Bamberg County SCGenWeb - History and Genealogy

Welcome to Bamberg County genealogy & history, and the Bamberg County SCGenWeb! I am Pat Sabin, the County Coordinator for this site as well as Colleton and Dorchester County SCGenWeb. I have been an active volunteer and County Coordinator with The USGenWeb Project since 1998. My "lowcountry" families include Ayer, Byrd, Gavin, Hughes, Raysor, Risher, Stokes, and related families. Please bear with me as I try to make this site more mobile-friendly.

Because I live and work full time in the Atlanta area, I'm afraid that I may not be unable to answer personal research questions unless they pertain to my own family research. However, I hope that the information on this site will give you a good start in your own research.!

If you have any suggestions or anything in the way of old documents or records you'd like to contribute to this project, please see our VOLUNTEER page for a few ideas of how you can help. The success of this project depends on you!

About the USGenWebProject

The USGenWeb Project consists of a group of volunteers working together since 1996 to provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free access for everyone.

Organization is by county and state, and the main USGenWeb website provides you with links to all the state websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The USGenWeb Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level and this website provides an entry point to all of those pages, as well.

History of Bamberg County, South Carolina
MAP

"On August 12, 1891, the editor of the Bamberg Herald spoke of the 'desirability of a new county to be carved from the whitening cotton fields of Barnwell and the rich pastures of Colleton, and Bamberg's charming felicity of location, which makes it the right place for the courthouse...' Six years later Bamberg County was established from a portion of old Barnwell District and named for the family that had founded the town in its northern section." (South Carolina Postcards, Vol. II, Howard Woody and Thomas L. Johnson).

Bamberg County and its county seat, Bamberg, were named for local resident William Seaborn Bamberg (1820-1858) and other members of the Bamberg family.

Although the area has been primarily dependent upon agriculture (primarily cotton), several towns developed along the route of the South Carolina Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century.

In February 1865 Confederate soldiers fought an unsuccessful skirmish against General Sherman's troops at Rivers Bridge, now the site of a state park.

The plantation of author William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870) was in what is now Bamberg County, and artist Jim Harrison is also a native of the county.

Communities in present day Bamberg County include Bamberg (county seat), Denmark, Ehrhardt, Embree, Govan, Midway, and Olar.