Swain County, North CarolinaEdit This Page
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United States 
North Carolina Swain County
Guide to Swain County North Carolina genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.
| Swain County, North Carolina | |||||||||
| Map | |||||||||
 Location in the state of North Carolina | |||||||||
 Location of North Carolina in the U.S. | |||||||||
| Facts | |||||||||
| Founded | 1871 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County Seat | Bryson City | ||||||||
| Courthouse | |||||||||
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Contents |
County Courthouse
1 Mitchell St P O box 417
Bryson, NC 28713
Phone: 828-488-9273
Register of Deeds has birth and death records from 1913
marriage records from 1907 and land records
Clerk Superior Court has divorce and court records from 1900 and probate records[1]
History
European settlement began soon after the Cherokee Indian cession of 1798. These Europeans settled in the areas along the Oconaluftee and Tuckaseegee Rivers. The Cherokees surrendered the remainder of the land in a treaty on February 27, 1819. In 1871 the North Carolina General Assembly passed an act making Swain a North Carolina county, taking land from Jackson and Macon county. It was named for David L. Swain a former governor of North Carolina and president of the University of North Carolina.
The first court was held at Cold Spring Meeting House. Commissioners were to select a site for the courthouse and lay out a town named Charleston, to become the county seat. Charleston was renamed Bryson City in 1889 in honor of Colonel Thad Dillard Bryson.
Swain County began probating wills in 1876.
Parent County
1871--Swain County was created from Jackson and Macon Counties.
County seat: Bryson City [2]
Boundary Changes
Record Loss
1879--Courthouse fire destroyed many records.
1908-- Swain County Courthouse in Bryson City burned by rioters, January 7, 1908. No records were saved. [3]
Places/Localities
Populated Places
Neighboring Counties
- Blount County, Tennessee
- Cocke County, Tennessee
- Graham
- Haywood
- Jackson
- Macon
- Sevier County, Tennessee
Resources
Cemeteries
- List of Cemeteries - at Swain Co. NCGenWeb site
- Birdtown Cemetery - at Cemetery Census
- Swain County Cemeteries - at Find-a-Grave
Census
For tips on accessing Swain County, North Carolina census records online, see: North Carolina Census.
Church
Court
Land
Local Histories
Maps
1895 Map of Swain County, North Carolina
Military
Civil War
Civil War Confederate units - Brief history, counties where recruited, etc.
Newspapers
Probate
- 1873-1966 - Will Books 1 to 2 (1873-1966) have been digitized by FamilySearch - free.
Taxation
Vital Records
Births
Marriages
Societies and Libraries
Family History Centers
Web Sites
- USGenWeb Project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
- Family History Library Catalog
- Swain County, NCGenWeb
References
- ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Swain County, North Carolina. Page 513 At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
- ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
- ↑ GenDisasters.com Bryson City, NC Courthouse Burned by Rioters, Jan 1908 http://www3.gendisasters.com/north-carolina/17868/bryson-city-nc-courthouse-burned-rioters-jan-1908
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Genealogical Society of Utah, Parish and Vital Records List (July 1998). Microfiche. Digital version at https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/images/f/f5/Iginorthcarolinap.pdf.
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- This page was last modified on 6 May 2013, at 17:47.
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