ResearchingNewspapers and City

Directories

Family History WorkshopRichland County Public Library

Resources

City Directories – Columbia, SC

A record of residential and business information for a particular year and town.

Street directory.Available at the Main Library.

1875 - present (with gaps) – Local History1903-1935 (with gaps) – Periodicals

Random Recollections of a Long Life, 1806-1876 by Edwin Scott J.(Biography)

Old and New Columbia by J.F. Williams

Statistical Information

May provide valuable vital statistics: occupation, marital status, number of children, race, address.

More recent directories have less “statistical” information than older directories.

Residents were generally divided by race until the late 1940’s.

Indexed by the name of the “Head of Household.”

Genealogy

They help locate a resident in a particular place or time.

Directories can help determine the ward a resident lives in for census searches or to fill in census gaps.

They can also help narrow down a year of death.

Directories provide a glimpse into the details of an ancestor’s life: where they shopped, went to church, or school, etc.

Online city directories

http://www2.libraryweb.org/orgMain.asp?orgid=468

South Carolina online http://distantcousin.com/Directories/SC/Columbia/1859/A.html

Ancestry Library Edition

Newspapers, Columbia, SC

Source for vital statistics. Obituaries and death noticesMarriage announcementsDivorces noticesBirth announcementsReal estate transactions

Newspapers at RCPLThe State: Feb 18, 1891 – present

Started by the Gonzales brothers; Ambrose, William and Narcisco (N.G.) as a protest to the election of Benjamin Tillman in

1889 to the U.S. Senate.

Additional Newspapers

Palmetto Leader: 1/1/1925 – 9/14/1957 (with gaps)Columbia’s African American newspaper.Nathaniel Frederick – editorGeorge H. Hampton – publisher

Although this paper was the “principal voice of black protest in the state” the Palmetto Leader also chronicled social and church activities. It published news items from cities and towns from around South Carolina including news about births, deaths, and marriages.

Other newspaper titles available at RCPL

Columbia Register: 7/28/1875 – 1898.

Daily Record: 1897 – 4/3/1913. Continued by:

Columbia Record: 4/4/1913 – 4/1/1988

Newspaper Indexing at RCPL

Record of Deaths in Columbia South Carolina and elsewhere as recorded by John Glass 1859-1877: edited by Brent Holcomb.

RCPL Online Obituary Indexing. Front page death lists 1937-present. The State Indexing 1892-1912. Microfilm.The State/Columbia Record: 1973-1987.

Microfilm.Obituary Index to The State: WWII

Servicemen Killed In Action: 1941-1949

Online newspaper indexing at RCPL

RCPL databases: www.myrcpl.comNewsbank: The State 1988 - present; obituaries

– approx. 1998-present. Other local newwspapers.

South Carolina Historical Newspapers 1891-1921.

Community Resources database: 1892-1923 ; 1891 partial in Local Magazine and Newspaper Index.

www.thedeadlibrarian.blogspot.com.The State Library Online Obituary Portal:

http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/content/view/867/873/