Researching Lebanese Families in SC for Thesis
Replies: 7
Re: Researching Lebanese Families in SC for Thesis
Your best bet on church records would be to contact the archives of the Diocese of Charleston and ask what might be available there. (You might need to talk one of the relatives into going to Charleston and getting the info for you: as far as I know, the archivist has no staff and so might not have time to do any digging for you.) See http://www.catholic-doc.org/ Click on "Diocesan Departments" and then on "Archives."
I also suggest contacting Catholic parishes in Marion county and Georgetown. When you contact the diocesan
archives, be sure to ask which parishes would have been
the nearest parishes to these people in the 1910s and 1920s. (There is no Melkite church in South Carolina though there are one or two Melkite missions, which wouldn't be very old.) I have never had the opportunity to visit the diocesan archives but I was able to speak with Brian Fahey, the diocesan archivist, at a state meeting in Columbia in 2005.
I've checked my notes and do have a little information on the Adrys. I have a John in Georgetown in 1900 with two sons. (The copy is too bad for me to be able to make out the names of the two sons he's listed with.) The first person listed on this page is a Lavinia Light.
Then, I have Elias and family in Marion, SC, in 1910 and in Kinston, NC, in 1920. (Kinston is in Lenoir county. It is in the diocese of Raleigh now, but would have been in the diocese of Richmond in 1920, I believe.) One of the sons in 1920 is a John, aged 3 years 10 months on January 23, 1920, the date on the top of the page.
Thanks for letting me know what happened to this family. I have been curious. They are only one of the several Lebanese families I found in South Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who left the state.
I recommend Walter Edgar's _South Carolina_, which is an excellent history of the state. Your local library can probably get this for you by InterLibrary Loan. (It's a hard back from the University of South Carolina Press. It
is _not_ available in paperback. (I keep hoping: I had to lug a copy around the Clemson campus for a semester!))
Let me know if I might be able to help further.
Elizabeth Whitaker
I also suggest contacting Catholic parishes in Marion county and Georgetown. When you contact the diocesan
archives, be sure to ask which parishes would have been
the nearest parishes to these people in the 1910s and 1920s. (There is no Melkite church in South Carolina though there are one or two Melkite missions, which wouldn't be very old.) I have never had the opportunity to visit the diocesan archives but I was able to speak with Brian Fahey, the diocesan archivist, at a state meeting in Columbia in 2005.
I've checked my notes and do have a little information on the Adrys. I have a John in Georgetown in 1900 with two sons. (The copy is too bad for me to be able to make out the names of the two sons he's listed with.) The first person listed on this page is a Lavinia Light.
Then, I have Elias and family in Marion, SC, in 1910 and in Kinston, NC, in 1920. (Kinston is in Lenoir county. It is in the diocese of Raleigh now, but would have been in the diocese of Richmond in 1920, I believe.) One of the sons in 1920 is a John, aged 3 years 10 months on January 23, 1920, the date on the top of the page.
Thanks for letting me know what happened to this family. I have been curious. They are only one of the several Lebanese families I found in South Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who left the state.
I recommend Walter Edgar's _South Carolina_, which is an excellent history of the state. Your local library can probably get this for you by InterLibrary Loan. (It's a hard back from the University of South Carolina Press. It
is _not_ available in paperback. (I keep hoping: I had to lug a copy around the Clemson campus for a semester!))
Let me know if I might be able to help further.
Elizabeth Whitaker