North Carolina Biography

Online Resources

 * North Carolina Digital Collection - Books on North Carolina Families
 * County and Town Histories, includes biographies
 * Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press, editor William S. Powell, Six volumes, published from 1979 to 1996, available and searchable through NCPedia
 * North Carolina, the Old North State and the new, Vol. 1 and 2($), index/images. Also at HathiTrust, no charge/no index Vol. 3, Vol. 4Vol. 5
 * History of North Carolina($), index/images
 * History of North Carolina, Biography...Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6, e-books
 * Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6,Vol. 7, Vol. 8, published 1905-1907, editors, Samuel A. Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks, Charles L. Van Noppen.
 * Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical, illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers
 * Prominent people of North Carolina: brief biographies of leading people for ready reference purposes, 1906
 * Reminiscences and memoirs of North Carolina and eminent North Carolinians. Also at: Internet Archive
 * Cyclopedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas of the Nineteenth Century, Volume 2 Brant & Fuller, 1892
 * Sketches of Prominent Living North Carolinians by Jerome Dowd, Edwards & Broughton 1888
 * Sketches of Western North Carolina Illustrating Principally the Revolutionary Period of Mecklenburg, Rowan, Lincoln and Adjoining Counties. By Cyrus Lee Hunter. 1877. Raleigh, [North Carolina] : Raleigh News Steam Job Print. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Ancestry ($).

Biographies provide useful genealogical information such as a person’s birth date and place; names of family members, including maiden names; education; occupation; and social, political, and religious affiliation. They may also contain a physical description of the person, previous residences, and immigration information. Biographies are the product of family knowledge or previous research about early settlers and prominent citizens of a state, county, or town. Local histories may contain biographical sketches of lesser-known people.

Biographies in Local Histories

 * Biographical information is often found in state, county, and town histories.
 * Towards the end of the 19th century, began publishers soliciting short biographical/family histories from local founding families, offering to publish them in an upcoming local history. This then became an incentive for family members to buy a copy of the book.
 * Families represented were not necessarily prominent. Practically everyone living there, especially in the Midwest, counted as an early settler.
 * These biographies often start with the first member of the family to settle in the area, and detail their descendants at the time of publishing. They may tell where the family moved in from. Children's marriages often are given, with maiden names included.

Finding Biographies

 * The county Wiki page lists several county histories. It also lists local libraries, and societies which probably have copies of local histories.
 * Many histories are no longer under copyright and can be found in the following online, digitized book collections. Search with keywords "History" and "the name of your locality" (state, county, or town).
 * FamilySearch Books
 * Google Books
 * World Cat
 * HathiTrust
 * Internet Archive
 * The FamilySearch library has extensive collections of these local histories. Many are digitized. Search the FamilySearch Catalog under your locality for the topics "Biography" and "History".

North Carolina Library
The North Carolina State Library has the most complete collection of North Carolina biographical materials. Their collection also includes some digitized biographies.

University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina's North Carolina Collection Biographical Index contains citations to biographical sketches about North Carolinians. Over five hundred volumes, primarily from the North Carolina Collection and other libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have been indexed to date.

Biographical Encyclopedias
Representative biographical encyclopedias are:


 * Ashe, Samuel A’Court, ed. Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. 9 vols. (Greensboro, North Carolina: Charles L. Van Noppen, 1905–17.), Eight volumes and  is an index to volumes 1–8.


 * Powell, William S. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. 6 vols. (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1979–96.), ) The biographies in this source are alphabetical.

See United States Biographies for information on nationwide biographical collections. See also North Carolina History and North Carolina Genealogy for additional sources.

FamilySearch Library
The FamilySearch Library has many volumes containing biographical sketches of residents of North Carolina. For an index, see Donald Hehir’s Carolina Families: A Bibliography of Books about North and South Carolina Families (Bowie, Maryland) ,

To find biographies and published family histories on specific surnames in the FamilySearch Catalog, use a Last Names Search. Using the available filters will help to limit the search.

The FamilySearch Library has many collected biographies and local county histories with biographical sketches of residents. These can be found in the FamilySearch Catalog by using a Place Search under:


 * NORTH CAROLINA- BIOGRAPHY


 * NORTH CAROLINA, [COUNTY] BIOGRAPHY