This
website joins together the numerous descendants
and cousins of Leigh Rex Larson's ancestors:
Larson, Bickett, Abbey, Baker, Blake, and
others. Leigh Rex Larson's grandmother, Emma Jane (Abbey)
Larson, was inspired by the genealogy
publication compiled by the niece of her first
cousin, Irma Ruth (Mason) Anderson, who
published the Blake/Ambrose Family History in
1970. Emma Jane (Abbey) Larson in her later
years attempted, through letter writing, to
discover her Abbey ancestors. It turned out that
this was not a project she should have attempted
at about age 85, especially since none of her
surviving relatives knew anything beyond two
generations back. After Emma Jane (Abbey) Larson
passed away at age 101 her son, Wilbur Almo
"Bill" Larson, suggested that sometime this
search might
continue... so it did.
The Abbey
family has a long presence in colonial America,
dating back to 1635, well before the
Revolutionary War. However, even the very
comprehensive Cleveland Abbey book on the
Abbe/Abbey families published in 1916 included some “unconnected lines.” One
went from the Colony of
Connecticut and Connecticut, and then to Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1797.
After fifty years in Canada, about 1847 - 1860,
some descendants of these pioneering Abbey families left Canada West for the
United States. The first Canadian-born Abbey was
Orrin Abner Abbey (1815 - 1902) who went to the Territory of Wisconsin about 1847,
then to California, and finally to Oregon. Others
who followed soon after were Charles Oliver
Abbey (1825 - 1863) who went to the Town of Oak
Grove, Dodge Co., WI; Isaac Abbey (1838 - 1865)
who went to Wisconsin; Wellington Abbey (1840 -
1901) who went to Wisconsin; Sarah Ann Abbey
(1844 - 1927) who went to Wisconsin, and finally
to Minnesota; Orrin Abner
Abbey (1846 - 1905) who went to Wisconsin and
then to Kansas and finally to New Mexico; Francis
"Frank" Abbey (1848 - 1929) who went to
Nebraska; and Abner Nathaniel Abbey (1849 -
1929) who went to the United States and finally
to The Dakota Territory (North
Dakota).
To help tie
families together, “snippets” of information are
sometimes placed on a Web page, so they can revisited to try
to connect them with other relatives.
The
Larson/Bickett ancestors immigrated to the United States from western
Europe, including Sweden, England, Ireland and Germany. The family
lineages were gleaned from numerous sources, including Ancestry,
FamilySearch, and Family Tree Maker files, Blake/Ambrose Family History
by Irma Ruth (Mason) Anderson, and the work of Helen Means (Bickett)
Fiegel. Contributions from many others have also been much appreciated.
A special "thank you" to: Leslie Wilson of Canada for her excellent
research on the early Abbey families in Canada, who were some of the
pioneer settlers of Newcastle District, Upper Canada (Ontario);
Per Carlzon of Sweden, for his genealogical research of the Olaus
Larsson ancestry; and to Kay Koslan for
discovering the Abbey ancestors in Salem Village, Essex Co.,
Massachusetts Bay Colony during
Colonial America and afterward.
Comments,
additions and corrections are always welcome, and may be directed to
Leigh Larson, shown above. |