Mysterious Miss Maude

Mary “Maude” Towson Mary was born January or July 11th 1872, the fourth child of Charles Towson and Frances Tarr. At the time of her birth, her parent’s first children, twin boys, had already died. The household also contained older brother Charles, born December 1869. 1880-1889 First recorded in the US Federal Census as Mary. At the time, she was listed as 8 years old and attending school, alongside her 12 year old brother

A Tale of Two Brothers

My great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Towson, was the youngest of six children born to Charles and Mary "Polly" McClung. Charles Sr. died in 1848, and Polly died in 1850. The two eldest children, John Thomas (1828-????) and Margaret (1830-1830), are thought to have died in childhood. So what happened to the other four children?

The Case of a Misspelled Name (Or Two)

It all started a few years ago, when I stumbled upon the marriage announcement for my third great grandfather, Charles Towson, and his wife, Frances Elizabeth Tarr. At this point I didn't know anything about Frances or her family, and I likely wouldn't have if my eyes hadn't scanned over the index, past the Towsons and Townsends and finally up to Tows, Charles.

Family of John P. and Mary E. Towson

John Philip Towson was born July 5th, 1837 to Joshua Towson (1793-1842) and Mary Ferrel (1795-1884), according to Ancestry.com user judyflash. He was the younger brother of James Franklin Towson. According to the same family tree, his wife was Mary Parsons, born 1833 in Harford County, Maryland. The couple had at least two sons and four daughters, whose birth dates are provided from judyflash's public family tree: Joshua Joseph (born 31 Jan 1860), Virginia "Jennie" (born Oct 1862), Elizabeth "Lizzie" (born Jan 1865), Rosalia "Rose" (born 2 Sep 1867), Helen (born 2 Mar 1870), and John P., Jr. (born 4 Jul 1875).

Towson Households in Baltimore City Directories

A select number of Baltimore City Directories have been made available through the University of Maryland library system, which you can access them yourself here. For the sake of myself and my fellow Towson family researchers, I have put together a list of all the Towsons listed in the available  Machetts and Woods' Baltimore City directories. Italicized names are direct relatives of mine