The Basyes were originally French Huguenots, as the Protestants were known in France during the Reformation, and in the religious struggles in France in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these Protestants were executed or banished after having their property confiscated by fanatical Catholics. Many fled to Germany, Holland, Switzerland, England, and America between 1538 and 1789. My direct ancestors fled to England, and later came to America.
Edmond Basye is first evident in documentation in Virginia on November 20, 1669 when he signed a deed as a witness.
Edmond was an attorney by profession, and owned a considerable amount of land in Northumberland County, Virginia, numbering in the thousands of acres. It is probable that his wife, Eliza Taylor Basye, died prior to 1714, as she is not named in his will. They had nine children, and were wealthy plantation-owners, raising tobacco and other crops common to the area. Edmond was a sailor in his youth, practiced hunting and fishing, and was a well-educated "country gentleman" of the day, as is surmised by the list of items named in his will. It would appear that Edmond also had a sister Adrienne Basye, who settled in Hartford, Connecticut and later was wed to John Lord of Hartford.
Other Basyes settled early in the colonies, but their possible relationship to our family cannot be established. One John Basye settled in Hartford, Connecticut, prior to 1640. He was a weaver, and his house was located on the south side of the road from the mill to the south meadow, which is now Elm Street. He held a number of local public offices (Surveyor of Highways, 1652; Constable, 1656; and Townsman, 1669). He came from Wethersfield Parish, Essex, England. Other Basyes of the same period settled in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Following is my direct lineage, taken from the book "The Basye Family in the United States", compiled and written by Otto Basye. Numbers listed by names are generational indentification numbers from this book. If you do not have this book, generation "A" denotes the immigrant Edmond Basye's generation, and subsequent letters denote subsequent generations. Therefore, my grandfather-Jonas Benard Basye (#G268) was a member of the seventh generation, or six levels removed from the original Edmond.

SUMMARY INLINE ANCESTRY

EDMOND BASYE (1645-1724) #A1

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ISAAC BASYE (1671-1739) #B1

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EDMOND BASYE (1720-1804) #C7

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EDMOND BASYE (1750-1783) #D23

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JOHN BASYE (1773-1856) #E49)

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NATHAN JOHN BASYE (1838-1919) #F97

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JONAS BENARD BASYE (1876-1963) #G268

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FLORAN WARD BASYE (1906-1984) (G-Generation last in Basye book)

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TERRY WARD BASYE (1941- )

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EDMOND BASYE (1645-1724) #A1
Edmond was the first of our ancestors in America. He and his two brothers, John and Elizamond, came to Maryland in 1670. In 1673, he married Elizabeth "Eliza" Taylor. She was the daughter of John Taylor and Alice Gascoigne. Alice Gascoigne's lineage traces back to King Henry I of England, William the Conqueror, King of Normandy, and numerous other members of royal families from England, France, and Scandinavia.

 Edmond and John were attorneys and overseers of roads in two Virginia counties. Elizamond, the third brother, returned to England and joined the crew of a pirate named "Dampier". He traveled to what is now the Philippine Islands, where he was abandoned by Dampier, along with the rest of the crew. He ran away with the daughter of a Malayan prince to the island of Samar, and settled at the southern tip of that island. There is a town today at that location named "Basey".
I met a Filipina woman who lives in Ohio while returning from California on a plane. We struck up a casual conversation, and I related this story to her. She told me that she knows of this town, as it was a place where she and her family would go to swim in the ocean when she was a girl.
Edmond was a captain of soldiers who fought Indians prior to the American Revolution.
ISAAC BASYE (1671-1739) #B1
Isaac Basye was also captain of a group of soldiers who fought in various battles with Indians prior to the American Revolution. He lived in Northumberland County, Virginia, and was a vestryman in a church in Alexandria, Virginia.
EDMOND BASYE (1720-1804) #C7
Edmond Basye lived in Prince William County, Virginia. He was known to be a prominent citizen, member of the Baptist church, and a sergeant who fought in some of the Indian wars. He later fought in the American Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War. He owned considerable land in Virginia, and kept slaves on his plantation.
EDMOND BASYE (1750-1783) #D23
Edmond Basye fought in the American Revolutionary War. He made his home in Fauquier County, Virginia, and died of smallpox at the Nansemond Court House, Virginia while returning home at the end of the American Revolutionary War. His granddaughter, Eliza James Basye, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. He was also a slave owner, and his mother's maiden name was Taylor.
JOHN BASYE (1773-1856) #E49
John Basye was married three times, and fathered a total of seventeen children by his three wives. He taught school in Page County, Virginia at the age of sixteen. His first wife had twelve children, and his second only one. He and his third wife had four children.
He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 31st Regiment of the Virginia Militia. He moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1800. He owned extensive land near the present-day towns of New Market and Orkney Springs, Virginia. It is quite probable that the present town of Basye, Virginia was named for him, as it is located very close to Orkney Springs. One of his sons-Jonas Burnes Basye, was the namesake of my grandfather, Jonas Benard Basye. John's mother's maiden name was Mauzy.
NATHAN JOHN BASYE (1838-1919) #F97
Nathan Basye's mother's maiden name was Hess. He lived at Mathias, Hardy County, West Virginia. He and his wife, the former Ann Eliza Grady, were members of the Baptist church, and he was a farmer. Nathan had the old family bible of his father John, which was later bequeathed to my great-uncle Lorenzo Boyd Basye. (Incidentally, I ate not a few meals at the home of Great-uncle Lorenzo when I was between seven and twelve years old, but he was "Uncle Bob" to us. I never knew his name was Lorenzo until long after his death, when I first read about him in the "Basye book". I remember his having a very dry wit, which he kept in a jar of dessicant crystals to maintain its dryness. It worked quite well.) But I digress.
Nathan was the Second Lieutenant of Company K, 7th Regiment, of the Virginia Cavalry of the Confederate Army. He was wounded in battle in July and August, 1864, and on November 9, 1864, received pay for a horse which was killed in action near Fishers Hill, Shenandoah County, Virginia.
Nathan's children were as follows:
Name                           (b/d)            Married to:                                 Resided at:
Fannie E. Basye           1865-____     Angus Dispanet                  Hardy County, West Virginia
John H. Basye             1867-____     Victoria Brown                 Westernport, Maryland
Edna Basye                 1869-____     Angus Brown, Sr.                             ?
Viola Basye                 1872-____     Milton Hartman                                ?
Lillie Hess Basye          1874-1909     Edward Kline                   Nevada, and Denver, Colorado
Jonas Benard Basye      1876-1963    Dora Belle Sager               near Mathias, West Virginia
Matilda S. Basye          1878-____     George Wilkins                 near Mathias, West Virginia
Lorenzo Boyd Basye    1880-____      Hattie See                       near Mathias, West Virginia
Mary (Lane) Basye       1883-____       Frank Lane                       Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Nathan and his wife are buried in adjoining graves on a farm on top of Branch Mountain, Hardy County, West Virginia. I have visited their gravesites as recently as 1981, and will later perhaps include photos of their monuments in my "Photo Album" page. Pictures of Nathan and his family are on that page now, including others listed above.
JONAS BENARD BASYE (1876-1963) #G268
Jonas Basye was born at Capon, Hardy County, West Virginia. He and his wife Dora had nine children, and Dora died in childbirth with their tenth child on October 30, 1916. Jonas was a farmer and cooper (barrel-maker) by trade, and was a very large man. I was almost 6' 4" tall when I was a teenager, and I remember him being taller than I when he was in his late eighties. I have seen photos of him when he was younger, and he appeared to be about 6' 6" or more. He was a true "Mountain Man" of the Appalachians. Their children were as follows:
Name                             (b/d)            Married to:                                 Resided at:
Pearl Marie Basye         1900-1992     Lory Combs, Robert Rhodes       Keyser, West Virginia
John Boyd Basye          1902-1926       (John died of a ruptured appendix at age 24)
Mildred Merl Basye       1903-2001      Edgar Parker                             Keyser, West Virginia
Nathan Benard Basye    1905-2004    Della Evans                               Piedmont, West Virginia
Floran Ward Basye       1906-1984     Nellie Avery                              Somerset County, PA
Price Nelson Basye       1907-1967    Ruth Sherman                           Mathias, West Virginia
Theo. Franklin Basye    1909-1980    Lottie Bowers                           Mathias, West Virginia
Clinton Uhl Basye         1913-1994     Ethel Bivens                             Ansted, West Virginia
Eliza Catherine Basye   1914-1927   (Eliza   died at age thirteen. I do not know the cause.)                                         
FLORAN WARD BASYE (1906-1984)  ("G" GENERATION LAST IN BASYE BOOK)
Floran was born near Mathias, West Virginia. His mother died when he was ten years old, so I never knew my paternal grandmother. Jonas promised Dora on her deathbed that he would never remarry, that he would raise their children, and he kept that promise. It wasn't easy for a man to raise a family of children in that time and place, I would guess, but he probably had some help from relatives. Floran moved to Westernport, Maryland when he was a young man, and got a job at a paper mill in Luke, Maryland, where he met his wife-to-be and my mother, Nellie Marie Avery. They were married on May 27, 1927, and enjoyed a long life together until Floran died from lung cancer on February 19, 1984, at the age of 77. He had spent much of his life working in the coal mines in Pennsylvania, and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and most outdoor sports. If I had to try to think of a legacy that he left, I would have to simply say that I never knew any children who didn't love Floran, my father, including me. He really loved children very much, and they gravitated to him because of that. My memories of my dad are all very fond ones, and at age 57 I still miss him very much. I also miss my mother, who passed on January 27, 1996 from pneumonia. 
Floran and Nellie had two children:
KENNETH FLORAN BASYE (1929-        )  Ken was born January 25, 1929, in Cumberland, Maryland. He grew up in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, joining the U.S. Navy in 1946 at age 17. He served for over 20 years in the Navy, and later the Air Force, retiring from military in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he still resides. He was a computer technician at NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) in Cheyenne Mountain on the western edge of Colorado Springs for a number of years. He is 70 years old, and still works as an electronics technician, even though he has retired from two careers. He enjoys hunting and fishing, and seems much younger than his 70 years. Ken married Phyllis Hazel Hornsby in 1953, and they have five children:
Kirsten Lee Basye Felton - Kitty lives in Somerset, Pennsylvania.
Colin Jay Basye - Colin now lives Boise, Idaho. 
Shevawn Kay Basye - Shevawn lives in Colorado Springs, and speaks fluent French, having lived in France for a few years.
Miriam Hart Basye Dreibelbis - Miriam lives in Rocky Ford, Colorado, and is educating her children at home. She belongs in the 19th century.
Janice Leah Basye Crongeyer - Janice was in the U.S. Navy, stationed in Naples, Italy. She is married to Ralph Crongeyer, a computer geek of the nth magnitude. (Also a nice guy).