Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names

By “correct mispronunciations” we mean, of course, pronunciations that are considered correct in South Carolina but will seem wrong to you if you’ve just arrived from Connecticut, bless your sun-seeking heart, and you’ve never been in the Palmetto State before.

We’d like to preserve these traditional pronunciations. We are South Carolinians and to a South Carolinian the impulse to preserve tradition is almost as instinctive as breathing.

There’s the story about the three dogs who met at the corner of Broad Street and Meeting Street in Charleston. One of them was a mongrel who said, “I’m from New York and my name is Spot. That’s spelled S-P-O-T.” Another was a German Shepherd to said, “I’m from Ohio and my name is Rover. That’s spelled R-O-V-E-R.” The third was a French Poodle who said, “Welcome to [South Carolina]. My name is Fido and that’s spelled P-H-I-D-E-A-U-X.”

We hope…that [these] too-frequently mispronounced names will be helpful to broadcasters and to newcomers who’d like to pronounce the names of local people and places in the ways that South Carolinians have traditionally preferred.

--Claude and Irene Neuffer, authors of Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names, excerpt from pages v-vii.

Today’s Beaufort County Correct Mispronunciations:

BEAUFORT
BUE-fuht, BOE-fuht (first pronunciation in South Carolina; second pronunciation in North Carolina)

The Duke of Beaufort was a later Lord Proprietor (being invested in the proprietorship of Lord Granville in 1709.) Besides the more recently named Beaufort Streets and drives throughout the state, the southeast coastal area includes a district, county, town, river, and archipelago each named for the duke. The Beaufort section is often termed “the most discovered area in the United States”—having been discovered by Spanish, French, Scots, and English, in that order, with the English settlement surviving the colonial hardships. The source of confusion for newcomers is that up the coast and across the state line the North Carolina town of Beaufort is pronounced BOE-fuht. Which is right? Both are. (p. 12)

COMBAHEE
KUM-BEE

Spelling to the contrary, Combahee has long been pronounced as two syllables by folks in these parts. It may be an Indian word meaning small risings. The Combahee River is formed by Salkehatchie and Cuckold creeks (the second later called Chee-Ha and now Chehaw River) and flows between Colleton and Beaufort counties into St. Helena Sound. (p. 38)

910.3 NEU. Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names by Claude and Irene Neuffer.
Find it @ the BDC, Beaufort Branch Library, Bluffton Branch Library, and Hilton Head Island Branch Library!

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

“You Never Know What You’ll Find While Cleaning”

As we prepare to begin renovation work on the 2nd floor of the Scott Street Library building, storage areas have to be cleared out. The Friends of Beaufort County Library discovered what appears to have once been the makings of a bulletin board from 1996 (perhaps 1997) about the Friends activities and opportunities for membership in the organization. Among the highlights was the following notice:

Acquisition of Civil War Photographs by Jeff Berg, SC Resources Librarian

“The Library is pleased to announce the recent acquisition for the South Carolina Room [that’s what the Beaufort District Collection used to be called!] of a collection of Civil War period photographs of the Beaufort area. This acquisition was made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Beaufort County Library for $3000.00, the Beaufort Historical Society for $1000.00 and the Mary Sams Memorial Fund for $2000.00.
Thanks are also due to Dr. Stephen Wise, Director of the Parris Island Museum. Dr. Wise was first offered the set by Stephen J. Edwards of Charlotte, Vermont. Although they did not fit within the collection development plan for the Museum, Dr. Wise felt it was important that they become part of a local collection. He was instrumental in negotiating the sale of the collection, and has continued to assist in identification of the photographs.
The collection consists of 106 stereograph images dating from 1864-65. Most of the photographs were taken by Sam Cooley and his assistants. Mr. Cooley was a photographer for the Union Army and operated a studio in Beaufort during the war. This new acquisition makes a significant contribution to our existing Civil War photograph collection.
Included in the set are images of downtown Beaufort, Old Fort and Retreat Plantations, St. Helena, Morris and Folly Islands, and a few images of Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida. It includes many noteworthy photographs, such as views of the Freedmen and their homes, the Chapel of Ease before it burned in a forest fire, and Civil War fortifications.”

Comments from the current Beaufort District Collection manager, Grace Cordial:
• The 16 items found (14 clippings and 2 photographs) have been placed in the “forever” vertical file about the “Friends of the Beaufort County Library” folder in the Beaufort District Collection. Drop by to review the contents and relive the history of your group since 1979.
• We still rely upon gifts from the Beaufort County Historical Society, memorial funds, and the Friends of the Library to help fund special purchases and projects. This year contributions from the Friends and the Beaufort County Historical Society are helping us to match SHRAB grant funds for the arrangement and description work necessary to prepare the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection for use by the public.
• A number of our Civil War era images have been digitized for access by school groups and scholars. The Friends of the Library group bought the digitization equipment necessary to make the images available inside the Beaufort District Collection.
• The Friends of the Beaufort County Library bought the hurricane shutters for the BDC. Let’s hope that we do not have to use them this year! But, oh, it is ever so much better to have the hurricane shutters and not need them, than to need the hurricane shutters and not have them!

Thank you, Friends of the Beaufort County Library, for all your help throughout the years and librarians in charge. We appreciate your support in preserving the history of this wonderful place we all call home. – Grace Cordial

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

"4 and No More!" Call before you bring a group!

The BDC welcomes all visitors and researchers over the age of 12 years. We're glad to have you come use our resources and expertise. However, please be aware that we are operating under severe space constraints this summer. We want to help you explore all the wonderful documents and materials we take care of here. Yet there is little elbow room left to sit down or stretch out materials in front of you. We will do our best to be creative and come up with a mutually beneficial solution to the severe space constraints but there are no guarantees that we will be able to accommodate groups larger than 4 people. As always, the BDC staff will do our best to help you.

If you are part of a group call (843) 255-6468 to make advance arrangements.
If you hear of a group of folks planning to come to use the BDC (e.g., a class, summer institute group, a busload of tourists, etc.), please advise them to call us at (843) 255-6468 to make advance arrangements.
If you want the litany of reasons why this researcher limitation is in place until the relocation of the BDC to the 2nd floor in the Beaufort Branch Library building, call us at (843) 255-6468.

We’re open for business – we just can’t get too much of it at the same time.
The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

Last updated by Kristi Marshall on April 9, 2020.

The Memorial Day Tradition in the Beaufort District (updated 2024)

Note: The base of this article was written by Amber Shorthouse in 2008. In the intervening years, we have acquired additional materials on the topic. Latest update: Edited broken links, added new links, revised text, and added some new content on 24-29 April 2024 -Grace Cordial

For many Memorial Day is the kick-off to summer fun but its origins lie in a much more solemn tradition. Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a remembrance of the fallen Union soldiers and sailors of the American Civil War. 

Beaufort County residents love to boast that life here is rather unique in many ways. Our local peculiarities are diverse and plentiful: the Spanish New World was administered from Parris Island for a time during the 16th century; we have one of the greatest variations of high and low tide along the Atlantic coast; we established the first school for the newly freed slaves of South Carolina (Penn Normal School on St. Helena Island); and we used local bounty to create the lowcountry's favorite feast, Frogmore Stew. And yet, some things continue to surprise newcomers.

No other South Carolina county experienced the Civil War or its aftermath in quite the same way as it unfolded in Beaufort County. No other South Carolina county contributed such large percentages of its total population to the two warring sides. And therefore, it should come as little surprise that commemoration of those who fought in the Civil War should be different here as well. Since Beaufort County raised troops for both the Confederate States and the United States, the dual remembrances commemorated here are rooted in long tradition as shown in this clipping from the Beaufort Gazette 100 years ago. 

An article about the Confederate Memorial Day speech begins in column 6 of page 1 and continued on interior pages of the issue; and there's an entry about the upcoming National Memorial Day [former Decoration Day] ceremony and program under the cartoon. 

The vast majority of Beaufort District's white male residents of the 1860s served with the Confederacy. By tradition in the Palmetto State, graves of the Confederate dead were adorned with flowers on May 10th in remembrance of CSA Gen. Thomas ("Stonewall") Jackson's death on May 10, 1863. Local heritage groups marked the occasion for many years. It was surprising to me to discover that Confederate Memorial Day only became an official state holiday in the year 2000. South Carolina is one of only three states to still observe a Confederate Memorial Day as a state employee holiday.   

Many area Black men joined the Union Army's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Regiments (AKA 33rd, 34th, and 104th USCT) and the Federal Navy. Some of its most prominent late 19th century, 20th century and 21st century families have ancestors who served in the Union Army, Navy, or who ran businesses that supplied those Federal forces. The Beaufort National Cemetery had been founded in 1863 to provide eternal resting places for those who died while serving the United States. 

Many places lay claims to being the first community to honor its Civil War dead beginning as early as 1864 in Waterloo, New York. Waterloo got the official backing of the United States government as Memorial Day’s birthplace during L.B. Johnson’s administration in 1966. “Memorial Day – Over 150 Years of Remembrance” by the National Park Service covers aspects of the holiday’s history and other claimants.

In early May of 1868, General John Logan (USA) in his capacity with the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R., a Union Civil War veterans group) declared its first "Decoration Day" for May 30, 1868. There does not appear to have been any particular significance to Gen. Logan's choice of May 30th for the celebration other than the date’s lack of a significant battle anniversary upon it though some aver that the date was selected simply because flowers would be readily available throughout the reunited United States to adorn the gravesites of the fallen by that date. 

On Decoration Day, the GAR encouraged people to honor the Union Civil War dead by "strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion."

Beaufort District's Memorial Day Traditions

Locally, May 1868 was especially significant because of the reinterment of Union Prisoners of War (POWs) from the "Racecourse" prison camp near Charleston into the Beaufort National Cemetery and the installation of an obelisk in the Beaufort National Cemetery dedicated to their memory by the widow of a Unionist Charleston merchant, Mrs. Eliza Potter. Local celebrations of the war dead as an annual remembrance are often based from this reinterment.  

In addition to some white Union veterans staying behind post-war, Beaufort County had a high proportion of Black Union veterans. Black folks from Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, and neighboring islands would catch the train, oxcart, wagons, or boats and visit Beaufort for the speeches, music, pageantry and remembrance ceremonies at the Beaufort National Cemetery. We are quite fortunate to have a number of diaries that include entries about Decoration Day in Beaufort through the years. 

Here's what Mrs. Ellen Crofut wrote in her diary about Decoration Day in 1890:

Friday, May 30, 1890

Decoration day. Clear and cool.

George went back 5 a.m.

There were crowds of people in town, excursions came by boat and train. Gen’l Stolbrand (1)  and his daughter, Gertrude and Mr. Toumey (?) were in and out this morning: a number of people (colored) called to see Mrs. Brayton during the day.

About four o’clock we all went out to the cemetery in our carriage. Mr. Brayton (2) went with Mr. Collins in the procession. We arrived a little before the procession. First came officers from the Baltimore, Kearsarge, Dolphin and Galena, then marines and sailors, lastly the colored soldiers and G.A.R. It was a very pretty sight when they all marched in and took their places. Mr. Brayton spoke one hour.

Mrs. Crofut’s entry description of the day varies greatly in tone than the account published under the title of “A Burlesque at Beaufort” in the Charleston News and Courier on May 31, 1890 which you can find in the BDC’s DECORATION DAY vertical file folder amidst over descriptions and clippings through the years.  

Most years she writes about the events on Decoration Day. Her diary for the 1895 celebration includes a Decoration Day program that indicates the parade route, the organizations participating and the order of the ceremonies held at the Beaufort National Cemetery.  

The celebration expanded with the influx of Marines training at Parris Island, many of whom were white Northerners with prior experience celebrating Decoration Day though the term “Decoration Day” gradually morphed into the term “Memorial Day,” particularly in the aftermath of the horrors and deaths in the Great War (what we now refer to as World War I). 

For some local residents the two terms refer to the same holiday. You’ll see that the entry by Mr. Thomas in 1929 uses the term “Memorial Day” whereas Mr. Christensen uses the term “Decoration Day” in 1943.

W. J. Thomas, Jr., (1906 -1982) wrote about his hometown celebration in the Beaufort Gazette of June 13, 1929: 

Ancestral differences were tossed aside with mutual relief and patriotism, and the local white Republicans led the way as all together they arbitrated and decided to celebrate a modified Memorial Day, not for the victory of the North over the South but in remembrance of the reunion of the sister states and the restoration of national harmony.

Thomas Jr. was the son of William J. Thomas, Sr. and Tennessee Calhoun Thomas. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and at Columbia University in New York City. During his career, he worked in the news media industry for the New York Herald Tribune, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), the Radio and Television Division of William Espy Co. and for the First Federal Savings Association of Beaufort.

Frederick Holmes Christensen (1877-1944), a local businessman, often wrote about political, social, and economic life in Beaufort. Here's his commentary about Memorial Day 1943:   

Sunday, May 30 [1943]

Decoration day will be celebrated this year tomorrow the 31st. Never the less Helen, Frederik and I went over to the church yard with flowers today and decorated father and Mother's lots. In the afternoon I went to the wharf and witnessed the colored exercises for those lost at sea.

His parents were Niels and Abbie Holmes Christensen whose graves are located in the family plot located at Lot A-22 of the Baptist Church of Beaufort cemetery.  Niels, an immigrant to the United States from Denmark, had served in the Union Army and later as the superintendent of the Beaufort National Cemetery. He stayed in the area after the Civil War to sire a prominent local family with Abbie who are quite involved in community affairs even now.

As this brief overview indicates, Decoration Day, which originally commemorated the sacrifice of Union troops during the Civil War only, was broadened into a commemoration of the sacrifice of all American soldiers and sailors who died in service to their country during wartime and as a result of military actions.  

Memorial Day became a Federal holiday in 1971 when the government set the annual commemoration on the last Monday in May. Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000. The act designates 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day as a time for prayer and reflection.

Notes and Sources: 

1. Gen'l Stolbrand was Charles John Stolbrand, a Swedish immigrant to Chicago in the 1850s where he became a successful businessman. He organized an artillery company and became its Major in 1862. He led artillery units in the Vicksburg-Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns before becoming Sherman's head of artillery for his Carolinas Campaign. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Stolbrand to a Brigadier General in January 1865. Find-A-Grave Memorial.

2. Mr. Brayton was Ellery McTeall Brayton who was an independent Republican candidate for the 7th District in the United States House of Representatives in 1890 against William Elliott (Democrat) and Thomas E. Miller (Republican) both of Beaufort. Brayton had served in the South Carolina State House of Representatives for Aiken County in the mid 1870s. William Elliott won on 4 November 1890.  Political Graveyard website. Accessed 29 April 2024

U.S. Memorial Day organization, Accessed 29 April 2024

"10 Memorial Day Facts about the History of the Holiday, " by Sophie Caldwell, Today, 25 March 2024. Accessed 29 April 2024 

Where Did Memorial Day Originate? (history.com) by Christopher Klein, 16 May 2023, History website. Accessed 29 April 2024

Memorial Day - Over 150 Years of Remembrance by the National Park Service. Accessed 29 April 2024.

Beaufort National Cemetery, Beaufort South Carolina by the National Park Service. Accessed 29 April 2024.

Stonewall Jackson. Britannica. Accessed 29 April 2024.

John A. Logan, Wikipedia. Accessed 29 April 2024.

Grand Army of the Republic, Wikipedia. Accessed 29 April 2024.

"General John A. Logan, Memorial Day Founder," The Army Historical Foundation. Accessed 29 April 2024.  

"79. Washington Racetrack, 1792 - 1900", Halsey Map, Preservation Society of Charleston.  Accessed 29 April 2024.  

"Mrs. Potter's Memorial Monument," Beaufort District Collection Connections blog, 8 December 2022. 

"The Origins of Memorial Day" Memorial Day | U.S. Army Center of Military History. Accessed 29 April 2024. 

U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration: Memorial Day History. Accessed 29 April 2024. 

How to Observe Memorial Day by the Memorial Day Foundation. Accessed 29 April 2024. 

BDC Obituary Card Files: W.J. Thomas, Jr.; Frederick Christensen

Gullah Culture

The term "Gullah" or "Geechee" describes a unique group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled along the Atlantic coast, often on sea islands, between what is now Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, FL. Gullah is a broad culture embracing the political, social, economic, linguistic, and artistic life of native African-American Sea Islanders.
The Beaufort District Collection is home to an extensive Gullah/Geechee historical collection of books, manuscripts, pamphlets, videos, and more! Here are just a few BDC items that may wet your appetite for Gullah/Geechee sea island culture:

Gullah History and Culture

305.8961 CRO. Gullah Culture in America by Wilbur Cross
This title is available at all branch libraries.

306 JON. When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the Sea Islands by Patricia Jones-Jackson
This title is also available at Bluffton and Hilton Head Island branches.

398 JOH. Folk Culture on St. Helena Island, South Carolina by Guy B. Johnson
This title is also available at the Hilton Head Island branch.

975 POL. The Gullah People and Their African Heritage by William S. Pollitzer
This title is also available at Beaufort and Hilton Head Island branches.

975.799 GOD. God's Gonna Trouble the Water [DVD] by Teresa Bruce
This title is available at all branch libraries.

Gullah Language

427.9757 GER. Gulluh fuh oonuh = Gullah for you by Virginia Geraty
This title is also available at Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, and Lobeco branches.

427.9757 TUR. Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect by Lorenzo Dow Turner
This title is also available at Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, and Lobeco branches.

Port Royal Experiment

975.704 ROS. Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment by Willie Lee Rose
This title is available at all branch libraries.

975.799 NOR. "By Industry and Thrift": Landownership Among the Freedpeople by Kerry Normand
This title is also available at Beaufort and St. Helena branches.

Folkways

398 PIN. Blue Roots: African American Folk Magic of the Gullah People by Roger Pinckney
This title is also available at Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, and Lobeco branches.

398.2 GUL. Gullah Animal Tales from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina
This title is available at all branch libraries.

641.5975 ROB. Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way... by Sallie Ann Robinson
This title is available at all branch libraries.

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

Last updated on April 13, 2020 by Kristi Marshall.

Interested in Industry?

Indigo, rice, sea island cotton, phosphate, oysters, shrimp, and timber are just a few of the economic endeavors of the Historic Beaufort District. The military presence, shipping industry, and tourism also make their mark in the history of this economically diverse area of South Carolina. Regardless of your specific economic/industrial topic, the Beaufort District Collection is the place to start your research! Whether you are compiling information for formal research or just to satisfy your personal historical curiosity, the BDC can help.

Wondering where to start? The following resources are available at the BDC:

General Economic History Books

This list is a starter guide for researchers. If you are looking for a particular industry (such as cotton, rice, seafood, or military, among many others) we have a variety of materials designed to suit your topic! See what we have, visit our Online Catalog.

330.973 GAL V1 (& V2). Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History edited by Thomas Carson
This title is only available in the Reference section @ the Beaufort Branch.

330.9757 COC The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1920 by Peter A. Coclanis
This title is also available through the Bluffton Branch!

975.7 EDG. South Carolina: A History by Walter Edgar
This title is available @ Beaufort Branch, Bluffton Branch, Hilton Head Island Branch, and Lobeco Branch!

975.799 ROW V1. The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 1: 1514-1861 by Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore, and George C. Rogers, Jr.
This title is available through all branch libraries!

975.799 TAY. Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History by Michael C. Taylor
This title is available through all branch libraries!

Vertical Files

Agriculture
Banks
Beaufort—City—Annual Reports
Beaufort—County – Statistics
Blue Channel Corporation
Bridges (and subheadings)
Census (various dates)
Cotton
Development Issues
Distilling, Illicit
Drug Traffic
Ferries
Fires (various dates)
Fishing
Fripp Island—Legislation
Indigo
Industry
Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort
Marine Corps Recruit Depot
Merchants
Migrant Workers
Mines and Mineral Resources
Motion Pictures
Oysters
Phosphate Mines and Mining
Plantations
Port Royal Railroad Company
Primate -- Research
Real Estate Companies
Rice
Seafood Industry
Shipping
Shrimp
Tenneco Plant
Tomatoes
Tourism
Waddell Mariculture Center
Water Supply

Newspapers on Microfilm

In addition to having today’s local newspapers available, we also have microfilmed copies of local papers starting from 1864! View our list of available microfilmed newspapers.

Other Microfilm Resources

MICROCOPY 2: United States Census. Original Agriculture, Industry, Social Statistics, and Mortality Schedules for South Carolina, 1850-1880

MICROCOPY 13: South Carolina Reports and Resolutions, 1868-1900: With a Finding Aid to Reports and Resolutions, 1784-1900

MICROCOPY 17: Petitions to the General Assembly

*Remember that materials located in the BDC are not available for checkout. These materials will always be available to local history researchers! BDC hours are M – F: 10 AM – 5 PM.The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

What's New @ the BDC?

The Beaufort District Collection is continuously expanding! Here are a few new titles recently added to our shelves:

917.5799 GUI. A Guide to Historic Bluffton (2007)
This title is also available in the Local History collection at your local branch!
“A Guide to Historic Bluffton is almost 100 pages and is chock full of maps, original illustrations, photos, historical documents, and narrative about the architecture of town structures and some history of the area once known as St. Luke’s Parish under the Lord Proprietors, who controlled the Carolinas.” -- http://blufftonbreeze.com

973.7757 CLA. A History of the 15th South Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865 by James B. Clary (2007)
“This military history book uses primary sources (letters, diaries, photographs and official records) to document the men and events of the 15th South Carolina Infantry from the beginning to the end of the great American Civil War.” -- http://www.15thscinfantry.com/

975.802 GAL. The Formation of a Planter Elite: Jonathan Bryan and the Southern Colonial Frontier by Alan Gallay (Paperback, 2007)
“Through the career of Jonathan Bryan--which spanned the founding of Georgia, the Revolution, and the birth of the new republic--Gallay chronicles the rise of the plantation slavery system in the colonial South.” -- http://www.amazon.com

973.7757 SCH. A Scratch with the Rebels: A Pennsylvania Roundhead and a South Carolina Cavalier by Carolyn Poling Schriber (2007)
“A Scratch With the Rebels is a nonfiction study of the Battle of Secessionville, based on documented sources with much of the research conducted in South Carolina. Schriber has blended the personal stories of two opposing soldiers with a detailed account of the battle.” -- http://www.charleston.net

305.8961 CRO. Gullah Culture in America by Wilbur Cross (2008)
“This book explores the Gullah culture's direct link to Africa, via the sea islands of the American southeast.” -- http://barnesandnoble.com

359.9657 ALV. Parris Island: Once a Recruit, Always a Marine by Eugene Alvarez (2007)
“Author and former Parris Island drill-instructor Eugene Alvarez records the training and tough physical and mental challenges that make a Marine.” -- http://books.google.com

973.7415 HUM. Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War by Margaret Humphreys (2008)
“Black soldiers in the American Civil War were far more likely to die of disease than were white soldiers. In Intensely Human, historian Margaret Humphreys explores why this uneven mortality occurred and how it was interpreted at the time.” -- http://www.press.jhu.edu/books

Series: Lost Photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey
726.5 SAC. Scared Places of the Lowcountry (2007)
728.8 CAR. Carolina Plantations (2007)
975.799 GRA. Gracious Beaufort (2007)
This title is also available in the Local History collection at your local branch!

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

A Long Distance Relationship That Lasts

...previously on "As The Research Continues"...

SEAN: Don't worry Lucinda! We can always make a trip to Beaufort County to explore their District Collection's holdings. We can really make this work!!!
LUCINDA: Sean, it's hopeless! [crying] Beaufort is too far away! I may never find the information I need!
SEAN: [solemn, walks to the door] Well, Lucinda, I guess this is it. [opens the door and takes a step out] If you decide to make the trip, call me. [walks out without a backward glance]

**cue heartbreaking music**

Don't let long distance research ruin your life!
The Beaufort District Collection can help you!!!

Reference Service Basics

Free Services

• Find out what’s in the collection. Give us a call, send us an email, or surf our website to see if we have the right materials to answer your questions.
• Telephone consultations are always free! Call (843) 255-6468, Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 5:00pm.
• Visit our online catalog via the Beaufort County Library website. It’s open 24/7/365!
• Browse our Online Obituary Index, and Local History Materials. It’s open 24/7/365!

Fee Based Services
for folks who want us to help them from afar

If you’re asking us to do too much of your work for you, we’ll tell you up front! Please don’t offend us by offering to pay more or ask for “extra special” services. Our services are always of the highest quality, and therefore “extra special” by very definition!

• We answer one question at a time & each question is subject to the minimal fee.
• Fees are incurred as soon as we roll up our sleeves and get to researching.
• You can count on our researching abilities. Rest assured that if an answer exists, we will do our absolute best to find it for you! Remember, however, we can only work for about one hour on your task & sometimes there is no concrete answer to be had.

(For example, if your ancestor was born “outside the sheets in 1865,” we may not have any resources within our collections to document who sired him/her! In fact, SC didn’t even have official birth certificates until 1915!)

• All replies incur the same fees whether they be replies in the affirmative ("yes, we found what you were looking for") or the negative ("with apologies, no records exist.") “No” or “Insufficient documentation to support your contention” is an answer – just not the one that you may have been hoping to get.

Regretfully, staff at the BDC will not do any of the following:

Make up or create records
Take photographs of headstones, historic sites, or historic houses
Visit cemeteries
Wander around the county looking for records
Provide supporting research reports or documentation by fax, e-mail, scanning or over the telephone

Estimated Turn-Around Time Frame

We try to complete our reference services within two weeks of agreeing to tackle your request. Remember, that it takes time to perform the high quality research work that we do. Please note that our first priority is to assist customers who personally visit the BDC. We do not guarantee delivery of the research report or supporting documentation within 14 days. Rest assured, however, that providing quality research with supporting documentation and customer satisfaction is our goal! We request that you please be patient.

Don't Forget:

Since all replies are sent via USPS mail, it is essential that we have your current mailing address. Fees are to be paid by return mail as soon as you receive a formal reply from staff of the Beaufort County Library.

Fees

Fees are based upon residency, the number of questions asked, and the number of necessary photocopies made to sufficiently support the research.

Beaufort County Library Card Holders
$5.00 per question
¢50 per photocopy
Other US Residents
$10.00 per question
¢50 per photocopy
Foreign Nationals
$15.00 per question
¢50 per photocopy

Long Distance Reference Policy
Obituary Request Policy

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.