Carole.....neat find! I didn't quite understand if you just found the index or found and/or transcribed some of the documents. One that you list may be a fine one: the Hope Brannen will of 1867. Meredith Poythress, Jr. last showed in the census of 1860 living in the household of Hope and Sarah Brannen. Sarah Poythress Brannen was Meredith's daughter. Meredith is shown, as I recall, as "farm worker" or something like that, implying that he wasn't exactly a rich retiree although he would have been very, very old by the time of the 1860 census. The Brannen family intersects with our'n at many places. It's doubtful that Hope Brannen's will would indicate his place of burial but in those days of "family burial plots" it is likely Meredith is buried at the same place as Hope Brannen and the will might have a clue. It's also not likely there is a remaining tombstone if he even got one in the first place. But it's not out of the question. Meredith's son John Maner P. died only several years later in 1867, got a "cast concrete" stone (about the cheapest going, typical during Reconstruction # 1) and it survives, albeit because it was semi-buried for the last 50 years or so. Wonder why they were so secretive about it? Just playing Prussian Postmaster would be my guess; courthouse employees run the gamut from the nicest to the worst not unlike the rest of us I suppose. I don't know that I can get into that file and transcribe any of that stuff but I still have a ton of questionable-clout kinfolks down there and I'll try if you can give me some pointers. First pointer could be where did you find this "court?" When I drove all around the town square a week ago, the erstwhile courthouse was a pile of red dirt still freshly dozed. I was asleep at the switch and didn't make any inquiries about what might be going on. As a further bit of whimsy, the Brannen family are old, old time guys around there. Brannen's Bridge and Brannen's Bridge Road are named for them. The bridge is over Briar Creek at the site of the revolutionary Battle of Briar Creek. While likely more of a skirmish than a battle due to the small numbers involved, the battle reportedly slowed up British reinforcements that were headed to some confrontation in S. C. that had significance and was won by the Colonials. I recall reading somewhere (I suspect in some of Dixon Hollingsworth's material) that the reason Sherman didn't burn much in Screven County was in deference to this historically significant site. Another likely reason is there wasn't much to burn, how those folks scratch a living out of that land remains a mystery to me. Best, Maynard