The origin of the name Edgefield is not clear, although it is usually described as "fanciful." The county was formed in 1785 as part of Ninety Six District; parts of Edgefield later went to form Aiken (1871), Saluda (1895), Greenwood (1897), and McCormick (1916) counties. The county seat is the town of Edgefield. This part of the upcountry, settled in the late eighteenth century, was the site of several Revolutionary War skirmishes. Although primarily agricultural, Edgefield County developed a thriving pottery industry in the nineteenth century; the old alkaline-glazed Edgefield pottery is highly sought after today. The larger Edgefield County was the home of ten South Carolina governors, including Francis W. Pickens (1805-1869), Benjamin R. Tillman (1847-1918), and Strom Thurmond. Confederate general Martin Witherspoon Gary (1831-1881) was also a resident of Edgefield County. (Source: South Carolina State Library)
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Edgefield County Clerk of Court has Court Records from 1785 and is located at 129 Courthouse Square,
P.O. Box 34,
Edgefield, 29824;
(803) 637-4080 . The Clerk of Court consist of The Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions. The Court of Common Pleas is the court of general jurisdiction over civil cases in Edgefield County, excepting those cases in which the amount or value of property in dispute is less than $7,500. Cases involving money or property totaling less than $7,500 are heard in Small Claims Magistrates' Courts. The Court of General Sessions is the court of general jurisdiction over criminal cases in Edgefield County, excepting most misdemeanor cases, which are usually adjudicated in the Magistrates' Courts.
Edgefield County Clerk of Probate Court has Marriage Records from 1911 , Probate Records from 1785 and is located at 124 Courthouse Square,
Edgefield, SC 29824; Telephone: (803) 637-4076.
Probate Court has original jurisdiction over actions concerning the issuance of marriage licenses, the estate of a deceased person, the will of an individual, the estate of a minor or incapacitated person, trusts, and involuntary commitments. South Carolina had no law requiring marriage licenses or registration until 1 July 1911. Licenses are on file with the judge of probate in each county. Prior to 1911, marriages were legal if performed according to canonical law; common law marriages also were recognized. Many churches recorded marriages, but when compared with the vast number of marriages that took place, the number of documented marriages is small. Marriage settlements, made by a widow and her second husband to protect the heirs of her first husband, and pre-marital agreements, not necessarily involving widows, were popular for a while. These records date from about 1760 to about 1890 and may be found in county conveyance books or the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and on microfilm at the FHL. Newspapers accounts of marriages from 1732 to the present are a primary source of marriage documentation (see Newspapers).
Edgefield County Register of Deeds has Land Records from 1786 and is located at 129 Courthouse Square,
P.O. Box 34,
Edgefield, 29824;
(803) 637-4080. The Register Of Deeds Office records land titles, leins and other documents related to property transaction in Edgefield County. The Register Of Deeds Office must assure that all recorded documents comply with the requirements of federal and state recording statutes and are available for public review.
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Court Records by clicking the link below:
South Carolina Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
PLEASE READ!! There were no South Carolina birth or Death certificates before January 01, 1915
Click Here to Search South Carolina Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Edgefield County Health Departmenthas vital records and is located at 21 Star Road,
Edgefield, S.C. 29824,
Phone: (803) 637-4035. This office can search for birth and death records from January 01, 1915. Marriage records prior to 1950 may be available from the Probate Judge in the county where the license was issued. Divorce records since April 1949 should be available from the County Clerk in the county where the petition was filed (See Edgefield County Court Records for Address and Phone number)
South Carolina DHEC, Division of Vital Records is located at
2600 Bull Street,
Columbia, SC 29201;
telephone # (803) 898-3630,
fax #: (803) 799-0301. The fee to search for a birth, Marriage or Death certificate is $12.00, which includes one certified copy of the certificate or a "Certificate of Failure to Find."
There were no South Carolina birth or Death "certificates" before January 01, 1915.
For each additional copy of the certificate ordered at the same time, the fee is $3.00. Checks or Money Orders should be made payable to "S.C. DHEC, Division of Vital Records." Please do not send cash. Fees are non refundable. Additional fees of $5.00 are required for expedited service. The
expedite fee guarantees a response leaving the Division
of Vital Records within three (3) working days. A
response can be in the form of a letter, a telephone
call, or a certification being mailed.
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
Federal Population Schedules that exist for South Carolina are 1790, 1800 (Part of the 1800 census for Richland District is missing), 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The first federal census was taken in 1790. The 1850 census of York and Lexington districts indicates county
of birth as well as state for each person. There are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Census Records by clicking the link below:
South Carolina Antique Maps & Atlases has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for South Carolina and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for South Carolina showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for South Carolina showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps. The South Carolina Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches, cemeteries, roads, ect... free for viewing or download here
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Maps. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Maps by clicking the link below:
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. A list of Wars fought on American.
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 from the State of South Carolina (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of South Carolina (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
With
the exception of a single tax list from 1733 and occasional
lists of tax collectors, no colonial tax records of South Carolina
have survived. Parishes and townships functioned as tax districts
until 1800; circuit court districts and their counties also
functioned as tax districts from 1785–1800. Many of these
tax lists are incomplete, the known tax lists, 1783–99,
are as follows:
Christ Church Parish, 1784, 1786, 1788, and 1793–99
Prince Frederick's Parish, 1784 and 1786
Prince George's Parish, 1786–87
Prince William's Parish, 1798
St. Andrew's Parish, 1784–85, 1787, 1789, 1791, and 1795
St. Bartholomew's Parish, 1783–87 and 1798
St. Helena's Parish, 1798
St. James Goose Creek, 1796
St. John's Berkeley Parish, 1793
St. Luke's Parish, 1798–99
St. Paul's Parish, 1783, 1785–96, and 1798–99
Ninety-Six District, 1787
OrangeburghDistrict, 1787
Lancaster County in Camden District, 1797
Lexington County in Orangeburgh District, 1788.
Directories for the city of Charleston date from 1782.
These directories may help locate a Charleston ancestor who
does not appear in other records. They are housed at the Charleston
Library Society
Jury
List - The jury lists include men eligible to serve on juries
and were compiled from tax lists. The Jury Lists of South
Carolina, 1778–1779 is accepted as proof of the
identity of Revolutionary War patriots. The best available
substitutes for colonial tax lists are jury lists.
Voter
Registration Lists - Voter registration lists, 1867, 1868,
and 1898 are another valuable substitute for tax records.
The lists from 1867 and 1868 are particularly useful for
Black American research because the newly freed slaves registered
to vote; many blacks make their first appearance in the
voter registration lists. Although voter registration was
conducted by counties, the originals of the 1867, 1868,
and 1898 lists are at the South Carolina Department of Archives
and History; counties maintained copies for their records.
Most
districts/counties have some tax records dating from 1800 to
the present, with the majority of tax records dating from 1865.
A fairly complete series from 1824, mostly of the Low Country
districts, is available at the South Carolina Department of
Archives and History. The South
Carolina Department of Archives and History has originals
of most extant tax lists, and microfilmed copies of county tax
records are available at the South
Carolina Department of Archives and History and the FHL.
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Edgefield County Genealogical Society,
P.O. Box 486,
Edgefield 29824
South Carolina Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search South Carolina Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
The WPA and the DAR have compiled major collections of South Carolina tombstone inscriptions. Most South Carolina counties have historical or genealogical societies that have compiled cemetery records. See addresses for local historical and genealogical societies. Cemetery records are frequently published in the major genealogical periodicals of South Carolina
Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Edgefield County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Edgefield County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
South Carolina Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Edgefield County was created in 1785 when the Old Ninety Six District of Upper South Carolina was divided into smaller districts, or counties, by act of the State Legislature. Although we have been left with little information about the selection process for a site for the seat of government for the new district, the records which we do have suggest that the site was chosen about the same time as lines of the new district were laid off. It was approximately in the center of the new district.
The property on which the County government was to be established was originally a forty four acre tract granted to David Burk in 1784. Of Burke we know very little. Burke sold the tract to Drury Mims, an early settler of Edgefield and the ancestor of the Mims family which has contributed many prominent citizens to the county over the centuries.
It was recorded in the minutes of the Judges of the Edgefield Court in 1786 that taxes were being collected from Edgefield inhabitants for the purpose of making payment for the "public building." During the same period, the meetings of the Judges of the Edgefield County Court were held at the plantation of John Harris and Drury Mims' house near the "County 'Goal' in 1786. Harris' plantation and Mims' house were both in the immediate vicinity of where the Public Square in now stands. Thus, apparently the county Goal was already constructed as early as 1786.
From these same minutes we find that the first Court House for Edgefield County was under construction in 1788. In that year Edward Mitchel, John Gray and John Cheney were appointed commissioners to "let the laying the floors of the Court House with seasoned good plank 1 1/2 inch thick, 16 window shutters, 3 in each folding, 3 pannels, 2 folding pannels case in side and out with the doors lined with 1/2 inch plank, 3 pannels in a door, the two end windows sashed, a neat stair case and banister, the whole finished in a workman like manner out of seasoned stuf."
The Court later ordered that bond be taken by the commissioners from Isaac Foreman, "one of the builders of the court house," and be filed in the Clerk's office. Later, the court ordered that "Henry Ware be allowed his account provided it be produced which is twenty nine pounds and four pence for building the Court House."
In 1790 the court ordered that the Treasurer of the county "do pay unto LeRoy Hammond Esq. (a Judge of the Court) all such debts as may be due to him by an assignment of Isaac Foreman for undertaking and building part of the Court House out of the monies that he may receive for the use of the County."
It was not until 1792 that Arthur Simkins, a prominent early settler and one of the Judges of the Edgefield County Court, deeded, for the "sum of one Shilling Current money," to the Judges of Edgefield County Court a "certain plantation or tract of land containing two acres whereon the Court House and goal now stand, bounded southwardly by Moses Harris, westwardly on John Simkins all the parts adjoining on the land of the said Arthur Simkins; also one and quarter of an acre adjoining on the south side of the said two acres wbereon the Clerk of the said County hath lately built a House for his office...."
Sometimes between 1792 and 1820 a second court house was built, replacing the earlier weatherboard structure. In 1820 this second building was described as "a slight,
rough, inferior building, relatively large of brick, and capable of repair." Identical porticos with pairs of stairs were added to the east and west front, and extensive remoldeling was specified in a contract dated July 10, 1827. Edgefield County Commissioners Benjamin Frazier, Christian Breithaupt, Allen B. Addison, and Whitfield Brooks, advertised in the 1827 Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia, that they had made the "liberal appropriation of $3,000 for the repair and improvement of the Court House." This court house was described in 1833 by an English visitor as "of brick, which is a good building."
In the March 8, 1838 edition of The Edgefteld Advertiser, A.B. Addison, chairman of the Edgefield commissioners of public buildings of Edgefield District called for bids on construction of a new third court house to be built of brick, 60x48 feet and of the following specifications: 'A passage running lengthwise through the lower story with three offices on each side. The courtroom and two jury rooms to be in upper story, and also two ranges of seats for spectators, and a two story portico at the end."
The next mention of the court house occurred in the minutes of the fall term of court in 1838. Judge John Belton O'Neal was presiding. The commissioners of public building being called upon to show cause why they should not be indicted for neglecting to repair the jail and some of the public offices in the court house, made the following return: "That a contract was made with a stone mason to make certain repairs for the meeting of this court but had not been done because of failure of the mason to carry out his contract, but certain other repairs had been made. In relation to public offices in the court house, the board have only to say, that they did not deem it proper to expend any portion of their very limited means in their improvement as the court house was soon to be taken down for the purpose of erecting a new one." This was signed by A.B. Addison, chairman, and approved by John Belton O'Neal, presiding judge.
The February 21, 1839 issue of The Advertiser announced:
The new court house is now completed, and we invite the citizens of the District, and strangers, to come and see it. It is a large and noble looking building, standing on the western side of the great road leading to the upper country, and but a few yards distant from the site of the old court house.
The building is of brick, and 'is two stories in height. in the lower story there are six rooms, the Sheriffs office, the Clerk's, the Commissioner's in Equity, the Ordinary's, a Jury room, and a small apartment adjacent to the Clerk's office. A long and spacious passage runs between the rooms. The front of the edifice is at eastern end, and is painted so as to resemble granite. By a noble flight of granite steps, protected by black iron railings, the visitor ascends into the portico, which is supported by four massy columns. From thence he enters the court room, which is large and spacious and contains a sufficient number of windows.
Besides the seat for the judge which is neat, and those for the jury, there are others arranged conveniently for spectators. In the court room there is a large semi circular table for the gentlemen of the bar.
In the western end of the upper story there are two jury rooms, and a small retiring room, situated immediately in the rear of the judge's seat.
As the visitor enters the village by either of the great thoroughfares, the Court House presents a commanding appearance and immediately attracts his attention. In conclusion, it may be truly said that the style of the building is chaste and that it is an ornament to the village.
The contractor of building this third structure was Charles Beck, who had been earlier associated with Robert Mills commissions throughout the South. Mills' influence on this third Edgefield Court House is undeniable.
In 1930 the old building was remodeled, bringing about enlargement and modernization. The court room was expanded the width of two jury rooms by the process of extending the building west and to the rear, the lower floor of the extension being arranged as offices and fire proof vaults for the clerk of court.
Another building program was begun in 1933, which extended the main building still further westward and to the rear, providing new offices for the sheriff. This later program of expansion was carried on to add to the main courthouse building a new jail with modern facilities and a number of offices used by various government activities. Also, a water supply and central heating plant were added during this time.
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