About markorear.com

My name is Mark O'Rear and I happily 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 Lee Hoffman worked together on our joint O'Rear geneology. Paul and Lee's extensive work can be found under the "Links" section.

My own "serious" research began 8 years ago when I conducted a DNA test through ancestry.com and begin to create a family tree. I conducted the DNA test and began to develop the tree 1) because I needed a retirement hobby besides golf and 2) because I was curious as to the origins of the O'Rear surname. Approximately 16,000 ancestors later, I am still online daily, meeting fellow Mayflower and Jamestown Society members, emailing a 10th cousin in Sweden that I met on Ancestry.com, and finding new lineage paths to research. As some would say, "I have the bug".

My first real ancestral discovery happened when I began to follow my Mom's (Virginia Beckman) roots. She grew up in Cambridge Massachussetts, and as I continued further into my Mom's line I discovered that her Boston roots went really far back. And I mean waaay back. I discovered that my 11th great grandfather was William Brewster, a highly influential spiritual leader and a key member of our Plymouth Mayflower founders. But discovering this on a web site is not enough proof, so I began to pursue the extremely difficult and arduous task of documenting our lineage for official Mayflower Society certification. 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. I was quite overwhelmed when I first learned how much proof and effort would be 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; I had a great deal of help from Virginia Mayflower genealogist Barbara Sverdrup. The Virginia Mayflower Society thankfully assigned her to help me along the way. Barbara wasn't allowed to do any research for me, but she did suggest places to look, and she was a huge supporter and encourager. Than you Barbara! Perhaps one of the weirdest coincidences ever is that her husband I share a distant relative, arctic explorer Otto Sverdrup!

Having eventually procured all of information I could find, it became apparent that birth, death and marriage certificates simply do not exist prior to about 1800. For my earlier-than-1800 ancestors I needed to find proof in different ways, for instance published genealogies. Finally, over a year and perhaps $1000 later, I had compiled all of the information I needed and submitted my application to the Virginia Mayflower Society. Barbara helped me compile it into an official format, reviewed it with her Virginia Mayflower Society senior genealogist, who submitted it to the Plymouth Society. My submission was approved and certified by the Plymouth Mayflower Society, GSMD 105874.

The day that official certificate came was a fun and happy day, as all of my work had paid off. I took a deep breath (phew!) but I still had the bug, so I starting researching my tree on familysearch.org. This site is a fascinating and very instructive place to visit, since it is a globally shared family tree.

I must also mention the fun of discovering that the family has many royal ancestors, including many English and Scottish Kings, most notably Robert the Bruce. My wife Jan and I plan to travel to Scotland next year to explore his lineage. The power of the internet and AI is truly amazing. I foresee even more wondrous discoveries ahead.

Through Familysearch.org I also discovered a "Famous Persons" section that shows how we are related to famous leaders, entertainers, adventurers, etc. WOW! It was really shocking how powerful a more or less global family tree can be! It showed me that I am related to no less than 33 Presidents, Lady Di (11th cousin), Winston Churchill, King Charles, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Mark Twain and many, many other leaders, inventors, scientists and celebrities. Too many to name here, but you can check them out in the Famous Ancestors section.

Currently (as of October 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. 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, it has to be a grandparent), 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.

I do have a few thoughts for future sections, but will take a breather on this website to finish my Jamestown Society application. Well, that's all or now!