Reeves/Reaves Research Project

In the past, a fellow Reeves’ researcher, Richard Reeves, and I have consolidated our efforts in searching the records of York County, South Carolina for Reeves information and were able to resolve many mysteries in addition to identifying several misconceptions and fallacies in the previously held theories of the Reeves family who migrated there from Granville County, North Carolina. We’ve also searched all of the available records of Granville County for more information on that family.

There actually are many original documents that contain previously undiscovered information in the tax records, deed and will books when a detailed search of the available records is conducted. And if there are also estate files such as we found to be available in the York, South Carolina files now online at www.familysearch.org, they are a goldmine.

We are now planning to start systematically reviewing and researching the extant records of the southeastern portion of North Carolina, primarily Wayne, Green and Duplin counties as well as any surviving records from Old Dobbs County in an attempt to learn more about the Reaves family who settled there around 1750. That Reaves family’s origins are a mystery that we would like to attempt to resolve. We may not find all the answers but you never know what great new discoveries are hiding in the reels of microfilm. Once we learn more about the Reaves of the Wayne County area, we plan to move on to those in Brunswick County who are similarly a puzzle.

Family Search hasn’t been able to upload all of the copies of original records to their site as yet, but they microfilmed them in the past and those films can be rented for a small fee and viewed at their LDS Family History Centers.

Richard has developed a list of the documents available on microfilm and online from Family Search, such as:

Dobbs County, crown patents, 1759-1775 – Microfiche 1997. 3 microfiche.

Duplin County, Court 1Minutes 1784-1793 FHL US/CAN Film 18804

Wayne County, Minutes, 1787-1868, (1 unlabeled volume) 1787-1794 FHL US/CAN Film 1730559

Wayne County, Wills, accounts, inventories, and sales of estates, 1807-1957; indexes, 1782-1965, 1782-1965

We’re going to upload the list of microfilm reels and share it on Google Documents while we work together to rent the films, then copy and transcribe any and all Reeves documents we find. Any other Reeves/Reaves/Rives/Reavis researchers who would like to participate as we search the surviving records of North Carolina for more Reeves’ information may contact Richard or Beverly and we can share the file with you on Google or make other arrangements to share it if you don’t have a Google account.