52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week # 25 Theme  :   Broken Branch

One Broken Branch is in Gerry's Burris tree.  I have written before about the various spellings of my husband's maternal surname of Burris (Buris, Burrows, Burroughs, Burrous, etc).  When we started to build his tree, we knew that his Great Grandfather was Mathew Burris, probably born in Missouri.  Much searching of census records located a Mathew Barrows, of the correct age, in 1870 in the home of a Bathan family in Osage, Benton, Arkansas.  I put that on the back burner because of spelling and location (although it later became true). Then in an 1860 Arkansas census, I found Mathew Buris in the home of Josiah and Elizabeth Buris.  This seemed to give us another generation, so we started working on the history of Josiah Buris (various spellings). Google searches gave us some postings of old letters which told us that Josiah (or sometimes Jessiah) had at least 4 wives... one left him widowed, others he left and may not have married at all in one case.   Another letter/ story supposed that he came to Arkansas on the Trail of Tears although he was not Native American (not true).  Mystery man.... just showed up in Arkansas, 1840, having been born in Tennessee.  Before 1850, family members were not listed in census records. So we hit a brick wall as to his parentage.

Until DNA came along.  Gerry had his DNA tested on Ancestry, which gives you a long list of matches, many of which have trees attached.  Among these matches were quite a few people with the various spellings of Burris in their trees, and ancestors located in Tennessee and Arkansas.  As we followed their trees, we seemed to find that Gerry had DNA matches descended from Anthony Burrows 1770-1822. Josiah was born in 1825, so not a son of Anthony.  But the will of Anthony Burrows showed several sons who might be of age to be father of Josiah.  By process of elimination (for instance, some families went to Alabama or Mississippi at the time that Josiah was born... so eliminated) we found a son of Anthony named William who could definitely be the connection.  However, there is no proof to this possibility.  There are some coincidences, and  maybe I can visit a courthouse in Fayette Co TN where this William lived and died, but the only lead for now, is the DNA.

Thus, Gerry's branch is broken between Josiah and Anthony, although we feel that William is the proof we need.  I won't be posting William on Gerry's tree until we find proof.  Photo is of Anthony's land, Pear Place,  granted in 1806, still called Burrows Cove in Grundy County, Tennessee.