A Photo of Mills Grandparents and Great Grandparents
Some cousins who are descended from my Granddaddy's brother Charles, in Florida, were interested in family photos. I was fortunate enough to have a copy of the one you see on this page, and I promised to send it along to them.
From left to right, you see my grandparents John Raymond Mills and Martha Brown Mills, and my great grandparents George Clarence (Doc) Mills and Nora Belle Pierce. They're standing on the east side of my grandparents' home on Market Street in Timmonsville.
After that picture was taken, they also had taken a picture of four generations: Doc, Granddaddy, Daddy (William Raymond Mills), and my older brother Ronald Glenn Mills. I don't know if the picture still exists. Another photo was taken, but I don't recall who was in it.
Here's the genealogical information I have on the four people in the picture you see here:
Raymond Mills: b. Brownsville, SC, Jan 24, 1892; m. Hendersonville, NC, January 7, 1918; d. February 15, 1971, in Florence, SC; buried at Byrd Cemetery in Timmonsville, SC. He was a shoe repairman on the same site in Timmonsville for 48 years.
Martha Brown Mills: b. Hendersonville, NC, June 18, 1891; d. February 14, 1960, McLeod Infirmary in Florence, SC; buried at Byrd Cemetery in Timmonsville.
Doc Mills: b. 1873; d. S.C. 1950s; farmer.
Nora Belle Pierce: b. 1876, NC.
Searching for Richard McAlister
My sister Rhonda (Frierson) once told me that she’d looked up the 1840 census records in hopes of finding our great grandfather Richard McAllister. She couldn’t find him and wondered why.
I’ll tell you why. She apparently had used a transcript of the census records rather than the microfilm at the South Carolina archives. The census taker’s handwriting was terrible, and the transcriber—a courteous woman from near Cades, South Carolina, in Williamsburg County—transcribed his name as Brisbane.
As soon as I saw the name Brisbane as a given name, I knew that something was wrong. In dozens of census records, I’d never seen anyone in the area by that name.
I, too, had used her records of the 1840 census, but I had an added advantage. When I was about ten years old, I asked my granddaddy and another older relative for the names of Richard McAllister’s brothers and sisters.
Since each older relative referred to some of the siblings by nicknames, the lists weren’t identical. For example, one relative remembered a sister as “Tiny,” but the other remembered a name. I think the name was Elizabeth. Having two lists, I had something useful for comparison.
When I moved to Taiwan, I left the list and other genealogical information in storage, and they were lost. I did, however, take along a book in which I’d written my family tree and other information.
Here’s some information that helps to fill in the blanks:
Richard C. McAlister (note the difference in spelling) was born on September 9, 1830, and he died on June 24, 1888. He was a farmer. His wife was Sarah Powell, also known as Leonora Powell. She was born on February 9, 1835, and she died on December 29, 1913.
