Driving Through the Family Tree

     Last weekend, my mom and I went on vacation to Charleston, SC. We drove north up I-85 from Atlanta to South Carolina and it was like driving through my family tree.

     We passed into SC through Hart County, home of my Craft, Evans, Powell and Taylor ancestors.
     We drove just outside of Greenville where my maternal grandfather's family moved to when he was a teen.  He met and married my grandmother there before moving the family to Atlanta.
     We took I-26 east and past the highways that would have taken us to Greenwood and Ninety Six where my Witt, Dorn and Quattlebaum ancestors lived.
     A little further down the road, we passed connectors to Saluda, where the older generations of Witt and Dorn ancestors came from, as well as newly connected Britt and Parrish ancestors.
     Soon, we were approaching through Columbia, where my Great-Granddaddy Albea died.
     We took a highway shortcut past the city and entered Lexington County, where generations of Hyler ancestors lived, as well as my Meetze, Ouzts and Leaphart ancestors.

     Unfortunately, we didn't have time on this vacation to stop anywhere for genealogy side-trips. It was a very inspiring drive though, prompting me to discover that the Richland County Library has an obit index and does lookups for free!  I've already received new obituaries for my Hyler ancestors. Hopefully I'll be able to go back again sometime on a research trip.

     And I didn't even have my camera ready when we discovered Leaphart Road.... I did find it on Google maps however:

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