Rona Owens Pankey (on right) with Unknown Female and Male
I moved on to researching Rona Bell Owens after hitting a brick wall on her brother, James Dular Owens. I had hoped that Rona would be an easier research subject than the rest of her family had proven to be, but that just wasn’t the case.
My first research encounter with “Aunt Roney” occurred when I discovered her in the 1910 and 1920 Randolph County census records living with her parents and brothers. I used these records to give her an approximate birth year of 1907. Unfortunately, she was born before birth certificates were mandatory in the state of North Carolina and I did not know her married surname in order to search for her death certificate. It was around the same time I hit this minor roadblock that I took a trip to Flemington-Oak Grove Cemetery in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina to look for the burial sites of Rona’s dad and brothers. I never found markers for her relatives, but I did find one for Rona.
Rona Bell Owens Pankey Tombstone by John Evans
According to Aunt Roney’s tombstone, she had married a Pankey. I was able to use this information along with her dates of birth and death to track down her death certificate at the New Hanover County Register of Deeds. Aunt Roney’s death certificate confirmed she was born to Calvin Wesley Owens and Sarah Jane Williamson in North Carolina. I took note of her husband’s name, Daniel James Pankey – knowing I would need it to locate a marriage record for the couple. I also noted that her date of birth is listed as 8 Feb 1908 rather than 1907. The record further told me that Aunt Roney died on 4 Jan 1958 at James Walker Memorial Hospital from cancer of the uterus and she was buried on 6 Jan 1958 at Oak Grove Cemetery.
Rona Bell Owens Pankey’s Death Certificate
After finding the name of Aunt Roney’s husband, I threw myself into trying to find a marriage record for the couple. I have been looking for these records for years and my searches continue to be fruitless. My next hope was that I’d be able to confirm their marriage through census records. However, nothing is ever as easy as we’d like for it to be and I have not yet located my Aunt Roney and Uncle Dan in census records as a married couple. Luckily, I was able to confirm their marriage and their movement over the twenty year black out period created by lack of census and marriage records, by tracking down the birth records of their children. The birth records indicate that the couple moved from Richmond County to Anson County and back before finally settling in New Hanover County around 1941.
I currently have no further information to share on Aunt Roney, but I am still looking. If anyone has anything they are willing to share, please contact me.
Cassie – To top off your Rona Bell Owens Pankey mystery with that interesting photograph – the expression in her face and in her fleeting walk. with the unknown people ( and the man in back in a sailor’s suit ) – that picture tells a story .
Magda -
I couldn’t agree more. This is the only picture I have ever seen of my Aunt Rona. I found it on a public Ancestry tree… it’s usually dangerous to just take the word that someone in a photo is who they are claimed to be, but when I saw this photo – I knew without a doubt that it was her. The Owens siblings were all extremely tall and very thin. She looks just like my Grandpa Golie.
I’m hoping that an Owens relative will see the photo and be able to tell me who has the original, who the mystery people with Rona are, and where the picture was taken. I’ve spent the last thirty minutes or so looking at photos of historic buildings in the counties she lived in trying to see if I can find a match. So far no luck, but I’ll try again in the morning when I can look with a fresh pair of eyes.
-Cassie
Pingback: Yopp Funeral Home Records | The Sanford Family Misfit