Ancestry & Family History

Don Browne's Family Tree History

Ohio Ancestors and relatives in the Adams, Arnett, Bolin, Browne, Haybron, Lydick, Jones, Johnson, Robinson, Smith, and Wooley families

Photo (right) - My great grandparents George Washington Bolen (Bolin) and Clara Belle Friend. About 1903. They married when George was 64 and Clara was 22. Clara was his second wife and also a first cousin which was fairly common in days when most people lived in small farming communities..

How To Find Your Ancestors and Relatives:

First, Determine as many dates and names as you can from your family records and family members

Then, using the names and dates, confirm your information from census and death records and find new ancestors using web searches.

To search for ancestors and relatives try a simple search engine first. You may hit upon some distant relative who has already started a family tree. Next, try more specialized genealogy sites..

My mother's family ancestors came from Virginia and traveled to Ohio in the early 1800s and then scattered over all the United States from Alaska to Florida to Washington, D.C., while my father's family came from Lynchburg, Virginia and some members moved to Central Ohio in the early 1900s. My family tree and ancestor list is online at Ancestry.com, and also wc.rootsweb.com, containing over 15,300 ancestor names and relatives. The most common names of my ancestors are: Adams, Arnett, Bolin, Browne, Haybron, Lydick, Jones, Johnson, Robinson, Smith, and Wooley.

Two of my more famous ancestors include from my mother's side Thomas Merton, Catholic Trappist monk living at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky in 1941 and best selling author of The Seven Storey Mountain (he died 1968), and from my father's side, Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff (governor 1921-1925, died 1952).

Here are some of the best family search web sites for ancestors and genealogy family roots, including family history found in the family name census information for 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and the latest 1940 census records. Your ancestors from about 1930 to present can also be often found in Social Security record searches. If you have any of these family names in your family, try looking at the family index at my ancestry files including historic photos and audio located on Ancestry.com under the family tree called "Bolin From Ohio - Browne From Virginia" (You must have a subscription to search) or for free searching click here WorldConnect or put a name directly in the search box below to see a free search for any of the names on my tree. I have 15,300 names from the families of Adams, Arnett, Bolin, Bolen, Browne, Haybron, Jones, Johnson, Lydick, Robinson, Smith, and Wooley; these are the most common names of my ancestors, mostly from Central and Southeast Ohio, Washington D.C. and Lynchburg, Virginia areas.