Convergence of Families: Bradberry, Blacknall, McClure (Part 2)

  This is a continuation of the previous “Convergence of Families: Bradberry, Blacknall, McClure” or "What's in a Name?". In the early 1800s Richard Bradberry was a farmer in Virginia who had a typically large family with several sons. When Richard died in the early 1830s most of his sons moved west and settled around Dresden,Tennessee. There are many Bradberrys still around Dresden, in fact a Brent Bradberry about my age is a judge in Dresden. According to census and other written records, Judge Brent is a cousin of mine - but DNA has proven that Judge Brent is not related to me (probably to his delight). Here is a story that shows how DNA comparisons can both support and contradict written records.

   The 1850 census lists two families in the same census district near Dresden in Weakley County, Tennessee: John N. Bradberry, his wife Sarah Ann (McClure) Bradberry, and their only child George McClure Bradberry born in 1846; and William Richard Blacknall, his wife Mary Frances (McClure) Blacknall, and their sons born in 1844, 1848 and 1850. Sarah Ann and Mary Frances were both born in North Carolina and were close in age, and it seems likely they were sisters or possibly cousins, however I have not been able to prove this. But recent DNA tests of their descendants are highly suggestive of their close relationship.

   There are several public sources of DNA data on the internet, where hobby genealogists like me can post their own DNA. One can quickly find relatives that they have not known, and other relationships that are embarrassing (such as, your father was not who you thought he was). I was lucky and found a pair of cousins (we have matching parts of three different chromosones); a brother and sister who are direct descendents of William Frances Blacknall and Mary Frances Blacknall, through their daughter Lula Blacknall. I also have the same "DNA package" of Blacknall DNA but mine must have come through one of Lula Blacknall's siblings, and the obvious one is the same one who gave me my "not Bradberry Y DNA"; namely George McClure Bradberry.

So the picture is now clear. The most likely interpretation is that George McClure Bradberry was a brother of Lula Blacknall. Mary Frances McClure gave birth to 4 sons, 2 years apart starting in 1844, and the son born in 1846 was raised by

his uncle and aunt and he may never have known it. George was an only child and John and Sarah Ann Bradberry raised him as their own.