Records Held at the SC Archives
As the official repository of state government records, the Archives houses a unique collection of original documents; it also holds a large microfilm collection of both federal government and British government records.
A brief listing of the type and scope of records held by the Department is given below. A more detailed listing of the Department's holdings can be found in the Archives' Summary Guide to Holdings, the SCArchCat online catalog, and by consulting the Online Records Index.
Legislative records: Journals from 1692 and acts from 1691, supplemented by bills, petitions, reports, and so forth from 1782.
Court records: Journals and case papers of provincial and appellate courts.
State agencies and departments: Non-current records of existing and defunct organizations.
Executive records: Council journals from 1671; governor's papers from 1860 with rare scattered earlier material.
Treasury records: Ledgers, journals, cashbooks, vouchers, and stub entry books from 1721.
Land records: Plats and grants virtually complete from 1731; nearly complete records of grants and conveyances 1671-1730; memorials of land titles, 1732-1775; microfilm of deeds available to 1920.
Records of the Secretary of the Province and State: Wills, inventories of estates, marriage settlements, commissions, mortgages, bills of sale, registers of trademarks, and charters of incorporation from 1671.
Military service records: Accounts Audited of Claims Growing Out of the Revolution; rosters of Confederate War soldiers; Confederate pension applications; scattered records of colonial wars, War of 1812, Mexican War and Spanish-American war; records of the Adjutant General's Office.
County and Municipal records: Several thousand cubic feet of manuscript records and a growing collection of microfilm produced by the Department; microfilm and typed copies of selected records to 1860 made by the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Works Progress Administration.
Reference collection: An ever-growing microfilm collection of public and semi-public records of or relating to South Carolina from the British Public Records Office, the National Archives, and private manuscript repositories; published reference works; bibliographies; archival guides; and monographs on South Carolina history.
Research Links
South Carolina Historical Society
Directory of South Carolina Historical Records Repositories
National Archives and Records Administration
State Historic Preservation Office: Researching Historic Properties:
Researching Historic Properties
Miscellaneous Communications to the General Assembly, 1789 (S165029)