Sumter County Genealogical Society to celebrate 50 years

The Sumter County Genealogical Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary at its September meeting on Monday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. at Swan Lake Presbyterian Church, 912 Haynsworth St., Sumter.

The Sumter County Genealogical Society was organized in 1974 by Margaret McElveen. The original officers were Margaret McElveen, president; Donald McLellan, vice president; Frank Jernigan, secretary/treasurer; Myrtis Osteen, historian-archivist; and Mary Lucia Stukey, membership secretary.

Over the years, the leaders of the genealogical society have striven to be faithful to the objectives of the society, which are to "raise the standards of genealogical research through educational programs, workshops, promotion of collections of early records and publication of a newsletter, and to stimulate interest in genealogy."The current officers of the Sumter County Genealogical Society are: Nancy Jordan, president; Steven Schumpert, first vice president; Larry Bock, second vice president; Stephanie Gibbons, treasurer; Jim Sass, recording secretary; Joe Hodge, corresponding secretary; Amanda Sass, archivist; Joanne Lee, member-at-large; and Johnny Raffield, past president.

The society is at the Sumter Museum in the basement of Williams-Brice House.

The speaker for the 50th anniversary meeting is Ty Atkins. He will speak on the Ligon/Nash family. When he was 12 years old, he was given an old photo album that a family friend had found in a Sumter street some 20 years earlier. The scrapbook's owner could not be found, and it went into storage until 1992, when it was given to Atkins.

It documents the family of Lela Nash Ligon (1871-1958), her parents and grandparents, in great detail, and the lives of her children Maurine and Henry Ligon. Lela's father was a North Carolinian by birth but moved to Sumter in 1870 and became a wealthy man as a tobacco agent, traveling the country. Her mother's family had roots in Sumter back when it was called Sumterville.

Lela Nash married J.R. Ligon of Branchville, and they lived and raised their children in a large home he built on Oakland Avenue in Sumter. Though her children left Sumter after their education at Edmunds High School, they kept in touch and led extraordinary lives, Maurine in particular.

For more than three decades, Atkins has studied and researched the people in this album, and their story is pretty remarkable and worthy of being shared.

The public is invited to come out and hear this remarkable story as well as help the Sumter County Genealogical Society celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Want to become a member?

The next membership meeting of Sumter County Genealogical Society will be held on Monday, Sept. 16, beginning at 7 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Swan Lake Presbyterian Church, 912 Haynsworth St. Refreshments will be served following the speaker's presentation.

The society meets monthly from September through May. Visitors are welcome to attend. Admission is free to the public. Interested persons can join the society. Membership includes four newsletters during the year and free use of the Sumter County Genealogical Society Research Center. Annual dues are $30 for an individual membership and $35 for a family. Readers can call the society's Research Center for additional information at (803) 774-3901.