WebPage Considerations:

• Older county and local histories for most parts of South Carolina - - including numbers of ones being produced fairly late into the twentieth century - - were the product of individuals with the time, money, or inclination to prepare them. Unfortunately, numbers of these publications were not the result of intense research and rigorous scholarship. Instead, such efforts are far too often collections of gathered, hearsay information various genealogical materials (sometimes correct/ at times in error) and small groups of material on an array of topics that does blend into a coherent whole or provide any interpretation of the information.  Some of this WebPage information falls into this "Gathered" category.

• The serious researcher needs, when possible, to know something about the qualifications of a writer making a particular presentation. Certainly, the researcher should look for (1) books with many footnotes that document the sources for specific statements (2) materials written by people who are noted for their expertise in specific areas of research (3) published primary materials (such as census records).

• There are thesis and there are dissertations and there are booklets and there are books. Just because something is a thesis or a dissertation or a booklet or a book (No matter who publishes it!) does not in any way attest to its quality.

• History Records are the real materials (letters, diaries, census records, and so on -- records stating something happening at the time) - - not works like the following.  While most of the materials appearing in newspapers are classed as "History Records," the materials appearing in newspapers telling of something that happened 50 years past are not "History Records."  These works are merely collections or interpretations of historical data.  Obviously, some works are going to be more accurate than others.