South Carolina Places-The Camden Archives and Museum

The Camden Archives and Museum is a must place to research if you have Kershaw County or surrounding area ancestors. Information on other South Carolina locations and be assessed there as well. he building is the city's former Carnegie Library, built-in 1915. It's located at  1314 Broad Street/US Highway 521, Camden.  (803) 425-6050.
Hours are posted on the website, but I recommend calling before you arrive.

Camden Archives and Museum
Camden, Kershaw, South Carolina

The Archives

The staff is helpful and will help you with any research questions and help you locate records, books, maps, periodicals, and microfilm that may contain information on your family. I have been able to call ahead and ask for books, files, and other items to be pulled before I arrive.
Hanging files can be requested and brought to the research tables for you to look through and see what information has been collected on Surnames, Organizations, businesses,  history, and other topics. For a list of some of the holdings please click here.

Research Tables

Periodicals

Books from Kershaw County and other Locations

Microfilm Readers

Map Collection

The Museum

Walking through the archives leads to the museum. Permanent and rotating exhibits feature artifacts from all time periods of the area's history.  Since Camden was a major player in the Revolutionary War many of the artifacts come from the Battle of Camden and other locations.
Don't overlook museums in your genealogy research.  The exhibits will give you an idea of what was going on during your ancestor's lifetimes. Photos, clothing, tools, etc, represent what life may have been like for them, or what they may have experienced or known about. Even if they don't belong to your ancestor, we can learn so much by the items in a museum's collection.  Some lucky researchers have found artifacts belonging to their ancestors in exhibits.  The photos below are some of the items on display on my last visit. The Alexander Young shown in one of the photos may have been related to my step-grandfather!

Original Town Clock
Circa 1825

Artifacts from the Battle of Camden 

!844 Wedding Slipper of Lucretia (Douglas) Kershaw

1918 Victrola

Alexander Young Silver Maker Exhibit

The Ross E Beard Gun Collection

For more information about the Camden Archives and Museum use these links: 

YouYube Channel
Facebook Page


The Camden Archives and Museum is a special place to research for me. 
From newspapers, books, hanging files, and city directories, I have found many valuable pieces of information on my family who called the area home.


Have you researched the Archives and visited the Museum?
Please leave a comment and share your experience!

South Carolina Places~The South Carolina Historical Society Archives

Addlestone Library, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina
©Cheri Hudson Passey

Located on the third floor of the College of Charleston's Addlestone Library, is the South Carolina Historical Society Archives. 

Special Collections & South Carolina Historical Society Archives

The Special collection and Archives  Department is a treasure! 
What types of records can you find?
Books, pamphlets, vertical files, manuscripts, photos, and artifacts.

Journals held at within the special collections at the South Carolina Historical Society Archives

The website has a search tool to help to prepare for a visit.  Search in the catalog for your topic, name, or place or look through the list of vertical files. 

Archive information:
Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Address: 205 Calhoon St., Room 351, Charleston, SC 29401
Email:library@schonline.org
Website:https://schistory.org/archives/

Metered parallel parking is available along the side streets and parking garages are a few blocks away.

Entrance to the Special Collections and Archives
©Cheri Hudson Passey

 Once in the library, stairs to the right or an elevator found in the rear can be used to take you to the third floor.  The doors to the Archives stay locked but when the staff sees you waiting to come in they will buzz the door open.  If it's your first time there, you will be asked to sign in. pl
Tables are available to place a laptop, notebooks but you will have to use a free locker to place purses or other bags. You may keep your phone or other scanners with you.

Archival Box of Family Papers
©Cheri Hudson Passey

If you have prepared ahead of time, simply fill out the request form or forms found at the front desk with the file number of the records you need and hand it to a member of the staff. They will retrieve the file or box for you and bring it to the front. It will either be placed on the cart or if not much is going on, bring it to you at your table. You will be asked to only use pencils to fill out the form or when taking notes. This is to stop accidental marking of the records and other materials, Pencils can be found on the front desk.
If you need to access the catalog once there, wifi is available to search from your computer or use the one provided within the archives.

Inside the Archives
©Cheri Hudson Passey

Once you have the items you have requested, and enjoy! Remember to keep a log of what you've requested. Take a photo or scan the unopened file, any papers, documents, or photos inside you need, and then the back of the file. Why the front and the back? It helps you to "bookend" where one file starts and another begins.  It also serves as a way to help you remember where you found each item and craft a source citation. Do the same with books and file boxes.

Make sure you take the time when you return home to go back over all the things you discovered on your research trip! Transcribe, analyze, and input the data into your tree.
Did your visit help you to answer a research question? What do you need to do next?

Special collections like those found at the South Carolina Historical Society Archives are repositories for unique records found nowhere else.

Have you taken advantage of this or other special collections? What have you found?

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!

You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 
Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.

My Happy Dance Moment for this week: 
One thing I love is to discover a new record set.
This week while researching in the South Carolina Historical Society Archives in Charleston, South Carolina,  I did just that.
While looking through the catalog for possible collections that might help me with both client and personal research, I found Military Enlistment Records for the Civil War.
These documents are the actual form a soldier would fill out-or if he couldn't write have someone else do it for him.
The interesting thing about the document is that it asked for a description of the soldier, where he was born and how old he was at the time of enlistment.
Imagine if one of these was included for your ancestor! You would know what he looked like, where he was born and when.
The forms asked for specifics, so, if they were foreign born there is the county and the city or town.  If born in the U.S. then the state and city or town were recorded.
This collection includes a small portion of the men who enlisted from South Carolina, most from the Charleston area, North Carolina and Georgia.
Did I find something for my ancestors? No, but I was doing the happy dance as I read through this amazing collection and thought about the descendants who just might!

What is your happy dance moment for this week?
  

                                                                               

                                                                                              Share your discovery!

                                                                                  
                                                                                         Let the dancing commence!

Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 

Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!

You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 
Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.

My Happy Dance this week:
Original records are every researcher's preferred source. This week I was able to visit the South Carolina Historical Society Archive in Charleston and hold letters, diaries, land plats and other historical documents in their manuscript collections.
Unfortunately, due to to the social media policy, publishing photos of these materials is not allowed by the archives. Pictures are allowed for personal use. 
There's nothing like the touch and smell of old records to make you do the happy dance!

What had you dancing this week?
                                                                                 

                                                                                              Share your discovery!

                                                                                  
                                                                                         Let the dancing commence!

Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 

Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

South Carolina Places-The Horry County Archives Center

South Carolina is beautiful and full of history. 
This series highlights places around the state where you can go to learn, experience and research.

The Horry County Archives Center

The Horry County Archives Center is located on the second floor of the Kimbal Library on the campus of Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina.

Kimbal Library, CCU, Conway, South Carolina

 Although not a big room, but it has many items to help those whose ancestors were from the area. 
It's mission is to preserve the history of Horry and surroundng counties that once belonged to the old Georgetown District.  

The center has a research room that is open to both students and visitors .
There are no rules for what you can bring into the center. Only a reminder it is part of the library deemed a "Quiet Area". 
It is a self serve center with no staff working directly out of the room to help you with your research. 
Students and others may be using the room for research or study. 







There are microfilms containing land records available to view on newer microfilm machines. Currently there are two readers with attatched printers.

List of microfilms held at the Horry County Archives Center

Books on the history of the county, cemetery surveys, family compilations, military involment and others are on the shelves. There are also video interviews from local historians and experts on the area. 

An ongoing digitization program, including newspapers, can be found by clicking here.

The address for the Kimbal library is 376 University Blvd, Conway, SC 29526, A visitor parking pass is required for those who are not students or faculity. Like most college campases parking can be hard to find and far from the ubilding.  The center is open during normal library hours. 
For information about directions, parking and hours click here.

For more information visit The Horry County Archives Center website.

Do you have Horry County ancestors? I would love to hear about them!
Researched in the Horry County Archives Center? Share your discoveries!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

Tuesday's Tip~Gettin' By with Help from Our Friends~Toni Carrier

This time our Tuesday's Tip comes from Toni Carrier of  Lowcountry Africana:

6 Tips for Researching in Archives

Toni Carrier

1.      Don’t overlook archival resources in your family research. Family papers and other unpublished manuscripts may hold treasures for your research!

2.      Use ArchiveGrid (www.archivegrid.org) to locate manuscript collections of interest.

3.      Before traveling to an archive, contact the archivist to give them your visit dates, and tell them what you are researching. Archivists know their collections well and can point you to collections that may be of interest to you.

4.      If the archive’s catalog is online, do some searching ahead of your trip to identify collections you would like to view so you can make the most of your research time when you arrive.

5.      Be aware that archives may have restrictions on what you can take into the research room. You may be asked to leave other belongings in lockers onsite.

6.      Always handle archival materials carefully. Have fun and happy ancestor hunting!

Toni Carrier, M.A., is the founding director of Lowcountry Africana (www.lowcountryafricana.com), a free website dedicated to African American genealogy and history in SC, GA and FL, and co-founder, with Angela Walton Raji, of Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau (www.mappingthefreedmensbureau.com), an online finding aid for researching in Freedmen's Bureau records.

Thanks for these terrific tips on researching in the archives, Toni! Time for another research trip!

Are we kin? Need help with your research? Please contact me.

Together we can find our people.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!

You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. This can be done by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section. You may also put a link to a blog post.

                                                                 

My Happy Dance This Week: Spending four days at two archives, attending a genealogy workshop where I met old friends and made new ones is something to celebrate! 
I am exhausted but still doing that Happy Dance!

                                                                                           Share your discovery!

                                                                                   Let the dancing commence!

Are we kin? Need help with your research? Please contact me.
Together we can find our people.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby!-Searching Original Records

 Recently I was able to spend a couple of days at the South Carolina State Archives in Columbia. I wanted to search through Civil War Pension Records.The SC Archives has done, and continues to do a wonderful job digitizing records and has many Widows Pensions to view on their website. I had  previously searched this on line data base for my ancestors and had found two.Knowing that I had others who had served in the War from South Carolina, I decided that I would look to see what additional records may be in the Archives.
  My first search of the Index for Sumter County, SC Pension Rolls led me to a Pension Roll Book that had the name of my 3rd Great Grandfather Alpheus J. Baker (1824-1917). It showed that he was living in Bishopville, SC and received  a pension payment on 17 Feb. 1901 for his service in White's Battalion for "service until surrender".

                                               

1901 Sumter County,SC Pension Roll Book
Picture of original held by the SC State Archives

    Next, I wanted to look at the microfilm for the Lee County, SC Pension Roll records. Lee County was formed from a part of Sumter County in 1902. Bishopville had become a part of Lee County so Alpheus should be in these lists.

 When I went to get the microfilm it wasn't there. Turns out that some one else was using it. I was told that the original papers would be pulled for me instead!

 Yes! Originals! 

What I was brought was a file box with the Pension Rolls from Lee County, SC 1909-1919.

   Each year had an envelope that contained the Pension Roll papers plus letters. Handwritten or typed letters were in almost everyone. The letters were statements as to the standing of a person receiving or who had been denied a pension. Some were asking that their pension monies be given to various people to bring to them since they couldn't come themselves, or asking the Pension Board to look into their case again. 

 One of the best ones I saw was this typed note from 1914 that includes the name of my 3rd Great Grandfather's sister Julia Dorrity Byd. Julia was receiving a Widow's Pension in behalf of her deceased husband, James Byrd.   

1914 Letter to Comt. Gen, Columbia, SC from R.H. Singletary
 Picture of original held by the South Carolina State Archives

      On the bottom is says:

 " Please let me have a check for Mrs. H.J. Goodman, Mrs. Mary Deas, and Mrs. Julia A. Byrd, who are on my list as dead and who are still living as these people are worrying the life out of me about it,

                                                               Yours truly,

                                                                   R. H. Singletary"

           

  I hope this got cleared up quickly so that Mr. Singletary could get some peace!

 If I had looked at the microfilm would I have seen this or any of the other letters? Would I have just scrolled through until I found the right place and name? Were the letters microfilmed along with the Pension Rolls? I don't know but I do know that there is great value in looking at the original. How fun it would have been to find a handwritten letter signed by someone in my family tree!

 There is nothing like holding an original record created by or for your ancestor. I am so glad that the microfilm that I needed was being used that day.The next time I have a choice between a copy or the original I will ask for the real thing!

©Cheri Hudson Passey