Building a Broyles Tree, Line by Line

 

No matter how difficult it might be to find a way through the wilds of ancestor research—especially in the frontier regions my Broyles ancestors chose to wander—having a research goal helps build a family tree. That will be readily obvious as we check our biweekly progress.

While it seems like it has been slow going this month, considering the lack of documentation for my branch of the Broyles settlers, I was surprised to see I had added 334 names to my family tree in the past two weeks. That tree is now up to 31,733 individuals, and growing fast.

Part of the reason for adding so many names is my secondary goal of finding a place on the family tree for my DNA matches. As we work through the Broyles history this month, I'm exploring where my DNA matches fit into the picture. That means bringing down those collateral lines—those children of my fifth great-grandfather, Adam Broyles—to their current day descendants.

While my focus this month is on the Broyles line, that doesn't mean I've completely neglected work on my in-laws' tree. In fact, just from incidental conversations, discovered obituaries and other random occurrences, I've managed to add fifty seven extra names to my in-laws' tree in the past two weeks. Right now, that tree has a total of 30,715 individuals. Once springtime hits and I shift from researching my maternal family lines, I'll start working on my mother-in-law's line again in earnest. Specifying a goal for the projects this spring will help grow that tree, as well.

In this last full week of the month, we'll concentrate on adding the collateral lines of all Adam Broyles' children, with an eye to seeing how many of the Broyles ThruLines DNA designations can actually be confirmed through documentation. While we've already spotted some inaccurate information on the trees of some matches, hopefully some of the other Broyles lines will match up more consistently.