Any good advice on early North Carolina marriage records?

Question

I'm working on Nathan Wyatt. There were county changes and record loss around the time he married and moved. The history has been fascinating to read, but I'm not well versed on record collections for North Carolina. I can't find a record for him supporting the date that is floating around the web for his marriage. Does anyone have a resource that may help me?

Answer 1

Mindy, all surviving county marriage records (and wills) have been moved to the North Carolina Office of Archives and History in Raleigh. There are some publications around for some counties. Most of those were based in the documents researchers looked at in the capitol. I believe this is true for some deed books. I know that when I went to Brevard to transcribe Will Book 1, I had to use a copy that was sent back. They didn’t even copy the whole book!

Comments

Thank you Pip! Do they have online access? I looked through the books I did find online and didn't see the record.

---

Try this: https://mars.archives.ncdcr.gov/BasicSearch.aspx

Not the best, as some records are only indexed, but it's worth a shot. I've used it.

---

There are no online marriage indexes for Rowan County.  You have make your request to State Archives and they do a paper search.  Paper records are stored in boxes. They cannot get legislative funding to digitize or film.

---

Select counties still have their original record.  Wilkes for example still has most but not all of theirs.

---

Thank you Hugh! How sad that they are unable to preserve them by digitizing them.

Answer 2

Familysearch.org has on Wyatt marriage in Edgecombe, NC in 1766

The name of the spouse is Foreman.

"North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979," database with images, FamilySearch

Comments

There are three marriage records for 14 May 1766 for Wyatt and Foreman: David Wyatt and Sarah Foreman (incorrectly transcribed as James), and the one that has just surnames is a cover for a bond for the marriage of Davie Wyatt and Sarah Foreman (Which is still two: it was transcribed as David once and Davis once). Unfortunately, no Nathan. Thank you so much for looking though!