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Burned / Thin Courthouse Pack
North Carolina Genealogy · printable method card
Mindset: A thin courthouse is a strategy signal, not a brick wall.
1. Stop and restate the question
- Person + event + year + place name as written in the source
- What jurisdiction held the courthouse that year?
2. Parent jurisdictions
Use /guides/counties-and-formation and the county hub formation notes. Search parents before modern labels.
3. Neighbor fan-out
On every county page, use If not found here, try… Open each neighbor for deeds, equity, marriages, newspapers (±10 years).
4. Substitute stack (priority order)
- Church & cemetery
- Newspapers
- Tax / militia / federal census
- State Archives of North Carolina duplicates & microfilm
- Neighbor probate naming your person as heir/witness
5. Log it
Negative searches are data. Record which neighbor + years you cleared.
Full article: /articles/how-to-research-burned-county-south-carolina