"About 5 or more years ago I obtained a listing of the names of most (but not all) of the people in the 1899 Bethany Baptist church homecoming photo that was compiled by Ernest Scarborough and several others during the mid to late 1950s.  There was a separate sketch map with each person numbered, and the list was numbered from #1 through # 63 for each person in the photo. This listing of attendees, along with other Scarborough information, was then made available on the Internet via a website; the listing of people was basically unchanged from the original 1950 listing, except that the birth date (year) was added for each person where known. Some other information relating to married couples and certain symbology linking families together was added, but this information needed further work to be useful.

In the fall of 2005, in anticipation of Earnest Scarborough’s planned visit to the Sumter area, I realized that a few minor enhancements could be made to the original compilation. I referred to my family tree database, as well as to the Bethany Baptist Church cemetery listing, to add where possible more details in terms of full names and complete birth/death dates. I also added the plot number for those buried at the Bethany Baptist Church cemetery. Josie Elmore and Dorothy Tedder Smith also assisted in providing updates to the original listing during the fall of 2005. It was also noted that one person (#32) had originally been mis-identified as it appeared in the 2006 on-line listing. This error has been corrected.

A number of unidentified people remain to be identified in this listing. There are as well names of a few people for which there is presently no more detail available other than their name. Hopefully, over time, descendants of these people will recognize their ancestors from other family photos and help us update our listing.

From Bill Scarborough: Earnest [my Uncle Earnest] and I have worked on that list some during 2006, and my grandfather Ernest, and Alan Smith’s Aunt Johnsie, worked on the original compilation way back in the 1950s I believe. A second major edit was made to “The People in the Picture” page in the fall of 2005, including the creation of a new, digitally scanned, image. We are still editing the contents of this website, and we are making an effort to get some Sumter people involved in trying to identify the "unknowns" as well as in making sure the list is correct.