North Carolina vital records are held by the Office of Vital Records (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), the State Archives, or the local county register of deeds or clerk of court, depending upon the time-period and the document type. Each office has their own procedure for processing vital records requests. Please visit their website or contact them directly for questions about how to submit request and the cost to do so.
Statewide registration of births began in 1913. There were some exceptions, including the cities of Raleigh in 1890 and Wilmington in 1904. Birth certificates can tell you the name and sex of the child; the names, birthplaces, and ages of the parents (with the mother’s maiden name); the occupation of the father; and the number of children born to the mother. Certificates are filed in the county where the birth took place.
Copies of birth certificates can be requested from:
County Register of Deeds, 1913 to present
Office of Vital Records, 1913 to present
For individuals born before 1913 or whose birth in a later year was not registered, there is another type of birth record to consider- the delayed birth certificate. By registering their birth, people could apply for social security. Birth indexes in online collections FamilySearch and Ancestry do include some delayed birth registrations. Delayed birth certificates can be requested from the county register of deeds.
Indexes to North Carolina births for various counties are available in print at the SLNC Government & Heritage Library. You can also search online birth record collections, which include searchable indexes, on FamilySearch and Ancestry.
North Carolina Birth Index, 1800-2000 - index of births from the North Carolina State Archives; includes delayed birth registrations.
North Carolina Birth Index, 1800-2000 - index of births from the North Carolina State Archives; Index provided by Ancestry.com.
North Carolina, Births and Christenings, 1866-1964 - name index to birth, baptism, and christening records.
North Carolina, Center for Health Statistics, Vital Records Unit, County Birth Records, 1913-1922 - includes birth and delayed birth certificates and records for all counties in North Carolina.
North Carolina death certificates began to be filed in 1913, however some counties began issuing them as early as 1909. Death certificates usually provide: the name of the deceased, their place of residence and occupation; marital status and name of spouse and their occupation; date and place of death; cause; names of both parents; and name of attending physician and name of cemetery or burial place. An informant provided some of the information found on a death certificate, including the deceased’s age and possible birth date. These details are not always accurate. The informant was usually a relative, but not always, and in many cases may have been grieving and unable to report the facts.
Copies of death certificates can be requested from:
Indexes to North Carolina deaths for various counties are available in print at the SLNC Government & Heritage Library. You can also search online death record collections, including searchable indexes, on FamilySearch and Ancestry.
Before 1868, it was not required for couples to apply for a marriage certificate. Instead, they could be married by their church using marriage banns. This typically occurred from the 1600s-early 1800s. Banns were notices posted on church doors announcing their intent to marry. If there were no objections, then the marriage proceeded.
The first law regarding marriages in North Carolina was passed in April 1741. This law appears in volume 23, page 158 of the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina.
From 1741-1861 couples who went to the county to be married had what was called a marriage bond. These bonds list the groom, bride, date of the bond, bondsman, witness, and county. These are all located at the State Archives of North Carolina. A microfiche index of all existing marriage bonds, with the exception of Granville County, was created to help search for marriage bonds. A separate index has since been published for Granville County. This is a great tool if you do not know which county the marriage bond was posted in. For further information, check out the Overview of Marriage Bonds Filed in the North Carolina State Archives.
After 1868, marriage licenses became the only official marriage record in the state. You can request marriage certificates from:
Indexes to North Carolina marriages for various counties are available in print at the SLNC Government & Heritage Library. You can also search online marriage record collections on FamilySearch and Ancestry.
North Carolina did not legally recognize marriage between enslaved people. When slavery was abolished, the General Assembly made provisions for the legal registration of recently emancipated slaves in the form of cohabitation bonds. While the recording of the marriages took place for the most part in 1866, they reference the joining of couples living as man and wife dating back to 1820 and possibly earlier.
These records typically give the names of the bride and groom, the year, and sometimes the month they began living together as man and wife. It is important to note that surnames in cohabitation bonds may not be the same as those listed in other records. Men and women may have changed their surname after emancipation, although some may have kept their former slaveholder’s surname.
An excellent print resource for researching cohabitation bonds is the three-volume series entitled Somebody Knows My Name: Marriage of Freed People in North Carolina County by County by Barnetta McGhee White. The cohabitation bonds of 54 counties have been abstracted and indexed this series.