New (and New to Us) Materials in the Research Room March - October 2020 : Genealogy Titles

A  lot of items have arrived from a variety of donors and a few purchases. The largest category relates to genealogy. This is understandable in light of the fact that all the following items were donated to the BDC from the Beaufort Branch of the Heritage Library which closed earlier this year. Thanks to Barbara Catenaci, Executive Director of the Heritage Library Foundation and her organization, the Research Room now has the following family history related items to share with our customers:

Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy by James M. Rose and Alice Eichholz. 2nd edition (2003) covers the basic resources and strategies for conducting productive family history research about Black ancestors.

Cemeteries of Jasper County: A Project of the Jasper County Historical Society, South Carolina, 1994 - 1996 by Wofford E. Malphrus, 2001 is actually a second copy for the BDC. Occasionally a local reference book is so important that I want to insure that the Research Room will always be able to share the information contained therein - even once I am moldering in my grave. This volume falls into that "forever for sure" category for me. Arrangement is by graveyard and thence by the interred deceased surname. There is no volume index - which I must admit is a bit annoying.

A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services with Their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence ... Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census, bound with a General Index prepared by the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1989) expands the work of the Pension Lists of 1820 below. This report was initially published 1841. By that point most of the veterans were well into their 70s and 80s. The oldest South Carolina Revolutionary War pensioner was 107 years old John Wilson of Pickens District. There are no entries for Beaufort District pensioners.

Death & Marriage Notices from The Watchman and Observer, 1845 - 1855 compiled by Brent Holcomb (2004) covers notices from the Presbyterian newspaper published in Richmond, VA that served the entire South, particularly North and South Carolina and Alabama. Arrangement is by date of the newspaper issue; Names cited are indexed. 

Directories of the City of Charleston for the Years 1830-31, 1835-36, 1836, 1837-1838, and 1840-41 by James W. Hagy (1997) are somewhat similar to City of Charleston Year Books that we have, 1884, 1886, 1889, 1908, 1912, 1939 and 1945.   

Guide to Tracing Your African Ameripean Civil War Ancestor by Jeanette Braxton-Secret (1997) outlines some of the key government records to search and steps to take that are most likely to help you identify your Black soldier or Black sailor who served between 1861 - 1865.  

When one thinks of the Mercury, the word "Secession" looms large but it was also a local daily newspaper. Marriage & Death Notices from the [Charleston, South Carolina] Mercury, 1822 - 1832 compiled by Brent H. Holcomb (2000) actually includes far more than the usual marriage and death notices. He decided to include funeral notices, the occasional coroner's report and most significantly for the BDC, "legal notices from burned record districts such as Colleton and Beaufort" - some of which were posted by one of my ancestors, Benjamin H Buckner, Beaufort District's Commissioner in Equity  in 1824. 

Omitted Chapters from Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality ... and Others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600 - 1700: Census Returns, Parish Registers, and Militia Rolls from the Barbados Census of 1679/80 edited by James C. Brandow (1982) supplements not only Hotten's Original Lists but also a few other reference books that we have about Barbados. Anyone familiar with the origins of South Carolina know that the original first settlers sailed from Barbados and that those Barbadians had a profound effect on early South Carolina laws and the establishment of chattel slavery in the colony. 

Pension List of 1820 [by the United States War Department], reprinted with an Index by Murtie June Clark (1991) was compiled to comply with an Act of Congress issued in 1818 to identify Revolutionary War veterans in need of financial support. It seems that some of the men in the 26 states who had been receiving the support had not served in the military and/or were of sufficient means to be ineligible for payment. The report is arranged by state and thence by 19th century alphabetical order - more or less all the names beginning with a "C" are together; all the surnames beginning with an "M" are together within the state's roster. 

A Savannah Family, 1830 -1901: Papers from the Clermont Huger Lee Collection including A Sketch of the Life of Frederic Augustus Habersham, written for his three little children by their mother Leila Elliott Habersham the summer of 1863 edited by Anna Habersham Wright Simth and Leila Elliott Habersham (1999) contains correspondence between the Beaufort Elliotts and the Savannah Elliots, Stiles, and Habersham families.

Some South Carolina Genealogical Records compiled by Janie Revill  (1986) covers 12 counties in the state but Beaufort nor Colleton is among the list. She abstracted records such as jury lists, wills, estate records, deeds, plats, tombstone inscriptions, etc. So why did I choose it for the BDC? Because of the variety of records index and because sometimes I do acquire reference materials about other counties just to add context and to support those who may wander in (when that was possible pre-COVID) to ask about ancestors from other parts of the state. If this book covered only one county or just one type of record, (unless that county happened to be Beaufort, Hampton, and/or Jasper) I would not have added it.  

South Carolina Marriages,  vol. 1: 1688 - 1799 was compiled from 34 primary sources by Brent Holcomb (1980). It has an index and joins his vol. 2 covering the years 1800 - 1820.

Surname Index to Sixty-Five Volumes of Colonial and Revolutionary Pedigrees by George Rodney Crowther, III (1964) is an index to other series of genealogical volumes, Colonial Families of America, Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages of America and 18 other individual volumes "about families who have helped to make America." This volume supplements the multivolume Genealogies in the Library of Congress and Richard Côte's Local and Family History in South Carolina: A Bibliography already in the Research Room.

During the course of doing family history research, one is almost sure to come across terms or activities that leave you scratching your head and thinking "What Did They Mean by That?" The BDC added two titles What Did They Mean By That?: A Dictionary of Historical Terms for Genealogists by Paul Drake, revised edition (1998) and Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary compiled by Maurine Harris and Glen Harris (1989) to help answer those questions.   

Again, I thank the Heritage Library Foundation for allowing me to have first dibs on historical and genealogical materials that it no longer needed. As I often say, the favor of first refusal is the best gift that one can give me to enhance the holdings of the Research Room. If you happen to have something that you might like to give to the BDC, I would be happy to discuss what and why we collect certain materials (or not) with you. I can be contacted at 843-255-6446 or by email gracec@bcgov.net if you want to talk about donating items to the BDC.