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Bertie County, North Carolina

Helpful Tools


Guide to getting started

Definitions - Old Terms

Conversion Tables

Helpful Chart handy for calculating birth dates from ages listed on Census

HOW TO FIGURE A BIRTHDATE 
REMEMBER THIS NUMBER 
8870 
This is not an error: It is the number to remember when you want to find
the birthdate of someone when you only have the date of death and age.
How do you figure the birthdate? 
Suppose the person died May 6, 1889, at the age of 71 years, 7 months, 9
days.
1. Write the year, month, day as:->18890506
2. Subtract the age at death:------->710709
3. This gives the figure:--------->18179797
4. Now subtract 8870:----------------->8870
5. The result is:----------------->18170927
Year 1817, 9th month (Sept), 27th day or 27 Sept, 1817
(contributed by Brenda Sessoms)
Calculate age from Tombstone data i.e. 46 years 4 months 16 days

Genealogical Dictionary
Lots of helpful definitions!


Inflation Calculator 1800-1998 . See the value of land etc.
Virginia Money

Dating Old Photographs

Family Chronicle - Dating Old Photographs

Definitions - Terms

ALL THESE PAGES ARE MISSING. Does anyone have the URL? http://www.rootsquest.com/~jmurphy/lessons/tip04.htm old terms, mostly legal

old terms, mostly medical Medical terms and remedies

dates/calendars

legal terms

ramblings - includes tombstone carvings

old definitions F-G

old definitoins G-H-I

old definitions I-J-K-L

old definitions M

old definitions N-P

old definitions Q-S

old definitions S-Y

old time remedies

professions: pewterer, coppersmith, silversmith, miller, cabinetmaker

professions: wainwright,coachmaker, bookbinder, limner


Conversion Tables

If you go to the following URL, you will find conversion factors for almost
any unit of measurement that you can think of.

http://pos.net/guest/ref/conversion.htm

Chains(Gunter)  =   Feet      66

Links (Gunters)   =  Feet      0.66

Links (Gunters) = Feet (US Survey)   0.659998

Links (Gunters)  =  Inches    7.92

Links (Gunters)  = Meters    0.2012

Links (Gunters)  =  Miles (statute) 0.000125

Links (Gunters)  =  Rods   0.04

Links (Ramdens) =   Centimeters  30.48

Links (Ramdens)  = Chains (Ramdens) 0.01


Old Handwriting

Von Stachon's page. (Missing, send the URL to us) Images of many of the common words found in old documents with a table showing the image with the transcribed word.

Johncowand@aol.com
In regard to reading old deeds, it applies to reading any of the old literature. You need to know how people wrote in those days. There were a number of things written differently and there were writing rules for such things. Jesse is a good example. I ran into the same problem with a Jesse that I was tracking. It was written Jefse. The first "s" of a double "s" was written like an "f." It was called a tailed "s." In handwritten documents, the "f" and "s" together often resembled a fancy "p" or Jepe, for example, instead of Jesse. Another one that can throw you is the capital "F." It was written "ff."
There is an excellent book that covers a number of these oddities. It is NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH Genealogy and Local History by Helen F.M. Leary. It is put out by the North Carolina Genealogical Society.

On-Line help:Deciphering Old Handwriting http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html


Researching in Bertie County - Check these

(Shared by Cathy Farris)
1. Birth Certificate

2. Marriage Bonds 
3. Consents 
4. Applications  
5. Certificates  
6. Divorce Petition
7.Divorce Decree
8. Annulments

9. Death Certificate 
10. Will 
11. Codicil         
12. Estate Appraisal(s) 
13. Real Estate      
14. Personal Property  
15. Guardians         
16. Conservators
17. Warrants         
18. Notice to Heirs  (newspaper)
19. Notice of Sales   ""
20. Notice to Creditors  ""
21. Advertisements    ""
22. Administrator 
 23. Executor         
24. Inventories
25. Pensions         
 26. Estate Taxes 
 27. Dower Rights    
 28. Legitimation  
29. Appeals           
30. Deed(s) 
 31. Grants           
32. Patents  
33. Titles            
34. Abstracts  
35. Liens             
36. Tax Lists (by year) 
 37. Naturalizations Petition  
38. Oaths of Allegiance
39. Naturalization Decree  
40. Name Changes 
 41. Manumissions    
 42. Petition  for Freedon  
43. Certificate of Freedon 
 44. Inquistions of Lunacy
45. Adoptions         
46. Orphans Records
 47. Appeals  
48. Apprenticeship(s)
49. Legislative papers  
50. Congressional 
 51. Petitions      
52. Minutes
53. Subpoena        
54. Affidavit(s)
 55. Jury Duty      
56. Final Sentencing 
57. Bankruptcy      
58. Civil Suits 
59. Veteran Discharges  
60. Autopsy
61. Licences        
62. Voter Registration
 

Researching 1900's in Bertie County

Social Security Index - on-line sites
Military Service Records - WWI, WWII, recent service records
Census 1900, 1910, 1920  (major libraries)
Deeds - Courthouse
Wills - Courthouse
Delayed Birth Certificates - Courthouse
Marriage Records - Courthouse
Death Records- Courthouse
Naturalization papers - Courthouse
City directories/telephone books
Business directories  (on-line Branson Directories)
Funeral home info 
Church records
Bertie-Ledger files - Newspaper office
Organizations
	Rotary, American Legion, VFW, Masons

Old School Annuals


Churches in Bertie County tend to be smaller without full time staff. It would be best to make an appointment even for churches in larger towns. Genealogy is not the primary function of the church, and sometimes they designate a "historian" for the church who might meet with you and be of assistance.
Not all churches allow outsiders to see their records.
Visit the Bertie County Church Page which is already on-line to learn as much as possible.

Garrett Funeral Home in Ahoskie has always handled burials and re-burials in Bertie County. Their records have never been microfilmed and some of their older records no longer exist.

If interested, call in advance and make an appointment to see their records.

Virginia Money
Simply put, VA (Virginia) Money was paper money issued by the Colony of Virginia. England couldn't/wouldn't provide much in the way of money to the Colonies for commerce so the Colonies resorted to printing their own. It was common that money issued by one Colony be accepted in a neighboring Colony, especially in the case with Virginia - North Carolina. Virginia had nearly a hundred year head start over North Carolina and many early settlers of North Carolina came via Virginia, so their were a lot of close ties between people of Virginia and North Carolina in North Carolina's early Colinial history. Contributed by Jeff Seawall to the Bertie Mailing List.

________________________________

Codes on how to read old legal stuff, like Wills and deeds

a.a.s.=died in the year of his/her age (anno aetitis suae) ( 86 y/o died in 
year 86)
d.s.p.=died without issue (Child)(decessit sine prole legitima)
d.s.p.l.=died without legitimate issue (decessit sine prole mascula supesita) 
d.s.p.m.s.= died without surviving male issue (decessit sine prolem 
asculasupersita) d.s.p.s =died without surviving issue (decessit sine prole  
supersita)
d.unm=died unmarriedd.v.p.  died in the lifetime of his father (decessit vita 
patris) d.v.m.=died in the lifetime of his mother (decessit vita matris)
Et al=and others (et alia)
Inst= present month (instans)
Liber=book or volume 
Nepos= grandson 
Nunc=Nuncapative will, an oral will, written by a witness
Ob=he/she died (obit)
Relict=widow or widower (relicta/relictus)
Sic=so, or thus, exact copy as written
Testes=witnesses
Utl =late (ultimo)
Ux or vs=wife (uxor)
Viz= namely (videlicet)


 In reading newspapers, books and magazines from the 18th Century you will 
 invarably notice that an "f" is apparently used where there should be an 
 "s."
 For instance, the word "vessel" is printed as "veffel," the word "same" 
 appears as "fame" and "castle" becomes "caftle." Because of the confusion 
 encountered by readers new to 18th Century documents, we have asked three 
 individuals knowledgeable in the history of typography to render their 
 views on the subject.
 Their explanations follow:
  
 "The Long S is a legitimate form of "S." See the American Heritage 
 Dictionary "S" entries. The Long S is similar to a lowercase f but the 
 horizontal stroke does not go through the top of the letter. The long s 
 still survives in German (or at least it was available when I studied 
 German). German has an uppercase S, a lowercase long f and a lowercase s.
 "The Rules Are:
 
 "Regular uppercase S; "Terminal lowercase s and medial s under certain 
 conditions; initial long f and medial long f."
 
 "Examples:
 
 "In the 1791 Bradford edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the 
 Introduction reads:
 
 "Perhaps the fentiments contained in the following pages are not yet 
 fufficiently fathionable to procure them general favor...."


 "You will note that both fentiments and pages end with a normal lowercase 
 "s" and both fentiments & fufficiently have an initial lowercase long f."
 - Richard Irby 
 
  
 The typographic script "s" is an analogue of the handwritten letter, a 
 sort of double loop, and used in the middle of the word. PrintersSsetSthe 
 graphic version of the handwritten letter, which differs from the "f" in 
 having a very minimal cross-stroke. They (the "s" and the "f") are not the 
 same.
 
 To be precise, the script "s" was used in all positions except the last. 
 Thus the word "success" would have begun with a script s, the penultimate 
 letter would have been a script s, but the final letter would have been 
 what we consider a normal "s".
 - Philip A. Metzger
 Special Collections Librarian 
 
 The symbol ("s") was not an "f" although it looked like one. The long s 
letter can better be described as an "f" without the crossline traveling 
 through the vertical line. The crossline only extends to the right of the 
 vertical line. Also, the long s was never used at the end of a word or to 
 denote the possessive or to pluralize. Since handwriting was considered an 
 art form, the placement of the long s depended on what the "clark" felt 
 would be visually pleasing to his audience. In a hand-written document, 
 the top of the long s looked like the lower case fS."
 - Lawrence Davis 




Please send comments and suggestions to
Virginia Crilley varcsix at hot.rr.com

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