MarinGenSoc-L Archives

From: "Gene Pennington" <>
Subject: [MarinGenSoc] South Carolina African American Records to BePublished Online
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:56:59 -0800

Another great article from Dick Eastman's genealogy blog. Enjoy.



Gene Pennington
MCGS Webmaster, CIG & TMG User Group
http://www.maringensoc.org
MCGS Blog: http://maringensoc.blogspot.com/



============================================================================
=====


February 23, 2009

South Carolina African American Records to Be Published Online

The following announcement was written by Lowcountry Africana and The South
Carolina Department of Archives and History:

Lowcountry Africana and The South Carolina Department of Archives and
History today announced plans to digitize and publish freely online more
than 25,000 historic documents of interest to researchers of African
American genealogy and history.

Under the new agreement, Colonial and Charleston, South Carolina estate
inventories dated 1732-1867 will be digitized and indexed in detail,
including the names of more than 30,000 slaves. Inventories of estates in
early South Carolina probate records often listed slaves in family
groupings. They also detail the material possessions so important for
researchers of social and cultural history. "South Carolina has one of the
richest sets of early government records of any of the original states,"
said Charles Lesser, Senior Archivist at the South Carolina Department of
Archives and History." This new cooperative effort will revolutionize access
to an especially important segment of those records," concluded Lesser.


More than 14,000 South Carolina bills of sale, most of them bills of sale
for slaves, will also be digitized for online viewing. These documents,
dating from 1773 to 1872, are already indexed on the South Carolina Archives
website but have not yet been digitized.

"Digitizing these records will open new avenues for African American
genealogy research by forming, in many cases, a seamless paper trail from
Emancipation to the 1700's," said Toni Carrier, Founding Director of
Lowcountry Africana. "And Charleston's role as a port of entry during the
Atlantic Slave Trade means that many thousands of African Americans have at
least one ancestor who came from, or through, South Carolina."

When complete, the index and digital images of the documents will be
available for free on Lowcountry Africana (www.lowcountryafricana.com), and
within the On-line Records Index for the South Carolina Department of
Archives and History (www.archivesindex.sc.gov).

Anyone may volunteer to help index the records by visiting
www.afriquest.com, Lowcountry Africana's new, central Internet home for free
records of African American genealogy and history. Afriquest will officially
launch at the end of February but volunteers may sign up now to participate.

Copies of the microfilms of the original historic documents were donated by
FamilySearch International.

For further information, please contact Toni Carrier at
.


About the South Carolina Department of Archives and History

The Department of Archives and History is the official repository for South
Carolina's state and local government records. Their Online Records Index
already provides free index access to over 300,000 documents and digital
images of some 100,000 pages of South Carolina public records.


About Lowcountry Africana

Lowcountry Africana is an all-volunteer research project and free website
devoted to the family and cultural history of African Americans in the
rice-growing areas of South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida;
home to the rich Gullah-Geechee cultural heritage. The Magnolia Plantation
Foundation of Charleston, SC sponsored the development of Lowcountry
Africana. Their new Afriquest database will be international in scope and
will be a free, central Internet database of records of African American
genealogy and history. Afriquest will officially launch the February 28,
2009.


About FamilySearch International

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the
world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services
to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit,
FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing
genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a
nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Patrons can access FamilySearch services and resources free online
at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,500 family history centers in 70
countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City,
Utah.


End

This thread:

• [MarinGenSoc] South Carolina African American Records to BePublished Online by "Gene Pennington" <>