North Carolina Gazetteers

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United States

U.S. Gazetteers

North Carolina

Gazetteers

Online Gazetteers

• FamilySearch Places
• North Carolina Gazetteer - NCPedia
• North Carolina Hometown Locator
• North Carolina Digital Collection
• The formation of the North Carolina counties, 1663-1943 David Leroy Corbitt. The formation of the North Carolina counties, 1663-1943. Digital Publisher FamilySearch International.
• Miniature atlas and gazetteer of the world John George Bartholomew. Miniature Atlas and Gazetteer of the World. New York ; London ; Edinburgh : Thomas Nelson & Sons 1892
• The origin of certain place names in the United States Henry Gannett. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Washington, Govt. Print. Off. 1905
• The National Gazetteer of the United States US Geological Survey. The National Gazetteer of the United States. Washington : U.S. G.P.O. ; 1990

Print Only Gazetteers

• The North Carolina gazetteer William Stevens Powell. The North Carolina Gazetteer. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : University of North Carolina Press, c1968
• The formation of the North Carolina counties, 1663-1943 David Leroy Corbitt. The formation of the North Carolina counties, 1663-1943. Raleigh, North Carolina : North Carolina State Department of Archives and History, 1969
• North Carolina, her counties, her townships, and her towns Joan Colbert Gioe. North Carolina, Her Counties, Her Townships, and Her Towns. Indianapolis, Indiana : Researchers, c1981
• North Carolina, atlas of historical county boundaries Gordon DenBoer. North Carolina, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries : a project of the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History, the Newberry Library. New York, New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, c1998

Why Use Gazetteers

A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers list or describe towns and villages, parishes, states, populations, rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. They usually include only the names of places that existed at the time the gazetteer was published. Within a specific geographical area, the place-names are listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. You can use a gazetteer to locate the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and religious jurisdictions over those places.

There are many places within a state with similar or identical place-names. You will need to use a gazetteer to identify the specific town where your ancestor lived, the state the town was or is in, and the jurisdictions where records about the person was kept.

Gazetteer Contents

Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as:

• Different religious denominations
• Schools, colleges, and universities
• Major manufacturers, canals, docks, and railroad stations
• The population size.
• Boundaries of civil jurisdiction.
• Ecclesiastical jurisdiction(s)
• Longitude and latitude.
• Distances and direction from other from cities.
• Schools, colleges, and universities.
• Denominations and number of churches.
• Historical and biographical information on some individuals (usually high-ranking or famous individuals)