South Carolina Census

Additional Information may be found on the United States Census Portal page.

Availability
Many federal census records are found at the Family History Library, the National Archives, and other federal and state archives. The United States Census article provided detailed information about these records.

Colonial Censuses
No colonial censuses have been preserved. See the “Taxation” section of the Research Outline for South Carolina for similar lists of names for this time period.

Mortality Schedules
1850-1880--Mortality schedules (lists of deaths in the year preceding the census) exist for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Indexes have been published for 1850 and 1860. The originals are at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. The Family History Library film numbers are listed below:

(FHL films 1294287-89)

87 = 1850-60

88 = 1870

89 = 1880

The 1890 schedules were destroyed, except those for Civil War veterans and widows, which are at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, the National Archives, and the Family History Library.

Web Sites
Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.com

Heritage Quest Online: http://www.heritagequestonline.com

Census Online: http://www.census-online.com/links/SC/

Genealogy Today: http://dir.genealogytoday.com/usa/sc/census.html

Access Genealogy: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/census/southcarolina.htm

Bibliographic Citations
www.census-online.com/links/SC/

Indexes are available for the 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses in book format. Microfilm soundex (phonetic) indexes are available for part of the 1880 and all of the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses.

Colonial and State  

An 1848 census for the city of Charleston is available at the Family History Library (FHL film 823835 item 2). Although not available at the Family History Library, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History has the following state censuses:


 * 1829 state census (Fairfield and Laurens Districts)
 * 1839 state census (Kershaw District)
 * 1869 population returns
 * 1875 agricultural and population returns