Where To Now?

How is it that a map can show a populated place called Cappleman in the vicinity of where you expect your Capplemans to be living, but there are no records of deeds in their name? Ah, a mystery. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A followup on yesterday's task: finding the current location of what was once Ulrich Boozer's land. Sadly, there are multiple industrial complexes currently on that land, including a power station. Soooo... we won't be able to stand on that little piece of ancestral land. Today's search took us to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History , where we dove into deed and will abstracts, then culled microfilms for scans of the original documents in their fullness. My goal was to locate the land of Francis Mason (my 4th great grandfather), and therefore that of his son James Mason as well. They moved to Spartanburg from Virginia after the Revolution, so they didn't have original land grants but rather purchased from those who did. ...

We slept in a little bit this morning and had brunch at the appropriately named Curiosity Coffee Bar, a highly-rated little place just a couple of blocks from the White Rabbit (our Alice-in-Wonderland-themed bnb). Curiouser and curiouser, we spent the rest of the day at the South Carolina State Library.  The library staff were quite accommodating of our multiple requests from the stacks (I don't have a pic of the big pile of books we left behind at the end of the day).  The things we're curious about make some people (Kef and Dad specifically) shake their heads. Today's finds included a listing of early settlers to South Carolina, among which was my 5 greats grandfather Samuel McGill, described among the "poor protestants lately arrived from Ireland on the encouragement of the Bounty given by this Province." His age was listed as 23, and he was granted that bounty of 100 acres. Although we knew he was born in Ireland, we didn't know what year. So this 1766 lis...

Well clearly I fell down on the job regarding blogging the Maui trip. My only excuse is I didn't take my laptop and it's really annoying to blog on a tablet.  But on to the next thing. This week is my trip with mom to South Carolina to stalk dead people. We moved it up to spring this year instead of fall for myriad reasons. So far, we're off to a bit of a slow start, as mom's flights were delayed and I'm just killing time in a Starbuck's outside Charlotte waiting for her to land. Not all bad, though, as it gave me some time to wander a bit. Primarily, I looked for scenic views, and was rewarded with a brief section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have to say that the drive through Virginia, in particular the Shenandoah Valley, is one of my absolute favorites. I suppose it's fitting that I would choose this particular lookout as my destination as the sign explains how our folks ended up coming through here...they were among the Scotch-Irish pioneers referenced h...

Today we left Boone headed just south of Atlanta, to Henry County, Georgia. As it was mostly a driving day, there's not much to report.... except our first visit to Bojangle's (it was quite good) and a sidestep to Neal's Creek Community just south of Anderson, South Carolina, where our Vandivers had quite an impact. We're still a little unsure who did what and when... but we think our Edward (my 5th great grandfather, b. 1748 d. 1837) was a charter member of the Neal's Creek Baptist Church. One of the Vandivers (we think our Edward, but could be a close relation) donated the land on which the church and cemetery are built. Somewhere there's a marker that says as much, but we couldn't find it. We found lots of other Vandivers buried there, though. Upon further searching after we reached the hotel, I see that a John Vandiver is credited with the land donation... don't know how he's connected, but we'll see. After extensive picture-taking of Van...

Mom and I set out yesterday from DFW on our way to Statesville, North Carolina. Mission: To meet our 5th (or so) cousins, visit our ancestral land, and generally stalk dead people. I didn't post yesterday because 1) I didn't think about it; 2) I fell asleep as soon as we hit the hotel room; 3) We didn't stalk any dead people. The whole of yesterday was driving... Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. Spent one night in Eutaw, AL, and had some amazing ribs (mom said) and catfish for dinner. Even more amazing (to me) was the potato salad and pecan pie. We hit the Georgia Welcome Center and picked up a map (didn't realize I didn't have one yet)... where I also squished and rubbed the face of a 5 month old Neapolitan Mastiff and lamented the plight of a Silky named Bailey who wanted desperately to run off-leash with the big dogs. Lunch was a special surprise. We were going to just pull through Chick-Fil-A for a quick lunch, but the particular one we chose was ...