South Carolina Emigration and Immigration

United State] [[Image:Gotoarrow.pn]  [[United States Emigration and Immigration|U.S. Immigratio]  [[Image:Gotoarrow.pn]  [[South Carolina Genealogy|South Carolin]  [[Image:Gotoarrow.pn]  [[South_Carolina_Emigration_and_Immigration|Emigration and Immigratio] [[Image:British Ships at Deptford. Site of the first Royal Dockyard.jpg|thumb|right|300px [[Image:Wagon Train.jpg|thumb|right|300px]]

The People
About 80 percent of the settlers of colonial South Carolin] were of English origin. Many of them came by way of [[Barbados Genealogy|Barbado] and other colonies rather than directly from [[England Genealogy|England. A group of Dutch settlers from New York came to South Carolina in 1671. Another smaller group was of French origin, mostly descendants of [[South Carolina Church Records#Huguenot|Huguenot], who came to the area beginning in 1680. More numerous were the Scottish dissenters, who were brought in beginning in 1682, and the Germans, who arrived during the eighteenth century. Blacks constituted a majority of the population from early colonial times until 1930. Indian wars drove most of the native Americans from the state, but there are still a few Catawba Indians in [[York County, South Carolina|York Count].

Settlement Patterns
The earliest settlements were on the coastal plain low country of South Carolina. Pushed by a desire to escape the Revolutionary War and pulled by a desire for land, settlers eventually poured into the Piedmont up country. Townships in eighteenth-century South Carolina were established as residences for foreign protestants of various nationalities. Many immigrants were of Ulster Scots, German, and Welsh descent. In 1770 the population of South Carolina was less than 50,000; by 1790 it had reached 140,000.

Early migration routes: Savannah River· Augusta and Cherokee Trail· Augusta-Savannah Trail· Augusta-St. Augustine Trail· Camden-Charleston Path· Catawba and Northern Trail· Catawba Trail· Charleston-Ft. Charlotte Trail· Charleston-Savannah Trail· Cisca and St. Augustine Trail (or Nickajack Trail)· Coosa-Tugaloo Indian Warpath· Fall Line Road (or Southern Road)· Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path· Fort Moore-Charleston Trail· Great Valley Road· King's Highwa]· [[Lower Cherokee Traders' Path· Lower Creek Trading Path· Middle Creek Trading Path· Occaneechi Path· Old Cherokee Path· Old South Carolina State Road· Savannah-Jacksonville Trail· Secondary Coast Road· Tugaloo-Apalachee Bay Trail· Unicoi Trail· Upper Road· Ports:  [[Beaufort County, South Carolina|Beaufor]· [[Charleston County, South Carolina|Charlesto]· [[Georgetown County, South Carolina|Georgetow]

Early settlement was blocked by thick forests. The best way through the trees was by river, or over Indian trails that were slowly improved into wagon and stagecoach roads. Use the above list of early migration trails to get a better understanding of where early South Carolina settlers came from and where they may have moved.

Almost immediately after statehood, South Carolina began to lose population to the westward movement. In the early 1800s, slaveholders moved to new, more fertile plantations in Alabama and Mississippi. In the 1820s, antislavery Quakers moved to the Old Northwest, especially Indiana.

South Carolina did not attract many overseas immigrants during the nineteenth century. State-sponsored recruiting efforts brought in a few hundred Germans between 1866 and 1868 and about 2,500 northern Europeans in the early 1900s.

Overseas Immigration
The major port of entry to South Carolina is [[Charleston County, South Carolina|Charlesto]. Others important ports have included [[Beaufort County, South Carolina|Beaufor] and [[Georgetown County, South Carolina|Georgetow].

Colonial Period
Brent H. Holcomb, CG, sums up the problem of finding South Carolina passenger lists: "One of the questions most frequently asked about South Carolina records is 'Where are the shiplists?'. Your editor has seen many disappointed faces when he has explained that in the Colonial period they do not exist outside of the few actual lists in the South Carolina Council Journals and what might be gleaned from the texts of individual petitioners for lands."


 * Revill, Janie. A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina 1763-1773. Columbia, S.C.: The State Co., 1939. Free Name Search ; publisher's bookstore: [http://www.genealogical.com/products/A_Compilation_of_the_Original_Lists_of_Protestant_Immigrants_to_South_Carolina_1763_1773/4870.html Genealogical.co; ; digital version at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48270 Ancestr ($); 1968 reprint: ; digital version of 1996 reprint at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc0806305991_originalimmigrantssc1763 World Vital Record ($).


 * "Some Emigrants to South Carolina 1727," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Summer 1986):133.


 * Holcomb, Brent H.Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals. (1734-1774) 7 vols. Columbia, S.C.: SCMAR, 1996-1999. In the eighteenth century, many immigrants petitioned for headright lands in the Colony of South Carolina.


 * "Some Irish Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina 1753 and 1754," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Winter 1989):25-29. Abstracts of select Irish immigrants found in Council Journals.


 * [[Peter Wilson Coldham|Coldham, Peter Wilso]. Emigrants from England to the American Colonies, 1773-1776. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing co., 1988. . For English passenger lists, 1773 to 1776, which includes some emigrants destined for South Carolina.


 * Scholarly articles published in The American Genealogist and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly illustrate strategies that will help Americans trace their colonial South Carolina immigrant origins.

Colonial Ships
Several resources can help you learn more about a colonial ship's history.

Though they do not include names of passengers, records kept by the Colonial Office and stored at [[England The National Archives|The National Archive] (Kew, England), document ships' arrivals and departures from South Carolina ports between 1716 and 1767. FamilySearch microfilmed these records. They are useful for learning about the history of ships entering the colony:


 * Shipping Lists for South Carolina, 1716-1767.

Lloyd's Register of Shipping identifies ships leaving England, their masters, ports of departure, and destinations. They survive as early as 1764 and are being put online at [http://www.lr.org/en/research-and-innovation/historical-information/lloyds-register-of-ships-online/ Lloyd's Register of Ships Onlin - free.

Dr. Marianne S. Wokeck created a detailed list of "German Immigrant Voyages, 1683-1775" to Colonial America. Destinations include South Carolina (1730s-1770s). She published the list in an Appendix to:


 * Wokeck, Marianne S. Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America. (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).

The [http://web.archive.org/web/20100123093207/http://escndatabase.com/shiplist.htm Early South Carolina Newspaper Databas (WayBack Machine) offers a free online index to ships mentioned in eighteenth-century South Carolina newspapers.

Lists of ship arrivals announced in the South Carolina Gazette between 1760 and 1770 have also been published:


 * Jones, Jack Moreland and Mary Bondurant Warren. South Carolina Immigrants, 1760 to 1770. (Danielsville, Ga.: Heritage Papers, 1988).

Many ships that sailed from Bristol, England to South Carolina are described in: Bristol, Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade to America 1698-1807 (4 vols.).

African Immigrants

 * The [http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Databas Internet site contains references to 35,000 slave voyages, including over 67,000 Africans aboard slave ships, using name, age, gender, origin, and place of embarkation. The database documents the slave trade between Africa, Europe, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States.


 * Records of blacks are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog Place-names Search under the heading:


 * SOUTH CAROLINA - SLAVERY AND BONDAGE
 * SOUTH CAROLINA - MINORITIES

English Immigrants
In lieu of colonial passenger lists regarding early settlers of South Carolina, genealogists must rely on evidence gleaned from a variety of sources to successfully trace immigrant origins.


 * The Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London proved the wills of many residents of South Carolina. For access, see [[South Carolina Probate Records|South Carolina Probate Record]. Heraldic visitations list some members of prominent English families who crossed the Atlantic. [http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html Expert Links: English Family History and Genealog includes a concise list of visitations available online. Online archive catalogs, such as [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ Access to Archive, can be keyword searched for place names, such as "South Carolina" and "Charleston," to retrieve manuscripts stored in hundreds of English archives relating to persons and landholdings in this former English colony. These types of records establish links between South Carolina residents and England, which can lead researchers back to their specific ancestral English towns, villages, and hamlets.


 * The multi-volume Calendar of Colonial State Papers Colonial, America, and West Indies (1574-1739), which is available for free online at British History Online. (see discussion in [[South Carolina Public Records|South Carolina Public Record]), highlights many connections between England and South Carolina.


 * More detailed information on immigration sources is in the [[United States Emigration and Immigration|United States Emigration and Immigratio]. Records of other major ethnic groups, including French Huguenots, Ulster Scots, Jews, Quakers, and Catawba Indians exist.


 * Motes, Margaret Peckham. Migration to South Carolina, Movement from the New England and Mid-Atlantic States, 1850 Census. Baltimore, Md.: Clearfield, 2004. ; digital version at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc080635223_margaretpeckhammotes2004 World Vital Record ($).


 * Scott, Kenneth. British Aliens in the United States During the War of 1812. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1979. ; digital version at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49091 Ancestr ($). Identifies many British immigrants living in Charleston during the War of 1812.


 * Hotten, John Camden. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, with Their Ages, the Localities Where They Formerly Lived in the Mother Country, the Names of the Ships in which They Embarked, and Other Interesting Particulars; from MSS. Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. London: the author, 1874. Digital versions at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2065 Ancestr ($); [http://books.google.com/books?id=B414AAAAMAAJ Google Book and [http://www.archive.org/details/originallistsofp00hottuoft Internet Archiv; 1983 reprint: A standard work on early South Carolina immigrants, which includes some passenger lists.


 * Brandow published an addendum to Hotten's work Brandow, James C. Omitted Chapters from Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality ... and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001. Digital version at [http://books.google.com/books?id=5XVU5n4ACE0C Google book (free) and at[http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49280 Ancestr ($).


 * [[Peter Wilson Coldham|Peter Wilson Coldha] has published several volumes of English records that identify, among other American immigrants, those destined for South Carolina. Many English indentured servants completed labor terms in South Carolina. Coldham's works are indexed in Filby's Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s (digital version at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7486 Ancestr ($)).


 * [[Peter Wilson Coldham|Coldham, Peter Wilso]. British Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1788. (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2004) ;


 * [[Peter Wilson Coldham|Coldham, Peter Wilso]. The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686. (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1988) ; ; digital versions at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49090 Ancestr ($); [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brbwgw/PubForums.htm Chronicle Barbado (Barbados entries only); [http://www.virtualjamestown.org/indentures/search_indentures.html Virtual Jamestow.


 * [[Peter Wilson Coldham|Coldham, Peter Wilso]. The Complete Book of Emigrants: 1607-1776. n.p.: Brøderbund, 1996. ; ; digital version of select portions at [http://www.virtualjamestown.org/indentures/search_indentures.html Virtual Jamestow.


 * "Convicts to South Carolina 1728," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Spring 1992):82. ;


 * Runaway advertisements for colonial indentured servants often yield immigration data. The [http://www.shipindex.org/resources/144-early_south_carolina_newspaper_database Early South Carolina Newspaper Databas indexes these records.

French Immigrants

 * Many French Huguenots made South Carolina their home. The 114+ volume Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina is a great starting point for research: . [http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en Google book has several volumes.

German Immigrants

 * [http://www.progenealogists.com/palproject/ The Palatine Projec, sponsored by [http://www.progenealogists.com/ ProGenealogist, includes annotated passenger lists for Germans entering Colonial South Carolina.


 * The following internet site has potentially useful information: [http://www.germanroots.com/miscports/charleston.html German Root (Port of Charleston).

Scottish and Irish Immigrants
David Dobson has dedicated many years to establishing links between Scots and their dispersed Scottish cousins who settled throughout the world. For South Carolina connections, see:


 * Dobson, David. Directory of Scots in the Carolinas 1680-1830. Volume 1. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1986. Free Name Search ; publisher's bookstore: [http://www.genealogical.com/products/Directory_of_Scots_in_the_Carolinas_1680_1830__Volume_1/1483.html Genealogical.co; ; ; digital version at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc_directoryscottishnorthamerica1680-1830_vol1 World Vital Record ($).


 * Dobson, David. Directory of Scots in the Carolinas, 1680-1830, Volume 2. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. Digital version at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc0806352310_directoryscotscarolinas_vol2 World Vital Record ($). Also available


 * Motes, Margaret Peckham. Irish Found in South Carolina 1850 Census. (Baltimore, Md.: Clearfield, 2003) ; ; digital version at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc0806352035_margaretpeckhammotes World Vital Record ($).


 * Stephenson, Jean. Scotch-Irish Migration to South Carolina, 1772 Rev. William Martin and His Five Shiploads of Settlers. Strasburg, Virginia: Shenandoah Publishing House, 1971. Free Name Search ; publisher's bookstore: [http://www.genealogical.com/products/Scotch_Irish_Migration_to_South_Carolina_1772/9428.html Genealogical.co; ; ; digital version at [http://books.google.com/books?id=rts4J_rwXRsC Google book (Free) and at [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc0806348321_scotch-irishsc World Vital Record ($).

1783 to Present

 * The Family History Library and the National Archives (Washington, D.C.) have fragmentary passenger lists for Charleston for 1820 to 1828 and for Port Royal for 1865.


 * The following abstracts of the Charleston and Port Royal Passenger lists: Holcomb, Brent H. "Passengers Arriving at the Port of Charleston 1820-1829," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Fall 1989):183-189; Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1990):13-21; Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring 1990):75-83; Vol. 18, No. 3 (Summer 1990):133-145; Vol. 18, No. 4 (Fall 1990):195-201; Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 1991):13-23; Vol. 19, No. 2 (Spring 1991):79-91; Vol. 19, No. 3 (Summer 1991):127-137; Vol. 19, No. 4 (Fall 1991):189-198; Vol. 20, No. 1 (Winter 1992):11-21; Vol. 20, No. 2 (Spring 1992):83-93; Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 1992):143-153; Vol. 21, No. 1 (Winter 1993):21-27; Vol. 21, No. 2 (Spring 1993):81-87; Vol. 21, No. 3 (Summer 1993):151-159; Vol. 21, No. 4 (Fall 1993):205-213; Vol. 22, No. 1 (Winter 1994):29-37; Vol. 22, No. 2 (Spring 1994):99-105..


 * Reprinted versions of the Charleston passenger lists: Holcomb, Brent H. Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Charleston, 1820-1829. 1994. Digital versions at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48269 Ancestr ($) and [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc_passengerarrivalscharleston1820-1829 World Vital Record ($).


 * A few arrivals at Charleston are included in an index to passenger lists of vessels arriving at miscellaneous southern ports from 1890 to 1924


 * Customs records for the ports of Charleston, Georgetown, and Beaufort are at the [[South Carolina Department of Archives and Histor]. Several published records of pre-1900 immigrants are indexed in P. William Filby, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1981, 1985, 1986) ; . Supplements are issued annually. There are cumulative indexes.

Online Resources
Four major immigration collections include:


 * 1) [http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/default.aspx?rt=40 Ancestry's Immigration &amp; Travel Record ($). The place to start, includes Filby's indexes.
 * 2) [http://immigrantservants.com/search/simple.php Immigrant Servants Databas. Index to indentured servants; includes South Carolina.
 * 3) [http://www.virtualjamestown.org/indentures/search_indentures.html Virtual Jamestow. Scope is not limited to Colonial Virginia; includes English emigrants embarking for South Carolina.
 * 4) [http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tousa_sc.shtml The Olive Tree Genealog. Includes South Carolina passenger lists.

American Immigration
Many settlers from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia migrated down into South Carolina during the colonial period. The Great Valley Road, which passed through the Shenandoah Valley was a popular route.

North Carolina Immigrants

 * Linn, Mrs. Stahle. "Some Migrations from Rowan County, North Carolina to South Carolina," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer 1983):124-127.


 * Webster, Irene B. "Some Migrations from Rockingham County, North Carolina to South Carolina," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Winter 1998):28-30.

Virginia Immigrants
Bell published a series of articles about Southside Virginians who migrated to eighteenth-century South Carolina. Her strategy demonstrates how to find migration records:


 * Bell, Mary McCampbell. "Some Migrations from Virginia to South Carolina," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer 1981):143-144; Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall 1981):183-190; Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter 1982):37-42; Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring 1982):70-77; Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer 1982):136-143; Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring 1983):97-102; Vol. 12, No. 1 (Winter 1984):19-21; Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring 1984):94-99; Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer 1985):127-129.

Westward Migrants
Free native-born South Carolinians, alive in 1850, who had left the state, resettled as follows:


 * Dorothy Williams Potter in Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823 ; ) identifies some migrants from South Carolina into territories that are now [[Alabama Genealogy|Alabam], [[Florida Genealogy|Florid], [[Louisiana Genealogy|Louisian], [[Mississippi Genealogy|Mississipp], and [[Missouri Genealogy|Missour].


 * Robertson compiled a list of South Carolinians living in Kansas in 1860: Robertson, Clara Hamlett. Kansas Territorial Settlers of 1860 Who were Born in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina : A Compilation with Historical Annotations and Editorial Comment. (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976) ; ; digital version at [http://books.google.com/books?id=ERajaYX1Zo4C Google Book (free) and [http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=gpc0806306971_clarahamlettrobertson1976 World Vital Record ($).