Musing on William Burris, born 1782

[dee_burris]

One of my brick walls.

Not only mine. A whole bunch of us would be ever so pleased to find out the identities of William's parents and sibs.

In my GEDCOM, I say he was born in North Carolina. From a written family history of one of his grandsons in 1937, we learned that William was an indentured servant in his youth, brought to Lawrence County, TN by the man who held his papers, and lost track of his birth family. The same grandson repeated what the rest of most of William's descendants have heard in our family lore - that William's family was Scotch-Irish.

William married and had a huge family in Lawrence County, including my g-g-grandfather, James Littleton Burris.

Because so little is known about William's origins, I made a semi-educated guess that he came from North Carolina.

This morning, I was reading through History of Tennessee (Goodspeed Publishing, 1886, ebook edition publ. 2010) again and on page 750, found additional evidence that William probably emigrated to Lawrence Co., TN from North Carolina with his employer. The settlers came chiefly from North Carolina...

Following that sentence was a list one and a half pages long of the names of heads of North Carolina families who settled Lawrence County before the year 1818.

And I'm guessing that William's employer's name may be on that list, but I haven't a clue who he was...

Comments

[rainbow]

eee, congratulations on the new potential lead!

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a John Henry Booher on that list . A earljones site lists Booher as the father of Williiam franklin Burris of Lawerence County Tennessee . I dont know where he got his info from. could this be the family he was indentured to?

[dee_burris]

That's possible, I suppose, although I don't recall seeing the Booher surname.

I've seen that website. There's no supporting documentation for the claim. Doesn't mean it isn't so, I just can't see how he arrived at his conclusion.

[(Anonymous)]

I posted the previous message about Booher. If you want to get back to me my email adress is Shall30@ec.rr.com I descend from William Carrol Burris. I also found a brother of William Carroll homesteading 80 acres of land in Oregan County Mo near William Carroll . Felix son of Davis n 1898 .so some of the bunch that stayed in Tennessee later moved closer to family here. I also found a William Burris granted 120 acres of land In Cass county mo. borders Bates county, for services in the war of 1812,assigned to Anthony Potts . Potts sounds familiar but don't know where Ive seen it.

[dee_burris]

I'll email you tomorrow after I see if I saved that list. We are cousins.

William Burris

[(Anonymous)]

I believe this William is my 2x grandfather. I am going to Akansas this week to check into the Burris's that lived there. If this is the one I am looking for I think his father was Jonathan Burris from Lawrence, Tenn. Will let you know what I find out. sincerely, Dianne Burris-Elling

Re: William Burris

[dee_burris]

The William Burris that is the subject of this post had a son named Jonathan (mother was Elizabeth Bailey).

Jonathan Burris was born about 1816 in Lawrence Co., TN, and was one of William Burris' sons who came to Pope Co., AR in 1838, with other families from from Lawrence County in what must have been a sizable ox drawn wagon train. The young people walked most of the way. It was on that journey that my g-g-grandfather, James Littleton Burris (Jonathan's younger brother) fell in love with my g-g-grandmother, Elizabeth Adeline Ashmore.

Our family lore had always told us that Jonathan Burris drowned crossing the Mississippi River from Tennessee into Arkansas. But a 1937 letter surfaced, written by one of James Littleton Burris' sons, William Andrew Burris, in which William said that Jonathan married and had three sons - Stan, Hugh and Wiley Burris.

The letter did not give the name of Jonathan's wife, or where he settled his family after the move.

I'd be very interested in what you find out.