Thursday, December 4, 2008

Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843-1905) - any relatives?

Susan, one of my CVGS colleagues, is involved in a DAR organization and received an email query from Irene. Susan asked me to "put it out" and see if anybody can connect to these people. Irene wrote:

"I was at a friend of a friend’s house yesterday. He had an antique store at one time and is now selling everything in his home. Among those things are a portrait of Josephine Shaw Lowell and several articles of furniture that were in their home.

"Since Charles [Russell] Lowell (January 2, 1835-October 20, 1864) was a general in the Union army and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek I thought you might know of someone who would be interested in these items."


If someone knows something about these people, please contact me at rjseaver@cox.net and I can forward the email to Susan and Irene. I don't know where Irene is located, or where these antiques are located.

I looked for Charles R. Lowell (born 1835) in the 1850 and 1860 census on Ancestry, and a quick search did not identify him in a family or married to a Josephine Shaw. Likewise, I didn't find a Josephine Lowell in the 1870 census. There is one family tree on Rootsweb WorldConnect and Ancestry World Tree with Charles Russell and Josephine (Shaw) Lowell, but there is no further information there about Josephine. The Civil War indexes on Ancestry list a Charles Russell Lowell Jr, from Boston, was a Brigadier General in the 2nd Infantry Regiment raised from Watertown, MA.

A check on Google revealed a Wikipedia page about Charles Russell Lowell and Josephine Shaw Lowell. They apparently had a daughter, Carlotta Lowell.

Josephine Lowell (1843-1905) became well known in New York City society circles. She died 12 October 1905 in New York City, and her obituary in the New York Times dated 13 October 1905 identifies her daughter, Miss Carlotta Russell Lowell, and three sisters, Mrs. George William Curtis, Mrs. Francis C. Barlow and Mrs. Robert Minturn.

Carlotta Russell Lowell (1864-1924) apparently did not marry. She is living in New York City in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census records. Her obituary was in the New York Times on 7 October 1924 here, and she is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown MA.

Isn't it amazing what we can learn about some people using online resources in about 60 minutes of searching? Of course, not everyone marries a famous Civil War general, or is prominent in NYC society.

I'm sure that there is more information on the sisters families, and on this couple and their daughter also.

Any takers?

2 comments:

Taneya said...

You could also share this post on the surname boards for Lowell at Ancestry & Genealogy.com

Randy Seaver said...

This took all of a week for a great-granddaughter to contact me via email in response to this post.

Blogs work! Especially when someone Googles a name that you've posted.