The destruction of courthouses greatly affects genealogists in every way. Not only are these historic structures torn from our lives, so are the records they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, and others. Once destroyed they are lost forever. Even if they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too. The most heartbreaking side of this is the fact that many of our courthouses are destroyed at the hands of arsonist. However, not all records were lost.
- Alleghany – 1932 (fire, record loss)
- Alexander – 1865 (civil war, record loss), 1967 (fire)
- Craven – 1712 (records destroyed by Indians)
- Anson – 1868 (fire)
- Ashe – 1865 (fire, records fragmented)
- Bladen – 1770 (fire), 1800 (fire), 1893 (fire)
- Brunswick – 1865 (civil war, record loss), 1957 (clerk’s office fire)
- Buncombe – 1830 (fire), 1865 (fire)
- Burke – 1865 (civil war, record loss)
- Cabarrus – 1876 (fire)
- Cherokee – 1865 (fire), 1895 (fire), 1926 (fire)
- Chowan – 1848 (records destroyed by acting clerk)
- Clay – 1870 (fire, records destroyed)
- Craven – 1712 (records destroyed by Indians)
- Currituck – 1842 (fire)
- Davidson – 1866 (fire)
- Gaston – 1874 (fire)
- Greene – 1876 (fire)
- Guilford – 1781 (fire), 1872 (fire)
- Harnett – 1892 (fire), 1894 (fire)
- Haywood – 1932 (records destroyed in move to new courthouse)
- Hertford – 1830 (fire), 1822 (fire)
- Hyde – 1789 (fire), 1827 (fire)
- Iredell – 1854 (fire)
- Jackson – 1913 (records lost when county seat moved)
- Jones – 1862 (fire)
- Lenoir – 1878 (fire), 1880 (fire)
- Lincoln – 1797 (records may have been destroyed by fire in private home)
- Martin – 1862 (fire)
- Mitchell – 1907 (some records destroyed in move to new courthouse)
- Montgomery – 1835 (fire), 1840 (fire), 1886 (may have suffered record loss from courthouse fire.
- The clerk said that he saved the records but that they were “in a state of great confusion.”)
- Moore – 1889 (fire)
- New Hanover – 1789, 1819 & 1840 (all 3 courthouse fires may have destroyed some records)
- Onslow – 1752 & 1755 (records destroyed by storm)
- Orange – 1781 (records destroyed when buried in woods to avoid capture or destruction by Cornwallis)
- Pitt – 1857 (fire)
- Rowan – 1865 (civil war, record loss)
- Rutherford – 1907 (fire)
- Sampson – 1921 (clerk’s office fire)
- Swain – 1879 (fire)
- Wake – 1832 (register’s office fire)
- Warren – 1935 (Some early County records may have been destroyed)
- Washington – 1962 (County records destroyed by bombardment in Civil War)
- Watauga – 1873 (fire)
- Wayne – 1781 (records may have been destroyed in courthouse fire)