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The First Families of
Orangeburgh, South Carolina

Orangeburgh Township was one of several townships established by the Colonial Government in order to encourage settlement in the South Carolina interior.

A party of Swiss settlers were escorted to the township of Orangeburgh on the Edisto River in 1735. These were the first official settlers of Orangeburgh. Other Swiss and German families soon followed and settlers continued to come throughout the Colonial era. At the end of the Colonial Era, Orangeburgh District included the townships of Orangeburgh, Amelia (Calhoun County), Saxe-Gothe (Lexington) and Winton (Barnwell)(Aiken/Bamberg, Allendale). Although English, Scots, Irish, French, and others also settled in the area, at the end of the colonial period the inhabitants of Orangeburgh District were primarily of Swiss-German extraction.

Many of the first families who settled in the Orangburgh District are the origin of familiar family surnames in the area and other parts of the country today. Included here are biographies of some of these first generation families. If you don’t see your family here, we have an abundance of published information in our newsletters and other resources. We also appreciate your contributions if you have documented your own work to bring your ancestors to life! Get in touch to see if we can work together to add your people to the First Families list!

OGS Goal for First Families

The goal of these pages is to publish reviewed, sourced, first generation biographies of the families settling in Orangeburgh District during the Colonial Period (1735 – 1773). These biographies are also published in the OGSGS Newsletter. You can help by contributing information on your Family. Please contact us if you have information to share with the Society.

What's Needed to Contribute?

Look at a few of the First Family Biographes to get an idea of the kind of information needed. Note that the biographies range from the simple such as Yaun to the extensive such as Ulmer. All are acceptable. Common characteristics are:

  • The first generation family arrived in Orangeburgh District during the colonial period between the years 1735 and 1773.
  • Enough information is available to provide a reasonable picture of the early family.
  • Sources are available for most bits of information.

How to Contribute

Your information does not have to be in the published format which is our version of the NGSQ or Modified register System. We will accept your raw information and a committee member will put the information into the preferred format for publishing. You will need to cite your sources. Unsourced information may be used if we can locate a source.

There is no need to spend a lot of time in formatting to make the information “pretty” as it will be reformatted for publication. However, if you use MS Word (Windows or Mac), and want to help us you may download the First Families Word Stylesheet along with instructions for its use. This is the format that will be used for publication.

The preferred method of submission is by email. We can accept the output of most word processing programs and/or the report output of most genealogy programs. We will adapt to whatever is most convenient for you. Please contact the First Families Coordinator to submit a biography or for more information.

First Family Biographies

These biographies are provided as an aid to your personal research. While every effort has been made to include the best available information from referenced sources, the quality of the references is variable. As always, individual researchers should review the references cited and make their own determination as to the validity of the provided information.