Climbing Over the Brick Wall and back to Ireland

C. G. has hit on what we usually have in common: Tracing them back to Ireland.  We do not have comprehensive records of British immigrants into the colonies. We do have records of non-British, largely the Germans, as they were required to take an oath of allegience -- just in case they caused trouble.

www.genealogical.com/university.html has a series of courses on immigration genealogy that are quite good. It's critical to understand the material in these courses. Then  (or meanwhile) if you haven't, you check to see if their migration is known. That's easy because what records have surfaced are generally published and these are indexed in a series of books by Filby. These are available on line at Ancestry (or at your FHL perhaps). You do a fast 30 second search at Ancestry and if he's not there, you move on.

What do you do next?  Two things. First is order a DNA kit, if you have a male with the su rname. If not, you start tracing collateral lines to find one.  I have located the origin of American families using DNA -- once via a match from Australia. This takes a while, so ....

You then go back through your material looking for clues and building a profile of the man whom you are looking for.  This is where experience helps. What is a clue to me you may not realize is a clue.

You can also do a search in Ireland for where there are BRITTs. This'll help when lookng for DNA matches. You may need to find a target BRITT and get him DNA tested. This takes time and you'll need to learn how to do some Irish genealogy to get a good map of where the BRITTS were.

In South Carolina, you want to know about head rights. Did he get them or not? Who lived around him? What church did he attend? Who did he marry and who did his children marry? These are all clues.  He might have migrated with a minister and others. Sometimes you have to trace the group to find the individual.

I am new to this forum, as we all are, I think. If it seems awkward, the list here might be easier:
http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/NIR/Scotch-Irish.html  . Don't know.

If you did all this, let us know that you did and maybe we can make some more suggestions. The hard truth is because records were not kept of who left or who arrived here, there may not be a record to find, so you will need circumstantial evidence and DNA to pin down the point of origin. At least BRITT is uncommon -- which is a massive factor in your favor.

Linda Merle