It is interesting that the Bearss line of the family endorsed not only the Mormon religion through rebecca, refuted to be the first American Indian Mormon, but Ira who went to Canada married into the Morningstar/Neff Mennonite families from Lancaster, PA. Ambrose Bearse was the founding pastor of the Mennonite Church in Shelby, MI. My grandfather,Abraham Hubert Bearss married a Dutch reform woman. Sharon MReinfeld@aol.com wrote: > Dear cousins: > > With respect to the observation about the Rev. John Lathrop: It seems to me > a stretch to link the later population of Mormons among the Bearses to the > experience of Lathrop. Lathrop was one of the dissenters, or Puritans, in > England who were very influenced by the radical (Swiss) wing of the > Reformation. Their views were widely rejected in England but embraced in the > Dutch Reformed church, which was a dicey place to be in because Holland and > England were at political odds with one another at the time. Many of the > early European emigrants in Massachusetts were of the Anabaptist, Quaker and > Puritan communities in England, and many if not most of their leaders spent > time in jail because their beliefs and church organizations represented a > potent political threat to the powers that be as well as being repellant > theologically to the established church(es). So Lathrop's history isn't > unusual for the time and place. Mormonism, on the other hand, arose after > the first Great Awakening, a major religious revival at the beginning of the > 19th century, and is a specifically American response to some specifically > American theological and historical forces. That being said, clearly dissent > runs in some families. Or so I remember from my days in ecclesiastical > history. > > Hope this helps to clarify. > > Maggie Reinfeld Karda > > ==== BEARCE Mailing List ==== > We are trying to prove our Indian heritage, do you have any information that would help us with that? > > ============================== > Search ALL of RootsWeb's mailing lists in real time. > RootsWeb's Personalized Mailing Lists: > http://pml.rootsweb.com/