Francis Nunn, Sr. - Disputed relationships

Notable Descendants

5th great grandfather of Pres. Jimmy Carter. Also former Secretary of Defense and Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, who, like Carter, was a descendant of Francis' grandson John Nunn, Revolutionary War Soldier.

Children:[2]

1. William, "born before 1718, probably somewhere in the Carolinas. We know that he was the eldest son of Francis I for he was recognized as 'Administrator of his father, Francis Nunn, deceased,' by the Court on 20 Mar 1739 and he inherited the family plantation by the English law of Primogeniture."
2. Francis, Jr./II, "born before 1721, probably somewhere in the Carolinas. The proof of this relationship will be seen in Chapter 3 where two of Francis, Jr.'s children inherit from the estate of their grandfather, Francis I."
3. Elizabeth, "born sometime between 1723 and 1738, probably in Craven County. At the Dec 1743 Court of Quarter Sessions at New Bern she was identified as the daughter of Francis Nunn, deceased, and chose John Cox as her Guardian. Cox had to provide 500 pounds security."
4. Ann, "born sometime between 1723 and 1738, probably in Craven County. At the Dec 1743 Court of Quarter Sessions at New Bern she was identified as the daughter of Francis Nunn, deceased, and chose her brother, William Nunn, as her Guardian. William had to provide 300 pounds security."

"This Francis Nunn died intestate in 1738, leaving a wife and four known children: William, Francis, Ann and Elizabeth. As he died intestate, the plantation became the right of his son, William, as eldest son and heir according to the Old English law of Primogeniture. William later gave or sold some of this land to his brother Francis...Nothing further is known of Anna and Elizabeth, nor the maiden name of Francis wife."[3]

DNA

Gary Pinson
The Nunn Y-DNA project Patriarchs page at https://web.archive.org/web/20180523074417/https://www.worldfamilie... lists a long undocumented pedigree starting with a “John Nunn b 1450 Rattlesden, Suffolk, England” and descending seven more generations to a “John Nunn b 1660 VA d 1700 VA m Mary Richardson” and their purported son “Francis Nunn b 1687 Craven, NC d 1738 Craven, NC m Naomi Barrett.” The inplication is that this is all proven with Y-DNA results, which of course can’t be true.
Y-DNA results if substantial enough and analyzed correctly can give a probability of relationship between two people taking the test. But it can’t order a pedigree. When dealing with pre 18th century pedigrees, proof needs to be established at every single generation, generally through one, or more, wills with additional supporting evidence. That is not at all easy to do and can only be done with a line that is substantially wealthy enough to produce enough primary source documents.

The Patriarchs page above also indicates there were two Y-Dna tests applied to this pedigree. One, #63396, to a descendant of William Nunn Sr and the other, #N56700, to a descendant of his brother Francis Nunn Jr. It would be interesting to see what those test results indicated. Based on my experience with the Pinson Y-DNA project, I’d expect them to show a genetic distance of at least 4. Francis Nunn Sr., who is the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the two lines is my 7th great grandfather. In my Pinson line, the MRCA was also my 7th great grandfather and the representatives of his two sons had a genetic distance of 5. All that means is the relationship is very old, which we already knew from our genealogical evidence.

But I couldn’t view the results for the two tests above. In one place the Nunn Y-DNA project indicates there may be 38 test takers (it states 38 members). However, the Nunn Y-DNA results page only shows 7 results with only 3 showing a Nunn ancestor. Neither test numbers N56700, nor 63396 are shown. See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180523074417/https://www.worldfamilie...

But, this is a mute point. All the Y-DNA results of the two tests could possibly prove is that the descendants of William Nunn Sr and his brother Francis Nunn Jr. were related. They could not hope to prove the names of their MRCA nor his father or grandfather. To hope to do so, you’d need a test taker (preferably more than one) on a different Nunn branch that could trace his ancestry, with substantial proof at each generation, to someone merge older than Francis Nunn Sr. Then, you could theorize that that Nunn branch merged with our Nunn line at some point in the far distant past, but only guess at where. In other words, the Y-DNA evidence could support a strong genealogical case, but not prove anything more than a distant relationship on it’s own.

Both the alleged wife of Francis Nunn Sr. and his alleged parents, seem to have been derived from this Patriarchs page without any genealogical evidence. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason to include them on Francis Nunn Sr’s profile, other than as a note to researchers indicating the claim made, without evidence, on said Nunn Y-DNA project Patriarch’s page.

If, I am wrong, please prove me wrong showing the evidence and logic in the proof. Believe me, as a descendant of Francis Nunn Sr., I am not trying to rock the boat. I am trying to uncover the truth about our ancestors without being led down the wrong pathway by a baseless claim.

Detaching from Francis Nunn, Sr.

• John Nunn & Mary Nunn as parents
• Peter Nunn Thomas Nunn, I & John Nunn as siblings
• Naomi Nunn as wife
• John Nunn Thomas Nunn & Daniel Nunn as children