Page 13 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

INTRODUCTION
My third great grandparents are Francis Bryan (1770-1863) and Phoebe Woodruff (1777-1856). They settled on Cherry Lane, near Sparta, North Carolina, where they raised their family.
Phoebe Woodruff’s ancestry is well documented. There is extensive DNA and documentary evidence for her parents, Moses Manassas Woodruff and Phoebe Marsh. This evidence goes back quite a few generations for both the Woodruff and Marsh lines.
There is also good DNA and documentary evidence for the marriage of Francis and Phoebe and for their descendants.
But Francis Bryan's parentage has been a mystery, until now!
Another descendant of Francis and Phoebe, and my fourth cousin, Larry Bryan, had been able to determine, as far back as 1980, that Francis' father was named Thomas Bryan. He also had evidence that Francis had five brothers and two sisters. But other than one family story, we had no other knowledge of Francis' parents or siblings, with one exception. We knew of Francis' relationship to his sister, Peggy.
The relationship between Francis (Frank) and Margaret (Peggy) Bryan has been known for many generations, and has had extensive DNA confirmation.
Peggy married Alexander Sutherland. They settled in Elk Creek, Grayson, Virginia, just across the state line between Virginia and North Carolina, and not far from Francis and Phoebe's property. There, Peggy and Alexander raised a very large family with many, many descendants.
Recent improvements in Ancestry.com’s autosomal DNA matching, specifically their “ThruLines”, has now helped me to identify Francis' mother and to track down two of Francis' brothers.
I have written this book so that Francis' descendants can correctly identify his lineage. In this book I describe my genealogical journey of discovery which began in 2011.
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