Thursday we spent the day in the Edgefield Genealogical Society's library. I got most of the way through the Delaughter family file and we had lunch at the 10 Governor's Cafe. It's a buffet lunch and Thursdays is fried pork chop day. All was fine.
The library is closed for the holiday weekend, so Cousin Carol Pardu offered to do a cemetery tour with me. Carol and I are 3rd cousins 1x removed. Our common ancestors are Absolom and Nancy Day Delaughter of Edgefield. She is actually a double cousin as her gg grandfather married Sarah America Lanier. I have Laniers on my father's side. They go back to musicians in the court of Henry VIII where they married the Bassanos, also musicians. Amelia Bassano is thought to be Shakespeare's dark lady, and more importantly was a published poet when it was thought scandalous for women do publish. But, I digress....
Carol took me around to quite a few cemeteries-some were on land now owned by other people who have built houses. Lucky I met Carol as I would have never found these graves and certainly would not have felt free to tromp through people's back yards to take a look at them. Of particular note was Grandaddy Absolom's grave.
I had read that Gradma Nancy was buried here when she died and that their two girls who died at ages 3 and 7 were buried here. We found only two grave markers, Rebecca Delaughter Taylor (sister to Absolom) and Absolom. Of course, they died before the war and there would have been money to buy markers. Not so much after the war. Carol showed me the house that sits on the graves of the girls a couple of miles away from this little cemetery. She thinks that Rebecca and Absolom's parents are buried here as well and that the marker has been moved to Big Stephen's Baptist Church Cemetery. Absolom's father, George William Delaughter was the preacher at Big Stephen's.
Apparently he gets a CSA marker even though he died before the Civil War. He was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Perhaps the CSA marker is for the grave behind him.
So, we cemetery hopped till we were hungry and then went to McDonalds in North Augusta (SC) where we could get wi-fi with our lunch and share stuff. Of course I wanted a copy of everything, so when we were fairly knackered but still have enough pep to get home we made a plan for a future time to sit down with electronic storage devices and swap stuff.
That had to be today as Carol works and we go home on Wednesday. So she came over for lunch and a visit and afterward we got down to swapping stuff. By the time we were finished we were both a bit bug eyed but happy. Carol had a box of incredible treasures like old letters and photos and obits. Kid in a candy shop!
So, I have plenty to work with when I get home. Carol also tells me that in addition to Essie Mae Washington Williams and Al Sharpton, 50cent's family came from Edgefield. I'm saying, Cousin 50cent. I plan to ask the librarian in Edgefield more about this and ideally take a look at his genealogy.
Tomorrow we have plans to go to the Redd Cemetery to see who we might find from Marcia's tree. Then perhaps take a drive to Little Mountain and look into the Shealy's. Then we have two more days in the library in Edgefield. I'm thinking we will head up here again. The condo is nice and the area rich for exploration and besides that there is a Publix AND a Fresh Market.
KG
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