WWI draft records and Ernest VARNER marriages

It's been two months since I've posted on this blog.  I have taken a little time off, but I hope to be back in the groove now.

With the coming of warmer weather the last few days I have been unable to make it to Englewood Cemetery and take care of the photo requests on Find A Grave.  I was able to clear up a three month back log.  I've also been able to key in several hundred more names in the Marine project for Ancestry.com's World Archives Project.

I took a slightly different tact on the family history the last two weeks.  Instead of working on a single individual or family I ran a list of people in my family tree maker database that should have been registered in the WWI draft.  I was able to find the draft registration for almost all of them on Ancestry.com.  I still have the WWII draft left to do.

I also spent some time working on my 1st cousin (1x removed) Ernest Varner.  Ernest (Ernie) Varner was married three times (Pansy Briggs, Fern Simms Horn, and Helen Harness).  I've been searching for marriage and divorce records with partial success.  I've been able to document all three marriages but I'm still searching for a divorce record for Pansy.  I also have not been able to document a divorce or death (not sure which) for Fern.  Still have more work to do here.

Still working my SMITH line - more descendants of Phebe SMETHERS found (BRATTAIN, WILSON, SPARKS and GINDER)

This week I continued indexing on Ancestry's World Archives Project.  Added approximately 600 more names to my index total.  Getting a little faster each week.  Skipped indexing on Family Search and used my indexing time to start a family tree.

I decided to try the new (in beta testing) Family Tree in Family Search.  I'm not an LDS member but anyone can request to help with the beta testing prior to the general release to all.  I could not find a way to upload a GEDCOM using my FTM 2012 file.  Watched the training videos and it appears as though the only way to create the tree is to manually add one person at a time.  When a person is added to the tree the program checks Family Search to see if that person is already connected to an existing tree in Family Tree.  If found, there are two options given.  One is to choose the person or if not the right person there is an option to create a new person.  I like the interface but it will be very slow going to build out the tree.  I believe I will limit the tree to my direct line only.

I've added a few more second / third cousins to the tree.  They are part of my paternal Grandmother Smith's line. Working primarily on Phebe Smethers Brattain.  She was my great grandmother Mary Francis Smethers Smith sister

Phebe SMETHERS was married to Samuel BRATTAIN and they had four children.
Clara BRATTAIN, married John GINDER
Della BRATTAIN, did not marry
Lillie BRATTAIN, married Earl SPARKS
Nellie BRATTAIN, married Lona WILSON
All of the families lived in the Hamilton and Madison County Indiana area.

Holidays and new cousins (BRATTAIN / WILSON families of Madison County, IN) found

The Christmas and New Year's holidays have come and gone.  The last two weeks have been extremely busy and very enjoyable.  This year we were able to meet not only with all of the immediate family but also my two sisters and their families as well.  Nephew Eddie Neuenschwander and niece Debby Vanslyke and family were the only ones missing this year.  We had an extremely full house (30+) on Christmas eve.  We again waited until Grandson Kaleb Varner could be here to have our family Christmas, which was done on December 26th this year.  On Christmas day Carolyn and I drove to southern Missouri to pick up Kaleb and bring him back.

With all of the holiday activity I was still able to spend a couple of days at the Henry County Museum volunteering.  I'm working on creating a database program to store their collection records. Hopefully I will be able to finish this project in the next two or three weeks.  Current plans are to move to the genealogical library next to digitize their records and automate some processes.  I was also able to spend a few hours indexing for both Ancestry and Family Search.

On the family history front I've been working on the Brattain and Wilson families of Green Township, Madison County, Indiana. These are the families of  Phebe Smethers the daughter of Eli and Barbara (Welty) Smethers.  The Smethers are my paternal 2nd great grandparents.  I have found several 1st cousins (1x and 2x removed) and 2nd cousins.  Ancestry.com came through again with their fantastic census record,  Indiana marriages and SSDI collections. I still need two or three days to finish up the documentation on the Brittain and Wilson branches of the tree.

Working on SMETHERS branch of family and indexing on the World Archives Project

As I mentioned in my last blog post I have resumed indexing on Family Search.  I was working on the New York Naturalization project.  I thought I would try something different  so I begin indexing on Ancestry's World Archive Project as well.  I've been working on the Kansas (city and county) state census there.

Comparing the two I believe the indexing tools are fairly equivalent with a slight edge to Family Searches.  However, Family Search far surpasses Ancestry on project instructions, examples, help forums and accuracy ratings.  In fact on Ancestry there appears to be no way of knowing what changes had been made to your indexed records.  For that reason the frustration level is much higher working with the World Archive Project.  At least on Family Search you know what the arbitrator changed and if you do not agree you can request a further review.

For now I will continue to do some for each.

Also this week I was able to spend a lot of time on Ancestry working on my paternal 2nd great grandmothers family the SMETHERS (SMITH'S).  With the help of another researcher on Ancestry I was finally able to determine and prove her maiden name of WELTY.  So far it appears as though the most of the family have stayed in the Madison and Wayne County, Indiana areas.  A few (my great grandmother) came to Missouri and one or two to Kansas.  I have found several death and marriage records and many census records on Ancestry.  I also found some burial locations, and tombstone photos on Find A Grave.  The family tree grew by almost 30 people this week.

I still have much work to do on the Elias SMETHERS / Barbara WELTY family.  There are 9 children in the family and most (if not all) married and had children of their own.  I will be spending the next few weeks on this branch of the tree.

Documenting the HOLLY / HOLLOPETER / MARTIN family connection

It's been a very busy last three weeks.  Thanksgiving was great with all of the family here at the new house.  I've also re-started my Family Search Indexing efforts again.  I've just past the 5,000 records indexed mark. I've also been volunteering at the Henry County Museum and Genealogy Library a couple of days a week.  That has left little time to spend on my family history.

No new relations uncovered but I've been concentrating on more complete documentation of those I already  have in the family tree.  My concentration areas of the last few weeks have been the MARTIN / HOLLY / HOLLOPETER connections.  These connections are related to the VARNER side of the family.  Primarily I've found census records, marriage records and a few obituaries.  The HOLLY name came from Ray V HOLLY who choose to shorten his surname of  HOLLOPETER  to HOLLY.  At this point I'm not sure how many of his siblings's choose to do that as well.  I have a research "TO DO" to look into this a little more at a later date.

I received some invaluable assistance from Bill Martin to set me on the correct path for his mother's (HUEY) side of the family.

I've now decided to rework my research strategy with the focus being on more complete documentation of the family file I have.  My intent is to focus more on family history and less on genealogy.  Now to put together a game plan.  Also for the new year I plan on rethinking my genealogy "Tool Kit".  That may be a future blog subject.

Census finds for John F SMITH & Daniel VARNER

Last week and so far this week has been very busy.  My wife and I just returned from a trip to the southern tip of Missouri to pick up my grandson for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Down and back in one day (13 1/2 hours).  It's so good that he will be able to spend it with the rest of the family.  All of the kids/grand kids will be home for Thanksgiving.

Last week I resumed my Family Search Indexing,  I've indexed a few more records for the first time since the 1940 census was finished.  I also spent quite a bit of time doing photo requests for Find A Grave.  The weather has been very cooperative so far this month.  It's really been a very mild November so far.

I've not progressed much on the family tree in the last week or two.  Spent a couple of days on Ancestry and I was able to finally find my maternal great grand father (John Franklin Smith) in the 1880 census.  This has eluded me for quite some time.  He was enumerated as John SMITT.  I also found my paternal grandfather in the 1900 census.  He was enumerated as Daniel VERNER.  Also found marriage licenses for a couple of cousins.  I hope to be able to spend Friday on research.

New VARNERS added to the tree and new sources for VARNER/SMITH/LEONARDS/SMETHERS

This has been a very productive week from a genealogical research stand point.  I've been able to spend a couple of days concentrating on my paternal grandfathers line.  I found several new source documents and was able to add an entire family (2nd cousin 3X removed) John Peter VARNER of Fayette Township, Juniata County, PA.