These records are unique because the frontiersman, who settled in this geographical location (next to Indians lands), seldom had the opportunity to record his legal records until the end of the American Revolution when county courthouses were established. Therefore, many of the early deeds contain chains of titles from the original colonial land owner to the present owner at the time of the recording. They also contain many types of instructions, such as conveyances of land, marriage contracts, wills, sheriff's sales, deeds of gifts, plats or surveys (a facsimile of same is included in these abstracts), bills of sale, mortgages, affidavits, powers of attorney, slave sales and others. The deeds often reveal additional information, such as geographical locations, residence, adjoining neighbors, occupation, and heirships as widows, sons, daughters and their husbands, brothers, sisters, and uncles and sometimes the death date of the former property owner. An appendix section of South Carolina Colonial and State Land and Probate Laws is included to aid the student of genealogy and history.

I was always told that we had forefathers that served in the American Revolutionary War. I decided that I wanted to find out for sure and that is when I first became addicted to researching. It's been fun, time consuming but if compiling all this information helps someone find which branch of the family tree they came from then it has been worth it.

Ancestral and related families of the author Ailcy Dora Dean Smith. She was born in 1930 in Cullman County Alabama. The daughter of Adolphus Smith (b. 1911) and Flora Gladys Moon Smith (b. 1913). She married Luther Allen Cress in 1948. Ancestors lived in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, South Caroline and elsewhere.

During his presidency, Jimmy Carter received a comprehensive analysis of his family's genealogy, dating back 12 generations, from leaders of the Mormon Church. More recently Carter's son Jeff took over the family history, determined to discover all that he could about his ancestors. This resulting volume traces every ancestral line of both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter back to the original immigrants to America and chronicles their origins, occupations, and life dates. Among his forebears Carter found cabinet makers, farmers, preachers, illegitimate children, slave owners, indentured servants, a former Hessian soldier who fought against Napoleon, and even a spy for General George Washington at Valley Forge. With never-before-published historic photographs and a foreword by President Jimmy Carter, this is the definitive saga of a remarkable American family.