Obtaining North Carolina Vital Records

North Carolina Vital Records: Genealogical Research

Births

North Carolina did not start issuing birth certificates until 1913. Earlier laws were mostly ignored, although some locations started registering these records earlier. To a great extent, anything prior to 1913 will be based on other records, such as Bible records, church records, census records, etc. People living in the 1930's and later sometimes obtained "delayed birth certificates" if they were born before 1913 but needed a birth certificate for Social Security or other purposes.

Early Birth Records- taken from different sources - These are useful as research tools, but they are not necessarily
written in stone. 

Marriages & Marriage Bonds

Before 1868, North Carolina had a system of marriage bonds. However, (1) these do not all exist anymore, and (2) they were not always required. The existence of a marriage bond doesn't guarantee that the marriage actually took place, or took place on that date (marriages usually occurred at least a day later, but often within a week). Marriage bonds will not list the parents' names (unless a father happens to be the bondsman), or the dates and places of birth. Beginning in 1868, North Carolina started requiring marriage licenses. Many things can be used to prove marriages prior to 1868, including census records, church records, land records, court records, wills and estates, newspapers, etc.

Bonds were usually posted signifying that the parties were unemcumbered and had the right to marry.
Spellings may be off on these so be sure to keep an open mind, and check the original records.

Cabarrus County Marriages, 1789-1825 - these are by date not alpha

Cabarrus County African American Marriages

North Carolina Archives Overview of Marriage Bonds

Marriage Bonds By Year, 1793 to 1806

Marriage Notices -these are local people but they come from newspapers outside the Cabarrus area

More Marriages -this list is in the Cabarrus County NCGenWeb Archives,and it is not searchable through
this site's search engine.

Marriage License for Joel G Sloop & Elizabeth Cook
submitted by Nita Sloop Brooks