South Carolina Deaths, 1915-1973

What is in This 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.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

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

Collection Content

Sample Image

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  1915 Death Certificate

Digital Folder Number List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at South Carolina Deaths Digital Folder Number List.