The Bradberry male line(?)

Who are the male line ancestors of George McClure Bradberry?

It is now December 2019, and I am still in pursuit of the white whale of my family history hobby. I have quite a bit of circumstantial evidence (both DNA and paper trail) that John N. Bradberry, who raised George as his son, was not his biological father - and furthermore that his father was William Richard Blacknall (b. 1817 Granville, NC; d. 1876 Weakley Co, TN). If you are thinking of a secret love affair you may be disappointed; I have a possible explanation which is more family oriented and rather sweet. There is one piece of DNA evidence which could either support my story or disprove it; I’ll get back to that later. So here’s my story, leaving out references to the appropriate evidence (I plan eventually to write a more technical report).

John N. Bradberry and his wife Sarah Ann (McClure?) Bradberry appear in the 1840 Weakley Co. census as a childless couple, John would have been about 30 and Sarah Ann about 20. I have not seen documentation that her surname was McClure but otherwise there is no explanation for George McClure Bradberry’s middle name. In the 1850 census John and Sarah Ann have a son George, born in 1846. George remained an only child which was unusual at that time.

Also in the 1850 census another family appeared in the same census district: William Richard Blacknall and his wife Mary Frances (McClure) Blacknall. They had sons born in 1844, 1848 and 1850 - and later had more children. Sarah Ann and Mary Frances were both born in NC and were close in age. I have not proven it but I suspect that the women were sisters or perhaps cousins.

You can see where this is going. Mary Frances was giving birth every 2 years while her (possible) sister remained childless. My conjecture is that George McClure Blacknall/Bradberry was raised by his aunt and uncle and given the surname Bradberry. I doubt that there was ever any paperwork involved.

There is more DNA evidence which confirms that Blacknalls and Bradberrys are related, but the evidence which could prove or disprove George McClure Bradberry’s Blacknall paternity would be comparison of my Y-DNA with the Y-DNA of a direct male line descendant of William Richard Blacknall.

Brent

brentbradberry@moscow.com

14 Dec 2019