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This page last updated on 02 August 2004

Tips for Research in the Register of Deeds Office
These tips are some things that I have learned by doing research in the Person County Register of Deeds Office. Please send me any tips that you have and I will add them here. These tips are not earth-shattering items but might alert you of records available in the Register of Deeds Office that will be useful in your research.

Cemeteries

All permits to move graves are recorded in Deed Book 88. The largest movement of graves in Person County occurred in connection with the construction of both the Hyco and Mayo power plants by then Carolina Power and Light Company (now Progress Energy). Graves are occasionally be moved because of a road construction project. Graves are sometimes moved from a small family cemetery to a larger church or community cemetery.

Plats can be a useful resource in finding cemeteries. Most plats which in any way show a cemetery are indexed in the Plat Index Book under the heading "Cemeteries." I have made a copy of these index pages and am slowly adding these cemetery references to the cemetery "Master List."

Marriage Certificates

Marriage certificates are indexed in a card file that includes cards for both brides and grooms.

Birth Certificates

Recording of birth certificates started North Carolina counties in 1913 with the passage of the 1913 Vital Statistics Law. In some cases persons born prior to 1913 provided acceptable proof of birth and delayed birth certificates were issued. Delayed birth certificates are noted by a "D" in the index. These are public records and you are free to examine them and to make copies if you wish.

To find a birth certificate, use the "Birth Index" to get the book and page number where the birth certificate is filed.

The Birth Index is also useful for deaths in the following way. For those entries in the Birth Index for which death occurred in North Carolina a notation of the date and county of death is included in the Birth Index.

Death Certificates

Recording of death certificates began North Carolina  in 1913. Thus you will not find death certificates prior to 1913.

Death certificates on file in the Person County Register of Deeds include only deaths that occurred in Person County. No certificates on available here for deaths that occurred in a hospital in Durham County.

To find a death certificate use the "Death Index" to the get book and page number where the death certificate is filed.

Graves

You will have to ask for this one but I recently learned that the Register of Deeds Office has a card file that includes a huge number of graves in Person County. The card file was typed from pages in several three-ring binders that are now located at the Person County Historical Society. The surveys are now several decades old but could be valuable if you are trying to located a grave. The cards are arranged alphabetically by the name on the tombstone.


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