GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY
The library’s local history and genealogy collection is housed in the Antoinette “Ann” Rogers Memorial South Carolina History Room at the Walhalla Main Library. The Rogers Room houses a microfilm collection of local newspapers, as well as local histories, family histories, SC Code of Laws, cemetery records, and many other items of local interest. The books are searchable in our online catalog. Books may not be borrowed or taken out of the library. The OCPL does not allow any items in the genealogical collection to be loaned through ILL. We also have a small collection of local historical maps.
Ann Rogers Biography
Mrs. Janice Antoinette “Ann” Morris Rogers was a library volunteer who worked tirelessly to improve the genealogical resources of the South Carolina Room. Mrs. Rogers started volunteering for the OCPL in 1978, and between 2011 and her death in 2015, she contributed over 4,710 volunteer hours.
Mrs. Rogers visited over 250 Oconee County cemeteries and documented over 35,000 tombstone inscriptions, which she then transcribed onto index cards that are kept on file at the Walhalla Main Library. The collection contains over 40,000 cards in the cemetery index alone. After finishing that massive project, she went on to transcribe all the birth, death, marriages, marriage licenses, divorces, and anniversaries in the newspapers held in the library’s microfilm collection (see Notable Resources for current holdings).
In 2013, Mrs. Rogers won the OCPL Volunteer of the Year Award and was the first recipient of the Sarah Mills Norton Award (minimum of 50 volunteer hours to be nominated). On May 16, 2013, she was recognized at the South Carolina Governor’s Volunteer Awards at the State House and Governor’s Mansion in Columbia, SC. She was presented with the volunteer award in the Direct Services Category by Governor Nikki Haley.
"I wanted to help preserve the memories of loved ones."
