Elizabeth: If you've seen Middleton and taken the Museum tour (including the Manigault House, I modestly add) then be SURE to visit Drayton Hall (and Magnolia Gardens if you have time) in the same area. My wife and I feel the Nathaniel Russell House is at least tied for the most beautiful. If you happen to travel up the coast toward Georgetown, take the time to visit Hampton Plantation, just south of the Santee River and one of the really old homes in the area. It was last in the care of Archibald Rutledge, but now a state park. The forts in the area are very interesting, but take much more time when there is so much to see. Edward

Edward, thank you for the suggestions. I think I'll send my mother and son on one of the bus-type tours while I research, and then go with them to the Manigault house and out to Drayton Hall. I am rushing like mad to find out where the various family lands were to guess the most representative place to visit that would be open to the public. Knowing that the DUBOIS' had at least one rice plantation in St. Thomas/St. Denis of around 1000 acres, I figure Magnolia or Cypress Gardens or Middleton are great places to romanticize ancestral digs. Hah. In our dreams. Good Methodists, they were limited in their slaveholdings, and eventually took up trades such as carpentry and blacksmithing in Charleston by the 1790s. Yet these folks still managed fine educations for their offspring. And the ladies seem to have married well--QUASHes, PINCKNEYs, VILLEPONTOUX, and the like. But I think more representive would be to wander out among undeveloped lands and imagine people working very hard to scratch out a living with only a handful of hands. The HUTCHINSONs and CARNEs of my family did seem to have relatively large estates even in the city, but I think may have lost a great deal due to possible Tory sympathies. Haven't proven that yet, though. Actually, I think the latter two families were split in their loyalties, while my DUBOIS' managed to remain neutral somehow. Anyway, an uncle to my PETER DUBOIS' wife, ANN CLARKSON CARNE, was Dr. SAMUEL CARNE whose estate, Orange Gardens, was sold off just before the Revolution when he exited for England. I believe the present day Orange Street runs down the middle of what was his land. The Hutchinsons were the ones who lived "up the path" from the Bay; some eventually settled on East Bay. I guess I'll sigh and romanticize about how things might have been had not my line decided again and again to be Methodist ministers after the Revolution. Poor, but enlightened... <g> Which reminds me, I'll need to add the two Bethel Churches, old and "new", to my expanding list. Anyone know if their cemeteries are open to the public, or if special arrangements need to be made? Same with cemeteries for St.Philips and the French/Huguenot churches? I AM packing my running shoes. Okay, walking-as-fast-as-arthritic-knees- will-allow shoes. Elizabeth DuBois Russo "Edward L. Manigault" wrote: > > Elizabeth: > > If you've seen Middleton and taken the Museum tour (including the Manigault > House, I modestly add) then be SURE to visit Drayton Hall (and Magnolia > Gardens if you have time)