HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Preserving Memories For The Future Version 1.0, 28-Jun-2003, H-36.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.usgwtombstones.org/southcarolina/oconee.html **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jun-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jun-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Mynra McKee, Seneca Dailey Journal, 21-Jun-2003 PRESERVING MEMORIES FOR THE FUTURE We who research our family's history are normally good at remembering, but our memories last as long as we are here on Earth and in good mental health. Some of us have prepared a family tree for future generations, so there will be a record after the elders are no more. There are several ways of recording your family genealogy, and some have store their family formation to the data files of the Latter Day Saints. Here in Oconee and Pickens County we are fortunate to have a capable group of volunteers that add the information of the past to the National Genealogy Website. The manager, Paul Kankula of Seneca, tells a fascinating story of the past and how it has been documented. Paul is originally from Detroit and migrated south five years ago. He and his wife first visited the south in 1993. Falling in love with area they bought land and moved here in 1999 to become part of the community. Always interested in computers and the past, Paul began looking in an old cemetery in Illinois for an uncle's grave. There he stumbled onto a source of information for the deceased. Adding those names and many others from the area to the website brought him to the attention of South Carolina and he was asked to be the SC's site manager. Every county in the United States has a coordinator whose job is to preserve area historical data. They record important pieces of the past, from photographs to obituaries, birth notices and wills. The data collection includes any type of reference and vital record. Paul tells a moving story. "When I moved to Seneca four years ago, I was presented with the opportunity to manage the Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead. In early 2003, I temporally took over Pickens County Homestead from Jennie Boggs. GenWeb is a worldwide, non-profit, Internet organization that focuses on the posting of information for on-line genealogy research by personal computer. Since January 1999 over 75,000 people have visited my site. It has become the largest Homestead site in the network, only with the help of volunteers from Alaska to Florida and California to Virginia. It currently contains 38,000+ tombstone inscriptions, 20,000 Keowee Courier newspaper notices, and 1600 church/cemetery images. "Since the early 1980's Ann Rogers of Walhalla has been visiting Oconee County cemeteries and recording the tombstone inscriptions - for approximately 250 cemeteries with 35,000 tombstones. Not only did she write these inscriptions down but typed them on 35,000 index file cards. Many people laughingly refer to her as the queen-of-compiling," Paul continued. "The Walhalla library now has the cards in their Genealogy Department Holdings. Why? Ann simply wanted to help preserve 'the memories of loved ones. "The tombstones of our ancestors have always meant to be a lasting memorial to the lives of those that have gone before us." Now Paul uses this cemetery information as a way to record past lives and history. There are 330 cemeteries in Oconee County and 220 in Pickens County with tombstones dated from the early 1700's. The most unique are the monuments that resemble a tree trunk. They are about five feet tall with short branches. The saddest are the tiny graves of the children, but with the ravages of time, weather and vandals, all the tombstones are suffering. They become more and more difficult to read as time passes. That is why the work of Ann Rogers and other volunteers are so important. Ann's tombstone inscription compiling work can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/inscriptions "After Ann completed her monumental tombstone task, she decided to document 100 years of published Keowee Courier newspaper announcements (birth, marriage, divorce, etc.)," Paul added. "Thanks to Ann, the Walhalla library now has a file of over 90,000 index cards on this subject. At this point in time Ann purchased a computer and input all this information into a word processing document, along with typing the index cards," said Paul. Unfortunately, Ann didn't back up her disks and the computer crashed. Ann told me the story one day while I was visiting her. "What a loss with over 105 inches of index cards worth of information gone. With the help of modem technology, 50 percent of the information was saved and is now available for on-line researching, however, the lost portion will probably never be retyped, because it is just too large a task for just a few people to do." Calling for volunteers, Paul said, "If you are interested in helping to preserve the heritage of Oconee and Pickens County, I'm looking for the following volunteers who would like to help - people to research and write church histories or sites, visit cemeteries and update their tombstone inscription recordings, double check Homestead for broken links, write short descriptions for Homestead links, find new Homestead links that should be added, photograph historic sites, convert hand-written history notes into typed flowing stories, restore/clean forgotten or neglected pioneer cemeteries, write newspaper releases for Homestead activities, help design new Web Pages, simple grunt work, datafile/database/ input typing, gather historic site photographs for scrapbook WebPages, and gather pioneer family photographs for the family scrapbook WebPage." Some volunteers continue to be of help on a regular basis, while others will only be of one-time assistance. Whatever the case, this important undertaking is the result of a huge team effort of many volunteers. Paul concluded, "I hope that you'll find this Homestead to be of value in your root hunting. It will bring lasting results and is an investment in the future as we preserve for eternity." For further information, please contact Paul Kankula at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html or write to 203 Eagles Landing Lane, Seneca, SC 29672.