Watauga County Deed Abstracts (USGenWeb / film verify)
Structured finding-aid rows from published USGenWeb Archives Watauga deed files. Watauga is a classic mountain burned county: the 1873 courthouse fire destroyed land records and most court series—so pre-fire survival (when found) and post-fire modern books are both critical.
Rows below include a pre-fire example (1859) and a post-fire modern series example (1943). Verify every book/page on film or at the Watauga Register of Deeds. Pre-1849 research is multi-parent (Ashe / Wilkes / Caldwell / Yancey).
Index page: USGenWeb Watauga deeds.
| Party A | Party B | Year | Instrument | Book:page | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward, Amos | Ward, L. D. | 1859 | Deed | B:503 |
PRE-1873 FIRE survival example. $800. Proved Aug Term 1859 by Malden C. Harman (H. Blair clk). Witnesses: Malden C. Harman, David T. Harman. Contributor: Tom Harman (USGenWeb). Pair with Ashe/Wilkes parents for earlier ridge families. Source file: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/watauga/deeds/ward02.txt Watauga Record of Deeds Vol. B p.503; registered Book D p.269 (27 Aug 1859); rereg. 12 Oct 1885 [verify]
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| Lewis, Charles G. & Lewis, Minnie A. | Combs, Marvin & Combs, Della | 1943 | Warranty deed | 56:442 |
POST-1873 FIRE modern series example. $2,000. Shows continuous post-fire deed books remain usable for 20th-c research even when pre-1873 land is thin. Contributor: USGenWeb Archives file lewis01.txt. Source file: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/watauga/deeds/lewis01.txt Watauga Deed Book 56 p.442 (filed/reg. May 1943; Helen Underdown, ROD) [verify image at ROD portal]
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