South Carolina Genealogy Research Using SCL Resources

Explore genealogy using the South Carolina Department of Archives and History's Online Records Index searches over 330,000 online images, and 375,000 names, covering 13,000 places and 17,000 topics.

The First Census of the United States (1790) comprised an enumeration of the inhabitants of the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia.

Resource page created to help librarians serving genealogists.

Guide to common terms which may be unusual or dated that are encountered during genealogical research.  Compiled and verified from a variety of dictionaries and encyclopedias. 

Chicora is a Columbia, South Carolina public, non-profit heritage preservation organization founded in 1983. Chicora's work includes archaeological and historical research throughout the Southeastern United States, public education (primarily in South Carolina), and work in conservation and preservation with museums, libraries, archives, historic organizations, and private citizens.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Wiki that identifies major archives, libraries, societies, museums, repositories, and institutions with genealogy collections and research services.

World’s largest and most comprehensive cartographic collection with collections numbering more than 5.5 million maps, 80,000 atlases, 6,000 reference works, 19,000 CDs/DVDs, and other cartographic materials in various formats.

The papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722–1793) and her daughter Harriott Pinckney Horry (1748–1830) document the lives of two observant and articulate founding-era women who were members of one of South Carolina’s leading families. Their letters, diaries, and other documents span nearly a century (1739–1830) and provide a window on politics, social events, and people of the late colonial and early national periods.

These links can help you learn about local registers of deeds offices in South Carolina. Among duties of these county offices are recording of land titles, liens, plats, and other property documents. Different SC governments offer different online resources.

The Society of First Families of South Carolina 1670-1700 is working to perpetuate the memory of those who achieved a permanent settlement in South Carolina between 1670 and 1700; cherish, maintain and extend the institution of American freedom; and foster true patriotism and love of country. The society's papers can be found at the Charleston Library Society.

An online resources which contains information regarding cemetery identification and gravestone inscriptions.

The South Carolina Digital Library coordinates the distribution of the knowledge and resources necessary to encourage new digitization efforts in the state, and provides free and unlicensed access to those collections online to stimulate the minds and extend the cultural memories of South Carolina’s citizens. The South Carolina Digital Library provides free access to historic materials from over 40 cultural heritage institutions across the state. Over 200,000 items have been added so far.

This website serves as a repository for information about South Carolina plantations and the people who lived and worked on them. It includes data for more than 2,000 SC plantations.

This index identifies interments by name, race, place of birth, date of death, and cemetery for nearly 9,000 patients who were buried by the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane, and the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. The original patient records for the State Hospital and Department of Mental Health are at the South Carolina State Archives.

Provides resource and training on collecting and preserving oral histories.

The images in this collection are selections from the photographic archives of The State Media Company, which are stored at Richland Library. This digital collection will continue to grow as more historic photographs are digitized. A finding aid for the archive is available. The photographs in the archive date from 1955 to 2002 and were taken by staff photographers for The State and The Columbia Record newspapers. The Columbia Record was the evening paper for Columbia and was published from 1913 to 1988. The State was first published in 1891 and remains the leading daily newspaper for the city. Please note that the images in this collection are for personal and educational use only and remain under copyright of The State Media Company. Contact the Walker Local and Family History Center at Richland Library for questions about the use of this collection.

The South Carolina State Library recently completed a digitization project related to these records of tombstones in cemeteries located in South Carolina. The “Works Progress Administration (WPA) Transcripts of Tombstone Inscriptions in South Carolina” digitization project consists of 67 pages of records of microfiche negatives, each negative contains numerous individual transcriptions. Local chapters of the South Carolina Genealogical Society transcribed volumes of the WPA record inscriptions from the 1930s while the South Carolina Historical Society created the microfiche records of the original WPA documents in 1981.