I Found Them, I Found Them, I found Them through Facebook!

I made the leap from White, Tennessee to Fairfield Co., South Carolina because the S.C. Archives are online and a lady on Facebook pointed it out to me.

I thought I should tell you how I was helped on Facebook. I found there is a South Carolina Genealogy Network Facebook page. I put a couple queries there about John and Andrew McDowell arriving in Sparta, TN in 1810. I told them the best match-up seemed to be between my family and the family names seen in Fairfield Co.,S.C. Within two days I had an answer to look at the South Carolina Archives online. Here is the website: www.archivesindex.sc.gov 
Begin by entering the last name into the search, and the site will show you the first names they have. Be sure to try different spellings.

When I lined up all the data I had about Andrew and John McDowell who seemed to come from South Carolina by October 1810, it most closely matched the McD Family in Fairfield County. There were name similarities: Andrew, John, James. (I also had repeated names of Elizabeth and Smith.) There was an Andrew in Fairfield Co. who had been a corporal in The Revolution, and was in the 1790 and 1800 census. However, he was gone in 1810. He seemed to have a brother James because they enlisted in 1776 and were discharged on the same days. There was a John McDowell in the 1800 census who was 16-25, with a young wife and two daughters.

I can't stand all the  explaining:
Alexander McDowell and 2 sons, Andrew and James, came to South Carolina about 1766 or 67. We know that because they were applying for their headright plats in 1767. Alexander applied 9/23/1767. Andrew applied on 7-7-1767 and James applied on 7-8-1767 in FAIRFIELD CO., S. CAROLINA.

Andrew was a surveyor and has many surveys on record in Camden/Fairfield Co. from 1773-1807. He left there with his son John by 1810. John McDowell registered his land in the land Office in Sparta, Tennessee in October 1810. There is no Federal Census remaining for Tennessee for 1810, so we will never know if John and Andrew were already in TN in the summer of 1810 or just arrived in October. 

So that's where my McDowell's came from! Whether they sailed from Ireland or Scotland, I do not know, YET, but I will know one day.