Collections arrive routinely for digitization and preservation, destined for the pages of R&R. But one arrived very unexpectedly last year, the Mayhugh Plat Map Collection. This was not a family history project, but the lifetime work of one individual, Mr. Tom Mayhugh, of Chester Co., S.C., who for decades has been dedicated to researching and digitally recording thousands of antebellum deeds and plats. He was looking for connections with each adjoining land owner and connecting survey marks to build his database of linked and overlaying plat maps. His travels and work took him into regional courthouses, surveyors offices, private homes, and archival facilities across the region. What resulted was a group of searchable and informative historic plats related to Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster, and York counties. The bulk of his work does stem from and relate to Chester’s antebellum history but also spills over into adjacent counties.
His remarkable collection started as a means of better understanding the history of his own family’s farm. He wanted to better appreciate how it historically and geographically was related to adjoining parcels and linked geographically to surrounding acreage. Beyond that, he also began walking old road beds, painstakingly piecing one parcel to the next and then digitally creating overlapping and adjoining plat maps of extraordinary value to landowners and researchers. R&R has been informed by many of our member-users, of their sheer delight in having found the Mayhugh Plat Map Collections on Roots and Recall and how they have been so useful in their own ancestry searches.
So, last year when Tom Mayhugh casually dropped in with a thumb drive containing the sum of his life’s historic work, R&R was overjoyed with receiving such a meaningful and heartfelt donation. Conquering the technical and research expertise to have accumulated and accomplished the piecing together of these plats, is indeed one of the most useful of preservation projects he could have undertaken! Most of us working with Roots and Recall have yet to witness just how these plats are so meticulously connected. Though R&R has added them all to the website, we have yet to undertake the comprehensive indexing of these maps for ease of data retrieval. We hope there might be a volunteer who would like to work on this project in 2018, any takers?
Enjoy visiting a few pages related to the Mayhugh Collection at (CLICK ON THE LINKS):
Unfortunately, his work of the past three decades stopped in 2016. Roots and Recall would love to find a few individuals who might like to further this body of work and connect the dots beyond Chester’s borders.
R&R NOTE: This past week was filled with making community presentations on behalf of a dear old friend as well as working with artist, Chris Smith Evans to present a program linking the art and architecture of old textile mills. This collaboration was fostered and outlined by the York County Arts Council and was a successful blend of art lovers walking the streets of our town as well as understanding the impact and importance of historic textile mills. I think for many participants, it was the first time they had looked up at the facades of Main Street and discovered that there really is a great deal to enjoy architecturally by just looking up!
Also remember, the new Southern Queries Forum is up and running……have you checked it out yet?