It’s amazing how identifying the Pryors gets easier when the connections become clearer. In my last post (William Pryor of Amherst County – Do We Have A Name For His Mother?) I discussed uncovering a possible link between the Pryor and Laffoon families of Goochland County. So many wonderful connections have popped up in my research over the weekend– I hope that sharing will spur your own research.
An interesting connection came out my family member’s DNA results. We’re distant cousins (1st cousin 6x removed) of Ann Pryor, daughter of John Pryor and Mary New. I theorized in a past post (The Patriarch: Tracing Nicholas Pryor) that John was the son of my ancestor Nicholas Pryor. John the older brother of David and William Pryor was born in about 1689, not too long after Nicholas was recorded as a Headright in Goochland County.
There have been NO DNA matches between the “other” Pryors in Goochland County… that’s the line of Col. Samuel Pryor and Prudence Thornton who go back to Robert Pryor and Virginia Betty Green. That means that the Pryors in Amherst, Albemarle, Cumberland Counties in VA are probably not related to this other line. It also means that the Pryors in Nashville, Sumner County, and Overton County in TN are not related to the Pryos in Marion Co., TN.
Two Wrights… This weekend I looked at William Pryor of Amherst Co. He gave a statement about his service in the Revolutionary War with his brothers John and Nicholas (I know many people get tired of me mentioning this but it’s a good way to ID which William I’m talking about). William married Elizabeth Wright. Ann Pryor (daughter of John Pryor and Mary New) married John Wright. William and Ann Pryor were first cousins. I wonder if the Wrights were kin to one another?
Captain Ellis and the Pryors… In looking at Wrights I found that William’s wife Elizabeth Wright was the daughter of Isaac Wright and Susannah Ellis. I haven’t placed Isaac yet (really I haven’t worked on it), however I found that Susannah was the daughter of Capt. Charles Ellis and Susannah Harding. If you go back to my last post you’ll see that William’s father (William who was married to Margaret) sold land to a William Harding in 1751. And Captain Ellis is tied to the Pryors through their military service: William, Nicholas and a Richard Pryor all served under Ellis.
