Book Description

In The Ancestry of David Bracewell, Carey Bracewell describes the fourteen-generation lineage traced from Edmund Bracewell, who was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, c. 1510, to Careys son, David Bracewell, who was born in Texas in 1964. He outlines the career of the first American Bracewell, the Reverend Robert Bracewell (1611-1668), a Londoner, Oxford graduate, and Cavalierone who was invited to Virginia to take charge of St. Lukes Church, now a national historic landmark. Following the lead of the Reverend Bracewell, Carey Bracewell explains how each successive generation has faithfully emulated his example of pioneering religious leadership. More than just a recitation of genealogical lineage, this family history tells the fascinating story of how the Bracewell men and women struggled and brought Christianity to the wilds of Tennessee, southern Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas. Among their many lasting accomplishments, one Bracewell ancestor, Richard Brazil, founded the oldest Baptist church in Arkansas. Bracewell published a genealogical journal on the Bracewell family and started the Braswell DNA Project. He was the first to discover the DNA profile that traces the family back to one man who lived in Bracewell, Yorkshire, in the late Middle Ages.