I have a couple but my family is no different from yours since all families have “hanging chads” waiting for resolution.

My grandfather's brother, Arrington Bomar Phillips, left to go “out west” about 1890. In a dramatic moment he said, “Joe, tomorrow I'm going out west and I'll never see you again.”

He was prophetically correct. Bomar returned to visit cousins and their mother's grave but he and Joe never reunited.

In 1906 my grandfather corresponded with a New Mexico judge who assured him Bomar Phillips was not in Otero County. In 1935 Joe received news that Bomar had died, and was buried (Line 7 Lot 55) in the American section of the City Cemetery of Guadalajara, Mexico.

I discovered that in 1905-06 A.B. Phillips was the sheriff of Otero County, N.M. Go figure.

Twenty year old Francis Marion Bomar, was my great grandmother's youngest brother. “Frank” and his older brother served in Company E of the Georgia 9th Artillery.

In “Campaign and Battle of Lynchburg, VA” Charles Blackford wrote that there was little action on June 17th, 1864. “There was firing along the pickett (sic) line and some cannonading but no serious fight until . . (the next day.)”

Only a few Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded in the brief two-day fight in which U.S. General Hunter gave up and left the second day. Frank's military record reads: “Said F. M Bomar fell mortally wounded in an engagement near Lynchburg, Va.” signed Capt. William S. Everett, commander of Company E, 9th Georgia Artillery. So few died but no known grave exists for Frank Bomar.

Ephraim Pray was a founder of Douglas County, Ga. According to legend in about 1840 he lived with an elderly American Indian named Abraham Owl near a spring, then moved Owl's house to become servant's quarters.

Ephraim Pray was real but Abraham Owl? I don't know. I can't find a trace of him. Many of Pray's belongings, personal papers and diary were stolen and sold as “antiques and collectables” in flea markets and out of a pickup truck in the Lockheed parking lot in Marietta. Answers to questions about the founding of Douglas County are sitting on someone's shelf or were tossed into a trash can.

Describing the founding of Pray's Mill Baptist Church Pray wrote that the party retired to the spring since the “Jared Smith family” was buried there without the benefit of a Christian burial. Jared Smith? Was he the source for the Abraham Owl legend?

While Frank Bomar's grave is unknown to me, his commanding officer, Captain William Everett is another matter. He became an Atlanta business man, lived at 102 Windsor St. and died in 1904. I've seen his grave. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery not far from Frank's older brother.

Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.