The whole Tolliver family lost a Patriarch June 23, 2012. John Cooper Tolliver, Jr. was born October 21, 1925 in Fleming Co., KY. He was the son of John Cooper Tolliver, Sr. and Bessilene Hysong. John Cooper Tolliver, Sr. was the son of Lee Andrew Tolliver and Margaret McKenzie. Lee Andrew was the son of Jacob Finley Tolliver and Orlena Wyatt. Jacob Finley was the son of James Tolliver and Mary Baldwin. James was the son of John Tolliver b. 1760, a Revolutionary War soldier, and Tabitha Howell.

 John became interested in genealogy at an early age. He visited almost every county courthouse and library in VA and NC searching for his family’s history. In the early sixties he was the first to document where John, the Revolutionary soldier, was buried. This is the cemetery that we later had the grave-marking ceremony by the Sons of the American Revolution. He made many trips to the National Archives in Washington, DC. A couple of the records he found were John’s Revolutionary War records and Jacob Finley’s Civil War record that included information about Jacob Finley being a prisoner of war in NY. He encouraged and helped his sisters to join the DAR. Without John and his sisters, Velma and Wilma, and Eleanor Tolliver Waters, I would have very little of the old information on this website. At our Reunion June 22-23, 2012, many people signed a “Thinking of You” card to send to John. He left us before he could see the card. 

He will be greatly missed not only by his immediate family but by the many hundreds of Tolliver descendants who want to know their family history now and in the future. He will be remembered as one of the pioneers in genealogy who earned the title of Patriarch of the Tolliver family. Thank you, John, for all that you did. Emma Lee Tolliver