Hankins of Carolina Colony Family Mysteries

Here are open questions about our family. Please edit this text, upload unidentified pictures, add your questions to the bulletin board, post fuzzy memories you want to clear up, etc.

One of the key questions in the early history of the Hankins family in the Carolina Colony (pre-division) is whether it extends back farther than the first Dennis Hankins (presumably of Georgetown), or whether Dennis was first to arrive. Family legend says three brothers arrived from Glasgow, Scotland. However, the surname Hankins is hard to find in Scotland to this day. Was Scotland merely a departure port? Most of the Hankins seem to emanate from Dymock, Gloucestershire by the Forest Of Dean, so research there might bear fruit if anyone is headed to England anytime soon.

Another key question is which two early Hankins father and son pair were killed in the river accident referenced in the Sylvanus Hankins papers. There is literally an area river formerly known as Drowning River, which is now known as Lumber River. How did it pick up its former name?

A third and perhaps related question is how many Masters Hankinses were there and what are their correct birth dates. The presence of three wives would tend to suggest more than one individual, and indeed we know one was married twice: once to Amelia Daniel late in his life, and earlier to Mary Clark (daughter of Quakers out of the East Nottingham Quaker community in what was then Southern Pennsylvania).

Another was married to Mary Bacot.

But we have three putative birth dates: one around the 1737-1740 time frame when Dennis Hankins I passed away (in his mid-20s: is he a river casualty, perhaps along with a son we don't even know about?), and one in 1755, with a third in 1763. The latter two may represent a single individual because they are fairly close. Or they may represent the naming of a son in honor of a lost brother and nephew.

And the last curve balls: there's a David Hankins listed as a pre-1775 land grant recipient who connects to ... nobody.

Also a legend of a Hankins personally killed by General Tarleton and his brother who decamped to Virginia in shame for not having avenged him on the spot. We don't know the names, or why Virginia.

Finally one Hankins of this line who has done DNA was perplexed to find matches that could indicate our line had at least spent some time among Quakers in Pennsylvania/Maryland. Whew.

It's possible a trip to Georgetown would sort all this out.