Glossary of North Carolina Research Terms
Precinct, grant, Register of Deeds, and other terms you’ll meet in the records.
- Precinct
- Colonial administrative unit (especially Albemarle) that predates many modern county names.
- Parent county
- Older county from which a new county was formed; holds earlier deeds, estates, and courts.
- Register of Deeds
- County office for land records (deeds, sometimes marriages and vital records depending on era).
- Land grant
- State or colonial conveyance of public land; often followed by surveys/plats and later private deeds.
- Plat
- Survey drawing describing land boundaries; critical with metes and bounds.
- Dower
- Widow’s interest in land; releases often prove a wife’s given name and survival.
- FAN club
- Friends, Associates, Neighbors—research method using people around your ancestor.
- Burned county
- Informal term for jurisdictions with major courthouse record loss; requires substitute sources.
- Wachovia
- Moravian tract in the Piedmont (centered on present Forsyth area) with exceptional church records.