For many years, there has been a theory that William Bradway of Rhode Island might have been identical to William [3] Bradway of Salem Co. NJ, who disappeared from all Quaker and Civil records about 1712, soon after his father died. Two years later, William Bradway (Broadway) first shows up in another Quaker community in Portsmouth RI. While the thought has certainly been provacative, no evidence was ever found to either prove or disprove this theory. We now have the answer.

Testing has just been completed on a direct male descendant of the NJ Bradway family and a direct male descendant of the RI Bradway family. The DNA Y chromosome samples differed at 3 of the 6 tested areas. The two families are paternally UN-RELATED. Anyone who shows a relationship between the two lines should certainly make corrections to their lineages.

The results of this testing does depend upon the sanctity of the marriage vows of the spouses of the Bradway men in the two lines, but we must trust that no son in either line was born of a different father than the Bradway one to whom the woman was married.

Further testing could certainly be done by other individuals in the direct MALE lines of descent, but at $350.00 per sample ($700.00 minimum, since two samples, one from each line, must be submitted), I'm not sure anyone else would care to undertake the process. If anyone should, contact me and I'll give them the information on how to go about doing it.

Bette Innes Bradway, CG