Researching the South Carolina Gazette at the Charleston County Public
Library

One of my top two delightful research finds consisted of the various
newspaper articles and clippings from the South Carolina Gazette from
the 1730s to the 1760s time period.  

This newspaper typically was four pages in length, with an occasional
advertising supplement.  Included were a lead story, often dealing with
the British government, trade, business, shipping, etc.  Also usually
included were little snippets from various world cities; the weather;
prices of various commodities; shipping news [such as what ship had been
cleared to depart, etc.]; local news; and public notices and ads.  The
latter category takes up most of each issue, and from these notices and
ads you can glean deaths, financial matters, slave information, and a
lot about everyday life.

I was so taken with these newspaper clippings that I scrapped nearly all
of my other research in favor of looking up and copying the ads.

The SC Gazette is on microfilm for the years 1732 [partial] to 1768, and
I found that viewing and copying them at the Charleston county Public
Library was a relatively easy task.  I say "relatively" because
microfilm viewing is not my idea of a fun way to spend the day.  It is
hard on the eyes, back, rear end, and patience.

And there is no way I would have forayed into this avenue of research
without one very good finding aid:  the Early South Carolina Newspaper
database reports.

The following comes from one of their web pages:

"The early South Carolina newspapers began publication in Charleston in
1732, with the introduction of the South Carolina Gazette newspaper.
This and other early South Carolina newspapers are found on microfilm at
many libraries across the United States and are known to hold a treasure
chest of information for persons interested in Genealogy and/or Colonial
& Early American History related subjects.

"ESCN Database Reports (ISSN 1082-6637) is an ongoing series of
reference books that provide quick reference indexing of data found in
the local news and advertisement sections of these early South Carolina
newspapers. The ESCN Database Reports company also offers a Surname
Search of its database records to the general public on a small search
fee basis."

The home page for this organization is:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/escn_database_reports/

The books mentioned above were in both the Charleston County Public
Library, and the South Carolina Historical Society.

Not knowing that these facilities had the books above available, I opted
for the surname search service which the company offers. My first
request was submitted to them in January, and because it looked
promising, I submitted a second request for more surnames in March. 
Thus, I knew before I landed in Charleston what I'd be looking for.

Although it cost me some bucks [see their fee schedule at:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/escn_database_reports/srch_fee.htm],
I am nonetheless glad I did it this way.  For persons on a shoestring
who have more time to spend, go with the books.  Had I gone to this
page:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/escn_database_reports/library.htm

I would have noticed that the ESCN books are at the Yale library, about
an hour and a half from me.  They list many other libraries; not
surprisingly, most are in South Carolina.

And had I gone here:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/escn_database_reports/hold1.htm

I would have noticed that microfilms of the newspapers are available at
two libraries in Connecticut.  Maybe I could have spent more time
anywhere in Charleston but in libraries.  At least I now know that I can
continue my viewing on a rainy Saturday.

For the five surnames I requested from the service, I received from 15
to over 1000
"hits" for each.  The listing includes the name, occupation if known,
residence if known, date, and subjects.  I found the mini-abstracts
fairly accurate and informative, and helped me choose which articles to
examine and copy first.  The main drawback is that you get ALL the
listings for that surname so that if you have a common surname, or if
one person with that surname advertises heavily [SAMUEL CARNE, for
example, advertised every week for years], you might end up with
hundreds or thousands of listings for someone not related to you.

I took the database printouts--which I received via mail within a couple
of weeks of mailing my request and check--and sorted out some of my
"most wanted" articles.  Sometimes it was easy to rule out the ones I
probably wouldn't need, such as the same ad being published week after
week.  I aimed mostly for the notices or ads that mentioned estate sales
and the like, and also included some spicier items like a couple of
articles on piracy and the jailbreak of one ABRAHAM DUBOIR.  After many
hours of viewing and copying from the microfilm, I probably ended up
with around 50 copies.  Hmmmm, only 950 [give or take 100] to go...

There were a couple of articles I couldn't find, and a very rare
mistranscription, but overall my success with this method was such that
I scrapped all other research and a lot of sight-seeing in order to get
these articles.  [Never did make it to a single house or garden tour;
had to make do with a carriage ride as the sum total of my sight-seeing
experiences--not counting the inadvertent "tours" of a couple of places
while engaged in a couple of wild goose chases.]

For anyone with ancestors living in the Charleston area during the
mid-1700s, I STRONGLY recommend going this route in your research.

Now for the disclaimers--I had never heard of ESCN before a couple of
months ago; I do not know anyone associated with it, and I have no
connections with it other than as a paying, happy customer.

I only hope they revise their searches to be able to narrow it down to
given names as well as surnames.  And I hope they keep on transcribing
on into later years [the database only covers something like thirty
years, at least for my surnames.]  Also, although they appear to have
several newspapers within their database, I only got hits from the SC
Gazette.

[To be continued...]