Our agency collects the permanently valuable state and county government records of South Carolina. For genealogical mail requests our reference staff will check the following pertinent sources if provided with the name of an individual, county and approximate dates of residence in South Carolina. Please send a self addressed stamped envelope with each request. If you are communicating via E-Mail, please include your full postal address. Please limit index checks to one name per letter.
If information is found about the individual you seek, our staff will provide quotes for copies of up to ten records per letter. Indexes and records will be quoted as they appear. We cannot verify identities, check the contents of records, or attempt to determine parentage. Please send no money until you receive an order form listing the cost of copies of materials located by our staff. When you return this form with payment, we will process your order.
Our agency maintains no family research files, nor does it collect genealogies or newspapers. For the most complete guide to this type of information please consult Richard N. Cote, Local and Family History in South Carolina: A Bibliography (Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1981). Please remember that the following counties suffered major losses of their pre-Civil War records: Abbeville, Beaufort, Chesterfield, Clarendon, Colleton, Georgetown, Lancaster, Lexington, Orangeburg, and Richland. A list of professional genealogical researchers is available upon request. For a complete list of holdings in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, see the online version of the South Carolina Summary Guide to Holdings.
Please send mail inquiries to:
The South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Attn: Reference Staff
8301 Parklane Road
Columbia, SC 29223or via e-mail to tuttle@scdah.state.sc.us
Please include your full postal address in all communications with us.
