The program of locating and copying documents in foreign repositories began in 1969, and until 1993 it employed fulltime, resident researchers in England and Scotland. During these years over 75,000 items were individually described, copied (microfilmed or photocopied), and placed in the State Archives of North Carolina for use by the public. The work in both nations was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by private and State funding.
The great majority of these documents have never been published. The Colonial Records has drawn extensively on the overseas items to illuminate North Carolina’s early history.