What's New On The Union County SC Genealogy Home Page !!! What's New On The Union County SC Genealogy Home Page !!!
Greetings, fellow and sister Union County SC genealogy researchers!! Thank you for visiting the Union County, South Carolina Genealogy Home Page, and for participating so enthusiastically. So far, we have had more than visitors (including multiple visits by the same person) since August 25, 1996!!!
HOT OFF THE PRESSES!!
Here are some of the newest features of the Union County, SC Genealogy Home Page!!
More Than 400 Queries Have Been Archived
More than 400 Union County-related queries from 1997 and 1998 have been alphabetized and archived. Each query that is submitted using the automated query form appears on a the temporary New Query Page shortly after being posted, where it remains until being archived. The archived queries and automated query form can be accessed from the Main Union County Query Page.
Books For Sale Related to Union County, SC
In response to an inquiry by one of our visitors, there is now a new area of the web page which lists Books For Sale Related to Union County, SC, and provides information about how to order them. This page is being provided to assist researchers in obtaining more information about their ancestors. Please click here if you know of other books for sale that are directly related to Union County, SC which should be included on this web page!
Union County Researchers' Roundtable
TheUnion County, SC Researchers' Roundtable enables visitors to this web page can participate in "virtual discussions" on topics that are relevant to Union County research. The new discussion topic is: Union County Place Names and Locations.
1860 Union County Slave Census Index
One of the most challenging aspects of Union County genealogical research involves tracing African-American families prior to the 1870 Federal Census (the first time that all Union County residents were listed by name), which often requires identifying the former slaveowner. To assist researchers, I am developing an alphabetical index of slaveholders who were listed in the 1860 Union County, SC Slave Census. When complete, the index will include the number of slaves owned, number of slave houses, and page number for each slaveowner. In the interim, I am posting a preliminary alphabetical list of the slaveholders that can be previewed by clicking here
Union County Place Names
Union County Place Names includes an alphabetical list of various towns, churches, cemeteries, schools, rivers, and other places that are located in present day Union County.
UNION COUNTY HISTORICAL FOUNDATION MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
According to the December 1996 Union County Historical Foundation Newsletter, the Foundation -- which has been instrumental in helping to preserve the history and genealogy of Union County, SC -- needs more members and workers. The newsletter states that "The 'old guard' is passing, and a new generation must take up the labor, or else the Foundation will become a mere paper organization, as happened in the 1960's." For more information about the Foundation, go to the Genealogical Societies page.
UNION COUNTY CENSUS INDEXES ON-LINE!!!
Thanks to the efforts of Paul Sarrett, Jr. and Beverly Floyd Abdullah, several Union County Federal census indexes are now on-line!! Be sure to let them know how much we appreciate all of their hard work! :-)
Head-of-Household indexes are now available to be viewed and/or downloaded for the following years: 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1870, 1880, 1920. Links to these indexes have been placed on the Union County, SC Resources page. Does anyone have, or is anyone willing to transcribe census indexes for the missing years?? Also, don't forget to visit the South Carolina GenWeb Archives to see what information is available for other counties.
NEIGHBORING COUNTIES ON-LINE!!!
Many of Union County's neighboring counties are now hosted, and have home pages with extensive information that is useful to researchers. Since many Union County families may also have connections in neighboring counties, links to the following hosted county home pages have been placed on the Links Page: Cherokee, Spartanburg, York, Newberry, Laurens, Chester, and Fairfield.
EARLY UNION COUNTY SETTLEMENTS AND FAMILIES I have compiled some background information about early Union County settlements and families which can be accessed through the About Union County section of the main page. Areas covered include: Brown's Creek, Tinkers' Creek, Fish Dam, Tyger River, Cross Keys, Fairforest, Dining Creek / Padgett's Creek, Pacolet River / Grindal Shoals, and Gilkey's Creek. There is also a section about early Quaker families in Union County.
SURNAME REGISTRY
There are many new Union County Surnames that have been submitted!! I am in the process of automating the surname submission process so that the information can be displayed more quickly. Don't forget to take a peek! :-)
NEW WEB PAGE LINKS Watch for new links on the Links Page!! I have found several interesting new web pages!! I have also updated the links for several of the SCGenWeb Project pages.
COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND LOOKUP VOLUNTEERS
There has recently been a lot of discussion within the on-line genealogy community regarding copyright issues, particularly as it relates to sharing information and lookup volunteers. As a result, John Rigdon, the US GenWeb Coordinator has decided that lookup volunteers should not be posted on US GenWeb pages without first receiving permission from the authors. Thus, I have removed the names of most of the lookup volunteers from the resources page until we can obtain permission from the authors. Click here for more information about the US GenWeb copyright policy.
Ongoing focuses for web page improvements include:
Happy hunting!!!
Sincerely,
Audrey McDowell, Union County SCGenWeb Project Coordinator
This page is maintained by Audrey McDowell / unionscgen@aol.com