Still working on my Breshears line - Juanita Fay Breshears (Hostetlers, Odenbaughs)

For the past week I've been working on my first cousin (once removed) Juanita Fay Breshears.

Fay was the daughter of Francis Marion and Cora Henderson Breshears.  She married Rolland Hostetler around 1927 in California.  I still need a marriage record to support this.  They lived in California their entire lives.

Rolland and Fay had two children.  Sharon and Duane Keith Hostetler.

Sharon married Leonard Odenbaugh in San Bernardino, California in 1956.  They had two children Keith and Kelly.

I really enjoy working in the state of California.  The available records on line is amazing.  The California Birth and Death indexes are great.  Between those and the SSDI and Find A Grave I was able to piece together a lot of information on this "lost side" of my family.

Due to the distance my immediate family was never really close to this family.  Fay Breshears was a first cousin to my mother.  Years ago Rolland, Fay and Duane use to come to our home in Missouri for summer vacation.  They visited all of the Breshears relatives in the area while they were here.  I remember they had a camper for their pickup that they traveled and stayed in.

In the above photo:

Front: Alberta Shepard, Lula Breshears, Zelma Varner. Rear: Charlie Breshears, Duane & Fay Hostetler and James Varner.

Working on the Breshears - Marilla S Breshears and Henry S Henderson family of Fullerton, CA

The past few weeks I've been working on my Grandaunt Marilla "Rilla" Breshears Henderson and her family.  I have discovered five new first cousins (once removed).  Rilla was the daughter of my Great Grandfather Francis Marion Breshears.  Rilla and her husband Henry moved from Missouri to California in around 1929.  For that reason our families were never that close.

Again, Ancestry.com came to my rescue.  The amount of information that I was able to find on Rilla, Henry and their five children was unbelievable.  Using census records, birth, death and find a grave records I was able to trace their births in Missouri, move to California, deaths and burials.

The family as far as I can reconstruct it is as follows:

Henry S Henderson - Father
Marilla (Rilla) Breshears Henderson - Mother
Neva Pearl Henderson - daughter  >  married Wilbur Weaver
Mabel Henderson - daughter
Willetta Henderson - daughter
Samuel Henderson - son
Mary Henderson - son

As usual I'm willing to collaborate with anyone who is working on this family.  Simply post a comment here or send me an email.  It would help if you stated your relationship to the family

Researching the Jesse Smith & Julia Booher family of Athena, Umatillia, Oregon

For the last few weeks I've been concentrating on my Granduncle Jesse Smith (Julia Booher) family.  I've found numerous records on Ancestry.com.  These included, censuses, marriage records, death records (SSDI & death indexes), burial records (Find A Grave).

I was able to grow the family tree by three first cousins, plus two spouses, and six second cousins.

After finding the record on Ancestry I added it to that person on my Ancestry member tree (this worked great)  and loaded it to my ancestry shoebox.

Then working from my shoebox I downloaded the source records to my computer and updated my Roots Magic 6 database.

Finally I updated my Family Search Family Tree directly from my Roots Magic database.  This process also works extremely well.My Jesse Smith family tree on Ancestry.

My Jesse Smith ancestry tree may be found at Don Varners Jesse Smith ancestry tree

I was also able to acquire several tombstone photo's from find a grave and have received permission to use them.

Working with RootsMagic / Family Search Family Tree and Ancestry.com / my Ancestry Member tree

I have spent the last several days working on my online family trees.  I have one on Family Search and one on Ancestry.

I use RootsMagic for the most part to update my tree on Family Search.  The RootsMagic integration with FS family tree works fantastic.  I can easily copy facts, sources and notes as well as add new people or correct the FS record.

I was using Family Tree Maker to integrate with my Ancestry tree.  However, I've now stopped updating my FTM 2012 and am maintaining the tree only on Ancestry.  To do this I've modified my workflow as follows:

1. Use RootsMagic determine the source documents needed or the person to locate.  I use the ToDo's to keep track of  what to be done.
2. Manually add the new person to the Ancestry tree (if required).
3. Find the needed source documents on Ancestry if available.  Add the source to the person on my Ancestry tree.  Add the source document to my Shoebox in Ancestry.
4. Manually create the person in RootsMagic (if needed).
5. Manually create the necessary sources and citations in RootsMagic (using the ones in my Ancestry shoebox).
6. Sync the person, facts, sources and notes from RootsMagic to FS Family Tree.

This workflow is fairly labor intensive but not too bad considering it will maintain three trees.  I have saved several steps by eliminating my FTM 2012 file.

I'm still not completely settled.  I need to spend more time looking at pulling sources from Family Search, updating my FS family tree directly and then syncing back to RootsMagic and finally adding to Ancestry member tree.

I also need to start utilizing the RootsMagic person's research log.  For hard to find source information I find myself wasting time checking the same places for the same source information over and over again.  Maintaining the research log should help eliminate this problem.

Daniel Grant Varner

The Ancestor Spotlight is on my paternal grandfather Daniel Grant Varner.

Daniel Grant "Grant" Varner was born on 17 Jun 1870 in Covington, Miami County, Ohio.  He died on 8 Aug 1916 at the age of 46 in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri.  He was buried after 8 Aug 1916 at Teays Chapel Cemetery in Henry, Missouri.

Daniel was known as Grant his entire life.  He lived in Delaware County, Indiana, in Mar 1882.  

Daniel Grant "Grant" Varner and Ada Florence "Addie" Smith were married on 20 Dec 1899.

Grant was baptized in 1901 at Church of the Brethren in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri  

Grant was a Farmer and Rural Mail Carrier in Henry County, Missouri.

 The family farm was located in Fairview Township. It was situated on the west half of the northwest fractional quarter of section 18 (eighteen) in township 40 (forty) and in range 26 (twenty six) containing 73 63/100 (seventy three) acres.

Grant appeared in the following US federal census records:

10 Jun 1880 in Covington, Miami County, Ohio.  

13 Jun 1900 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri.

20 Apr 1910 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri,

Grant signed a will on 13 Sep 1907 in Henry County, Missouri.  Grant had his estate probated on 12 Nov 1917 in Henry County, Missouri.

Ada Florence (Smith) Varner

The Ancestor Spotlight is on my paternal grandmother Ada Florence Smith Varner.

Ada Florence Smith was born on 4 Jan 1880 in Henry County, Missouri the daughter of John Franklin Smith of Allen County Indiana and Mary Francis Smethers of Madison County, Indiana. John and Mary moved to Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri in 1877.

Ada was a member of the Church of the Brethren in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri

Ada Florence Smith and Daniel Grant Varner were married on 20 Dec 1899. Daniel Grant Varner, son of Daniel Grant Varner and Mary Leckenton, was born on 17 Jun 1870 in Covington, Miami County, Ohio

Ada appeared in the following US censuses:
11 Jun 1880 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri
13 Jun 1900 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri
20 Apr 1910 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri
6 Jan 1920 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri
9 Apr 1930 in Fairview Township, Henry County, Missouri
14 May 1940 in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri

The Daniel and Ada Varner family farm was located in Fairview Township. on the west half of the northwest fractional quarter of section 18 (eighteen) in township 40 (forty) and in range 26 (twenty six).  The farm contained 73 63/100 (seventy three) acres.

Daniel Grant Varner and Ada Florence Smith had the following children:

Earl Franklin Varner, was born 8 Oct 1900, in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri and died 20 Jun 1941, in Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.

William Harrison Varner, was born 30 Mar 1902, in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri. He married Ruby Phillips, on 22 Dec 1930, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. William died on 29 Dec 1954, in Deepwater, Henry, Missouri, United States. 

Elvie Grant Varner was born 12 Mar 1906, in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri,. He married Zula Marie Cobb on 20 May 1933. Elvie died 10 Mar 1981, in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri.

James Hadley "Jim" Varner, was born 31 Oct 1908 in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri. He married Zelma Mae Cobb on 3 Jul 1936 in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. Jim died 9 Nov 1996, Clinton, Henry, Missouri, United States.

Henry Wallis "Doc" VARNER, born 15 Apr 1914 in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri. He married Erma Lucille ARGABRIGHT on 26 Jun 1937. Henry died on 14 Nov 2006 in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas.

Daniel died on 8 Aug 1916 at the age of 46 in Deepwater, Henry County, Missouri leaving Ada to raise their five boys on her own.

Ada died on 26 Nov 1962 at the age of 82 at Wetzel Hospital in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. She was buried on 29 Nov 1962 at Teays Chapel Cemetery in Henry, Missouri. Rev Herbert Zeiler, her former pastor, (Bethany Brethern Church Stet, MO) assisted by Ira Gibbel (Messiah Church of the Brethern, Kansas City, MO) officiated at the service. Pallbearers were nephews: James and Ray Martin; John Wagner; Herbert Dickey; George Pumphrey and Sam Briggs.

Working with RootsMagic 6 and FamilySearch Family Tree

I have finally finished matching all of my deceased people in RootsMagic with their counterpart in FS Family Tree.  I am very thankful that I did not go the route of uploading a gedcom.  It is unbelievable how many duplicate records have been created for the same person for many of my ancestors.  I'm glad that I did not make the problem even worse.

For those people where no FS Family Tree person was found they could be easily added by a single button click

Now that the matching process has been completed I can proceed with FS Family Tree cleanup and sharing information between RootsMagic and FamilySearch.

I believe the process that I use will be as follows:.

1. Create list of all deceased people in RM (showing name, Birth/Death dates and FamilySearch ID.   This will be my list to work from.  I may do this using the RM "Group" function.
2. Find and merge all of the duplicates in FamilySearch for a given person.
3. Compare my RM6 database record with the resulting record in FS.  This will be done using the RM Family Search Person tool.
4. Add any facts or sources from RM6 that do not exist in FS.
5. Make note of any information found on FS Family Tree.  Validate and source this info then add it to my RM database.

This will be a very long, time consuming process but I feel that eventually it will be worth the effort.  I really enjoy the way RM6 integrates with FS Family Tree.  It will make the comparison and update phase so much quicker.

If you are really series about this I would highly recommed the following free webinar from RootsMagic.
Webinar # 52 Using FamilySearch Family Tree with RootsMagic found at  Rootsmagic Webinars