Braswell Family Resources

St. Luke's Church, Rev. Robert Bracewell's church in Isle of Wight Co., Virginia

St. Luke's Church (also called "Old Brick") is the nation's only original Gothic church and the oldest existing church of English foundation in America. Its brick walls have stood for more than three centuries, located 2 miles from present-day Smithfield, Virginia on route 10.

Braswell Family History Book Is Now Available

Carey Bracewell has just published The Ancestry of David Bracewell. It has 389 pages, 100 illustrations, references and index. Amazon offers a better price than the publisher and they offer a free shipping option (see link below). It is available as a hardcover, a paperback  and  as an e-Reader, with ISBN numbers 978-1-4502-9373-0, 9374-4, and 9374-7,  respectively.

"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 Carey's 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  "Cavalier"--one who was invited to Virginia to take charge of St. Luke's Church,  now a national historical monument.

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 styory 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 (1759-1842), founded the oldest Baptist church in  Arkansas.

Carey 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 England in the late Middle Ages."