The farthest back I have been able to trace my ancestral roots with

any degree of certainty is to about 1685-90. About this time John Mansell,

whom I designate John Mansell 0 (I designate him 0 because until a short

time ago I could only go back to his son, John Mansell, whom I designated

for many years John Mansell I) was born. I am not certain, but he may have

been the son of Charles Mansell, son of Francis Mansell (born about 1620),

who spirited king Charles II out of England during the revolt of the

Roundheads under Oliver Cromwell.

If my deduction is correct, John Mansell 0 was born in London,

possibly in the suburb of Rotherhithe in 1692. In any case, he married Mary

Widgeon on August 16, 1711 in St. Mary's church in Rotherhithe, and was

buried from the same church on June 3, 1729.

John Mansell 0 and Mary Widgeon-Mansell had a son, John Mansell I,

who was born in Rotherhithe on Jan 2, 1723. He appears to have been their

first (surviving?) child. He had a brother Edward who was some four years

younger. According to his son (Capt. Joseph Mansell), John I emigrated to

Scituate, MA (Massachusetts), when he was 18 years old, i.e., in 1741, and

married Leah Simmons of Scituate on Nov. 29, 1744. (Leah Simmons was a

descendants of the Mayflower.) They had many children, including four sons

(John II, Joseph, ? and William, who apparently had royalist leanings and

went to Canada during the American Revolution and to my knowledge never

returned), and, I believe, eight daughters. John Mansell 1 served with the New

England volunteers who captured fort Louisbourg, NS (Nova Scotia), in 1758

(under General Amherst, I believe), and, according to a deposition by his

son, Joseph, took his family to Nova Scotia for a brief time, returned to

Scituate, and finally settled in Brewer, ME (Maine), near Bangor. He

apparently died in Bangor, ME, about 1808. At least there are no records

concerning him after this date that I have been able to find.

The eldest child of John I and Leah Simmons-Mansell was John Mansell

II. He was born in Scituate, MA on Aug. 9, 1745. He married Sarah Price in

Scituate on Nov. 5, 1866, and died around 1785, probably in Brewer, or

possibly Bangor, ME. He apparently was a cordwain (shoe cobbler) and

appears not to have been unfit for military service.

The first child of John II and Sarah Price was John III. He was

born in Scituate, MA, February 1, 1768, married Jenny Mahaney or Mahoney on

Sept. 8, 1791, and apparently died in Charlestown (now Charleston), ME,

around 1835.

My great grandfather, Ira Mansell, appears to have been the youngest

son of John Mansell III, probably by a second marriage. Ira was born in

Dutton, now Glenborn, ME, between May 13 and June 5, 1818, but was living

with his father in Charleston, in the 1830, and was probably living with him

at the time of his father's death. He lived most of his life in Charleston.

According to family tradition Ira was killed around 1870 in the north Maine

woods when an axhead accidentally flew off a handle.

His eldest son, my grandfather, Edwin Price Mansell, was born in

Charleston, ME, on Sept. 1, 1849. Ira apparently lived in a common law

relationship with Sarah Ann Rolling of Corinth, ME (she and her family were

originally from New Hampshire but move to ME), for several years before

filing an intention to marry on Dec. 21, 1858. Ira and Sarah Ann had at

least three sons (Edwin Price, Ira Israel, and Frank), and one daughter

(Sarah Abby, who died in infancy).

Edwin Price and his brother Ira Israel left Maine apparently about

the time of their father's death and next appear in Michigan (MI). Ira

Israel (his tombstone give his name erroneously as Ira A. Mansell) died in

or near Milan, MI, in 1873 (if I remember the year correctly), according to

family tradition the victim of drowning. At any rate, on Nov. 24, 1873,

Edwin Price enlisted in the US Cavalry and served for a time in Texas (TX)

on the Rio Grand (US-Mexican border. Forty-five years later my father

served as a cavalryman at Del Rio, TX, and on the same border, and never

knew his father had served in the cavalry and in the same area until I

discovered this fact in 1972. According to family tradition Edwin Price

sailed around Cape Horn from San Diego, CA, some time after 1874 and stopped

in Santiago, Cuba, just after a revolution and saw the bodies of rebels who

had been killed in a common grave. From there he may have lived for a short

time in one of the southern states before returning home to the area around

Brownsville, ME, where his mother was living.

Edwin Prince married my grandmother, Eldora Ford Stevens, on Oct. 8,

1876, in Milo, ME. They had four sons (Ira Israel, William Edwin, Lee

Louis, and Ernest Price) and one daughter (Alice), who died in infancy. My

father, Ernest Price, was their youngest child. My oldest uncle, Ira

Israel, was born in Monterey, MI, on June 5, 1878. They were divorced in

early 1890.

My father, Ernest Price, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (MN), on

August 23, 1889. He married my mother, Edith Ellender (she changed this

name to Eleanor) Windsor, in Gallipolis, Ohio (OH). on Aug. 18, 1919. They

had two sons (myself, Donald Ernest, and my brother, Charles George Hart)

and two daughters (Eldora Gertrude and Marjorie Lynn). The girls died in

childhood. My father died Jan. 15, 1974, in Washington, DC (near

Beltsville, Maryland [MD], where he lived with us). My mother died in June,

1980, in Takoma Park, MD, also near Beltsville, where she lived with us.

I, Donald Ernest Mansell, am the oldest of the two sons of Ernest

Price and Edith Windsor. I was born in Rio de Janeiro, DF, Brazil, on Oct.

7, 1923 (my parents were missionaries in Brazil from 1923 to 1930). I

married Vesta Verdie West in Lodi, California (CA), on Nov. 9, 1952. We had

two sons (Donald Everett, he goes by Donald Mansell, Jr., although

technically he is not a JR., and Stephen Allen) and two daughters (Marjorie

Lynn and Edith Emily, who goes by "DeDe"). I am a retired book editor (25

years), a minister of the gospel 13 years), and a Bible teacher (2 years),

all of these in the Seventh-day Adventist church. While in the publishing

work, I served as an assistant editor (1964/65) and later (1974) as the

chief revising editor of the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. At present

I reside with my wife in Nampa, Idaho (ID).

Our eldest son, Donald Everett, was born in Belem, Para, Brazil, on

Sept. 27, 1953. He married Gladys Tax in Montemorelos, Mexico, on June 12,

1978. They have two sons (Donald Ernest II, and Charles Everett) and one

daughter (Erika Dora). They live in Paradise, CA, where my son is a medical

doctor (Gastroenterology).

Our second son, Stephen Allen, was born in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil,

on Dec. 6, 1954. He married Roxanne Ottsman on May 15, 1993, in Reno,

Nevada (NV). They had one daughter (Emily Robin), born in Redding, CA, Jan.

3, 1994. My son was a registered nurse as well as an attorney in Redding,

CA. He was killed in a plane accident April 12, 1995.

Our oldest daughter, Marjorie Lynn, was born in Manaus, Amazonas,

Brazil, on July 30, 1956. She married Tore Draget, a Norwegian citizen, in

June 1982, in Molde, Norway. They have two daughters (Elizabeth Lynn and

Monica Jennifer). Elizabeth Lynn was born in Trondheim, Norway, on Mar. 12,

1983; and Monica Jennifer was born in Sandnes, Norway, on Oct. 3, 1985. At

present they reside near us in Nampa, ID, where Marjorie Lynn is a

registered nurse and Tore is a real estate agent.

Our youngest daughter, Edith Emily, was born in New Bedford, MA, on

Sept. 20, 1960. She married Richard Wood on May 9, 1995. They live in

Redding, CA, where Edith Emily is a nurse and Richard is an assistant

manager of an office supply store (Office Depot). They have no children as yet.

I have photographs of my great grandfather, Ira Mansell, my

grandfather, Edwin Price Mansell, his wedding picture to my grandmother,

Eldora Ford Stevens, an any other pictures from their time on to the present.

Silent, stoic,

Pushed, manipulated,

He plays his part.

Bruised, so very

Front-line weary,

Prodded beyond relief.

Fantasies, illusions

Nurtured, cultivated,

Pawn dreams on.

Dreams lived where

Games don't exist,

Gambits are myths.

Battered, scarred,

Managed, manipulated,

The played plod onward.

Forward, pawn,

The game thus begun

Must go forward.

Moved, measured,

Pawns fall prey

To the significant,

The powerful and yes,

To other pawns,

No quarter, wan hope.

Useless, spent,

Dreams in drought,

Fellow pieces

Scattered alongside

This board,

No longer needed.

Pressed forward,

Pawn dreams on.

Dreams when

Games end,

Where gambits are foiled,

Where pawn makes Queen.

----Don Mansell, MD 5/10/96