South Carolina Deaths - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States South Carolina 

What Is in the Collection?
The South Carolina Deaths, 1915–1965 includes images of records and an index acquired from South Carolina Department of Archives and History. The original records were created by South Carolina Department of Health, and are arranged by year and alphabetically by locality. Death certificates are created to record deaths in South Carolina in compliance with state law and to better serve public health needs. They are also used with the probate of wills and the administration of estates. Death records, along with birth and marriage records, were recorded in churches throughout the United States colonial period. However, as early as the 1600s laws were enacted, but not enforced for a civil registry. In the 1900s the idea of a central system began to take hold, and many states began to record vital statistics. All states had birth and death records for their state by 1919 and had complied with the model registration law using a standard certificate. Overtime the content of birth and death records expanded to include details other than name and date of the event. Death certificates now include information on the parents, marital status, occupation, military service, cause of death (direct and contributing factors), citizenship, and the location of death. The information is gathered from attending medical professionals and family members then indexed, processed, and filed by state or local registrar. Information pertaining to death is reliable; including death, name of the attending physician or attending medical professional, name and address of the funeral home used, and the exact date and place of burial. Other information is dependent upon the reliability of the informant.

What Can these Records Tell Me?

 * Name and gender of deceased
 * Date, place and time of death
 * City and county in which death occurred
 * Age of deceased in years, months, days
 * Race, marital status and occupation of deceased
 * Name of spouse
 * Birthplace of deceased
 * Father's name and birthplace
 * Mother's maiden name and birthplace
 * Name of informant, often a family member
 * Burial information

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the person.
 * The approximate date of death.
 * The place where the death occurred.

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

I Found Who I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.


 * Use the information to obtain the actual death certificate.


 * Use the information to locate funeral home, obituary or cemetery record.
 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, marriage, census, land and probate records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Indexes and transcriptions may not include all the data found in the original records. View the image for addition information.
 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Check the info box above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry): Image Citation