Tyrrell was formed in 1729 from Chowan, Currituck and Pasquotank Precincts and Albemarle County. It was named in honor of Sir John Tyrrell, who at one time was one of the Lords Proprietors. The present land area is 389.91 square miles and the 2000 population was 4,149. It is quite evident that a courthouse was not built until some time between 1740 to 1751. Prior to this date courts were held in private homes, but generally at the home of William Frayley, (also spelled Frailes, Frylies or Fryleys). In 1751, court was held at the courthouse on Kindrick's Creek. Between 1774 and 1776, court was held at the home of Benjamin Spruill. Between 1777 and 1800 court was held at the courthouse on Scuppernong River. In 1799, commissioners were named to erect the public buildings in Elizabeth Town. On July 28, 1800, the first court was held in Elizabeth Town. In 1801, Elizabeth Town was changed to Columbia, which was recorded as the county seat in 1802. Columbia is the county seat.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
What follows is an outline of beginning dates of extant records of each county. 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. Find out about the Tyrrell Courthouse Hours and Location
Tyrrell County Clerk of Superior Court has Court Records from 1735 and Probate Records from 1739 and is located at 403 Main Street , PO Box 406, Columbia, NC 27925; (252) 796-6281, (252) 796-6282, Fax (252) 796-0008 . The Clerk of the Superior Court holds probate records and court records if they have not been transferred to the state archives in Raleigh. 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. They also have Divorce Records.
Tyrrell County Register of Deeds has Land Records from 1736 and Marriage Records from 1742 and is located at PO Box 449, 403 Main Str, Columbia NC 27925-0449; 252-796-2901, Fax: 252-796-0148 . The register of deeds at the county seat holds land and vital records if they have not been transferred to the state archives in Raleigh. Land records may include deeds, grants, plats, and other miscellaneous items. Vital records include Birth and Marriage records.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Court Records by clicking the link below:
North Carolina Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search North Carolina Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Do not contact North Carolina Vital Records or the North Carolina State Archives, as there are no birth records prior to 1913 in a state public office. For death certificates prior to 1930, contact the North Carolina State Archives. A few delayed death records may exist back to 1909. Prior to this, there are no death records of any sort other than wills and estate settlements in the North Carolina State Archives. Also you can order birth and death records online quickly and easily via VitalChek! Usually you recieve them in 2-5 days.
STATE:North Carolina Vital Records is located at 1903 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1903;
(919) 733-3526 (This office does not accept FAX or e-mail orders). All Fees are listed below under "Cost".
They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records are available from 1913 to the present.
For birth records prior to the dates listed above, contact the local Register of Deeds office in the county where the birth occurred. In order to process a request, Vital Records needs to know: Full Name on Certificate, Date of Birth, Mother's Full Maiden Name, Father's Full Name, Place (City or County) of Birth.
You can download an application online for Birth Certificates.
Death Certificates: Certified copies of death records are available from 1930 to the present. For death certificates prior to 1930, contact the North Carolina State Archives. A few delayed death records may exist back to 1909. Prior to this, there are no death records of any sort other than wills and estate settlements in the North Carolina State Archives. Vital Records needs to know: Full Name of Deceased, Date of Death, Place (City or County) of Death, Date of Birth Fees are listed below. You can download an application online for Death Certificates.
Marriage Certificates: Certified copies of Marriage records are available from 1962 to the present.
Vital Records needs to know: Full Name of Groom, Full Name of Bride, Date of Marriage, Place (City or County) Where License Was Issued. You can download an application online for Marriage Certificates.
Marriages prior to 1962 should be available from the County Register of Deeds office where the marriage was performed. Fees vary.
Divorce Certificates: Certified copies of Divorce records are available from 1958 to the present.
Vital Records needs to know: Full Name of Husband, Full Name of Wife, Date of Divorce, Place (City or County) of Divorce. You can download an application online for Divorce Certificates.
If the records are not available at the North Carolina Vital Records office, they should be available from the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the divorce was granted. Fees vary.
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Cost: A fee of $15 is charged for each name searched in a five-year period, regardless of the search results as per G.S. 130A-93.1. If the record is located, one certified or uncertified copy of the record will be provided at no additional cost. Additional copies of the same record, when requested at the same time, are $5 each.
These fees are for a search, regardless of the results. Search fees are not refundable. Any additional request to search in 5-year increments for records outside of the original 5-year period will cost an additional $15 fee
How to Order: Make certified checks and money orders should be made payable to "North Carolina Vital Records". Credit Cards may be uses by using VitalChek services Please do not send cash or checks. Fees are non refundable. Additional fees are required for expedited service. Mail all Applications to: North Carolina Vital Records, 1903 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1903. You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering HERE.
In - Person Requests:
Individuals may visit the office on the first floor of the Cooper Memorial Health Building at 225 N. McDowell Street, Raleigh, N.C. between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday – Friday, except on state government holidays. Parking is available on the north (Lane Street) side of the Cooper Building. Customers should bring a valid photo ID and non-refundable $15 search fee for each request. Copies of the same certificate are $5 if requested at the same time. You will be asked to fill out an application upon arrival or you may bring a completed one with you (see above for required forms). Walk-in requests for same day service are subject to an additional $15 expedited services fee and will usually be fulfilled in about one hour. Customers are encouraged to leave completed requests forms with us for a mailed response to avoid the extra fee for same day services.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical North Carolina newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Tyrrell County, North Carolina are 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Tyrrell County, North Carolina are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Census Records by clicking the link below:
North Carolina Antique Maps & Atlases has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for North Carolina and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for North Carolina showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for North Carolina showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps. The North Carolina Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches, cemeteries, roads, ect... free for viewing or download here
Official NCDOT County Maintenance Maps are being generated into TIF and PDF. In each county, sheet number "1" always shows the entire county. Each supplemental sheet shows area insets, usually congested areas. A sheet key is shown for any county that requires more than 2 sheets. Tyrrell County D.O.T. Maps
TIFs [1]
PDFs [1]
Excellent maps, atlases, and gazetteers for North Carolina are
readily available. The best gazetteer available for North Carolina
is William Stevens Powell, The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary
of Tar Heel Places (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina
Press, 1968). The Gazetteer includes historical definitions,
derivations of place-names, and exact locations. It is cross-indexed
well and gives references for the first use of place-names.
An important historical publication is Richard Edwards, ed.,
Statistical gazetteer of the states of Virginia and North Carolina
(Richmond, Va.: Published for the Proprietor, 1856). There are
several excellent atlases and map guides available for North
Carolina.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Maps. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Maps by clicking the link below:
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 from the State of North Carolina (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of North Carolina (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
That all governments require money to operate was well known to those who established North Carolina's civil administration. They decided to follow existing methods of taxation by placing levies on people. Prior to 1777, people who were taxed were usually called taxables, tithables, or polls; in essence they were paying a head tax. A 1715 law enacted by the general assembly defined taxables as all free males sixteen years of age and over and all slaves, male and female, aged twelve and over. The law was revised in 1749 and included all white males aged sixteen and over, as well as negroes, mulattoes, mustees or octoroons (offspring of a white and a quadroon), and all persons of mixed blood to the fourth generation, both male and female, who were twelve years of age and older.
Tax rules remained fairly constant from 1749 until 1777 when the state began applying different criteria, such as restricting the poll tax to freemen who did not own a minimum amount of property, exempting soldiers, changing the minimum age to twenty-one, or taxing only unmarried men. By 1784 the legislature settled on taxing freemen and male servants twenty-one and over and all slaves (male and female) between twelve and fifty. In 1801 all free males over fifty were exempted from the poll tax, and then in 1817 the exemption age was lowered to forty-five. A constitutional amendment in 1835 set age limits at twenty-one to forty-five for free males and twelve to fifty for slaves. The constitution of 1868 included all males between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. Poll taxes were abolished in North Carolina in 1970. Property taxes were levied in North Carolina from 1715 through 1722 and then abolished. They were reinstated in 1777 and remain in effect today.
North Carolina tax lists have survived better than those for many states. The lists date from the first decade of the eighteenth century to the present. Microfilmed copies are available at the North Carolina State Archives and FHL, the Many transcriptions are found in the pages of North Carolina's periodicals
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
North
Carolina State Archives,
Office of Archives and
History—State Library Building Public Services Branch,
Mail Service Center 4614,
Raleigh, N.C. 27699-4614
Phone: (919) 807-7310, Fax: (919) 733-1354, [EMAIL]
North Carolina Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search North Carolina Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
Early denominations present in North Carolina in fewer numbers include Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Congregationalists. While their respective repositories house historical records, the North Carolina State Archives has a good collection of church records on microfilm. Consult the holdings of other major genealogical libraries with southern collections for additional sources, including the FHL.
Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of North Carolina obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a North Carolina newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from North Carolina.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Tyrrell County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Tyrrell County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
North Carolina Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
ocated on the south shore of Albemarle Sound, Tyrrell County was formed in 1729 from Chowan, Bertie, Currituck and Pasquotank counties.
Named for Sir John Tyrrell, one of the Lords Proprietors of the Carolina colony. Tyrrell County's original boundaries originally stretched westward from Roanoke Island to near present-day Tarboro,. In 1870 the territory was divided and resulted in what is now known as Tyrrell, Martin, Washington, and Dare counties. Elizabethtown, later renamed Columbia, was established on the banks of the Scuppernong River in 1793 and became the Tyrrell County seat in 1799. (Sharpe 1965: 2125-2128).
While settlers from Virginia streamed southward into the Albemarle region during the early eighteenth century, the development of Tyrrell County proceeded slowly. The county is part the region's most extensive tract of low-lying, poorly drained land that extends between Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound. The swamp forest as well as vast wetlands of muck-peat, pocosins, and pines restricted the penetration of the interior. Consequently, the county has been one of the most isolated and sparsely populated parts of the state. In 1840, there were 4,448 inhabitants in Tyrrell County. The population peaked at 5,556 in 1960, and in 1990 fewer than 4,000 people resided within its borders (Weeden 1990: 10-12).
Geography shaped the pattern of settlement which took place first along the Albemarle shore and the Alligator River, defining the eastern and northern boundaries of the county. The Secota villages of Mecopen along the Scuppernong River near present day Columbia and Tramaskecoc on the Alligator River near Gum Neck were shown on maps as early as 1585. Artifacts unearthed in fields, dense woodlands, and along waterways testify to communities of inhabitants long before that.
The first permanent white occupation probably occurred about 1700 at Fort Landing, located near the mouth of the Alligator River. Other families later occupied tracts along the Scuppernong River and Kendrick Creek or ventured up the Alligator River and cleared lands along the coves and creeks in the southeastern part of the county. This section became characterized by modest farms, river landings, and hamlets – all linked together by canals that facilitated farming and small-boat transportation. Inland settlement took place later, as small farmers settled along the edges of peat and muck bogs and on the ridges of high ground. However, a great deal of the interior remained undeveloped until the twentieth century when timber and pulpwood interests cut roads and drainage canals through the swamplands.
The economy during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was largely based on subsistence farming and fishing though the Albemarle Sound and Alligator and Scuppernong rivers provided for the shipping of forest assets, especially shingles and staves. These products were transported across the sound to Edenton, the commercial center of the Albemarle region, where they were exported abroad or the northern markets (Merrens 1964: 96-98). By the antebellum years, goods were regularly shipped up the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City where the Dismal Swamp Canal linked Albemarle Sound to the port of Norfolk, Virginia.
Although small-scale agriculture marked the area in the colonial period, this land also sustained a collection of large plantations. In 1736, the first recorded deed in Tyrrell County was filed by Joseph Buncombe, a planter from the West Indies, who bought 1,025 acres of high ground on Kendrick Creek (in present-day Washington County) and erected a residence on the tract (Davis 1963: 21). About 1766, his nephew Edward Buncombe built the plantation seat of Buncombe Hall on the property. On the west side of the Scuppernong River, in present-day Tyrrell County, the Spruill family, whose patriarch was Dr. Godfrey Spruill, established Round About Plantation in the early eighteenth century (Davis 1963: 22-23). No architectural evidence of these early estates survives.
By the late eighteenth century, the local planter class also included the Collinses and Pettigrews. These families, using vast amounts of slave labor, transformed the swamps bordering Lake Phelps into immense agricultural estates. The Collinses established Somerset Plantation in what is today Washington County, and in 1838-39, Josiah Collins III built the substantial Greek Revival residence that still stands by the Lake shore. Adjacent to Somerset, in Tyrrell County, the Reverend Charles Pettigrew established Bonarva Plantation in 1779. Also known as Lake Plantation, Bonarva was developed in the antebellum years by his son Ebenezor. In 1843-1844, Ebenezor Pettigrew built the plantation seat of Magnolia north of Lake Phelps along a stretch of the Bonarva canal. The unusual two-story, two-bay, frame house featured an encircling shed-roofed porch and, tradition has it, gargoyles along the cornice. The house no longer exists.
These lakeside plantations thrived in this thinly settled region of swamplands and bog. With slave labor, canals were laboriously dug from Lake Phelps to the Scuppernong River, a distance of six miles. the first canal was completed at Somerset as early as 1787. Lands were drained and cleared, and sawmill, grist mills, and shingle mills were constructed along the canals. Shallow-draft boats plied the 20-foot-wide canals transporting the forest products as well as rice, cotton, wheat, and corn to the Scuppernong and then on to Edenton or Columbia for export. Canals associated with both Somerset and Bonarva, including the Bonarva and Bee Tree canals in Tyrrell County, survive essentially intact.
During the Civil War, Union forces occupied the Albemarle region beginning with the surrender of Roanoke Island in 1862. Although Tyrrell County saw little serious military action, the town of Columbia was bombarded. As throughout much of North Carolina, the social and economic ramifications of the war were profound. The Pettigrew and Collins estates never recovered from the war and deteriorated into underutilized, subdivided tenant farms. In 1930, the federal government acquired most of these plantation tracts and launched the Scuppernong Farms Project, a short-lived resettlement program for small farmers. This part of the county contains a scattering of one-story, frame 1930s farmhouses that may represent this federally sponsored project. In 1939, the State of North Carolina purchased the plantation house at Somerset and a portion of Bonarva for Pettigrew State Park.
The county seat of Columbia was laid off on the east side of the Scuppernong River between 1793 and 1802. Primarily a fishing and trading center before the Civil War, the town grew in the late nineteenth century as a result of the expanding lumber industry. Between the 1880s and turn of the century, the population of Columbia rose from 166 to 382, as lumber mills appeared on the waterfront. The major employer was the Branning Manufacturing Company of Edenton, which built a substantial planing mill at the south end of town and laid a railroad spur into the rich timberlands. In 1908, the Norfolk and Southern Railway extended its tracks to Columbia, but withdrew to Creswell in Washington County in 1948 (Davis 1963: 62; Pezzoni 1994).
The remainder of Tyrrell County developed slowly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, characterized by small, isolated farms and commercial fishing operations. Farm tenantry led to a steady decline in the average size of farms, which dropped from 127 acres in 1890 to only 67 acres in 1940. Farmers raised corn, some cotton, livestock, and, increasingly, Irish potatoes. By the late 1940s, Tyrrell County ranked as the number one potato producer in the state (Davis 1963: 62).
The success of agriculture as well as the lumber and fishing industries was made possible by advancements in transportation. In addition to the Norfolk and Southern Railway, new, paved roads and bridges slowly improved access to selected parts of the county. During the 1920s, U.S. Highway 64 was paved through the county and, in 1926, a bridge was built over the Scuppernong River at the west end of Columbia's main street. N.C. Highway 94 was constructed across the heart of the county in 1933, linking Columbia with Hyde County to the south. The discontinuation of rail service after World War II was partially compensated for by a renewed road-building campaign, and, in 1962, the monumental three-mile-long Lindsay C. Warren Bridge was erected across the Alligator River to Dare County.
Tyrrell County's wild and remote nature may have contributed to its sparse population and light development in the past. Today, however, abundant water, forests and wildlife are recognized as some of its most valuable assets and are helping to build a healthy, sustainable future for this beautiful part of North Carolina.
: A Dictionary
of Tar Heel Places (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina
Press, 1968). The Gazetteer includes historical definitions,
derivations of place-names, and exact locations. It is cross-indexed
well and gives references for the first use of place-names.
An important historical publication is Richard Edwards, ed.,
(Richmond, Va.: Published for the Proprietor, 1856). There are
several excellent atlases and map guides available for North
Carolina.
