Saturday, August 18, 2007

Backtracking the surnames and DNA from Mississippi

The family Bible states that Samuel Reily was the son of Robert and Ann Reily. Samuel Reily was in Camden District, SC in the 1790 census. He was in Sumter County in the 1800 census and also in the 1810 census (same place; reorganization of political divisions). Samuel Reily and John Vertu applied in 1784 for administration of Robert’s estate as “near of kin”.

Isaac McDonald Reily, older than his brothers John Young and Robert Wesley, was born in 1791. When Samuel Reily came to Mississippi Territory in 1812, Isaac was with him and both were required to get passports. After the massacre at Fort Mims, August 30, 1813, Isaac and several cousins joined the Mississippi militia, Hind’s Battalion of Cavalry (Mississippi Dragoons). The unit was organized at Liberty, MS in September, 1813, under Lt. Colonel Thomas Hinds. This unit was involved in the capture of Spanish Pensacola, November, 1814 and the Battle of New Orleans, December, 1814- January, 1815. Isaac married Mary Browman [Bowman], Amite Co., MS in 1819(Casey, Amite County) and, 2nd, Amy Higginbotham in 1823, and lived in East Feliciana Parish, LA.
Another aspect that suggests investigation is that Tennessee units participated in Jackson’s expedition to Natchez. However, even if there were Burtons among them, those troops would not have brought their womenfolk along. A Reily offspring among the Burtons would hav been unlikely by those means. Conversely, 1813 was not early enough to introduce Burton genes into the Reily lineage to account for the Reily brothers, Robert Wesley and John Young.
Further study is needed to detect Robert, Samuel, or Isaac being associated with the Burton family. Potential locations seem to be in Tennessee, Kentucky, or the Carolinas.

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