Watauga County was formed in 1849 from parts of Ashe, Wilkes, Caldwell, and Yancey County. If you were to look at this countyÕs formation like a descendants tree, the oldest records would be Wilkes (ignoring Rowan) then Ashe (1799), followed by Yancey (1833) and Caldwell (1841). Yet, even Watauga was reduced in size when Mitchell County was formed in 1861 (as well as parts of many other counties). Then in modern times Avery County was formed from part of Watauga in 1911 (along with other counties).
Despite all of these changes, this county preserved a lot of material housed in four fibred boxes. This book contains records from the last two boxes. Box 3 contains older records (1885-1905), Box 4 contains modern records, primarily law suits, which are type-written documents. These documents will not require transcription, since they are easily read, but I will include key index items found within the documents for searching. This book completes the records for this county. Volume 1 includes the oldest records.