OKTOBERFEST 2009 - October 9 & 10
First Baptist Church Family Life Center
2855 Columbia Road, Highway 21 North, Orangeburg, SC
Oktoberfest 2009 is going to be very informative and enjoyable. This year we will meet again at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center at 2855 Columbia Road (Highway 21) north of Orangeburg. The meeting will begin in the late afternoon of Friday, October 9, and will continue through mid-afternoon, Saturday, October 10.
We have a full agenda. Our dinner speaker on the evening of October 9 will be Dr. David Shields of the University of South Carolina, speaking on “The Vanished Banquet: Thoughts on a Feast of Lost and Forgotten Southern Foods,” which will include several German specialties. Everyone who has heard Dr. Shields speak in the past has given rave reviews, and his talk this year is something you won’t want to miss.
On Saturday, October 10, we will start with our business meeting and election of new officers. We’ll move on to a discussion of “Mapping Connor Family Land” that will be of interest to everyone. For many of our ancestors, land records are the primary surviving documentation of their lives. Placing those records in the modern world is a major challenge, but one that Margaret Waters has mastered beautifully. Whether you or related to the Connors or not (and a great many of us are), this will be very helpful to you. This will be followed by Becky Ulmer of Elloree talking about the Elloree Heritage Museum and the history of that portion of Orangeburg County. As anyone who has visited there knows, this is an excellent museum that beautifully recreates the farming heritage of Orangeburg County.
After a break, we’ll move on to the very popular topic of DNA. First Lynn Teague will talk about the ancient histories of families represented to date in our Orangeburgh District DNA study group. So far the Dukes, Snyder, Hare, Delk, Aaron, Johnson, Syfrett, Felder, Vernon, Pou, Davis, Ruple, Shuler, Thompson, Blakely, Bozard, Ray, Holman, Tucker, Hutto, and Kemmerlin families are represented in the yDNA (paternal line) sample, and the Ayler, Cider, Jennings (Zanini), and Keys families are represented in our mtDNA (maternal line) sample. It is possible in each case to talk about the ancient migrations of their lineages. We have found ancient Europeans who were present during the ice ages that covered much of northern Europe, late migrants from the Near East, an American Indian maternal lineage ancestral to many in Orangeburg, and other fascinating ancient aspects of our family histories. We have also successfully addressed a number of specific questions about more recent history, and we will talk about a few examples that should be of broad interest.
At our luncheon on Friday, Chester DiPratter of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina will speak on the fate of the Indians who lived in our region during the 17th and 18th centuries before Europeans arrived and during the early years of their presence. This will be a fascinating look at the people who lived here before us.
At this meeting we also will have a special offer of free copies of older OGS Newsletter issues. In the process of getting ready to donate our research collections to the Orangeburg County Historical Society, we located a substantial supply of some issues, and will make them available to everyone attending the meeting. Some issues are represented by a handful of copies, and some have more than a hundred copies remaining. After this meeting, remaining copies will be recycled, so this is the time to get them! If you miss this chance, there won’t be another.
In addition, we will have our other publications on sale, including our CDs of past Newsletter issues. We will also once again have family tables to help in the sharing of information.
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