Are you on the lookout for some resources that will assist with your North Carolina genealogy research? Here are three FREE online resources that may help you make progress finding your Tar Heel ancestors.
North Carolina Genealogical Society
At the North Carolina Genealogical Society, we provide researchers with numerous resources. You’ll find some of our most popular resources below.
- The NCGS Journal has been published on a quarterly basis since 1975. It features abstracted and transcribed historical records, topical articles, and more.
- The NCGS Journal Searchable Online Index lets your search the journals by ancestral name, place name, or numbered military unit or search through the Journal article title list. This makes it easier to find your ancestors in the Journal!
- The NCGS Webinar Library. With over 30 recorded webinars to choose from, you will be sure to find a presentation that provides new information and ideas to help you progress in your genealogical journey. The Library also provides access to all webinar handouts.
- Research Guides. Research guides are free resources created to help you discover how to find your tar heel ancestors. Each guide will cover a different topic from vital records to a comprehensive list of North Carolina records currently available online. We hope these guides will help answer common genealogical questions and direct you on your genealogical journey.
North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center or DigitalNC, is a statewide digitization and digital publishing organization housed at UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library. They work with North Carolina cultural heritage institutions to scan, describe, and publish historical materials online, increasing access to and use of their collections. Their free online collections include yearbooks, images, memorabilia, city directories, and more!
North Carolina Land Grants
North Carolina Land Grants is an amazing free website run by NC Historical Records Online.
- Searchable data from all land grant files residing at the State Archives, specifically those cataloged as “Secretary of State Records Group: Land Warrants, Plats of Survey and Related Records”. Data includes the name of the person(s) receiving the grant, the county, the number of acres, various dates, and a brief description of the property.
- Corresponding images from the page in the Land Patent Book where the grant was recorded. Images are available for all existing volumes, 1-198, and can only be found online here.
- For around 20% of the grants, the data is linked to high-quality images of loose documents: warrants, surveys, receipts, and various other documents. These are also known as the shucks or the land grant files.
- Images of all deeds and associated documents for Granville District grants. These are a special type of grant issued from 1748 to 1763 in a good portion of North Carolina, and these documents can only be found online here.
- Images from card catalog index cards for around 5,000 miscellaneous grants. These are currently not searchable but will be added to the searchable records as time permits.
- Images of the state copies of the county Land Entry Books from 1779 to 1795. These are currently not searchable, but will be added to the searchable records as time permits.