Brandons, c.1730 out of Fermanagh to Pennsylvania, USA

I am Sally Brandon, coordinator for Lineage I of the Brandon DNA Project at Family Tree DNA. More than half a dozen separate lines of Brandons matching this DNA have oral or written histories of origins in County Fermanagh, where Brandons can be found in 18c records, primarily in this parish.

The earliest emmigrated c.1730 to Pennsylvania, USA with Cathey (Clones, County Monaghan) and Armstrong wives. (Thomas, William, John, James and George Brandon.) My own Thomas Brandon and wife Martha appear in New Jersey, USA in 1753. They traveled with what Americans call the Scotch-Irish migration and seem to have adopted the Presbyterian faith of their wives rather than the Church of Ireland community they were probably part of, themselves.

To connect our people with Fermanagh specifically, I am told I need to settle down in Belfast for a spell and delve into estate records. Since Brandon is an English name and I have found no evidence of it in Ulster early in the 17c, I suspect they were planted later in the century. The Ulster Historical Society points toward the Blennerhasset Estate while I had thought the Archdale Estate was their home. John Archdale came from Suffolk, England, where Brandons are found along with a family they married into in Suffolk and later in Fermanagh, the Chittocks (various spellings). Gerard Chittoque Brandon from Fermanagh became governor of the US state of Mississippi. (Although his family has not tested their DNA.)

Wonderful project, thanks for all Ireland XO does! I'll be joing the Gathering in 2013....

Sally Brandon