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G’eve to all,
I was hoping that I might be able to get a little (or a lot–heh! heh!) of assistance with some other branches of my family. My father’s side consisted of Brown, Jenkins, Bryant, Robinson, & Hale (might be Haley or Hall). All of them came from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina (and some other places, too, if I’m not mistaken). Lydia Brown came to Florida btw 1860 and 1870 with 4 children in tow–I haven’t been able to locate anything on them at ALL before 1860–zero.
Now I’m trying to find out more about Jane Bryant (my ggg-grandmother; mother to Roseann Jenkins). Her state of origin is N.C. Is Bryant a ‘common’ Siouan/Melungeon name? What about Jenkins? The Jenkins were supposed to be Choctaw but I am beginning to wonder.
Also looking for information on the last name of Robinson–grandmother’s maiden name. She’s out of Lancaster co, South Carolina. I am unsure of her first name because she changed it as she pleased and her death certificate doesn’t have her birth name on it. Her family called her “Cray”. Her mother’s name was supposed to be Hale, Haley, or perhaps Hall.
I’m especially trying to find out how and why the Browns and Bryant/Jenkins might have ended up here in Florida right before the Civil War. Why here? Once they did get here, the families intermarried and then all of them moved east and settled here. I would appreciate some suggestions on how to trace the trail they may have made so I can uncover their story.
Thank you for the help.
Anyone? Not genealogically savvy here at all…some ‘try ______________’ would be much appreciated. Thanks very much!
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of Robinsons in Lancaster Co., SC.
More information is needed.
When was your grandmother Cray born? Who specifically did she marry?
When was Jane Bryant born?
Here’s more info…
My grandmother was born around 1900–not sure of exact time but that is close. Her family kind of gave her the boot (too dark-skinned)–I think she moved down here in the ’20s?? She married my grandfather, William W. Brown. I don’t think that’s her on the 1920 census because she was…uh, considered my grandfather’s ‘second wife’ (to put it politely as possible). He didn’t have any kids with his first wife. He and my grandmother officially married much later.
Jane Bryant was born around 1811 in North Carolina. Moved to Madison county, Fl in _____ but here in 1870 Jenkins family intermarried with Brown family (from Va–Lydia, Margaret, Willie, Celia, & Martin Brown).
J. Bryant’s daughter: Roseann Jenkins–b. 1839
R. Jenkins’ daughter: Mary Jenkins–b. 1862
M. Jenkins’ son: William Brown–my grandfather–b. 1900
The entire clan moved to Duval co. around 1880.
1870 Duval Co., Fl Census; Mandarin Voting Pct; 29 July; p.258
Household 13:
Bryant, Ceasar; 80, m, B; Farmer, $1000, $400, NC
…….., Jane; 55, f, B, NC
Jinkins, Jane; 13, f, B, Fla.
Andrews, Enoch; 24, m, B, Shoemaker, $200, $100, Fla.
p.268; 2 August; HH 56 – (possibly related)
Bryant, David; 24, m, B, Laborer, $0, $0, NC
…….., Levinia; 34, f, B, Va.
Robinson, Daniel; 32, m, B, NC
Green, Hester; 23, f, B, Ga.
Frank (?), Ceasar; 19, m, B, Fla.
1880 Duval Co., Fl Census; ED39 Mayport; 12 June; p.12D;
HH36
Bryant, Jane; B, f, 69, Widow; NC, NC, NC.
Johnson, Lewis; B, m, 35, m’d, Ga, Ga, Ga.
………., Roseann; B, f, 41, wife, Fla, NC, NC.
Jenkins, Mary M.; B, f, 18, dau, Fla, Fla, Fla.
………, Georgan; Mu, f, 15, Ga, Fla, Fla.
Jones, James; B, m, 10, Fla, Fla, Fla.
……., Rebecca; B, f, 7, Fla, Fla, Fla.
(relationship not shown for all)
HH37 (probably part of the Bryant household)
Johnson, R.; B, m, 4 months, Fla, Fla, Fla.
Baker, Enoch; Mu, m, 14, Ga, Ga, Ga.
HH39 (Ceasar Bryant JR ?)
Bryant, Ceasar; Mu, m, 46, Carpenter, NC, NC, NC.
…….., Maggie; Mu, f, 27, wife; Fla, Fla, Fla.
…….., Etta; Mu, f, 15, dau; Fla, NC, Fla.
…….., Mary; Mu, f, 14, dau; Fla, NC, Fla.
…….., George; Mu, m, 9, son; Fla, NC, Fla.
…….., Della; Mu, f, 5, dau; Fla, NC, Fla.
=================================
I didn’t find anyone named ‘Cray’ anywhere, but if she used different names at different times, it’s understandable. It also sounds like she was associated later than 1930?
I saw the entry before for Caesar and Jane Bryant on Ancestry. I didn’t think it was them because their race was listed as black. That was before I knew that it was rare for someone to be listed as ‘Indian’.
Looks like Caesar was Jane’s second husband? I have never heard of the other Bryants listed here. My Mom also never mentioned any Bryants–just the Brown/Jenkins clan.
It seems like Lewis Johnson might be Roseann’s second husband? Or if he is father to the girls, why do her daughters–Mary and Georgann–have her likely maiden name, AND what appears to be Roseann’s mother’s last name before she married Caesar Bryant (from the Jane Jinkins listed 1870) and not Johnson?
It looks like it should have been:
Caesar & Jane Bryant,
then
daughters, Roseann Bryant and Jane Bryant–instead of Jenkins
then,
Roseann Bryant and Lewis Johnson,
Mary and Georgann Johnson–instead of Jenkins.
If I am reading this right, it looks like the women took their mother’s name for 3 generations. This practice seemed to have stopped when the intermarrying with the Browns began.
I hope I made sense of what I’m trying to ask–the more I am learning, the more befuddled I get.
What do you make of this thing with the last name?
I really appreciate you taking your time to research this, Bill. Special thanks to you.
Our people are said to have been matrilineal, children belonged to their mother’s clan. So, it’s interesting to wonder if a family like yours, with the children taking their mother’s name, was just an instance of single, unwed moms, or if it was an expression of an older tradition. Is there any evidence these mothers had spouses?
Yes, there is a ‘sense’ there. Think it through.
“This practice seems to have stopped when the intermarrying with the Browns began” has more to do with ‘the times’ and ‘the places’ it happened in, as well as with with who they were. But, there’s nothing ‘mysterious’ about this.
So, they were probably not married to the fathers and just took their mother’s name?
Did the practice stop because they were literally marrying with license in hand or did it stop because this sort of practice came to an end?
I’m sorry if I’m sounding dense here! I can’t think straight now–too sleep deprived…chronic duh….
They were both married but it doesn’t look like either husband to Jane or Roseann fathered these kids:confused: 😮
What I was asking was if there’s any knowledge that these women whose children carried their surnames had spouses. On the face of it we’d assume they were unwed mothers, quite a stigma in those days. Perhaps beneath the surface, they did have husbands but were following their own tradition of using the mother’s name.
Hi Linda,
I’m not sure if Jane ever had a spouse named Jenkins (or at least Bill didn’t find it). When Jane married Caesar, she took his name of Bryant. Her daughter’s name was Mary Jenkins and Mary named her children Jenkins.
I guess I need to find out if perhaps Jane was widowed and maybe Roseann had illegitimate children or if they both did.
Even so, Jane had Roseann when she was between 28-24 years old and then her daughter, also named Jane Jinkens (Jenkins) when she was 42.
Roseann had her girls at around 23 and 26.
Both Jane and Caesar were from North Carolina. Even so, many people were on the move at the time to Florida because of the cheap land.
How marriageable would these women be if they illegitimate children and more than one at that?
Red Metis,
Do you know which county your Jenkin line is from in NC? I also have Jenkins but they were from Dinwiddie/Chesterfield County, VA but have seen where some moved to North Carolina.
Hi Sonchunia,
No, I don’t know. I have been having a hard time tracking down counties–only the state.
Hello,
I recently did research for one of my clients who was a Bryant. Some of the Bryants (Bryants came out of VA). Some were settled in Tyrell, NC and descend from or were related to the Mattamaskeet and Machapunga Indians. They were situated on a reservation in Hyde County, NC. There were several other tribes there with them as well including some Tuscarora. I hope this information helps.
Shoshone
Genetic Genealogist
BRYAN FAMILY
Joan Bryan, born say 1683, was the servant of Mary Dudley of Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, on 30 June 1703 when she confessed to the court that she had a “mulatto” child. And on 25 July 1705 she confessed to having a child by a white man [Orders 1698-1705, 194, 269a, 270].
Mary Bryan, born say 1687, was the servant of John Sergenton on 24 May 1707 when she confessed to the York County court that she had a “Mulato” child. The court ordered the churchwardens of Bruton Parish to sell her for five years when she completed her service to her master [DOW 13:66].
Their descendants may have been
1 i. William1, born about 1748.
ii. Sarah, head of a Currituck County, North Carolina household of 4 “other free” in 1790 [NC:20].
iii. Bridgett, “Free Colored” living alone in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, in 1790 [NC:34].
BRYANT FAMILY
1. Martha Bryant, born say 1730, confessed to the churchwardens of St. Stephens Parish in Northumberland County, Virginia court on 14 February 1748 that she had a bastard child which was a “Mulatto” [Orders 1743-49, 421]. She may have been the ancestor of
i. Samuel, “F. Negro” head of a Culpeper County household of 6 “other free” in 1810 [VA:7].
ii. Sylvana, head of a New Hanover County, North Carolina household of 4 “free colored” in 1820.
iii. Sally, head of a Halifax County, North Carolina household of 7 in “free colored” in 1830.
Here is part two. Go to the link and read the entire history:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmack/algonqin/matta1.htm
I included an excerpt from the link at the bottom where the Bryant surname is mentioned.
Shoshone
All of the “free persons of color” had been classified as mulattos in the 1850 Federal Census, but were distinguished as blacks or mulattos in the following census. Marriages between “free persons of color” and slaves had been prohibited by North Carolina statutes well before the Civil War, but the “Unlawful Negro Marriages” file in the Hyde County Records (see Appendix 39 for an example) indicates that mixture between the two groups was indeed taking place during this period. A study of the marriage records of the Mackey family of Hyde County points out that mixture between those Mattamuskeet descendants and blacks increased tremendously following the Civil War. A family of black Mackeys moved to Hyde County from South Carolina following the Civil War (Hyde County Marriage Records and Personal Interviews with Napoleon Mackey and Janey B. Mackey). This represented the first instance in which a family with the surname of Mackey who were not Mattamuskeets had resided in Hyde County. Their presence obscured the relationship of the contemporary Mackeys with the Mattamuskeets of that surname. These relationships were further obscured by the fact that the two Mackey families intermarried rather freely (Hyde County Records, Marriage Bonds). The same course of events took place in regards to the other families in Hyde County who were of at least partial Indian descent, and culminated in a complete loss of any Indian identity among most of those families.
One family of Mackeys has retained firm knowledge of their partial Indian descent, although they have no awareness of the group identity of their Indian ancestors. The contemporary spokesman for this family is Napoleon “Poley” Mackey who resides in Fairfield, North Carolina. Napoleon Mackey traces his Indian descent to his great-grandfather, Benjamin Mackey, who was supposedly a “pure-blooded” Indian. The Hyde County Records do offer data concerning Benjamin Mackey and his household in the nineteenth century. Benjamin Mackey was born, presumably in Hyde County, between 1825 and 1830 (See appendices 43 and 44). He married Mary Jane Barber of Hyde County in 1853 (Hyde County Marriage Records). Mary Jane Barber was apparently the daughter of Bartie and Morena Barber (Federal Census, 1850) and was about fifteen years old at the time of her marriage. Miss Dessie Barber, granddaughter of Benjamin and Mary Jane Mackey, has stated that Mary Jane Mackey’s mother was white, but this was not indicated in the available records (Miss Dessie Barber, 1975). Benjamin and Mary Jane Mackey had two sons and three daughters aged one to seven years by 1860 (Federal Census, 1″0’60), but the 1870 census listed only two daughters remaining in the household (Federal Census, 1870). Napoleon Mackey’s grandmother was Clarissa Mackey and his grandfather was Washington Hearse. Nothing could be determined from the Hyde County Records concerning Washington Hearse. Napoleon Mackey’s parents were Benjamin J. Mackey and Laura Lu Mackey. Laura Lu Mackey was the daughter of Henry Barber and Hettie Mackey (Hyde County Marriage Records). Napoleon Mackey married Geneva Burrus in 1921. His wife apparently has no claim to Indian ancestry. Napoleon Mackey, when interviewed in 1975, asserted his knowledge of his Indian ancestry, and named several other Hyde County families which he believed could also claim at least partial Indian descent. Prominant among those were the Collins, Barber, Chance, Clayton and Bryant families (Napoleon Mackey 1975).
It is significant that Benjamin Mackey passed on some knowledge of his Indian ancestry to his descendants.
For more go to the link below.
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