Help with Bastardy Bonds in North Carolina

Question

I've been using DNA to try to figure out Lora's father, but I can't get past just having a really good hypothesis. Does anyone have experience looking through North Carolina Bastardy Bonds? I can't find a decent source for ones from 1881 and I'm stuck.

Comments

Do you believe that Lora and brother, William, have the same father? If so, you could look for him in the book mentioned below.

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Unfortunately, I'm almost positive they don't. There's quite a bit of documentation and family history on William, and he appears to have been Waitsell (sp?) Prestwood's son. I did find his bond :)

Their two younger sisters and younger brother were all born out of wedlock too. I wish I had anything more than my imagination to figure out how someone in the late 1800s ends up with 5 kids out of wedlock from potentially two or more different fathers. The amount of DNA in common with my DNA matches makes me think at least 3 different fathers, but who knows.

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It may also be worth slogging brought the Court Records. Each County moved from Bastardy Bond books to general Court case logs. Unfortunately, each County made the move in their own time, so there is no one cut off or transition year.

Answer 1

FamilySearch has digitized them, but it's going to be a long slog if you don't know the county:  https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/766391?availability=Family%20History%20Library.  There's a book called "North Carolina bastardy bonds" that has indexed them, but it only goes to 1878!  https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p15012coll1/id/69417  I had no idea they were still in use that recently.