Cousins, This is rather lengthy, but we need help. Please post any info to the list so that Sonny and I both get it. We have Alexander Bryant confused. Thanks!!--Sherry Sherry, We corresponded earlier this year about Alexander Bryant and Sarah Jane Ross. You had Sarah Jane Ross as being married to Alexander M. Bryant, who was born in 1834 and died in 1876. I believe this is the wrong Alexander for your Sarah Jane Ross. I think I may have found your Alexander Bryant and Sarah Jane in the book "Tombstone Inscriptions of the Cemeteries of Patrick County, Virginia, Revised and Expanded" Compiled by O.E. Pilson. On page 184 of that book, listed in the Sycamore Baptist Church Cemetery, appearing on the same tombstone are the following inscriptions: Alexander Bryant, b. 28 Nov. 1850; d. 15 May 1933 Sarah Jane Bryant, b. 12 Sept. 1848; d. 30 July 1934 Could these be yours? I have very strong evidence that Alexander M. Bryant was my great grandfather and my mother has direct knowledge that his wife's maiden name was Mary Jane Purdy. Sonny Griffith >Sonny, >The 1870 census entry for Alexander puts his birthdate as being 1836 and >hers as 1844. >121. ----- >Alexander M. Bryant 34 w/m farmer $100 VA >Jane 26 w/f >Elizabeth 2 >Abner 1 >James A. 1mos >I looked at all the Bryants in the 1850 Census and there was no Alexander in any family. Do you have access to an 1860 census? I have no idea where he >was before 1870. >Also in the 1870 Census there is: >222. ----- >John Bryant 68 w/m Farmer $1,024 NC >Elizabeth 25 w/f Housekeeper VA >Alexander 21 Farm Work >Sarah A. 17 Domestic Servant >The above Alexander would have been born about 1850 to match the O E Pilson >info. >I don't have a marriage date for Alexander and Sarah Jane Ross. >Should we post this to Patrick Co mail list to see if someone can help us? >Sherry Crawford >dansher@tkdyer.com <mailto:dansher@tkdyer.com> Hi Sherry, Yes, it couldn't hurt to post this to the Patrick County list if you would like to do this. First, though, let me give you what information I have learned. I do have a copy of the 1860 Patrick County census. I ordered it on cd-rom from SK Publishing. They have a deal whereby if you order a cd from them, they will donate one to the USGENWEB census project. I received an email today that it has been uploaded to the internet, so you can actually view it as well. Maybe you received the same email, but just in case I'll try to remember to forward it to you after I compose this email. Alexander, at this point in his life, is single and still living on his father's farm. By the way, I've also ordered the 1880 Patrick County census from SK and am expecting it to arrive in the mail today or Monday. A copy of this one will also be donated to the USGENWEB census project, so you can look forward to having internet access to it as well. I know you said you couldn't find Alexander in the 1850 census, but actually he is there. The tricky part is that their surname is spelled Bryan in the 1850 census. Alexander is listed as 19 years of age in this census. They are family #3 in the Northern District. You can tell this is the right Bryant family because of the childrens names and ages matches. Catherine and Elizabeth never married and stayed with their parents, and you can trace them through the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses. Of course Abner J. Bryant, Alexander's father, died in 1863 so he doesn't show up on the 1870 census. You'll see by looking at all the censuses, you can't nail Alexander's birth year exactly. Alexander's death is listed in the Patrick County Death Records, 1870 - 1896. He died on 18 September 1876 and was listed as 41 years old. That would put his birth in 1835. Hhhheeeeeyyyyyyyy!!! I just noticed while looking up Alexander's death record, there are three death records of children born to Alex and S.J. Bryant. What do you want to bet the S.J. stands for Sarah Jane? The children are Beamer G. Bryant, Elezora Madge Bryant, and Walter I Bryant. Do you have the Patrick County death records? If not you can download them from the Patrick County Home Page. These children seem to be of the age that they could be the children of the Alex and Sarah Jane Bryant whose graves I wrote to you about earlier. Now, for the evidence I have that Alexander M. Bryant is my great grandfather and that he was married to a Mary Jane Purdy. My mother knew her grandmother and knew her maiden name to be Mary Jane Purdy. She married a Ratcliffe after her first husband, Alex, died. My mother was told that Mary Jane was a school teacher and that she originally came from Pennsylvania. A number of years ago, my mother sat down with my grandfather (her father), Newell King Bryant, and asked about his father. Newell said his father's name was Alex and that he died when Newell was only 5 months old. Newell was born April 19, 1876. Newell said they lived in Patrick County at first and later, with his step-father, lived in various places including McComas, WV and Winchester, VA. Newell had an older brother named Abner J. Bryant, known as Uncle Bud by my Mom and her siblings. He also had an older sister called Betty Jane, but whose real name was Elisabeth. She was about a year older than Abner. The next brother was known to the family by the nickname of Sap, but when I interviewed a gathering of the family this past spring someone said they thought his name may have been James. My grandfather also told my mom that he had a sister that died when she was 16 years old that was the spitting image of my mother. She would have had to be born sometime between the1870 census and 1876 when Alexander died. All the ages of Alexander's children that we know about match the ages of the like named children in the 1870 census. Also from the Patrick County death record you can see that Alexander M. Bryant died exactly 5 months after Newell was born, just as Newell told my mother. To me, the evidence is overwhelming that Alexander M. Bryant is my great grandfather and that the Jane listed in the 1870 census is really Mary Jane Purdy Bryant. Some other information my grandfather told my mom was that the family originally came from Ireland and that their surname was O'Bryan (or O'Brian, he didn't say how they spelled it). There is also information in our family that the family first settled in North Carolina. There is an indication of this in that Abner Bryan in the 1850 PC census was listed as being born in North Carolina. One last piece of information I have is that I have found Abner J. Bryant's grave in the O.E. Pilson book. What's really interesting is that this is a Bryant family grave and as was custom in those days the families buried their members on their own property so this is probably the site of the original Bryant homestead in Patrick County. Now, in this same family graveyard where Abner J. Bryant is buried, there is also buried the remains of a man who was the right age to be Abner's father. His name was William and he was born in Oct. 15, 1760 and died June 29, 1848. Incidently, Alexander's father, Abner J. Bryant was born Feb 18, 1799 and died Dec. 5, 1863 according to the inscriptions on the tombstone. The birth year matches with the census. While I don't think your Alexander Bryant who married Sarah Jane Ross is the same as my Alexander M. Bryant, I do think they are probably related. Let me know what you think and certainly if I learn anything more on this I'll send you a note. We may be able to learn a bit more when I get my copy of the 1880 PC census. Sonny Griffith