Researching at the Charleston County Public Library

When asking folks on various lists about their favorite Charleston
research places, nearly everyone had the Charleston County Public
Library on Calhoun Street at or near the top of their list.

It is easy to see why.

This facility, which is relatively newly built, clearly had researchers
such as our group in mind.  With a few minor improvements, it ranks up
there in some of my all-time favorite spots.

But first, I should point out that the three places where I researched
in Charleston--the Huguenot Society, the SC Historical Society, and the
Public Library--were each excellent in its own way, and the utility of
each of course really depends upon the type of research you need to do.

But for comfort, cost, hours, and user-friendliness, it is hard to beat
the Charleston County Public Library.

I did not ask for nor search for any information on any manuscript or
rare documents that this library might have, so I cannot comment on this
area.  But I would imagine that the other two facilities are more the
type to have such documents, and for me, I had more than enough to do at
the Public Library before even considering digging any deeper.

My research at the Charleston County Public Library concentrated on
three areas:  The wills and will index to the WPA wills; the
genealogical books on some of the families I was researching; and the
early newspaper microfilms.

As to the wills and  will index, I was very fortunate to have a couple
of people email me with volume and page numbers for my various surnames
ahead of time.  One MOUZON cousin, Betty Dunn, keeps me supplied with
such data and more.  Now if YOU have a "cousin Betty" equivalent, don't
turn down those generous lookup offers.  I was also amazed at the help
offered to me from the generous listers.  Most useful in the will
research project was cutting and pasting the volume and page numbers and
names to one of my handy charts mentioned in Part Two.  These charts
were then printed out [but also saved to my laptop's hard drive] for
quick and easy use.

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--------- SKIP TO THE NEXT DOUBLE LINES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT
MY MOM...

I need to mention here that my mother, ELEANOR DUBOIS [normally I'd say
"Hi, Mom" but her computer has crashed once again and she is not
receiving email at the moment] was enticed [some would say coerced] into
meeting me in Charleston for this research extravaganza.  As the senior
most member of our intrepid group [lets just say the phrase "four score"
has a certain ring of familiarity to her] she was a copying fool for her
demanding daughter.  Mom came up from Florida knowing that I'd be
researching my father's side of the family.  Mom knows how insanely and
obsessively I've been researching my Dad's [HUBERT LEE DUBOIS, decd.]
DUBOIS, MOUZON, JUIN, SLATON, HARRIS, CARNE, HUTCHINSON, STARK, etc.
side of the family, and has been just a little put out that I haven't
been equally insanely hunting her FARRIS, WARFORD, THOMPSON, DICKSON,
etc. families.  I mention all of this so that folks will understand the
supreme sacrifice of being a copy slave on families that are of little
interest to you.  Moral of story:  PAY YOUR COPY SLAVES WELL.  Or
flatter them endlessly.  Or, as happened here, pray to God that other
genealogists play bridge during off-hours so that your copy slave who is
also a bridge nut gets really, really giggly and thinks about what a
great time they're having...
---------
---------  END OF MOM STORY.  FOR NOW.

So what does one do with a chart that has will volume and page numbers?
One gives the chart to one's COPY SLAVE, or COPY FOOL [choose your
term.  Mine chose to be called COPY SLAVE.  Political correctness
police, call my lawyer.]  The COPY SLAVE goes to the corner of the large
South Carolina Room where the will books are neatly shelved next to the
one table in the room.

-------  Skip to the next double lines if you don't want to hear a
gripe.
-------
Okay, here goes suggested improvement number one:  The South Carolina
Room--set aside on the top floor of the library--sorely needs more than
one large table.  They have study carrels with outlets for laptops, and
they have a nice little seating area for what? Some little group of
readers that never appeared?  But they have only one large table and for
people like me who travel with hundreds of pages, a laptop, books, and
more--and there were several of us-types--one table is not enough. 
There were several tables just outside of the South Carolina room, but
you have to go through security doors, away from precious genealogy
books, to get there.  Hopefully, they will move or acquire some more
tables in the near future.

------
------ END OF GRIPE.

Anyway, the COPY SLAVE can quickly take down the volume in question and
move over to the copier for copying said will[s].  Now, my COPY SLAVE
was so efficient and generous that I myself never had to lift a finger
to make a single copy at this facility, but I did overhear this:

-----
-----  Another gripe.
Only one copier in the genealogy room??  Surely you jest.  There are
other copiers just outside of said room, but you have to go through
aforementioned security doors and listen to that beeeeepppp as you go
through the doors to try and copy elsewhere.

And while we're on the subject, I realize I'm quite spoiled by
Washington, DC and Virginia facilities where copy cards are "de riguer"
but to make this library truly state of the art, or at least on my top
five list, the copiers need to self-multiply and have working change
machines, if not copy cards.

Anyway, imagine various COPY SLAVES and their masters all chompin' at
the bit right before closing with their massive volumes of things they
MUST copy because they are, after all, from out of state and may never
be able to come back again.  Imagine, then, one copier.  Well, think mud
wrestling.  Think drag racing. Think killer instinct.  It ain't pretty.

Folks, move another copier in there.

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-------  End of gripe.

The good, actually great, news:  copies are ONLY TEN CENTS.  Another big
reason why this facility was a fave among us heavy-duty copy types.  On
a typical research trip, I make several hundred copies per day, and this
was no exception.  Ten cent copy places are near and dear to my
penny-pinching heart.

Okay, what with all the gripes and asides, looks like this will have to
go to PART IV...

To be continued...