Jim Gulledge, Author

For most of my life I had no idea that my mom and dad's families were connected in any way. As I knew them, Dad's people were from central North Carolina and Mom's from upstate South Carolina. A few years ago I discovered that one of my maternal 6th great grandfathers, David Graham, had emigrated to South Carolina from Northern Ireland in a cluster of 1200 people divided into five ships led by Reverend William Martin. On December 19, 1772, David Graham's ship, the Pennsylvania Farmer, arrived in Charleston harbor. Graham and family disembarked and headed to Chester County, South Carolina.

I just found out a few months ago that one of my paternal ancestors , John Wesley Griggs, was on the next of Martin's ships, the Lord Dunlace, to reach Charleston. Griggs and his brother arrived on December 20, 1772 after surviving a smallpox outbreak onboard. They deboarded and went to Anson County, North Carolina.

Two ancestors one day apart in wooden vessels( (with smallpox onboard) in the Atlantic from October to December. One bad storm or a fatal infection and they and all of their descendants thereafter go to the bottom of the sea. Life is indeed a miracle.