The earliest ancestors identified with this line of Brysons are James Bryson (1770–1832) and Sarah Allen (1782–1864), and Sarah's father, Robert Allen (1744–1830).

James and Sarah were tenant farmers on the Dobbs estate at Eden, Carrickfergus, county Antrim, (Northern) Ireland, where they raised their two, or possibly three children. These were Robert (1799–1859), Margaret, and possibly William. It appears that, after the death of James the farm was divided between the two sons.

Whether William Bryson, who died in 1871 was a son of James and Sarah, or of their son Robert is undetermined. Records show a William Bryson, born in 1801, holding a 25 acre tenancy on the Dobbs estate concurrently with Robert, suggesting that they were brothers. If so, then William married late. His wife Mary died in 1903, and his children died between 1856 and 1927. The only child for whom we have a date of birth is Annie, who was born on July 13, 1850, at which time her father would have been 49, and her mother possibly ten to twenty years younger. Where Annie fits in the family constellation is unknown.

All that notwithstanding, Robert farmed 15 acres on the Dobbs estate, and raised his family there. Legend has it that his son, Samuel (1822–1879), at thirteen years of age, had a fight with his half brother. This suggests that Robert was married twice, possibly first to one Jane Anderson, who would be Sam's mother, and subsequent to her death, to Mary (1798–1869) who bore the remainder of Robert's children. These would be Margaret (died circa 1878), Allen(1832–1874), and possibly the aforementioned William.

In his early teens Sam is thought to have joined the English merchant navy, sailing between Liverpool, England, and Spain and Portugal. At around eighteen years of age he left home for good and came to Canada. He arrived in the Newcastle district of Upper Canada around 1840, married around 1855, and arrived in Kendal in the early to mid 1870s.

The story of Sam Bryson and his family continues on the Brysons of Kendal page.