South Carolina County Maps and Atlases

Early South Carolina maps are crucial for locating families. The South Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina at Columbia has the best collection of early South Carolina maps (see also Manuscripts). The South Carolina Department of Archives and History publishes a free pamphlet, “The Formation of Counties in South Carolina,” which traces the evolution of political subdivisions in the state. The Department also publishes a set of ten guide maps illustrating the development of parishes, districts, and counties.

There is no gazetteer for South Carolina, but a useful substitute is Claude Henry Neuffer, ed., Names in South Carolina, 30 vols. (1954–83; reprint, 4 vols., Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Company, 1976–84). See also Joseph B. Martin III, “Guide to Presbyterian Ecclesiastical Names and Places in South Carolina 1685–1985," South Carolina Historical Magazine, 90 (October 1989): 4–215; and Works Progress Administration, Palmetto Place Names (1945; reprint, Easley, S.C.: Reprint Company, 1975).

Robert Mills, Atlas of the State of South Carolina (1825; reprint, Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1980), is fully indexed and mentions many landowners. Thorndale and Dollarhide, 1987 (see Introduction—Census) illustrate the changing boundaries of South Carolina's districts and counties at each decennial census and includes census districts in 1790 and 1800 that were not legal polities. The Map of the States of North & South Carolina published in 1831 by Hinton & Simpkin & Marshall has been reproduced by Jonathan Sheppard Books (Box 2020, Albany, NY 12220).

Rotating Formation South Carolina Boundary County Maps

(Maps made with the use AniMap Plus County Boundary Historical AniMap 3.0 and with the Permission of the Goldbug Company)

County Formation years
1682	1685	1691	1706	1708	1712	1717	1721	1722	1731	1733	1734	1735	1737
1745	1747	1751	1754	1757	1761	1765	1767	1768	1769	1770	1775	1778	1785
1786	1788	1789	1791	1792	1797	1798	1799	1800	1801	1804	1805	1807	1816
1826	1832	1855	1857	1868	1871	1874	1878	1882	1888	1889	1893	1896	1897
1898	1899	1901	1902	1904	1908	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1916	1919	1920
1921	1922	1951	1953	1962	1967	1975	1977	1979	1987

Map Abbreviations
unorg. = unorganized g. = gained w. = with fr. = from atmt. = attachment exch = exchanged nca.= non county area ch. = changed Ab - Abbeville Ai - Aiken	Al - Allendale An - Anderson Bam - Bamberg Bar - Barnwell Bea - Beaufort Ber - Berkeley Cal - Calhoun Cdn - Clarendon Cfd - Chesterfield Cha - Charleston Co - Colleton	Crk - Cherokee Ctr - Chester Da - Darlington Di - Dillon Do - Dorchester Ed - Edgefield Fa - Fairfield Fl - Florence Ge - Georgetown Gvl - Greenville Gwd - Greenwood	Ha - Hampton Ho - Horry Ja - Jasper Ke - Kershaw Lan - Lancaster Lau - Laurens Lee - Lee Lex - Lexington McC - McCormick Ml - Marlboro Mrn - Marion	New - Newberry Obg - Orangeburg Oc - Oconee Pks - Pickens Ri - Richland Sld - Saluda Sp - Spartanburg Su - Sumter Un - Union Wil - Williamsburg Yo - York

South Carolina County D.O.T. Road and Highway Maps

PLEASE READ!! These maps are downloadable and are in PDF format. The main use of these are the locations of all known cemeteries in a county and of course the various roads and church locations

To View the Map: Just click the Image to view the map online. In order to make the Image size as small as possible they were save on the lowest resolution. If you order an image they are printed at the highest resolution. (Images are between 500k and 1.5 meg so loading may be slow if using a dial-up connection)

South Carolina Atlases

Disclaimer: All maps are free to use for your own genealogical purposes and may not be reproduced for resale or distribution

These are scanned from the original copies so you can see the states and counties as our ancestors saw them over a hundred years ago. Some maps years (not all) have cities, railroads, P.O. locations, township outlines and other features useful to the avid genealogist in North America.

All formats are pdf. Images are between 500k and 1.5 meg so allow a few moments to load if you are using a dial-up connection. It may take up to 6 months to complete the website for all years available so check back often for daily updates. See Disclaimer Below.


1795 South Carolina	1814 South Carolina	1822 South Carolina	1836 South Carolina	1845 South Carolina


1795 United States	1814 United States	United States