Broyles/Briles Database

by Steve Broyles (John, Jacob, Michael, Aaron, Aaron, Jeremiah, Walter, Morris)

20 July 1996

About My Database

The database contains records on about 6800 individuals in the Broyles/Briles family. It was created primarily from information in John Kenneth "Ken" Broyles's Broyles Family Ties and Broyles Family Newsletter, which in turn are based on A.L. Keith's "Broyles Family" typescript and Ken's own correspondence. I augmented this by A.L. Keith's articles in the William and Mary Quarterly, Max Briles's work, my own fairly substantial census and county record research, and my own correspondence. I also verified Cerny and Zimmerman's work in the German records and corrected and extended their information, the results of which are included here. This set of data is about 25 years in the making and there are many times I think it's about 3% done!

(Technical details: My database is a custom dBase application that links together individuals, marriages, census records, and notes. I wrote a converter to dump out much of the information into GEDCOM format, and then used Gene Stark's GED2HTML converter with a custom INDIV.TPL file.)

See the data now!

• Start with John Broyles (Johannes Breyhel), the immigrant
• or use the Master Name Index to all 6800 people.
• or look people up by state and county of residence using the Census Index
• or use the Surname Index

Completeness and Consistency (or lack thereof!)

The first four generations are fairly complete, but I've only gotten about halfway through a cleanup pass that was intended to document how children were assigned to families and to formalize my sources. As such, you'll see inconsistencies in the presentation of information.

My notes on each individual are only shown for members of the first four generations. I have notes for many in the fifth, but they haven't been moved into the database and consequently can't be converted to HTML.

Known Inaccuracies, Shortcuts, and (shudder!) Errors

I took some shortcuts. This was OK when it was my private database, but if you're not careful you may misunderstand what you're looking at!

• Birth Dates. They are always given as BIRTHs, even when they are christenings. The early German data is all christenings, and almost all of the early Virginia birthdates, if given to the day, are from the Hebron Church records.
• Birth Years. If I list someone as being born in 1827, it really means c. 1827. Most of these dates come from census records which give someone's age to the nearest year, and it's well known they can be off by a year or two (or more). When I say someone was born "Abt 1827", it means I have estimated their placement in the family and have assigned a possible birth year. Such estimates are probably accurate to within a few years. I tend to list census birth years even if it looks like there's an error in it.
• Birth Places. These are almost entirely made up! If the place in question is early Germany, they will be assumed to be from the village their church records come from. If the place is in the U.S., I estimated the likely state and county of birth based on where the family was probably living at the time of birth. So what's listed as a birthplace could be wrong because people moved or their county changed name, or their estimated birth date is wrong. (Note that in the early years the counties were continually subdividing into new counties, so it might look like a family moved when in fact the county they were living in changed name.) In certain cases in the later generations there are out and out mistakes caused by overzealous editing on my part.

Unknown Inaccuracies and (yikes!) Errors

I copied much of this information from a book whose author typed it up from another book that is a typewritten copy of a typed manuscript of data that was taken from correspondence relating to records that were hand copied by someone else from a nearly illegible handwritten county record book or family Bible of some sort. OK?

References to actual county record books (marriage licenses, deed books, etc.) with book and page number are likely to be correct.

Since Dr. Keith is the source for much of the early family, I should note that he was a very talented and careful researcher whose work has held up impressively well through the years, but even he made mistakes, so Caveat Emptor!

Explanation of Terms

• Generation - This is the generation for each individual, with John Broyles the immigrant being generation number 1. His ancestors use letters that increase the farther back you go. His descendants use numbers that increase with each generation. Now, there's a problem with this scheme when related people marry. A boy from generation 5 marries a girl from 6. Are their children 6 or 7? To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I did, but I think I tried to choose the earliest number. So, take the generation number as a guideline, because that is all such a calculation can be in any case.
• Keith # - This is the identification number given by Prof. Keith in his manuscript as reprinted by John Kenneth Broyles.

About the Census Records

I've passed many a fine day scanning microfilms looking for various members of the family. Census films are great for the soul, so I encourage you to go down to your local library and take them out on Interlibrary Loan. You'll find it immensely satisfying to see your ancestor's census entries, and you'll also probably find more information than I've summarized in the tables here.

Coverage of all Broyles/Briles families through 1860 is believed to be pretty thorough. There are a good number of census records for 1870 and later.

• Page Numbers. This can be frustrating if you try to get copies based on the roll and page number I give. The reason is that there are usually at least two sets of numbers on each page of the census book, one stamped (the one I use) and the other handwritten. Sometimes there is yet a third set of handwritten numbers. Now, I was pretty consistent about using the printed numbers but I know some of the data I took in my early years may have used the handwritten numbers. Also, the stamped numbers are printed on every other page, so it's possible you'll find the entry one page before or after the given page.
• Data not shown. The type of information taken in each census would vary from census to census. I copied what I thought was most useful onto my census sheets, and then entered most of that into my database. (Yes, I did do any accuracy check, but errors are still possible.) So, you're seeing most, but not all, of the information.
• [Record Not Found]. This means either I have not been successful in finding a record for that year (prior to 1850), or that I haven't looked for it (after 1850). One exception is Randolph Co., NC, in which the census of 1820 was destroyed.
• Column Abbreviations
  • Agr - Number in household engaged in Agriculture
  • BP - Birthplace
  • BPM - Birthplace of mother
  • BPF - Birthplace of father
  • Col - Color (B=black, M=mulatto)
  • Dwel - Dwelling number
  • ED - Enumeration District
  • Fam - Family number
  • MY - Married within the past year
  • SY - Went to school within the past year
  • R/W - Unable to read or write