Please note that modern vital records (birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses) were not
kept at the State level until the 1900s. South Carolina researchers must search through individual
county records, newspapers, church/parish records, and Bibles for birth, marriage and death records
prior to the 1900s.

South Carolina Birth Records

South Carolina did not require birth certificates until 1 January 1915. These records are held by the
Bureau of Vital Statistics
Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC)
J. Marion Sims Building, 2600 Bull Street
Columbia, S.C. 29201
(803) 734-4830.

PRE-1915 RESOURCES

Rev. Simeon Campbell's Diary
Excerpts of birth, marriage and death information pertaining to Old Marion County (Dillon and Marion).

South Carolina Marriage Records

The state required marriage licenses beginning 1 July 1911. The probate judge's office in the county courthouse holds
licenses issued before 1950. Both the Bureau of Vital Statistics and the county courthouse have copies of licenses
issued after 1 July 1950.

• Dillon County Marriage Records
  where to write -- database -- links and additional resources

South Carolina Death Records

Death certificates were required beginning 1 January 1915 and are restricted from the public for fifty years.
The Archives has the certificates from 1915 to the year before the fifty year restriction. DHEC holds certificates
after the fifty year restriction.

• Dillon County Death Records
  where to write -- database -- links and additional resources

Divorce Records

Although divorce before 1868 was not legal, a legislative act or the district courts of equity could grant divorce or
separate maintenance but did so only rarely. From 1868 to 1878, when a legislative statute again outlawed it, divorce
could be obtained in the courts of common pleas. Divorce was legalized in 1950, and the office of the clerk of court
in the county where the divorce was granted holds those records. Since July 1962, duplicate divorce records have
been filed with DHEC. Church records

Parish registers from churches can provide information on birth and death dates, and marriages. Parish registers of
a few early South Carolina churches are extant and some have been published. Published histories of churches
occasionally include lists of births, marriages, or deaths.

Records of Baptist Churches are available at Baptist Historical Collection, Furman University Library, Furman
University, Greenville, S.C. 29613, and records of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches are available at the
Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, P.O. Box 849, Montreat, N.C. 28757, (704) 669-7061.

Links:

• S.C. DHEC - Division of Vital Records
  information on how to apply for certificates, fee schedules, etc.
• South Carolina Archives (SCDAH)
  Genealogy Research Request forms