My name is Mark O'Rear and I recently retired in 2017 after a long Corporate career. My brother Paul initially sparked my interest in genealogy many years ago when he and fellow genealogist friend Lee Hoffman worked together on an O'Rear geneology. Paul and Lee's extensive work can be found under the "Links" section.
My own personal research started seriously after I conducted a DNA test through ancestry.com and begin to create a family tree. Approximately 16,000 ancestors later, I am still developing it and finding new lineage paths to research almost every day. As some would say, "I have the bug".
My first real discovery happened when I began to follow my Mom's (Virginia Beckman) roots. She grew up in Cambridge Massachussetts. Interestingly enough, she never knew her father, so I was interested in possibly researching him too. Well... I found out a lot about him and let's just say, it's not the best. I will leave this piece of my lineage for now undisclosed!! But I will get there.
As I continued to research my Mom's line I discovered that her Boston roots went really far back. And I mean way back. I researched more and more and discovered that my 11th great grandfather was William Brewster, a highly influential spiritual leader of our Plymouth founders. Suspecting now that my 11th Great Grandfather was a Mayflower passenger, I began to pursue the extremely difficult and arduous task of documenting our lineage. This required finding and many times purchasing birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates starting with myself and my wife Janette, through my father Floyd Barrett O'Rear Jr. and my mother Virginia May Beckman, to her parents, and their parents, etc. etc. It is all a little disconcerting when you learn how much proof is required, but I was retired, and I thought I could do it, so I dug in.
I do have to give credit where it is due, and that is the help of Virginia Mayflower genealogist Barbara Sverdrup. The Virginia Mayflower Society thankfully assigns you an individual to help you along the way. They don't really do the research for you, but they do suggest places to maybe look.
Having eventually procured all of recent information I could, it became apparent that certificates of birth, death and marriage do not exist prior to about 1800. Once I hit that early a grandparent I needed to research previous records that were accessible from earlier applications and from other sites on the internet, be they from ancestry.com or family search.com or personal lineages. About a year and perhaps $1000 later, I had compiled all of the information I needed and submitted my application to the Virginia Mayflower Society and Barbara who reviewed it and submitted it to the Plymouth Society.
Having successfully completed this, and having received my official Mayflower Society certificate (a very proud day!) I took a deep breath (phew!) and starting researching my tree on familysearch.org. It is a fascinating and very instructive place to visit, since it is a globally shared family tree! As hard as that is to believe, it pretty much works!
Through Familysearch.org I discovered a "famous persons you're related to" section and WOW! It was really shocking how powerful a more or less global family tree can be! I showed me that I am related to no less than 39 Presidents, Lady Di (11th cousin), Winston Churchill and many many inventors, scientists and celebrities. Too many to name here.
Currently (as of September 2025) I am in the process of submitting my application to the Jamestown Society, as we have many ancestors who migrated to Virginia late in the 1600's and in fact several are what is referred to as a "qualifying ancestor". This means that if I can prove direct lineage to one of them (uncles and aunts and cousins don't count), I can apply for Jamestown society membership too. Researching ancestors is always difficult, but I have created a first draft of my Jamestown lineage, which you will find in the Family Tree section.
Well, that's all or now!
