Sorry, just found this message. First off, only 4 towns in NC required FPOC to register: Edenton, Fayetteville, Washington, and Wilmington....and I have yet to actually see any of them. There was no register of births for that time.

The best bet is to look for apprenticeship and/or bastardy bonds in Craven Co. at the State Archives. I haven't done a LOT of research with Craven Co., but from what I can tell, they seemed to keep good records.

2 articles I've written you might be interested in are at: http://www.genealogyforum.org/resources/southernus/articles.php, especially the one on finding and using apprenticeship papers.

I also have a website at http://www.ncalhn.org/ in which I transcribe documents related to NC research I come across in my own research. There are a few for Craven co., but much earlier time period.

Erin