Orange County, North Carolina Genealogy

United States   North Carolina    Orange County

Guide to Orange County North Carolina genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
Orange County Courthouse 200 S Cameron St Hillsborough, NC 27278 Phone:  919-245-2675  Courthouse burned 1789 Registrar of Deeds has Birth and Death rec from 1913 marriage and land records from 1754, divorce records from 1869 probate records from 1756 and court records from 1865

History
Orange County NC was created out of parts of Bladen, Granville, and Johnston counties in 1752. At that time, it comprised a large section of the middle of the NC colony, extending halfway from the VA line to the SC line. It was named for the infant William V of Orange. His mother Anne, who was a daughter of King George II of England, was the dowager princess of the Dutch Republic.

At the time that the county was formed, there were 5 Native American tribes living in the area.

As other counties were created out of parts of Orange’s territory, these counties were created wholly out of Old Orange: Chatham (1771), Caswell (1777) and Person (created out of Caswell in 1791), and Alamance (1849). Other sections of the old county were combined with parts of other counties to create: Guilford (1771) –which gave birth in turn to Randolph (1779) and Rockingham (1785) — Wake (1771), Durham (1881), and Lee (1907). After all of this, Orange County was just a fraction of its original size.

Parent County
1752--Orange County was created from Bladen, Granville and Johnston Counties. County seat: Hillsborough

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating North Carolina county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation North Carolina County Boundary Maps" (1664-1965) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
For a list of record loss in North Carolina counties see: North Carolina Counties with Burned Courthouses

Neighboring Counties

 * Alamance
 * Caswell
 * Chatham
 * Durham
 * Person

Baptist

 * Rocky River, near Siler City, N.C. Organized about 1757. Now located in Chatham County.
 * South Country Line or Waters of Haw River. Constituted 1783.

Church of England

 * St. Matthew's Parish. Established 1752.

Presbyterian

 * Eno. Founded in 1755.
 * Hawfields. Founded about 1755. Now located in Alamance County. Official website.

Family Histories

 * [Clendenin] White, Jo White. "Clendenin of Orange County, North Carolina: An Exercise in Southern Genealogical Problem Solving," The Genealogist, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Fall 1985):186-190.
 * [Thompson] Buchanan, Jane Gray. Thomas Thompson and Ann Finney of Colonial Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Lawrence, Closs, and John Thompson. Allied Lines of Finney, McAllister, Buchanan, and Hart. Oak Ridge, Tenn.: J.G. Buchanan, 1987..

Civil War
Civil War Confederate units - Brief history, counties where recruited, etc.


 * -1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, usually known as the Bethel Regiment.
 * -1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry
 * -6th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry
 * -11th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry

Newspapers

 * UNC Black Student Movement Newspapers (1969-1981) -- available from the NC Digital Heritage Center
 * North Carolina Newspaper Digitization Project, North Carolina State Archives. Search full text newspapers published in Hillsboro.

Probate

 * Pre-1790 - Pre-1790 Wills stored at the North Carolina State Archives are online - free. Website tips.


 * 1752-1946 - have been digitized by FamilySearch - free.

Marriages

 * 1851-1962 - Orange County Marriage Books 1 thru 6 Index 1851-1936 in International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch - free.

Yearbooks

 * UNC-Chapel Hill: 1890-1978
 * Orange County students at NC colleges - via the NCGenWeb Yearbook Index

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Durham North Carolina Family History Center

Web Sites

 * Orange County, NC History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Genealogy Inc)
 * NCGenWeb: Orange County - part of the USGenWeb Project
 * USGenWeb Orange County Archives - many additional genealogical records of all kinds
 * USGenWeb Orange County Archives - many additional genealogical records of all kinds