Happy to serve

By Rita Howell
A passion for genealogical research–and for the work of the Daughters of the American Revolution–has brought Billie Foutch Breedlove of Batesville to a seat on the board of directors of the national organization.
Breedlove was elected Vice President General Class of 2019 of the National Daughters of the American Revolution at the 125th DAR Continental Congress in Washington, D.C. last summer. Breedlove is one of seven vice presidents.
She will serve a three-year term which includes attending multiple board meetings at the DAR national headquarters in Washington.
Her duties also include serving as the volunteer genealogist for the DAR’s southeast division, which includes Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.
“I help anyone from any chapter in those states with completing the prospective member application,” she explained.
Assembling documentation to “prove” direct lineage to a Revolutionary War soldier is the criteria for membership in the venerable women’s service organization founded in 1890 and now boasting about 170,000 members.
Breedlove knows how to do it.
She has helped 305 people complete their applications to become DAR members.
From 2013-2016 Breedlove served as state regent of the  Mississippi Daughters of the American Revolution. She oversaw 79 DAR chapters throughout the state, including the local James Gilliam Chapter, of which she is a member.
The James Gilliam Chapter is the largest in the state, with 150 members, she said.
Breedlove has been a DAR member for 16 years, having joined after a 43-year career as a public school educator and administrator.
The DAR’s emphasis is on education, historic preservation and patriotism.
After pursuing extensive research on her own family’s genealogy, she found herself helping others search their family trees for links to DAR membership.
In 2007 Breedlove was awarded the DAR’s National Outstanding Volunteer Genealogist Award, which she accepted at the organization’s national convention in Washington.
The award recognized her for her work in helping others research their lineage, and for her contributions to a 1,000-page research volume, “The Mississippi Daughters and Their Patriot Ancestors.”
“I’m happy to help anybody with genealogy,” she said. “It’s like putting a puzzle together.”