Barb and Jim,

I am very glad to see postings about the Bowers-Keller connection because it is key to some of my family connections and research. My g-g-grandfather, Wiliam Keller (later William B. Keller), was from Indiana County, served in the Civil War (67th PVI), and had 7 children. We have virtually nothing directly from him (no personal letters and few photos) but he is very well documented from the time he entered the army.

A big mystery about him is that We don't know who his parents were. though family lore is that his Grandfather was a George Bowers who served in the Revolutionary War. There was, as you are probably aware, a George Bowers who lived in Indiana county and was a Revolutionary War pensioner, having served in the 6th Md. He had a large family and is pretty well documented but I haven't been able to connect him to William B. Keller.

I did make one interesting discovery when I looked at the will of a George Keller of Indiana County who died around 1870 and was married to Margaret Bowers who was possibly George Bower's daughter. George Keller left land and money to nieces, nephews, sons and daughters, but also to William B. Keller, whose relationship he doesn't state. The amount he left to William B. wasn't much less than what he left his sons and daughters, and he also made William B. Keller one of his three executors. I will share this document with whoever wants it.

Another piece of information I have about William B. Keller is that he died in 1913 at the home of his youngest daughter in Chicago. The death certificate, which I have, and which she would have provided the personal information for, list his mother's name as Elizabeth Bauers but the fathers name is blank. George Keller, from the will I mention above, had a daughter Elizabeth who, in the 1850 census, was unmarried and living at home. William B. was born on Christmas day 1846, so he should he would have been in the census if he was in the household, but there is no child with his name. There is a child named William Davis in the household. He is the only Davis there, and is the right age. I don't know if this person could have later changed his name and is my g-g-grandfather.

In a ironic coincidence, a few years ago, when I started taking over the family genealogy research from my dad, I found in an internet search, a woman from Indiana County named Bowers who married a Keller and had several sons in the Civil War including a William! I was overjoyed that we had finally found William B. Keller's parents. I posted an inquiry about the family on this list and got a quick response that completely deflated me because it turned out that that person was William E. Keller who moved to Michigan after the war and is buried there. It seemed highly unlikely that there were two William Kellers with Bowers ancestry living in Indiana County at virtually the same time, but they are both well documented. It was disappointing but in hindsight probably saved me from following a lot of wrong leads. If you are interested in finding out more about William E. Keller, I will dig through my emails and find the relevant ones.

Anyway, I hope you will stay in touch and let me know what you have found out about the Bower-Keller connection, and I will share anything I've found that you may be interested in.

Regards,