Family History Month Programs and Outreach

Tomorrow begins Family History Month. Although we of course, support what some call the most popular hobby in America, that is, searching for one's roots, every day, we make a particular effort to share information about family history materials and resources that we have in the Library during October. As usual we will be making extra genealogy related posts on our Facebook page. Plus this year, staff has three activities planned to celebrate: one opened to the general public that requires advance registration and two for community groups.

The "Tracing Your Gullah Geechee Roots" workshop being held in concert with the Center Family History of the International African American Museum and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission is still going ahead on Saturday, October 6th - unless we have another hurricane threat.

Slots were filling fast though there might be a few seats left. Be sure to register because registration is required. There are three ways to register:

E-mail: info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org  Subject line: "Tracing Your Roots"

Call:  843-818-4587

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/380539399090450/

When we can fit it in, BDC staff like to go out into the community and reach audiences who may not use the library or who may have not been in a library since high school or college. Grace set a goal of reaching out to 400 people through July 2018 - June 2019 programs and events not held in one of our library buildings. At present, there are still 335 people left before we meet that goal. I trust that enough folks will turn out for the family history related community programs below to help me draw down that balance to less than 300 people as we go into November. 

Grace will tell the members of the Callawassie Island Genealogy Club about "Genealogy Materials and Services of the Beaufort County Library"on October 17. 

On October 27, Grace will be presenting the “Getting Started with Family History Research at the Beaufort County Library” session for the “Mind, Body, Spirit: Looking to the Future, Embracing the Past!” conference sponsored by Select Health of South Carolina.  

Please note: The BDC staff can come to your organization to talk about the topics that we cover in our collection: local history, genealogy, Gullah culture, archaeology, and natural history. We have prepared talks already on Child Labor in Beaufort District; Hurricanes of the 19th and 20th centuries; Postcards; Using Ancestry Library Edition and other genealogy related resources; Downtown Beaufort in the 1940 - 1960s, and How to Talk South Carolina when it comes to place and surnames. If interested, contact us at bdc@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 to discuss topics and schedule options.