----Original Message Follows----
From: "Char Coats-Siercks" 
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: SC Land Records-Part I
Content-Type: text/plain
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 15:58:32 PDT

Source:  this article was sent to me by Gary Coats another Coats 
researcher, it is from the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 
either the May, June or July 1998 issue entitled:  Going beyond the 
Database-Interpretation, Amplification, and Development of Evidence:  
South Carolina's COM Index and Several James Kelleys, by GeLee Corley 
Hendrix, CG, FASG p. 166-133

I am not going to post all of the article but just some of the general 
info about the index and it's use....

...The Computer Output Microfilm Index (COM Index) of the South Carolina 
State Archives is an extremely valuable resource that well illustrates 
the point.  Its major database, the Combined Alphabetical Index, covers 
more than two dozen record collections.  Of these, the most essential 
for research in South Carolina's notorious "burned counties" indeed for 
all the colonial settlements outside Charleston-are those that relate to 
land.  The highly touted "completeness" of South Carolina's colonial 
land-grant records is not much of an exaggeration.  The collection has 
few rivals.  The COM index is the appropriate tool for accessing these 
records.  But the researcher who does not go beyond the database to 
acquire a thorough understanding of the original collections and their 
quirks stands a goodly chance of misinterpreting facts, misidentifying 
people, and missing clues.  This paper uses on example to illustrate a 
common problem and an effective procedure to remedy it.

She then states the case problem of Kellys...there were several 
waterways involved, several counties and several Kellys....Questions:  
Were all these land documents created by and for just one man of this 
common name? Or might there have been two James Kelleys? or three? or 
four?

Answers to these questions and to the enigma that prompted this study- 
can be had by taking the research several steps past the database:

Study the region's geopolitical history;
Learn the colony's land-grant process;
Analyze the data to identify missing records;
Run cross-checks in the database to locate those missing records;
Consult the original records for additional clues; particularly identify 
associates;
Reconsult the COM Index, the corresponding originals, and other records 
for material on each of those associates, to glean James Kell(e)y 
references as well as land data for those associates;
When and where necessary to solidify the evidence gleaned from the 
above, trace chains of title to all adjacent tracts and plat the 
community in order to determine exact locations, proximities vs 
distances, and property dividions in later years taht help to establish 
parent-child relationships.

(just a note, I have found some land records in the County indexes that 
were not in the COM Index...but then I didn't do a cross check 
either...but I would still check those county sources as well....I have 
added my signature lines for a link to the Coats Archive...I have the 
surname index that I got from the SC Archive...so you can see what it is 
that you get...)

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Charlotte Coats-Siercks
Attorney At Law
Licensed in California
email:  [email protected]
CoatsFamilyArchive:  http://www.rootsquest.com/~coatsfar
CoatesFamilyList:  http://www.aa.net/~jdcoates/list/coates-l.htm
USIGS:  http://www.usigs.org
If you have ICQ you can page me through my Personal Communication 
Center: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/18228773 

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