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My character-driven historical fiction grips readers' emotions and surprises them with unexpected twists. “The social realism of Jane Austen meets the Southern Gothic of Flannery O’Connor” in The Silk Trilogy, set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Sign up for my free newsletter on the right-hand sidebar.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Records Research on Our Old House


My husband and I spent the afternoon a couple of weeks ago at the Kingstree courthouse, looking up the history of our South Carolina property.  We had to make an appointment and were shown into a room with vault-like doors, really impressive!  There we were allowed to handle massive, beautifully-bound deed books--or should I say tomes--some of which were over a century old. They had the thickest, most durable paper.
In the course of things, I happened to see several of my ancestors in the deed indexes, and so I do think we will be returning, hopefully soon.  Honestly, I could fall into this wormhole for quite some time.  I've collected family stories and have done online and library research, but I've never researched my genealogical records via land records and such, not directly (though I've gathered a very few in family folders at historical societies). I tried once, but I was confused with no help, whereas the clerk gave us a tour of the basics this time. 
Nonetheless, it takes me a while to learn!  I was bemoaning to my husband how the lawyers had apparently signed for people, as again and again in the deed books, I could tell that the signatures were in the same hand as the handwritten deed records (in the days before typewriters, of course!), with that handwriting changing from deed to deed.  He laughed and pointed out, "Honey, I don't think those were the originals. They just copied the deeds into the official records. The owners kept the original deeds."  Um, right! I felt so silly!  There were also no photocopy machines in those days... 

The Lost Prince, the Life & Death of Henry Stuart by Catharine MacLeod


I have been thrilled with this National Portrait Gallery catalogue of its 'The Lost Prince' exhibit. Catharine MacLeod (curator) did a beautiful job pulling this collection together, and while I would have loved to have seen it in person, in ways it's even better to have it to keep as a reference.   I meant to read straight through, as there are some interesting prefaces and introductions, but I've been bouncing about. The portraits reference one another, immersing and connecting the reader to the whole book, right off.  It is far and away my favorite art exhibit book (at least for the present). I do take exception, just a bit, with the name of the exhibit, as for some reason it makes me think of the Princes in the Tower (Edward IV's sons), and I'm not sure I've ever heard Prince Henry, son of King James VI/I, called that before.  But it's catchy, I suppose. So many beautiful portraits and insights about the royal family members and key political players...  Mind you, however, that this particular cover portrait is deceptively flattering!

To orient you with regards to my work, this Prince Henry (1594-1612) was the brother of Elizabeth Stuart, later Queen of Bohemia.  Elizabeth Stuart was the mother of Sophia of Hanover, who was the mother of King George I of Great Britain. So this 'lost prince' was King George I's great-uncle. I'm working on a novel about King George I's wife, Sophia Dorothea.