North Carolina Vital Records: Learn More

Resources located in the SLNC Government & Heritage Library can provide more background in understanding the evolution and history of vital records in the U.S. and N.C.  Links are provided to the library's catalog so that you can request resources.  To search our catalog for other items, please visit https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/search-library. 

• Almasy, Sandra. North Carolina mortality census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880. Joliet, IL: Kensington Glen Pub., 1994. (13 vols).
• Anderson, Margo. The American Census: A Social History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
• Bohme, Frederick. 200 Years of U.S. Census Taking: Population and Housing Questions, 1790-1990. Bureau of the Census, 1989.
• Burroughs, Tony. Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree. New York, NY: Fireside, 2001.
• Cassedy, James H. Demography in Early America: Beginnings of the Statistical Mind, 1600-1800. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
• Cohen, Patricia Cline. A Calculating People: The Spread of Numeracy in Early America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982.
• Eichholz, Alice, ed. Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources. 3rd ed. Provo, UT: Ancestry, 2004.
• Grob, Gerald N. “EDWARD JARVIS AND THE FEDERAL CENSUS: A Chapter in the History of Nineteenth Century American Medicine,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, SPRING, 1976, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 4-27. 
• Hait, Michael. African American Genealogy Research. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2011.
• Hinshaw, William Wade. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol. 1 North Carolina. Ann Arbor: Edwards Brothers, Inc. 1936.
• Leary, Helen F. M. North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History. 2d ed. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996. 
  • “Strategy for Vital Records” p. 24
  • “Strategy for Estimating Birth Date” p. 61-62
  • “Strategy for the Census” p.24-27
  • “Strategy for Marriage Records” p. 39-42 
  • “Appendix A: Selected Terms and Abbreviations” under “Age of” p. 569
• Lunde, Anders S. “The Organization of the Civil Registration System of the United States.” International Institute for Vital Registration and Statistics, Technical Paper Series, no. 8, 1980.

• Mitchell, Thornton W. North Carolina Wills: A Testator Index, 1665-1900. Corrected and rev. ed. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992.

• National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Vital Statistics System Major Activities and Developments, 1950-95. 1997.
• ​​​​​​Pearson, Susan J. ’“Age Ought to Be a Fact": The Campaign against Child Labor and the Rise of the Birth Certificate,’ The Journal of American History, Vol. 101, No. 4 (March 2015), pp. 1144-1165..

• UNICEF: For Every child, Birth Registration.
• United State Census Bureau. History.
  • Census of Population and Housing. Decennial data from 1790- 2020.
  • Factfinder for the Nation. 2000. 
  • Through the Decades
  • Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790-2000. September 2002.
• White, Barnetta McGhee. Somebody Knows My Name. (3 vols) Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Company, 1995.
• Wilbur, Cressy L. “The Outlook for a General System of Registration of Vital Statistics in the United States” Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 10, No. 80 (Dec., 1907), pp. 395-420. 

This video presentation by the SLNC Government & Heritage Library explores the history of vital records in the U.S. and North Carolina and shares strategies for locating these important records of life events. Birth, death, and marriage records - as well as other records of major life events - were first documented by religious organizations or by private individuals, if at all. With the public health movement of the mid-1800s, the U.S. government took note of their importance and began an effort to register deaths. Official documentation of births and deaths finally gained traction in the 20th century when all state and local governments adhered to a more consistent system. In North Carolina, birth and death certificates were kept on a statewide basis beginning in 1913. Today, we look to vital records as a valuable source of information for researchers studying genealogy, history, sociology, public health, and more. This webinar includes a demonstration of online search strategies for locating vital records, with special emphasis on North Carolina records, as well as techniques for finding vital information when traditional documents are unavailable will also be examined.

RootsMOOC is an online genealogy course from the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University and the SLNC Government and Heritage Library.  The course introduces some of the best sources and strategies for conducting an organized and efficient search for your family's history.  The course has ended, but videos and other resources are still available.  Much about North Carolina vital records can be learned from the course. All of the videos and course information can be accessed here: https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/research/genealogy-and-family-history/getting-started-genealogy-research/rootsmooc

Get started with the following RootsMOOC introductory video: