Tennessee Pryors

Allen L. Pryor photo arrived! It’s terrific. I’ve added it to the The Reed Collection page and the photo is now viewable within the website. Dating these photos is really tricky. I’m fairly good and figuring out the date of women’s clothing from a bussell or neckline, but men’s clothing — especially when you have just a photo from the chest up– are very hard to date. When were men wearing the short ties like in this photo? Allen L. Pryor was born in 1816… was this pre-Civil War? 

I heard from another researcher who sent a copy of the death certificate on one of the Jackson County Pryors– Serena Elizabeth Pryor, wife of Wesley Marion Anderson. It identifies her parents as Alfred Pryor and Serena Dill. Having her mother’s surname looks to be new information.  I found that I  had more Dills in my database… Nancy Jane Pryor Nelson who is suspected to be another daughter of Alfred and Serena, had a son named Joseph Nelson who married Nancy Jane Harris who was a daughter a Mr. Harris and Patience Dill.

Another photo?… more than 150 years old!!!!!I heard from another “cousin” who has more old photos of the Sumner County Pryors. Amazing… he has a photo of Allen L. Pryor that’s probably earlier than any other known photo. It’s without his beard and probably from around 1850. He also has photos a couple more of Allen L.’s daughters. It’s interesting how you can work on the the family tree for 20 years and suddenly new resources surface. I am so thankful that these photos are being shared. I hate to think of them in a box and getting tossed out when someone’s house is cleaned out.

I’m amazed by the old photos from this “cousin’s” collection. Even if it sounds cliche, they are a window to the past. I loved looking at the clothes from the 1860’s and 1870’s. They look different than how they were interpreted 60 years later in “Gone With the Wind”.  It’s interesting to study the faces to similarities to try to pair people up into family groups. 40 photos are now on the website and ready for identification. I hate to think of all the family history and old photos getting thrown out, lost or left in a drawer– that was a motivation to start the website. I don’t want to be the only one who has these photos so I’ve put 300dpi (print quality) files on Shutterfly.com.  Shutterfly is reasonably priced, great quality, not too hard to figure out. Whomever wants prints of the photos now will have access to them! SEE PHOTOS

The REED COLLECTION is now on the website! More than 40 amazing photos of Pryors and their allied lines from Sumner County, TN and Farmersville, Collin County, TX. There are several tin-type photos from the 1860’s and 1870’s, lots of photos of the children and grandchildren of Allen L. Pryor. Ms. Reed is a gracious benefactor to the website… bringing history out of the family album for all of us to enjoy! These photos are now on Shutterfly.com and 300dpi (print quality images are available to anyone who wants to prints. If you are a UPromise.com member for college savings… Shutterfly contributes 7%. The TN Pryor website is not selling these photos, Shutterfly is a reasonable price source for photo printing and offers the ability to let everyone share in these photos. PLEASE… if you can identify anyone let us know!

Recently there have been terrific postings to the Pryor-RootsWeb mailing list. William Lindsey, a detailed and accurate researcher, is posting his findings on the line of Richard Pryor and Mourning Thompson. If you aren’t a member of the mailing list you are missing some great information! On the RootsWeb site you can read archived mail from the list all the way back to 1997! To join the list or read archived mail visit http://lists.rootsweb.com

The Missouri Pryors piqued my interest. Are Samuel, Emsley, and James Pryor of St. Joseph, MO related. Samuel is the the patriarch of the musical Pryors (and father of trombonist Arthur Pryor). Emsley served as a bugler in the Civil War leading one to hope that he may be part of this musical line, while both Emsley and James were employed as cistern and well diggers. All three families lived near eachother the Washington area of St. Joseph. All 3 were born prior to 1850 yet do not appear on a census until 1870. The Pension file didn’t hold any remarkable discoveries, but provided the names and birthdates of Emsley’s children.

A new addition to the website. On the home page you’ll now find a link to a blog. I’m testing this out to see if there is an interest in keeping up with Pryor research through the Blog. If any of the TN Pryor subscribers have their own genealogy Blog, let me know I will consider linking to it.