The Heritage Library regularly conducts workshops and lectures in the fall and winter on topics of interest to genealogists and historians interested in the history of the Lowcountry. The Library also conduct tours of historic sites from February to Thanksgiving. All classes and lectures are open to the general public. Space is limited and advance registration is required.
JANUARY:
RELUCTANT RADICAL: RUFUS SAXTON, THE REAL CHAMPION OF RECONSTRUCTION
- Thursday, 1/13/22 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 213
- Instructor: Richard Thomas
- History has relegated Saxton to a dim, supporting role in the saga of the Reconstruction Era, but, in reality, he was its chief architect in the early years of freedom for the formerly enslaved. Explore how Saxton’s determined resistance to President Andrew Johnson’s orders helped shape Emancipation for blacks on the sea islands, in stark contrast to the experience in the rest of the Deep South.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
FAMILY TREE MAKER PART 1: OVERVIEW AND THE FIRST STEPS
- Monday, 1/17/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: ZOOM (Zoom links and handouts are sent to registered attendees the evening before the class)
- Instructor: Carol Clemens
- Part 1 of 4 in the Family Tree Maker Series. Why use Family Tree Maker 2019 software? What can be produced with it? How do I buy the software? How do I properly do the necessary set up before entering any data into the program? This class is part of a 4-part series, you will find it most helpful if you take all 4 classes. There is no prerequisite for this class. Even if you are currently using FTM, you will learn how the program is organized and the proper setup to get the most from the software. These classes assume you have basic computer skills. The software is available both for MAC and PC users.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
LIGHTHOUSES OF THE LOWCOUNTRY
- Wednesday, 1/19/22 – 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 214
- Instructor: Ted Panayotoff
- Preserving safe entry to Southeastern coastal ports has always been a challenge due to migrating shoals and sandbars. Learn how lighthouses have helped master the challenge and allowed Port Royal, among others, to become a major center of shipping.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
FAMILY TREE MAKER PART II: GETTING STARTED: PEOPLE AND MEDIA TABS
- Monday, 1/24/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: ZOOM (Zoom links and handouts are sent to registered attendees the evening before the class)
- Instructor: Carol Clemens
- Part 2 of 4 in the Family Tree Maker Series. Now it’s time to add people; set relationships; add and categorize media; set profile pictures; link media to several people at once; back up your files and more. This class gets you started on the process of documenting your family history with this software.
- PREREQUISITE: You MUST have completed FTM Part 1 – Jan 17 OR taken Part 1 during a previous Zoom FTM series. Also, you must have purchased FTM 2019, installed it on your computer, and done the preliminary required set up covered in class one.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
CEMETERIES AND FAMILIES OF HILTON HEAD ISLAND
- Monday, 1/24/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 214
- Instructor: Kathy Smith
- Hilton Head Island is home to fourteen Native Islander cemeteries, some dating to plantation burial grounds in Colonial times, and is the site of the Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery, the resting place of Patriots and Planters. The families represented in these cemeteries have forged the current character and history that characterizes Hilton Head’s uniqueness.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
AMBUSH AT PARKER’S FERRY
- Tuesday, 1/25/22 – 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Room 214
- Instructor: Lee Wilwerding
- Often referred to militarily as “the perfect ambush”, Parker’s Ferry was probably Francis Marion’s best battle and is a recent addition to the Liberty Trail. Find out about the Trail and how the Swamp Fox orchestrated an embarrassing and costly defeat for the British forces in Colleton County.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
FAMILY TREE MAKER PART III: INTRODUCING THE WEB SEARCH
- Monday, 1/31/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: ZOOM (Zoom links and handouts are sent to registered attendees the evening before the class)
Instructor: Carol Clemens - Part 3 of 4 in the Family Tree Maker Series. Learn to search web sites through Family Tree Maker, add favorite search sites; add information directly to your tree. Additional information on Media and maps will be included. This is the next step toward creating a finished product.
- PREREQUISITE: You MUST have Completed FTM Part 2 – January 24, OR Part 2 taken during a previous ZOOM FTM series.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
FEBRUARY:
FAMILY TREE MAKER PART IV: CREATING A FINAL PROJECT: FIND AND FIX ERRORS, GET STARTED WITH THE PUBLISH TAB
- Monday, 2/7/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: ZOOM (Zoom links and handouts sent to registered attendees the evening before the class)
Instructor: Carol Clemens - Part 4 of 4 in the Family Tree Maker Series. The last step in the process of creating a final project. Participants will learn how to find and fix duplicate information and errors; learn what reports can be created from the software; how participants can share work; and how to create a book.
- PREREQUISITE: You MUST have completed FTM Parts 2 & 3 Jan. 24 and 31 OR parts 2 & 3 taken during a previous ZOOM FTM series.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
HISTORIC MARKERS AND SITES ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND
- Monday, 2/7/22 – 10:30 AM – 12:00 NOON
- Location: USCB Hilton Head, Room 214
- Instructor: Dee Phillips
- Are you new to the island or would like to know more about Hilton Head’s historic sites? Hilton Head Island is home to 22 significant historic sites and many other state historical markers which point out the location of events or places that combine to tell Hilton Head’s rich story. View the full range of Hilton Head’s history through these locations that mark the path of its evolution.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
A LANDSCAPE AFLAME: THE ART OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
- Wednesday, 2/9/22 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 214
- Instructor: Ron Roth
- From the battlefield to the home front, Civil War art includes insights into the viewpoints that motivated both sides of the conflict as well as eloquent depictions of the human face of the war. This presentation includes recent scholarship that demonstrates how useful significant art can be to further our understanding of the War.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
COASTAL DEFENSES OF THE PORT ROYAL SOUND
- Thursday, 2/17/22 – 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 213
- Instructor: Ted Panayotoff
- For at least five centuries, Port Royal Sound has been of strategic significance to European empires as well as to the government of the United States. Discover the many occasions on which fortifications have been prepared on its shores to ward off threats of conquest by various nations.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
MARCH:
NATIVE AMERICANS OF PORT ROYAL SOUND
- Tuesday, 3/1/22 – 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 213
- Instructor: Dee Phillips
- This talk focuses on the people who occupied the local area for at least 3,000 years prior to the arrival of the Spanish in this area in 1715. The people that the early English settlers called the “Cusabo” were actually between 12-19 loosely affiliated tribes speaking a common language who lived on the shores of the Port Royal Sound and its rivers.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR’S BIGGEST LOSER
- Tuesday, 3/8/22 – 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
- Location USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 214
- Instructor: Lee Wilwerding
- Nathaniel Greene ranks second only to George Washington in the Pantheon of American Generals of the Revolution. Yet, he lost every battle that he fought in South Carolina. This presentation will examine Greene’s Southern Campaign and explain this seeming anomaly.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
DESPERATE HOURS: UNDERSTANDING THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG THROUGH THE ART OF ITS BATTLE MONUMENTS
- Wednesday, 3/16/22 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 214
- Instructor: Ron Roth
- The 1,300-odd battlefield monuments at the Gettysburg National Military Park erected in the century following the Civil War comprise one of the most extensive and dramatic collections of public art in the world. Explore how clearly they express the experiences of soldiers on the battlefield as well as expand our understanding of the War’s most important battle.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
PATHFINDERS FOR FREEDOM: THE 1ST AND 2ND SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT (SCVAD)
- Tuesday, 3/22/22 – 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
- Location: USCB Hilton Head Campus, Room 213
- Instructor: Richard Thomas
- Without the efforts of a few Federal officers and about 1,500 former slaves in Hilton Head and Port Royal in mid-1862, the regiments of black soldiers raised in the North following Emancipation may never have had the opportunity to demonstrate the full value of African-Americans as fighting men. Learn how the 1st and 2nd SCVAD paved the way for the 54th Massachusetts and other US Colored Troops’ regiments to earn fame and glory in later battles of the Civil War.
- Cost is $15 for non-members and $12 for members.
To register for any of the above classes go here.