North Carolina Archives and Libraries

United States North Carolina  Archives and Libraries

These archives, libraries, societies, and museums preserve sources, maintain indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in North Carolina.

Wiki Articles on Major Repositories in North Carolina
North Carolina State Archives · State Library of North Carolina · University of North Carolina Library · Duke University Perkins Library · National Archives Southeast Region (Atlanta) · Library of Congress

National Archives
National Archives at Atlanta 5780 Jonesboro Road Morrow, Georgia 30260 Telephone: 770-968-2100 Fax: 770-968-2547 Email: [mailto:atlanta.archives@nara.gov atlanta.archives@nara.gov] Internet: http://www.archives.gov/atlanta/


 * Collects federal agency and court records for North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. They have both a Microfilm Research Room and an Archival Research Room. There is an extensive microfilm collection of value for genealogy research and general historical interest. Genealogy records include censuses, military service records, pensions and bounty-land, and Gulf Coast passenger arrivals. Subject specialties include the Vice Admiralty Court of South Carolina, Civil War and Reconstruction, organized crime, World Wars, the New Deal, and space exploration. The collection holds about 70,000 cubic feet of archival holdings from 1716 to the 1980s, primarily textual records but also maps, and photographs.

Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave. SE Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ G4 Washington, D.C. 20540-4660 Telephone: Reading Room: 202-707-5537 Fax:  202-707-1957 E-mail:  Ask a Librarian Internet: http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/


 * Use this library for its outstanding genealogical guides and indexes. They are part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources. The "Local History and Genealogy Reading Room" has moved to the main reading room, but services are unchanged.

State Archives
North Carolina State Archives 109 East Jones Street (Mail to: 4610 Mail Service Center) Raleigh, NC 27699-4610 Telephone: 919-807-7310 Fax: 919-733-1354 E-mail: [mailto:archives@ncdcr.gov archives@ncdcr.gov] Internet: http://www.ncdcr.gov/archives/Home.aspx


 * Collection of county court records so large it has not all been cataloged. The North Carolina State Archives maintains original records of North Carolina governments on the state, district, and county levels. Includes audio visual material, government records, maps, War of 1812, Civil War, World Wars, newspapers, photos, county records, state agency records, veterans records, organization records, private collections, and defunct academic institution records.

State Library of North Carolina 109 East Jones Street (Mail to: 4641 Mail Service Center) Raleigh, NC 27699-4641 Telephone: 919-807-7460 E-mail: [mailto:slnc.reference@ncdcr.gov slnc.reference@ncdcr.gov] Internet: http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/index.html


 * Great collection of books, periodicals, and genealogies for North Carolina. Their collection includes genealogy databases; digital: family Bibles, marriages, deaths, newspapers, and cemetery photos; genealogy guides; county records including wills, deeds, marriages, court minutes, tax lists, and probate records.

Regional Archives
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries


 * Wilson Special Collections Library 200 South Rd. Wilson Library Campus Box #3948 UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27515-8890 Telephone: 919-962-1172 Email:[mailto:nccref@unc.edu nccref@unc.edu] Internet: Louis R. Wilson Special Collections Library


 * The Wilson Library is home to: the famed Southern Historical Collection with strengths in plantations, slavery, the Civil War, Civil Rights, communities, family, race relations, and religious communities ; the North Carolina Collection of published works on North Carolina and its people and biographical index ; the Rare Book Collection; the Southern Folklife Collection; the Manuscript Department  collection of personal papers, letters, and diaries of early North Carolina residents; and the Map Department. [[Image:UNC Davis Library.jpg|right|150px|UNC Davis Library.jpg]]


 * Davis Library 208 Raleigh Street Campus Box #3916 UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27599 Telephone: 919-962-1151 E-mail: E-mail a Question form Internet: UNC Chapel Hill Libraries


 * Humanities, and foreign language materials, maps, government documents repository, and microforms are found here.

Duke University Perkins Library 104 Chapel Drive Durham, NC 27708 Telephone: 919-660-5800 E-mail: Ask a Librarian e-mail form Internet: Duke University Libraries


 * Largest manuscript collection in the South, including newspapers, county records, Bibles, and journals. They also have many census records originally at the National Archives.


 * Nannie M. Trilley, and Noma Lee Goodwin, Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Duke University Library (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1947). . This guide lists about 8,000 names of individuals, families, and historical subjects, and it is indexed.
 * John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture in the Rubenstein Library at Duke University.

Rowan Public Library 201 West Fisher Street Salisbury NC, 28144 Telephone: 704-216-8253 Fax: 704-216-8237 E-mail: [mailto:gretchen.witt@rowancountync.gov gretchen.witt@rowancountync.gov] Internet: Rowan Public Library


 * This library has manuscripts, diaries, journals, Bible records, and family folders from the crossroads of colonial North Carolina. Emphasis is on "Old Rowan County," including 150,000 abstracts in the McCubbins Colleciton, 2,000 family histories, and Civil War records.

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room 310 North Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28202 Telephone: 704-416-0150 E-mail: Send an E-mail form Internet: Main Library: Carolina Room


 * Virtually a second state archives for the southern part of the state. Emphasis is on Germans, Highland Scots, and Scots-Irish immigrants to North Carolina. Many references to Quakers moving from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. This collection has good indexes, biographies, family folders, and genealogies.

Genealogical Society of Old Tyron County 319 Doggett Road PO Box 938 Forest City, NC 28043 Telephone: 828-247-8700 E-mail: [mailto:info@rutherfordcountync.gov info@rutherfordcountync.gov] Internet: Genealogical Society


 * Use this library for finding books, periodicals, Bible records, obituaries, biographies and indexes for pre-Civil War people from both North Carolina and South Carolina. Emphasis is on counties of Rutherford, Polk, and Cleveland, but also includes all of North and South Carolina. Immigration data, 500 family histories, 3,000 genealogy books, 60 Carolina county heritage books.

McEachern Library of Local History Dulpin County Historical Society 314 East Main Street, PO Box 130 Rose Hill, NC 28458 Telephone: 910-296-2180


 * This library has the largest collection in North America of family folders for immigrants from Scotland, including the highland Scots who came to the Cape Fear River region of North Carolina.

Olivia Raney Local History Library 4016 Carya Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27610 Phone: 919-250-1196 Internet: Olivia Raney Local History Library


 * The collection of 18,000 items is primarily local and family history oriented including background materials on American, North Carolina and local history. Includes Internet genealogy databases.

Archives Outside North Carolina
Chattanooga Public Library Downtown 1001 Broad Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 Telephone: 423-757-5317 E-mail: [mailto:library@lib.chattanooga.gov library@lib.chattanooga.gov] Internet: Local History and Genealogy Department


 * Includes the Upper South's largest family folder collection which is heavy on North Carolina. Internet genealogy databases, census, newspapers, obituary index, county records, 30,000 books, manuscripts, and genealogical periodicals.

Knox County Public Library Calvin M. McClung Historical Collections 601 South Gay Street Knoxville, Tennessee 37901-1629 Telephone: 865-215-8801 E-mail: [mailto:www.easttnhistory.org www.easttnhistory.org] Internet: http://www.knoxlib.org/


 * The McClung Historical Collection includes an index to early North Carolina families. No index in North Carolina can top this one. Internet genealogy databases, more than 75,000 books, 3,000 genealogies, 15,000 First Families of Tennessee, manuscripts, censuses, state and local government records, newspapers, Knoxville city directories, maps, and photos. The same building also houses the Knox County Archives, and the East Tennessee Historical Society and Museum.

Bristol Public Library 701 Goode Street Bristol, Virginia 24201-4199 Telephone: 540-645-8780 Fax: 276-669-5593 E-mail: [mailto:bplref@yahoo.com bplref@yahoo.com] Internet: http://www.bristol-library.org/


 * They have a relatively small family folder collection. Nevertheless, it is an important resource for settlers coming from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia along the Great Valley Road into Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown 224 Church Street Santa Cruz, California 95060 Telephone: 831-427-7707 ext. 5794 E-mail: E-mail reference service form Internet: http://www.santacruzpl.org/branches/14/


 * Holds the Genealogial Society of Santa Cruz County's library, including the Tina Brayton Collection which is equivalent to the Draper Manuscript Collection  but larger and with a better index, and many compiled genealogies of North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia  families.

Guides

 * Ellen Garrison, Archives in Appalachia: A Directory  (Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985). . . For Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, arranged alphabetically, each entry shows the archive, address, phone, inclusive dates of the collection, the records of the collection, subjects, and size of the collection. Indexed by record type, and by subject.

Guides and inventories for collections at archives and libraries can be found in the FamilySearch Catalog by using a Place Search  under:




 * NORTH CAROLINA, [COUNTY], [TOWN] — ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES