Spartanburg Record Survival & Loss Narrative
What burned-courthouse folklore gets wrong—and where records actually survive for Spartanburg County.
Record survival: Spartanburg is not defined by a single famous fire myth. Losses are ordinary (gaps, moves, incomplete indexing). Revolutionary research lives in federal pensions decades later; textile research lives in mill villages and directories.
- Use Pinckney/Ninety-Six labels carefully for the 1790s.
- What survives: strong post-formation land/probate; mill and city sources 1890–1940; SCDAH film.
- Substitutes: Cherokee/Union/Laurens/Greenville; churches; newspapers.