A Collins Link
A comment led me to branch out
A recent comment on an older GenTales post about my ancestor Bryant Collins sent me on a hunt.
Where does this Collins meet my Collinses?
The Bryant Collins in my line was the son of Thomas Collins who married Nancy Williams.
Who Thomas’ father was is unclear, but he had a close relation, likely a brother or uncle, named Valentine Collins based on genetic triangulation of descendents of Valentine’s daughter to me and other cousins with DNA available on WikiTree. On the WikiTree entries for this part of the Collins line, Valentine has been linked to several other siblings, including a Solomon Collins, who appears to be the ancestor of the Hancock Co. Collinses.
A snippet provided by an Ancestry user of a Sneedville publication from 1903 indicates that the Collins family of Hancock Co. being of Melungeon and native origin was general knowledge at the time. My family lost this information presumably due to familial infighting during the Civil War and a greater need to hide. However, as I did research into this line for My Lineage from the Roots Up, vol. 2, Thomas Collins and his kin claimed to have once been part of the Saponi tribe and had the “Free Colored Person” designation on the censuses before relocating to Kentucky.
These similarities lend credence to the lines being related. However, exactly where our lines cross is unclear due to a lack of documentation and contradictory family histories - as well as a lot of Solomon and Samuel Collinses in North Carolina around the turn of the 19th century.
Here’s what is known:
Commodore Collins (1866-1953) was the son of Bailey Collins (1827-1908) and Melissa Rhea. Apparently, Bailey was the son of Solomon Dickerson Collins (1799-1870) and Jane “Ginny” Goins. It is then thought that Solomon was the son of Solomon Collins and Edy Dickerson, though not all sources agree on this. It is possible that Solomon Sr. was the brother of Thomas Collins and uncle to Bryant in my line. Or he may have been Thomas’ uncle.
It’s a thread that still needs to be pulled.
Huzzah, fun to celebrate progress.