Page 20 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

OK. Great. Now what? CLUE #2
As I had previously mentioned, many trees on Ancestry.com have Joseph Josiah Bryan listed as Francis’ father, despite a lack of proof.
The prevalence of a name attached to many trees is one of two factors that the Ancestry.com algorithm uses to come up with the ThruLines suggestions. The other factor is a very sophisticated DNA segment comparison. They now have more than one million DNA samples on which to build their comparisons.
So it was not surprising that ThruLines would suggest a relationship to Guy Bryan since so many Ancestry.com trees have Guy Bryan and Francis Bryan listed as brothers....and ThruLines was stating that there WAS a DNA connection as well.
Many of these same family trees have also tried to guess the parentage of Joseph Josiah Bryan (I have not found any documented “proof”). Those who make a guess usually associate him with one of two families:
1. They list him as the son or grandson of Morgan Bryan, Sr .and Martha Strode. Morgan Bryan, Sr. and Martha Strode are the grandparents of Rebecca Bryan, who married Daniel Boone. MANY Ancestry.com users seek proof of a relationship to Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca Bryan.
2. They list him as the son or grandson of William Bryan, Sr. and his wife Margaret. Many genealogists believe that William and Margaret’s grandson, William Bryan III was the William Bryan III who married Letty Asher, sister to Guy Bryan’s wife, Mildred Asher. The William Bryan III who married Letty Asher is the second great grandfather of William Jennings Bryan. And MANY Ancestry.com users seek proof of a relationship to William Jennings Bryan.
FRUSTRATING!
Why was this frustrating. Well.....
When I initially began researching my ancestry in 2012, I was able to unveil almost every part of my family tree except that of my third great grandfather, Francis Bryan. I extensively researched the possibility of connections to both of the Bryan families listed above, Morgan and Martha Bryan and William and Margaret Bryan.
8