A Visit to the South Carolina Archive

     A few days ago, I traveled to Columbia, SC, on a two day genealogy trip with my mom as my research assistant.  My first stop was the South Carolina Archive.  I'd been there before, a few years prior, and gotten what limited vital records documents that I could find.  And that's the problem with South Carolina: there are limited records.  For example, civil marriage records don't start until 1911.

     I had a few goals for this visit:

• Locate estate records for David and Peter Quattlebaum that FamilySearch had indexes for, but not the actual records.
• Search for Civil War pension records for Nathan Hyler.  I had a newspaper article saying he's applied - but did he actually get the pension?
• Find evidence of Samuel Armstrong's service in the Revolutionary War.
• Find evidence of Franklin E Leapart's father, said to be George Leaphart.

    I succeeded on the first two, half succeeded on the third and came up empty on the fourth.  

   On the third goal, I was able to look up the source cited by the DAR for Samuel Armstrong's revolutionary service, which was an article in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine.  But the problem is that I still need to make sure that this is my Samuel Armstrong and not another man by the same name.  

     As for finding evidence of Franklin Leaphart's father, thanks to Sherman destroying the entire town of Lexington in 1865, there are no pre-civil war records.  Thanks a lot Sherman!

     I was underprepared for my visit, based on assumptions I made based on my last visit.  When I had visited about two years ago, microfilm images could only be printed via a microfilm reader with a quarter receiver, much like a bubble gum machine.  Now, there are fancy microfilm readers attached to computers.  And me without my thumb drive!

     I'd say the visit was moderately successful.  I found a few things I wanted, but not everything.  We left around 3pm and decided to head over to the Lexington County Library and check out their South Carolina Research Room.

Visiting the South Carolina Department of Archives and History

     This second stop on my recent genealogy trip with the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (aka the SC Archive). My mom and I woke up bright and early to get there just after they opened. The Archive is located in Columbia, just off of Highway 277. When we arrived it was raining a bit and there were only two other cars in the parking lot.

     Making our way up to the building, the windows were dark and I was a bit worried that I'd gotten their hours wrong. Never fear! The automatic doors swung open we stepped up the the reception desk. Like visiting other archives, we were asked to fill out a form and agree to the rules (no bags, pens, etc). Unlike other archives, we didn't get a researcher card. Instead, our information was put into the computer and they would look us up during future visits. We put our bags into the free lockers and took our notebook, pencils, laptop and camera into the Research Room.

     The first thing I did was approach the desk and ask about the room's layout and available records (I'd looked up available county records on their online index, but finding them at the location is a different thing) The very helpful archivist showed us the microfilm index drawer and explained about some of the available materials. Unfortunately, South Carolina records are very spotty, due to a lack of record creation and massive record destruction. For example, government marriage records aren't available until 1911.

     We grabbed some indexes for deeds in Lexington and Edgefield Counties and headed to the microfilm readers. There were perhaps as many as 40 of the older hand-cranked microfilm readers available and three of the more modern electronic readers with printers attached. Researchers are asked to take only one film at a time, which will prevent folks from hogging the printers.  Mom and I sat down at the manual readers and started hunting for ancestors. I used my laptop and genealogy software to keep track of names and the free wifi to tweet about my experience.

    Mom at the machines:



    After we had found a number of records in the indexes, I would pull the films with the actual documents and have mom print them. I was surprised to see that the print capable microfilm readers had coin slots on them that required you to pay 50¢ per copy in advance. We weren't prepared for this and had to get some change from the information desk. Due to this, I decided to only print copies of records for direct line ancestors and take photos of records for collateral line ancestors (I'd expected to save records to a flashdrive).
     Going back to pulling the microfim records: a list of all available microfilms were placed in binders. I used the information I'd found in the index and look up the corresponding film in the binders. This wasn't hard, but it wasn't super easy either. The binders were a mess! There were also additional records that did not have a separate film index, so we used the binder to locate them as well.
     We took an hour break for lunch, but otherwise spent six hours researching at the archive. I didn't break down any walls or find any new relatives. Instead, I concentrated on finding supporting documents for the ancestors I already knew. Records included: marriage licenses, wills of three multi-great grandparents, deeds of two multi-great grandparents, mortgage of GG-granfather Witt and the knowledge of what records didn't exist. 

     Next stop: Elmwood Cemetery

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  Also in this series:

1. Tweeting My Trip
2. Visiting the OEDGS at the Tompkins Library
3. [This Post]
4. Visiting Elmwood Cemetery / RestingSpot Review
5. Visiting the Lexington County Museum
6. Visiting the Franklin Memorial Library (Emanuel County, GA)

Tweeting My Trip

     I just got home from a three day (two night) trip to South Carolina for genealogy research. Most of my mom's family is from South Carolina and I wanted to go find original records. I plan to write a few posts about my trip. To start, here are my tweets from my journey:

 Day 1:

#Genealogy trip starts today: 1) Edgefield County Gen Soc Library, 2) GG-Grandparents' graves, 3) @SCArchives, 4) the zoo! 

No one else on this road knows how to drive #roadtrip

#wafflehouse in Augusta, Ga #roadtrip twitpic.com/6nerlr

Welcome to South Carolina! #roadtrip http://twitpic.com/6nfby1

Mom (@rubyacraft) doing #genealogy research at the Edgefield gen society http://twitpic.com/6ngt4t

At hotel now-Didn't really learn much new at Edgefield #genealogy soc library, but did get pic of 5x G-Grandad Dorn's house c1819 #roadtrip

As in, house was built in 1819 #genealogy

Day 2:

Things to remember: load the film rightside up! #genealogy #roadtrip http://twitpic.com/6nt01w

Did expext 2 pay4 copies on microfilm like they are bubblegum #genealogy http://twitpic.com/6ntpmj

@ACoffin Guess i didn't need to bring my flashdrive!

@Smitty327 I'm being overcharged! Didn't expect it, keep having to get change. Which is a good thing!

Found originals of docs I had info on (ie marriage licenses) & some records on index, time for lunch then back to @SCArchives #genealogy

Yay, #genealogy happy dance at the @SCArchives - finding lots of stuff, including my Grandparents' marriage license and wills

I'm supposed to use this to find microfilms @scarchives #genealogy #fail http://twitpic.com/6nx6cu

Day 3:

Went to the zoo, now at the Lexington Co History Museum #genealogy #roadtrip

   
________________
  Also in this series:

1. [This Post]
2. Visiting the OEDGS at the Tompkins Library
3. Visiting the South Carolina Department of Archives and History
4. Visiting Elmwood Cemetery / RestingSpot Review
5. Visiting the Lexington County Museum
6. Visiting the Franklin Memorial Library (Emanuel County, GA)