Looking for information on the slave descendants with all variants of the Heriot surname.

Question

My Herriott linkage starts with Granderson and Cecilia Herriott (my great grandparents) in the 1870 Census.  They resided in Swimming Pens, Sumter, SC.  I would like any assistance available to find the connection to the the former slave owners in the area.

Answer 1

I might start by taking a look at Sumter County Probate files. In my experience of other SC counties slaves were usually listed in the estate inventory. You could try looking through all Herriott probate records in case Gunderson or Cecilia are listed.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/443856?availability=Family%20History%20Library

There's also the 1860 slave schedules. Unfortutaely I only see one Herriott listed and there's no one the right age to be your ancestor:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WKTK-MT6Z

Of course Gunderson and Cecilia might have taken Herriott as a name without it being the name of their former owner or Herriot may have be a owner from long ago rather than at the time when they were freed, which makes things difficult. If you have a maiden name for Cecilia that might give you another last name to look for in probate files and schedules.

Wikitree does have a catagory for slave owners in different counties, but it doesn't look like too many people, or much info about the slaves has been added to Sumter County: 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Sumter_County%2C_South_Carolina%2C_Slave_Owners

Comments

There's also Estray reports that could include info on Slaves for Sumter County. unfortunately it's not Indexed:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/260526?availability=Family%20History%20Library

---

Thank you for these leads!  I truly appreciate your swift response and will dig into these resources.

Emily

Answer 2

This question was resolved as part of the Herriott DNA Project. Granderson Herriott's DNA was found to match that of several descendants of his plantation owner, indicating that the latter was the father. This person has also been determined to be the father of other slaves who continued to use the surname when emancipated. See Unknown-507216.