I grew up unaware as Huguenots go.

That changed after I moved to South Carolina.

Back in Georgia? I cannot recall one history teacher mentioning the Huguenots, so learning late in life that Huguenots settled near my Georgia home stunned me.

I should have figured that out, but youth is rife with foolishness and a lack of focus. On my teenage beerbuying missions to a juke joint across the line in Bordeaux, South Carolina, I didn’t give that French name a second thought.

Only when I began to write did I discover the amazing history that had eluded me.

My first clue? Bordeaux also went by “French Town” and “New Bordeaux.”

My first tangible proof? A cemetery.

Driving Highway 378 years ago I turned onto Huguenot Parkway. Soon I spotted a road to the right, Badwell Cemetery.

I drove up that dusty lane, and turning left and driving a bit more, hit a turnaround where downhill the white spire of a monument gleamed through greenery.

From day one, Badwell Cemetery endeared itself, and I often go back to walk among stones and read inscriptions.

Some 250 years after they left Bordeaux, the Huguenots, those French Protestants of the 16th and 17th centuries, and I had at last crossed paths.

Today, their descendants walk among us. One, Miss Clarice Guillebeau, taught me in Sunday School, she of precise manners.

Recently, John Trussell, the 2nd vice president of the Huguenot Society of Georgia, read a piece I wrote on Badwell Cemetery and contacted me. John had a story to tell.

Janet Walker, past president of the Huguenot Society of Georgia, and current national president, came across the extinct town of Huguenot, Georgia, via research. (John and society members intend to erect a plaque in honor of Huguenot.)

This town came to be in Elbert County, Georgia, in 1894 with the establishment of a post office. Surely a settlement preceded the post office.

The post office closed in 1908, and the town faded away. Huguenot was done but mysteries remain.

Did the settlers of Huguenot descend from the early Huguenots who settled in Bordeaux? Documentation hints “possibly.”

How did history overlook Huguenot, Georgia? New Georgia Encyclopedia’s “French Presence in Georgia” makes no mention of Huguenot, Georgia, but it existed, albeit briefly.

Based on an old map, Huguenot looks to be in the vicinity of Highway 79 where it crosses the Broad River into Elbert County. It’s vanished. Extinct like the Carolina parakeet, the small green colorful parrot Huguenots undoubtedly saw.

On a blistering July Friday afternoon, I stood near the Highway 79 Bridge. Green slopes rose in Elbert County. Did Huguenot sit there? Maybe. Were its founders related to the settlers of Bordeaux? Probably.

The Revolution and end of silk production led to the demise of Bordeaux, but descendents to this day live in western South Carolina. Some made it to Georgia. One taught me right from wrong.

Some descendants founded Huguenot, Georgia, in honor of what their people tried to achieve. Their ancestors failed through no fault of their own. I cannot comprehend the frustration they experienced, nor can you.

You cannot help but admire their determination yet pity the plight persecution put them in. They crossed the sea only to spend their entire life on the run.