I was at the local family History Center today and learned that FamilySearch[1] has posted North Carolina Estate & Probate Records on-line.
The listing consists of 96 Counties.
A long time ago they taught me in school that North Carolina has 100 counties. FamilySearch[2] webpage for these probate records have only 96 counties listed, seven rows of 13 counties with 5 additional counties listed in column eight. Counties are listed alphabetically. The numbers indicate that 4 counties are missing but there are really 5 counties missing.
FamilySearch has BUTE COUNTY listed on their webpage. According to the Handybook for Genealogists[3], Bute was established in 1764; discontinued in 1779 and divided into Warren County and Franklin County. Bute County has 12 pages of records, all Will Indexes starting in 1735.
The five (5) missing counties are:
- Alleghany
- Graham
- Hoke
- Mitchell
- Scotland
These records are easily accessed from home by logging onto their web-site.
Records on the webpage are grouped by years; if you DO NOT know if your ancestor left a WILL, you may first want to consult the book “North Carolina Wills: A Testator Index, 1665-1900”, by Thornton W. Mitchell. Mitchell’s book will provide a date and county if a WILL exists.
The remainder of this article is a “HOW-TO Procedure” for accessing these records. You may find an easier way; but, these procedures will provide access to the probate records for 95 North Carolina Counties.
Here are step-by-step procedures for finding and accessing these records.
(Note: The BLUE text in this document are not Hyperlinks but are for reference when following this procedure. There is one exception – the underlined FamilySearch.org below this paragraph is a hyperlink)
Start up your web browser and Log onto – www.familysearch.org
When the FamilySearch Home page appears on your screen –
SELECT – Go to previous site (Located near the top in the right Column)
When the “Old” FamilySearch home page loads SELECT “LIBRARY from menu bar and from the pull down menu SELECT “LIBRARY CATALOG”
When the Library Catalog page loads SELECT “PLACE SEARCH” on top right side of screen.
The Place Search screen will come up with two data entry blocks
Place
Part Of (optional)
In the first block enter - PERSON
In the second block enter - NORTH CAROLINA (Do not use abbreviations, i.e. NC)
On the PLACE SEARCH RESULTS page Double-Click the BLUE HYPERLINK ) should be the county and state you entered, i.e. North Carolina, Person
On the PLACE DETAIL page select – North Carolina, Person - Probate records by double-clicking.
The next page is the TOPIC DETAILS page. When this page appears on your screen there will be five listings on the page that are BLUE in Color (new users: a blue listing indicates that the verbiage is a HYPERLINK and if you click on it; it will take you to another page).
The first listing on this page is the one we want to select:
Miscellaneous probate records, 1847-1867; cross index to wills, 1792-1952 North Carolina. County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Person County)
That will bring up the TITLE DETAIL Page.
On this page, in the note section, you will find a statement in RED that reads:
North Carolina Probate Records are available online, click here.
If you click on the here button it will take you to
North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970
Click on the blue hyperlink labeled
Browse through 1,145,307 images
and start your search for your ancestor.
My Thanks to Karen Dunn for showing me how to access these files.
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