Page 30 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

And, so, here is DNA evidence of Margaret’s sibling connection to two of William’s well documented children. Other matches have been found using the ‘matches’ log on Ancestry, by manipulating ThruLines on Ancestry and on Family Tree DNA. Screenshots of all relationships to descendants of William Bryan, Sr. and Margaret Strode are in the appendix. DNA projects will continue. I have also put together, and will continue to add to, a spreadsheet of all the DNA matches that I find that pertain to Francis’ parentage.
WHO WAS MARGARET STRODE AND DID MARGARET STRODE EXIST?
Well, of course I believe that Margaret Strode existed, but I realized I had to prove it. I knew THREE things:
1. William Bryan, Sr. was Margaret Bryan’s father and he had been married to a woman named Margaret.
2. Margaret Strode was named in numerous family trees as wife to William Bryan, Sr. The other name frequently used was Margaret Brockers.
3. ThruLines LOVED the connection to the Strode family, especially to Martha Strode who had married Morgan Bryan, and Margaret Strode was a STRODE!
And so I made a leap of faith and added Margaret Strode initially as a sister to Martha Strode and Martha’s three brothers, and as wife to William Bryan, Sr.
The chart on the following page is a descendants chart of the seven sons and two daughters of Martha Strode. Mary Bryan died young and did not have children. John Bryan remains a mystery, with many people claiming that THEIR John Bryan is the son of Morgan and Martha. I have found matches to the other six sons and one daughter. Matches range from 7 cM to 23 cM with a good paper trail from Martha Strode to the match. The largest matches are with descendants primarily of her son Morgan Bryan, Jr. and secondarily with her son Joseph. There are also strong matches to William Bryan who married Martha Boone, but because we match the Boones in many way that are still unknown, I can't be confidant of the source of the DNA.
The format for this chart and all of the other Descendants Charts in this report is the same:
All boxes with blue background denote descendants that are a confirmed DNA match
to my family. Most, but not all, of the charts contain ONLY the family members with whom I have found a match. This was necessary because many of these families are very large and it would make the charts unwieldy.
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