I believe it is true that some of the Orange County records were buried for fear they would be "captured" or otherwise harmed by the British who occupied Hillsborough and as a result they were damaged and destroyed. There is a publication by the Department of Archives and History inventorying all the County records at Archives which may confirm this. The County is required by law to keep most of the original land records, so titles can be searched and Archives has them on microfilm. Some of the destroyed records were re-recorded after the British left to establish record ownership. Remember, the purpose of these records is not so much genealogical as they are practical business. Also remember that Orange County was formed from other counties, and before it was formed land records for lands in Orange County are recorded in its predecessor counties. Many counties have hiatuses in their records because of fires, floods, and other casualties. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ava H. Nackman Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 5:25 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [NCDOGS] Question Re Marriage Records in Orange County Hi All, I recently spent some time at the Register of Deeds on Churton Street surveying the marriage records for the county. I noticed that, while the indexes and volumes holding the oldest records are dated from 1752, I could not find a single entry in the 1752-1911 index (I searched about ½ of it) for a record earlier than 1781. However, there are numerous records for 1781 and subsequently. I know that Orange County was originally formed in 1752. Does anyone know if records were actually being kept from that date and all records earlier than 1781 somehow lost or destroyed? Or did laws change around the 1781 timeframe that resulted in new records being kept in that year that just werent collected before then? Similarly, while marriage bonds (and a rare license or return) did appear from 1781, the earliest marriage register (with copied returns) that I was able to find is dated from 1851. Does anyone know if there are registers extant for the time period 1781-1850? I can try to call the NC Archives in Raleigh to find out tomorrow, but thought someone in D-OGS who is doing local research might have some idea. The OC deputy registrar didnt seem to know. Many thanks, Ava ************************* Visit the D-OGS web site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncdogs/ Please post all queries using the D-OGS query form: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncdogs/memquery.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message