Bradberrys and Corbins and ... Boyds? Oh my!

I'm still new enough at this that I get totally shocked when an unlikely and unexpected connection turns up. But it makes me feel good when I find a connection I know someone else is missing.

And so it was, as I was perusing my new Gwinnett County resource books, that I came across the Bradberry family. I knew my cousin Randall Smith had tons of Bradberrys who married into his Walker family. I also knew that because of a computer foul-up, Randall had been unable to add information to his family tree for quite a while.

So, I wrote a casual e-mail, asking if he had recorded his Bradberrys in Gwinnett County and, if he hadn't, I'd be glad to send them to him. I included the family of William Jasper and Matilda Corbin Bradberry I had found in the 1870 Gwinnett census and said there was more if he wanted it. I also noticed an Ira and Jane Corbin next door and added that information.The next thing I knew, I had two e-mails back from Randall, full of exclamation points, mostly around Ira Corbin.

"Ira Corbin???!!!" he wrote. "Ira was Matilda Corbin's father!!! Do you have any more on him???"

Well, that was like giving a runaway horse more slack in the rein, and I was off. I went through all my books, both histories by Flanigan, all my censuses, then checked good ol' Rootsweb to see if anyone else had done research on Ira.

That was when I almost fell off my chair. One of the persons who had Ira Corbin in their family tree on Rootsweb was ... me!

Huh? I didn't remember an Ira Corbin anywhere. So I opened my file and almost fell of my chair again. Ira Corbin was the husband of Janetta (Jane) Boyd, daughter of John (Waggoner Jack) Boyd, granddaughter of John (Johnny Buckles) Boyd, and great-granddaughter of John Boyd of Ballymena.

Remember the column I did on those Boyds who came from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland and ended up at Bethany Methodist Church in Fayette County? Well, this was the same family. Janetta Boyd was the sister of the James Boyd who is buried at Bethany, and who is the ancestor of all the Fayette County Boyds. Talk about a shocker. You just never know where these family trails will lead you.

To be sure, I checked a few of the other files that had Ira in the family tree, and it appeared I was right. Or, if I wasn't, all of us were wrong.

It appears Ira and Jane Boyd Corbin, along with many other families living in Newberry, South Carolina, in the early 1800s, migrated to Georgia in the

1820s '30s, and '40s. While Jane Boyd's brother, James, went to Pike, Meriwether and Fayette, Ira and Jane went to Gwinnett and show up there in 1840, living in GMD 404, with their family of two boys and three girls, all under age 15. An older female also lived with Ira at that time (age 50-60), probably his mother, said to be named Phebee. Flanigan also records Ira Corbin as an inferior court juror in June of 1840.

In 1850, Ira's was the only Corbin family listed in Gwinnett, and his mother was still living with him. Children in 1850 were Matilda, 21; James, 20; Rhoda, 15; Ira A. Jr., 13; Mary, 10; Phebee, 9; and Frances, 6.

In 1851, Matilda Corbin married William Jasper Bradberry. In 1853, James C. Corbin married Frances Davis. (Flanigan gives marriages year by year, at least those whose records were not destroyed in the 1871 courthouse fire.)

In 1860, Ira Corbin and his son James, are still the only Corbins in Gwinnett. Ira's children still at home are Arena, age 25 (probably Rhoda), Catharine, age 18 (probably Phebee), and Frances, age 16. His mother apparently passed away during the last decade.

James Corbin lived next door with his wife, Frances, and children Mary, Melvin, Sarah and Henryetta. Matilda Corbin and Jasper Bradberry lived in the same district (Cain's) with their family, Susan, James, Mary and Roda.

By 1870, Ira and Jane are living alone, all the children have married and left home. Ira died in 1888 and Jane died in 1895. They are both buried at Rocky Springs Methodist Church in Gwinnett.

William Jasper and Matilda Corbin Bradberry had 11 children in all and some of them moved to Cleburne County, Ala. in the 1880s. Their daughter, Jerusha Bradberry, married John Emmett Walker, son of John Pierce and Nancy Elizabeth Fowler Walker (Randall's connection). Jerusha's brother, William Jefferson Beauregard Bradberry, also moved to Cleburne County with his wife, Susan Ellender Doss. Family stories say that Jeff had a major spat with his mother and changed the spelling of his name to Bradbary.

Jeff and Susan's daughter, Eunice Adele Bradberry (or Bradbary) married my great-uncle John Fowler, but the marriage only lasted three months. John was tragically killed in an accidental shooting while he was in Texas. Eunice then married Madison Eason Gay, son of John Gay and Mrs. Ann Jacobs Gay. Eason was the widower of Mattie Fowler Gay, John Fowler's sister. (Yeah ... it took me several months to figure that one out.)

The Bradberrys and the Gays moved to north Alabama in the early 1900s and lived in a little town called Phil Campbell. I thought my aunt had lost her bananas when she gave me that name, but she was right. She and my dad used to spend summers with Aunt Eunice and Uncle Eason on their farm there ... and they weren't even real blood-related uncles and aunts. (You knew I'd tie this in to my family, didn't you?)

But that Boyd connection really blew me away. Maybe that will help someone with Boyd history find their long lost folks. Gwinnett, huh? I never would have thought to look there.

Does your Atlanta area family have an interesting family history? Send it to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others. She will willingly share research information on her own family lines, including collateral and allied lines.)