Austills in North Carolina

North Carolina was in 1789 the 12th state to join the Union; the "Handy Book" states that it was settled in 1633 by groups of settlers from Virginia.

Surry County, N. C. , where Austills lived, is in the north part of the state, not far south of Halifax Co., Virginia, in which an Austill family was living in 1790. Perhaps part of this family migrated South. Every census from 1790 on through 1850 included Austills in Surry Co., N.C.

A colony of Quakers moved into the area which became North Carolina; some of that belief still live there, but many others, who disliked slavery, moved northward to Ohio and Indiana. There are Austills in these two states and one wonders if they were of this group of Friends.

Public records give a picture of some of the Austills living in N. C. in early times. The 1790 census names Major Austill, of Surry Co., Salisbury Twp., as head of a household containing 1 male age 16 and up; and 1 female, age 10 to 16. Isaac Austill, same county and Twp., heads a household with three males age 16 and up; two males under age 15; and five females age 10 to 16.

A Genealogical Society Microfilm of "North Carolina Marriage Bonds to 1868" *

* C.S.Film 546, 467 Surry County Marriage Bonds.

       names:   David Anthony - Nancy Austill           3 Nov. 1835
                Isaac Austell - Cloe Holcomb           15 Feb. 1831
                Isaac Austill, Jr. - Temperance Sisk   24 Mar. 1835
                James Austell - Hethina Sisk            7 Apr. 1820
                Mager Austeil, Jr. - Mary B. Moore     16 Oct. 1836
                Moses Austell - Elizabeth Elmore        1 Dec. 1831
                William West, Jr. - Elizabeth Austell  11 Feb. 1832
                John Money - Lydia Austelle             7 Sep. 1817

Some of the records seem to be duplications of South Carolina records, but that is the way the microfilm gives them.

Mary Shields Shore, who has done extensive research on the southern Austells, feels that William Austell, Sr., settled in the Yadkin District of Surry County, but that he died before the 1790 census. In the old Austell family bible, which she has seen, it states that William Sr. died in 1781.