November
22, 1978
Dear
Mrs. [Nola] Wheelwright:
Finally,
here is the report proving Joseph’s parents. Very often Colonial lineages based
on circumstantial evidence have an irritating habit of remaining inconclusive,
so that we are never sure. But in the case of Joseph’s parents, there are
several lines of proof that make it certain. It did take me longer to analyze
and write than expected, but finally it all fell into place. I was really happy
to fit a Thomas Taylor into the Julian Creek line because suddenly the 100
acres associated with him (1744 to 1782) became the very 100 acres willed by
Richard [Taylor] I in 1679. But this part took a lot of reading and rereading
of my notes. Finally, I photocopied all the notes and then cut up one copy so
the notes could be rearranged in chronological order for analysis. The results
were really fine and after the pieces came together many of the non-Taylor
names made a lot more sense.
Your
letter of 26 September mentioned making one report available to all the surviving
branches of the William Taylor family, for which our people at the office could
give an estimate on cost for copies. To facilitate this, I altered the format
from the usual letter to a more formal report, and added two of the previous
letters to save repeating information. If the report is to go to people
unfamiliar with our earlier work, then it seemed necessary that the two letters
be attached.
¼
I
want to thank you for having the confidence in me about solving the Joseph
Taylor problem. It has been expensive but looking back on the work done I know
the records had to be read so thoroughly as they were. In fact, it turned out
great that reading the deeds and order books page-by-page 1720-1755 located
almost no references to Joseph and Dinah. Since the very thorough search
produced only the briefest mention of them, we can be sure they are the ones we
want. So what at first seemed bad news has turned out to be one of the
strongest links in the proof, and that because you and your family were willing
to have the records read right.
¼
Again
thank you for your confidence and your prayers for success. We all have a right
to be gratified with the results.
William
Thorndale
Researcher