by John V. Berry
William Berry, Sr. is believed to have been born in the State of Maryland around the year 1738 and the available evidence shows that he died on October 7, 1780 while fighting the British and local Tories at the Battle of King’s Mountain in South Carolina. I am a descendant of this Berry family line and I believe that William Berry, Sr. was my 5th great grandfather. The original immigrant from England who moved to these newly expanding American Colonies has not yet been determined, but based upon DNA connections, it is believed that the ancestor that immigrated was most likely a descendant of one of the Berry clans from the County of Devonshire, England, in the United Kingdom.
The Berry family from Little River, South Carolina, by way of Gilmer Connelly Berry (1890-1964) originally came from the larger Berry clan in Burke County, North Carolina. Genealogical DNA testing of the Y-DNA of males with the Surname Berry has revealed that this Berry line also relates to Berry families in Hyde County, North Carolina, York & Spartanburg Counties, in South Carolina, Blount County, Alabama and various other counties in Georgia and Maryland.
History of the Berry Family
The County of Devon is located in the Southwest most part of England near the Southwestern most part of England. While there were a number of Berry immigrants from different families that eventually traveled to Colonial America in the early period of immigration between the years of 1587 and 1800, the subject of this article is the Berry line that left Devon for either a direct trip to the new American Colonies or with a short stop first to Ulster, and then to the colonies, most likely at some point between the years of 1620 and 1725, eventually leading this article to the last known traceable American ancestor at present, William Berry, Sr. who lived between Circa 1738 to 1780.
While the original Berry Immigrant from this line has not yet been determined, the writer does not doubt that these ancestors will be hopefully discovered in the near future, completing this line’s genealogy, it is hoped, from the year 1100 to present day. While on the edge of proof, this author believes that the Berry Family started out in the area near Cecil County, Maryland which at the time also ran into areas of Pennsylvania, eventually moving South by way of the Great Wagon Road. It is in Devon, England where it is believed that this Berry line, for the most part, lived for approximately 500 years or more, prior to part of the line's decision to leave England for the New World. It is believed, and hopefully some day will be proven, that this Berry line first immigrated to England from France following the Battle of Hastings in 1066, where they fought with William the Conqueror against the then Saxon King of England, Harold.
This Berry line, it is believed, came to North America, perhaps during the first expeditions, including that of Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke. Richard and Henry Berrye (Berry, Barry), were from Devon, along with most of the other settlers, and had been presumed lost when no evidence of them could be found. However, there is new evidence leading many researchers to believe that they survived by merging with local indian tribes, later assimilating fully back into the general population. Other Berry members of this particular line came from Devon in the 1630s to the Chesapeake Bay area, either staying in Maryland, or moving South to the Carolinas. William Berry, Sr. may have descended from them.
History of the Berry Name
The meaning of the Berry name, for this line comes from England and France. In England, Berry was a habitational name from any of several places named with Old English byrig, dative case of burh ‘fortified manor house’, ‘stronghold’, such as Berry in Devon or Bury in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Suffolk, and West Sussex. The name also refers to a locality in France, which was known as Berri, France.
The Berry Coat of Arms
NIHIL SINE LABORE “Nothing Without Work”
DNA Evidence Provides Clues to the Origins of the Berry Line
The origins of this particular Berry line are believed by this writer to be based upon the knowledge and research obtained thus far, as well as significant DNA evidence, which would lend to the theory that this Berry Line descends from Normans, on the male side, prior to their time in England.
In particular, as DNA testing of the Y Chromosome has become more sophisticated in very recent times, it has become easier not only to track direct relatives from centuries ago, and those to which you may be related to today, but also even likely locations where your past ancestors lived or even the origin of one's family. It looks very likely, given recent reclassifications of this writer’s DNA Haplogroup, currently known as R1b1b2a1a1 (or U-198 in shorthand) that the Burke, NC Berry line hails from where my written research had previously indicated, first Devon, England within the United Kingdom, and before that from France as Normans. To give the reader an idea as to just how fast the technology in family-based DNA research is moving, the writer’s DNA haplogroup classification has changed a total of more than 3 times over the past year, each time getting more specific as to my family's origin.
A recent analysis, seems to indicate that while this type of DNA Haplogroup exists in southern England and Germany (the Rhine Valley & Stuttgart) in the region previously inhabited by the Saxons, it is unknown if this marker arrived in England with the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th Century. It is considered to be a less common DNA type, with evidence of similar markers over a wide area that besides England (1.4%) and Germany (1.8%), includes the Netherlands (maximum value 2.1%), Denmark (0.9%) and Russia (1.8%). The age of U-198 is approximately 2,000 - 3,000 years.The information above would correlate with the belief that this was the Berry line which were granted significant estates in Devon by King William, following 1066. In addition, this writer’s DNA has matched a number of other, not personally known individuals in the United States with the surname Berry, but also an individual who lives and whose family has lived in Swimbridge, Devon, UK for hundreds of years, one Donald Berry, who has a family pedigree that goes back to the 1100s, which based on his family tree appears to be part of the original Norman Berry line.
Donald Berry’s line in the Devonshire area traces itself back to a man named Galfredus De Berry, born in 1219 and there are English records which exist showing that this family is related to the line of the Berry family associated with Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devonshire. Good English records were kept in the Devonshire area and there exists a family tree from the early days of the Berry family’s appearance in the Devonshire area at the end of the Norman Invasion by William the Conqueror, until the present. The only remaining hurdle, which should eventually be solved, is to determine which person in the Berry family tree was the original immigrant from the Devon Berry line.
Possible Immigration Points for this Berry Line
The writer was contacted by the Lost Colony Project, as it appears that two of the individuals that had previously thought lost on Roanoke Island in the late 1500s, were from the Berry family in Devon, UK. Additionally, another possibility is that this line relates to the Berry family members from Devon who came to Maryland early in the 1600s. Some additional difficulties have involved the fact that the common usage of William and John within the Berry line. It seems as if nearly every William Berry had a son named John Berry who then had a son named William Berry. Additionally, in older records the use of middle names were recorded as first names. One other difficulty has been that when a father and son share the same first and last name, the father would be referred often times as “Sr.” and the son as “Jr.” However, when the father passed on, the son would assume the “Sr.” title, dropping “Jr.”
Other common first names for the Berry family have continued to be present through the line, including several “Ezekiel” Berrys in our line, several Bart or Bartholemew Berrys, and three or more Berry family members with the middle name “Vance,” most likely named after close family or friend David Vance, the grandfather of Governor Zebulon Vance of North Carolina during the Civil War period. With that said, here is what the research has shown thus far as to our line. The first generation listed below is not the first generation of Berry family members in the United States is barring any new findings, not the Original Berry immigrant.
The testing standards are fairly strict, leaving little chance for error. The writer stumbled upon the Berry DNA Project website run by Jim Berry and Carol Vass, whose goal has been to help all of the different Berry lines establish their heritage. Their kind efforts for Berry DNA project have enabled this writer to dig deep into this line’s family past to the extent possible. This Article would also not be possible without access to over 3 decades worth of research done by the writer’s late uncle, Connelly Burgin Berry and the kindness of his wife and the writer’s Aunt, Dallas Wallace Berry in helping me gain access to his nearly 2,000 pages of genealogy research on the Berry line, in addition to other associated families.
There is a lot of information to add, and additions, corrections and any other related information is welcomed by the writer as this is a work in progress, but for now I will get started with the first ancestor that I can identify with written proof in the United States, William Berry, Sr., who is the author's Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather. Anyone with additional information about this line is encourage to contact the author through this website. What was started and paused in 2011 will begin again. Since I last hosted a website, I have gathered additional information that may be of use to others in tracing their family lines. I hope to add this information as this website develops.
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