The Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society will hold its 28th annual Oktoberfest Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10-11 at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center at 2855 Columbia Road.

Registration will be held at 4 p.m. Friday.

John R. Fennell, director of the Lexington County Museum, will be speaker at the President’s Dinner on Friday evening, said OGSGS President Lynn Shuler Teague. Elizabeth Johnson, deputy state historic preservation officer on the National Register of Historic Places in Orangeburg County, will be speaking at the Saturday luncheon. Other speakers include genealogist and publisher Brent Holcomb and Karl Becker. Becker will be speaking about his research on the Connor family.

“This year our meeting will include a special treat, a tour of one of Orangeburg County’s most beautiful and historic homes, the Lewis Dantzler Plantation,” Teague said. “DeeDee and Mike Kullenberg have generously agreed to open their home to us at 4 p.m. for a tour.”

The OGSGS was organized in 1981 for the purpose of researching the genealogy of the Swiss and German settlers of the Orangeburgh District. It also collects and preserves early records of the people of the Orangeburgh Township and their descendants, Teague said. The first meeting of the OGSGS was held in Edisto Memorial Gardens in a picnic shelter overlooking the river, said Executive Secretary Josephine Freeland Shuler, who is in charge of local arrangements.

The Swiss and German settlers came to Orangeburg in groups of 200 beginning in 1735, 1736 and 1737, with others arriving in 1752 and 1753, according to Shuler. The king of England gave the settlers, most of whom were Swiss, a payment of money and a grant of land. They traveled down the Rhine River to Rotterdam and boarded English ships that carried them to the colony of Carolina. They landed at Charleston and traveled inland to Orangeburg.

Some of the names of the early settlers are still seen in the Orangeburg area today. Some of them include Salley, Rickenbaker, Dantzler, Shuler, Hutto, Felder, Bozard, Horger, Ulmer, Haigler, Zeigler, Stroman, Fogle, Hildebrand, Hungerpillar, Inabinet, Ott, Syfrett, Till and Smoak, said Shuler.

Members from as far away as California are expected to attend this year’s meeting, Shuler said.

T&D Correspondent Dale Linder-Altman can be reached by e-mail at jerryanddale@lowcountry.com.

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