Margaret Louise Bouuman Research Paper

Margaret Louise Bouman, or as my family would label her as “Momaw”, has a rich history of ancestors coming to America. Being a descendant from English, French, Irish, and Native American cultures, my grandmother says she doesn’t know her exact cultural makeup and even referred to herself as a “mutt” of different backgrounds. From what she knows, her family derives from Royalty in England. The royal family’s history under the last name of Knight, my grandmother’s maiden name, has been vaguely passed down for generations. My grandmother never knew her grandparents. They had all passed before she ever got the opportunity to meet them and converse about their family’s history. She regrets not getting to see her grandparents and says that that is the reason she tries to be the best grandmother she can

Another unfortunate circumstance is that my grandmother can’t remember many vivid things she did even with her own parents. Her parents, Gladys and Cecil Knight, raised her until the age of 10. Her father divorced her mother when my grandmother was only 9 years old. Being a single mother with many children, Gladys could not support her family and was forced to send her children to be raised by strong Christian foster parents Willis and Annie Adams. Only a few memories stuck with her over the years of her real parents, including her trips to Dairy Queen on the weekends and her father taking her to church when she was little. She said her mother was her favorite, explaining how her hardworking attitude and caring personality made her an excellent mother to her children; all 13 of them! In chronological order of births, my grandmother and her siblings included R.T., Betty, L.C., Lena, Jenean, Nila, Margaret, Jerry, Charlene, Oscar, and Maggie. Unfortunately, two of my grandmother’s twin brothers tragically died at birth, leaving 4 boys out of 11 children to carry on the Knight