Chronicling America Has Newspapers from Abbeville and Yorkville 1880-1887 Which Document My Great-Great Grandfather
Chronicling America has historical newspapers. It is an internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. In the basic search you can choose to search the entire archive or choose a state or...
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Has FamilySearch Digitized the Records You Need? Here’s How to Check
FamilySearch recently announced that they had added the 2 billionth record to their free online databases of digitized historical documents. The records giant currently adds over 300 million new images a year to their online holdings. A world of free resources for...
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Look for Tax Records to Help You Identify More About Your South Carolina Ancestor
Tax records help us reveal more about an ancestor, especially in between census years. When you cannot find an ancestor in the census or when records are scarce, try tax records to prove residence or if an ancestor was over 21. To find tax records for South Carolina...
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Use Tax Records to Document Your Ancestor or the Enslaver in South Carolina
If you have never searched tax records when looking for an ancestor, it is a great place to start when trying to fill in details about your ancestor. The census tracks a person every ten years from 1790 to 1940 with the exception of the 1890 US Census which was almost...
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Probate Records Can Help You Determine Ancestors
We have been identifying the family of Cora Lee Chappelle Vance (1894-1986) who was married to Andrew Lykes Vance (1890-1966). Jan Mitchell-McDermott has once again found the documentation that takes us further back in time. We now have records that reveal her father...
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African American Genealogy: Look Carefully for Clues on the Census That Will Help You Trace Back
We have been looking for George Chappelle ( -1925) in pre-1870 documentation. If you read last week’s post "Can Historical Newspapers Help Me Determine My Freedman Ancestors?" you will remember how Jan Mitchell-McDermott has been helping me find records for the...
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Can Historical Newspapers Help Me Determine My Freedman Ancestors?
This blog will show you three things: You must do the necessary research to reach back to the pre-1870’s. You must research each person you find to get to know them and find the link back. You must look at whatever types of records exist for each person. In this...
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Finding Ancestors and Enslavers in SC Agricultural Non-Population Schedules
You can search the US, Selected Federal Non-Population Schedules 1850-1880 at Ancestry.com to locate your ancestor or the people who enslaved your family. It is a good idea to first search them out on the 1880 and 1870 Censuses to get an idea who would be listed on...
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Finding Ancestors on the 1869 State Census for South Carolina
The 1869 South Carolina State Population Census is available on FamilySearch.org. It was the first census taken that lists African Americans. This index lists the number of children from 6 to 16 by race and gender, number of males over 21 by race, and number of...
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African American Genealogy: Was Your Male Ancestor Listed in the South Carolina 1869 Militia Enrollments?
South Carolina has 1869 Militia Enrollments for males 30 to 45. You can see if your ancestor was listed among the other males who were in the militia. The series is arranged alphabetically, by township, by age group, and alphabetically by first letter of the last...
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African American Genealogy: Have You Located Your Freedman’s Grave?
Have You Researched the Freedmen’s Cemetery? Calvin Vance (1879-1940), son of Beverly Vance (1832-1899), was living at home at the time of Beverly’s death. He had died the year before the 1900 Census in 1899: Beverly’s place of burial has become a lifelong...
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Did Your Ancestor Serve in the United States Colored Troops (USCT)? Here’s How to Find Out
More than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War, comprising one-tenth of all Union troops by the war's end. Their service contributed greatly to the Union's war efforts and marked a turning...
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Find Millions of Free FamilySearch Records for Your Area of Research Interest
FamilySearch has digitized hundreds of record collections that are freely available online. Some digitized collections are indexed and searchable, while others are not. Indexed collections can be searched, while unindexed collections (labeled "Browse...
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Reconstruction Era Voting Records: Search for Your Ancestors in Senate Testimonies
US Senate Testimonies: Beverly Vance (1832-1899) Testified Before Robert Smalls, and Others More Ways to Document Your Ancestors in Voting Records After publishing "Look for Your Ancestor in South Carolina Voting Records", we were notified that Kershaw County has...
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Look for Your Ancestor in South Carolina Voting Records
For the next few blog posts, we will focus on how you might be able to identify your ancestors in resources generated between 1865 to 1876. If you remember, last week we found research avenues in “Identifying Research Avenues for Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance,...
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Identifying Research Avenues for Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance, (1861-1952)
Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861-1952), born to Beverly and Matilda Dunlap Vance in Abbeville County, South Carolina, is my great grandfather. I have been trying to document him. I did not realize I would finding an article still mentioning him in 1979: ...
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First Baptist Church and a Vertical File Provide Further Documentation of Clarence Adam Chick (1896-1966) and His Wife
My husband and I went to Watch Night like we had planned after I found out about First Baptist hosting one, when I posted "Documenting the Newspaper Obituary of Dr. Clarence Adam Chick (1896-1966)" I also checked the vertical file in the Cumberland County Library...
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Documenting the Newspaper Obituary, Dr. Clarence Adam Chick (1896-1966)
When I sat down at the microfilm reader at Cumberland County Library Local & State History where I would look for the obituary of Clarence Adam Chick (1896-1966), I had no idea what I would find. I imagined I would find a brief recollection that he existed, not an...
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African American Genealogy: Comparing City Directory Resources
My great uncle, Clarence Adam Chick was born in Union County, South Carolina in 1896. I first discovered him on the 1900 US Census with his father and mother and siblings. He was younger brother to my great grandmother, Daisy B. Chick (Tucker). The family moved to...
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African American Genealogy: Finding Clarence and Helen Chick
In “Our Fathers’ Fields – A Southern Story Tells Part of the Story,” we showed how Elizabeth had my 2nd great grandfather, Anderson Chick, and a appeared on the 1870 US Census in Goshen Hill, Union County, South Carolina as 11 years old. By 1900, he was 40 years old,...
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AncestryDNA Ethnicity and DNA Relatives
I had submitted a DNA sample to 23andMe years ago, and I again in August 2017 wanted to submit my DNA to be tested by AncestryDNA. With the DNA cousin matches on Ancestry.com, I can answer some of the questions about missing ancestors. I know that with all the family...
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Finding Ancestors in Bible Records
Not too long ago it was very common for families to keep Bibles where they recorded basic information about family members such as births, marriages, deaths, and religious ceremonies such as christenings and baptisms. It is good to know about this tradition of...
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Our Fathers’ Fields – A Southern Story Tells Part of the Story
Our Father’ Fields: A Southern Story by James Everett Kibler, University of Georgia English professor, came to life in Newberry County, South Carolina. An antique pen came out from where it was stuck behind the mantel during a storm, and led eventually to the telling...
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Revisiting GenealogyBank
It has been several years since I tried finding ancestors on GenealogyBank.com, but I just recently was surprised to come across My Folder as well as a couple of articles I had never seen before. It prompted me to start a new subscription, and do some searching. My...
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More Substitutes for Birth Records in South Carolina
Because we know identifying an ancestor's birth can be a challenge, we are sharing more records that you can use as substitute to vital records. See Substitute Records for Births in South Carolina to catch up with the resources we have already shared. Cemeteries...
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