Fantastic Find Revisited: CSI: Dixie

Here's the site's simplest description of what it contains: "CSI: Dixie collects 1582 coroners reports from six South Carolina counties for the years 1800-1900." The counties include Anderson County, Edgefield County, Greenville County, Kershaw County, Spartanburg County, and Union County.

Put together by historians at the University of Georgia as a part of their ehistory project which seeks "not merely to reach a broader public but to involve a broader public."

[Unitarian Cemetery, Charleston South Carolina Gateway Walk, 2008. My photo.]

If your ancestors lived in one of those six South Carolina counties, you just might find familiar names mentioned in the records and you're welcome to share what you know:

"For all its focus on the dead, then, CSI:D is a living project, inviting users to contribute photos, documents, leads, and details in the cases of 1582 unfortunate souls. Unlike a book, which seeks to be the last word on a subject, CSI:D is just the first word; it is an appeal to the public to join an ongoing investigation."

And even if you don't happen to have anyone from those counties, the site provides a useful description of the history and role of coroners and their juries in the 19th century South.

Hat tip to Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money blog.

Note: I first posted this in 2016 and I neglected to mention that some of these coroners reports detail the deaths of slaves. Here are links to reviews and notices of CSI:D that include the insight into the violence of slavery.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.