Char Coats-Siercks wrote:
> Mills' Atlas just has names of places, waterways-the bigger ones, old
> mills etc....

Mills' Atlas maps also show the names of many landowners marking plantation
sites, home sites, taverns, businesses, etc.  The names of several of my Coker,
DuBose, Prater, Ingram, McIntosh, and other relatives are shown on several of
these maps.  We have confirmed the locations shown on the maps for some of these
people using wills, land transactions, and other records.  

For examples, on Sumter District map are shown the names and plantation sites of
my ancestor Whitley Coker as well as other relatives John Coker, Thomas Coker,
Henry Coker, Zachariah DuBose, Benjamin Lavender, etc.  On the Darlington
District map we find sites annotated for my relatives and probable relatives of
Ingram, Giles Carter, Seaborn DuBose, John DuBose, Daniel DuBose, and many
others.  I've personally examined the records of many of these people and
confirmed that the locations shown by Mills were in fact their properties at
around that time.

Robert Mills produced the Atlas as a private subscription project.  He edited
and improved the earlier District Survey maps which were used as the underlying
basis for the Atlas.  Obviously he did not show the names of all persons living
in each District on the Atlas Maps.  But, he did indeed show the names of many,
if not most, of the plantation owners and established family sites known to
him.  I suspect that he may have been most likely to show names of paid
subscribers.  But, from the large number of names shown and the consistently
wide distribution of them, I doubt that he omitted names just because they were
not subscribers.  More likely, he included as many names as he could in hopes
that having someone's name shown would entice that family to become a customer
and purchase the atlas.  

The Atlas shows hundreds of names and locations including people, plantations,
taverns, stores, towns, mills, ferries, bridges, fords, landings, Muster Houses,
Meeting Houses, churches, battlegrounds, rivers, creeks, swamps, factories,
roads, etc.  It is also very useful to see not only the location of one's
relatives, but the names and locations of their surrounding neighbors.  This
gives insight and clues on how to make better use of census data and other
records.

In short, Mills' Atlas is a "MUST SEE" for anyone researching South Carolina
genealogy in the early 1800's.  

Steve Coker
[email protected]

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