CATAWBA-WEST-L Archives

From: "Patrick C. Cloninger" <>
Subject: NC county land records and vital stistics...
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 1997 03:14:45 -0400

An open response to readers to “West of the Catawba,”

Recently, there have been a number of unanswered questions about North
Carolina county records and where they exist for counties that were
split into new counties. A couple of answers have been posted, but not
specific information dealing with North Carolina has been posted.
Therefore, due to the number of people interested in what was
origninally posted as a “potentially dumb question,” here is a response.
[Those of you who know are have experiences to share please do. If you
know this stuff, feel free to delete! Thx.]

In North Caroliina, the county records for counties whose land is
subdivided into new counties remain in the previous county’s Court
House.

Examples:

Catawba County:

Therefore, in looking for Catawba County land records prior to 1842
(when CATAWBA County was formed), one must look in the LINCOLN County
Court House. But only from 1782 to 1842 will be in LINCOLN. The land
records from 1777 to 1782 will be in BURKE and prior to 1777 they should
be in ROWAN. However, it is not that easy, due to the Granville
District (more about that in a future e-mail).

Gaston County:

For GASTON County it is easier, because GASTON was formed form LINCOLN
in 1846 and all the land in Gaston had been in LINCOLN since the
founding of Old Lincoln in 1779. The land record for the short lived
TRYON County (abolished due to its Royalist connotations --
being named for NC Royal Governor William Tryon -- and replaced by
Lincoln) are archived in the Lincoln County Court House; as that the
land records cover much of the same territory, all be it a larger land
mass. Prior to Tryon, one would look in Mecklenburg and prior to
Mecklenburg (Court House location: Charlotte) one would go to Anson
(Court House location: Wadesboro).

One can trace the counties further back using a chart for the formation
of North Carolina Counties. The records for the counties still in
existence will be in the Court House at the county seat that we know
today. Don’t forget however that all county records are archived at the
Division of Archives and History in Raleigh. Doing research in the
Search Room there will faciliate research because you do not have to
drive from Court House to Court House. All of the records are available
on microfilm there and you can trace the deed chain fairly easily.

VITAL STISTICS [Birth, Death and the like]:

These records only date back to around 1913. That's when US Gov't.
decided we needed to keep up with when everybody died. Wouldn't we all
like to have had these records from the begining?

Fortunately, you can learn earlier generations from the death records,
since they capture all kinds of neat information: type of death, length
of illness, mother and father, not to mention date of death. These
records are located at the court houses like the land records in the
Register of Deeds office [at least in NC].

Marriages: Usually these have been recorded.

For County Record Reference see:

Draughon, W.R. and W.P. Johnson. NC GENEALOGICAL REFERENCE, 1966.

Crittenden, C.C. and D. Lacy. The HISTORICAL RECORDS of NC, 1938.
[Three Volumes with entry for each county.]

Good Luck and happy hunting,

patrick

This thread:

• NC county land records and vital stistics... by "Patrick C. Cloninger" <>