Heritage Library Foundation

The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. is a premier genealogy and local history research library located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  The Heritage Library Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization.  The Foundation has three departments, Genealogy, History, and Historical Research.

The library was established in 1997 as a genealogy library.  In 2005, the library merged with the Hilton Head Historical Society and assumed ownership of two historically significant properties on the island:

• Fort Mitchel is an earthwork Civil War fort that was built in 1861/2 by the Union forces that had captured the island in November, 1861. They established the Headquarters of the Department of the South to blockade the Carolina and Florida coastline from the Confederate ships. Ft. Mitchel was strategically located at the entrance of Port Royal Sound, and protected the Seabrook Coaling Stations.
• Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery is a colonial and antebellum periods cemetery and former site of a Chapel of Ease established in 1788, and the Baynard Mausoleum, built in 1846. The mausoleum is one of the oldest standing buildings on the island.  The cemetery has the markers for four Revolutionary War veterans.

The Genealogy Department maintains the genealogy library which consists of approximately 6000 books related to genealogy, and several subscription databases available to our patrons.  We also offer one of the subscription databases that our premier members can access from our website. 

The Heritage Library was named the 2013 “Organization of the Year” by the Hilton Head Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, and was featured in USA Today in an article titled, “The Ten Great Places to Research Family Roots,” and in an ancestry.com blog highlighting our work with Clemson University.

Our History Department documents and creates presentations for the community on various historical topics or eras. Our volunteers take on special research projects and compile information on the various eras in Hilton Head history.  Our volunteers have completed an exhaustive body of work documenting the people and events on Hilton Head Island during the civil war and during Reconstruction.