How do I go about finding an early NC marriage license?

ANSWER:

There are very few public records for North Carolina marriages before 1868 because most early marriages were performed after the banns were read three times in a church.

Very few NC marriages of that period were performed by license. In the instances where there was a license, a marriage bond was executed by the groom in the bride's county.

Marriage bonds were used from 1741 to 1868 in NC. The NC Archives has a bride and groom index to the bonds which have survived. Even if a bond exists, there is very little personal information on the bond, no parents' names etc.

You can write to the NC Archives and ask that they search the marriage bond index.

They will answer one specific question per written query. If you live outside of North Carolina, there is a search fee of $8.00 which must accompany the query, along with a legal-sized, stamped, self-addressed envelope. The search fee does not include the cost of photocopies, which are 25c per page. Do not send extra money for photocopying...they will bill you for copies.

Make your cheque/money order out to "North Carolina Archives" and post it to:

If you are a North Carolina resident, there is no search fee, but you will still need to pay for photocopying.

For marriages after 1868, you will need to contact the Register of Deeds in the county where the marriage was performed. Your local public library should be able to give you the addresses.

What are DOWER rights and what rights did a widow have in regard to inheritance?

ANSWER:

Laws governing a widow's share of real estate (called her dower) evolved as follows: 1663-1783: Throughout marriage a wife had a right to one-third of her husband's real estate. She could not sell it, but he could not sell property without her consent. This was called dower by common law.

1784-1868: A wife's right to one-third of her husband's land became effective only at his death, meaning that during marriage his control was absolute. He could sell any and all of the property. His control was called his "curtesy."

1869: Dower by common law was reinstated. In 1960, dower was abolished along with the husband's curtesy.

Generally, a widow's dower is protected from the husband's creditors. She also is entitled to the dwelling house and outbuildings. When a widow enters her petition for dower it appears on the minute docket as "Jane Doe vs. the heirs of [etc.]" This is a form of law and normally is not an adversarial proceeding.

Though dower is allotted to the widow, she has only lifetime use of it. She never has fee simple ownership if there are bodily heirs surviving the husband. If a widow remarries, she still is entitled to the dower for her lifetime. Upon her death, the land goes to heirs of her first marriage. A sale can be transacted if her husband's heirs go on the deed with her. The dower can be transferred or swapped with one of the heirs, if the others are agreeable and execute quit claim deeds. Heirs, however, cannot not sell the dower out from under the widow. She has to consent to such a sale. Tip: If you are unsure whether a deed was executed by a man and his wife or by a namesake son and the widow, note whose name comes first. A wife's name does not precede that of her husband in a legal instrument.

What is a REVOKED WILL and how does one go about finding one?

ANSWER:

People can make as many wills as they like and each one supercedes/revokes the prior one. A will is only "filed" with the court after a person dies. The will submitted for probate is the last will made by the person before death.

Copies of prior wills might/might not be kept,but would not be kept by the court because the court never got the old wills to begin with.

Copies might/might not be kept by the person who made the prior will. Once a new will is written, signed and properly witnessed, the old will ceases to have any legal validity, so it is very possible that the person making the will destroyed/threw away the old one.

Copies of prior wills might/might not be kept by the lawyer who drew up the prior wills. Lawyers are more likely to keep copies of anything they do for a client, but their office files would have had to have been preserved somewhere if they are no longer in practice. If the firm is still in business you could ask if they have material dating back that far.

If the person did not consult a lawyer, you would have to search his/her effects, if they exist, to see if any old wills were included in his/her papers.

The chances of your finding copies of superceded wills are not high.

[Ref:Grace-Ellen McCrann - The State Library of North Carolina]
(see NOTE, below)

ANSWER:

Caveats were petitions to the Governor and King's Council [called the Court of Claims when they met to discuss land matters]. These petitions were made to try to stop a grant from issuing. When the Council agreed with the petition, a trial would be ordered on the land as opposed to a trial in the county court house. When a decision was reached, the winner would need to present a copy of the verdict to the Council so they would issue a warrant for survey and, later, a grant could issue. The "drawback" to the caveats is that they lack all the details of the case. The surviving records usually mention the plaintiff, defendant, and a brief description of the land. It is often difficult to locate county court records to determine the winner in each case, or even if a trial was held at all. A method to determine who won may be to consult the colonial grant and try to find if either party received a grant for all or part of the disputed land. As with all land grants, the grantee had to pay the surveyors fees and col ony's fees. Some grants may not have issued because these fees weren't paid even though a trial was held. On some occasions, the plaintiff may have already owned the disputed land; these grants are dated prior to the caveat and may be for more or less land than the amount in the caveat.

Where is or what is a Palatine?

ANSWER:

Note: The Palatine is an area in the Rhine River Valley of Germany, near the French border--the inhabitants are called Palatines.

"While the British Colonies were turning their wartime patriotism against the French in their midst, another large group of Continental immigrants made their appearance.

The history of the Palatines had not been unlike that of the Huguenots. When the land of these German Protestants (the Palatines) was ravaged by the French (Catholic) armies of Louis XIV, many of the refugees fled (first to Holland) to England, which at that time stood forth as a protector of Protestants.

Although Queen Anne (of England) welcomed them politely (in the beginning giving each family a small annual living allowance), their presence in London proved a problem for which the ministers could find no local solution. But the ministers recalled the complaints from the Governor of (the Colony of) New York that the lands of this province (of the English Crown) were being deserted by settlers, and that it's resources were lying undeveloped.

In the American Colonies, the German Palatine refugees would at least be out of the way, so in 1708 through 1710, the British naval vessels carried several thousand Palatines to New York, (where they) were placed in camps along the Hudson River, and were ordered to cut down trees, and to prepare stores (lumber and pitch) for the Queens Navy.

The misfortunes and wanderings of these pioneers constitute a heroic chapter which characterizes the beginnings of the (American) National migration. Their trail leads from the Hudson River to the Mohawk River, and from the Mohawk River over the hills and down the Susquehanna River to the Pennsylvania frontier. At each pause in this journey (which lasted many years), a substantial number of these wanders remained to become settlers, and to serve as a nucleus to which future newcomers would be attached."