Bill,

Excellent! Long answer, but excellent. I just more or less wrapped up a long Brown research project in Virginia's Northern Neck and believe it or not I did get them back to England. Thanks to the unusual first name of their ancestor Manly Brown. This Brown group is NOT related to any of the Brown families you mention here, but I wonder if it would be useful to have a living male from that family participate in the overall study? Is through FTDNA?

You state it would be nearly impossible to separate all of the Browns even in the same county without DNA. I agree DNA helps A LOT, but I still adhere to the old fashioned method of tracking people people through their land holdings. Of course that only works if they owned land. I would have never gotten this Brown family back to Manly Brown without land records--in three counties of course.

If you could see the smile that crossed my face when you wrote that there were two completely different families who used the name Coleman as a given name, it would have made your day. So true, so true. I got snared into the Browns of Culpeper a long time ago doing title work on LaGrange, originally a 1747 Northern Grant of 400 acres to my own ancestor John Kilby. Now the book *Historic Culpeper* will tell you it was on land originally patented by John Brown which just plain ain't true and I can prove it. It (or part of it) came into the Brown family much later (around 1830) when Joel Brown bought part of it. I've tried to explain to this nice people at the Culpeper Historical society but they just look at me like I came from outer space. "But it's in the BOOK!" I know it's in the book. That doesn't make it so. In that book, however, is a picture of a log cabin believed to be built in 1749. Gee, now I wonder who built it?

Anyway, I am so glad you are taking up the very daunting task of sorting all these Brown families out. You deserve the highest award any genealogical society can give you for this. Keep it up!

Craig Kilby

P.S. I also got snared into the Browns with a Kilby/Brown marriage that I have NEVER figured out. Maybe you can help me with it.

On Jul 8, 2014, at 3:53 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> This is in response to an earlier question about various Brown families in VA.  Y chromosome DNA testing on living male Browns....whose Brown families "trace back" to Culpeper Co., VA....shows that there were at least FIVE unrelated Brown families in that county in the 1700s-1800s.  These families were members of DNA Groups 10, 33, 47, 55 and 107 at the Brown Genealogy Society DNA testing project website.  DNA Group 10 "traces back" to the Francis Brown "I" who left his Will in Essex Co., VA in 1691/1692 (and who appeared on records by at least the 1650s in Old Rappahannock Co., VA),.  We have a very large number of male Browns in Group 10 who have taken the Y DNA test.  Other ancestors in Group 10 included a) the Abraham Brown (died about 1735 in Caroline Co., VA) who married Mary Tribble, b) Abraham's father, who was the Daniel Brown "I" (died early-1700s in Essex Co., VA; he was a son of Francis Brown "I") who married Jane Copeland, c) Daniel Brown "II" (died about 1747 in Culpeper Co., VA) who married Elizabeth Coleman, and finally, d) the father of that Daniel Brown "II," who we call Francis Brown "II" (married Elizabeth Allen; died about 1708 in Essex Co., VA; Francis "II" was another son of Francis Brown "I").
> 
> Both Group 10 and Group 33 used the given name of "Coleman," so one has to be careful not to incorrectly intermix those two unrelated Brown families.  We now SUSPECT that Group 33 "traces back" to the George Brown (supposedly married a Miss Rowland, as I recall) and his son Thomas Brown (who married a Miss Thornton) whose families lived in Westmoreland, Fauquier, Loudoun and Culpeper Co., VA, but that "connection" has not been proven conclusively.  DNA Group 10 married into the Robert Coleman, Senior and Elizabeth Grizzell family (whose son Robert Coleman, Junior married Ann Spilsby), while it appears that a Thomas Brown, Junior in Group 33 married a Miss Reid/Reed/Read who was apparently a descendant of a Richard Coleman (PROBABLY/PERHAPS related to the above two Richard Colemans....who were part of the "Coleman family of Mobjack Bay of VA").
> 
> DNA Group 47 included the Garfield Brown who was on the Culpeper tax list in the early-1780s.  Garfield apparently came into Culpeper from Louisa Co., VA.  Another member of DNA Group 47 shows his lineage back to the William Brown who married a Sarah "Sally" Sisk (and their son George Brown who married a Miss Woodard).  We had thought that the father of that William Brown was the John Brown of Culpeper (left his Will in 1801) who married first to Sarah "Sally" Gibbs and second to Phoebe Brown, but that now appears to be incorrect.  It strongly appears instead that the referenced John Brown who married both Sarah and Phoebe was the known son of the older John Brown who had married his cousin Elizabeth Brown.  The cousins John and Elizabeth (Brown) Brown were both members of DNA Group 10 (and the referenced Phoebe Brown was also a known member of Group 10, since two of her brothers have living male Brown descendants whose DNA also matches Group 10).
> 
> I don't recall much about DNA Group 55, but DNA Group 107 included a Daniel Brown who married Lettice Watts and a John Brown who married Lucy Doggett (all were in Culpeper Co., VA).  Other ancestors in Group 107 included a Paschal Brown and an Epps Brown (Epps was apparently a son of the Burwell Brown who died in Charlotte Co., VA in the early-1800s) who moved to GA and/or AL, as I recall (but neither Paschal nor Epps was apparently ever been in Culpeper Co., VA).
> 
> It was obviously common to have multiple unrelated Brown families in any one area in the 1700s and 1800s, and DNA testing shows that this was the case in many other counties in VA.  The Amelia/Prince Edward Co., VA area, as well as the Bedford/Campbell Co., VA area....just to name two....each had several unrelated Brown families in residence.  Without DNA testing, research on these Brown families would be almost hopeless.  With DNA testing, great strides have been made....but with a common name like "Brown," many challenges certainly remain.  More male Brown DNA donors from the various families in VA would help.
> 
> Note: My own maternal gg-grandfather was named Smith W. Brown (born about 1817).  DNA testing, coupled with a lot of research, however, show that he was actually a Smith infant who was taken-in, named and reared by a Brown family in Middlesex Co., VA.  Smith W. "Brown" was actually a "Y DNA Smith descendant" of the Alexander Smith who came into Lancaster Co., VA by at least the 1650s....and I continue to research that Smith line.  So....the next time that you think that you "have it tough" with your research, just remember me and my Brown and Smith families (and Davidson/Davison/Davisson is no "walk in the park" either)!
> 
> Comments/questions?
> 
> Bill Davidson
> 
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