A great big GIGANTIC thank you to East Carolina Roots visitor Becky, who graciously commented on an earlier post about available deeds online that Beaufort County deeds are now available via FamilySearch.
YES! Celebrating the birth of my LORD and Savior Jesus Christ is absolutely exciting enough for me, but now I get the added bonus of this genealogical goldmine! It’s just amazing! ❤️😭
I had been feeling discouraged when someone at the Beaufort County Register of Deeds told me some time back that they had no plans to digitize their old deeds, but leave it to the committed genealogists at FamilySearch to help make this researcher’s dreams come true. 😄
You can access the database via this link:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/460818?availability=Family%20History%20Library
It’s a little tedious searching this way, as it’s digitized microfilm so you’ll have to scan through thumbnails to narrow in on your search, and some of the deed books have page numbers that are too dark to read, but clever sleuthing will yield the results you seek.
Several of my lines are in Beaufort County: EDWARDS, HOLMES, MORRIS, AVERITT, and others.
Who are some of your Beaufort County lines? Comment below. 🙂
You’re quite welcome. My lines are EDWARDS, LEWIS, DIXON, KEEL, BLAND, CATON, DAW, DANIELS, SWINDELL, CATON, LAUGHINGHOUSE and SEARLES. And I think I could add CROSS to that. I am a little confused, though, by the way they’ve done these. I can’t find Deed Book 11, nor the second Book 1 or the Book 2-3 listed in the indexes. A lot of what I want to know about my Benjamin Lewis (died 1817) is in those book!
I’ve also been bewildered by some of the content. For instance, I was overjoyed to see a deed supposedly with grantors John and Esther HOMES (HOLMES), who I suspect were my 5th-great-grandparents, to John GRIST from Dec 1799, but it says Deed Book 1, page 231, and yet Deed Book 1 is for MUCH earlier deeds. I’ve checked the supposed page reference in Book 1, just in case, but nothing there. Then I checked the books that would’ve covered 1799 and the years preceding and following, but still nothing. On another note, I reckon we must be related on the Edwards line. 🙂
My Edwards is from Simon Edwards. He was born in about 1815 and I think he died about 1876. I think, but can’t prove, that he was the son of Samuel Edwards, son of Walker, Sr. And I think that Simon’s wife, Nancy, was the daughter of James Cross (d. 1832) and Sally. I believe she was a widow when they married in the mid 1840s and that her first husband was Paul Curtis. As for Simon’s mother, I think she was Winnifred Searles, daughter of Coventon and Dorcas. Simon’s daughter, Winnifred Elizabeth, was the second wife of Gideon Watson Lewis, Sr. They were my 3rd great-grandparents.
I think we may also be related through the Averitts. My 2nd great-grandmother was Lula Marinda Avery, daughter of Lewis Avery and Julia Catherine Gaskins. I think, but, again, can’t prove, that this Lewis was the son of James Averitt and Nancy Anderson.
Ok, slightly unrelated, but with the help of an Archivist in Raleigh, I was able to find one of my mystery deeds that didn’t line up with the index. A reference to a 1799 deed between John Holmes and his wife Esther and John Grist was supposed to be in Deed Book 1, p 231 according to the index, but turns out it was in Patent Book 1 for some reason. I don’t know if I’d have ever found it if it weren’t for putting in a query as though I was ordering the deed from Raleigh. https://ncarchivesstore.com
To add to the joy and happiness, I’ve found FamilySearch also has land records for: Bertie, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Hyde and Perquimans. I’m sure they have others, but those are the ones I’ve checked.
Haha! You’re on the ball with this! Thank you! Now, I just need to get the links posted on here! 😄