Thursday, July 28, 2011

August 14 Meeting of Columbia Chapter, SCGS

Our next meeting is August 14, 2011 at our usual time and place. The program this month is How to Start Writing Your Family History presented by Robin Foster.

As always, visitors are welcome to attend our meeting.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Scot Irish ancestors and the Belfast Newsletter

My favorite program at the NGS conference was about Scot Irish ancestors. David Rencher did a great job explaining the migration routes and providing some interesting tips on protestant migration patterns. For example, the Scots Irish usually immigrated as a group, either family, community or congregation. So when you are looking for someone look into the whole community there maybe a clue.

He mentioned three books that are all available at the library:

1. The colonial clergy of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina / by Frederick Lewis Weis. Local History only - can't check out

2. White servitude in colonial South Carolina.
by Smith, Warren B. Available for check-out.

3. The Scots-Irish in the Carolinas / by Billy Kennedy.
by Kennedy, Billy Available for check out

Rencher also shared an online database for the Belfast Newsletter (1737-1800)that I thought sounded fascinating. The scots irish immigrants informed their families back home that they had arrived safely through letters to the Belfast Newsletter. Being known for their frugality the immigrants sent one letter signed by several people. That certainly saved the price of a stamp!

If you have any scots-irish ancestors you might want to check this database to see if your ancestor is mentioned in the Belfast Newsletter.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

NGS Conference 2011

This was just what I needed...a shot in the ole work arm. There is nothing like a genealogy conference to remind me that I love this type of research. It is just fun to learn new stuff and I have been piling on the new stuff.

While today was the first day of the conference for most folks my conference started yesterday at Librarians Day at the Charleston Public Library. This event was sponsored by Proquest. These are the folks that bring libraries Ancestry and HeritageQuest. It was good to hear that they have recently updated the digital books and PERSI section of HeritageQuest. You may want to go check out those sections again if you haven't in a while.

They also shared a number of tutorials for the new Ancestry Library Edition format that we will have available at the library. In fact, maybe we can have one of the webinars at a future meeting.

Today, at the first full conference day, I attended a class on digital preservation and Southeastern map resources. You can be sure that I will be visiting the Library of Congress map section. They have a suberb collection of online maps.

Also, if you didn't see the Dead Librarian tweet I will repeat that the Family History Center has added South Carolina Probate records 1671-1977, South Carolina Probate records, files and loose papers 1732-1964, and South Carolina Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (NARA M267)

Yikes and there are still three days to go!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Free Week

Ancestry.com will offer one week free viewing of the 1860 and 1870 census records beginning Thursday. This is in honor of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

Lexington County Obituaries

The Lexington County Library now has a searchable database of obituaries
published in the Lexington Dispatch, the Lexington News and/or the Lexington
County Chronicle. Dates range from 1802-2011, though some early years are
missing.



The search results will provide basic statistics (name, date of death, date
of birth), plus a specific reference for the newspaper - date and page
number. The newspapers are available (microfilm) in the South Carolina Room
at the main library facility in Lexington.



The library's website is http://www.lex.lib.sc.us - click on the RESOURCES
tab and then scroll down to the link for OBITUARY SEARCH. Good luck.

Columbia Chapter Meeting

Columbia Chapter, SCGS will meet Sunday April 10, 2011 at SC Museum on Gervais St. Walter T. Leverette will be our speaker on the topic of internet sites for family history research. All meetings are open to the public. Hope to see you there.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Florence Stockade

The website for the Florence Stockade Friends group appears to be down. I added a link to the wikipedia Florence Stockade page. You can keep checking the link they have to see if it comes up anytime soon. There is also a Facebook page with photos and links to the Friends group.