Born in 1923 into a West Virginian farming family, Charles Elwood Yeager would become famous as a test pilot. He enlisted in the military in 1941 and served as an airplane mechanic. After WWII Chuck Yeager became "a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base, California)" (www.wikitree.com). It was in this capacity that Yeager flew the Bell XS-1, which he called Glamorous Glennis, named for his wife, into history.
"Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, Yeager broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. He was worried that the injury would remove him from the mission and reported that he went to a civilian doctor in nearby Rosamond, who taped his ribs" (wikipedia.org). In great pain from this accident Yeager was determined to carry out his scheduled test flight and on October 14, 1947, at an altitude of 45,000 feet over the Mojave Desert, he became the first person to break the sound barrier.
On December 7, 2020 Brigadier General Chuck Yeager died at the age of 97. What I did not know at that time was our family's relationship to him. He and Mom just happened to be 7th cousins 1 time removed. The chart below traces the family tree connection.
| Col. James Taylor and Elizabeth Paisley |
|
| Mary Ann Taylor b.1710 |
George Edmund Taylor b.1710 |
| Catherine Hannah Burke b.1727 |
Zachariah Taylor b.1739 |
| John M. McComas b.1757 |
Mary Taylor b.1765 |
| Christena McComas b.1796 |
Zachariah Peter b.1780 |
| Elisha M. Franklin b.1829 |
James M. Peters b.1820 |
| Adeline Frances Franklin b.1865 |
Margaret N. Peters b.1851 |
| Albert Hal Yeager b.1896 |
Zacharious I. Standerfer b.1871 |
| Brig Gen Charles Elwood Yeager b.1923 |
Mercedes Ruth Standerfer b.1892 |
| Mary Jean Ethington b.1928 |
|
