Silas' parents were James and Dellia Burch Hudson Newland. A distant cousin who also descends from this couple informed me that she had a list of James' siblings, among them a sister who was her ancestor.
She also had the names of the parents and grandparents of James Newland. These were the same names I had seen popping up again and again on the Missouri census reports. Now I was fully armed and when I went back to the genealogy sites, I went back with the knowledge and satisfaction that I had found Silas.
Now, as for Rachel......
Finding Rachel Ellen Botts Newland
A copy of the obituary from the Blackwell, OK. newspaper for Rachel Newland did not tell me much. It did not mention the date or place of her birth.
My dad's cousin Mable Anthony, who had saved the obituaries of her parents and her grandparents (Thank God!) had written in the date June 26, 1936. The clipping stated that she was 79, so without too much exertion on my gray matter I was able to determine that she had been born in 1857.
I had no clue to the place of birth, but since Silas was born in Schuyler Co, MO., and they had been married there in 1875, I thought that was a good place to begin.
I had already searched for Botts in Missouri census records and had found a few of the in that area.
One in particular, Anderson Botts, had been in Lancaster in 1850; and for some reason that name had made an impression on me when I first saw it. I had no idea why, unless Grandad Charley had mentioned it at one time or another...or maybe one of my other relatives...but it seemed to ring a bell.
I put his name down in a notepad as a "possible" along with a couple of others.
This was early in my search, and concentrating first on Silas, I almost overlooked a very obvious fact until later when I took another look at the census report for Grant Co. OK in 1900. According to that census Rachel's father had been born in Kentucky. and her mother in Indiana.
On rootsweb.com a family tree showed that Anderson Botts was born in Kentucky and his wife, Amanda in Indiana. I upgraded his "possibility" to a "very likely."
I had a list of the children of Rachel and Silas; and as I worked to fill in the missing vital statistics on them, I discovered that their first son, my dad's uncle John, was John Anderson Newland. That might have explained why the name Anderson seemed so familiar.
I was almost certain that I had found Rachel's parents, but without documented proof, or a family connection, I could not be 100% positive.
I tried once again at the message boards, and this time it was fruitful.
I received an e-mail from a "cousin" who informed me that Anderson Botts was his great-great grandfather and that he had a daughter named Rachel Ellen who had married someone by the name of Newland. BINGO!
I had found Rachel!
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John Anderson Newland Obit
Silas Henry Newland Obit
