More than 150 years of North Carolinian births, deaths, marriages and migrations have been digitally copied from the faded pages of 230 family bibles — and put on the web for genealogists, history buffs and anyone else to enjoy.

“We’ve got governors, senators, legislators and folks who served in the Revolutionary, Civil and Spanish American Wars,” said Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library. “There is at least one reference to the DAR; and this is really interesting— one family talks about leaving Salem and their involvement in the witch trials.”

Ruserdorf is talking about North Carolina Family Records Online, a project of the State Library and the State Archives of North Carolina that encompasses transcription and digitalization of the oldest 10 percent of the 2,000-plus Bibles copied and held by the Archives.

“It’s full text searcheable,” said Ruserdorf. “If (users) search by family name then it will pull up any place where that name appears. There’s information about where people lived, where they migrated to and from, special occasions - all kinds of folks could use it.”

To view the collection, visit statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/dimp/digital/ncfamilyrecords and choose to search for text, browse by collection or browse by location. Try the final option and you’ll find digital images of several carefully-penned pages related to Richmond County: The John A. and Rosa Hinton Avent Arthur Family Bible Records (1784-1940); the Charles L. Hinton Family Bible Records (1790 - 1973) and the Edwards-McCall Family Bible Records (1799-1961).

An invitation to an April wedding in 1910 Laurinburg. A newsprint obituary describing the late Miss Louise Buckman, 17, as being “like opening rose buds, fresh and fragrant.” Chickenscratch and careful calligraphy. All these things can be found in a few digitized Bibles with local ties.

Select Bibles throughout the digital collection contain children’s drawings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Others contain photographs and newspaper obituaries. Some document the births of slaves.

Because Bible records from that time period were most often maintained by literate, white, Protestant families, project leaders are soliciting Bibles that reflect a broader range of North Carolina’s heritage. Of specific interest are copies of Bible records where at least one date occurs prior to 1913 (when the NC Vital Records Law was passed).

Anyone interested in donating copies of their Bible Records to the North Carolina State Archives should contact Druscie Simpson at Druscie.simpson@ncdcr.gov. (919-807-7319). The Bibles themselves are not held by the State Archives - only copies.