What's Happening in the BDC During March 2024

March is Women's History Month  so of course, there will be some emphasis on BDC materials about the distaff. I expect to have some trouble keeping to the 2024 theme, "Women who advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion" from the holdings of the Research Room but I shall indeed try to do so. 

On March 6, I'm going to talk with the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians about the process we follow regarding donations of archival materials. 

Our only scheduled local history program this month is "The History of the Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority" with BJWSA's own Tricia Kilgore on Tuesday, March 19th. We hope that you can join us. 

Adjusted BDC Service Model

The BDC Research Room service model is changing a bit beginning today.

When COVID-19 struck the world in March 2020, a lot of things changed. Since October 2020, we have operated on an exclusively by appointment only basis due to health concerns and chronic BDC staff shortages. First we did one appointment per day mostly for pandemic reasons; then we offered up to three appointments per day; We're going to continue to offer up to three 2-hour appointments per day for those who contact us in advance of showing up at the BDC Research Room door and extend service to some walk-in customers sometimes starting at 9 AM.    

Beginning March 1, we may accept walk-in customers some Mondays through Fridays from 9 AM -- 4:30 PM under certain conditions: 

• If there's sufficient staff to guide walk-in customers and monitor use of special collections materials
• If there's sufficient seating for walk-in customers [Reminder: We have a quite small physical public space.]
• If there isn't already an obligation on our service delivery calendar

In practice, this means that a walk-in might be served if no other customer is in the Research Room and our calendar is open at the moment the walk-in shows up at our door between 9 AM and 4:30 PM most weekdays.  But if we have an appointment, local history program, outreach session, meeting, group session, etc. on the BDC's calendar for that day and time, walk-ins will not be accepted. 

Walk-ins allowed admittance will have access to the BDC's Library Assistant and/or Library Specialist who will guide them to resources that may help walk-in customers answer their own questions about historic houses, local history and family history. 

I repeat: Walk-in customers may be admitted but are not guaranteed admittance nor access to the full BDC staff if s/he/they just drop by the Research Room. Researchers with appointments will always get our best, exclusive, and fullest attention during their scheduled time.

Bottom line: For assured personalized service, make an appointment in advance.  Contact bdc@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 for details. 

Wonder why we set the cut-off time for service at 4:30 PM when the 2nd floor is open until 5 on weekdays? Because it takes time for BDC staff to register a walk-in customer, identify relevant materials, pull those materials, note the materials given for the walk-in customer to use inside our facility through the Sirsi circulation system, for the walk-in customer to review the materials, for the walk-in customer to return the materials by 4:45 PM so that BDC staff can check in the materials, reshelve the materials, lock the Research Room and get down to the time clock by 5:00 PM. Beaufort County Government is firm about no overtime for staff. 

The Library will be closed on Good Friday, March 29, 2024.   

Eerie Research in the BDC

Though I first wrote this post a decade ago - and the reference question I received that is revisited below came in a decade before that - it remains one of my favorite reference questions of my career. 

For the record: There are no weird questions, only intriguing ones. Text in orange was added in 2022; text in purple was added during the latest update: 19 September 2023. - Grace Cordial  

I received a long distance telephone call from a woman in Ohio one afternoon circa 2002.  (Where else could it be?  Ohio is the state of last residence for a high percentage of new coastal SC residents.)  The customer explained, rather sheepishly, that she felt "bad vibes" at certain spots on the Jasper County property she had recently purchased.  The "bad vibes" scared her enough to consult a medium when she returned to Ohio.  At her reading, the medium counseled her to "Call Beaufort County Library, your answer is there."

Needless to say, her question and the involvement of a medium presented a rather intriguing aspect to my day. Taking the open-minded position that some folks believe that "bad vibes" can arise from "bad events" or "unfinished business of souls departed," I wondered aloud about whether or not there had been any known unpleasantness on the property.

·         Had the location been a battlefield in the past? Not that the researcher or I was aware of.

·         Were there any known murders or fires at that location? Not that the researcher nor I were aware of.

·         Were there any records of structures on the site in the past -- structures in which unhappy events or mistreatment of others may have occurred? Perhaps there were, because the property was known to be a working plantation with slaves in the past. 

In most places, a question like this one involves county offices in charge of land and tax records at the County courthouse. However, the Beaufort District's courthouse then located in Gillisonville burned down in 1865 as the Union troops moved to capture Columbia. This means that many of the pre-1865 records for Beaufort District and its subsequent counties, Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper, including records of land transactions, wills, court cases, property taxes, etc. -- all activities and functions that arise within a courthouse -- were destroyed.

Did we have any other ways to find out prior uses of a particular piece of land? And if we had some materials that might help her, would she be coming to our area to do her own research? The answer to both questions was "Yes." 

She made an appointment to come to the BDC during her next trip to South Carolina.

Precisely because Beaufort District is a "burned county," the BDC purchases South Carolina Department of Archives and History microfilm series to help compensate for the loss of pre-1870 Beaufort County courthouse records when we can. Using the SCDAH online records index to search on the original owner of record and his properties here in our area, we got a number of hits. Then we pulled several reels of microfilm in hopes that we'd learn more. My greatest hope was that we'd learn something about structures that once were on her property, such as houses, out-buildings, and slave quarters.

I loaded the first reel of microfilm -- going with my gut about which one might be best. I chose a reel of the S213190 Charleston series of State Plats that was digitized in 2021. The Charleston series starts slightly before the S213192 Columbia series of State Plats also digitized in 2021. Furthermore, the Charleston series may include a greater number of lowcountry plantations by virtue of its closer geographic location to Beaufort and Jasper.

The very first reel of S213190 Charleston series of State Plats microfilm we pulled, on the very first try, we hit the mother lode! The property had a plat; the plat included key structures; the structures included the layout of the slave quarters. The location of the strongest "bad vibes" she felt turned out to be the precise location of the slave houses row on her property.

 

(Image is from the BCL's Donner Collection:  https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:2057)

She believed that she had her answer. She did the “researcher’s happy dance” right there by the microfilm reader/printers.  

Her medium was correct! She did find her answer in the Beaufort County Library after all. A little historical research gave the customer the answer she was seeking.

Maybe your answer is here too. 

Check out the post (2021) about property research in our Research Room by Cassandra Knoppel to get you started on the path to learning more about your little piece of Beaufort County heaven.  

Contact us to make the necessary arrangements to visit the Beaufort District Collection's Research Room: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net. 

Sometimes Hiring a Professional Genealogist to Help is the Best Strategy

Some of you may be wondering why Cassi and I devoted so much time researching the Claudia S. Stuart letter that I wrote about earlier this week. In this case, the letter was in our holdings as part of an archival collection and for future reference we needed to be able to better describe it for potential customers. It's more by happenstance that Col. Baxley was reprising and updating the talk that he did for us at Bluffton Branch in February 2020 over the Summer for presentation now - which is when I started processing the Reeves Collection and discovered it. 

BDC staff is not able to dedicate so much time to unraveling the research issues and genealogical challenges of a customer's family history. If you had an issue such as the 7 George Cuthberts and at least 3 John Verdiers to choose from, we would guide you to sources and suggest strategies for you to use to unravel the knot yourself. 

To give you a better idea of the range of family history resources we provide for Research Room customers, please read yesterday's post "BDC Genealogy Services Primer (2021)." We help most folks by selecting sources in which they can do their own research work. Sometimes our experience with the sources available can help some folks a great deal. But sometimes what a customer needs is beyond our ability or mission to provide. When that happens, sometimes hiring a professional genealogist to help you is your best strategy. 

Let's say that you need more research assistance than BDC staff can provide - such as in those cases where your genealogical research points you to other states or countries of origin or you are not sure who should or should not be on your family tree. At that point, it may be time for you to consider hiring a professional to do the work - for a fee - on your behalf.  

You might want to try the Directory on the Association of Professional Genealogists website ; “Directory of Certified Genealogists” on the Board for Certification of Genealogists website ; International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists ; Ancestry ProGenealogists ; or their even more specific branch related to heirs research and/or use the links in the Family Search article “Hiring a Professional Researcher” to find someone who can help you more intensively than we can. 

Restriction of some BDC Related Services in June and July

As frequent readers know, the Beaufort District Collection has a quite small staff for the number of hours we keep the Research Room open each week and for our other usual and customary operations. While our staff is temporarily reduced due to health issues, we are having to make some adjustments.

• The BDC is suspending local history and genealogy related program coordination until August 2019. We hope to see you at our programs later this summer.
• In the meantime, be sure to check out all the other types of programs, workshops, and events that the other parts of the Beaufort County Library are hosting!
• All reproduction permission applications will be on hiatus for the duration.  
• All BDC social media will be on hiatus for the duration. 
• Continue to send your questions to bdc@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 for assistance during regular office hours. Sam and Kristi will do their best to answer your questions thoroughly and fully.

Please note - and this is important: Although every attempt will be made to keep the Research Room open its usual and customary hours during June and July 2019, that is, Monday - Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM, it may not be possible each and every work day. I am certain that Sam, Kristi, and Library Administration will do its utmost to minimize any closures during this period.

In the meantime, you may want to check out the offerings of our sister organizations listed here. Some may involve a fee; some may not. Some have exhibits on a regular basis which is a type of public outreach that one can do at one's own pace and on one's own preferred schedule.

• Beaufort County Historical Society
• Beaufort History Museum
• Bluffton Historical Preservation Society
• Coastal Discovery Museum
• Daufuskie Island Historical Foundation
• Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission
• Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition 
• Gullah Museum of Hilton Head Island 
• Heritage Library Foundation
• Hilton Head Chapter, Archaeological Society of South Carolina
• Historic Beaufort Foundation
• Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park
• Historic Port Royal Foundation
• Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era 
• Penn Center 
• Port Royal Sound Maritime Center 
• Reconstruction Era National Historical Park
• Santa Elena History Center
• University of South Carolina Beaufort

There are probably others as well so please do not accept this list as the be-all, end-all one of historically minded organizations within Beaufort County.

Of course, we encourage all of you to participate in the Library's Summer Reading Program throughout June and July. The Library has completely revamped the program to simplify the process, include all ages, and now there are some really fabulous grand prizes to win.

 
And it's soooooo easy! Read text - any text - for 20 minutes per day for 36 of the 60 days in the program -- and you'll be eligible to enter the grand prize drawings. Two of the Grand Prize drawings even have a local history theme!

• Like foreign movies? Put on the subtitles and read 20 or minutes and you can check off a box. 
• Text with your grandchildren? Read 20 minutes worth of messages and you can check off a box. 
• Making a new recipe? Read the directions over 20 minutes and you can check off a box. 
• Read to your elderly mother for 20 minutes, check off a box. 
• Read to your pet for 20 minutes, check off a box. 
• Read a bestseller on Hoopla as an e-book for 20 minutes, check off a box. 

I'm sure that you get the drift. Details are available online or ask at your favorite Beaufort County Branch Library. Check out my Connections post immediately preceding this one for a host of local history related recommendations! And Sam and Kristi will be on hand to offer even more suggestions should you ask in our Research Room.

Looking ahead: All units of the Library system will be closed on Independence Day, July 4th.

Looking for a Newspaper Obituary?

1 October 2018 - Updated by gmc. 

One of my favorite genealogy gurus, John Michael Neill offered this "Genealogy Tip of the Day" on November 16th:

It’s easy to locate an obituary in one newspaper and move on to another research task. In some locations, there may have been several newspapers in the area that might have published a death notice or an obituary on your ancestor. One may have easily included bits of information that were not mentioned in others.

Ask yourself: “Are there other newspapers that might have published an obituary?”

You never know what you will find until you look.

I reckon that the circumstances here in Beaufort County may be replicated across the globe. Some years we have more than one newspaper; other years, we have no newspapers at all. So, the number of local newspapers or regional newspapers in which you should look in hopes of finding a published obituary for one of your ancestors could vary widely.

The Beaufort District Collection has the following newspapers for you to use in our Research Room:

19^th Century

Palmetto Herald (March 17, 1864 - December 29, 1864)

Free South (January 17, 1863 - November 19, 1864)

New South (March 15, 1861 - September 29, 1866) – also online at http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/newsouth.html

Beaufort Republican (October 12, 1871 - October 16, 1873) – also online at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042623/

Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican (October 23, 1873 - April 1874) 

20^th Century

*Palmetto Post (January 5, 1882 - December 27, 1906)

*Beaufort Gazette (July 16, 1903 - Present)

*County Democrat (July 20, 1910 - December 1, 1911)

Beaufort Times (June 21, 1944 - December 20, 1945)

Sea Islander (September 13, 1968 - December 1974)

*Island Packet (January 1974 - Present)

Hilton Head Report (January 1986 - March 1988)

Bluffton Eccentric (June 25, 1987 – December 31, 1991) – Hardcopy only

Hilton Head Sun (February 1988 - May 1989)

Lowcountry Ledger (December 1988 - December 1991) – Hardcopy and microfilm

Hilton Head News (January - December 1993; January - December 1996)

Beaufort Catalyst (May 22, 1993 - December 31, 1995)

Bluffton Packet (January 1994 - December 1995)

Hilton Head News (January - December 1993; January - December 1996)

21^st Century

*Beaufort Gazette (July 16, 1903 – March 31, 2010)

*Island Packet (January 1974 – March 31, 2010)

*Beaufort Gazette/Island Packet (These newspapers substantially merged in April 2010 – Present. We microfilmed the two newspapers into one microfilm to remove duplication of identical content across the two newspapers to cut microfilming costs.)

*Beaufort Today Hardcopy only

*Bluffton Today  

*Hilton Head Island Today

Island News Hardcopy only

We provide an online index to the obituaries drawn from select of these newspapers at https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/ooi. The bulk of the obituaries indexed were published from 1882 to 1984.  *(One- asterisk symbol) indicates that entries for at least some of the issues of the newspaper are in the obituary index. 

Please bear in mind that there is no legal requirement in the State of South Carolina that an obituary for a deceased individual is published in a newspaper. This online index does not include the actual text of the obituary notices. It lists only dates and newspapers in which the notices appear. 

We provide a very limited, fee-based service to help customers who cannot or choose not to come into our Research Room to perform their work. We limit our obituary service to providing a photocopy or scan of an obituary notice for a deceased individual as found in our local newspaper microfilm. Most requests for assistance are completed within fourteen working days of the receipt of the payment. 
  
Obituary Services Fees

LEVEL 1: The deceased is listed in our Online Obituary Index file which is found at  https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/ooi. Please attach the citation from the Online Obituary Index with your request for assistance. 

Per listed individual:  $5.00

LEVEL 2: The deceased is not listed in our Online Obituary Index file. If the deceased  individual is not listed within the current index you must provide a precise date of death with your  request. We will not perform this service without an exact date of death. Please note that we read only seven issues after the date of death you provide to us.

Per unlisted individual:  $10.00  - whether or not we are successful in locating an obituary for the person you requested.    

To Place an Order: 

1.  By E-Mail:Submit orders by e-mail to: bdc@bcgov.net

2.  By US Post Office Mail: Submit requests and payments (made payable to "Beaufort County Library") by postal mail to:

Beaufort District Collection
ATTN: Assistants
Beaufort County Library
311 Scott Street
Beaufort, SC 29902 (USA)

3.  By Telephone: Telephone requests can be submitted by leaving a voicemail message at (843) 255-6468. Please speak clearly and slowly. Leave your telephone number and name so that staff can return your call to verify your address and the topic of your request.

BDC Services and Programs

The Beaufort District Collection is a full service special library and archives in a public library as our logo indicates. We are a unit of the Beaufort County Library in South Carolina.

The purpose of the Beaufort District Collection is to acquire, preserve, maintain and share a research collection of permanent value about the history, Gullah culture, natural history, archaeology and genealogy of Beaufort District’s long and storied past. Our collection focuses on the people, places, issues and themes relevant to Beaufort County, Hampton County, and Jasper County history, 10,000 BCE to the mid-1960s.

Our Research Room is open for anyone over age 12 to explore their interest in any of these topics. We have books, audio-visual recordings, newspapers, illustrated prints, maps, photographs, postcards, and manuscript collections to support your historical and genealogical research. In addition to housing a fine collection of research materials, we employ competent staff to orient you to the possibilities and pitfalls of doing research in a “burned County.”

Contact us at (843) 255-6468 or e-mail gracec@bcgov.net to schedule Research Consultations.

Q: Want to do a little research from home before traveling to our Research Room?
A: Our “Virtual BDC” may include just what you need to know!
Q: That's great but how do I find the "Virtual BDC"?

* Search the BDC BCL Wordpress blog for materials and links about the people, places, issues and themes relevant to Beaufort County, Hampton County, and Jasper County 10,000 BCE to the mid-1960s. Just type in "Reconstruction" or "Root Doctor" or an event, such as the Battle of Port Royal Sound or the Hurricane of 1893,  to get a list of library materials and online resources about a specific local history topic.

* Visit us on the web http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org. Click on the “Local History” tab and gain access to our Online Obituary Index files, Local History and Nature pages, two photographic digital collections, and Connections blog http://www.beaufortdistrictcollectionconnections.blogspot.com

* We post something related to local history, Gullah culture, archaeology, genealogy or natural history on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bdcbcl every work day.

Not really into performing research but love history? We offer local history, Gullah culture, natural history, and archaeology programs and genealogy and materials preservation trainings on a recurrent basis throughout the Beaufort County Library system. For scheduled programs and events, check the Library system’s calendar http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/bcl_calendar or just monitor Connections for program announcements. For example, the BDC has four "specials" in August:
 
1)  "Reconstruction History Long Ignored, Neglected: Are We Finally Ready to Talk?" a three panel exhibit from the USC-B Libraries is currently on display in the 2nd floor lobby outside the BDC Research Room door. Drop by Mondays through Fridays, 10 am to 5 pm to view the exhibit.

2) We're reaching out to the community through the USC-B Reception and Book Signing with Dr. Larry Rowland and Dr. Stephen Wise on Wed., August 12th. We're taking some of our own Civil War, Reconstruction era, phosphate mining, and Hurricane of 1893 treasures to display.
3) The following day, Meg Gaillard, Archaeologist with the SC Department of Natural Resources Heritage Trust Program will be here to show documentary films about Fort Frederick and lead participants on a tour of the Fort Frederick historic site. (We regret that we cannot provide transportation to the site on the Naval Hospital grounds).
4) I'll be sharing images and personal accounts about the Hurricane of 1893 at Hilton Head Branch on the 122nd anniversary of the event.

We also expect that the "We Are P.I.: Making Marines" panel exhibit from the Parris Island Historical & Museum Society will arrive very soon. (Stay tuned for the announcement). 

For current hours of operation and library addresses consult the Library system’s webpage http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/content/hours-locations

Research Room Hours

It is a little appreciated fact that much of library, special collections, and archival work requires blocks of concentrated and exclusive time to perform. In this YouTube video filmed as part of Bryan Jenkins's final Library School project, Deborah Bloom (Richland County Public Library's Local History Librarian) explains how 90-95% of the work we do in special local history collections and archives units is done away from the Reference desk. 

At the present time the Research Room is open Mondays and Fridays, 10 am to 5 pm to anyone over age 12 interested in doing research about the history, Gullah culture, archaeology, genealogy and natural history of this part of South Carolina - except when it isn't. However, access to the BDC Research Room and to professional expertise is by advance appointments only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays - except when it isn't. These exceptions are posted here in Connections, on Facebook, on the Library's website, and around the building as soon as we become aware of the exceptions. For example, July 2015 had a number of exceptions.  As of this writing, there are no scheduled adjustments for August 2015. Of course, that may change and if it should, we will announce those changes as soon as possible.

What happens in the Research Room on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays? A number of things: One-on-one research consultations with customers who've made an appointment in advance to do so;  creation and maintenance of  content for the "Virtual BDC; outreach such as talking to community groups about the rare and unique materials we provide; planning, coordinating, and delivering local history programs or genealogy training sessions throughout the Library system; digitization of rare and unique materials for museum or scholarly projects; attending library and archival meetings; selecting and ordering materials for the BDC and the local history sections at the branch libraries; and performing preservation tasks. There are always more work to do than there are hours to do it.

Research Tip of the Decade: If you are going to travel to a special collections/archives/museum/ or other cultural heritage institution, check current hours of operations before you leave home. The past decade has been very hard on the cultural heritage community.  Few institutions have emerged untouched by the Great Recession.  Visit the institution's web, blog, or Facebook pages for a number to call or an e-mail address to confirm availability. Experienced researchers know to do this at least a week in advance of a visit.

The prudent action for those who want to work within the Beaufort District Collection Research Room is to call 843-255-6468 or e-mail gracec@bcgov.net ahead of time to make arrangements. Please understand that we cannot make same day appointments for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. 

Best of Luck to You, Charmaine

Charmaine is relocating to North Carolina with her husband. I shall indeed miss her daily cheerfulness, reliability, patient assistance to researchers, and calm demeanor which greatly contributed to the daily operation and public appreciation of this Library unit. It's been a good (almost) 6 years. 

Best of luck to you and Tyson as you pursue your life's goals in another locale.