Re: Claude Whitt of Spartanburg, SC

Ann - Thank you for your respnose.There was a lot of gold mining activity in this area (initially Burke, later McDowell).I suspect James and Rebecca's father may also have been a miner who died when the children were young, but these miners came from many different places.The burning of the Burke courthouse by Sherman's troops certainly makes this more difficult, but there the loss is not total and there are a lot of the harder-to-use records, like the court minutes and many tax records, still extant. I haven't had the time to dig into these as yet; hope someone else may have some further clues.