"If we know where we came from,
We may better know where to go,
If we know who we came from,
We may better understand Who we are"
-unknown
When one starts searching through the past, you find the most interesting things. Senior and I had heard of a book about his family- when they came to America, and roughly about the entire family tree..starting in 1698 and going to 1978. We knew at one time Seniors dad had a copy of this book as it was written by a cousin. But, in our search through his belongings we have not found it.
So, a few weeks back I took to the library. And found a copy resting in the reference section, among the South Carolina archives. It is frail and you can not check it out.
I flipped through it and found the history of his family fascinating.. Who they were, and who they had become in life. My search led me to Seniors 4x Great Grandmother, and to her grandfather, Captain John Blakeney Sr. He was born in Ireland in 1732, came to the colonies in the 1750s and fought in the Revolutionary War. He achieved the rank of Captain, and served in the South Carolina militia along side Francis Marion ( the swamp fox). Once the war was over he chose this area to set up his home and raise his family. He was brazen and tough, and died at the age of 100.
Searching for him, led me to a monument erected in his honor in 1956 by the Daughters of the Revolution. And it was in fact not 20 miles from here.
I was excited about this and showed it to Senior who in turn was equally excited that he had an ancestor who fought in the militia. So, we found the address for the cemetery that the monument and grave are in and took off Saturday to go find it. It led us to a ruddy dirt road with a large mud puddle. Senior suggested we return in our 4x4. This we did the next day.
This is the only marker showing the entrance to the cemetery, long been worn down by the elements, it once had a brass plaquered attached but it was either stolen or fell off, and never replaced.
This is the road in to the cemetery:
Captain Blakeney ( Seniors 6X Great Grandfather) monument and grave, erected in 1956, near the Blakeney homestead
Along with the Captains grave were other markers for other family members:
After taking the pictures and thinking about what kind of man Capt. Blakeney was, I thought about how sad it is that so much history is here, and not being taken care of. I am sure one time or the other it was , and those family members have since died off.
Seeing this gives me another reason why I love living in South Carolina...this area is so rich in American history, We cant drive down a road without seeing some sort of marker referencing something from the past.
My search into Seniors family is not over. I am stuck at the his paternal 5x grandfather who married Capt. Blakeneys granddaughter. The book in the library will tell me more, and holds the answers to filling in Seniors family tree. I have tried to get a copy but the publisher is out of business and the book out of print.
As for my family tree...my dad and aunt actually researched that some time ago, and traced us back to Scotland in the 1400s. We were of Clan Gunn, which was one of the oldest Scottish Clans, and our motto? " Either peace or war"
-JUGM
