The Autry - Collins Connection
Over the last six months or so myself and a couple of cousins from the family lines of the Gibson and Nichols families, have been working on and off on the Y DNA connections between descendants of various Collins men and the Autry family of Edgecombe County NC.
This relationship between the two families was first brought to my attention by fellow researcher, and Gibson family member, Susan Higgins Williams.
It has been discovered that the Y DNA of these two families are a match.
The Collins men involved in these particular matches are the following;
David Collins 1750
Vardy Collins 1764
Thomas Collins 1770
James Collins 1772
Griffin Collins 1773
Amos Collins 1784
The male descendants of these men share the exact same Y DNA as the male descendants of Cornelius Autry born about 1709 whose family originated in France and who would later pass away in Sampson County NC about 1779. Gene Autry, the famous cowboy singer, is a descendant of this particular Autry family.
The heaviest part of the research is how a male member of the Autry family comes into contact with the Melungeon Collins family.
We believe we have finally found the answer.
Helping me in this endeavor has been my cousins Susan Higgins Williams and Jay Stokes, the three of us are descendants of the Thomas Gibson family of Louisa County VA that later moved to Orange County NC and with the families of Thomas Collins Sr., Moses Riddle and Micajah Bunch formed the nucleus of what would become the Melungeon community.
However, this revelation really begins with a conversation. My cousin Jay Stokes had brought up a rather interesting point regarding one of my great uncles, Otary Collins of Eastern Kentucky, noting how similar that first name is to the surname Autry.
In fact, if you look at the 1850 and 1860 census records, his name is basically Autry phonetically. Spelled Otrey Collins.
Continued.....
Of course, Otary Collins is a son of Valentine Collins, and it is highly possible that Valentine was the result of a Collins woman from the family of Old Thomas Collins and a Bunch male.
Now, whether Otary was an Appalachian corruption of Autry is debatable, but it was the key part of finding the following information.
Going by Jay's observation, I began to look at the 1755 Orange County NC tax lists that notate the Collins, Gibson, and Riddle families first coming together. I knew that if we were to find this connection, I felt the most likely suspect would be David Collins because he was born about that time frame.
However, I was shocked at what was found in that tax list. I've been researching these particular families for nearly thirty years, and I'm rarely ever surprised.
Not far from Samuel Collins lived a man named Alexander Autry. Spelled on the tax list, Alexander Ottry. Had my cousin Jay never pointed out the possibility that Otary Collins could have been a phonetic mishap in pronunciation, I really doubt we would have found this record.
Alexander Autry was likely kin to Cornelius Autry of Edgecombe County NC. Our first thoughts were this Alexander Autry could have been the Alexander who was the son of Cornelius Autry, however this Alexander appears to be a bit older, possibly a brother of Cornelius, more research is needed on this matter.
My personal opinion is this Alexander Autry was the father of David Collins by a Collins woman, who in turn was a sister of Samuel Collins, a son of Thomas Collins from Louisa County VA.
According to past research by Jack Goins and various other researchers, it has been revealed that the Collins exited Orange County NC about 1767 and started moving towards Virginia. Also born slightly before this time frame, if we are to believe the 1840 and 1850 Hawkins County and Hancock County TN Census Records, was Vardy Collins, whose descendants do indeed share the same Y DNA as David Collins.
Vardy Collins listed his birth year as 1764 in North Carolina in the 1850 census. I believe this is why, throughout the years, so much research has connected Vardy Collins to Samuel Collins, when it appears though that Samuel was probably his uncle.
After David and Vardy, it's anyone's guess how this plays out. Was David Collins the father of Thomas, James, and Griffin? Was Vardy Collins the father of Amos Collins? Was this relationship between Alexander Autry and this Collins woman a prolonged one?
I don't know, I do know that Vardy Collins was brought into court in Wilkes County NC in 1789 where he admitted to being the father of a Williams woman's child, so that in itself proves he had children before his relationship with Spanish Peggy Gibson.
This, however, is not the only connection between an Autry family and the Melungeons. Enter Absalom Autry, another son of Cornelius Autry.
Absalom Autry was a Tory who rode under the command of Colonel David Fanning during the Revolutionary War. Also associated with Fanning was my ancestor William Nichols, a son in law of Moses Riddle. William Riddle, also a Tory and a son of Moses, rode with Fanning also.
William Nichols, William Riddle and Old Ned Sizemore were hanged by Benjamin Cleveland for Tory activities between 1780 - 1781. After the war, Absalom Autry escaped to Alabama dying in the year 1833.
William Nichols, my ancestor, was the son of John Nichols, who is listed on the 1750 Lunenburg County tax list as being on what was called An Old Man's Indian List. John's neighbor was a George Sizemore, most likely a brother of Old Ned Sizemore.
As for Alexander Autry, the son of Cornelius Autry, he ended up in Georgia about 1778, where he is listed in the militia with another son of Cornelius Autry, John Autry. They were both captains in the militia. John Autry was murdered by Creek Indians in a raid in 1788 in Wilkes County, GA.
Anyways, as my cousin Don Collins used to say, that's my two cents.
Patrick Nichols
Atlanta GA