The OGSGS Board of Directors is very pleased to announce that at our last board meeting, on February 14, 2009, we voted to award an Honorary Life Membership in the Society to Mr. Joop Giessendanner of the Netherlands. All who study our early families know his work well. His transcription and translation of the original Book of Record, created by his 18^th century kinsmen Hans Ulrich Giessendanner and Rev. John Giessendanner, is a wonderful gift to all of us.

The older Giessendanners knew the importance of their records. In 1740 John Giessendanner wrote “This Book should be carefully preserved that those who may wish to know of their family may find it in the Book of Record.” Several centuries later, Joop Giessendanner’s meticulous transcription, translation, and commentary are available to all of us at http://www.xs4all.nl/~sail/index.html, and enable us to use the Book of Record to know our families more accurately and more fully.  

We are very grateful that Joop Giessendanner continues his family tradition and we are glad that we are able to offer this small thanks to him for all the help that he has given us.

Lynn Shuler Teague

President, OGSGS

Oktoberfest was held at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center on October 10 and 11, and once again was an enjoyable and productive occasion for all of us who were able to attend. Our speaker at dinner on Friday, J. R. Fennell, Director of the Lexington County Museum, gave an excellent presentation on both the resources available at his museum and also the traditional beliefs and superstitions of early German and Swiss settlers. The latter part of his talk was especially appropriate so soon before Halloween! We hope that all of our members will be inspired to visit the Lexington County Museum, which reflects the lifestyle of early German and Swiss immigrants to South Carolina better than any other institution in South Carolina.

On Saturday the annual business meeting was held, followed by a number of very interesting presentations. We appreciate the excellent presentation on behalf of Salkehatchie Stew, a program to record the stories and oral histories of the area along the Salkehatchie. There was encouraging evidence that OGSGS members would like to begin something similar for Orangeburg County, and the Salkehatchie program staff and volunteers are willing to help Orangeburg residents start a project to preserve the stories that bring our own history alive.

A well-documented and very interesting presentation on the Connor family history by Karl Becker shed light not only on that family of Irish settlers but on many of the Swiss and German relatives in southern Orangeburg County, on both sides of Four Holes Swamp.

Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Elizabeth Johnson’s luncheon talk about the National Register of Historic Places was fascinating, both for shedding light on what the Register is, and isn’t, but also for the wonderful overview of Orangeburg locations already on the Register. An important point in Ms. Johnson’s talk was the flexible nature of Register designation. It is an honor, and either designation on the Register or a deterimination of eligibility for the Register provides some protection for historic resources threatened by public actions such federal highway or dam projects. However, the Register doesn’t prevent property owners from treating their properties as they wish, even when they decide to demolish a historic structure — or, as one slide demonstrated, paint it a remarkable range of exuberant colors.

The meeting closed with the generous hospitality of Deedee Kullenberg at her home, the Lewis Dantzler plantation, one of Orangeburg’s loveliest historic properties. The beautiful Lewis Dantzler house dates to the 1840’s, and rests on a parcel first granted to Swiss immigrant Hans Jacob Dantzler in 1787. Mrs. Kullenberg and her husband, Mike, are working diligently to restore and protect this important historic place. They have documented the house at a website, http://www.dantzlerplantation.org .

At the OGSGS annual business meeting on October 11 this year, the membership was informed about board plans to donate research materials now owned by OGSGS to the OCHS Salley Archives. For many years the OGSGS collections have been at the Southern Methodist College Library in Orangeburg, and we appreciate that institution’s willingness to accomodate us. However, this is not the best long-term solution.

When OGSGS was founded there was an intention to spread beyond the Orangeburgh District German-Swiss townships to become a national organization for German-Swiss family history research. In keeping with that intention, plans were made to establish an archive and library independent of those focused primarily on Orangeburg. However, as time as passed it has become clear that the old Orangeburgh District is indeed our permanent focus, and thus a library and archive separate from that of the OCHS would be redundant in purpose and would divide resources. It also became clear that the strength of OGSGS is in its research publications and newsletters, its website, and its annual meeting with reports of interest to Orangeburg researchers. We do not have the local volunteers necessary to sustain a second archive and library.

Given all of this, it has become clear that OGSGS and OCHS can complement one another best by each building on its strengths. OGSGS will continue our research, print and web publications, and annual meeting activities. OCHS is by far better prepared to handle preservation of archival records and maintenance of a public facility for their use. Our donation of our research collections as a permanent deed of gift to OCHS is in keeping with that. At our annual meeting, the membership voted to support the board in taking this direction.

In the spirit of cooperation between the societies, OCHS has also offered space for the permanent organizational records of OGSGS to be kept at the Archives, while remaining the property of OGSGS. We still intend to create a permanent home for the OGSGS organizational records, and should OCHS undertake expansion of the Salley Archives facilities would hope to negotiate construction of a room dedicated to OGSGS records and workspace, to be constructed at our expense.