A Trip to the Past - Part 2

Friday I drove over to Camden with the vague goal of finding some original documents that Cousar had referenced in his book. One of them mentioned Edward Flin. My ancestor Thomas English married Margaret Flynn (or Flinn), daughter of Edward and Ann, who was "a cousin of Lord Cornwallis." I have not yet found Ann's maiden name or how exactly she was related to the British general, nor have I found anything about her and Edward, including their deaths, except for the land record where they first arrived in South Carolina from Ireland.

I started in the Register of Deeds office. Unlike library archives, they didn't mind if I took pictures, which helped speed up note-taking.

Yes, this is how I spend my vacations!

I found some land records with Englishes in them, and other names in early Camden that are starting to become familiar to me. But I didn't find the book of "Pleadings and Judgments, Book F" that I was looking for. The lady at the counter told me that this building was for Camden records, and I need to go across the street for Kershaw County records.

After going through the metal detector at the courthouse and asking very nicely for photography permission, I walked back through the cold wind to the car and got my camera. The office for intestate (no will) cases is upstairs and the testate records are downstairs. The old books were jumbled around, but I finally found Book F.

And there was the record! A lovely case of two generations who died without a will — the granddaughter's husband wanted to buy the land, so his case included the death dates of Edward and Ann Flin, the names of their children (Margaret and Jean), their grandchildren (Margaret and Thomas English's children), Jean and Thomas' death dates, and more details.

Oh, and Edward was a blacksmith. A primary document with many of my colonial family members and their connections in it — Wonderful stuff!