Kershaw County, South Carolina Genealogy

United States  South Carolina  Kershaw County

Parent County
1798--Kershaw County was created in 1798 from Camden District. County seat: Camden 

Neighboring Counties

 * Chesterfield
 * Darlington
 * Fairfield
 * Lancaster
 * Lee
 * Richland
 * Sumter

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 Kershaw, South Carolina at World Connect, produces more than 10,000 results.

Bibliography

[Boykin] Phelps, Dallas LeRoy. ''Desc. of Alexander Hamilton Boykin of Kershaw County, S.C. (1815-1866)''. 2003. Item 111
 * [Jones] Jones, Hazel Parker. The History of the Samuel Jones Family, Kershaw County, S.C. 1756-1960, Including Allied Families. Kershaw, S.C.: H.P. Jones, 1961. Item 5
 * [Shiver] Phelps, Dallas LeRoy. Descendants of John Shiver, Sr. of Kershaw County, S.C. (1740-1799). Camden, S.C.: D.L. Phelps, 2003.

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
Camden Archives and Museum Obituary Index

Probate
The South Carolina Department of Archives and History has microfilms or typescripts of wills, inventories, bills of sale, power of attorneys, bonds, notes, administrations, judgments, and sales records. They have placed Will Transcriptions for 1782 to 1855 online. Index searchable by name and the image is available. The Wills from Camden County were transcribed as Kershaw 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
 * Kershaw County, South Carolina Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)