Briley Genealogy

My family of Brileys are from Pitt County, NC.  They settled in the area when NC was just being founded as a colony.  Actually, Pitt County was part of Beaufort County.  We are pretty sure that one of the ancestors granted land, William Briley, was the son of John Briley of Bristol Parish, VA. 

John S. Briley 1884-1944 (my g-gf)< John W. Briley 1854-1927(my g-g-gf)< Marcellus Briley abt 1836-1902 <James Briley abt 1805- bef 1850 <William Briley< William Briley< John Briley< ?

James Briley, the father of Marcellus, died young, with young children.  His mother, Sarah, left a will that lists 4 grandchildren and her living children.  Marcellus is listed as a grandchild.  Bless that woman for her forethought, because so many records were destroyed in a courthouse fire. 

I am re-working a research file and log on excel, and want to include all of the land records I have for Brileys in Pitt County, NC.  These are the key to understanding the family relationships, I am certain.  Then there is a group of Brileys in Anson County (near Charlotte, NC) and I am not sure how they fit in, but the naming patterns for the boys are similar. 

I have long held the view that the Briley line separated soon after arriving in the “Colonies”, one settling in MD, the other starting in VA.  The MD group went into KY and then north and west while the VA group went into NC, branched out into TN (Nashville) when granted land from serving in the Revolution, and then from there down into AK and TX.  There was also a NC group that wound up in GA and then into LA.

I hope to be publishing a few of the extracted deeds in the next few days.  And next week I will be going downtown to the VA Historical society and I will report on what they have in their library.  I am going, though, to specifically find information on Bristol Parish (an old colonial Anglican parish) where John Briley is listed early on. 

Hope to see you back soon!

Related posts:

1. A very brief overview of the Colonial Parish System