Researching the History of Your House in Gaston County

• 929.1 FAM NCC. "Researching Your Ancestors' Houses." Family Chronicle. Vol. 15, No. 2 (Nov/Dec 2010): Pgs. 42 - 43.
• How to Research the History of Your House
  Go to: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/how-to-research-history-your-house
• Home Histories: How to Discover Who Used to Live in Your Home
  Go to: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/home-histories-how-to-discover-who-used-to-live-in-your-home-195311

• 720.975 BRE NCC. The Architectural Heritage of Gaston County North Carolina, by Kim Withers Brengle.
• 720.975 GAS NCC. Gaston County Architectural Heritage Driving Tour. (Available Online)
• 720.9756 BIS NCC. A guide to the historic architecture of Piedmont North Carolina.

North Carolina Architectural Survey Reports includes Gaston County African American Resources Survey, 2000 and Dallas Architectural Survey: Final Report 2019.
Go to:  https://www.hpo.nc.gov/survey-and-national-register/architectural-survey/architectural-survey-status-records-reports

Architecture and Engineering guide of "Digital Gaston County" includes architectural drawings and photographs.
Go to: https://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/digital-gaston-county/architecture

To understand the style of your home and design of your neighborhood, you will need an understanding of Gaston County, NC. This is particularly true for people living in a Historic District or one of the many mill villages that are scattered throughout Gaston County.

• 920 RAG NC. The Textile Heritage of Gaston County, North Carolina, 1848-2000: One Hundred Mills and the Men Who Built Them.
  While many of the textile mills are gone, most of the mill villages that were built around them still exist.
• 975.677 AHE NCC. Gastonia and Gaston County, North Carolina.
• 975.677 WIL NCC. Gaston County: A Pictorial History.
• The Evolution of Textile Mill Villages
  Go to: http://ncpedia.org/textiles/mill-villages

Gastonia

• City of Gastonia Historic Districts
  Go To: https://gastonianc.gov/historic-districts2/auto-generate-from-title.html
  • National Register Historic Districts within the City of Gastonia includes maps
    Go To: https://www.cityofgastonia.com/i-want-to/learn-about/historic-districts/48-historic-districts/1502-hdc-maps.html
• City of Gastonia Planning Department Maps. Map Gallery includes Brookwood Local Historic District, York-Chester Local Historic District, and York-Chester National Historic District. 
  Go To: https://www.cityofgastonia.com/plans-and-maps2/maps.html
• York Chester National Historic District (Gastonia, NC) [PDF booklet]
  Go to: https://www.cityofgastonia.com/images/files/planning/documents/york_chesterbooklet06-2006A.pdf

Gaston County

• Designated Gaston County Historic Properties - Historic Preservation Commission.
  Go to: https://www.gastongov.com/documentcenter
  • Select "Historic Preservation Commission" folder, then select "Local Designation Sites" sub-folder for PDF downloads.
     
• Historic Structure Survey Reports submitted to the Environmental Review branch of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.
  Go To: https://www.hpo.nc.gov/environmental-review/historic-structure-survey-reportlist

National Register of Historic Places

• The State Historic Preservation Office (https://www.hpo.nc.gov/) has posted PDFs of nominations of the state's approximately 2,900 National Register listings, including listings for Gaston County.

  • North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places
    Go to: https://www.hpo.nc.gov/survey-and-national-register/national-register-historic-places/nc-listings-national-register-historic-places

• National Register of Historic Places & Study List: Gaston County
  Go to: http://www.gastongov.com/government/boards_and_committees/historic_preservation_commission/national_register.php 
• National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: North Carolina. Search within this file unit.
  Go to: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41028289
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Gaston County, North Carolina (Wikipedia)
  Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Gaston_County,_North_Carolina

The NC Historic Preservation Office’s interactive resource map.
"This service was created by the State Historic Preservation Office as an aid to planning and research. Site locations and boundaries are drawn from georeferenced scans of National Register and historic property survey maps supplemented with aerial photography, county tax parcel layers, and other sources."
Go to: https://nc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=79ea671ebdcc45639f0860257d5f5ed7

North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office Website Search Tool. "Use this search tool to find keywords in documents posted on the NCHPO website, including PDFs of National Register nominations and architectural survey reports. This is especially useful for searching for comparable examples for contexts, other works by the same architect, places related to specific individuals or themes, etc."

Go to: https://www.hpo.nc.gov/surveys-national-register/national-register-historic-places/nc-shpo-website-search-tool

There are a variety of records that you can use in your search for information about your house.

Original Deeds found in the Gaston County Register of Deed's Office include Records from 1845 to present.
(Prior deed records recorded in Lincoln County). 
Go to: https://www.gastongov.com/730/Register-of-Deeds

Online Property Records

To locate a current online county property record visit the Gaston County Interactive GIS at the Tax Mapping / GIS Department website and select "Data Website"
Go to: https://gis.gastongov.com/ 

At the Gaston County Interactive GIS website, you'll be able to learn:

• Date of Construction; Tax ID #; Parcel ID #

• Current Owners; Legal Description (Block & Lot); Acreage

• Deed History (Previous Owners); Links to current aerial maps

Online Deed Search

Using the "Deed Search" at the Gaston County Register of Deeds website is much easier once you have the information provided in the online county property record, particularly Deed History (Previous Owners).
Important: Not every deed is available on Gaston County Register of Deeds website, so be sure to check FamilySearch.org
Go to: https://www.gastongov.com/730/Register-of-Deeds

Digital images of many Gaston County land records can be found at FamilySearch.org in the following collections:

• Index to deeds and mortgages, 1846-1961; deeds and mortgages, 1847-1961 (Index and images)
  Important: Not every deed is available on Gaston County Register of Deeds website, so be sure to check FamilySearch.org
  Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/312602
• State grant records, 1845-1891, Gaston County, North Carolina
  Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/251473
• Plat books, 1913-1964, Gaston County, North Carolina
  Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/236254
• Procession records, 1847-1886, Gaston County, North Carolina
  Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/251004
• Resale of land records, 1919-1963
  Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/251459
• Land records, North Carolina and Tennessee; indexes, 1600-1959 contains "Land warrants, Gaston County, no. 1-167 and 01"
   Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/695114

Microfilm copies of the following Gaston County Register of Deeds records are available at the Gaston County Public Library:

• Index to deeds and mortgages: grantee, 1846-1917 [A-L,M-Z].
• Index to deeds and mortgages: grantor, 1846-1917 [A-L,M-Z].
• Record of deeds, 1847-1904 (vols. 1-56)
• Record of state grants, 1845-1891.

For Lincoln County land records, visit the Lincoln County Research guide.

Gaston County is a textile county and the city directories give an insight into that phase of our history as "mill villages" appear and disappear. As the cities grew, many of these once company-owned villages were swallowed up. Some are still identifiable as communities and others only by the street names they left behind them.
Go to: http://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/city-directories

Look for newspaper articles during the time and in the region, county, or state where your house is located. Search newspaper indexes for the occupant or homeowner's name, and by the street address. Work backwards in time using the city directories to locate the house for earlier years. Remember that street names may have changed over time.

Visit our "Newspapers -- Historical Research Guide"

• Access to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for North Carolina is available via NCLive.org. Use the "Help" link to learn more about the information provided by these maps.
  • Go to: https://www.nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?rsrc=140
• The University of South Carolina provides an online digital collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of South Carolina that you can search by keyword or browse by city, county, or year.
  • Go to: https://digital.library.sc.edu/collections/sanborn-fire-insurance-maps-of-south-carolina/
• For more Sanborn maps, see Sanborn Maps Libguide.

Research Gaston County Property Tax. Search by Owner Names (Last name First name), Physical Address, Advanced Parcel and Sales Criteria.
Go to: https://www.gastongov.com/583/Tax-Office

Older Gaston County Tax records
Go to: https://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/finding/gaston-county-ancestors#s-lg-box-20431652

Gaston County Estate Records, 1839 - 1928 are in this collection at FamilySearch, North Carolina Estate Files. They are searchable by name or you can browse by county. 
Go to: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1911121

See more North Carolina and Gaston County Probate Records.

Includes Records of Wills, Estates, Deeds and Tax Lists.
Go to: http://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/records-on-microfilm/gaston-county

Author: Gaston County Public Library
Title: Researching the History of Your House in Gaston County
URL: http://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/house-histories
Revised: 11 May 2021