North Carolina Bastardy Bonds
What are Bastardy Bonds? -- When an unmarried woman had a child, a bastardy bond was filed in order to have money to support that child. Although DNA testing wasn't available then, a man who suspected they were the father may have signed the bond. Sometimes the bondsman would be a father or brother to the child's mother. Don't assume that the father was the bondsman. There have been cases where the husband died during a war, either from wounds or a disease, and the woman didn't report his death for a year, just so a bastardy bond wouldn't be filed. (A prime example is when you find a Civil War soldier who was killed in the battle at Gettysburg, but has a death date of July 1864.)
