From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 8/16/2001

      The National Military Park to preserve the Battle of Cowpens can
be accessed from I-85  in South Carolina by taking exit 78 north on US
221 to State Road 11 and  going 0.2 miles to the park entrance. It is
located near Spartanburg about 4 miles south of Thomas III and
Margaret's burial site. It was fought on January 17, 1781 and the
victory for the patriots reinvigorated American morale. 

      A major objective of my genealogical research has been to identify
the Old World Roots of my ALLEN Branch progenitor, William Allen.
Despite my best efforts to find documentation to support written family
history or other conclusions deducted from the available clues, I am
left only with educated guesses which do not meet the standards of
genealogical proof, and do not further my goal of eventually contacting
present day contemporaries from the same genealogical pedigree. I am
reminded that genealogy is anything but a stale pursuit and certainly
not a parlor game. I am hopeful that South Carolina will provide further
leads to William Allen's origins. To that end, the following efforts
would appear the most promising: (1) examining the ship lists for
immigrants at the Charleston Port of Entry for the period of 1760-1776
(2) visiting the town of Cheraw to see if the early Irish roots of that
community provide any foundation for further leads (3) visiting the town
of Abbeville where a number of Queensborough settlers retreated prior to
1763 to avoid hostile Indians in Burke County, Georgia. The county
records may help there, according to Mr. Bob Hammond of the Burke County
Library. (4) While I believe that I have obtained all the information I
could hope to retrieve from Lancaster, Lancaster County, South Carolina,
his wife Elizabeth BARCLAY'S hometown, the visit will afford me
additional opportunity to reassure myself on this point as well as
confirm my Barclay progenitor John Barkley's roots as Ballymoney, County
Antrim, Northern Ireland. (5) After obtaining this data, I shall go to
the Genealogical Library in Columbia, South Carolina to clear up any
questions or to enlighten myself further. 

      It's out of the way and west from Cowpens, but I think I will
satisfy my curiosity over the marker for John Camp, 5th son of Thomas
Camp III and Winifred STARLING Camp of Rutherford County, North Carolina
which is located in the Lebanon Methodist Church Cemetery, Greenville
County, near Princeton, South Carolina. The marker associates John Camp
with the Virginia Regiment, Continental Line. John Camp had left
Virginia many years before the Revolution, so it is unlikely he would
have served with this regiment. He was probably in Orange County, North
Carolina no later than 1759 and was likely married there. Nearby is the
Old Grove Church Cemetery where John Camp is supposedly buried. The old
graves are marked only by field stones with no identification. The site
is referred to locally as the Sullivan fields. 

      Because of  the diverse and obverse directions of the
aforementioned towns, charting my visits to these towns will be
challenging. Consequently, I will follow the most accessible lead and go
to the town of Lancaster. Major John Barkley had a major role in
founding the town and his son laid out the town streets. The courthouse
historically burned down so it is not clear whether any records other
than what I have seen exist. A local historian, Mr. Lindsay Pettis( P.O.
Box 1075, Lancaster, South Carolina (219) 721- 1075) whose sister wrote
a book about the founding of the town does not support my impression of
my progenitor's contributions("he is mentioned only once and only
incidentally in my sister's book") and is also dubious about the 1825
map of the adjacent area and Catawba River(See following pages). I will
then go east to Cheraw before heading for Columbia, South Carolina. Then
on to R&R in Charleston before driving through Abbeville on my way to
Georgia. 

      In my genealogical foray, I will be looking at names that are
associated with my Allen pedigree including Barclay and Camp, but also
Montgomery. All of these names appear on the map mentioned above. From a
research point of view, this part of the trip will be the most
important. 

      Gary Carl Aden 8/10/2001