First Family Information
Orangeburgh Township was one of several townships established by the Colonial Governmenty in order to encourage settlement in the South Carolina interior. A party of Swiss settlers were escorted to the township of Orangeburgh on the Edisto River in 1735. These were the first official settlers of Orangeburgh District. Other Swiss and German families soon followed and settlers continued to come throughout the Colonial era. The settlers were encouraged to come on a promise of land, food, tools and transportation for themselves and their families when reaching South Carolina. By the end of the Colonial Era, Orangeburgh District included the townships of Orangeburgh, Amelia (Calhoun County), Saxe-Gothe (Lexington) and Winton (Barnwell)(Aiken/Bamberg, Allendale). Although English, Scots, Irish, French, and others also settled in the area, at the end of the colonial period the inhabitants of Orangeburgh District were primarily of Swiss-German extraction.
The First Families Research Committee of OGSGS was formed to coordinate research on the early settlers in the Orangeburgh area and to publish reviewed, sourced, first generation biographies of the early settlers in Orangeburgh District in the OGSGS Newsletter and on the OGSGS Website. We are actively soliciting first and second generation information for immigrant settlers in Orangeburgh District for the time period 1735 to 1773.
Look at a few of the First Family Biographes to get an idea of the kind of information needed. Note that the biographies range from the simple such as Yaun to the extensive such as Ulmer. All are acceptable. Common characteristics are:
- The first generation family arrived in Orangeburgh District during the colonial period between the years 1735 and 1773.
- Enough information is available to provide a reasonable picture of the early family.
- Sources are available for most bits of information.
Your information does not have to be in the published format which is our version of the NGSQ or Modified register System. We will accept your raw information and a committee member will put the information into the preferred format for publishing. You will need to cite your sources. Unsourced information may be used if we can locate a source.
There is no need to spend a lot of time in formatting to make the information "pretty" as it will be reformatted for publication. However, if you use MS Word (Windows or Mac), and want to help us you may download the First Families Word Stylesheet along with instructions for its use. This is the format that will be used for publication.
The preferred method of submission is by email. We can accept the output of most word processing programs and/or the report output of most genealogy programs. We will adapt to whatever is most convenient for you. Please contact the First Families Coordinator to submit a biography or for more information.