How do I find bastardy bonds on FamilySearch for all North Carolina counties?

Greg Lovelace

I found bastardy bonds for Burke County, NC using Full Text Search, but not for other counties in the state. Are they available, and if so, how do I find them?

Áine.ní.Donnghaile

@Greg Lovelace

Try a keyword search in the FS catalog, using bastardy and North Carolina. You'll get 46 results for many different counties.

Judy Russell's blog post is more than 10 years old, but still has good points. https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2014/02/20/looking-for-bonds/

Carol45908

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/179038/how-do-i-find-bastardy-bonds-on-familysearch-for-all-north-carolina-counties

YourRoots also highlights key state and county-level resources used by researchers, and bastardy bonds for North Carolina are a popular search item there too. If you’re using YourRoots for your research, try heading to:

https://yourroots.com/search-record/state-province-county

Once there, pick North Carolina, then narrow by county. If bastardy bonds are available or commonly searched for that county, it should show up in the results or link you to resources like the State Archives or FamilySearch collections. Definitely worth checking alongside the other tools!

FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/766391
NC State Archives Catalog: https://archives.ncdcr.gov
Camin Index Book: https://archive.org/details/northcarolinabas1990cam