Genealogy Travel: Orangeburg County, South Carolina

I was at the beach in South Carolina for two weeks enjoying the sunrises, walking on the beach, grilling on the deck and relaxing. But I was haunted by the proximity of libraries. My family was here in the early days, before South Carolina was a state.

So I tore myself away from the ocean for an afternoon and drove to Orangeburg County for a visit to the library. My Ott branch had lived in the county beginning c 1738. I also planned to look for Brumfields & Browns who lived nearby.

The library is at 510 Louis street. The website says: “Local History & Genealogy. An extensive collection of these materials is available at the Orangeburg County Library. In addition, we also provide access to online tools such as ProQuest's Ancestry.com utility.” I emailed the library to discover which of the library’s branches had these materials. They quickly replied that I wanted to visit the main branch at 510 Louis Street, Orangeburg, SC 29115.

I had no trouble finding the library. Inside the large library there is a glass enclosed area that houses the genealogy & history materials. I spoke to a librarian who gave me a quick tour of the materials there. He also checked on the library’s system to see if there were any books on the Ott family. He said there were not. I found out later that he was wrong.

I settled in and looked through each shelf of books in the room. I checked county histories, cemetery books, books of marriage records, books of pension lists, etc.

I found several useful items for the Brown family:

· 1850 Federal Census Index; Orangeburg County, South Carolina.
· Clemens, William Montgomery. North and south Carolina Marriage Records from the Earliest Colonial Days to the Civil War. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1927.
· Jarrell, Lawrence E. Early Orangeburgh South Carolina Census. High Point, North Carolina: Alligator Creek Publications, 1998.
· Teeples, G. Ronald, Ronald Vern Jackson, and Richard Moore. South Carolina 1800 Census. Provo, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1973.

I found this for the Brumfield family:

· Houston, Martha Lou. Indexes to the County Wills of South Carolina. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970.

I also found items for the Ott family:
· 1850 Federal Census Index; Orangeburg County, South Carolina.
· Calhoun County Historical Commission, United States Heads of Families of the First Census Taken in 1790. St. Matthews, South Carolina: Orangeburg County Free Library, 1954.
· Clemens, William Montgomery. North and south Carolina Marriage Records from the Earliest Colonial Days to the Civil War. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1927.
· Jarrell, Lawrence E. Early Orangeburgh South Carolina Census. High Point, North Carolina: Alligator Creek Publications, 1998.
· Jarrell, Lawrence E. 1820 Orangeburgh South Carolina Census. High Point, North Carolina: Alligator Creek Publications, 1998.
· Miller, Floyd W., and Peggy Ann Easterling. 1860 South Carolina Census; Orangeburg District.
· Sally, Jr., A. S. The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina; From Its Settlement to the Close of the Revolutionary War. Orangeburg, S. C. : R. Lewis Berry, Printer, 1898.
· Teeples, G. Ronald, Ronald Vern Jackson, and Richard Moore. South Carolina 1800 Census. Provo, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1973.

I copied many pages of these books to examine closely later. I was getting anxious to get back to the beach but did not want to leave and miss anything important. I scanned the shelves again. The last book I found was:

Ott, Leo E. Us Ott's [sic]: The Search for Our Family. Privately Printed.

This book focuses on my Ott family, beginning in the 1300s. However there are few sources to document anything inside. There are not page numbers, making it difficult to navigate and the order of people mentioned is random. I copied some pages and plan to look at it more carefully. The author would like people with connections with the family to contact him and I would enjoy doing that but no contact information is given.

I’m glad I took the time away from the beach to do some research.