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Vernon Dwight Morgan was born 22 April 1906, delivered by Dr. Parker, at Yarmouth Farms -- by the railroad bridge across from Bass River. He was the only child of William and Violet Estelle Vernon (Chase) Morgan. A sister, Pearl Vernon, had been born on 7 November 1904 but died the same day. By his own words, Vernon acknowledged an indigenous ancestry, an ancestry which has indeed been confirmed by vital and public records. Vern Morgan was also a Mayflower descendant many times over, as well as a descendant of Yarmouth's first settlers including Chase, Howes, Hawes, Nickerson, Hopkins, Crowell, Ryder, Gorham, and Baker. He died in 1991 at the age of 85 and is buried at the Pine Grove Cemetery in South Yarmouth with his wife and parents. Vernon Morgan gave much of himself to his town, wearing many hats over the years. He was involved in multiple civic and social organizations and served as Yarmo...

In a Cape Cod town where surnames like Hallet, Sears, and Howes are common, my father’s name - Derge Dewey Bear - was that much more unusual. Someone gifted my father one of those wooden sideboards people put over their garages with cool property names like “serenity by the sea” or “drift away cottage” - my father’s was emblazoned with “D.D. Bear.” My school bus stopped right by the driveway giving schoolmates clear view of the house sign. I remember a neighbor boy would jump off the bus yelling “D.D. Bear!” before he ran to his house to start pranking me with phone calls for the rest of the afternoon. Still I’ve always been very proud of the Bear name. Derge Dewey Bear was from the Midwest. He introduced into my mother’s traditional New England and Cape Cod recipe box such items as chili, and scrapple, and hogs feet (which I never tried). What was my father doing on the Cape in the first place? Derge Bear bartending at The Ri...

For years I searched online records for Elizabeth (Betsey) Poland my great great grandmother. Determining through records that Amanda Poland's mother was Betsey Thomas born in Maine possibly to an Elisha and Betsey W. Thomas, I believed I had found her in a record for an Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Elias and Elizabeth W . Thomas, born in 1809 at Portland, Maine. That was the only record which seemed to come close. I noticed many other researchers on genealogy websites were coming up with the same individual and those researchers, including myself, discovered that this Elias Thomas married Elizabeth Widgery (thus the "W") at Portland, Maine. Sounds right? However when I delved into the records for that Elizabeth (Widgery) Thomas of Portland, the information just did not make sense for my family tree. Research included extensive study of all available online records and information for John Poland and his wife Betsey, i.e., c...

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Forebears and Bears

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Vernon Dwight Morgan --Yarmouth Postmaster 1946-1967 -- A True Son of Yarmouth

Are There Bears On Cape Cod?

Heavens Who's Betsy? Who is Betsy Poland, Mother to Amanda (Poland) Nelson, of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine?