Clayton Family - Maudlin Family - Anderson Family & Morris Family - Pickens , SC

Description

My People
By: Robert Morris Clayton
About this book from the Foreword
: In the following pages I have attempted to present those families and individuals that contributed to my being. It was difficult to locate some information and pin point exactly how it fit into the picture, but the preponderance of materials left me no other alternative than to search through it and fit it together. In so doing I have come to a better understanding of my own person. It's possible that some other member of the 'tree' will identify with some part in the book. If not, then the reader, who is in no way related, will see that my family is a real down to earth body of rugged people who lived, loved and made do, and I am so proud to be a descendant of them. It is my desire to present this material, so that my descendants will have the information and can go forward with their families' genealogy with less difficulty. If one will only keep records of birth dates, marriages and dates of death for family members in a provable form, then advancing lines will be made much simpler. The Holy Bible is an excellent place to record this information and is acceptable proof. If family members decide to keep records, let me suggest that any item of interest be recorded. Newspaper accounts, old letters, and in these modern times, accumulation of e-mails, pictures, video-tapes, recordings of individuals and just general information will give one much to fall back on and advance their line in my family. The further away one gets from the early 1700's, the bigger the problem. We have been in America about 300 years, and no one knows what the future brings, but one thing is sure — my family is a hardy group and will be here as long as there is the United States of America or longer.
This book takes the several families of my makeup and deals with them separately; they are the Morris, the Anderson, the Mauldin and the Clayton families.
I have expanded on some lines because I am proud to have those people as family members even though a mite distant. As it has always been handled within the family, "they are cousins." The one line that I wish I could have expounded on, the Smiths, of the Slabtown area of the Pendleton District, proved to be more numerous than expected. They were the people of my grandmother Clayton — a real family of Christian people, noted for the physicians, theologians, educators, attorneys, politicians, bankers, farmers and even a good old boy or two, located in lower
Pickens County
and upper
Anderson County
of the old Pendleton District of South Carolina. As the book progressed, I realized why my father, Frederick Van Clayton, was so enamored with the Pendleton District. His thesis written about the Settlement of the Pendleton District for the years 1777-1800, was really the motivating factor getting me to pull together the various facets of my family and attempting to make some sense out of the threads of historical and genealogical evidence. While some may question facts herein, it was my being a derivative of those masses before me of whom I have written, that satisfied me, and that was the deciding factor of the books contents. AMEN.
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