Hello Tom,

Since my initial post from 2006 I’ve put together what I think is a reasonable account of the Dearybury branch of the family, but some of it is unproven speculation. Bear with me, since it is relatively complicated. You can follow what I have online at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fams/durre..., tracing up and down from there, and consulting the “notes” pages, which contain a lot of transcribed information.

Nancy was the daughter of the woman Frances Bates, that is certain. She married Thomas H. Derreberry in 1860, and he died in 1862. Nancy had an older daughter named Annette Frances (who m. Samuel Biggerstaff), born 1857, likely out of wedlock. Annette sometimes used Bates as her maiden name, and sometimes Dearybury after her step-father (see for example her marriage record, transcribed on Annette’s notes page).

Only Nancy’s son William was born during the brief time she was married to Thomas, and I believe he was Thomas’ only biological child. In the 1870 census, Nancy (widowed) and William were living with her mother Frances, and enumerated again as Bates.

Nancy’s other three children (Benjamin, Overton, and Laura) were all born after 1870 but before Nancy’s second marriage to William Davis (after which she seemed to have no children). Despite the fact that these 3 children all used the surname Dearybury, I believe they were probably also born out of wedlock, while Nancy was a young widow. Unfortunately, I have no clue as to who their father was, but I suspect he was not a Derreberry/Dearybury. The best way to try to figure it out would be to convince one of your Dearybury cousins, someone who comes by direct male-line descent from Benjamin or Overton, to participate in a Y-chromosome DNA study. You might be able to match their profile to one of the surnames found in McDowell Co. in the 1870s. (Perhaps it will even match Davis, the man Nancy married in 1881.)

Interestingly, I believe that Thomas Derreberry himself was not born to a Derreberry father, but rather was born out of wedlock, most likely to the Margaret Derreberry found in McDowell Co. census records. If you were to do a similar Y-chromosome study on someone in direct male-line descent from William, I suspect he would not match the descendant of Benjamin or Overton, and would also not match the Derreberrys. I believe that Thomas was the lone infant in the household of his grandparents, George William and Elizabeth Derreberry, from the 1840 census. He would have been age about 2, and a woman about Margaret's age was also in the household.

So far I cannot find Thomas in the 1850 census, and I can find neither Thomas nor his suspected mother Margaret in the 1860 census.

Any further light you could shed on the Dearybury family would be greatly appreciated. As you can see, I don’t have exact birth, death or marriage dates for Laura J. Dearybury, nor any proof of her full middle name. You are welcome to email me directly, or post here. Thanks,

Brian