Family history collections part 2

There is nothing quite like the feeling of finding out who your ancestors are, gathering and stock piling as much information on them as possible, and then baptizing them. But what better a way to turn your hearts towards your forefathers, and their hearts towards you, than to have them sealed together for eternity? Why else would we live in this mortal realm, enter into a long term relationship with another person, and have children with them who you are forced to live with for so many years? I find it hard to believe that in the next life I would be disassociated with the people whom I spent so much of my sojourn on Earth with, I refuse to believe it.

The Beasant Family of England; William Hamlin Beasant was bornin 1863 in Marlboro, Wiltshire, England, to a single mother who died when he was ten. This tradgety left him to be raised by his Aunt Ann, and her husband William Munday. William, like his uncle and several other members of the family ended up taking on the time honored tradition of horse grooming, which would entail upkeep of the stables and their horses, along with training and riding them for exercise. If the situation would permit he would be given the occasion to hitch them to a stagecoach and escort his wealthy employers around town. It seems from the picture that he liked dogs.

Ellen Francess Searl was born in 1868 in Yately, Hampshire, England, and lived until she was close to 100 years old. interesting to me, she was a Bee Keeper and would stand in the yard banging on a pan until the Bee’s would come back to the nest. Or so the story goes. Also she was a midwife and taught my great grandma quite a bit in the duties thereof.

Ellen wrote a letter to her family in America during World war two.

"My Dear Ediie and Barnett,

Just these few lines to you to let you know we are still at aunt Annie, Ruth and Aurthur. You must know that Aurthur has been on the sick list for three weeks, but he will be going this week. Well dear we realy don't know when to go home or not. It is most terrible in London, the many lives that have been killed, it's most wretched and cruel matter for women and children. I do wish it would endbut I'm affraid it will be a long time. I don't know when I told you about Walter. he had a bomb in the back of his garden blew the roof off his house, windows, and doors, but thank God they are safe. They have to live in one room till it's all finished. What a mess. well dear we are all fairly well, for now I will close, all our kind love to you , your loving Mum."

William and Ellen had three Children, Ruth Edith, and William- (Marriage of William and Dolcie below)

"What therefore God hath Joined together let not man put asunder." Mark 10:9

The Simms Family, (my Great grandparents) whose last name is much to be disputed over either "Cohen" or "Kam" was changed to avoid anti-Semitic persecution during the uprising of the Bolshevik movement;

Narrative by Cousin Raphael Kam-

"Now it so happened that two boys grew up in the ,"shtetl", (little village), of ,"Botchka" or " Botchki", (translation ,little barrel), ( see the book , Botchki : When Doomsday was still Tomorrow, by David Zagier), At some stage these siblings were unfortunately orphaned and life was not at all pleasant both from the treatment meted out point of view and because of extreme poverty. Barnett and his brother Solomon were born in a somewhat confusing location whose boarders prefiguring the first world war seemed to cross between Prussia, Poland, Russia, and Lithuania."

They, after finding themselves orphaned, decided at some point to go their separate ways, most likely out of England, Solomon went to South Africa, and Barnett crossed over to Canada with his English wife Edith. Barnett was naturalized as a British subject in the state of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 15-Jan-1919 and later Naturalized as a United States citizen 16,Sep,1927. While working as a printer for a newspaper company in Winnipeg, Barnett came to the realization that his employers were sympathetic to the Nazi movement. there must have been a danger level associated at their discovery of his Jewish origins because he wound up hiding in the basement of his establishment, and quickly thereafter got himself and his family out of Canada.

Edith was taught by her mother in the duties of a midwife. She once kept her neighbor from having to have his leg amputated. the man had diabetes and a sore that wouldn't heal on his leg, it got gangrene in it and the Dr. told him the only thing left was to amputate. Edith told him to catch the first dump from his cow in the morning and put the poultice on his leg. It drew out the gangrene and saved his leg.

"I can remember when my grandma used to send care packages and money to her relatives in England . Either I remember it or they told me about it, but I do know even after the War that she still sent them special treats and money. She told everyone in England that she lived in a great Palace in America . Maybe it was a great Palace to her but in later years when the relatives visited they were very surprised to see that it was just a house. They had a nice place in Highland Park(suburb of Los Angeles ). Grandpa had divided it into 3 separate living quarters and that helped with finances. Later the City said they could no longer have rentals in that area since it was not zoned for multiple dwellings. They sold it and moved to Long Beach and they were in a retirementMecca even though it wasn’t a retirement community like we live in. They stayed to long there because the Watt riots started and they were right next door and that made the value of their home drop drastically. Both grandma and grandpa were living there when they passed away, and after that Maisie stayed with a gun by her side until they could get the house sold.

I have wonderful memories though of the Highland Park house. Grandma had a fish pond with lily pads and beautiful gold fish, a outside large bird cage and a big apricot tree and also chickens. She was quite a character as you have already been told many times. I believe your dad enjoyed going there as much as I did, what we did all day for entertainment I don’t know, but it was fun. We stayed with Uncle Barney for awhile and then Aunt Elsie, so I guess they all shared in taking care of us." Nancy

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven." Matthew 16:19

Barnett and Edith had a daughter named Millicent (Maisie) Amalia Simms. She was born in Surrey, England in 1911. after the family moved to California, Maisie married a man by the name of Archie, and divorced him, and married two other men. My Aunt Nancy told a good story about her;

"Maisie was married at the age of 16 to a man named Archie. I don’t know how long that marriage lasted because he was one of her husbands that never showed up again. She then married Eddie Thompson and then divorced him and married Cy. She divorced him then married Eddie again and then divorced Eddie and married Cy and then married Eddie again. All in all she was married to Cy 3 times and Eddie 3 times. Eddie was quite a character and he and Maisie had a volcanic marriage they were always fighting. She always ended up back at her parents house in Los Angles. Eddie stayed friends with the family. He was quite a drinker and hung out at Jumbo’s Bar in Napa . Rachael said that one time he drove her home sober and it was the scariest ride she ever had. He could manipulate the car much better when drunk. He was also in prison for a time.

Her and Eddie used to work in Hawaii during that time, and when she came home she brought a ukulele, grass skirts and a lot of Hawaiian memorabilia. She loved Hawaii and before she died she wanted to go back again. So she asked me if I would go with her to help her. She, my mom and I went on Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays package. I really earned my keep, she got sick, my mom only wanted to sleep and when I called the Hotel Doctor and he walked in the room he didn't know which was the patient. I did a lot of walking by myself and saw as many sights as I could without leaving them to long. Every morning I walked to McDonalds to bring them back coffee. It was an unforgettable experience and when I went back to work they asked me wheres your Hawaiian tan?

One time Maisie and Eddie went shopping for groceries with Paul and Rachael and had no money for Christmas dinner. After they left the market Eddie pulled out a ham from his coat and scared them to death, they thought they would all be arrested. He was a cook and worked in Alaska for awhile cooking for them men on the crew. He came home once and brought your father a bike and me a doll and bank. He looked like Santa Claus because his hair was white by that time and he had a beard. Before he died he moved back in with Maisie and she took care of him until he passed away."

From Rachael's journal;

Oct 1940, The 24^th Ed came up, Maisie had gone so Ed came up looking for her. He worked for Mrs. Reed in the vineyard. We received no money and asked for none, he boarded and roomed for free. Christmas we had together, Paul Ed and I. Maisie came up the first part of Jan, 1941. Maisie and Ed moved up to White House Apartments before we left for vacation. Maisie left for LA. Sometime in May 41. Maisie came back from San Diego 23^rd of July 1941. Took a cabin at Patten’s, wouldn’t let them live with us. Maisie is Gone again. Making out she is in Vallejo, but she is really in San Diego.

Rachael, the youngest of the four children, was born in Canada in 1914, at the time her father Barnett worked as a compositor for a printing press in Winnipeg. Little did this Jewish family know that His employers were sympethetic towards the NAZI movement. In light of this, and Barnett being driven to hide in the basement of the facility for several hours, the family quickly packed their belongings and moved to California. There Rachael met her husband Paul who converted her to Christianity. This opened up the lines of communication between Rachael and her older half sister Muriel who was a devout Christian. Her father delt well with this unexpected change of religion, when the holidays would aproach, Barnett would enter the house with a tall green "Haunika bush," and help to adorn it with ornaments and a bright glowing star on the top.

Rachael and Paul were introduced by her sister Maisie. She knew Paul's brother Bill and I don’t know how that came about but it seems that Bill had quite a thing for Maisie. They eloped because Rachael was afraid to tell her family about their marriage.

From her journal Rachael revealed that she had a very pleasent disposition in life despite many hard times.

From Aunt Nancy;

"Muriel didn't come to the United States until she was 16 years old. The story goes that when Edith left England her family talked her into leaving Muriel behind. She was not Barnett's daughter and that probably had a lot to do with it. Grandma and the children all except Rachael came over on a ship one year after the Titanic sunk and they threw wreaths out over the water where the Titanic went down. My Uncle Barney was born with the Birth Sack intact and grandma [Edith] carried that with her when she sailed. Legend has it that as long as that is with you the ship will not go down. She said that a ships captain tried to buy it from her. Grandma [Edith] was full of superstitions and to this day I can’t see a rocking chair left rocking with no one in it because that means a death in the family. Grandma [Edith] kept writing to her family in England telling them how rich they were and what a wonderful life they had in the United States. So finally Muriel decided to join her, when she got here the first thing my grandfather [Barnett] did was tell her she had to get a job, he was not going to support her. There were a lot of hard feelings and Muriel never forgave him or forgot the welcoming she got. She would let my grandmother visit her but wanted nothing to do with grandpa which is no great surprise."

Muriel Beasant was born the 20th of july, 1907 in Marylebone, London, England After moving to California she married a man named Jay Caullison who was a Methodist Minister and they lived out their days together in California where they had a son named John.

The oldest of the Simms children was Hilliard Barnett born in Cambridge England in 1913. He was married twice. The first time was to a woman named Elsie. Although the two divorced Elsie and her second husband remained friends with the family and would visit them often. Although they did not have any kids together, Elsie and her second husband would visit my grandmother, and they came bearing gifts for the children.

Barney was a Chiropractor and he had a taste for expensive cars. One of his cars was a nice Rolls Royce that I once made the mistake of touching.At first when he went into the profession Barney was unsuccessful. But later he decided to give it a second chance. Barney invented a sort of box shaped contraption that he would tell his patients to manipulate in some manner and in a method not unlike that of PT Barnum, he would lure people into his business.

Barney later married a woman named Helen Mary Kocalis whom he remained with in California until they both passed away.