Abandoned - My Ancestors’ 180 Year-Old Home + Family Cemetery Update/Cleanup 

Edit: The John M. Charles House was demolished to make way for development between April 11th and April 13th, 2023. I’m deeply saddened by its destruction and am uploading a video soon detailing what I was able to capture of this event. Fortunately, I was able to save bricks and some timbers from the home. I wish I could’ve done more to save it but money is more important to most than history in Greenville, South Carolina. Thank you to all of you for your wonderful support and kindness in my previous video! I think this video is an improvement over my last but there may still be some imperfections here and there. I’ll make the next one better. More cemetery and historic adventures to come soon. Enjoy! My video about the destruction of the house: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AgtdLsYyf04.html

Those daffodils aren't wild. They were planted there by your ancestors. You should dig up a few clumps, or several clumps, and replant the bulbs on your own property. A living memory for you. And you could dig them up again later if you move.

You might be able to claim the cemetery as a historical site for preservation to prevent any development. Plus being an actual descendant might help.

It's refreshing to see a young man who actually cares about the preservation and respect of his historical past

How amazing! It would be so cool if you could save the house and we could watch you restore the whole property. What a beautiful place. You are lucky to have such a rich family history. Thanks for sharing! P.S. you should metal-detect the land too!

That wisteria is beautiful and I'm sure it was a joy to look out of those windows and see it. I hate that the home was destroyed. The redevelopment is happening everywhere and unfortunately it's money over memories and history these days.

Please try and save that beautiful house.. so much family history is getting lost. I would love if i had this opportunity to have a piece of history like this that has been in the family for so long..great video, thanks for sharing 👍 Have a great day, everyone ✌️

I wish more people would take care of their Cemetaries the way you did. The older ones need care!

We found the abandoned cemetery in Illinois that my ancestors are buried in. It was in much the same shape as yours. Not long after we visited, a distant cousin and a crew arrived on the scene and cleaned it up and made the township keep it up. 143 souls are buried there and I know their families have no clue how it was being treated. So glad you're trying!! Too bad family can't keep the house and restore it.

Hi! Please be careful about panning the camera swiftly around for any duration. It makes us a bit queasy and dizzy. Don't let this discourage you, just keep it in mind. Thanks for sharing your history with us. Sad to see how vandals have wrecked your ancestorial home and especially the cemetery. It is considered to be a work of mercy, honoring the dead to take care of a cemetery. Good work! By the way, unless there is significant rot or termite damage you could renovate that house for around 230-270k. Not a million, but not cheap either.

I love the Wisteria blooming all around the house. Look forward to watching future videos on the cemetery cleanup. Good job so far!

Oh man, I wish somebody would buy the home and restore it! It’s beautiful! And wow, the old letters and photos were an awesome find! And of course, great work on the cemetery! Thank you for sharing the journey!

I grew up in this area, and drove past your family cemetery and home every day. I never went into the cemetery, since it’s private property, so I appreciate your showing it.

Your respect for the cemetery is very much appreciated …..and hopefully becomes a foot print for other to follow.

You can usually get free fencing from people that are updating, it would be nice to get a fence around the cemetery and build a fanmily plaque

How wonderful to see you being SO Respectful of your Ancestors! You have given me a Little More Faith in your Generation! Stay Safe & God Bless! 😊🙏🏼💜

I wish someone would rescue that once beautiful house! I will never understand why and how someone can allow a old home to collapse and be forgotten! We lose so much history 😢

G'day from.Australia...your ancestors will be proud of you....well done.

Oh how I wish I could go back in time and see how they lived and see this home when it was built and cared for. If walls could talk what an interesting place this would be. Thank you for sharing your video’s.

I am sorry the house was destroyed. It is hard to see a landmark of your family ancestors abandoned, vandalized, and demolished. Thankfully, you made a video to remember the house. The lovely bones and the beautiful light from the windows in each room show how your ancestors designed it to be to be a bright and gracious home.

That house was beautiful at one time. You can still see it even in its shape that it’s in now.

I'd love to buy the place and restore as well as maintain the cemetery. It would be so serene and a labor of love indeed

Wow, they salvaged every single window from that place, even the banister. Those old windows are worth lots of money these days. They can't make them like that anymore. My family has an old home about as old as this one. The windows are very hard to replace to original.

How sad that it is gone now. It is clear from your video that it was once a very beautiful home! It had so much natural light! Wow! Thank you for sharing this with us!

Hello...I honor your efforts and your new RU-vid channel. I think you said you are in SC somewhere. Maybe you could arrange to offer those people who might be interested in helping you a day or so an opportunity to do this. I'm in the Garden City area on the SC coast. Anyway, just a thought. New Subject...That quick swing of the camera is not unusual to new video photographers. I have learned this. Force yourself to go way too slow and then when that becomes normal you will be able to speed up a bit as needed.

Beautiful house. I would take cuttings from the lovely Wisteria Vine and take a walk around the land with a metal detector.

It's heart breaking to see such a beautiful and well built home to be left to ruin. Too bad the family couldn't have had a reunion and figured out how to preserve this beautiful home and to leave a legacy for for future generations.

Very cool that you were able to get footage of your ancestors abandoned home before it's demolished. Thanks for sharing! That WRITING ON THE WALL though 12:06 .. someone with a truly disturbed mind was hanging around that property! 😳

I'd DIE to visit and volunteer! Omg..my brother lived outside there...in Ida. Coming from Ga....I passed so many properties with old structures I'd love to investigate and ruminate over😂....hooked on history I guess

DUDE.!!! U and the others are crushing it nicely.!!!!wow.. AWESOME. Proud.!! of u .

what a beautiful house this must have been at one time, it's a shame the vandals and squatters had to come in and do their damage,, i wonder if the gentleman in the funeral picture, may have been one of your relatives,, maybe that lived in the house at one time ?, great work also on the Family cemetery keep it going ,

Watching your video now and I really am enjoying it. Glad to see you are cleaning up your families resting place. And the house! I bet it was quite fantastic initially day.

You need to retrieve that stone that your ancestors used to mount horses and coaxkes.

Just watched your video. I take care of a family cemetery that was in much the same condition as yours. You should be commended for your dedication and caring. We must remember who we are and where we came from.

Love those old cemetery, you and your pretty assistant are doing a great job cleaning it up, the house was beautiful in its day its a shame it has gone down but its too far gone to fix it now it would cost a small fortune to fix it enjoyed the video from NC love those old plantation houses in SC have spent a lot of time in SC love it enjoyed your video take care

I do like watching your vids about your family , it's so interesting , shame the house was left to go to ruin , sad in a way but I will keep watching & take a interest in what you post , thanks for letting us into your life a little 😊🙏

The daffodils were planted by your ancestors. They are not native here. Back when all the settlers came to America they brought them with them. They would put them around their homes. Anytime that you see daffodils and irises that means at one time there was a home there. The home may go away in time but the daffodils keep on multiplying and coming back year after year as a marker for a once family home.

Did you say there might be some freed people back there? I ask, my great grandmother (raised me) is buried outside of downtown Dallas, well a LARGE CORP was going to build in the land behind her cemetery. Well, guess what, it is a freedman cemetery. Adios large corp. the city helps keep it up. Just saying you might want to get back there, possibly find some more valuable burial spots. City might help out $$$$. Maybe you will get to keep your land. Cemeteries cannot be moved. Good luck and God Bless you young man. That civil war plaque is totally awesome. By the way, your familial house is gorgeous. Reminds me of where I grew up.

thank you for your respect of the past and having the ability to preserve the past. Be blessed.

How amazing that you can see the actual house where your ancestors lived!

I own what is left of our family farm in NC. On that farm once was a house that looked identical to your family home. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground many years ago and before I owned it. I had great ideas of restoring it as my mother and uncle were born there, my grandfather and his 3 siblings were all born and raised there and my great grand parents had lived there many many years. I'm not sure of the full history of the house, such as when it was actually built and who built it. There is a family cemetery somewhere on another piece of property my great uncle owned, which is just up the road and was once part of the farm I now own. I really need to get out and look for it.

It is truly a beautiful home. Thank you for sharing with us. Imagine if that tree out front was still standing and what that looked like. Gorgeous!

Cemetaries are so beautiful & peaceful. Thankyou for cleaning it up so it looks beautiful again! So beautiful! ❤️ keep us posted please on how it goes...

I bet it was beautiful back in the day . Sad to see it the way it is now

I think it's awesome that you are doing this for your ancestors 😊😊

I hope you can preserve the cemetery,. Would be a shame to see that go

Sad to see what people have done to the "home" . I hope you were able to protect the cemetery to resect those at rest there. Your respect for history is refreshing, God Bless you.

I just came across your channel, and I know how heartbreaking it is to see your ancestors' home in such a state and knowing it will be torn down with nothing you can do to stop it. I've been there. But I didn't get to document the house before it was gone. It does feel like a part of your past is just evaporating. Im glad you got to document it and glad to see you taking care of the cemetery.

Thank you for sharing what you do with us and of course the cleaning and restoration of graves. I’m sure they (deceased) would be very grateful.

Thanks for sharing this video

The windows are amazing, all the way to the floor,I love it

That device is a buttonholer for a sewing machine. The flowers outside were Camilla’s that you thought were roses and the other flowers were azalea’s.

To bad you couldn't restore your family home and move in to it. Next to my fa Cemetery and others is my great grama farm. When she passed one of my Uncles got it and he turned around ,gave it to one of my cousins ex husband. He's has made a mess of it and letting it rot. It should of been left to a family. I visit my family Graves next to the house. He hates me . The last time I was there he came over to the rock wall my great grandfather built. Kept looking at me saying, stuff. The next I go and he starts I will call the police. I'm glad your cleaning your family Cemetery. It's sad to see what people have done to your family home. I can only amagine what he's done to my grama home. Every room of the farmhouse was beautiful.

As I am watching you go through the house, tears are coming up to see the blatant destruction of yet another fine structure, by people driven by desperation and drugs. What a lovely home it must have been. I am so sorry you had to see that. And so sorry you couldn't save it. Time and again I have watched old structures being stripped down, torn down, carted off and flattened all so developers can put up cheap( but expensive) houses that essentially all look the same, with no character. It disturbs me that so many of us want the bigger, better deal rather than cherishing and restoring the old. Indeed, I take it very personally, though there's really nothing I can do about it except care. I think I read someone suggest you contact the county in regards to getting some support for protecting your family cemetery. I dont know whats all involved for getting it listed on the National Historical Register, but maybe that could be an idea worth pursuing. There may be a historical society in the city or county that could help provide funding through grants or donations. A small cemetery like that is old enough to garner protection and not necessarily something you have to do all on your own. Best of luck to you and the others in your family working to preserve the past.

It's a month later and i watched this one It's good 👍 when a relative decided to do what you have done Don't know if you found the slave sematery or not but it would be nice if you did One of my sister's have been doing our history on our ansesters for a long time maybe 30 or 40yrs now and my youngest brother been doing it a number of yrs also Keep all the memories you have they will last you a lifetime Sharing their history and videoing it is priceless You have a great video here Fireman 🔥🔥🔥

My impression is, they were very wealthy. That house is very well built.

I'm glad to see another video from you, if there were more people that cared no cemetery would end up forgotten! This video is better than your first one, you're doing great keep them coming!

My favourite part was the very old purple wisteria vine growing wildly on the outside of the house! 🦘🥰

How cool to see and be in your family's historical house. This may sound funny but if I had that treasure I would be cleaning it up also. I love this stuff.

I am enjoying this video of this old family home and cemetery.thank you for taking me along with you.

Sooo cool !! Thanks for sharing!!! You’re doing great work keep it up !!

Yes, please take some of the daffodils before they’re all gone. I bet the place was gorgeous back in its day. I hope the cemetery will be safe from developers!

What a beautiful tribute you have made. It must be an incredible feeling for you to know this is where you come from; your ancestors who walked, laughed, played and lived hard but productive lives....that led to you being on this earth. So heartbreaking it is gone, but you have done your ancestors a great honor by memorializing their lives, their home and their memory. If the new owners intend on building, there must be restrictions and required land testing, investigating etc where there is a cemetery. God love you for doing this. I'm going to watch your previous video and keep up-to-date on your progress. Wonderful video. You're a terrific person. Your ancestors are watching down and saying 'thank you, my boy'. (meant to say...if you can, try to retrieve the upping stone from the new owners and put it on your property and maybe one of the plants)

I cannot wait to see what you have in mind to do to your family cemetery. So sorry about your family ancestry home .but yes money talks many languages. Much respect from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺 ❤️

Have you researched the deed? It would be interesting to see how many owners there have been.

That was a wonderful old house, sry you lost it,. Looking forward for more videos .

Wow it had lasted 200 years, condolences on losing such a link to your ancestors 🏠. Hope you can save some of the beautiful Wisteria 💜 out front for the family cemetary.

You are a wonderful man, saving the history of your ancestors ❤️ God Bless and thank you for sharing this amazing part of history

After watching all the hard work, time, and effort you are putting into clearing out the cemetery, I have one thought... You should buy, borrow, or rent a chain saw!

What a beautiful home. It sure doesn’t look as old as it is. What a shame, so sad what people do to others property.

Beautiful flowering trees and shrubs . Take cuttings for sure .

Love this, don't apologize for teaching us!

You’re so amazing. How wonderful that you’re doing this. I’m sure your ancestors are smiling down upon you ❤

This house a historic treasure and should be saved.

Beautiful house inside. Very grand. Sad that it's gone.

The wisteria was so beautiful, it's May as I watch this so I know it must be much prettier now.

Bless you for trying to care for an ancestral home. Did you ever live here at all ? You are a fine young man, and I'm sorry it was demolished, but glad you were able to get something to keep,of your family. Thankyou for showing us. Gayle in Whitby,On. Canada.

It is good to see a young person interested in there history First time seeing your video

Those old mop boards are made out of beautiful wood, should pull them off and make a table to remember your family’s old homestead, thanks for sharing your family’s old place. Love this kinda stuff.

I am so sorry your family house has now been demolished. It looks as though it should have been scheduled a historic home. I think that is much easier in the UK I think. Good that you got a video of it for posterity. You are right though money is everything now in this world.

Oh it was beautiful, that wisteria was so lovely.it’s a shame that ‘upping Stone could not be saved.

Must have been beautiful!! love the windows upstairs floor to ceiling.

I would love to see you do more content like this, you explain the past so well, I can see you explaing the past of many more homes!

Thank you for Sharing your Family History 🧡🇨🇦🧡

Just found your channel. Are you in SC? I subbed. Great what you are doing! History preserved. ❤️🌈

It's a shame people are so shallow that they do stuff like that. It's so sad. Thankfully, you are getting it cleaned up.

It must have been beautiful. The wisteria is gorgeous. We had a farm in KY with a cemetery and the cemetery was protected by law. We had to allow any relatives of the deceased in if they wanted to visit the cemetery.

WOULD TRUELY LOVE TO SEE THIS ALLLL renew, and useable 4 u .

I am so sorry the house was demolished. That's sad. But I'm glad u got a chance to check it out before hand! Keep up the videos! I love this kind of stuff so I'll be subscribing and following for sure!

Interesting video. Sad to see the house demolished. You are right money motivates the developers. I'm glad you video taped the house and grounds to remember it by.

God Bless you for the care that you and whoever is with you took with the cemetery. 🙏. What tales you can pass down to your family and then they can pass it on and so forth. Thanks for this info. 😀

You should look into buying the part with the house, (or ask about hauling the house itself away to a different location). Moving an entire house seems daunting, but that house looks like its still solid, and thats how they used to build them back then. Cool video!

How sad 😢 beautiful old house Love the wisteria wish I had a cutting. You should take a cutting the misses must have loved it. ❤

I found it a sad story. I wish you a happier life.from Ontario Canada.

I wish 🤞 I was there to help you with the cemetery I do the same thing when I got a day I'm not busy I go around to different cemeteries in my community and I mow and fill up sunken Graves and erect tombstones that have fallen down..you are a very good genuine man my friend ❤️ may God bless you my friend

It looks like it originally had a two-story porch as well..... With a balcony on the second floor. Many homes here in the south were built with a second-story balcony back in the 1830s-40's......All the way up until the Greek Revival era.

It is incredibly maddening to me that people think they are entitled to go onto & into someone else's property and use it as their own, take what is not theirs and destroy the property for their own entertainment or profit. I wish you could have saved the house and I also wish all of the doors, woodwork etc. would not have been pilfered. I hope you are able to clean up and restore your family Cemetery. Best of luck with your future projects!💞

Beautiful wisteria!! Oh you should get that stone!!

Very beautiful

That's awful that the house and cemetery have been left in that state..Thank you for sharing