Merril Brady (c.1806 – after 1870) was my 4th-great-grandfather, being the father of Mary McClendon by his only known wife Nancy (c.1812 – after 1870), daughter of Arthur Monday. According to census records, they both lived their whole lives in Tennessee, although Merril at least may have actually been from North Carolina. Merril served in the Mexican-American War. His ancestry is unknown.
The name Merril has variant spellings on records: Merrill, Merrell, Meril, even Merial, and other variants found among descendants named after him. I am following the spelling used on the majority of Federal census records of Merril himself, which were presumably self-reported.
Origins
There is limited documentation to take us back beyond Merril, but there are bits of DNA evidence.
Immediate
Merril’s father is often said to be a surveyor named Charles Brady. So far as I can tell, there is no basis to this story. There are other claims on the Internet about his parents, similarly unsupported.
The first name Farley recurs in this family, which sounds like a surname which may have been an ancestor.
He does seem to have brothers Aaron and Farleyref. There’s a Wiley Brady next door to Merril in 1840, who may be William Farley Brady.
I have DNA matches to people descended from Brady families not known to be related to Merril and Nancy. The best such evidence is a segment of chromosome 10 with multiple matches who connect to a Lewis Brady and Elizabeth Giles who married in North Carolina in 1770, and some to other Brady families. With more effort, I may be able to collate this information to make a good guess as to Merril’s immediate ancestry.
Y chromosome
The name Brady feels like a common one, but the Brady DNA Project has relatively few groupings.ref The largest one, Group A, belongs to haplogroup R1b-BY121876 and claims roots in County Cavan, Ireland.
There is only a single testee noted as descended from Merril. What’s more, his surname is not Brady, although he claims male-line descent. He is inferred to be in haplogroup R1b, but this is a huge haplogroup. He is not in any of the project’s groups and is not a close match to any other reported Brady testee. With only one person, it’s hard to draw any confident conclusion, and it’s strange for him to have no matches.
I had a DNA match surnamed Brady in haplogroup R1b-L21, who descended from an Owen Berry Brady (1824–1903)ref, who I could not connect to Merril but lived in Tennessee and had the distinctive middle name Berry, the same as one of Merril’s sons (below). This match has since removed his account, but I fortunately had these notes. L21 is consistent with the BY121876 of Group A, but it’s not very specific, so this is not strong evidence.
More information is needed here.
Records
Merril’s marriage to Nancy Monday is recorded in Rhea County on 1826-09-21. They are found in the 1830 and 1840 Federal censuses, which provide only counts by age range and sex:
| Year | Counts | Inferred births |
|---|---|---|
| 1830ref ref | 1 ♂ <5, 1 ♂ 20s, 1 ♀ <5, 1 ♀ 15–19 | 1800–1810 ♂ 1810–1815 ♀ 1825–1830 ♂♀ |
| 1840ref | 2 ♂ <5, 2 ♂ 5–9, 1 ♂ 10–14, 1 ♂ 30s, 1 ♀ 5–9, 1 ♀ 10–14, 1 ♀ 20s | 1800–1810 ♂ 1810–1820 ♀ 1825–1830 ♂♀ 1830–1835 ♂♂♀ 1835–1840 ♂♂ |
They are also in censuses for 1850, 1860, and 1870, which list individuals and ages, with inferences for Merril and Nancy’s births:
| Year | Merril age | Inferred birth | Nancy age | Inferred birth | Children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1850ref | 43 | 1807- | 38 | 1812- | James (22), Farly (18), Pleasant (16), Reuben J. (14), Charles (12), William (10), Stephen (8), Samuel H. (3), Sarah A. (2), Hannah E. (2 mo.) |
| 1860ref | 54 | 1806- | 47 | 1813- | William (20), Samuel H. (15), Sarah A. (12), Hannah E. (10), Greenberry (8), Barnett (5) |
| 1870ref | 63 | 1807- | 58 | 1812- | Emily (20), Green Berry (18), Barnet (16), Adeline (12) |
I have found no record later than this. They may have both died by 1880, although it’s certainly possible that they were still alive but missed by the census.
These records fairly consistently place Merril’s birth around 1806, and Nancy’s around 1812. In 1860, however, they differ in opposite directions from the two flanking censuses. This means Nancy married at perhaps 14, which is on the young side but not impossible; she may have also lost count of her age.
Reuben in 1850 must be an error for Rebecca. The absence of Adeline from 1860 is odd; perhaps an error, or, less likely, she may be a granddaughter. I have found no further record of her.
Family
Merril and Nancy had perhaps 14 children in all, at least that can be found. I have not researched most in detail, but this is my tentative current list:
- James, m. Elizabeth Fugate.
- Mary (1829-06-02 – 1914-02-23), my great-great-great-grandmother.
- Farley. Some say he was Glenn Farley.
- Pleasant.
- Rebecca Jane (1836-01-29 – 1915-04-23)ref, married Clayborn Fugate.
- Charles, married Zilpha Ann Gear.
- William Arthur (1840-06-16 – 1904-09-18)ref, married Amanda Hughes.
- Stephen.
- Samuel Huston (1845-03-21 – 1924-09-26)ref, married Nancy Emeline Wilson.
- Sarah A. (1848-03-07 – 1918-07-12)ref, married Robert B. Bohannon.
- Hannah Emily.
- Green Berry (or Greenberry) (1852-06 – 1907), married Laura R. Lindsay (transcribed as Julia in marriage record, oddly).
- Nathaniel Barnett (1855-06-02 – 1910-10-07), married Sarah C. “Sallie” Whaley.
- (?) Adeline.
DNA and me
I have many autosomal DNA matches to descendants of Merril and Nancy, including through their children Rebecca, William, and Green Berry. This provides pretty convincing confirmation of my descent.
See also Nancy’s parents for matching through her known siblings.
Merril and Nancy are both X chromosome ancestors of mine, and indeed I have confirmatory matches on the X with others for who they are X ancestors.