Collections of history joined: Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS Hartsville Genealogical Research Library moves to the Darlington County Historical Commission

Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS - Hartsville Genealogical Research Library collection moving to the Darlington County Historical Commission. As photographed on Friday, August 19, Johnny Andrews was making trips from the Depot to the Commission of the over 2,500 books in the collection.       Photo by Jana E. Pye

Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS – Hartsville Genealogical Research Library collection moving to the Darlington County Historical Commission. As photographed on Friday, August 19, Johnny Andrews was making trips from the Depot to the Commission of the over 2,500 books in the collection.
Photo by Jana E. Pye

By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net

Historians and individuals tracing their family genealogy will now have one location in Darlington County to do their research, as the collection of the Old Darlington District Chapter (ODCC) of the South Carolina Genealogical Society is currently moving their extensive genealogical research library contents to the Darlington County Historical Commission.

The need for the move caught members of the ODDC by surprise earlier this summer when they were told the building they had rented from the City of Hartsville for nearly 20 years – the Hartsville Depot building on South Fourth Street – had been sold.

As volunteers scrambled to box up and prepare to move the contents, a search for a suitable location seemed futile, until the Commission’s Director Brian Gandy and the Board of Directors let the ODCC know last week that space would be made for them – to bring their collection to merge the two together.

“My hat’s off to the Historical Commission staff, their board of directors and Brian Gandy,” said Johnny Andrews, ODCC Vice President and author of their quarterly news the “Darlington Flag.” “We didn’t know where we were going until Monday.”

Johnny Andrews with some of the many boxes he's brought from the Hartsville Depot inside the Darlington County Historical Commission. Photo by Jana E. Pye

Johnny Andrews with some of the many boxes he’s brought from the Hartsville Depot inside the Darlington County Historical Commission.
Photo by Jana E. Pye

A flurry of activity is occurring inside the Commission as they merge, with stacks of books waiting to be shelved along office and hallway walls waiting to be shelved.

Director Brian Gandy shared that the move will necessitate patience from the citizens of Darlington County.

“This HUGE collection will be assessed into the collections at the Commission over the next three weeks,” said Gandy. “We are asking citizens to be understanding of this situation. To house this collection, we are literally going to realign our entire collection, and in many cases move whole collections between floors.”

Photo by Jana E. Pye

Photo by Jana E. Pye

He and Andrews both expressed nostalgia over the move, although it will be a more permanent home for the collection.

“This is a bittersweet transition. It will offer genealogist and historical enthusiast a one stop shop for research, yet Hartsville is saying goodbye to a true institution. This transition will allow the ODDC to do what they have proven themselves best at – serving as a genealogical advocate, focusing on cemetery awareness, preservation and conservation.” said Gandy. “We must remember that it was the efforts of the ODDC that brought about the Darlington County Cemetery Survey and preserved this vital record.”

(View list of Hartsville Genealogical Research Library collections at end of this article.)

Andrews expressed high praise for the work that the Gandy’s had done with the Historical Commission.

“Brian and his mother (former director Doris Gandy) have done really good job cataloguing what is here.” said Andrews. “Mr. Rudisell did a good job gathering it all together, but no one knew what was here. Brian has composed lists of his collection, and when we brought in these books, we took a picture of the title page and uploaded them to Google Drive we know exactly what we have got. Hopefully that catalogue will go live on line so people will know what we have. If you don’t know what is available, you don’t know what to ask for …that is one of the issues we had for so long but with Doris and Brian they have opened it up.”

The massive collection contains one that may be of interest to genealogists all over the state of South Carolina, the Skinner Cards.

“John Carroll Skinner was my mentor,” said Andrews. “When I went to USC Graduate School I met him. He had Darlington County roots, his mother was an Andrews. We got together and went to the archives all the time. He was a professional genealogist; back then, he took big index cards and he would transcribe thousands of things.”

Skinner never married; after his death, his brothers and sisters moved everything to a barn in Bishopville, and at the urging of Andrews the family donated the entire collection.
Since that time, the cards have been photocopied and sent to people across the country seeking information on their family surnames – from not only the Pee Dee Area families, but from those across the South Carolina.

“We have a cabinets full of his work,” said Andrews. “When he died, he was working on proving a chain of title for Hobcaw Barony in the Low Country. There was a destruction of records because of wars and those things and he was trying to put together some information on the chain of title propriety times to the present. We have that, too. There are a lot of niches of things that are interesting for folks.”

The Commission will operate under a “soft open” status for a period of three weeks during the transition; the Commission will not be offering research space in the building, but will pull any governmental records needed by appointment by calling 843-398-4710 or via email at dchc@darcosc.net with request for records and documents.

Save the Dates

The Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS Workshop on Saturday, September 24th at the Darlington County Historical Commission. An “Antiques Road Show” type workshop to bring in documents and photographs to be examined, and may be scanned or donated to the permanent collection. Contact the Historical Commision to make an appointment.

The Darlington County Historical Society Annual Fall Meeting for members will be October 20 at Mr. B’s in Lydia, 6:00 P.M., $12.00 a person. Mr. Kevin Fogle will be speaking on Witherspoon Island.

Visit websites for more information:
Darlington County Historical Commission Blog
Darlington County Historical Commission main page
Facebook: DarlingtonCHC
Old Darlington District Chapter of The South Carolina Genealogical Society
Facebook: Old Darlington District Chapter, SCGS

Darlington County Historical Commission located at 204 Hewitt St, Darlington and is open Mon. – Fri. 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. 843-398-4710, email: DCHC@darcosc.com

Hartsville Genealogical Research Library collections include:

Family Name Files: Thousands of family surname files, including an extensive collection of African – American funeral programs from the Hartsville community (contained within surname folders)

Shirley T. Burford Collection: Various states with a concentration of S.C. & N.C. materials.

Carrie Lee Kalber Collection: Extensive collection from Beaufort County, S.C. including the Erwin, Lawton, and Allied Families. These families have a Hartsville connection.

Edwin Lavin Large, Jr. Collection: Records of the Large, Hendrix, Reynolds and Allied families and family research and photograph collections

Jill King Lyles Collection: Welsh Neck Baptist Association records, 1730’s – 1990’s including extensive research on Gum Branch Baptist Church, established 1789, Darlington County, S.C.

Daniel Moses Collection: African American photograph collection.

John Carroll Skinner Collection: Thousands of genealogical files from all areas of S.C. including research on Hobcaw Barony, and a collection of genealogical index cards containing over 3,000 families and topics from the Pee Dee area and all over South Carolina. This collection also includes an extensive research done on legal pads.

Carson Steen Collection: Hartsville oral history collection.

Jeannine W. Talwar Genealogical Collection: Extensive collection which covers the Keith and Weatherford families of the Pee Dee area of S.C.

Doris G. Gandy Chesterfield Surname Collection and the Marie G. Wiggins Chesterfield Genealogical Collection: Both collections are the result of decades of research into hundreds of Chesterfield County families by these two talented researchers. These collections are important given the extensive loss of Chesterfield Records during the Civil War.

Series of Civil War Letters from Alexander F. Byrd (Co. E, 6th SC Volunteers) to his wife.

Books:
An estimated 2500 books covering South Carolina history and genealogy as well as history and genealogy across the South Eastern United States.

Microfilm/Microfiche:
Extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche

Maps:
Extensive collection of maps

Author: Jana Pye

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