Broyhill Family History

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Broyhill Family Tree
   Introduction
   Organization
   Index
   Starts with James

 

Broyhill Family Tree

How this Section is Organized

Content

      This web site is devoted to the Broyhill Family and its goal is eventually provide accurate, up-to-date information on every person who has ever carries the name.  The information is presented in the form of articles and the amount of space that will be devoted to each individual  will be very largely determined by the number of people who can benefit from the information.  There is little point in writing a detailed biography of a man who died a hundred years ago without issue.  But yet his brother may have sired a large family and today he may have many, many descendants.  Obviously the latter will receive far more attention than the former.
    Each article contains a short section titled, "About the Kids," that contain a brief summary of the children and their families.  Many children are the subject of their own article.  In general, these are those who have children that carry the name.  Most are men, but a few women passed their maiden name on to their children.  Toward eventually providing a more complete Family Directory,
I plan on having articles on contemporary Broyhill women if the information is readily available.  
     Although the daughters are deeply loved and appreciated, when they marry, they adopt their husbands name and, from a genealogical standpoint, they are members of his family.  Since they carry a different name, finding information on them is often very difficult.  The logistics of trying to follow the descendants of daughters is demonstrated by the following:
     1 - Father - a Broyhill
         2 - Daughter - Adopts husbands name.
               3 - Grand Daughter - Not a Broyhill
               3 - Grand Son - Not a Broyhill
         2 - Son - Keeps Broyhill name.
               3 - Grand Daughter - Marries.  Adopts husband's name.
               3 - Grand Son - Keeps Broyhill name
    Assuming an equal ratio of sons and daughters, it becomes apparent that in each generation there are four times as many non-Broyhill descendents of James I  then there are Broyhill descendents. There have been or are several hundred Broyhill men and that's a lot of articles.  If we multiply the number of descendents in each generation by four, then the number of pages quickly climbs into the thousands - far beyond the scope of this work.  Accordingly, this work will not attempt to follow the descendents of the daughters unless they carry the Broyhill name.  However, as other families establish their own web sites, then links will be provided.
    I plan on eventually adding a few pages on the wives.  Over the years I have researched many of their families and think that most family members would like to more about the wives of  early ancestors, such as James I,  John Norman, etc. Such articles will be limited to tracing the roots of those who have left a great many descendents. 

Format

       Each page is an Article on one person.  It is intended as a brief overview.  It begins with a heading citing his name, date of birth and death, and name of father, the latter being a link to his page.  If living, their last known address and phone number is listed.
     This is followed by a short biography, a list of his children, and a brief overview of their families.  When detailed biographies, photographs, etc are available, they will be compiled into a second page that can be easily accessed through a link.  In cases where children have their own page, a link is provided.  

Numbering System

    Organizing so much material for the 1976 book led to the development of a system whereby every descendent of James is assigned an identification number.  James is not assigned a number as he is the beginning, but each of his children are assigned one in order of birth.  John Norman Broyhill was the oldest, so he is assigned "1." Next came Polly, who is assigned "2," then William, who is assigned "3" and so on.  Note that all are one digit.
    In the next generation, the children are identified by adding a digit to the parents number, alternating numbers and letters.  John Norman's children are thus assigned "IA," "IB," "IC", etc., again in order of birth.  In a few cases, there are more than nine children, so I revert to letters.  For example, James H. Broyhill and his wife had thirteen children.  Mary "1A9" is followed by Kattie Jane, "1AA."
    The same system is repeated for the next generation.  My ancestor, William Broyhill is "IE,"
so his children are assigned another digit, this time a number, resulting in "IE1", etc.   My genealogy and the assigned numbers are as follows:

James Broyhill
(no number)

1 John Norman Broyhill
1E William A. Broyhill - my great, great grandfather
1E2 Thomas Jefferson Broyhill - my great grandfather
1E2-E Marvin T. Broyhill (Sr.) - my grandfather
1E2-E1 Marvin T. Broyhill Jr. - my father
1E2-E1A Marvin T. Broyhill III - Me
1E2-E1A-A Marvin T. Broyhill IV - My oldest son.

 

      This makes it very easy to trace a person's genealogy.  Using the above example, start with me,
get my number, and drop the last digit from it to get the one for my father.  Drop another digit and you have the one for my grandfather.  On the other hand, it can be used to work forward.  All descendants of  Thomas Jefferson Broyhill will have a number beginning with "IE2"  The number of digits tells you how may generation a person is removed from James and comparing the numbers of any two Broyhill will reveal the common ancestor.  
    For example, Richard Albert Broyhill of Hopewell, Virginia is assigned IE2-B3A.  We both have the same number of digits and are thus of the same generation.  Both numbers begin with "IE2" thus our common ancestor is Thomas Jefferson Broyhill.  In fact, Dick and I are second cousins, were both born in 1941, and graduated from Fork Union Military Academy together in 1959.  His grandfather was Ruel, who was Thomas Jefferson Broyhill's second child.  My grandfather was Marvin Sr.
    James Edgar Broyhill of Winston-Salem, North Carolina is ID2-G3B.  Again, we are the same generation, but he descends from "1D" - John, son of John Norman Broyhill, whereas I descend from his son William.  That makes us 3rd cousins.
    Roger Allen Broyhill of Peoria, Illinois is assigned 3F2-A1.  He has one digit less than me so we're separated by a generation, which is surprising as he was born 1946, five years after me.
His number begins with a "3", which means he descends from another son of James, other than John Norman.  In fact he descends from James' second son, William, and he is William's only living male descendant. He and my father (same number of digits) are 5th cousins.
    Although this numbering system was originally developed for a print version of the book, it is now being used to number the web pages.  In this case, all files have a six digit prefix.  If the person's identification number contains less than six digits - as most do - the missing digits are filled in with zeros to keep consistent length.  This is followed by their name.  Thus John Norman Broyhill's page is 100-000-John.htm

About Dates

Exact dates are often unknown.  They do not appear in court records.  Although they sometimes appear in marriage registers, birth and birth registrations were not widely used until the early 20th Century.  Prior to that, the only reliable source for this information was the family Bible.  However, dates are important to establish a frame of reference.  By knowing approximately when a person lived, it makes it easier to find information on them.
   This work expresses dates in the following formats:
1821 - No Question mark. An exact date, such as April 1, 1821, is proven by records.
1821? - One Question mark. Approximate date is established by records. For example, the 1850 Federal Census lists a person as being 29 years old. Thus he was born around 1821.
1821?? - Two Question marks. An estimated date based on other information. For example, a man marries in 1841. Assuming he was then 20 years old, he would have been born around 1821. Such dates can be inaccurate by ten or more years.
1821+  Plus Sign, meaning after.  Used to indicate the last year that a person was known to have been living, but certainly could have lived many years thereafter.