North Carolina Estate Records

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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[1] The official Web Site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

[2] ibid

[3] The handybook for genealogists:: United States of America (Logan, Utah 84321: The Everton Publishers, Inc, 1991), page 182.

Estate Records of Chesterfield County, SC

If you have family roots in or originating from Chesterfield County SC you are well aware of the lack of historical records for that county.

The first courthouse was built in Chesterfield County in 1786 consisting of a log cabin approximately 60X40 feet. [1]This fist courthouse evolved into a larger two story building which was burnt and destroyed by Gen. Sherman on 2 March 1865. It was this destructive act, during the Civil War, which resulted in the loss of almost ALL early historical records of the County. Very few extant documents exist for the county prior to 2 March 1865.

Land records, probate records, newspaper and other legal and historical documents were destroyed on that Thursday in 1865.

So what is available for this burned county?

Recently, Family Search [2] has filmed and posted the extant Estate Records for the county on their Website.

You can access these records by clicking on the above hyperlink. When the Family search website comes up select “RECORDS” along the top of the page

Scroll down to “Browse by Location” and select USA, Canada and Mexico

On the next page that appears - enter “South Carolina” in the search box at top left corner

You will get the following listing of available records.

• South Carolina Deaths, 1915-1943
• South Carolina Deaths, 1944-1955
• South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977
• South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964
• South Carolina, Civil War Confederate Service Records, 1861-1865

Also listed are the number of records and when they were last updated.

As shown here, you can see that the LDS Church family History Library has very few records for Chesterfield County, South Carolina.

The website contained two listings for the County Estate Records

1. South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977

2. South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964

The first listing is the INDEX for the estate records. They are in alphabetical orders but there is no indications or index for the Image number where surname “A” begins or end. So if your surname starts with “M” which is the middle of the alphabet you should look at the total Image on the film and maybe jumped to Image “90” of 187. Then you could work your way backward or forward as needed.

This is what you your alphabetical listing [3]will look like:

When you find your surname on the Estate Index make note of the folder number for the Estate. Let’s assume that Sarah A. Allen listed above is your relative. Her Estate folder is Folder #1197.

Next we will want to go to this listing 2 above - South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964

At the beginning of the Files and Loose pager film you will come to a page that has all the cases listed. You will want the listing that encompasses the Estate Folder you are looking for – Filer #1197.

In this case the actual grouping is:

Cases 1138-1206

Just as the INDEX is an alphabetical listing the estate folders are listed numerical so you will have to guess as to what image number your folder may start on. There are 1297 images on the above reel. Case 1197 is approximately 60 cases from the start of the reel and only 9 cases from the end of the reel. So it’s safe to assume that the Estate Folder is toward the end of the reel. I started on Image 1000 and found the actual estate for Sarah A. Allen begins on Image 1152 of 1297.

There are two other resources available related to early probate records in Chesterfield, South Carolina. The following books were research, abstracted and printed by James Pigg[4] while a member of the Chesterfield Genealogical Society[5].

1. Miscellaneous Abstracts from Pre-Civil War Cheraw Newspapers James Pigg

2. Cheraw/Chesterfield District Wills, 17501865 & Abstracts from the Court of Common Pleas, 1823 - 1869, James Pigg, 2000

These two books can be purchased from the Old Darlington District Chapter of The South Carolina Genealogical Society[6].

If your ancestor left an estate in Chesterfield, South Carolina, I do hope the information here will be helpful in your search. If you have questions about research in Chesterfield County feel free to contact me through e-mail or this blog.

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[1] http://chesterfield-sc.com/Historic%20CField/courthouses/courthouses.htm

[2] https://familysearch.org/

[3] https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-19420-44985-46?cc=1919417&wc=9385463, Image 10 of 187

[4] http://www.pigggenealogy.com/

[5] http://chesterfield.scgen.org/

[6] http://www.olddarlington.scgen.org/publications.html