So many York County researchers have requested information on marriage, birth or death records in SC that I wrote the following for their benefit: NO BIRTH, MARRIAGE, OR DEATH RECORDS UNTIL 1911 Many subscribers [to The Quarterly, a publication of the York County Genealogial and Historical Society] have requested our publishing early York County marriage records. Few are available but we will try to publish those few from time to time. The state of South Carolina did not require the recording of marriages until July 1, 1911. In York County the task of recording marriages was given to the probate judge. In 1911 the probate judge was L. R. Williams. He issued the first York County marriage license to Lathern Brown McFadden and Mollie Albright of Rock Hill. Until July 1, 1950 the record of the marriage was preserved only in the county in which the marriage occurred. There was no state record. After July 1, 1950, the state of South Carolina centralized all of the marriage records by placing them in the Bureau of Vital Statistics, a division of the State Board of Health. The Bureau of Vital Statistics was not created until 1915 and then kept only a record of births and deaths. The state did not require a record of births and deaths before January 1, 1915. For many years it was very easy to get married and impossible to get divorced. South Carolina was the last state in the union to permit divorce. It was not until 1950 that divorces were allowed and not until July 1, 1962, that the Bureau of Vital Statistics began keeping a record of divorces. The largest collection of Marriage and Death Notices is at the South Caroliniana Library on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia. It is far from being inclusive. It is unfortunate that South Carolina did not follow the example of North Carolina and keep vital statistics from the beginning of statehood.) Newspapers did publish some marriage notices, or "hymeneals" but these account for only a few of the marriages. A few churches, or their pastors, may have kept records but few have been preserved. Historically, South Carolina has treated births, marriages, and deaths as private family matters of no concern to the state unless these events also were pertinent to other matters such as marriage settlements that dealt with titles to certain properties held by the woman. Records of births, marriages and deaths were kept in Charleston by the Church of England and after the Revolution were kept by the Episcopal Church, the successor of the Church of England, until the 1850s. But York County had no Church of England congregation at all and few Episcopalians at any time. The Presbyterian and Methodists seem not to have kept these records in the pre-Civil War period. Flint Hill Baptist Church in Fort Mill township is a notable exception, but, even there, marriages and deaths are recorded sporadically and births not at all. Baptisms were recorded only by name with no age attached. Louise Pettus Larry D. Hamilton Coats wrote: > > Does anyone have ready access to York Co. marriages c. 1790? I am trying > to confirm the marriage of a Robert Neely(b. 26 Aug 1768; d. 8 May 1811 > TN)to a Margaret Chissum(1765-1844). This marriage took place, according > to what I have been given, on 28 Sept 1790, but no one has given me the > location of this marriage. I have guessed that if it didn't happen in > York Co, then it had to have occured in Augusta(now Botetourte)Co. Va. > > Which leads me to another related question....anyone researching > Chissums/Chisms/Chisums in York Co. or vicinity? Sure would like to talk > to anyone who is working on this name. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Larry D. Hamilton Coats > P.O. Box 823 > Aspermont, TX 79502 > (940)989-3489