Category Archives: Tennessee Pryors

Austin L. Green and Emily Pryor of Roane Co., TN

Ancestry.com has put up a database of Tennessee Marriages: “Tennessee State Marriages, 1765-2002”.  What I like about this database is that there are actual images of marriage licenses and registers. It gives a unique online opportunity to look at the handwriting and solve a few family history mysteries.

A new database wouldn’t be any fun unless it has a few Pryors in it… and it does!

In 1850 Emily Pryor married Austin L. Green in Roan Co., TN.  They are on the 1850 through 1900 Census in Roane County (extractions are now on the TN Pryor website). They were married in January, so probably Emily is not the mother of the 5 children in the household at the time of the 1850 Census.  In 1860 5 additional children were counted in the family. In 1880 and 1900 Emily reported her parents were born in VA and TN.

Was Emily a widow of a Pryor or was she born a Pryor?

Added Tennessee County Map and Reorganized Census Extracts

I admit that alot of the enhancements I make to the Tennessee Pryor website, I make for myself. I really hate looking at a census record on the site and then having to find a map to see where a county is located and what other counties surround it. We know have a new way of looking at the Pryors in Tennessee!

In the MAIN MENU under the section called CENSUS EXTRACTS we have a new link called TN COUNTIES. Click on the link to go to a map of Tennessee. It’s not just a map, it’s a means to navigating to Pryor census extracts for each county. (Go to Map) It’s a cool way to explore which Pryor families lived in a particular county and also to explore which Pryors were living in neighboring counties. Who knows, we may be able to figure out some more relationships and ID a few more Pryors!

For the researchers who like the “tried and true” you can still view the Tennessee census extracts organized by the census year by goint to the section called CENSUS EXTRACTS and clicking on TN CENSUS. 

Let me know if you find any bugs, and of course let me know who you find!

John Pryor of Grainger Co., TN

“Ansearchin’ ” News, Spring 1981.  An article states John Pryor on the 1850 US Census in Grainger Co., TN was born about 1798 in Virginia. It also identifies his wife as Elizabeth BAKER and their son George, who was on the 1850 census, joined the Confederate army and migrated to Ft. Smith, Sebastian Co., AR.

I would like to know the source of the marriage information for John Pryor and Elizabeth Baker, because I’m a bit doubtful that it is their son George in Ft. Smith, AR.  The George W. Pryor in Ft. Smith appears to be a son of Seth Pryor, a probably son of Matthew Pryor born 1759*. of Marion Co., TN. Seth was in Titus Co., TX in 1850.  When George Pryor was counted in 1880 his parents places of birth were recorded as father born in NC and mother born in KY, which matches the place of birth of Seth Pryor and his wife Darcus in 1860. If George were the son of John and Elizabeth, his parents would have been born in VA and NC as recorded on the 1850 Census.

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*Originally post stated Matthew Pryor Jr. Seth is likely the brother of Matthew Jr. and a son of Matthe Pryor born 1759.

Pryors in Tennessee Land Warrants

From Laws of the State of Tennessee: Including Those of North Carolina …, Volume 2

Can we match these warrants to the correct Pryor in the correct Tennessee county?

“… one warrant issued by the commissioners of West Tennessee to JOHN PRYOR and since transferred by assignment to James Walker , No. 121, for 249 1-2 acres, dated November 8th, 1808.”

“… one duplicate military warrant issued by ———- to John Carter, jun. and since transferred by assignment to GREEN PRYOR, No. 236, for 640 acres dated May 30, 1817.”

Chapter 70, An act to provide for establishing a new Court House in the County of Morgan (1820)
“… Be it enacted, That PHILIP PRYOR, Ezekial Philpot, John M. Davis, Benjamin Hagler, and Joseph England, shall be, and they are hereby appointed commissoners to carry this act into effect, and a majority of them shall at all time be competent to transact any business, or perform any duty imposed upon them as commissioners.  (I suspect this is Philip Pryor of Marion County since some of the names on this document appear in Roane County records).

Eliza Pryor of Marion Co. – Photos of Matthew Pryor Jr.’s Line

More photos? YES! Thanks to researcher Jeanne Maxi we have some very old photos of Matthew Pryor Jr.’s line. Jeanne is in possession of a photo album that was once owned by Matthew Jr.’s daughter Eliza A. Pryor who was born in Marion County in about 1837. Eliza married Carl Biese.

Enscribed in the album: “Grandma Biese’s photo album before she married Grandpa in 1874 – so this book is at least 100 years old – Mother.” [written in pencil] and “This was a step-grandmother but the only one I ever knew – Dad’s own mother died of yellow fever in 1873. Her name was Harriett Narcissa McDonald before she married Grandpa” [written in ink].

There are almost 30 wonderful photos and we need your help to ID these even if it’s to ID when the photographer was active in the area. Can you ID the era from clothing or accessories?

VIEW THE ALBUM on the Tennessee Pryor webiste
https://tennesseepryors.com/photographs/photos-the-pryor-biese-collection/

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