George and Mitch:

I'll have to leave the Mississippi connection to you fellows. However, the McLaurin family was then and still is a very prominent name in Marlboro County, S.C., and in neighboring Scotland County, N.C. I would expect that the McLaurins in Mississippi came from the S.C./N.C. McLaurins, but whether Rachel was living in S.C. when they married or not, I can't say. It is quite possible that Pearson even split his time between family land holdings in Mississippi and South Carolina.