Research Plan: South Carolina History and Genealogy (Summerville and Mayesville)

Surnames and places

• Summerville (Dorchester County): Thompson, Middleton
• Mayesville (Sumter County): Johnson, Bradley
• Timeframe: Pre–Civil War through the 1920s

Where to search first, by county and era

Dorchester County — Summerville

• 1850–1920s
  • Federal censuses 1850–1940; 1850/1860 slave schedules for enslaver identifications
  • South Carolina State Census 1880 and later state enumerations (1905/1915/1925 where extant)
  • City directories for Summerville/Charleston metro (late 1800s–1920s)
  • Dorchester deeds, mortgages, tax digests; probate indexes and wills
  • Newspapers: Summerville Journal; Charleston News and Courier (obits, legal notices, land sales)
• Pre–Civil War (to 1865)
  • Estate records for enslavers (focus on Middleton, Thompson) in Charleston/Dorchester
  • Bills of sale, inventories, partitions (Charleston pre‑1897; Dorchester post‑1897)
  • Church registers: Anglican/Episcopal, Baptist; AME/AMEZ post‑Emancipation

Sumter County — Mayesville

• 1850–1920s
  • Federal censuses and slave schedules (targets: Johnson, Bradley)
  • Sumter deeds, mortgages, tax rolls; probate and guardianships
  • Newspapers: Watchman and Southron; The Sumter Item (obits, probate, land sales)
  • City/rural directories; WWI (1917–18) and WWII “Old Man’s” draft (1942) for men b. 1877–1897
• Freedmen’s era (1865–1870s)
  • Freedmen’s Bureau: labor contracts (Mayesville plantations), rations, complaints
  • Freedman’s Bank (Charleston/Columbia branches) for post‑war identity clues

Priority record sets and tools

• Census and vital
  • 1850+ nominal censuses; 1850/1860 slave schedules; 1870 as first post‑war named households
  • SC death certificates (from 1915); earlier deaths via newspapers, probate, church books
  • Draft registrations: WWI and WWII “Old Man’s”
  • City directories: Charleston/Summerville; Sumter/Mayesville mentions
• Land and probate (key to linking generations and enslaved ancestry)
  • Deed indexes: grantor/grantee for Thompson, Middleton (Dorchester); Johnson, Bradley (Sumter)
  • Probate packets: wills, inventories, sales, distributions naming heirs and (pre‑1865) enslaved persons
  • Tax lists to bridge census gaps and show property continuity
• Enslaved‑to‑1870 methodology
  • Correlate 1870 households with nearby pre‑war enslavers of same surname
  • Track enslaver’s estate lifecycle: death notice → probate packet → inventory/sale → distributive shares
  • Follow distributees via deeds and later probates for continuity of named individuals/families
• Church and cemeteries
  • Episcopal/Baptist registers (Summerville/Charleston); AME/AMEZ and Baptist (Mayesville)
  • Cemetery surveys (Find A Grave/BillionGraves + county historical society transcriptions)
• Newspapers
  • Charleston News and Courier; Summerville Journal; Watchman and Southron; The Sumter Item
  • Target columns: probate, sheriff’s sales, tax delinquency, marriage/death notices, social notes