Anderson County, South Carolina Genealogy

Describes some tips from researching in this county.

Prior to 1826, Anderson County was part of Pendleton District.

The book, 1800 Census of Pendleton District, SC  by William Stewart is an excellent book. It covers present day Anderson County, Pickens County and Oconee County. The author provides many annotations of people and families listed in this census, especially migration information before 1800 from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina and after 1800 to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas.

Searching 1840 Anderson County census using Ancestry.com will always result zero responses even for the last name of Smith because Ancestry mistakenly indexed Anderson County residents in 1840 as Charleston County (as of 1 November 2007 had not been corrected) so look for your 1840 Anderson County people in Charleston County when using Ancestry.

The book, Book of the Dead, by R.M. Smith is excellent for finding cemetery inscriptions in Anderson County as 22,000 names are listed in alphabetical order for the entire county. This book is 439 pages, covering 200 cemeteries including many private family cemeteries. Inscriptions include people born in the 1750s.

Land Ownership Maps--The Library of Congress created an 1877 land ownership map for Anderson County and the state created a 1897 land ownership map.

Definitely use www.usgenweb.org for helpful resources on Anderson County and

http://oldpendleton.homestead.com/ for Pendleton District.