In a message dated 9/4/98 12:00:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << One of my ancestors was named Guilford Ratliff, and I thought that the Battle of Guilford was fought in S.C. I think this ancestor was named after that battle and may have then placed the family in S.C. during that period of time, but the Battle could have been in Virginia, I will have to check. >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Kelly: The name, GUILFORD, is practically synonymous in the Carolinas with Guilford Courthouse, NC where one of the major battles in the Revolution was fought. The county seat for Guilford Co. is Greensboro, NC. At the time, there was a major wagon road which went through Greensboro to Charlotte and then down into SC, terminating at Augusta, GA, the frontier with the Indians. Some of your Ratliff (Ratcliff) clan could have gone down into SC. As a matter of fact, there was a Ratcliff who owned land in Mecklenburg Co., NC in the middle 1700s, in the part which is now in SC, but I have never been able to make a connection between these folks and the ones that lived in Orangeburgh/Barnwell Districts, SC. To be honest with you, at the time I happened on this reference, I was busy searching other lines and didn't follow up on it as I probably should have. I sort of figured that this Ratcliff may have been related by marriage to my Walker line because they also lived in Mecklenburg Co. from about 1764 to 1772. My Radcliffes were probably in the same group that came to the area of SC known at the time as EDISTO. This is an Indian name of a river (pronounced ED-isto) which divides Orangeburgh Co. from Barnwell and Bamberg Counties on the south. This is the area where Samuel Ratcliff and my Walkers lived. In fact, George Ratcliff lived in a small community called Healing Springs, SC right next to the Walkers. My ancestor, LYDIA RATCLIFFE married WILLIAM WALKER on December 31, 1799. These were my gr., gr., grandparents on my mother's side. I currently researching my CAIN line and have traced them back to the Isle of Man in the early 1700s. In searching the Isle of Man church registries, I noticed that there were many Radcliffs who lived alongside these Cain(e)s. My Cain ancestor (I hope) was first located in this country in Augusta Co., VA in 1746/47. While I haven't been able to find any Radcliffs who lived near him at the time, there could have been one and they may even have been somehow related. This Cain ancestor (Patrick) was located in the northern part of SC in 1773 in what is now Kershaw Co. He later moved to Orangeburgh District. His daughter, Alice, had married Nathaniel Walker, Jr. and they were part of the Walker clan I previously referred to. William Walker, who married Lydia Ratcliffe was their son. It makes sense to me that the Rad(t)cliffs, the Cains and the Walkers all knew each other and their children intermarried. That's how they operated in those days. They made do with what they had close at hand!<g> No Long distance courtships! Have you done much searching in the SC records for your Ratliffs? This can be a challenging and frustrating process since Sherman destroyed so many of our early records when he burned the Statehouse in Columbia during the Civil War. This was strictly a punitive measure he employed to hurt the proud South Carolinians who started the whole war. South Carolina has suffered for this miserable deed ever since. Hopefully, the SC Archives are gradually acquiring important documents which survived in various county Courthouses that were not burned but the pace of recording these documents has been painfully slow due to the low funding priority that historical records are given. Frank Dum Spiro Spero!