Types of Records
Genealogical Materials by Type
A good, full discussion of these records may be found in Helen F. M. Leary and Maurice Stirewalt's North Carolina Research: Genealogy and LocalHistory (Raleigh: North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996)
Birth Certificates
The state of North Carolina officially began keeping birth certificates in 1913. (In some outlying areas and among our more ornery ancestors it began a bit later.) Birth certificates tell where a child was born, who the parents were and their age at the time of the birth. Other information is sometimes listed such as occupation of the father, number of children already in the household, etc. An in-house computerized index to Rowan County Birth Certificates can be accessed by History Room staff. This index is maintained by Rowan County's Register of Deeds.
Delayed Birth Certificates (delayed births)
If someone, somehow, escaped the notice of a birth certificate registrar or happened to be born before births were listed, they could have applied for a delayed birth certificate. To obtain such a certificate, individuals had to supply documentation, often a family Bible record. Delayed Births for Rowan County are available in the same in-house computerized index as the "regular" birth certificates.
Death Certificates
North Carolina began keeping Death Certificates in 1913. If an ancestor died before this time, one must turn to such records as wills, tombstones, and family Bibles to find the death date. Death certificates contain the date of death and birth as well as the parents' names and cause of death--and sometimes a good bit more.
One must remember that this information was not supplied by the subject under consideration. All information on a death certificate is supplied by an "informant." Informants are often family members but that does not mean that the information they supplied is 100 percent accurate. An in-house computerized index to Rowan County Death Certificates can be accessed by History Room staff. This index is maintained by Rowan County's Register of Deeds.
Marriage Records
During the majority of North Carolina's history, most of its citizens got married in any manner that suited them. Ministers and magistrates were nice, but often, one concludes, not necessary. This makes the existence of public marriage records chancy at best, but some do exist.
Officially, there were two ways to get married in the state up until 1868. One was through the publication of banns whereby a marriage would be announced on three consecutive Sundays in church. If no one spoke up against the merger, then the couple was free to wed. A certificate stating that this procedure had been followed was supposed to have been created, but, of course, did not have to be placed on file anywhere.
The second method which lasted from 1741-1868 (and overlapped the period of banns) involved the issuance of a marriage bond. The bridegroom obtained these through the Clerk of the County Court. They signified nothing more than that the couple listed intended to marry. It is possible that they changed their mind later and
For good background information one can turn to Dr. Guion Griffis Johnson's "Courtship and Marriage Customs in Antebellum North Carolina," The North Carolina Historical Review Vol. 8 (October 1931) p. 384-402. An index to all of North Carolina's Marriage Bonds (From the beginning of the records for each county until 1868) is available on microfiche. An in-house computerized index to all marriage bonds and licenses can be accessed by History Room staff. This index is maintained by Rowan County's Register of Deeds.
Cohabitation Bonds
Although there was no legal recognition of their unions and, in some cases, laws strictly forbade it, slaves married. Like the whites who lived about them, they chose their partners from among their fellow workers on their own plantation or from a local farm. On rare occasions, owners would choose the partners for their slaves. It has been estimated that one out of ten slave marriages were arranged in this fashion. And, in an even more rare-- although not unheard of--situation, some masters actually treated their slaves like breeding stock.
Those Slaves who were allowed their own choice in the matter usually chose a husband or wife when they were in their mid to late teens. The owners, as well as the parents, had to approve of the choice. Even though owners frowned upon their slaves taking a partner from a nearby farm, the practice was fairly common. Male slaves had "'broad" wives. That is, they had wives who lived "abroad," or on another plantation. The men would work and live on their owner's farm but would visit their wives once or twice a week, usually Wednesdays and Saturdays after work. During these visits, the husband might bring a gift to his wife and family: a few extra vegetables, a possum, or a mess of fish, and the wife would fix a large meal, mend her husband's clothing, and generally make a fuss over him. In some cases, owners were known to purchase a slave so that families such as these might live together. After all, slaves who stayed on the place and who were not slipping off to attend to family business on a nearby farm were,
The marriage ceremonies for most slaves involved a simple exchange of vows at a prayer meeting followed by the couple jumping over a broom. Some slaves located on larger plantations (usually the house servants) could expect a bit more. There were owners who would dress up the bride and groom, throw a feast, and invite the neighbors white and black. Often these "special" slave marriages would occur at Christmas when the work had been stopped and the master's extended family would be visiting. But very few slaves could expect such treatment.
Most slave wedding ceremonies were performed by the master or by one of the slaves who served as the preacher in the slave quarters. Only rarely did a white minister marry slaves, although this seems to have been more common in North Carolina than in other slave states. Most owners were, perhaps, uneasy at the prospect of having one of their own ministers create a bond that economics might force them to break. The great sticking point for slave marriages were found in the vows, themselves. A Christian ceremony that had no status in law and that created a bond that could easily be broken by a third party could not contain the words "till death do you part." They were absent in a slave marriage ceremony or were replaced by phrases such as "till death or distance do you part."
Whether they had jumped over a broom in the quarters or had taken vows in a suit and dress on the verandah of the big house, following the Civil War many of the newly freed men and women wished to have their unions recognized by the state. In 1866, the General Assembly passed "An Act Concerning Negroes and Persons of Color Or of Mixed Blood." This act called for blacks and those with mixed blood who had been living as husband and wife to appear before the Clerk of the County Court or a Justice of the Peace to have this fact recorded. They were expected to have their cohabitation registered before September 1, 1866, if they were to be recognized as married.
Found in the offices of the various county Registers of Deeds or in the State Archives are bound volumes attesting to the strength of the human heart. They bear such titles as "Negro Cohabitation Certificates," "Record of Marriage and Cohabitation," and "Record of Marriages by Freedmen."
In a great many cases, cohabitation bonds are the only extant record that reveal the husband or wife of a slave or, for that matter, the owner of a particular slave. For these reasons, they are extremely valuable to genealogists interested in African American families. And for those of us who sometimes need reassurance about the resilience of a human heart in a hostile world, they are equally important.
In Cohabitation Bonds for Rowan County, NC published by the Genealogical Society of Rowan County, June Watson transcribes and indexes the approximately 350 cohabitation bonds that exist for Rowan County, North Carolina. The original bonds are held by Rowan County's Register of Deeds. The transcriptions presented here were made from microfilm prepared by the North Carolina State Archives.
The History Room holds an index to all cohabitation bonds for the state of North Carolina. For more information about slave marriage customs, please consult: Eugene D. Genovese. Roll, Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974).
Wills
The person who makes a will is called the "testator" or "devisor." The folks who get the goodies are “legatees" or "devisees." The fellow who makes sure that the final wishes are carried out is the "executor." If the executor happens to be female, she is an "executrix." "Probate" is the process by which the will becomes official and the written desires are validated. There are usually three copies of a will: the original, the one copied into the county clerk's records, and the one issued to the executor. The copy that is committed to the county clerk's book will often contain probate information: witnesses, executor, probate dates, etc.