Tracing Roots in the Pee Dee: Why Genealogy Here Requires Going Beyond One Place

Genealogical research in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina is anything but straightforward. With deep ancestral roots, shifting boundaries, and overlapping jurisdictions, tracing a family line here demands both determination and a willingness to search beyond modern maps. The Pee Dee is not just a location, it’s a layered historical region that once sat at the heart of Craven County, one of the original counties of South Carolina.

In colonial times, Craven County encompassed much of the territory that would later be divided into Florence, Marion, Darlington, Dillon, Williamsburg, and parts of Georgetown, Horry, and Chesterfield counties. What this means for genealogists is that families you trace in one present-day county may have records, and relatives, in several others. Many of the early families moved through this territory long before modern boundaries were drawn, and the records followed the names, not the lines.

And it doesn’t stop at the South Carolina border.

The Pee Dee River flows northward into North Carolina, where it retains the same name and cultural imprint. Families who settled in South Carolina's Pee Dee region often had relatives just across the river in places like Anson, Richmond, and Robeson counties, North Carolina. These weren’t migrations in the way we think of them today, they were simply extensions of communities that spanned both banks of the river. Marriages, land trades, and church ties often crossed state lines, blurring the distinction between South Carolina and North Carolina ancestors.

Understanding this broader context is critical. A search limited to just one county, or even one state, may lead to incomplete or misleading conclusions. A person buried in Florence may have been born in what was once Craven County and baptized in Marion, while their land deeds might be recorded in Williamsburg, and their extended family still living in Wadesboro or Laurinburg, North Carolina.

To do genealogical research in the Pee Dee is to accept that your journey will stretch across county and state lines, into courthouses, land and deed offices, and sometimes onto the land itself. While digitized records have opened up many avenues, some of the most essential documents, probate records, land grants, and tax rolls, are still kept in bound volumes in local archives. A visit to the courthouse may reveal an overlooked will. A dusty map in the Register of Deeds office might confirm the land once owned by your great-great-grandfather.

Even oral history has to travel well. Ask the right question in Hemingway, South Carolina, and it may be answered by someone in Lumberton, North Carolina. The families know, they’ve always known, that blood and memory flow just like the river that connects them.

So if you’re researching your roots in the Pee Dee, bring your curiosity, your stamina, and a wide-angle lens. Understanding this place means understanding how boundaries change, but families endure. You may find your people in Florence or Marion, but their story might begin in a forgotten corner of Craven County or just across the river in North Carolina.

That’s the beauty of genealogy in the Pee Dee. It teaches you that history doesn’t stay in one place, and neither should your research.