My husband has several families with South Carolina ties – the Broadways, Hambys and Woodruffs – so I’ve had to do some digging in the Palmetto state.
Since resources like vital records are often in short supply in South Carolina, I decided it was time to compile the beginnings of a reference list for genealogical research there.
First, be sure to check any local town library or historical society where your ancestors lived. Be sure to inquire about any genealogical collections including any vertical file holdings.
Avery Research Center – College of Charleston collections
Beaufort County Library – There is an online searchable index covering local area obituaries dating back to 1862.
Charleston County RMC Archival Room
Chronicling America at the Library of Congress – many links to historical South Carolina newspapers
FamilySearch – There is a lengthy list of links to all kinds of South Carolina records accessible on line. Some are free, while others are links to paid sites, so noted with $ sign.
FamilySearch Wiki on South Carolina research
Greenville Historical Society – There is an online browseable catalog, but items must be viewed in person.
Gutenberg Project EBook – South Carolina Slave Narratives
Heritage Library/History and Ancestry Research Center
Horry County Historical Society
Huguenot Society of South Carolina
IAAM Center for Family History
Lexington County Probate Court Online Indexes
Low Country Digital Library – College of Charleston
Richland Library – Main library is in Charleston
Schalene Dagutis’s Slave Name Roll Project
South Carolina Department of Archives and History – There are links to multiple online databases.
South Carolina Digital Library
South Carolina GenWeb – Resources are organized by county and maintained by volunteers. Some counties are rich with records, while others are sparse.
South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine – on JSTOR
South Carolina Historical Society
South Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution – This site has a number of links to other pertinent SC websites.
South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina Digital Collections
If you have early Spartanburg County families, a book that I found incredibly handy is Spartanburg County – District, South Carolina, Deed Abstracts, Book A-T 1785-1827 by Albert Bruce Pruitt, published in 1998. It is found on the shelves of many genealogical libraries. It’s also available on Amazon.
Be sure to contact any local public library in a town where your family lived to ask about vertical files and/or any local genealogical information that might be in the collection.
Unfortunately, this list isn’t very long, which reflects the difficulty in locating genealogical documents. However, the links above are a great starting place and you might be pleasantly surprised. Some sites have a large number of resources.