Bears Surname, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

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Bears is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Bears family once lived in Devon, where they took their name from one of the many places named Bear, Beare, Beara, et c., found in that county. The surname is likely to be derived from the Old English word bearu, which means grove. Several early instances of that name are in the form le beare, or the bear, from the Old English bera.

Bears Early Origins

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The surname Bears was first found in Devon where there are two places on the banks of Tamar called Beer-Alston and Beer-Ferris. In Dorset, place names include Beer- Hacket and Beer-Regis. The earliest reference of the name was in Devon where it was listed as Bera in the Domesday Book

Bears Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Bears family name include Beare, Bear, Beer, Bere, Beares, Bears, Beers and many more.

Bears Early History

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bears research. Another 239 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1207, 1684, 1354 and 1355 are included under the topic Early Bears History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bears Early Notables (pre 1700)

Another 17 words (1 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bears Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

The Great Migration

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Bears surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Christopher and Mary Bere, who settled on the eastern seaboard at a very early time with their two daughters Mary and Elizabeth. They settled in Georgia in the 17th century. Walter and Ann Beare settled in Virginia in 1620.

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Citations

^ Lowe, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
^ Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)

Other References

Robb H. Amanda and Andrew Chesler. Encyclopedia of American Family Names. New York: Haper Collins, 1995. Print. (ISBN 0-06-270075-8).
Colletta, John P. They Came In Ships. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1993. Print.
Zieber, Eugene. Heraldry in America. Philadelphia: Genealogical Publishing Co. Print.
Bolton, Charles Knowles. Bolton's American Armory. Baltimore: Heraldic Book Company, 1964. Print.
Fairbairn. Fairbain's book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, 4th Edition 2 volumes in one. Baltimore: Heraldic Book Company, 1968. Print.
Reaney P.H and R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X).
Samuelsen, W. David. New York City Passenger List Manifests Index 1820 - 1824. North Salt Lake, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems International, 1986. Print.
Papworth, J.W and A.W Morant. Ordinary of British Armorials. London: T.Richards, 1874. Print.
Burke, Sir Bernard. Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, The Privy Council, Knightage and Compainonage. London: Burke Publishing, 1921. Print.
Burke, Sir Bernard. General Armory Of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Ramsbury: Heraldry Today. Print.
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The Bears Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Bears Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname.

This page was last modified on 15 January 2016 at 09:31.