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BARBARA BLIZZARD, with PAT BONNEAU
Bringing you our family history.
This is the heritage of my late husband, SCPO Tillman A. Blizzard 1938-2008, and his cousin Pat Bonneau, of royal descent through their ancestor Tirzah Gunter. The tireless research and grave hunting done by Pat benefits us all; while most of my research began with interviewing my husband's parents and ended with the printed word.
You may wonder why being descended from royalty is noteworthy. You have the blood of people who did great things for mankind in your veins. On the other hand you also have the blood of weaklings. How could I trace so far back in history? Royalty or their scribes could read and write, and they kept genealogy records allowing us to trace our roots back to Biblical times, or the Pharaohs of Egypt. In the case of our Gunter line, the Emperor Charlemagne, and Clovis, King of the Franks.
Mr. Buff interviewed me for "Gunters Along the Edisto" while we were living at the old homeplace of Nettie Pool Blizzard in the 80's, but at that time I didn't know about the royal Gunter connection. However, I depend mostly on my own research which often does not agree with Mr. Buff, appearing to some Buff fans that my research must be the wrong information.
Although I am a South Carolina Pool in-law, I am also connected by blood as a descendant of Peter Gunter and Joan Awbrey of royal descent. They are ancestors of mine through my father, and of Tillman's through his mother's paternal grandmother, Tirzah Gunter, wife of Tilman Pool. It has been my ambition in doing Tillman's genealogy to prove my Thomas Gunter whose wife was of royal descent, was related to Tillman's Josuha Gunter family. Eventually I found the connection in the lineage of William Gunter at the USGenWeb page of Forsyth Co, Georgia, listing my Thomas as the brother of Tillman's ancestor Henry, sons of William Gunter and Elizabeth Gethin in the lineage of J. Art Gunter. In fact my father has a double line through two children of their son William, Sr. Gunter. So, I am descended from both William, Jr. Gunter and his sister Joan/Jane Gunter who married William Awbrey.
I also wanted to prove that the husbands of Tillman's aunts Livy and Ivy, Fred and Willie Gunter, were related to our Gunter family, which I did. Through census records back to Joshua Gunter's son Balaam, I have proved the relationship to Tirzah Gunter.
The Gunters were all born in Wales for almost five hundred years, beginning with Sir William I Gunter, knight, born about 1069 in Gunnerstone, Wales. Then our Gunter line moved to England in the 15th century and 200 years later, John Gunter, Pilgrim, sailed to America to make his home in Virginia.
Even though the Gunters were in Wales for almost 500 years, they were not native to Wales. The Welsh did not use surnames. Sir Peter Gunter, went to England from France with William the Conqueror and ended up in Wales. Sir Peter's wife Jane Awbrey was descended from Clovis, King of Franks and Charlemagne Emperor of Europe. His descendant Joshua Gunter of Brunswick, VA, who came to SC. Joshua and his father John Gunter are listed as the earliest ancestor of men tested at Family Tree DNA. Both men are Haplogroup R1b1b2-yDNA which is a very old, European DNA. Pat's cousin James Pool tested Haplogroup I1. Tillman's y-dna is Haplogroup G with markers also of G2 and G2a. Tillman's mt-dna of his maternal line is H11.
In Pelion we lived at 3295 Calks Ferry Raod, the house Tillman built across the road from the great-grandson of Tirzah's brother John: George Dewey Gunter.
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- OSG Map Puhl property location (323 KB)
Map of Philip Puhl/Pool property in 1798 courtesy of Pat Bonneau.
- Pat Bonneau (45 KB)
Pat is a descendant of Walter Pool.
- Pool Siblings (321 KB)
These are the children of Tilman Pool II and Dolly Ann Nettie Williamson. Left to right back row: Cullen, Elvie, Tillman III, John Pool
Left to right front row: Ivy (Mrs. Willie Gunter) Olivia (Mrs. Fred Gunter)
Nancy "Nettie" (Mrs. Purvis Blizzard, Sr.) Doly (Mrs. Lucius Keadle) far right.
Fred and Willie Gunter are related to our Russel Gunter family of royal descent through his brother Balaam. Russel and Balaam were sons of Joshua Gunter and Keziah Banks, both born in Virginia and died in Lexington, South Carolina.
- Lavern Gunter and Tillman Blizzard (56 KB)
This photo was taken at the Fred Gunter homeplace in 2001. Their mothers were sisters, Olivia (Mrs. Fred Gunter) and Nettie (Mrs Purvis Blizzard.
- James Blizzard's letter to his mother (559 KB)
This letter was written by James after being wounded in the leg and sent to a Washington DC hospital, a prisoner of war. The original was donated by the family to the Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the the Civil War section.
- SCPO Tillman Blizzard, US Navy (49 KB)
This picture was taken in 1973 before Tillman left Virginia on his last cruise in the Navy.
- 1779 Map of South Carolina (258 KB)
In this 1779 Map of South Carolina our Gunter family settled in Lexington County and between the two branches of the North Edisto River and the South Edisto River.
- The Forks of the Edisto Rivers 1704-1782 (302 KB)
This field map #158 shows the location of Gunters Mill. Some of the early census records state Gunter Mill as the area the census was taken and includes our families.
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