The Pointe - Centex Homes

and another tiny point...

Headstones - Grave markers - Tomb Stones ---OLD ONES...

Our area of NC had no natural stone to carve grave markers so if you had a head stone made for the dearly departed if had to be shipped in by WAGON before the RR came to NC (JoCo about 1840-1850's) then there was that ugly 5+ year period where there was no reliable railroad shipping and then there was about 20 years of no money for special extras like tomb stones. So almost every one had a WOODEN MARKER.

When the grandchildren finally had enough money to put a stone up for Granddaddy there was usually a muddle over his birth and death dates. Old tombstones are family poor records. JoCo did not begin to record deaths at the court house till 1913. (I might be off 4or 5 years).

When you drive down the road and see a tiny patch of woods WITH A CEDER TREE in a field all alone -- someones family is resting there.

 

many people used field stones and family tradition to id graves. any old football sized or bigger rock plowed up out of the field might be put down as a headstone, probably along with the wooden marker that might have had some form of id on it but is obviously long since gone. grandchildren had to rely on grandma for the info if they cared at all. doesn't take more than a generation or two to lose an entire family cemetery that way

the state archives' death certificates start in 1903. before that, it was by county and sporadic at best. wills were filed, however, and if you're looking for deaths before 1900, especially before 1865, look in the wills...