The past several days I’ve been researching the Varney family, a branch of my family tree from Dover, Strafford County, New Hampshire. The patriarch of the Dover Varney line was Humphrey Varney (1636-1714), who moved to Dover from his father’s home in Ipswich as a young man, and began the long line of Varney descendants who live across the United States today.
One of those Dover descendants is Esther C. Varney, whose obituary I discovered while searching for Varney cousins in GenealogyBank’s Recent Obituaries Database.
I was able to locate Esther’s FamilySearch page, which showed me that she and I are both descendants of Humphrey Varney. Humphrey is Esther’s 7th-great-grandfather and my 8th-great-grandfather.
The Varney’s have long been a part of Dover’s history. Humphrey’s son Ebenezer Varney (1664-1753), my 7th-great-grandfather and Esther’s 6th-great-uncle, was the original builder of the “Varney-Ham House” which sat on the west side of Varney Hill in Dover for nearly 300 years.
There is an essay about the Ham Varney House, with a photo, on the Dover Public Library website:
It’s always amazing to find and document our cousins in the family tree.
Genealogy Tip: GenealogyBank’s Recent Obituaries Database can be a great way to find your own cousins whom you may not be aware of, and to learn interesting stories about your common ancestors.