North Carolina Cohabitation Records

North Carolina State Law
In the March 1866 session of the North Carolina General Assembly, an Act was passed concerning negroes and persons of color. Justices of the Peace were to collect and record in the County Clerk’s office, a record of the cohabitation of former slaves to ratify their state of marriage. The Court Clerk was required to maintain a record book for this purpose and to receive 25 cents per entry for his service. In Section 6, Chapter 40 of the Act, it was a misdemeanor if negroes did not record their marriage by September, 1866. This section of the Act was amended by Section 1, Chapter 70 (ratified March 1867), to extend the time of recording these marriages until January 1, 1868.

Cohabitation records have survived from the following counties:

A comprehensive index for North Carolina Cohabitation Records is: White, Barnetta McGhee, Ph.D.Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina County by County. (Athens, Georgia: Iberian Publishing Company, 1995.) (FHL book 975.6 V2wb)