In September 2015 I discovered that the
records in Family Search for John Soper and Mary Houser Soper and family had
names changed, new members of the family merged, records
removed from one parent and added to another.
The actual John Soper was given a different birth date and place, Mary Houser had her name changed to Mary
Yate. Some of their children were moved to a different family, some one elses's childern became John and Marys children. Records were merged and re-merged and left unfix-able.
There are a number of people that claim
John Soper as an ancestor, and there are two camps, those that claim Mary Yate
as John's wife and those that claim Mary Houser. I am in the Mary Houser camp.
I will use land records to establish
Mary Houser as John’s wife, with land records,who Mary
Yate was and how she might fit into the mix and find the Location of The
Vale of Benjamin on a current map.
All the reference material that I had
gathered over the years was in folders and unorganized. As I progressed in the research, I realized I
needed to make the information clear and readable and in one place; what would
be better than a blog?
