I believe this surname Nettles (as well as many other South Carolina names) can be found in early Wilkinson Co., MS records. Some of my Sumter Co. folks moved there, some before the War of 1812 and some after War of 1812, but they trickled in as a group--seven Scott sons and lots of their Keller kin--and intermarried. (But not all Scotts in that area are related. Some were big land-owners and county officials and some like mine were just common folk.) The records are very good there, unlike the Sumter Co. records. LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City, has many films for Wilkinson Co., MS and it's adjoining parish in Louisiana--Feliciana Parish, which later split into two parishes, so one has to search in all three jurisdictions--Wilkinson Co., West Feliciana Parish and East Feliciana Parish. Heritage Books a few years ago published newspaper abstracts from the Wilkinson Co. newspaper, and these are helpful in finding dates when your people may have married or died (if your people migrated there). A people-finder for this part of the MS-LA area (plus many other areas of what had been the Louisiana Purchase) is Philip McMullen's (or McMillen) GRASSROOTS OF AMERICA. This is a computerized index to parts of filmed Gales and Seaton version of AMERICAN STATE PAPERS, one particular volume of same. These have been filmed by LDS and may be in some University microfilm collections and large libraries. For LA and MS, these papers pertained mostly to private land claims granted by the Spanish prior to the Americans taking over. However, one may find other persons also in the index. As a librarian-genealogist cautioned me (and the audience), ALWAYS read the preface and/or introduction. This is a MUST with McMullen's book, which is an index--like a telephone directory but with not much information. Suggest you read up on this resource in a book such as THE SOURCE (either edition). That book was written by the experts, and I am not an expert. Of course, some of your folks stayed in Sumter Co. Annie Gregorie states in her history of Sumter Co. (I believe--I read at it many years ago) that as the cotton gin was invented, farmers discovered they could plant much more cotton and so as their families expanded, they moved to bigger and newer fields--such as MS. Hope this info helps those who folks wandered from Sumter Co., SC. E.W.Wallace southern California