South Carolina Naturalization and Citizenship

Online Resources

 * 1795-1925 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
 * South Carolina, Naturalization Records, 1868-1991 ($)
 * South Carolina Naturalizations 1783-1850 ($)
 * 1918 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index
 * 1944-2003 U.S., Index to Alien Case Files, 1944-2003 at Ancestry — index ($)

History
Some colonial applications for naturalization are found in the records of the secretary of the province at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Since the Revolutionary War, naturalization papers have been filed in the records of federal, state, and local courts.

Records

 * Starting in the 1780s, the South Carolina legislature also granted citizenship. Many of these petitions are in the records of the General Assembly at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Only one small volume of records, 1788 to 1839, is at both the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the FamilySearch Library., the index is on film


 * Holcomb, Brent H. South Carolina Naturalizations 1783-1850. (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1985). . Supplement: "Some South Carolina Naturalizations," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Winter 1986):24-28.


 * Naturalizations granted by federal courts in South Carolina before the Civil War are indexed in Volume 66 of the South Carolina Historical Magazine. The original records are at the National Archives Southeast Region (Atlanta), and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History has microfilm copies. An abstract is found in:


 * Hemperley, Marion R. "Federal Naturalization Oaths Charleston, South Carolina 1790-1860," The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Apr., 1965), pp. 112-124; Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 183-192; Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 1965), pp. 218-228. Digital version at JSTOR ($).


 * Copies of the U.S. District Court records for the years 1790 to 1906 from the National Archives—Southeast Region (Atlanta) are also at the FamilySearch Library.


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd deWitt. Denizations and Naturalizations in the British Colonies in America, 1607-1775 (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2005). Online at Ancestry ($).


 * Giuseppi, Montague S. Naturalizations of Foreign Protestants in the American and West Indian Colonies (Pursuant to Statute 13 George II, c. 7) . London: Huguenot Society Publishing, 1921. . Online at Ancestry ($);.


 * The FamilySearch Library has petitions to the courts of common pleas and general sessions for some counties. A few of these records are found in the court minutes that are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog using the Place-names search for
 * SOUTH CAROLINA, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS.


 * County naturalizations can be located in the library catalog for the following counties: Charleston, Chester, Lexington (Registration of Aliens, 1840-1861), Pendleton District, and Union.

Post-1906 Records
In 1906 the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) was created, forms were standardized and duplicate records created by the court were sent to the INS. To access these records, use the Genealogy Program at www.uscis.gov. You may also contact the National Archives—Southeast Region (Atlanta) for naturalization records.