Joyce and Bearse ThruLines Part 3

In Part 1 of my series, I looked at early Cape Cod Bearse Genealogy and Joyce’s ThruLine with the Gershom Bearse Line. In Part 2, I looked at the genealogy of the Enoch Bearse Line and another ThruLine Joyce had there. In this Blog, I will look at the Martha Bearse Line:

Based on the DNA, the connection looks likely.

Looking at the trees of H.R., Judith and Donald, I do not see any Bearse ancestry.

Martha Bearse

Martha is mentioned in a 1772 will of spinster Hannah Bearse.

Martha is Hannah’s niece. I have that John Bearse Sr. only had one son who was John Bearse Jr.:

If that is true, then all of Martha’s neices and nephews should have been children of John Bearse Junior born in 1720. Specifically, that would mean that Martha Bearse must be the daughter of John Burse born in 1720.

First, I’ll add Martha to my Ancestry Tree. I see that Hannah’s probate was recorded in 1787 – so 15 years after the will was written:

I assume, then, that Hannah died some time before February 28, 1787.

Here is one problem in my tree:

I have that Hannah married Jabez Bearse in 1761. I guess I will delete that entry as this Hannah was a spinster.

Joyce and Judith

Judith’s father and paternal grandparents were living in the Back Bay, Boston in 1920:

Here is some more information:

Here is the tree so far:

From here, I wanted to go via Lydia’s line, but she is listed as living, so I have to change that. Here is Lydia’s family in 1850:

Here is Lydia’s death record:

One thing I see a lot is Cotuit:

Based on the Death record, I added the suggested parents that Ancestry had for Lydia:

Now, what I do not know is whether Moses Sturges is the father of Daniel and whether Moses married Martha Bearse. That would close the loop.

As I do not see any clear evidence either way, I think that I will abandon this line for now and move to the next set of ThruLines.

Joyce and the Rebecca Bearse Line

Here Rebecca has a proposed birth and death date which looks hopeful. Joyce has 5 ThruLines on this Branch. Also, as mentioned above, Rebecca is mentioned in the Will of spinster Hannah Bearse. The order given (probably by age) is Olive, Martha, Rebecca, and Lydia.

Of the 5 mathces, one has a Bearse in the ancestral tree:

However, this tree goes back to Abigail Bearse born 1715, a generation earlier than Rebecca Bearse. The tree is for L.A.:

I will look at L.A.’s ancestry to see what I think.

Joyce and L.A.

L.A.’s mother’s birth certificate gives the name of L.A.’s maternal grandmother:

Here is some wedding information for Laura Lewis:

Here is where that gets me:

I need to change the “Living” tag as Ancestry adds that in when it is not sure.

The 1910 Census says that Loren was born in the French portion of Canada and was a button cutter.

Here is some more about Loren:

Alonzo’s death record has him born in Blenhem, Ontario:

Here is Blenheim, ONT:

Ontario is a long way from Barnstable. Findagrave.com has this information:

So this states that George was born and died in the U.S., but that he was buried in Ontario.

Rebecca Bearse

At this point, I will go up a generation to the supposed mother of George Washington Bearse. When I choose Rebecca Bearse in Joyce’s ThruLines, I get this tree as a hint:

Apparently, there was a Rebecca Bearse who married a Melahtiah Lewis:

Here is a stone for Rebecca in the Hillside Cemetery in Osterville.

It looks like Rebecca was 57 when she died which would put her birth at 1753. Here is a published account of a wedding between Melatiah Lewis and Rebecca Bearse:

Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016).

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/13885/221/248787656

The reference tree from the ThruLine also has that Rebecca had another son named John Bearse Lewis:
I notice that he dies of old age in Osterville:
Recall from above that is where Rebecca Lewis is buried. So that is more circumstantial evidence. That means that it seems likely that Rebecca Bearse married Melatiah Lewis and had a John Bearse Lewis. However, I am still not as convinced that George Washington Lewis was his brother.

Summary and Conclusions

I was able to find out more about the Bearse family. However, I had trouble linking the DNA matched descendants to my Bearse tree.

 

 

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