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Hilton Head Island Resources
Keep Exploring the Island’s History and Your Family’s Story
The voices in this collection are a starting point. If a story sparked a question about the island’s past or your own family, the resources below can help you dig deeper. We’ve gathered tips for recording your own family’s stories, along with maps, online records, and books and archives that are especially useful for researching Hilton Head Island, Daufuskie, and Beaufort County. Many of the records cover the years just after
the Civil War, when freed families on the islands first appear by name in bank, land, and military records.
New to African American genealogy? Try our free online course, Getting Started in African American Family History Research, or chat with a genealogist for free.
Record Your Own Family’s Stories
The narrators in this collection were someone’s parents, grandparents, and neighbors. The elders in your family have stories like theirs. These guides from American Ancestors, most of them free, will help you sit down with a relative, ask good questions, and preserve what you hear.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Typical Questions for a Family History Interview | A printable list of questions to start the conversation, from childhood homes to family traditions. |
| Free Charts and Templates | Free forms for organizing what you learn, including family interview questions, family group sheets, and pedigree charts. |
| “Speak, Memory,” Part One and Part Two | How to prepare for an oral history interview with a relative, and how to conduct it. |
| Making Time to Talk | Practical advice on interviewing family members and organizing your notes afterward. |
| Webinar Syllabus: Tips for Interviewing Relatives ($10) | A detailed guide from American Ancestors archivist Stephanie Call on planning and conducting interviews with family members. |
Once you’ve recorded a family member, consider sharing your oral history with 10 Million Names so it can help other families find their ancestors.
Maps
See how the island looked before the bridge, the resorts, and the roads, from plantation boundaries to landings and creeks.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Hilton Head Island, South Carolina before 1861 (South Caroliniana Library) | A map of the island’s plantations and landowners on the eve of the Civil War. |
| Hilton Head Island Plantations (Heritage Library) | Two historic maps, Mosse’s 1783 survey and “Hilton Head Island Before 1861,” with histories of each plantation and its owners. |
Online Records
Records you can search from home. Several focus on the years after Emancipation, when many formerly enslaved people appear by name for the first time.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| U.S. Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865–1874 | Account records from the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, which often list family members, birthplaces, and former enslavers. |
| Beaufort Deed Indexes | Indexes to county land records, useful for tracing when island families bought property. |
| Beaufort Deed Book | Beaufort County’s online deed books, for viewing the land transactions themselves. |
| Freedmen’s Bureau Records (National Museum of African American History and Culture) | Records of the federal agency that aided freed people after the war, including labor contracts, marriages, and schools. |
| USCT Pension Files (International African American Museum) | Pension files of United States Colored Troops veterans and their widows, rich in family detail. |
| Historic Newspapers of South Carolina (Beaufort) | Digitized newspapers from Beaufort County, searchable by name, place, and date. |
| South Carolina Department of Archives and History | The state’s online index to wills, land grants, court records, and more. |
Books and Other Physical Records
Books and collections to read or visit in person, including holdings at our partner, the Heritage Library on Hilton Head Island.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| USCT Pension Files, Heritage Library | Copies of pension files for local Civil War veterans, available to researchers at the Heritage Library. |
| Gullah Days: Hilton Head Islanders Before the Bridge, 1861–1956 | A history of the island’s Gullah community from the Civil War to the bridge, from Blair Publisher. |
| Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library | The library’s local history collection of books, videos, and archival materials. |
| History of Hilton Head Island: Selected Links and Materials | A Beaufort County Library guide to books, links, and finding aids on island history. |
| Gullah Cultural Legacies | An overview of Gullah traditions, beliefs, art forms, and speech on Hilton Head and the nearby Sea Islands. |