MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR SEARCH… Living in a small town with a small library doesn’t have to limit your research. Your PC and public library can help you get the most out of inter-library loans. When searching in a particular geographic area within the United States do a Google search to find the area’s public library, state library or university library. Many of these libraries have searchable catalogs online. If you find a book or microfilm you’d like to review, contact your town’s public library to request an inter-library loan. My local library may be small, but the reference desk uses email and the Internet. They ask that I email the book or film title, the call number, and name, address, telephone number of the library that holds the item. If I’ve found the lending library’s loan policy on their website, I do a cut and paste from the browser, adding the information to my email. Most of the books I’ve obtained on loan are checked out like a regular library book and can be reviewed at home, however microfilm had to be viewed in the library.
MORE FOR THE LIBRARY ENTHUSIAST… Google has announced their project to scan library texts, making them available and searchable on the Internet. Here’s an interesting link with questions and answers about this project
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb041227-2.shtml
Pryor Names in Macon Co., TN Funeral Home Records
Many thanks to researcher Mary Pryor! Mary has donated to the TN Pryor Website the transcriptions of Macon Co., TN Funeral Home Records for the Pryors. Mary’s CD MACON CO. FUNERAL HOME RECORDS is for sale through the Macon County, TN Historical Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmchs/TNMCHS/items_for_sale2.htm
Overton Co., TN – Pryor in Jail 4 Days Before Civil War
OVERTON COUNTY, TN COURT MINUTES… researcher Eugene Byars has found an Eliza Prior and Mahaly Stanton Jr. and Sr. were kept in the Overton County jail 7 Apr and 8 Apr 1861, for “disturbing” N.G. Hutson. Also… an entry in April 1871 where John Prior, J. D. Goodpasture, and others were conscripted to work on an Overton Co. road.
Leroy Pryor from Jackson Co., TN
Researcher Melody Pryor has obtained and transcribed the Civil War Records of LEROY PRYOR. Leroy served in MO, appearing to be the Leroy Pryor from Jackson Co., TN who migrated to MO. To view the transcript go to MORE RECORDS!, select MILITARY. Leroy’s records are in the CIVIL WAR section.
Tennessee Pryor Marriages
MATCHING MARRIAGES TO THE CENSUS Phocian Morgan married ELIZABETH PRYOR on 22 Dec. 1842 in Wilson Co., TN. They have been found on the 1850 and 1860 Census in Ohio Co., KY. Phocian Morgan is a widow on the 1870 Census.
Tennessee Pryor Project
ALL TN PRYORS UPDATE: The “All TN Pryor” project now contains 489 Pryors who were either born in or resided in Tennessee in 1850 or earlier.
Just added… MARY JANETT Pryor, born 1809 in VA, was found in the archived queries of McNairy County and in an Ancestry.com family tree. She married William Hargroves 1826 and is on the 1850 Census in McNairy County, and in 1860 and 1870 in Hardin Co., TN. She died in Sevier Co., AR after 1880.
William Pryor from Botetourt County
Another addition… WILLIAM Pryor born c.1780 in Botetourt Co., VA and husband of Betsy Trammell. There are a few postings in the Ancestry.com AWT that include the will of this William Pryor and the account of a contemporary who attended his funeral in 1833 at Austin, TX. William’s daughters, Elizabeth and Harriett, were counted on the 1850 census in Fort Bend Co., TX. Harriet, the eldest, was born 1808 in Tennessee. Unfortunately, census records for Tennessee in 1800 and 1810 do not exist. The Ancestry family trees trace William to his great-grandparents Robert Pryor and Betty Virginia Green of Virginia and his parents Joseph Pryor and Mary Langdon or Flemming. A Thornton Pryor, who may be William’s brother, is mentioned in an 1814 record from Robertson Co., TN where he was security for the estate of Willis Dosset.
Peter Mercer and Pryor Connection
Yet another possible Pryor… I visited a website that reports a Peter Mercer in Eastern Tennessee married a TIBITHA PRYOR born 1842 in Tennessee. This was Peter’s second marriage. Tibitha is recorded on the 1870 Census in Grainger Co., TN and in 1880 in Bledsoe Co. She may have migrated with her husband to Pine Bluff, AR and later Grayson Co., TX. On the 1880 Census her father was recorded as born in VA and mother born in TN. It is not yet clear if Peter Mercer had other connections to the Pryors in that a son from his first marriage to Sarah Shelton was named Prior Lee Mercer. It is also uncertain if Tibitha was a Pryor from birth or perhaps a first marriage in that she has not been located on the 1850 or on the 1860 Census.
(http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnunion/Biographies/mercer.htm)
Henry County Pryor
WILLIAM LAFAYETTE Pryor b. May 1828 in TN. William was missed on the first draft of the All TN Pryors List. I recently found an old note that states an account of the life of William Lafayette Pryor was published by his son Charles C. Pryor of Henry Co., TN in 1939. The account includes William’s adventures in the California Gold Rush and that William L. died in Henry Co. in 1918. This is one of those circumstances where I wish I had better source notes from the early days of hunting for Pryors. William’s father was William B. Pryor of Henry Co. William L. appears on the 1880, 1900 and 1910 census in Henry County.
Andrew Pryor of Jefferson Co., TN
Just clarified…ANDREW J. Pryor on the 1850 Census in Jefferson Co., TN is the same person recorded as John Pryor on the 1860 of the same county. Living in the household in 1850 was an elderly JOHN Pryor, aged 93, whose birthplace was recorded as England. Was Andrew J. not recorded as John since there was already a John Pryor in the household? I Believe the elderly John Pryor is the same man who was in Sullivan County. HENRY Pryor, the only Pryor head of household in Sullivan County from 1850-1880, states on the 1880 Census that his father was born in England. In 1860 Andrew John Pryor was joined in Jefferson County by THOMAS Pryor, who was living in Cocke County at the time of the 1850 Census. It is possible, but not yet proved that Andrew John, Thomas, and Henry were kin.
James Pryor of Graves Co., KY
JAMES Pryor Jr. born 1822 and found on the 1850 Census living in Graves Co., KY is the son of James Sr. born 1786, also in TN. James Sr. is reported to be a son of Richard Pryor and Mourning Thompson, counted in 1810 in Logan Co., KY near his mother Mourning White. Another Pryor? On the 1850 census JAMES Prior aged 5 is living in the household of William McCoy in Greene Co., TN. James is listed under William Kent and his son John Kent. I have found William Kent on the 1860 Census in Jefferson Co., KY. He has two sons recorded as John and James; both using the Kent surname. While William and John seem to disappear from the Jefferson Co. census records, James is found recorded as James P. Kent on records through 1900. I have searched the Kentucky database for death records and did not find one for anyone who appears to be James Kent or James Pryor (although I found in the index his daughter Maggie Kent Oehler who died in 1941). James P. Kent is not on the 1910 Census, so it is possible that he died before 1911 when Kentucky began recording deaths.
