John Bryson, II

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~holderfamtree/paf...

John BRYSON was born in 1779/1788 in Dromore, nr Lisburn, Down, Ireland. He died after 1825. He married Margaret COWAN about 1815 in of Banbridge, Down, Ireland.

It is generally assumed that this John Bryson, father of Samuel, is the same John Bryson whose military record as a member of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons we have received from England, and whose birth information is given on this sheet. However, doubts as to the validity of this remain. There also is no proof that John and Margaret were ever married. The soldier John Bryson's record shows no indication of a marriage, and he was mostly out of Ireland during the time Samuel was conceived and born. The truth may never be known. Samuel was sealed to his stepfather, John or Joseph Dunlap, and has subsequently been sealed to John Bryson by proxy as well.

May 2006 - DNA testing has put the Utah Bryson family in the same genetic grouping as William Bryson, born 1724 in Antrim, Ireland, married to Isabella Holmes, whose descendants came to the U.S., settling in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. This is a very important result for our family for a couple of reasons. First, it proves the Bryson link, even though there is no evidence John Bryson and Margaret Cowan were ever married, even though Samuel used the Bryson surname, which normally an illegitimate child would not do. There are several other Bryson families in Northern Ireland, but the DNA match was with this particular family. The ancestral link could come at the father, grandfather, or great-grandfather, of this William Bryson, or could go even further back. It is, nonetheless, an important part of the puzzle.

Birth year given as 1788 in 1894 SLAKE baptism record.

For Bryson Clan Info: http://www.brysonclan.net/index2.htm