Bruce Odom's Index to Barnwell County Probate

Samuel Reed's Signature on His Will on 24 Aug 1823

Are there special people in your genealogical journey who have been invaluable in helping you find your way?  Several people stand out to me without whom I would not be where I am today.

Bruce Odom is one of these folks for me.  His research online was invaluable early on in helping me find my 2-great grandfather James Henry Reed.  His research on our Odom line is unparalleled in my opinion. 

Bruce is still at it, I'm delighted to report.  Last winter he posted an index to Barnwell County probate files on RootsWeb.  Click here for the link to this index.  Find your ancestor on the index, and go much more quickly to their record without jumping around hit or miss. 

More details from that page:  

This table includes the names from the Barnwell County, SC loose papers probate files that have been digitized and posted online by familysearch.org. They are in the Historical Records for North America. Here is the URL that takes you to the county list for South Carolina: https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/collection/1911928/waypoints

Click the county of your interest and be prepared for some amazing family tree research. One of the most valuable features of this information is that it includes the names of several thousand slaves.

There are a good number of wills but I did not indicate that. If there was a will I used that date otherwise the date is the earliest one I saw from skimming through the information. This information can be searched and sorted as an MS Word table. On the familysearch screen type the number for the set of File Numbers you want to look at and then type the Image Number of the particular file you want to see. Broadband is essential.

Bruce Odom

Athens, TX

Jan. 29, 2012

Bruce, thank you once again for your diligence.  You always amaze!  I can never thank you enough.