Memorial to Dorchester County South Carolina Genealogists.

JAN CRIDDLE

Jan Criddle passed away on March 9, 2006. Jan was an avid "Lowcountry" South Carolina genealogist, and I know how pleased she is to know that her contributions will continue to benefit researchers and family members for many years to come. She will be missed.

Claire Schuetrum sent this excerpt of Jan's obituary from The State, Columbia, SC, Saturday, March 11, 2006:
"Jeannette Criddle. Cayce -- Jeannette Criddle, 68, died Thursday, March 9, 2006. Born in Decatur, Ala., she was the daughter of the late James M. and Elise Jackson Criddle. She retired as an auditor with the S.C. Department of Revenue."

Claire shared these memories,

"Jan was a dynamic person with a great sense of humor. I met her through her connection to one of the Branchville Grimes families. She told me that her Criddle ancestor, James Samuel Criddle, a soldier in the Northern Army, came south during the Civil War and met a girl in the Reevesville- -Branchville area, Elizabeth "Eliza" Grimes. After the war he returned to marry her and remained.

"She was working on a Judy family history at one time. Besides Grimes, Criddle, and Judy, some of her other family lines were George, Canaday, and Harbison. I like to think that she knows all of the genealogical
secrets now."

GAIL APPLEBY CANNON

Our dear friend, Gail, died on February 12, 2005. I still have an e-mail, dated May 1, 2004, from Gail in my inbox. She had sent a wealth of material on the Appleby family, and helped me and so many others to tie up loose ends in our own genealogies. She was such a sweet person, an avid genealogist, and a keeper of the Appleby flame. We will all miss her so much.

MIRIAM M. BRADFORD

Miriam Bradford passed away on November 23, 2003 in Aiken, South Carolina. Miriam was a steadfast lowcountry genealogist, active on the genealogy message boards and lists from their beginnings. We were distant cousins, and had so much left to share about the Gavin family. I still think about the hundreds of missed opportunities, thinking that I had all the time in the world ....

I found this posting by Miriam on the RootsWeb HARPER list, and hope that she wouldn't mind my pasting it here.

"I, too, have seen the devastating affect modern society has shown to our ancestors. The Harper graveyard in
South Carolina, where I live, has been vandalized, robbed, and desecrated for as long as I have lived which is 50 years. Our family has a deed, when my ancestors sold the surrounding property stating that we still and always will own the one-fourth acre of land for the cemetery and shall have ingress and egress to such cemetery from the State Highway 15.

"We still have been denied that also, but maybe that can be resolved without a court battle. Times got so bad that the family in the late 1950's or early 1960's had to put cement across the Harper graves to prevent people from trying to dig them up. This cemetery was established in 1832, and as long as my I draw breath we will fight to maintain the dignity and respect my family deserves in their final resting place. This cemetery is the final resting place of men who have fought in the American Revolution with Francis Marion "The Swamp Fox", and men who fought for the Confederacy in the War Between the States. These men and women are my family, and if it weren't for them I would not exist, nor my sons. I intend to be buried there, also, and with great pride!"

I'm so pleased to say that Miriam got her wish, and she is buried with her ancestors in the Buck Springs - Harper Cemetery. .

Dorchester Co SCGenWeb