Beaufort County, South Carolina Genealogy

United States  South Carolina  Beaufort County

History
The county was named after the Duke of Beaufort.

Parent County
1769--Beaufort County was created in 1769 as an original district. County seat: Beaufort

Boundary Changes
"Rotating Formation South Carolina County Boundary Maps" (1682-1987) may be viewed for free at the My South Carolina Genealogy website. They rely on AniMap 3.0 software.

Neighboring Counties

 * Colleton
 * Hampton
 * Jasper

Census
1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 federal population schedules of Beaufort County are available online. For tips on accessing census records online, see South Carolina Census. If you're having trouble finding your ancestors in online indexes, try checking printed indexes. Created by local experts familiar with the area's families, these indexes are often transcribed more accurately than online nationwide indexes.

See South Carolina Population Schedule Indexes: Fiche, Film, or Book for more information about statewide printed indexes.

Family Histories
It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. Use this list to:


 * Locate publications about direct ancestors
 * Find the most updated accounts of an ancestor's family
 * Identify publications, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, about an ancestor's "FAN Club" [Friends, Associates, and Neighbors]

General

As of August 2010, a query for persons born in Beaufort, South Carolina at World Connect, results in more than 7,500 entries.

Surname indexes to Leonardo Andrea's Files | Folders | Resources are available online, courtesy: The Andrea Files: South Carolina Genealogical Research. Learn more.

Bibliography

Land
Plats For State Land Grants 1784-1868

This series consists of recorded copies of plats for state land grants for the Charleston and the Columbia Series with their certificates of admeasurement or certification. All personal names and geographic features on these plats are included in the repository's On-line Index to Plats for State Land Grants

The South Carolina Constitution of 1790 required the surveyor general to maintain offices in both the new capital at Columbia and in Charleston. The surveyor general began to use separate volumes for recording plats in his Columbia office in 1796. Before that, all plats were recorded in the set of volumes begun in Charleston in 1784. After 1796, most plats for land grants in the Upper Division of the state were recorded and filed in Columbia. The surveyor general chose to make the Columbia volumes a continuation of the state plat volumes begun in Charleston and gave the initial Columbia volume the number thirty-six to correspond with the number of the volume that had then been reached in the Charleston series. As a result, there are volumes numbered thirty-six through forty-three from each office, but the records in them are not duplicative.

Also included are the Plan Books containing Plats and Plans.

Newspapers
Beaufort County Obituary Indexes

The Beaufort County Library has created a Newspaper Obituary Index. The Index is drawn from the library's microfilmed collection. Also included are some local newspapers that were started in 2006--Beaufort Today, Bluffton Today, and Hilton Head Island Today--these are not in the microfilm archives, they are just published in an online version as the source.

Currently, the obituary index contains 18,794 records from 18 Beaufort County newspapers from 1862 and May 15, 1984 and October, 2007 to the present. This is an ongoing project and records are being added on a regular bases. This link is a Beta version at the moment. The site includes instructions on how to secure copies if you locate your ancestor. This index has been compiled independently by volunteers and the staff at the Beaufort County Library! The link will lead you to the index and you can click the "Obituary Index Beta Version" link located in the middle of the page. What a great asset to those doing research in Beaufort County.

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Family History Library Catalog
 * Beaufort County, South Carolina Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)