The Last Link

This whole pursuit of the Broyles family was started with the purpose of completing an application for the Daughters of the American Revolution. While I have some details to attend to with each generation, looking over the broad picture, the scene took us from my maternal grandmother in Florida, through her own mother, Sarah Ann Broyles McClellan, to the same Thomas Taliaferro Broyles of Civil War times we’ve been discussing. Though there is a lot more information I’d like to retrieve on the lives of each of these ancestors—particularly my great-great-grandfather, with both his war experiences and his medical training and experience—the time has come to move on and connect with my goal. That goal is to find a link to an already-established patriot record.

With the life of T. T. Broyles, I’m actually one step away from that goal. That is because Thomas was the son of a doctor in the county of Anderson, South Carolina, named Ozey Robert Broyles. Dr. O. R. Broyles took as his wife Sarah AnnTaliaferro—the same “Mrs. S. A. Broyles” as was listed on the envelope we mentioned the other day. Sarah Ann, in turn, was one of the daughters of Zachariah and Margaret Chew Carter Taliaferro of Virginia.

While I still have my work cut out to obtain documentation for each of these generational steps, I’ve already discovered that Zachariah Taliaferro is my target ancestor. He is the one in my mother’s line who qualified as a patriot within the parameters established by the D.A.R.

Of course, I won’t be satisfied until I can learn more about this man—and I’ve already found interesting stories about this family in privately-published genealogies from many years past. That, however is a task I need to do only for myself. I’m a story seeker. I thrive on getting to know the person, not merely the vital statistics.

For now, though, it will suffice to complete the application and submit it to the proper address—and then wait to receive the results.

Above right: The well-known oil on canvas by A. M. Willard, originally entitled "Yankee Doodle," but now generally called "The Spirit of '76," circa 1875; courtesy Wikipedia; in the public domain.