Return of Births in the City of Charleston, 1877–1926

The extant birth records, or “Return of Births,” in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, commence in November 1877 and continue through December 1926. This collection, which consists of 23 volumes and one fascicle of unbound pages, was compiled by the city’s Health Department. During the thirty-eight years covered by these records, the city limits of Charleston encompassed only the peninsular area, as far north as Mt. Pleasant Street.

According to the regulations of Charleston’s Health Department, physicians and midwives were obligated to make a record or “certificate” for each birth they attended. These certificates were then presented to the City Health Department, where a clerk transcribed each birth record into a large bound ledger. The original certificates do not appear to have survived, so the bound transcription ledgers represent the only extant record of these births.

The printed template for these records consists of two pages of vertical columns with separate rows for each entry. The first page records data about the child and the birth: date of birth, surname, physician or midwife, “White, Black, Mulatto, etc.,” “Stillborn, Illegitimate, Twins, etc.,” and birthplace. The second page records data about the parents: full name of each, residence, birthplace of each, and occupation of the father. It should be noted that the children’s given names are rarely included in these records. Similarly, it is worth noting that the mothers’ maiden names are usually included in these records.

From November 1877 through February 1891, these birth records were transcribed in chronological manner, integrating both white and non-white (black, brown, colored, mulatto) births. From March 1891 through December 1926, however, the non-white or “colored” births were recorded in separate volumes. The white births were similarly recorded in segregated volumes, but beginning in January 1891 (thus duplicating the final two months of the final integrated volume) and continuing through December 1926.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, clerks from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were assigned to the City Health Department, where they assisted an anti-diphtheria campaign. “Between canvassing drives,” the department’s 1935 reports says, “the nurses and clerks devoted their time to another very useful project in the Health Department—the card indexing, checking and classifying of death records from 1821 through 1906, marriage records from 1877 through 1890 and birth records from 1877 through 1925. This task of indexing and systematizing has proven a much greater task than was originally anticipated, and the work was still further retarded by the intermittent lay-off of our workers. Great progress has been made in this work however, and we feel that it is now at least two-thirds completed.”¹ As a result of their efforts, a large percentage of the extant birth records were copied and arranged in alphabetical order within each volume.

These extant “Return of Births in the City of Charleston, 1877–1926,” can be divided into three categories.

A. Six volumes and one fascicle containing records of all births--i.e., both colored and white births--from November 1887 through February 1893 (excluding most of 1878 and 1879). The contents of these volumes are arranged chronologically, in the order in which the births were recorded.

Box 1: Register of Births (loose pages): 1 November 1877 to 16 January 1878
Box 1: Register of Births, 3 December 1879 to 31 January 1882
Box 2: Register of Births, 1 February 1882 to 29 February 1884
Box 3: Register of Births, 1 March 1884 to 20 March 1886
Box 4: Register of Births, 30 March 1886 to 31 July 1888
Box 5: Register of Births, 2 July 1888 to 31 August 1890
Box 6: Register of Births, 1 August 1890 to 28 February 1891 (white and colored births); 1 March to 1891 31 October 1893 (colored births only)

B. Nine volumes containing records of colored births from November 1877 through December 1881 (excluding most of 1878 and 1879), and from November 1893 through December 1926. Six of these volumes are arranged alphabetically by the child’s surname, but three volumes are arranged in chronological order.

Box 7: Register of Colored Births, 5 November 1877 to 31 December 1881
Box 8: Register of Colored Births, 1 Nov. 1893 to 28 Nov. 1897 (chronological)
Box 9: Register of Colored Births, 1 Dec. 1897 to 31 Dec. 1901 (chronological)
Box 10: Register of Colored Births, 1 Jan. 1902 to 15 Jan. 1906 (chronological)
Box 11: Register of Colored Births, 1 January 1906 to 31 January 1910
Box 12: Register of Colored Births, 1 January 1910 to 31 December 1914
Box 13: Register of Colored Births, 1 January 1915 to 31 December 1918
Box 14: Register of Colored Births, 1 January 1919 to 31 December 1922
Box 15: Register of Colored Births, 1 January 1923 to 31 December 1926

C. Eight volumes containing records of white births from November 1877 through December 1882 (excluding most of 1878 and 1879), and from January 1891 through December 1926. The contents of these volumes are arranged alphabetically by the children’s surnames.

Box 16: Register of White Births, 1 November 1877 to 31 December 1882
Box 17: Register of White Births, 1 January 1891 to 31 August 1896
Box 18: Register of White Births, 1 September 1896 to 31 August 1901
Box 19: Register of White Births, 1 September 1901 to 31 December 1908
Box 20: Register of White Births, 1 January 1909 to 31 December 1915
Box 21: Register of White Births, 1 January 1916 to 31 December 1918
Box 22: Register of White Births, 1 January 1919 to 31 December 1921
Box 23: Register of White Births, 1 January 1922 to 31 December 1926

¹ -- Report of the City of Charleston’s Heath Department, in the Charleston Year Book, 1932–1935, 177–78.