Starting VARNER line research again

I have taken a six month hiatus from family history research.  It's been an exceptionally busy time for me.  Since the first of the year I've done the following:

• Worked on the Familysearch indexing project of the 1940 census.
• Built a new house
• Sold my house
• Relocated back to my home town
• Switched part time jobs

We just moved into our new home on August 7, 2012.  Still many boxes to unpack but we are beginning to settle in.  It's good to be back "home".

It is my intention to resume work on the family history again.  I have decided to concentrate on the VARNER line.  I've changed my database from Legacy to Family Tree Maker 2012.  I did not get a smooth transfer of my source documentation (limited as they are) and media.  It is my intention to take one branch at a time and clean up the sources I have and look for new ones as I'm working with each individual.

New family line found. Maternal gggrandfather was a GREEN.

Well the holidays and all the birthdays are over for awhile.  The last month and a half have been incredibly busy.  Little progress has been made on the family history.

I have spent some time trying to prove my information on my maternal gggrandfather.  His name is William Carroll Green "Breshears".  The following was written in the History of Benton County, Missouri (vol 1).

"In addition to their own children, Henry and Atsey raised William Carroll Green Breshears as their own. He was 13 years old when he was orphaned on the trip to Missouri and joined the Henry Breshears family."  This occurred in 1838.

I have been trying to find William's birth parents with no success whatsoever.  I can find no adoption records for him nor can I find him in any of the earlier census records.  Family stories indicate that William was born in either Tennessee or Virginia. He died during the civil war and I have been unable to find a death certificate  I am now trying to find information on his military service.  Next step will be any information available on the wagon trains that would have taken this route.

At any rate it appears that my "Breshears" line doesn't go back very far.

With the start of the new year I hope to be able to concentrate more on my family history research and updating this blog.

Varner cousins of California and Nevada contacted

November was an exceptionally busy month for me.  A nephews wedding, Thanksgiving, grand kids birthdays, grandsons visit and so on.  Even though I'm now retired there still doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything on my To-Do list.

It was a very rewarding month for my family history research.  Thanks to Doug Wallace I now have much more information on my two uncles, William Earl (Billy) and James Gilbert (Buddy) Varner,  families in California and Nevada.  The tree is growing larger.  I have been in contact with my cousin Howard.  It is good to finally "meet" the family there.

Now that I know the names and places to look for gathering the source documentation is not such a challenge. For the most part I've been able to find what I'm looking for on Ancestry, find-a-grave, the SSDI and California death records.

I am planning a visit to Teays Chapel and Clinton Memory Gardens cemetery tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 5, 2011.  I have 8 photo requests on Find A Grave that I need to take care of.  Hopefully the weather will clear off so that I can get some decent pictures.

Cousins MARTIN and HOSTETLER added to the family tree

Last week was a very good week.  Got lots done.

I spent one day visiting Teays Chapel and Clinton Memory Gardens cemeteries.  Took a total of 14 volunteer pictures for Find A Grave.

Then I spent a couple of days doing some file cleanup of my Legacy database.  It wasn't in as bad of shape as I feared.  Still need to do lots of source work (converting old basic style sources to the new sourcewriter templates) but that is not a pressing task.  Will work on as time permits.

With the help of my two sisters, Ancestry.com and Family Search.com I was able to add some cousins to the family tree.  These cousins are from my Grandmother Varner's  SMITH side of the family.  Those added were the Claude / Barbra MARTIN, of central Missouri, and Roland / Fay HOSTETLER, of  San Bernardino, California, families.

I was very pleased with the progress last week especially in light of the household visitors.  Our son's four year old twins spent two days with us and our daughters two sons spent a day and a couple of nights.  It was a very enjoyable time with the grand kids.

This week I was able to finish the work I had started on Find A Grave.  All of the memorials for Teays Chapel Cemetery now include the plot locations.

It's also been a very good week on the family history front.  I was contacted by Doug Wallace who had come across my memorials on Find A Grave.  He had a considerable amount of information on the Varner line that lived in Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV.  These are cousins that I had lost track of many years ago.  I was saddened to learn that neither Billy (William Earl) nor Buddy (James Gilbert) Varner are still with us and their parents are gone as well.

I've begun a review of my family history database.  It really is in pretty bad shape.  I need to do a general review of the family tree to re-familiarize myself with the data.  Then begin a general clean up and source standardization project.  As I'm going through the process I will also try to develop a research plan.  I started the database several years ago, but the last few years I've had little time to spend on it.  Now that I'm retired I hope to devote more effort to it.

Lost in Find A Grave

It all begin with an email request for updating one of my find a grave memorials.  That single request led to several email correspondence with four other people and two trips to Teays Chapel to take 90+ photos of tombstones.  A lot of work but I enjoyed it.

For that reason, and weekend house guests,  I have done very little work on the family history the last two weeks.

I did receive an email from a distant relative asking about my uncle Earl Varner whom I've never met.  He died before I was born.  I did receive some information on my Varner line from the Los Angeles, CA area as well as a photo of my uncle Earl and his family.

I hope to do better this week.

And so it begins .............

I begin setting up the blog this evening.  I am not a writer and have never kept a diary.  I hope I can make this work.  My reason for blogging is to help me focus on my research efforts.

I intend to document my family history research and documentation process.  Blog posts will cover the below listed areas.

• Researched areas and records.
• Software programs found useful
• Training and other instruction taken.

I've decided to undertake this blog creation after listening to several podcasts from Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems Podcasts.  I've also watched her blogging instructional videos on her Genealogy Gems You Tube channel.

Over the next several weeks I will be cleaning up and  fine tuning the look of the blog.