In tracing my DeLoach ancestry, a major brick wall was encountered with my 3rd great grandfather, John DeLoach. Census records indicated that he had been born in South Carolina in about 1785. Information in tax records and deeds determined that he had arrived in Sullivan County, Tennessee in about 1805. Unfortunately, most of the Sullivan County records were destroyed during the Civil War when the court house was burned in the Skirmish at Blountville. A similar fate befell many of the court houses in South Carolina, possibly destroying all records that might have permitted identifying and proving John's ancestry.

Circumstantial evidence gathered in Tennessee and South Carolina indicates that John's father was Michael Allison DeLoach. He was the great great grandson of Michel DesLoges. Michel arrived in the Virginia Colony in 1663, where he served a four year tailor apprenticeship with Charles Taplady. In about 1668, he married Jane Griffeth, and in 1671, they inherited the plantation of her father, Rowland Griffeth. At some point, Michel DesLoges's name was anglicized to Michael DeLoach, and thus began the DeLoach family in America.