I have been researching my Bryant ancestry for the better part of three years and I am no closer now than the day I began.There is nothing more frustrating than to have just enough information to set you on a quest that ends exactly where you started!

As a child I was very close to my grandfather who lived next door to my family on Illinois Ave.in Dayton,Montgomery County,Ohio.

HOWARD THOMAS BRYANT born Sept,24,1889 Dayton,Ohio
died Sept.14,1959 Dayton,Ohio
buried at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum Dayton,ohio

His parents were:

LIBERTY S. BRYANT born Sept.24,1844 near Schnectady,New York
died Nov.14,1923 Dayton,Ohio
buried at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum Dayton,Ohio

SARAH BELLE WARE born Feb.2,1848 Dayton,ohio
died June 22,1934 Dayton,Ohio
buried at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum Dayton,Ohio

My dead end is Liberty!There are absolutely no records of any kind for him before he married Sarah Belle on Dec.26,1877 in Dayton,Ohio
He is a complete mystery.My grandfather gave the information for Liberty's death certificate where he stated he did not know who his grandparents were.
I have done hours of research in an effort to locate any record of the birth of Liberty to no avail.There were many Bryant births in New York during a five year span that I allowed myself 1843-1848 but none for a Liberty.
At one point while doing a search I resorted to looking at all male Bryant births anywhere in New York where there was a middle initial S.! Desperation on my part that only gave me another mystery to solve.
I stumbled across a WINFIELD S.BRYANT who had the aproximate birthdate although he has two different years listed.Born in New York in either 1844 or 1847 depending on which record you assume to be correct.In any event,this person enlisted in the army two times.Both enlistments occured in Syracuse N.Y.the first being Dec,23,1865 which lasted until he was discharged after being injured at Mobile in Sept.1868.
The same WINFIELD S. BRYANT enlisted again at Syracuse on July,17,1869 listing his profession as "soldier".After this record he disappears from any recorded records that I can find.
I did find him on the 1860 census in Syracuse living in the home of WILLIAM and MARY Jordan along with a sister MALVINA.
I also found a record of a Mary Bryant who applied for his pension in New York in 1891.She was listed as his mother on the application.
This made me wonder if this Mary and Mary Jordan are one and the same.
I am thoughly confused at this point.There are several reasons for my fixation on WINFIELD S. BRYANT
The first is the fact that he seems to disappear at some point after his enlisment in 1869
The second is the fact that LIBERTY S. BRYANT appears out of thin air in 1877 on a marriage record in Dayton.
The third is that I can find no death record for WINFIELD nor birth record for LIBERTY.
The fourth reason and one I find very interesting is that LIBERTY'S son CLIFFORD was a deserter from the army in Cuba during the Spanish American War.He was caught and dishonorably discharged after which he changed his date of birth and went to California where he lived the rest of his life.What caught my eye was that he changed his birthdate to Sept.24th.Could he have followed in LIBERTY'S footsteps?Did father and son both desert?
DID WINFIELD change his name to LIBERTY and begin a new life in Ohio? Will I ever figure this out?
If anyone ever reads this and has even a glimmer of help for me I would be so very grateful!At the very least I need someone to tell me that it is possible that I am on the right track.
I do love a good mystery but this one is almost more than I know how to deal with!