III. PREFACE

The purpose of the author is to call attention to the readers of the Present history of the descendants of these noble ancestors of the Brian generations, which should be indelibly fixed in the mind of every relative. It is a history that should have been written several years ago.

The author desired that some interested relative would search the various avenues of the Brian genealogy, and to outline and complete it in book form. He considered himself too incompetent for the important task. After having served for over twenty years in full time pastorates and then some ten years in mission work, he felt he did not have the time for such a gigantic task. But on November 7, 1956, 1 received a letter from Mrs. Blanche Brian Brown. She had seen my name listed in the Home Mission Magazine of Southern Baptists as one of our missionaries. She asked me if I was related to Alfred Aaron Brian, who left Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1880, and never wrote a letter home. I began to correspond with her and other kinsmen in South Carolina and received some very valuable information. Also some very informative history written by Mattie Liles Carpenter, a granddaughter of Thomas and Narcissus Camp Brian. This was enough to plant the seed for this book.