1888 photo of Edgefield men looking like the Wild West

The Old Edgefield District Genealogical Society and Edgefield Touring Company are hosting the seventh annual “Southern Studies Showcase” in Edgefield on September 20 and 21, 2019. Fourteen workshop classes will be held over the course of the two days, with local and out-of-town speakers giving lectures on a variety of topics. Time will be allotted on Friday and Saturday for lunch at local restaurants, shopping with local merchants, and visiting of local historic and tourist sites.

The speakers and their lectures include Nancy A. Peters, CG, Proving Identity and Kinship Using the GPS: Finding a Freedman’s Family; Carol Thompson, Discovering Scottish Heritage through DNA and Genealogical Research; Tiajuana Cochnauer; The First Code Talkers: Choctaws; William S. Davies, Jr., South Carolina’s Lost Hundred Years; George Wingard, Mart to Art: A Repurposed Life; Tom Poland, South Carolina Country Roads; Marion F. Sturkey, Martin W. Gary—Bald Eagle of Edgefield; Dr. Walter Curry, The Thompson Family:  Untold Stories of the Past, 1830-1960; Tiajuana Cochnauer, Guide to Documenting Tribal Membership; Teresa Roane, Minorities in Confederate Military: Combat Support . . . or Hidden in Plain Sight; June Gardner, “Edgefield Connections” and Writing and Publishing Your Family History; Patricia McNeely, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun and the Petticoat Affair; Joyce G. D. Law, Honoring Great War Veterans of SC’s River Region:  The African-American Contribution; and William S. Davies, Jr., The South Carolina Liberty Trail.

A Welcoming Reception will be held on Thursday evening from 6:00 p. m. to 7:30 p. m., at the Tompkins Library, 104 Courthouse Square, Edgefield and A “Block Party” will be held Friday evening from 6:30 p. m. to 8:30 p. m., in the Edgefield Town Gym.  The “Block Party” includes a catered Southern dinner by one of the local restaurants and lively music. The theme is “A Night in an Edgefield Saloon or How Edgefield Made the West Wild.” Attendees will have the rare opportunity to play games that were popular during the mid to late 1800’s.

Additional events include a kiln opening by Old Edgefield Pottery on Saturday from 8:30 a. m. to 10:00 a. m., and two “Lunch and a Lecture” opportunities.  On Friday, September 20^th, the topic for the “Lunch and a Lecture” will be on “The War That Made America,” (French and Indian War) presented by Ms. Aliene Shields Humphries. The cost is $15.00 a person and is limited to 30 people.  The time is 11:15 a. m. to 12:30 p. m. and will be held in the Edgefield First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall. On Saturday, September 21^st, the topic for the “Lunch and a Lecture” will be on the book, An Edgefield Planter and His World: The 1840s Journals of Whitfield Brooks, by Dr. James Farmer.  The cost is $15.00 a person and is limited to 30 people. The time will be 12:30 p. m. to 1:45 p. m. and will be held at Oakley Park.

The Registration fee for the Southern Studies Showcase is $35.00 until September 9^thand includes the “Block Party” Friday night.  After September 9^th, the fee is $45.00.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Tonya Guy at 803-637-4010 or OEDGS85@gmail.com. For more details, please visit the OEDGS web site at OEDGS.org.

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