I am so sorry to hear about your experience at the Archives. It must be because they have had their hours and their staff cut drastically. I have been there many times and it has always been pleasant and rewarding for me. Mickey > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 9:51 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [SC] Visits to Counties > > > I also sing the praises of the Edgefield County Library. The staff there > were wonderful to me. They will never know how much I appreciated their > help and pleasant smiles after leaving the South Carolina Archives in > Columbia. On two different occasions, I traveled over 3000 miles round > trip to do research in the Archives. I went there with high hopes and > came away empty-handed & in tears. I spent more time standing in line > waiting for staff to answer my questions on how to search through the > catalogs to locate the correct microfilm and then set up the machines to > read the films than I did actually getting to scan the microfilm > documents. After I finally got them threaded into the machines, things > went better. I have arthritis in my hands and had extreme difficulty > threading them. I also spent $$$$ trying to copy the microfilm and ended > up with black pages and very few productive prints. So you can see, I > didn't know what I was doing and I have a feeling that a lot of folks who > go there have the same problems. The archives are wonderful for those > who are smart enough to operate the system and have good coordination. > My choice is to go to the small County libraries. I found valuable > information in them. Keep up the good work Edgefield ladies & God bless > you. Martha > Some thoughts that came to my mind that I have learned in my research of > Edgefield Co after reading an exchange between Freda and Helen (following > my > message) > > 1) I have found most of the records of Edgefield Co. (and all of the > other > counties I presume) have been microfilmed and are located at the state > archives. If you have multiple folks to look for in several areas, you > can > find them all in one stop shopping at the state archives. > > 2) Don't restrict yourself to the Will books. They give the will only > and do > NOT include the accountings, the petitions against the estate etc that > provide > wonderful clues as to the relationships of others in the family. > Especially if > there were two marriages and two sets of children. Wills books make nice > copies of the info, but just don't provide all that you need. I make my > transcriptions from the original containing all the accountings and often > find > that they are not the same when read in their entirity as they are in the > Abstracts of Wills found in several books. Study it all and make your > own > conclusion as to the meaning of the info. Also if possible, get probate > records > for several members of the connecting families.... you will often find > surnames > and married names of the women in the family that way. > > 3) Microfilm Index at the state Archives called Probate Records gives > wills > AND administrative box and package numbers, and then you get the film > that has > them on it and see everything that was in the box when filmed. This will > provide so much more than the will, and lots more if there was an > administration with no will. > > 4) Don't forget equity records - I love it when someone I am looking for > got > into a dispute with someone else, or made a petition for a portion due to > a > child of a deceased child. At the State archives these are all in the > same > area. Don't know where they are in Edgefield. Good place to start is > with > Carol Well's abstracts. > > 5) You will NOT get the tenderloving care and help at the State Archives > that > you will get at Edgefield. I have not researched in Laurens, but most of > the > smaller individual libraries or archives have always provided me with a > more > personal touch. Unlike the Edgefield Tompkins library, some of the > others are > not very knowledgable, but that is certainly NOT true in Edgefield. > Tonya and > volunteers are very capable of helping folks on their research. Plus > they know > the area, the churches, the cemeteries, and the old families. > > 6) the Last time I tried to work on probate records in Edgefield, the > probate > judge was refusing to let anyone in. Don't know if what ever problem set > him > off at that time is resolved or not. > > 7. Tompkins library at Edgefield has lots of family files that have been > sent > in by others. Like you and I they are bound to contain errors, but they > are a > start. You will not find any such records like these on the state level > that I > have ever seen. > > I am sure that there are other things I should think of to put in here, > but > those are the ones that come to my mind quickly. Hope they help someone. > > Billie Jones > Camden, SC > [email protected] > > > > > ==== SC-Genealogy Mailing List ==== > Virus warnings are not welcome on this list. > Remember when writing a query, to always put in DATES & LOCATIONS > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >