Wilkes County Genealogy
Sign up for our North Carolina Genealogy newsletter:
Wilkes county was formed in 1777 from parts of Surry County and Washington District (now Washington County, Tennessee). The first session of the county court was held in John Brown’s house near what is today Brown’s Ford. The act creating the county became effective on February 15, 1778, and the county celebrates its anniversary as February 15. It was named for the English political radical John Wilkes, who lost his position as Lord Mayor of the City of London due to his support for the colonists during the American Revolution.
In 1799 the northern and western parts of Wilkes County became Ashe County. In 1841 parts of Wilkes County and Burke County were combined to form Caldwell County. In 1847 another part of Wilkes County was combined with parts of Caldwell County and Iredell County to become Alexander County. In 1849 additional parts of Wilkes County and Caldwell County were combined with parts of Ashe County and Yancey County to form Watauga County. Numerous boundary adjustments were made thereafter, but none resulted in new counties.
The County seat of Wilkes County is Wilkesboro. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes through Wilkes county. Wilkes County is also divided into the following townships: Antioch, Beaver Creek, Boomer, Brushy Mountains, Edwards, Elk Creek, Hays, Jobs Cabin, Lewis Fork, Lovelace, Moravian Falls, Mulberry, New Castle, North Wilkesboro, Rock Creek, Somers, Stanton, Traphill, Union, Walnut Grove, and Wilkesboro.
Wilkes County is a part of the Yadkin Valley Wine Growing area.
Among the famous residents of Wilkes County:
* Daniel Boone (1734-1820), the famed explorer and pioneer, lived in Wilkes County for several years, and married a Wilkes County native, before moving west to Kentucky.
* Benjamin Cleveland (1738-1806), was a distinguished colonel in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. He was one of the American commanders at the famous Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.
* William Lenoir (1751-1839), the first President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
* Montford Stokes (1762-1842), United States Senator and Governor of North Carolina from 1816 to 1832. In 1832 he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to lead the Federal Indian Commission in what is now Oklahoma; he is believed to be the only veteran of the Revolutionary War buried in that state.
* Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), the world-famous Siamese twins, who were a popular attraction in Asia, Europe, and North America in the nineteenth century, settled in Wilkes County in the 1850s and married two local sisters.
* George Allen Gilreath (1834-1863), a captain in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War; he commanded the regiment which advanced the farthest into enemy lines during Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gilreath was killed in the assault.
* James B. Gordon (1822-1864), a general of cavalry in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
* Tom Dula (Dooley) (1844-1868), a Confederate veteran of the Civil War who was tried and hanged shortly after the war for the murder of his fiancee, Laura Foster. Dula was the subject of a top-selling 1958 ballad by the Kingston Trio, entitled “Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley”.
* James Larkin Pearson (1879-1981), poet and newspaper publisher who served as North Carolina’s official Poet Laureate from 1953 to 1981.
* Robert Byrd (1917-), the senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia since 1959. Byrd is the longest-serving Senator in American history.
* Junior Johnson (1931-), in the 1950s, Johnson became a legend in the rural South by consistently outrunning law-enforcement officials in auto chases while delivering homemade liquor (moonshine) to his customers. Johnson then became a champion NASCAR racer, winning 50 NASCAR races before his retirement.
* Benny Parsons (1941-2007), well-known NASCAR racer who won the 1973 NASCAR championship. After his retirement he became a popular racing analyst for the ESPN, NBC and TBS television networks.
* John Swofford (1948-), since 1997 the Commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), one of the nation’s premiere college sports conferences.
* Deneen Graham (1964-), the first black woman to be crowned Miss North Carolina (1983).
* Zach Galifianakis (1969-), a popular stand-up comedian who has appeared on such television shows as Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He has also been a character actor in films such as Into the Wild and on several television series for the Comedy Central network, such as Reno 911.
Wilkes County is home to the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival, Merlefest, the Shine to Wine Festival, the birth of the folk song “Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley”.
Source: Wikipedia.
Wilkes County Genealogy Resources
Wilkes County NCGenWeb Archives
Wilkes Genealogical Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 1629
North Wilkesboro, NC 28659
Wilkes County Government
Wilkes County Government Official Site
Wilkes County Register of Deeds
500 Court House Drive
Suite 1000
Wilkesboro, NC 28697
Phone: 336.651.7351
Monday – Friday 8:30am – 4:55pm
(None of their documents can be accessed online as of July 14, 2010)
Appalachian Regional Library – Serving Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga Counties
215 Tenth Street
North Wilkesboro, NC 28659
Phone: 336.838.2818
Hours
336.838.2818
Directions
336.667.2638
Cities and Towns
* North Wilkesboro
* Ronda
* Wilkesboro
Unincorporated:
* Cricket
* Fairplains
* Hays
* Millers Creek
* Moravian Falls
* Mulberry
* Pleasant Hill
Census
1790 Federal Census Transcription
1850/1860 Federal Slave Mortality Census
Cemeteries
USGS listing of cemeteries in Wilkes County
Wilkes County Cemetery Transcriptions
Query Forums
Latest North Carolina Genealogy Query posts for Wilkes County from the Forum:
North Carolina Genealogy Forum: Forum: Wilkes County NC Genealogy Queries – Recent Topics
Looking for info on Leonard Money son of Marshall Money. Leonard’s son, Willie Cicero
Money was raised by his grandparents Marshall & Nancy Money.
Dora S. Johnson on “Grover Loranzy Johnson search”
Grover Loranzy Johnson, born September 14, 1913, North Wilksboro. Mother’s name was Dora Ethel Johnson. They moved to Virginia prior to 1938.
News related to Wilkes County, NC
“wilkes county” nc – Google News
Methodists receive $100000 in grants – Wilkes Journal Patriot
|
Methodists receive $100000 in grants
Wilkes Journal Patriot The Duke Endowment awarded grants totaling $100000 to two organizations based in Wilkes County in the endowment's 2011 distribution. The Crossfire United Methodist Church, based at the former Lovette Companies office and cold storage warehouse on NC … |
Concerts celebrate black history – Wilkes Journal Patriot
|
Concerts celebrate black history
Wilkes Journal Patriot The Wilkes County Library is sponsoring two events and the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes is sponsoring a concert. The first celebration, entitled âCarolina Jazz Connectionâ will be this week. It will feature Larry Reni Thomas, a jazz writer and radio … |
Unique family’s deep roots in Wilkes reflected in cemetery – Wilkes Journal Patriot
|
Unique family's deep roots in Wilkes reflected in cemetery
Wilkes Journal Patriot Members of a family with deep roots in Wilkes County and a unique history are buried on a knoll at the end of Camp Joe Harris Road in the Broadway community. There are dozens of graves in the well-tended Harris Cemetery, including many marked with … |
School ‘reportable’ crime drops – Wilkes Journal Patriot
|
School 'reportable' crime drops
Wilkes Journal Patriot The number of âreportableâ criminal acts in the Wilkes County schools decreased by at least 24 percent from 2009-10 to 2010-11. The NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reported that the actual number of these acts, which must be reported to the … |
Newlan Spears – Lexington Dispatch
|
Newlan Spears
Lexington Dispatch Youlin Otto âNewlanâ Spears, 69, of NC Highway 150 North, passed away Saturday night, Feb. 4, 2012, at the home of his sister. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 pm Wednesday at Davidson Funeral Home and other times at the home of a son, … |
40-year-old unsolved triple murder still haunts law enforcement – Winston-Salem Journal
|
40-year-old unsolved triple murder still haunts law enforcement
Winston-Salem Journal Three members of the Durham family – Bryce, Virginia and their son Bobby Joe – were killed in this house off NC 105 Bypass the night of Feb. 3, 1972. The murders are still unsolved 40 years later. Credit: Monte Mitchell/Journal The headstone over the … |
Sign up for our North Carolina Genealogy newsletter:
