Title: Histories and genealogies for some Michigan and New York families
Description: I am the compiler of this collection of information.  In 2011, twenty-six years later, I am finishing up a 2nd edition currently consisting of 658 pp, which is minus the Wilson, Duncan, McNelly, Hood portion of the original edition. This removed part was published separately in 2007 as "Great-Great-Grandfather Duncan Married...a Sister of Alexander Wilson the Ornithologist of Philadelphia." 

This three-volume edition of anecdotal genealogical works was compiled during the years 1975-1984.

Volume I has as its nucleus a Barns/Barnes family from Sharon, Connecticut, which migrated to Cayuga County, New York in 1816 and remained in that state, though moving between Cayuga, Wayne and Seneca counties until settling at Jackson, Michigan, in 1843. Then it expands over the next 140 years through marriage and as its progeny multiplies. The first half of Volume II brings members of the Wilson and Duncan clans to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Seneca County, New York from Paisley, Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In the background the Wilson progenitor lives the life of a weaver, then a smuggler, while Alexander Wilson, Jr., with the posthumous help of Napoleon's nephew Charles Bonaparte, pioneers America's ornithological tradition several years before Audubon's debut. Then it brings the Duncan descendants down through the generations and surnames until the early 20th century in Michigan and Ohio. The second half tells of a line of American Bliss families, tracing their ancestors to 16th century England and, even earlier, to 10th century Blois, France. It gives special attention to the circumstances of their 17th century arrival in North America and century in the religious colony of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Finally, Volume III picks up and tells the histories of a set of families, including a Cassner/Castner family, taking it from Morris County, New Jersey, in the 1830s to Milo, Yates County, New York, then to Ovid, Clinton County, Michigan in the mid-1850s. It also tells of an English-American Page family from Macedon, Wayne County and Webster, Monroe County, New York between 1829 and about 1857, then taking it to Bronson, Branch County, Michigan. Another is a Keys/Keyes family of Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont that settled in Cambria, Niagara County, New York, in the early 19th century, then moved to Climax Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, about mid-century. Also, a Thayer family of Braintree, Massachusetts, that settled in Wayne and Monroe counties, New York, around the turn of the 19th century. The last section brings together the Barnes and Page/Paige families and is dedicated to their continuing generations.
Subjects: genealogy, family history, American immigration, immigration to America, American ornithology, Genealogy
Places: Michigan, New York (State)
People: Barns family, Barnes family, Blysse family, Bliss family, Kastner family, Castner family, Cassner family, Page family, Paige family, Keys family, Keyes family, Thayer family, Robinson family, Wilson family, Duncan family, McNelly family, Hood family, Alexander Wilson the Ornithologist of Philadelphia, Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Bonaparte