She is known as Mother Elvira.
She was the mother of four children born slaves in the 1840s and 1850s in Barnwell. The children - Grace, Hampton, Rhina and Rozena - traveled with Elvira to Williamsburg County after being sold. They called her "Grand Mudder," family research shows.
Still, she is Mother Elvira to hundreds of descendants who gather every other year to celebrate their history and family.
The Dorsey, Green, White and McGee family this weekend held the 25th Elvira Family Reunion, featuring a series of events in Myrtle Beach. The four names represent the last names of Elvira's children, and today, their family tree has branches throughout the country. The family is so large it has national officers, several local chapters and a scholarship fund.
Family members said this year's reunion, which will end today with a church service and farewell banquet, is the largest yet. Linda Dorsey, who was registering family members at a picnic Saturday at Myrtle Beach State Park, said there were about 650 people in attendance.
"It's a treat," said John Milner of Raleigh, N.C., who is national president of the family organization. "You get to meet some people you didn't even know."
Saturday's festivities, with children playing tug of war while adults laughed and snapped pictures, are a long way from where Elvira's journey began.
Family historians Kelly White and Tanya Jones said Elvira most likely was born a member of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana before being transported to South Carolina as a slave. White, 77, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., and teaches French at Morris College in Sumter, came to these conclusions after traveling to Ghana.
He began his search for the family's beginnings when helping a first cousin look into ancestors' backgrounds. Before the cousin died, she asked White to continue the research.
He interviewed older family members about their knowledge of Elvira and her children and has spent more than a decade seeking answers.
"I do it for my family," he said. "I do it because it's a part of our family."
Jones, 32, who lives in Teaneck, N.J., occasionally visited her mother's relatives in Nesmith and Hemingway during her youth but didn't wonder about family roots. About four years ago, she started asking questions and following up on the information White had compiled through oral tradition. Jones made many trips to Kingstree and Columbia, digging through record books and documents. What she uncovered changed her life.
"When I went to sleep, I dreamt it," she said. "I could feel their lives."
Jones learned her great-great-great-grandfather, George Dorsey, was a registered voter and property owner. She found his name in the January 1896 Mingo Township, Williamsburg County voter registration book.
"Just the strength these people had, I find it amazing. In the '60s, there was Rosa Parks, but I have someone [in the family] I can say was fighting for the right to vote."
Jones also learned that George Dorsey, who married Elvira's oldest daughter, Grace, in 1865, purchased 77 acres of land in Nesmith for $165. He paid the land off in two months, she said.
"For me to look at this man's deeds, it was like, 'Oh, my goodness,'" Jones said. "This man, this family gave me so much strength to try anything."
Perhaps her greatest find came in May when she discovered George Dorsey's grave in an area known as Millpond, not far from Belin Cemetery in Nesmith. Jones' research had taken her to this spot near the Black River, where she and her uncle saw George's large, inscribed marker sitting near the water.
"We had no idea there would have been a headstone," she said.
Jones' mother, Corliss Jones, was amazed how engrossed her daughter became with the family story.
"It was 24-7. We were sick of it," she said with a laugh. But she appreciates her daughter's work.
"Just thinking that the land was given to us all these years, and then she discovered ... the land was purchased," she said.
Today, Dorseys, Whites, Greens and McGees still live on the land and throughout Nesmith. There is even a community known as Dorsey Town. Family members have moved to nearby places such as Hemingway, Andrews and Georgetown. Others are as far away as California, Detroit and New Jersey.
June C. White of Sicklerville, N.J., attended the reunion with her children and said this year was her second time at an Elvira family event. Her husband, Richard White, died nine years ago.
"We're here because we know he's smiling on us," she said.
Others, such as Mary Lee Davis, 69, of Nesmith haven't missed a single reunion since it started more than 25 years ago at Mary Dorsey's house in Nesmith. There were a few more than 100 people at that gathering, she said. The family originally held reunions annually but later moved them to every other year because they grew so much. The site for the gathering also has rotated through the years. Past reunions were in Wilmington, N.C., Washington, D.C., and Columbia.
"Our ancestors would be proud," said Hampton Chandler of Fort Washington, Md., vice president of the national family organization. "I really believe it's an answer to their prayers and their cry."
"I think they would be saying, 'We've overcome,'" said Leevern Burroughs of Nesmith.
