Page 46 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

Edward Bryan, in a 1934 article, "The Bryan Lineage and Alliances," The Filson Club History Quarterly 20 (1934): 38, says that Francis Bryan III returned to North Ireland in 1683 and died ten years later. It also says that William Smith Bryan married Catherine Morgan. Much of this was repeated by Charles W. Bryan, Jr., in "Morgan Bryan, Pioneer on the Opequon and Yadkin," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 70, no. 2 (Apr. 1962).
So it's interesting to see how a few descendants, more interested in stories than in facts (and, of course, with much less in the way of available sources than we have now), introduced names and turned conjectures into facts, all within a few years (really 1899 to 1934). Because of the Boone connection, I suppose, it got into print frequently and created the mess that we now need to undo.
PAUL GIFFORD
HMMMMMM......
ThruLines was initially showing William Bryan, Sr.'s children, Mary Catherine Bryan, John Andrew Bryan and James Bryan, as full siblings to Margaret Strode Bryan. If that were true then I would have to conclude that Margaret Strode was also their mother. Mary Catherine and John Andrew were both born in Ireland before they emigrated with their parents to America.
This presented me with a dilemma.
We have William growing up in Ireland, apparently marrying and having at least one child, and probably two, before coming to America in 1718.
We have Margaret being born in England and coming to Pennsylvania by 1680.
HOW DID THEY MEET?
If Margaret Strode had been the mother of Mary Catherine, John Andrew Bryan and James Bryan then she would have met William Bryan, Sr. in America and they would have had to move to Ireland for a time, returning in 1718.
This seems unlikely but not 100% implausible.
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