Replacements and Additions for Brewer Families in the South

This post will be of interest to those researching Brewer families found in the southern American colonies, particularly families associated with George Brewer of Brunswick Co., Virginia and Ambrose Brewer of Moore Co., North Carolina and later Tennessee.

First, a little background. Back in late 2014, while a co-administrator of the Brewer DNA Project, me and Richard Brewer, then the administrator, decided that we would try do something to help the project's sub-group called "Lanier-Brewer" which consisted of members who were, or believed to be, descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick Co., Virginia. This was then, and still is, the largest sub-group within the Brewer DNA Project, with over 50 members then and over 80 now. However, at that time there did not seem to be much exchange among the members of the group, and apparently no organized effort to help those in the group complete their ancestries or answer whatever questions prompted them to join the project to begin with. So, in an effort to kick-start more interest within the group, I began work on the Brewer-Lanier database, the purpose of which was to be used as an aid for identifying and archiving correct (provable) lineages of descendants of George Brewer. It was never intended to be a complete genealogy of George Brewer's descendants, and since I am not a descendant myself, and allocated only three months of time to work on it, the database was very limited in scope. In addition to the database, I have written a number of posts on this blog regarding George Brewer's descendants and the quest to assemble a reliable account of (at least) his provable children and grandchildren. The blog posts begin in early 2015 and can be found with the label "Brewers in the South." Unfortunately, as of this writing, the Brewer-Lanier database is offline (see June 9, 2018 and June 11, 2018). I do not have an alternative for the full Brewer-Lanier database, and do not intend to recreate it. It is lost unless RootsWeb restores the Free Pages site that hosted the pages. In light of the loss, all I can offer is a chart of Five Generations of Descendants of  George Brewer and Genealogical Summary report covering some descendants of George Brewer. (Please read the short preface to the later to put it into perspective). Although these two documents to do not cover all of those who were found on the Brewer-Lanier database website, it is the best I can offer as a substitute. And frankly, I think that the blog posts are more valuable than the Brewer-Lanier database anyway.

The post of June 14, 2018, mentions the Replacement Links and More page that was recently created. I have placed online at new locations, a number of documents and files related to the "Brewers in the South" families. Some are substitutes for bad links in past posts, but others are new, and have not previously been online. So please check this page. Also, some posts have links to images that were placed on Free Pages, and those links no longer work. In these cases I have updated the posts with the images embedded within.

I'll also note here that the work of Marvin T. Broyhill is frequently cited in many posts. At the time they were written, digital copies of the three volumes published by Broyhill could be downloaded from the Family History Library at their FamilySearch.org website. Apparently that has changed. The catalog entry for Broyhill's work no longer includes links for digital copies. FamilySearch now also requires that you create an account and sign in, in order to view their databases and catalog entries. It is free, and my mention is intended as a heads up that the link above may not work unless you are also signed in to FamilySearch. I do have digital copies in the form of PDFs, but the files are large and I'm mulling over whether or not to place them online using my own space on Google (which is limited) or trying to upload them to the Internet Archives (which likely would be more permanent). If, or when, I make them available, I'll post notice here.

Finally, in going through my files at home (for one last time) regarding the "Brewers in the South," I'm finding that I have a few images and PDFs that I don't believe I've previously placed online. I'll do so now (or rather in the near future). Images (.jpg files) will be embedded within individual posts, while PDFs will be added to the Replacement Links and More page.

Here is an example of such an image. It is an image of page 3 from, Holcomb, Brent H. Marriages of Chatham County, North Carolina, 1772-1868. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. It includes three, apparently early 19th century Brewer marriages.

Marriages of Chatham County, North Carolina (image from Ancestry.com)

Lastly, I want to add that I believe that mine and Richard's kick-start attempt initiated back in late 2014 worked. The "Lanier-Brewer" sub-group at the Brewer DNA Project has seen a terrific pick up  in activity and interest. As I mentioned, there are now over 80 members who have had Y-DNA tests participating in the group. I think that somewhere near 30 of them have taken the advanced SNP test, Big-Y. Results from this additional testing has allowed the group to identify a haplogroup (I-Y15031) for members of the group and more strikingly, at least three sub-branches. These sub-branches may represent lines descended from different sons or grandsons of George Brewer, or, since the early generations of George Brewer's family are still vague and uncertain, point to another yet undetected relation of George (his father, or a brother) who may also have been in the Virginia colony early on. At any rate, I doubt that there are few projects within Family Tree DNA that have achieved this level of participation and success for the descendants of one colonial period individual.

I am no longer actively researching these families and what you'll find online here at Brouwer Genealogy is all I have on the group. David V. Brewer is the co-administrator at the Brewer DNA Project who is overseeing the "Lanier-Brewer" sub-group and going forward I would suggest that new researchers, and those considering joining the project, contact him through the Brewer DNA Project. Foy Varner is the co-administrator at the project who has a special interest and expertise in Ambrose Brewer of Moore Co., North Carolina (R-Y18435 and R-Y53883). This sub-group is also looking for new participants who wish to take a Y-DNA test. Although no longer active as a co-administrator, I will continue to add newly found documents and/or images to this blog as I come across them, so periodically check the posts and the Replacement Links and More page.

Good luck researching your southern Brewer families. They are a tough group to research, but don't give up.

BGB 585