North Carolina County Record Description & Facts

Research in North Carolina county records can begin with the microfilmed North Carolina material at a central collection, such as the North Carolina State Archives, Allen County Public Library (see Indiana), the FHL, or other repositories with the North Carolina Core Collection. When counties were formed in North Carolina, many county clerks copied appropriate records from the parent county. In other cases, records pertaining to the land and families of the new county were transferred wholesale. Most counties therefore have some records that pre-date the formation of the county. The register of deeds at the county seat holds land and vital records, the clerk of the superior court holds probate records and court records if they have not been transferred to the state archives in Raleigh.

Land records may include deeds, grants, plats, and other miscellaneous items. Probate records include not only wills, but also loose estates records, most of which have not been microfilmed.

Court records may include apprentice bonds, bastardy bonds, and officials' or constables' bonds in addition to dockets, fee and account books, and court minutes and orders. The beginning dates do not imply that all records are extant since some of North Carolina's county records have been lost due to fire and other causes.

County records information is quoted from Guide to Research Materials in the North Carolina State Archives (Section B: County Records) (10th rev. ed., Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1988). County formation information is derived from the above Guide, David Leroy Corbitt, The Formation of the North Carolina Counties 1663 to 1943 (1950; 2d printing, Raleigh, N.C.: State Department of Archives and History, 1969); George K. Schweitzer, North Carolina Genealogical Research (Knoxville, Tenn.: the author, 1984);