Some Bliss Family History Compiled and Edited by Charles W. Paige IMPORTANT NOTE: This compiler’s original frame of reference for compiling the Bliss family’s history was an outline created for Great-Aunt Etta (Bliss) Kendrick to prove ancestral military participation on the American side of the Revolutionary War. She needed same for procuring membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), membership No. 145454 circa 1919. This compiler assumed that the outline’s contents were fully researched and completely accurate. However, it later developed that the outline was at variance with a multivolume set of books entitled Genealogy of the Bliss Family in America, compiled by Aaron Tyler Bliss of Midland, Michigan, and published in 1982. Profound variances mostly occur regarding generations prior to Captain Samuel Bliss, Sr., of Rehoboth, especially the family’s history on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean. They include differences in ancestral names, locations, relationships, origins, and circumstances surrounding the family’s immigration to America. Disavowed is any link to the town and bloodlines formerly connected with Blois, France, and erased or totally unaccounted for is the religious trauma so prevalent in early Bliss family history recounting. Not fully convinced that some form of whitewash is not taking place, the Bliss family history prior to Captain Samuel Bliss, Sr., in the following compilation, mostly still reflects the original referenced outline and thus, perhaps, should be taken with one or more grains of salt. Aaron T. Bliss’s version, which today is generally accepted by Bliss researchers, can be found elsewhere. Copyright 1982, 2015 Charles W. Paige ii Written Contents Parents of Jennie Louise Barnes ..................................................................................................... 1 Will and Nellie (Bliss) Barnes .................................................................................................... 1 Along the Way ........................................................................................................................ 2 Will's Parents and Family ........................................................................................................... 4 Nellie's Parents and Family ......................................................................................................... 4 Helen M. Hubbard .................................................................................................................. 6 William McClean ................................................................................................................ 6 Susan is the Most Distant Known Link to My mtDNA Origins ..................................... 7 The Dakota Cyclone ........................................................................................................ 9 A Laugh at the Kaiser ............................................................................................... 10 Adam F. Hubbard a.k.a. Adam Frink Hubbard a.k.a. Adam Frink Hubbart ..................... 12 Nellie’s Hubbard/Hubbart/Hobart Ancestry ......................................................................... 20 Nellie’s Bliss Ancestry .......................................................................................................... 28 First Few Hundred Years of the House of Blois ............................................................... 28 Puritan Strain .................................................................................................................... 30 New Land, New Hope ....................................................................................................... 32 Rehoboth ........................................................................................................................... 33 The Will and Holdings of Thomas Blysse/Blise/Bliss .................................................. 34 Last Will and Testament of Thomas Blise ................................................................ 34 Inventory of the Thomas Blise Estate ....................................................................... 35 Another Plague .................................................................................................................. 37 The Early American Blisses .................................................................................................. 39 The Two Contemporary Captain Samuel Blisses ............................................................. 39 Samuel Bliss, Sr. in the Revolutionary War as Militia Captain ....................................... 41 Some Blisses in the Revolutionary War ........................................................................... 43 Slippage in Time ............................................................................................................... 46 Samuel Bliss, Jr. and Some Generations of His Ancestors ............................................... 47 Ancestors of Anna Mason ................................................................................................. 64 Inventory of Sampson Mason ....................................................................................... 69 Families of Calvin Hall Bliss ........................................................................................................ 73 Susan Elizabeth Bliss ................................................................................................................ 85 Samuel H. Bliss ......................................................................................................................... 93 John Bothwell Bliss ................................................................................................................ 103 Sidney E. Bliss ........................................................................................................................ 107 Riverside Cemetery in Albion, Michigan ........................................................................... 115 The Year of the Farm .......................................................................................................... 138 A Barnes Cousin Remembers (excerpted from “Jennie’s Times”) ................................. 139 Mary S. Bliss ........................................................................................................................... 166 Family of Nathaniel Franklin Bliss ............................................................................................. 173 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 175 iii Pictures Thomas and Silence Hubbart’s tombstone (entire) .......................................................................22 Thomas and Silence Hubbart’s tombstone (magnified section) ....................................................23 Samuel and Anna Bliss’ tombstone ...............................................................................................51 Brooks Mason’s kneebuckle spoon................................................................................................65 Rolling pin by Oneida Indian .........................................................................................................66 John and Delia Bothwell ................................................................................................................78 Calvin H. Bliss, Jr. .........................................................................................................................83 Samuel and Susan Kelsey ..............................................................................................................85 Franklin A. Kelsey .........................................................................................................................90 Calvin Bliss Kelsey ........................................................................................................................91 Samuel H. Bliss ..............................................................................................................................93 Samuel H. and Elizabeth Bliss .......................................................................................................94 Phillipa Bliss ..................................................................................................................................95 Brooks Mason Bliss and Ada Carley .............................................................................................96 Carrie and Barney Bliss ...............................................................................................................104 Carrie Louise Miller .....................................................................................................................106 Helen M. Bliss (older) ..................................................................................................................107 Marriage certificate for Sidney and Helen Bliss ..........................................................................108 Enlarged witness portion of marriage certificate .........................................................................109 Sidney E. Bliss (younger).............................................................................................................109 Helen M. Bliss (younger) .............................................................................................................112