Chronicling America - SC

Below is a huge announcement for SC researchers. The first SC newspaper is now available on Chronicling America. This is the initiative by the Library Of Congress to digitized newspapers nationwide that are in the public domain. Hopefully, the post title link will take you to a Dead Librarian post that describes this project. The link to the Chronicling America homepage is in the links section of the blog.

The Library of Congress announced on Friday the latest update to Chronicling America. Various titles of the Columbia Phoenix are included in the update. See the links below :)

SC Newspapers in Chronicling America

Columbia phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027004/issues/

Columbia phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027006/issues/

The Columbia daily phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027007/issues/

Tri-weekly phoenix. ([Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1875: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027005/issues/

The daily phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027008/issues/

For My "Lower Richland" peeps

This photo appeared in The State newspaper 4/9/1957. The text attached to the article follows:

HOPKINS STUDENTS VISIT THE STATE
Eighth grade students of Hopkins High School are shown above during a recent tour of the editorial offices, composing room, and press operations of The State. They include, left to right, first row, Z. Rice, J. Washington, U. Rice, H. Stocker, F. Williams, W. Stocker, J. Wilson, E. Rice, A. Richardson and R. Smith. Second row, S. Story, L. Williams, C. Weston, R. Randolph, D. Weston, O. Wilson, W. Sims, B. Taylor, J. Williams. Third row, J. Gish, teacher, E. Young, P. Pearson, R. Washington, W. Washington, J.C. Weston, E. Goodwin, J. Watson, J. McRant, bus driver, and R.E. Pearson, teacher (Staff Photo)

Family Search Pilot Project

Recently a patron e-mailed me and asked about free sources for census information. She had searched all the census info by accessing HeritageQuest with her RCPL library card number. However, she wanted to look at the 1850 census which isn't in HeritageQuest. With complete confidence I told her that the only other free site is Ancestry Library Edition which she could access in the library with her library card. Well, well, well....sometimes the Dead Librarian is a dope.

The dedicated folks at Family Search have started a pilot project to make census records available...free. Right now the census images for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1900 are available for SC. Indexing only is available for 1880 and 1920. Equally remarkable is that they have made available digitized images of the SC Death Certificates (SCDC) from 1915-1943 and SCDC indexing for 1944-1955. These were only available through Ancestry and now they are available to anyone with an internet connection.

Of course, there are images available for other states. Click Browse Our Record Collectionon the main search page for title lists.

This makes me wonder if the library needs to support HeritageQuest anymore. I have been trying to push for Footnote as another genealogy resource but the library is anticipating a possible cut in the budget so I don't expect budgeting approval for that database. However, with this new Family Search resource maybe I could offer a trade. HeritageQuest for Footnote. Many of the resources available on HeritageQuest are now freely available online. Any thoughts?