GOURDIN: The History of a French-African-American Family from Georgetown County, South Carolina (1830-1994) by J. Raymond Gourdin, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1995), cloth, 6X9, 320pp., index, $22 plus $3 post/hand. Order from The Gourdin Book, P.O. Box 648, Columbia, MD 21045-0648.

The family history of the Gourdin(e) line has been very much a part of the history of the Santee River area of South Carolina and especially of the little community of Oceda in Georgetown and Williamsburg counties. The Huguenot progenitor of the line, Louis Gourdin (c1666-1716), immigrated from France to South Carolina before 1693. He settled south of the Santee River in the Jamestown area and amassed a large estate. Succeeding generations prospered, and a great, great grand son, Robert Marion Gourdin (1799-1876), a Harvard graduate and physician whose descendants are accounted for in this genealogy. Robert Marion Gourdin following in family tradition inherited family lands and accumulated more properties in the Santee area around much of Oceda. He never married, but in what could be termed a common law marriage with a mulatto servant, Daphne Singleton, he left seven (known) children- three sons and four daughters. The descendants of these seven are traced to present day. In addition to the Robert Marion/Daphne Singleton descendants there are included in this book brief genealogies of two other Gourdin(e) lines, William Mackey Gourdine and Sandy Gourdine, closely related but not descended from Robert Marion Gourdin.

The author has included a good bit of history of Oceda and surrounding lands, and because land ownership was such an integral part of this family's story there are a large number of deeds and land records included. Related family names of the Oceda area include: Alston, Bennett, Brunson, Burroughs, Cooper, Greene, Grissett, Harvin, Johnson, Jones, Maxwell, Middleton, Moyd, Parker, Pino, Prince, Prileau, Smith, Sumpter, Timmons, Toomer, Washington, and Wilson. A must book to check for all searchers with roots in these Santee River counties. (EAW)