The Morss/Morse Family Connections
An historical look at the family line through the father's side that extends unbroken from the early 1600's to today. I admit I got lucky and found a cousin who had all of the family history except that related to my grandfather - he had disappeared from her records when he moved to northern Minnesota in the 1880's.
| I recently found two more possible early descendents
whle searching the public files of the Family Tree Maker software site. These two families
were: 1. A. William Morss, born between 1550 and 1555 in England, UK; died before 1611 in Rodbourne, Cheney, England. He had a son; 1. B. Anthony Morss, Sr born before 1578 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England; his child, Anthony Jr, as born May 9, 1606, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England and died October 12, 1686 in Newbury, Essex Cty, Mass.(Note the differences in the date of death with the individual below). Anthony Jr married Ann Cox on May 2, 1629 in Stmapa, Marl, Wilt, Eng; daughter of Ambrose Cox and Alice Hale. A son, Joseph Sr (who matches very well with my #2 below) was born 1634, England, died 15 January 1677/78 in Piscataqua, Rocking Cty, New Hampshire. 1. My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Anthony Morse 1607 or 1608 in Marlborough England; came to North America on the ship "JAMES", arriving in Boston in 1635; he had 12 children (and maybe two others); died 9 march 1679 or 1680 in Newbury Mass. His Last Will and Testiment has been found and posted to the Web via the Morse Society. A copy of the will is linked here, as is a copy of his signature. 2. My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Joseph Morse; @1638, he had 6 children; died 15 Jan 1678 in Newbury Mass. 3. My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather: John Morse @1670; he had 7 children; died in 1727, still in Mass 4. My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Joshua Morse (Mors) @1713; he had 5 children and was an Army Chaplain; died some time after 1765 maybe in Fish Kill, New York. Rev. Joshua Morse (Mors, Morss) was featured in the Morse Society Newsletter in June 1989. 5. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Benjamin Morse (Morss) @1735 or 1740; also identified as Samuel Benjamin; he was a Patriot of the Revolution and two of his sons also fought; he had 7 sons and 2 daughters; died in @1783 in Cayuga County, New York 6. My Great-Great Grandfather: Benjamin Morse (Morss) Jr.; @1770; moved to Indiana and are found in records there in 1815; he had 6 children; his sons were among the first to adopt the spelling MORSS; no date for his death 7. My Great Grandfather: John T. Morss; 13 May 1814 in Stuben County, New York State; he had 12 children; died 21 July, 1884; buried in Cook Cemetery, Orange Township, Knox County, Illinois. The booklet I have from a cousin contains a picture of John in his 20s (?) along with pictures of many of the other children at various ages - but none of Charles, my grandfather. (My sister Jeanette may have the only picture of him that exists). 8. My Grand father: Charles A.E. Morss; 4 June 1863 on Orange Township, Knox County, Illinois; Married Mary Nickerson (Nickeson) on 7 Feb 1882 in Knox County; died 2 Dec 1888 in Pequot Lakes Minnesota; they had three children, one of whom survived infancy 9. My Father: Clyde A, Morss; 27 Nov 1888 in Minnesota; Married Mollie Andersen 22 March 1912; died 14 May 1960, Superior Wisconsin; buried Pequot Lakes Minnesota 10. Me: Dean A. Morss; 13 March 1940 in Brainerd, Minnesota; Currently living in Omaha, Nebraska, retired from the Air Force as a Lt. Colonel after 21 years; worked as a Senior Computer Systems Engineer for 9 years and currently an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Creighton University in Omaha. I have included pictures of my brothers and sisters through this link. This set of pages is still under development. but the basic content is about set. 11. My Daughter: Kristin Ann Morss; 14 July 1970 in Torrance, California; graduated from the Creighton Law School in May 1995; currently working in Omaha. |
So the line from my daughter looks like this:
Kristin Ann Morss11, Dean10, Clyde9, Charles A.E.8 , John T. Morss7, Benjamin Morse (Morss) Jr.6, Benjamin Morse (Morss)5, Joshua Morse (Mors)4, John Morse3, Joseph Morse2, Anthony Morse1
and since my brother's family is at the great-grand child stage, they would be the 13th direct generation from the original British immigrants in who came here in 1635. Incidentally, a big thanks to Thomas Langford of the Morse Society for posting the log of the ship "James" that brought these settlers to this continent. You can view the passenger log from his site (and a lot of other things about early settlers) or from this mirror on mine.
And --
If you want to find out more about the Morse/Morss/Mors family, you can also visit the Morse Society Web Site through this link. Maybe you too can get lucky an find a line of family ancestors you suspected were there but never realyy pinned down.
Here is a short summary (albeit sketchy) of the family prior to its move to North America, as put together by John R. Morse, 1st Vice President of "The Morse Society", as published in the January 1999 issue of "The Morse Society Newsletter".
| Evidence collected by Morse Society
researchers over the past century suggests that these early Morses were Danish Vikings who
settled in the Rhine Valley near Antwerp, Netherlands; they were successful in local
military, political, and religious affairs in the 10th - 14th centuries in Germany and
Holland. They provided major help to English kings in their conquest of Normandy in the
14th century and were given major properties in the east of England as a reward. The
Morses became prominent wool merchants and built a large estate, The Skalds, in Stratford
St Mary, which was in the family for over 200 years (15th and 16th centuries). Early
in the 1600s, England descended into a devastating depression. The wool business,
which primarily consisted of exports to the European continent, virtually ceased during
the Thirty Years Wars (1618-1648). It appears that the Morses left the area during
this time. Individual stories on the various branches of the family during these early years will be added to this site at a later date. Look for a brief history of each of these topics
|
May 10, 2001
