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UPDATE! (August 4, 2023)
A death notice for Thomas Reeves Bryant has been found.
BRYANT LINE
Thomas Reeves Bryant b. 15 Feb 1815 SC- d. 13 Mar 1893 SC
m Drusilla Wimberly (1836-1913)
Within recent years, I’ve been heavily focused on helping to recruit Y-DNA testers and collaborating with Y-DNA matches in order to figure out how our Bryan(t) lines could be connected. As a group, there has been great progress. We now have about 16 BigY-700 results!
But, I would like to see more results for Bryan(t) cousins South Carolina. I think this strategy could help many Bryan(t) descendants, and I certainly would feel more comfortable in having more DNA evidence to support any theories and conclusions.
So, I am continuously searching for Y-DNA candidates who are possibly more closely related to this line. If you or a male family member is in the direct paternal line of descent (father’s, father’s, father’s, etc. direct line) from a male Bryan or Bryant in SC, please consider taking a Y-DNA test. As many of us know, records loss in SC has been an extremely challenging problem for researchers. I honestly believe that Y-DNA testing (specifically advanced SNP testing) will be essential in resolving many Bryan(t) brick walls. I’m happy to answer questions, collaborate, share information, and even cover the cost of some of these tests. Feel free to contact me at JuliaWannamaker@gmail.com or go directly to Family Tree DNA to learn more about Y-DNA testing. The great admins of the Bryan Surname Project can provide information, too.
In particular, I am Actively Searching for testers whose Bryan(t) ancestors were enumerated in the 1790 Censuses for Orangeburg, Barnwell, Georgetown, Marion, and Colleton Districts and Counties.
SNP Tracker: Previously, I shared an image which represents the Bryant SNP Path for this line and the “terminal” haplogroup was R-FGC54212. Since then, this result has been refined with the addition of a BigY-700 result. Right now, the current haplogroup is R-FT89707. This SNP result is in the Modern Era and the result has been more useful for genealogical purposes.
… >>> R1b R-L754 R-L389 R-P297 R-M269 R-L23 R-L51 R-P310 R-L151 R-U106 R-Z2265 R-BY30097 R-Z18 R-S19726 R-S11601 R-ZP30 R-ZP144 R-FGC54211 R-FGC54212, R-FT89707.
NOTE: This map was generated by Scaled Innovation. To see more information about this company and its new tool, SNP Tracker, and to review the basic instructions for using this site, please go to this page.
FOR THIS BRYANT FAMILY / LINE:
Y-DNA: Our closest BigY-700 matches go back to Bertie / Edgecombe County in NC and then farther back to Isle of Wight in Virginia. Considering that William Smith Bryan b.~1590 (m Catherine Morgan) was the “first Bryan to immigrate to American soil,” (Footprints in Time, p. 67), it is likely we descend from him or a relative.
NOTE: Decades ago a Bryant family member once told me that our line came up through Barabados. I spent quite a bit of time researching that possibility back in the day. But, based upon Y-DNA results over the past 4-5 years, I am of the opinion that this story cannot be true for our more recent Bryant ancestors. However, I think this story may have started because of the research conducted by Judy Canant and other researchers in the 1990’s. On this site, you will see Judy’s notes for another one of our possible, yet distant, Bryan ancestors, John Bryan. Her research indicates that this John Bryan came up from Barbados. Whether this fact has been disproven or not since the early 90’s, my guess is that many people read this information long ago and it became the current thinking at the time. Certainly, other Bryan and Bryant families do have connections to Barbados, but I don’t believe ours did. At least, so far, I do not see that as a possibility within the time frame (late 1700’s) I’m searching for the father of Thomas Reeves Bryant.
Based upon Y-DNA matching, I think our Bryant line came down from Virginia and then to South Carolina by way of North Carolina. To name a few, we have Y-DNA matches and many autosomal (atDNA) matches for those who descend from William Benjamin Bryan (1724) m Elizabeth Smith. We now have a Y-DNA match for a line to William Bryan (b. 1774 Forks of the Edisto, SC – d. 1853 Sumter, GA) who married Sabry Dykes. I’m still reviewing this match and possibility while we wait on more BigY results. Perhaps we will have more insight soon.
In the meantime, I am Actively Searching for a Y-DNA tester who is in the direct male line of descent from Simon Bryan (1751) or one of his brothers, Lewis Bryan and William Bryan from the Barnwell / Allendale area. In brief, my family kits on Ancestry happen to have quite a few matches to other descendants of Simon Bryan. That was not always the case. And, for various reasons, i.e., multiple common ancestors, not enough shared DNA, and no Y-DNA result for this line specifically, etc., I have always dismissed this possibility. I suppose now through a process of elimination and stepping back a bit to review everything, my thinking has changed. In any case, on an SAR application, Simon’s parents are not noted. It would be nice to extend his line since I do see that many people descend from him, including me on my maternal side. If interested, here is another Judy Canant treasure trove. In the 90’s, she conducted research on some Bryan males in the Barnwell area.
atDNA Matches: I do see atDNA matches to support the following but not that many. It would be wonderful to have Y-DNA test results to help sort this out for many of us. So, I’m Active Searching for males who descend from Jesse Bryan b.~1753 (m Mourning Nancy Smith) whose son is William Bryant b.1774 (m Rebecca Miller). There are records for this family group in Orangeburg (1790 Census), Georgetown, and Marion Districts and Counties. But, this William Bryant is noted in my “Early Pee Dee Settlers” book by John M. Gregg.
NOTE: In the 1980’s, my Bryant grandmother told me that her Bryant family came from the Pee Dee area. Maybe my family just didn’t inherit a lot of DNA from these ancestors. But, I can say that in all the 30+ close and distant Bryant family kits I manage on Ancestry I just don’t see a strong trend to support this possibility. UPDATE (October 7, 2020): Within the past week, two new atDNA matches on Ancestry have made me reconsider this possibility. I have reached out to two men who are in the direct male line of descent from Jesse Bryan who married Mourning Nancy Smith. Both men have agreed to take a Y-DNA (BigY-700) test. It will also be interesting to see whether this line came to SC directly from England or not.
My family does have a high number of matches to cousins who descend from William Benjamin Bryan (1724) and his father Needham Bryan (1690) m Annie Rambeau. I have lots of fun stuff: triangulations, clusters, Shared Matches, etc. that are considered DNA “evidence” to throw into the pot but none of this is hard evidence or proof. These types of “evidence” can be problematic, especially when there are multiple common ancestors between two DNA matches. This is one reason why I am a huge proponent of Y-DNA testing. I find it easier to work with well documented and Y tested direct male lines, and then “fill in the gaps” with atDNA findings.
Overall, for our particular Bryant family I’m finding that we share atDNA with so many different and more distant Bryan and Bryant families in SC. It’s great to see that we are all related, generally. But, there is no clear path, yet, to the father of Thomas Reeves Bryant. At this point, I think continued Y-DNA testing is the only way to resolve this brick wall.
Research: In addition to what I have mentioned above, let me add one more thought. Last year I came across a Bible record stating that Thomas R. Bryant’s birth date is 8 Dec 1815 which is not what his headstone indicates. These discrepancies are not that unusual. And, to my knowledge, no one has ever found a birth or death record for him. Please correct me if I’m wrong. In any case, there is a Thomas S. Bryan who was born on that same day in Bladen County, NC, but this Thomas cannot be our Thomas R. Bryant. In the census records, you can follow the two different families in two different locations. I had hoped that this new birth date would lead us to answers. It may still. But, I am open to other explanations for why we cannot identify Thomas’s father, i.e., an informal adoption by another (Bryant) family. I have had to deal with this in other surname projects.
In conclusion, thanks for your time in reading all of this. Let me know if you’d like to collaborate. And, any help with research efforts would greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you. And, don’t forget to ask your Bryan(t) cousins if they would be willing to take Y-DNA test!
I wanted to share a terrific book about the extended Bryan(t) line and our more distant ancestors. The author, Linda Bryan Johnston, published Footprints in Time in 2019. For each male (32 generations) in her father’s direct paternal Bryan line of descent from Engelbert I, Comte to Brienne (907-968), Linda provides a biography or an historical account, ancestral home locations, transcribed records, a list of burial sites, and information about our relatives in several Royal houses. And, if you descend from Morgan Bryan (1671-1763) then you’re really in for a treat. Linda descends from this ancestor and she offers even more information to digest about that family.
I’m particularly impressed with how much Linda has travelled for her research efforts. She has conducted research in several countries for our shared Bryan ancestors. I think she’s done a great job in presenting her findings in this book. If interested, you can purchase Footprints in Time on Amazon.
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Julia Wannamaker
SC > NYC
JuliaWannamaker@gmail.com
http://www.WannamakerGenealogy.com
Ancestry Profile Page
Public Tree Link on Ancestry – Bryant, Jackson, and Ray brick walls
Feb/Mar 2020
Wannamaker Genealogy 