Orange County, North Carolina Genealogy

Guide to Orange County, North Carolina ancestry, family history, and 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  Register of Deeds PO Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278 Telephone: 919-245-2676 Fax: 919-644-3018 Website  Clerk of Superior Court 106 E Margaret Lane Hillsborough, NC 27278 Telephone: (919) 644-4500

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
1781--Some records were lost/destroyed when they were buried to avoid destruction by Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War.

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..

Local Histories

 * The age of Orange : political and intellectual leadership in North Carolina, 1752-1861

Revolutionary War

 * 1779 - 1782 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Civil War
Online Records
 * 1861 - 1865 - at FamilySearch.org — index and images
 * 1861 - 1865 - at FamilySearch.org — index and images
 * 1861 - 1865 - U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
 * 1861 - 1865 - U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
 * 1885 - 1953 - at FamilySearch — index and images


 * -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
 * -11th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Company G
 * -13th Battalion, North Carolina Infantry, Company A
 * -1st Brigade, North Carolina Reserves, Company I
 * -1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Company D
 * -1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry,usually known as the Bethel Regiment, Company D
 * -1st Regiment, North Carolina Junior Reserves, Company I
 * -2nd Regiment, North Carolina Cavalry, Company K
 * -3rd Battalion, North Carolina Senior Reserves, Captain Mark Durham's Company
 * -3rd Regiment, North Carolina Artillery, 2nd Company G
 * -6th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Company B
 * -6th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Company C

World War I

 * 1917 - 1919 - at FamilySearch — index and images

World War II

 * 1940 - 1948 - at FamilySearch — index and images

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
Online Probate Records
 * 1660 - 1790 - North Carolina Will Abstracts 1660-1790 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1663 - 1979 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1665 - 1998 - North Carolina Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1735 - 1970 - at FamilySearch.org — images
 * 1760 - 1800 - North Carolina Will Abstracts 1760-1800 at Ancestry.com — index and images
 * 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.

Taxation

 * 1755 - Tax Lists, Orange County, 1755 (images) online at North Carolina Digital Collections

Birth Records

 * 1800 - 2000 - at FamilySearch.org — index
 * 1866 - 1964 - at FamilySearch.org — index

Death Records

 * 1898 - 1994 - at FamilySearch.org — index
 * 1906 - 1930 - at FamilySearch.org — index and images
 * 1908 - 2004 - North Carolina Death Indexes 1908-2004 at Ancestry.com — index $
 * 1909 - 1975 - North Carolina Death Certificates 1909-1975 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1931 - 1994 - at FamilySearch.org — index

Divorce Records

 * 1926 - 1975 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1958 - 2004 -North Carolina Divorce Index 1958-2004 at Ancestry.com — index $

Marriages

 * 1741 - 2004 - North Carolina, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
 * 1741 - 2004 - North Carolina Marriage Index 1741-2004 at Ancestry.com — index $
 * 1759 - 1979 - at FamilySearch.org — index
 * 1762 - 1979 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1763 - 1868 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Yearbooks

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

Societies and Libraries
The Durham-Orange Genealogical Society of North Carolina PO Box 4703 Chapel Hill, NC 27515-4703 Website

Family History Centers

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

Websites

 * 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