Edgefield Connections

Edgefield Connection--McManus, Griffis and Others is the story of the author's father, Willie, and his parents John Trapp McManus and Mamie Virginia Griffis.

 

One of the most interesting stories in Edgefield Connection- is the story of the German Palatines who arrived at the port of Charlestown around 1765 and were given land by the King of England in the area Edgefield District.  Several of this group of immigrants are ancestors of the author and settled on Sleepy Creek which runs into the Savannah River.  While tracing original land deeds it was determined that the land her maternal great-grandfather, John Nicholas Griffis, owned was bounded by her paternal great-grandfather, James Amos McManus, thus solving the mystery of how her grandparents met.  A further search revealed that both great grandfathers had received their land from their wives whose ownership can be traced back to the Palatines!

 

Thus, the McManus family who were from Ireland and the Griffis family who can be traced back to Wales, both have ancestors who were of the Palatine group from the Rhine in Germany and some of their ancestors were from Switzerland!

 

Through writing Edgefield Connection-. the author learned much about her ancestral family, including her grandfather and her father.  Information about both John Trapp McManus and his son, Willie, was found in the town newspaper The Edgefield Advertiser.

 

Even though the church and community helped with expenses to send her father, Willie, to high school boarding school and college, he quit college and returned home. After a scrape with the law, Willie joined the Marines in 1927.  He changed his name from Willie to William and the date and place of birth hoping not to be found.  While at Parris Island he met and married, Lydia Fitts, the author's mother. William became "Bill" and even though a fine Christian man, his life was filled with difficulties as shared in  Edgefield Connection-.