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Yancey County Genealogy

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Yancey County was established in 1833 from parts of Buncombe County and parts of Burke County. Independent and sturdy Scottish, English, and Irish settlers of the Carolina frontier had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and settled the Toe River Valley by the mid-1700’s. In the year 1796, one of the early land speculators, John Gray Blount, paid for 326,640 acres (1322 km²) of land, a portion of which later became Yancey County, N.C.

In December, 1833, the General Assembly established a new western county, named Yancey, from sections of Burke and Buncombe Counties. Yancey County was named in honor of one of North Carolina’s most distinguished statesmen, Bartlett Yancey, of Caswell County. As a U.S. Congressman (1813-1817) and as speaker of the N.C. Senate (1817-1827), he was instrumental in many accomplishments that benefited the state, including the creation of an education fund that was the beginning of the N.C. Public School System. He was an advocate of correcting the inequality in representation in the General Assembly by the creation of new western counties; but he died on August 30, 1828, over five years before the General Assembly created a new county named in his honor. In Yancey’s boundaries looms Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Eastern U.S., at 6,684 feet (2037 m) above sea level.

On March 6, 1834, “Yellow Jacket” John Bailey conveyed 100 acres (0.4 km²) of land for the county seat. The town was named Burnsville in honor of Captain Otway Burns, who voted for the creation of the new western county when he was serving in the General Assembly. The grateful people named their county seat for Captain Burns, a naval hero in the War of 1812. A statue of Captain Burns stands on a 40 ton, Mount Airy granite pedestal in the center of the town’s public square, which was given the official name of “Bailey Square” by the Yancey County Board of Commissioners on September 1, 1930. The statue of Captain Burns was given to the county on July 5, 1909, by Walter Francis Burns, a grandson of the sea captain. The inscription reads:

Otway Burns – Born in Onslow County, North Carolina, 1777 – Died at Portsmouth, North Carolina, 1850. Sailor – Soldier – Statesman. North Carolina’s Foremost Son in the War of 1812-1815 – For Him, This Town Is Named – He Guarded Well Our Seas, Let Our Mountains Honor Him.

Yancey County is divided into the following townships: Brush Creek, Burnsville, Cane River, Crabtree, Egypt, Green Mountain, Jacks Creek, Pensacola, Price’s Creek, Ramseytown, and South Toe. Portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Pisgah National Forest are in Yancey County.

The County name is correctly pronounced “Yan-see” and not with a hard c as in “yan-kee”

Source: Wikipedia.

Yancey County Genealogy Resources

Yancey County NCGenweb site

Yancey County NCGenWeb Archives

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Toe Valley Genealogical Society
491 Beaver Creek Road
Spruce Pine, NC 28777
(covers Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey Counties)

Yancey History Association
PO Box 1088
Burnsville, NC 28714

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Yancey County Government

Yancey County Government – Official Site
Yancey County Register of Deeds
Office Hours of Register of Deeds Genealogy page
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM – Monday – Friday
Mailing Address:
110 Town Square
Burnsville, NC 28714
Phone: (828) 682-2174
Fax: (828) 682-4520

Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Regional Library
Yancey County Branch
18 Town Square
Burnsville, NC 28714
Phone: 828-682-2600
Hours:
Mon, Wed & Fri: 9 am – 5 pm
Tues & Thurs: 9 am – 8 pm
Sat: 10 am – 1 pm
Sun: Closed
Story Hour day: Monday

Cities and Towns

* Burnsville
* Green Mountain
* Swiss

Townships:

Brush Creek
Burnsville
Cane River
Crabtree
Egypt
Green Mountain
Jacks Creek
Pensacola
Price’s Creek
Ramseytown
South Toe

Census

1840 Federal Census Index

1840 Federal Census Index – alternate

1840 Federal Census Transcription – Page 1-9
1840 Federal Census Transcription – Page 10-18
1840 Federal Census Transcription – Page 19-27
1840 Federal Census Transcription – Page 28-End

1840-1880 Federal Census Transcriptions for Tolley Family

1850 Federal Agricultural Census

1850 Federal Census Index

1850 Federal Census Images