The Heyward Family Association welcomes new members.

A requirement for membership is personal ancestry that includes Daniel Heyward (c. 1640 – 1684), a British immigrant to Charleston, SC.

Benefits of membership include:

• Opportunity to attend an annual reunion where you and your guests can meet some of your cousins. Reunions are generally held in the South Carolina low country between Charleston and Savannah.
• A newsletter that updates you of developments and activities of the Association and of individual members.
• Access to portions of the HFA website and its associated genealogy database that are not visible to non-members.

Annual dues are $30.

How to Join Through This Website

1. Use the website Contact form to tell the HFA Recording Secretary of your desire. Include the following information. (1) Your full name. If female, that means your birth or maiden name. (2) The full name of your closest relative who is a Heyward descendant. If that relative is a female, give her birth or maiden name. (3) Your relationship with your closest ancestor who is a descended from Daniel Heyward, the immigrant, i.e. child, grandchild, great grandchild, etc. (See below for suggestions as to how you might identify that Heyward ancestor.)
2. The Recording Secretary will verify your ancestry and assign you a unique identifying number, called the Henry number. The first character of the Henry number is a letter “A” through “I” indicating which of Daniel Heyward’s great great grandchildren you are descended from. Subsequent numerical characters in the Henry number encode birth order of successive descendants of the progenitor’s great great grandchildren.
3. You may pay your dues by mailing a check to the address shown on the Contact page of this website. You may also pay your dues at a Heyward reunion or other family gathering.
4. The Recording Secretary will put your name on the membership list such that you’ll receive the next Heyward Family newsletter and an invitation to the next reunion. Also, if you wish, you can get a login-id/password to the HFA website and its associated genealogy database.

Suggestions for Identifying Your Closest Heyward Ancestor

If you have a relative who is a member of the Heyward Family Association, ask that relative about his or her ancestry to determine if you share an ancestor who is a Heyward descendant. It would be useful to the Recording Secretary of know that relative’s Henry number and your relationship to that relative.

If you don’t know of any relatives who are HFA members, you can search the online Heyward genealogy database for your ancestors who you think might be descendants of Daniel Heyward, the immigrant. Go here to search the genealogy database. Be aware that females are listed by birth or maiden name. Also, you will not be able to see people who are living, or thought to be living, in the database. (As a member of the Heyward Family association, you can get a login/password that will give you access to living people in the database.) In other words, search the database for an ancestor who’s no longer living.

If you can’t find one of your ancestors in the Heyward genealogy database, don’t give up! There are many Heywards known to the HFA who haven’t yet gotten into the database. To find out if your ancestor is one of the not-yet-listed Heywards, contact the HFA genealogist by going here. Give your name, e-mail address and question and the genealogist will respond.