Records can be found in various places. Original records are located at the State Archives of North Carolina. Many original records, but not all, have been digitized and can be found online with sites such as Ancestry.com, familysearch.com and the North Carolina Digital Collection.
The SLNC Government and Heritage Library has many published abstracts and indexes that can be helpful in your research. These abstracts and indexes can include county court minutes, apprentice bonds, bastardy bonds, guardian records, wills, estates and more. This is especially true for county court minutes, but also for apprentice bonds, bastardy bonds, guardian records, wills, and estates. . These published books are of records located in the State Archives of North Carolina and can be very helpful. Finding an ancestor in an abstract or index can ease the process of finding the original record in the Archives. In some cases, records in the Archives are filed alphabetical order by surname, such as wills and estates, but many are not. Many of their records are filed chronologically by county.
Below find research tools from the State Archives, online sources for finding records, and a list of select titles from the SLNC Government and Heritage Library.&
The State Archives of North Carolina has original county records the mid-1900s, including court records, apprentice and bastardy bonds, estates, guardian records, wills, and more. Records in the Archives are organized by county and then within the county by the type of record.
The State Archives has several guides and tools to help researchers:
Bonds
Apprentice Bonds, 1749-1913
Bastardy Bonds, 1746-1910
For the same county under records that have been microfilmed is the following entries for apprentice and bastardy bonds
Bonds
Apprentice Bonds, 1802-1913
Bastardy Bonds, 1869-1879
The State Archives of North Carolina and the State Library of North Carolina have collaborated to create the North Carolina Digital Collections. Within the collection are original records scanned by the State Archives as well as print material from the State Library. In relation to apprentice bonds and related records, there are two specific collections of interest.
Ancestry Library Edition, which is accessible at the Government and Heritage Library has two titles in their database that may help. If you have a subscription to Ancestry.com, these are likely there as well:
Familysearch.org is a site maintained by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT and the site is free. In 2020, the library succeeded in digitizing all microfilm located in their library, which covers the whole of the United States and possibly some foreign countries. This is a big help to those doing remote research that cannot come to the State Archives of North Carolina. Not every roll of film from the Archives is included as it depends on which reels of film the library purchased over the years. Searching the site can be a little tricky.
While viewing pages from this site, images can be downloaded and printed (top right corner), can be zoomed in and out as well as full screen (left hand side of page). By default, the page shows thumbnail images in a grid. To look at a specific image, double click on it and use the right and left arrows at the top left of the image to move from image to image. To return to the grid, click the grid button on the left hand side. There are additional tools to help you see the image better such as turning the image 90 degrees, inverting the color, and adjusting brightness and contrast. These records are not indexed so searching for names is not possible, it's a lot like searching the original records in the State Archives of North Carolina.
Please note that not every county has microfilm for the same records and time frame. Take a look at the State Archives County Records Guide previously mention to see what has been microfilmed and the Family History Library may not have purchased copies of everything.
To help you get started with searching this site, after you have logged on to the site, follow these links:
The following books are available at the SLNC Government and Heritage Library. Many of these cannot be checked out and only used within the building. There may be libraries in your local area with the book. The content of the books may contain images of original records, but by large these are published abstracts or indexes of county records for North Carolina.
Records for the poor can be found in court records, such as orders for people to live in the poor house. There may also be a Miscellaneous group of records Wardens of the Poor in some counties, such as in Granville County. SLNC Government and Heritage Library has many published abstracts of court records for the majority of North Carolina counties. We have many court abstract books in our collection. To find what we have for the county you are researching, go to our catalog and choose the option for an advanced search. On line one as a subject, enter the name of the county (ex: "Granville County"). On the second line as a subject, type "North Carolina". Add a new line and as a keyword either court or court minutes. When you are finished, click "Submit" button.
The search will include microfilm in our collection. We also have microfilm of many court records that can be used it the building or loaned to North Carolina libraries through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).