By Andy Brack, editor and publisher, part 1 of 2   | This is the story of three cousins.  Well, they’re pretty sure they’re all cousins because they think they are linked genetically to the same man.  But they’re not 100 percent sure because some of the records are lost.

They do know, however, that they’re linked by circumstance and family to that man, a South Carolina plantation owner who moved his family and 14 slaves to Florida before the Civil War. Later he moved back to the Palmetto State, signed the state’s Ordinance of Secession, fought and served in the state Senate.