The ancestry of James Drake of Abbeville County, South Carolina has been a long-standing mystery. This Drake family has one of the richest oral traditions of the southern Drake lines, but in spite of this it has been one of the most difficult to trace. Oral tradition will only take the researcher so far, and beyond this point record evidence must be brought to bear. As is usually the case when genealogy is hard to trace, the difficulty involves loss of the records. Prior to 1785 South Carolina records were kept in Charleston. Because Charleston, down on the coast, is such a long way from Abbeville, tucked up in the northwest corner of the state, many legal dealings were never recorded. After 1785, some were entered into the county, or more correctly district, record books. However, fire destroyed almost all of those for Abbeville in the late Nineteenth Century. The practical result of both of these misfortunes is that there is very, very little to work with genealogically.

Abbeville was originally part of a large area in South Carolina known as Ninety-Six District. Later this large district was divided into smaller districts that were eventually called counties. The Drakes of Abbeville settled in a community known as Long Cane, including a township once known as Boonesborough.


Webmaster's Note: An edited form of this article appeared in the Fall 2001 Issue of The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research Vol. XXIX, No. 4