it is surprising to see that two such young siblings, as they almost certainly were, died within seven weeks of each other.

Again, this is just conjecture on my part as to the linkage between your father and Orrin Wyman Owenby. Perhaps other message board readers can offer alternatives. Barbara

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 25 Jun 2004 7:07AM GMT
Classification: Query
You know what... I think my grandmother's sister or cousin also married the brother or cousin of a Owenby man too. I really don't know many names, but my step-aunt does. I should print what you wrote and show it to her. I think two of my aunts children died (a boy and girl) in very short times apart from eachother. I know the girls nickname was 'Peanut', that's how my family calls her when they talk about her. you can e-mail me now (I think I have a different one now). My father is Ronnie Alan Owenby Sr. (my brother is Jr.) and he and my mother never married (she had me when she was 16 and my father was 18- this could be why my father would have no record of a marriage). My father also married twice after he and my mother split up. The first woman was Elizabeth Zimmerman and they had a son (John Owenby), his second wife is Adaline Morales and they also have a son (Henry Owenby). My father said his father's name is James though and he had several children with my grandmother (but he adventually returned to North Carolina and remarried and had more children with his next wife). I'm guessing he's not very young. My father was the youngest child from their union and he is a little over 40 years old (I think- LOL- I'm 24 now so it sounds about right). I have to ask around if 'Betty' was my grandmother's nickname or if her real name was something else. I will get back to you after I see my aunt... she knows more about my father's family than he does (and she was just his brother Calvin's wife).

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 25 Jun 2004 7:14AM GMT
Classification: Query
P.S. Although my mom and dad never officially married, I was born in 1979- so my mother and father were together in 1978. So that must be the same Ronnie Owenby.

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 25 Jun 2004 7:20AM GMT
Classification: Query
Oh... one more thing. My father, the youngest child from James Owenby & 'Betty' Stienman was born in North Carolina, and then they moved to Long Beach. Betty's 'sister' or 'cousin' (I think sister though), came with her Owenby beau too. But, they could possibly not have been married at the time. Maybe they married afterwards. Her name could have been 'Anna', I'll ask my aunt that too. I still live very close to Long Beach and have lived around this area all my life. My grandmother, and most of her children moved to Utah now. Only my dad, his sister Louise, and I think his brother Jimmy still live in Southern California.

Re: Looking for my Grandfather 'James Owenby" of North Carolina

Posted: 25 Jun 2004 7:27AM GMT
Classification: Query
My new e-mail is princesse1479@msn.com
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