By Jeannette Holland Austin
After the census records are researched, the next stop is the county records. where your ancestors resided. It is all there, from the time that they purchased a home or land and recorded the deed, until the probate of the last will and testament and the tax digest revealed them delinquent for on taxes! One of the most interesting stories lies in the reading of the will and estate papers because it reveals the life and times of the decedent. If the court house burned, the next search is the court houses of surrounding counties. That is because families had transactions in other counties as well as relatives. All of the tidbits about each relative helps to form the puzzle. Note: Some of the earliest settlers in Dorchester County came from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Dorchester County, South Carolina Genealogy
Pictured is Koger Pantation, Archdale Hall and Fort Dorchester. Dorchester County was named for Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1696 Congregationalists from that town removed south to establish a new settlement which they also called Dorchester. During the settlement of Georgia, when large land grants were being offered as inticements during the 1750's, this congregation removed to an area called Midway, halfway between Savannah and Darien, Georgia. They were led by Rev. Mr. Osgood.
By the year 1788, the parish continued to be referred to as St. George Dorchester although the town was virtually abandoned. When the area officially became a county, it was formed from parts of Colleton and Berkeley counties and called Dorchester. The county seat is the town of St. George, which also took its name from the old parish.
The town of Summerville was settled in the late eighteenth century as a summer resort for planters who wished to escape the malaria prevalent on their rice plantations; the town later became a winter resort also. Middleton Place Gardens, the remains of an old rice plantation, are the oldest landscaped gardens in the country, having been laid out in 1741. Middleton was a member of the Continental Congress, his son Arthur Middleton (1742-1787), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his grandson Henry Middleton (1770-1846), a governor, United States Congressman, and ambassador to Russia.
Earliest settlers: Bacon, Osgood, Quarterman, Maxwell, Lee and others.
Need to know if your ancestors left a will or estate record? An easy, quick (and free) way to find out is to click on the links below.
County Records of 8 Genealogy Websites
Alabama
Georgia
Kentucky
North Carolina
Virginia
South Carolina
Tennessee
BUNDLE RATE for 8. Access to all eight websites plus additional data in other States: Bibles, genealogies, civil war records, colonial records, marriages, wills, estates, special collections, books written by renowned Georgia genealogist Jeannette Holland Austin.
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