Getting Started in Genealogy
Organize Your Information
Genealogical research involves looking for specific people in specific places at specific times. The best place to start is with living family members.
Collect information from your family through interviews, Bible and other family records, and cemetery inscriptions. Using this information, fill in an ANCESTOR CHART with names of known ancestors.
- Record your name in space 1, your father's name in space 2, and your mother's name in space 3 using her maiden name. Add the names of your father's parents in spaces 4 and 5 and the names of your mother's parents in spaces 6 and 7.
- Record the date and place for each birth, marriage, and death known, as well as the sources of your information about each event.
- Continue to add new ancestors in the same manner as they are discovered and proven.
Begin Your Research
Begin your research in the Government and Heritage Library by checking the catalog to see if there is a genealogy of your family. Check to see if there are published indexes and/or abstracts/transcriptions of records for a specific time and place. For information on organizing your research, consult The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls (2nd ed., 2005).
Searching Records
Continue to trace the family through vital records, census records, wills, estates records, marriage records, land records, tax records, and court records.
Vital Records
Vital records (births/deaths) were not kept in North Carolina on a statewide basis before October 1913. For most counties, microfilm indexes of births and deaths (1913- ) are available to researchers who visit the Archives Search Room. Death certificates, 1913-1975, are in the custody of the North Carolina State Archives. All birth certificates (1913- ) and death certificates (c1975- ) are held by Vital Records, NC Department of Health and Human Services.
Census Records
An essential tool in researching your family’s history is the United States census, the official count of our country’s population taken every 10 years since 1790 to determine each state’s number of Congressional representatives. Each census locates an ancestor in a specific place at a specific time and often points the way to further searches in other records. Federal population census schedules may be searched through electronic databases such as HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com or Ancestry Library Edition, or by using microfilm of these records and printed or microfilm indexes available at many libraries. Privacy laws prohibit public access of federal census population records for 72 years after the date taken.
Systematically find and record each ancestor and his/her household in all censuses. Be imaginative and open to variations in spelling of names. Begin with the latest available census in which your earliest proven ancestor might have appeared. Systematically work backward in each preceding census, noting changes in households through the years.
Always look at the census record, not just the database record preview or the index. Copy the entire census image or if reading microfilm, make printouts or use census forms to record all information for the entire household. Record neighbors in 10 to 15 households on each side of the ancestor. Data collected by enumerators varies by census year and may include relationship, occupation, value/ownership of real estate and/or personal property, literacy, ownership of slaves, and neighbors. This data identifies a particular person and can help to distinguish two people with the same name as well as give clues to other sources of information.
- The 1930, 1920, 1910, 1900, and 1880 censuses state the relationship of each person in the household to the head of the household and can be used as substitutes for nonexistent birth certificates. The 1890 census has been destroyed except for a few fragments; a partial census of Union veterans survives.
- Both the 1900 and 1910 censuses indicate the number of years a couple has been married. The 1930 census indicates age at first marriage. Use this information to search county marriage records. Marriage licenses (after 1872 in North Carolina) should indicate the names of the parents of the bride and groom.
- 1870 is the first census naming all African-Americans. To research families thought to have been slaves, look at all their neighbors (regardless of race) for other family members and possible former owners. For information about slaves before 1865, study records of the slave owners: census schedules (slave and free), wills, estates records, deeds, bills of sale, and any family papers which may be found in manuscript collections. For further strategies and a list of suggested readings, consult “Finding Slave Records.”
- Beginning in 1850 the census form recorded the birthplace of each individual; though generally limited to the state or country, this information provides important clues to place of previous residence and approximate year of migration from the earlier residence.
Censuses from 1840 backward to 1790 listed only heads of households by name but divided everyone into age groups by male and female.
- Despite the absence of names for others, this data must be recorded and analyzed in comparison with the information found on later censuses. Search for an individual or family 10 years younger in each earlier census.
- Search databases or published statewide census indexes to locate earlier states and counties in which your ancestor appears. Look for all households of the same surname in the same county or adjacent counties and for surnames of neighbors recorded in later censuses. Copy or record all information for everyone in the household, both free and slave.
- The neighbors will help you determine the previous county of residence, where you will search for records of your ancestor. For further suggestions in finding the North Carolina county from which your ancestor came, see “Tracking an Ancestor Back to North Carolina”
and the article “People Finders for North Carolina” by Jeffrey L. Haines in The North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 35 (February 2009): 5-14.
Other Records
Next proceed to the records of the county in which your ancestor lived. Search wills and/or settlements of estates of those who may have died. Look for marriage records of those who may have married. Look for deeds that record your ancestor's purchases, sales, or gifts of land. Also study tax lists, court records, bonds, and other county records. Extensive research in the records of the county where your ancestors lived will help you recreate the lives of your ancestors and their families.
When each new ancestor is proven, begin all over again, starting with the appropriate census schedules.
North Carolina Government Resources
- Genealogical Services, Government and Heritage Library of the State Library of North Carolina, owns published family genealogies, indexes, abstracts, and/or transcriptions of county, state, and federal records. Additional information on the collection, hours, policies, and services is found at http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/patrons/genealogists.html.
- The North Carolina State Archives has an unparalleled collection of both county and state public records for North Carolina. Information on their collections, hours, policies, and services is found at http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/default.htm.
- North Carolina Vital Records in the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for registering all births, deaths, marriages, and divorces that occur in North Carolina. Certificates are available from Vital Records as well as from the county in which the event occurred, usually from the register of deeds office. Information on policies, hours, services, and request forms as well as a list of county contacts is found at http://vitalrecords.dhhs.state.nc.us/vr/index.html
