Texas Living Columnist Lloyd Bockstruck

04:48 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 30, 2005

The right to petition the government has been a long-cherished freedom in our country at the federal, state and local levels. Too often, however, such records are overlooked due to lack of awareness of their existence or lack of indexes to access them.

The index to the papers of the General Assembly of South Carolina has been available for a number of years. Contained on 15 reels of microfilm, it provides both topical and nominal access. The entries in the index summarize the nature of the document involved.

Gaining access to the petitions themselves, however, has been more cumbersome until now. One had to travel to Columbia, S.C., and view the originals or order photocopies by mail.

That has now changed. Several months ago, the South Carolina Archives withdrew the petitions from viewing in order to sort and microfilm them. This extremely valuable set has recently been released on 109 reels of microfilm.

The petitions are subdivided into four categories. These are based upon whether the petition is regular or oversize, dated or undated.

Whether you are involved in the history of law or pursuing the interaction of your ancestors with government, these documents are rich in detail, political views and values, personal privations and various kinships.

Haynesworth Gordon, for example, lost his "under jaw" in Confederate service and sought financial assistance.

Neill Smith died during the process of filing his naturalization paperwork. The law stipulated that the property of an alien should revert to the state, and in his case his assets were to go to the Camden Orphan Society. His two surviving children, Neill and Jannet Smith, petitioned in 1832 to be allowed to have their inheritance due to extenuating circumstances.

Jane Villepontaux in 1786 stated in her petition that her money and estate had been under the management of her brother, Gideon Dupont Jr. He had sided with the British in the Revolutionary War, so all of his property – as well as hers – had been confiscated. She sought to have her portion returned to her. In 1866, George, a former slave who had served aboard a privateer in the War of 1812, petitioned to be granted assistance for his faithful service in the war. John McGraw sought a pension for his service in the same war.

These two cases clearly demonstrate that pensions for military service were available from individual states. If you have been relying on the holdings of the National Archives for such records and learned that your ancestor did not have a federal pension, you should investigate the possibility of one from the state.

The petitions to the General Assembly are now available in the genealogy section at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas.

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If you intend to purchase microfilms of any records from the National Archives, it is advisable to do so at the current rate of $34 per reel. On Oct. 1, the cost will rise to $65 per reel.

Lloyd Bockstruck supervises the genealogy section of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas. Address questions to Family Tree, Texas Living section, The Dallas Morning News, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265.

E-mail texasliving@dallasnews.com