C J D Pryor: Semple’s Seminary in James City VA

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“I have established on my Farm, in the County of James City, about 12 miles from Williamsburg, and about one mile to the est of the main stage road, a Male and Female Seminary, to which I beg leave to invite the attention of the public.”

“The Institution will be entirely under the direction of Mr. C.J. D. Pryor and such other teachers as he may associate with him.”

Richmond Enquirer, December 31, 1839

Pryor had taught at Hampton Academy before teaching at Semple’s Seminary.

Posted by John T. Semple, who was C.J.D. Pryor’s cousin in law. Semple was married to Elizabeth Armistead Pryor (C.J.D. and Elizabeth were both grandchildren of Christopher Pryor.

Category: Tennessee Pryors

The Generation Gap in Autosomal DNA Testing

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I’ve been asked again, “How far back will DNA testing take me?” That’s a great question with kind of a complicated answer.

Autosomal testing is the kind of DNA test that both women and men can take. It’s offered as AncestryDNA and Family Finder on FTDNA.com. FTDNA is pretty clear about the possibilities (or the glass is half empty side) of testing.  FTNDA says it will match up within 5 generations (see their site).

I’ve been pretty lucky I guess because on Ancestry I’ve had some pretty good matches at 6th generation.

How does it get complicated? Well this weekend I searched an unusual surname in the Ancestry results and came up with someone by that name. The were a wishy-washy “GOOD” ranking in the results. That didn’t seem very promising, but I reached out to them anyhow. Sure enough, we pieced together we were related.

If we are related why did we have only a “GOOD” result? Genetic distance plays a role. Our shared ancestor is 3 generations from me and 7 generations from my match!

The size of the Generation Gap also plays a role. My branch of the family tree has children every 40 years (not the accepted norm of about 20 years per generation. My match’s branch has children within the 20 year generations. I drew out a chart to show how far we’re separated because of the length of our generations. My great grandfather is this person’s great-great-great-great grandfather. That’s right the “Shared” ancestor in each line of the chart is the same person.

As a child I’d spend sick days home from school with my grandpa and hear stories of the old days and he was able to tell me who was whom in family photos. I’m a link to the past for my match that they never expected when testing. It’s a match I wasn’t expecting

It helps to reach out to results to see how you may be connected.

If had known that autosomal testing was limited to perhaps 5 generations, I would have asked all of my oldest relatives to test!

Category: DNA | Tags:

Pryor and Taylor Names in Overton County Records

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William B. Churning dec’d, Rachel Chourning adm. Money due to the following:
Roland Flowers due 1 Jan 1837
Overton PRYOR due 26 Apr. 1837
Hezekiah Taylor Jan 1832 (Brother of Spicy and Massie Taylor Pryor)
J.H. Storie, Overton PRYOR and Elijah Garrett $9.45 (William & Spicy Pryor>Overton Pryor)

13 Nov 1846 Estate Sale of Enid Huddleston, Levi and Roland Flowers buyers. (Edward Pryor, probable son of Wm and Spicy Pryor was living near a Roland Flowers in Clinton Co., KY in 1850)

27 Jul 1849 Joseph Bates estate, Hezekiah Taylor purchased 2 lots of shoemaker tools, 1 lot barrels, 1 large kettle, William Richardson also made a purchase (Hezekiah Taylor, brother to Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor. William Richardson may be kin of Hezekiah’s wife Margaret Richardson?)

1850 Estate of William Harp, dec’d. (The top part of this document is now obscured, but there are groups of debtors and creditors listed by the county they lived in). Persons in Overton Co..Jno. R. Buck, S. Tipton, Joseph Duncan. Persons in Fentress County: John Rogers, Jas. K. Brown, William Poor, Hiram Hills, Michael H. Frogg, William R. Cambell, William Travis?, James Finley?, Jacob Rich. Persons in Fentress County: Joshua Owens, David Smith, John Albertson, George W. Ashburn, Evan? D. Frogg, PLEASANT TAYLOR (note due June 1841), William M. Simpson, William Wright, –? Wood.

15 Aug 1850 Andrew Boswell dec’d, note due to Pleasant Taylor, Isaac Stockton and Eddy Paul: $100.91 (Pleasant Taylor, brother of Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor)

30 Jul 1852 William H. Harrison, 1 Dec. 1852… 19 head of geese for Mary, James, Wesley and Jeremiah Taylor.

Benjamin McDonald – supplemental. Joseph Garrett, David Garrett’s son a note dated 1852, Samuel Taylor (residence unknown) 1852, Robert B. Garrett (residence unknown) 1852 and 1853.

3 Jun 1853 Thomas Cope dec’d, J. M. Garrett, B. Flowers, Nancy Garrett, Louisa Garrett, Ki Taylor, J. Taylor, T. A. Garrett, John Taylor, Kiah Taylor (Kiah Taylor is probably Hezekiah Taylor, brother to Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor. )

30 Jul 1862, James Fancher dec’d, money due to William Parrott, Simeon Taylor and Samuel Taylor

7 May 1879 M. I. Taylor, M. V. Taylor , administrator

13 Aug. 1895 A. J. Taylor filed a claim of $25 against the estate of T. B. Lee, dec’d

20 Nov 1912 J. K. Taylor, J. S. Hargrove, administrator

20 Feb 1913 Mrs. M. C. Taylor

4 Jun 1913 J. W. Burnes filed claim against the estate of T. S. Taylor.

Category: Tennessee Pryors | Tags: , ,

The Last Words of William Pryor of Middlesex County, VA

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I love the the Virginia estate records on Ancestry.com. When you can read the originals there’s more insight into what the record is and the circumstances.  I had identified information on the TnPryors website as the will of William Pryor. The record indicates this wasn’t a written will, rather death bed instructions.

Page 388 (image 498), Ancestry.com slide 534
On Monday night the 22nd day of May 1786 about four or five — before the death of Mr. William Pryor with Martha S Caty — was sitting in the room where he lay sick, the said decedent did call on them to come to his bed side and bid them to take notion — his will and — — that after his just debts were paid the residue of his estate he left to his wife during her life to support his children and after her death to be equally divided amongst all his children and reminded them again be sure to take notice as they must make oath to the same. His six or twelve horses he did not know which . The above committed to –ting the twenty seventh day of May in the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty six by
Henry Voss
The above testamentary words confirmed by Saunders Bristow who was present at the time this 25th day of Sept. 1786
Henry Vass

It’s likely that Henry Vass was William’s son in law. “Henry Vass Jr., married Elizabeth Pryor of Middlesex county, VA. The bond is dated 22 Nov 1779.” The same article connects the Voss and Boyd families, including in the line the 1834 marriage of Robert Byrd Boyd to Mary A Pryor (a daughter of Brazure Williams Pryor,  although no connection is made to William Pryor who died in Middlesex County).

Category: Tennessee Pryors

Buyer Beware of Pryor Books That Won’t Help Your Genealogy Search

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Ugh, last week someone posted a tartan online that they professed was the plaid for all people by that surname (it wasn’t Pryor). Alas, if you look at the FTDNA YDNA results for that surname there are many DNA haplogroups of that name — some who never even put a toe near Scotland.

So there’s a Pryor Family Heritage Book for sale on Ebay. There’s already some people watching this auction. If you want to explore it here’s the link https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Pryor-Family-Heritage-Book-Published-by-Beatrice-Bayley-Inc-Ltd-Ed-1-1982/112115058893?hash=item1a1a9408cd:g:1EYAAOSwFV9Xxiso

Before you get too excited by the book and auction, I’d like to share a bit about these books. I’m not very excited by it because it’s just as authentic as a clan tartan without DNA or written records to back it up. Here’s a description of these books by Beatrice Bayley (is that even a real person?): “…the only difference between this book with your special surname and the thousands of others sold over the years is a printout of a dozen or more pages of names and addresses lifted from telephone directories. Phone numbers are even omitted.” The description goes on to describe buyers as “unsuspecting” and lumps the books in with “fraudulent family histories”. This description is even more stunning when you realize it’s the seller who’s describing the book in these terms! https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/beatrice-bayley/

I’ve bought my share of Genealogy junk through the years. It pays to do some homework– even just Googling the name of the author and/or title. I also like to check out Google Books because many of the book offered online are reprints of books that are out of copyright and available for free on Google Books.

 

Category: Genealogy | Tags:
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