History of the Barss Family

I don't know who wrote this. It is a printout I have in my family history binder. Gabe wanted the info, so I decided to post it to the blog. Sorry for the long entry, but this is for posterity!

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Our immigrant ancestor to the United States was Augustine BeArce, a gypsy of the Romany race whose ancestry originated somewhere in Europe in the mid 1500's. No Romany records are available since gypsies never recorded their vital statistics. We do know, though, that the BeArce family later settled in Ireland, thence on to Scotland and then later settling in Longstock, England where Augustine was born in 1638. (Passenger lis in 1638 lists him at age 20.)

On March 24, 1638, Augustine, also known as Austin, was deported by the English government from Southampton, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, sailing on the ship "Confidence." (Ref: Dr. Banks Passenger List.) He committed no wrong but a recent English law had forbidden Romany blood on English soil so he was deported to the new English colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts. (At the time the English emigration authorities spelled the passenger's names as they sounded - thus BeArce became Bearse, by which name Augustine and many of his descendants, became known in the Massachusetts cology.)

No Puritan maiden at Plymouthj would have married a Gypsy because of racial and religious scruples so he took to wife in 1639, under pagan rites, a lovely fair-complexion, flaming red-haired Indian Princess, the grand-daughter of Chief Iyannough who first met the Pilgrims on their arrival at Plymouth in 1620. (One source lists her father as Chief Massasoit, chief of all the Cape Cod tribes. Another source says that Iyannough was a chief of a tribe of Cummaquids, a sub-division of the Wompanoag. Wampanoags are a division of the Algonquins.) They became farmers at Barnstable, MA where 11 children were born to them. The Bears descendants remained at various locations in Massachusetts until 1769, when Benjamin Bearse, of our line and a great-great-grandson of Augustine, moved to Barrington, Nova Scotia; later changing the family name to Bears. (Some of the Bears family still remain in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island but are not of our direct lineage.) Benjamin's children born in Nova Scotia were registered as "Bears"; his son George, of our line, being one who later changed the surname to "Barss" by which name the family is known today.

George's son, Caleb, our great-great-grandfather, was registered at birth as "Bears" but acquired the name "Barss" when his father changed the name. Caleb married in Nova Scotia and in 1853 moved his family to Grey Conty in Ontario, Canada where he remained until his death.

Caleb's son, Joseph, our great-grandfather, married in Ontario and in 1884 moved his family to Huron County, Michigan but then returned to a farm near Harbor Beach.

Through the years, many derivatives of the Bearse name have formed - thus we have Bearce, Beirce, Bearss, Barce, Bars to name a few, but they all descend from Augustine.

Holy Tornados!

I am glad to hear the V Rosses are safe and sound. I too heard there were tornados in Virginia! Crazy! Are there typically tornados there or was this a freak thing? Do you have a basement or a root cellar or something?! Hopefully this is non typical thing and you won't need any of that! Hope all is well. It looks like you guys had a great trip to DC (from your blog)! Thanks for posting so we can see it too!

Safe and Sound

Yikes, tornadoes, and rain. We are all wet, but alright. Thank you for the prayers for our protection. The tornadoes hit about an hour outside of where we live {Goochland County}. We however just had strong Wind and rain. I don't watch the news really, so I didn't know about the tornadoes till about 10:30 in the evening. I saw a headline on the Internet, about tornadoes in VA. Skip and I were both shocked just like you. I should pay attention to the weather better. I just figured it was a typical spring storm that we have about every week. It is very green here. I wish you could see it.

Virginia Ross Family

You all okay? I keep hearing about the tornadoes and hoping everything is fine for your family...

Praying you are all safe and not scared.

Bread

I would like the recipe as well.
A couple of days ago, I made a whole wheat loaf in my bread maker with wheat I had ground some time ago. The flour was too dry for the amount of water that I used and it was a hockey puck, but it still tasted good. I will try again with your recipe. We are trying to use up stuff in the pantry. I have some purchased whole wheat flour that I need to use. We have tried the bread maker a couple of other times without great success. I used to make great bread in our old one. I haven't been as please with this one. It may be that I am just a lousy bread maker!
We opened a can of dehydrated eggs dated 12/76. They didn't look good, so we tossed a couple more cans of eggs. So much for rotating and using our year's supply.
Mom

Yummy

I'd love the recipe, Michelle--for both the bread and the honey butter!

Me the Molly Mormon

Last night I had the Molly Mormon Moment to mention (I enjoyed the alliteration there). I made wheat bread with wheat I canned and then ground myself!! HeHe... and it was YUMMY! It was my friend Cindy's recipe that I will post if anyone wants it. I wish I could post you all a thick slice with Honey Butter!

something to remember

It was fantastic to see all who could come to our 2nd farewell. The song was incredible and the warm well-wishes are going to help us through the next 18 months.

On a side note: Rex came up to me and said, "You are so funny. You use funny words." I asked him what words were funny. He said, "When you said someone ate out of the garbage." I asked him who I said ate out of the garbage and he said he didn't know. (I guess that is just as well, right Nicole?)

I love my grandchildren more than I can say. They all hold a special place in my heart... for eternity.

Love Dad

Page Farewell Take 2

Wow! What a great weekend! Good weather, good food, good company...what more could we ask! We really enjoyed going to G&G Ross' farewell last Sunday and I think it was really great for the grandkids to hear from them one more time. Thanks for your great example to us Mom and Dad! You are going to be great missionaries! Thanks Martins for hosting all of us even when you had so much going on. It was great to see everyone!

OLD!

Happy Birthday Lauren! 18 is a BIG one!!! How exciting! Happy birthday to Kim, Theo, and Brad this last week too! Aren't Rex and Mercy Aries too? What's with all the rams?!

Too Techie!

OK-so I decided I needed to not only get more techish, but I needed to do better on the whole journaling front as well.
Crazy me, so I decided to make a Blog! hee hee. I don't know how to tell you to get there except to tell you to click on my profile on the left of this blog, then click on 'My BigG Life' I don't know how to have guest posts and stuff and I would like to link stuff...but don't know how..so I will keep reading the little helps and see how it goes! Feel free to check it out! :)

Link to it here

Follow the Prophet?

Corbin reported something from Primary yesterday that gave Theo and I a good belly laugh; although, I hope it isn't a poor reflection on our parenting skills. Apparently the Primary president asked the kids who the prophet is. Our normally shy (bordering on mute in public forums) little Rex raised his hand. When she called on him his response was......wait for it.....MITT ROMNEY!!!! Jinkies!

Miracles

If you don't think that miracles are possible in this day and age, consider this: Yesterday I was in the process of carrying Mom's quilting machine down to the basement. It had just been to the repair shop. As I was carefully negotiating the steps, I looked down to see how many steps I had left. I guess my bifocals caused me to misjudge, but I thought I was at the bottom. Well, I still had one or two steps to go. So, I stepped off... into thin air and went tumbling sideways down to the floor.

Remember, I was holding a 30 - 40 pound machine... that is very expensive. My mind told me to save the machine, at any cost. I did. By all rights I should have broken at least a hip, leg, or arm... or all three. But, I not only saved the machine, I came away with one tiny bruise (which I may have already had).

The Spirit confirmed to me that I was saved injury because I am needed on a mission. It was a very humbling experience, and even more humbling witness.

Look out, West Indies!!! Here we come!!!

Love Dad

Count us in

What kind of items can we order? We are OK with wheat. We need sugar, rice and perhaps some beans and macaroni. I still need to finish the inventory of the freeze dried items.
Will you be doing it right away?
Mom

The Crazy Sister

So I have, of course, been watching commodity prices and noting the growing list of countries that are outlawing food export in anticipation of a shortfall. As the dooms-dayer you all know me to be I am going to put forth some ideas...
It is likely I will be encouraging this on a ward basis, but are any of you interested on a family basis in building our year supplies? Walton feed out of Idaho is a good resource to browse. What would you all think of putting in a family order? Consider your storage space and let's figure out our best ways to put some away for a rainy day...

www.waltonfeed.com
www.providentliving.com
www.beprepared.com

(Non) Farewell Take 2

We have confirmed mom and dad will be speaking in Page 5th Ward on April 20th at 11:00 am. We are very excited about their willingness to come down here and have a send off from the people they have loved and served for so many years! I have had so many people in our stake that have expressed their happiness for mom and dad's decision to serve a mission. So many people want to know where they are going, what kind of mission they will serve how long they will be gone, if they are excited, nervous, anxious.....I don't know if mom and dad even have an inkling of how the people of Page still think about them and wish them well! This is still their home.

So here is the next step...What a wonderful opportunity for us to get together again and wish them well and show our support one last time. I think the Lord knows how much the people of Page love mom and dad, and who is to say that He didn't want them to speak here one more time before setting off on their mission? We have been blessed to have a little extra time to say our goodbyes. We should use this chance to fulfill dad's wish to hear the Ross children sing!!! (-: Our little ward is not as blessed with as much musical talent as some other wards, and a musical number is a rare occurance. I know you are all so very busy. We have a lot going on too (Theo's sister is getting married on the 19th here in Page), but we can pull it off! I know we can!! I hope you will all consider coming to the Ross (non)farewell one more time! Let me know!

Family Reunion

Hi everyone! Our family sure had a good time in SLC last week. Thanks G&G Ross and Hannay Crew for letting us crash your pads. I am wondering if everyone is going to try to go to Page next weekend for Mom and Dad's Page Farewell...it seems very fitting that they should have a farewell there as they lived there 20+ years. I am in charge of a two day Relief Society 'get-away' to Albuquerque on that weekend, but I think I have resolved it so I can come to Page. They were very involved in Page and I am glad my kids know a little of their legacy there. I hope their mission plans are still moving forward! Nic-please see to it that we have good weather, as John thinks he can fit the dirtbikes into the truck ;).

I am also wondering if we have settled on final dates for the reunion... I think we had talked about starting on a weekend and going into the first couple days of the next week in June... is that still a possibility Brad? Nic and I kicked around some ideas of stuff to do and thought it might be fun to hike the 'Y 'on the day of Ty's tournament at BYU! What do you think? Are you guys looking for ideas or do you have it pretty well mapped out? We are trying to firm up other dates in the summer and would love to have the final word from Brad & Keryn. Thanks guys! Nic and I also agreed that one of the hardest parts of putting on a reunion is settling on the date!!