You Never Know What You’ll Find
Have you been following all the great records FamilySearch has been adding to their website? There are many NC related record sets for you to search and/or browse. To see what records are available, visit the page of North America collections and scroll down to those titles that begin with “North Carolina,” — collections are listed in alphabetical order.
Tonight, while browsing the Wake County Death Certificates 1900-1909 death certificates recently added, I found an interesting record that made me pause. It was a hand-written note on letterhead from the Elmington Manor estate in Gloucester County, Virginia noting that a 90 year-old black woman named Sallie Heywood (possibly Haywood) had passed way on the property, the home of Reverend Thomas Dixon, in March 1900. Her death was due to natural causes. Dr. Phillip Taliaferro wrote the note and affirmed that her body was safe for transportation back to Raleigh for burial. She was interred in the City Cemetery March 3, 1900.
Given the note and my curiosity, I sought to see what I could learn about Sallie and Elmington Manor.
A few moments after searching for the manor and owner Thomas Dixon, I quickly learned that he was the author of the screenplay for the movie Birth of A Nation. He was a native of Cleveland County and his uncle was a Ku Klux Clan leader. Elmington Manor was described in the August 15, 1903 issue of the New York Times as “the most beautiful estate in the South.” Some of his papers are held at my alma mater no less, Emory University.
Given Rev. Dixon’s viewpoints on the relationship between blacks and whites I then reflected on what Sallie was doing there at his manor and what life may have been like for her. Was she visiting family? Did she have an existing relationship with the Dixon family? I wonder if she has descendants? Do they know about the tie to Thomas Dixon? I have not yet found any information about Sallie but finding this record and her association to Thomas Dixon was interesting.
Check the collections at FamilySearch – you never know what you’ll find.
Update: The Wake County Death Certificates are part of the North Carolina, County Records, 1833-1970 database.
New Book: Miles Lassiter (circa 1777-1850) of Randolph County
While browsing the North Carolina Genealogy Research Community Facebook page tonight, I noticed a link shared to a story about a woman’s journey to document the life of one of her ancestors.
The story, published today in the Courier-Tribune newspaper of Asheboro, NC, describes the work done by Margo Lee Williams in tracing the life of her ancestor, Miles Lassiter. Lassiter, was an early African-American Quaker and Ms. Williams has spent more than 20 years researching his life and his family. She’s learned quite a bit about him and I’m sure her work can serve as inspiration for many of us working on our family history.
Ms. Williams will be doing a book-signing this weekend at the Asheboro Public Library – an event sponsored by the Randolph County Genealogical Society.
The book is available in print and electronic format.
NCGenWeb Incorporated into 10th Grade History Class
Last week’s episode of the GeneaBloggers Radio Show focused on ways to engage youth in genealogy. At the same time, here in the NCGenWeb project, we learned of our own real-life example – what a coincidence!
Some 10th grade students participating in a summer school course taught by history teacher Ms. Martinez were working on projects related to slavery & the slave trade. In the course of their research, the students found resources linked from the Halifax County NCGenWeb’s African American page to be of particular help.
A few students found your page to be very informative and resourceful for their projects. Thank you for making such a good reference available for them! – Ms. Martinez
Not only that, as a way to give back, they wrote to the county coordinator, Deloris Williams, to suggest the inclusion of additional resources to add to the page. As an incentive, Ms. Martinez provided students bonus points if their suggestions were incorporated. After review, Deloris did in fact incorporate a couple of the links suggested, including a page from PBS’s Africans in America collection, noting:
The link to the PBS website is part of one of the links I’ve used myself in my own research and I know how very informative it is because it offers so much information about many different eras on the website. The link that I was planning on adding, however, is the Arrival of first Africans to Virginia Colony, since that page is more specific to the area of North Carolina research.
Thank you to Ms. Martinez for engaging your students to become more active in the research process and for thinking of the NCGenWeb project! For anyone else who is interested, you may visit the NCGenWeb African-American page for even more resources.
National Register of Historic Places – Nomination Files
Did you know that the North Carolina State Preservation Office is adding the full application files of properties nominated for the National Register of Historic Places?
Announced on their website, PDF nomination files are currently available for all properties listed since 2009. The files are worth checking out for all those doing family history research. The nominations are several pages in length and include pictures and detailed histories. Below is an example for the William A. Curtis home in Raleigh.
Home of William A. Curtis, an African-American resident of Raleigh, Wake County. The home was built ca. 1915. Photo from the nomination file.
Statement of Significance for the William A. Curtis House
The list of sites with nomination files attached may be found online at http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/nrlinks.html. At the time of this writing, approximately 230 were available. North Carolina has more than 2700 properties listed on the Register and the Office does plan to add older ones as time allows. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the nomination of any particular property and it is not available online, contact the Office for details on how to order.
Analysis of an 1860 Slave Census
Most researchers are likely familiar with the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules. These census records are available for about 17 states and provide data on the number of slaves owned by owning families.
Dr. Barnetta McGhee-White has a particular interest in Granville County, and African-American records of the state in general. Her 3-volume set, Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina, published in 1995, is an invaluable resource for those researching African-American families in the state.
She continues to contribute data for genealogy research; most recently spending time transcribing the 1860 Slave Schedule for Granville county. Not only has she listed the names of the slaveowners, but she’s provided graphs and tables that help paint a clearer picture of the slave population. You may view the slave population breakdown here. Be sure to visit the other African-American resources for Granville County, and resources throughout the state of North Carolina.
Thank you Dr. McGhee-White for your work. The NCGenWeb project is always pleased to know of and accept contributions of all kinds from researchers. To anyone reading, if you have information to share, please do consider our county pages.
African-American Resources
Harper's Weekly Image
Looking for records & resources for African-American genealogy research? We’ve recently updated the African-American Special Projects page on the NCGenWeb site to include links to specific counties with relevant content.
Resources vary and may include:
- Wills that list free slaves – such as that of Julius Zollicoffer of Halifax County
- Freedmen Bank Records – see Northampton County as an example
- School information – such as the Rosenwald Schools in Nash County
- Slave runaway notices – like Simbo from Onslow County
- Comprehensive collections – like that of Bladen County
You never know what you’ll find so be sure to look around. If you have questions, please contact the county coordinator who can lead you to further resources. Thank you to Deloris Williams, Assistant State Coordinator, for compiling the county links.
NCGenWeb and Slave Children Photo
Recently, the Associated Press carried a story about a photo of two young slave children and how the photo had been associated with a document of sale for a slave named John. The materials were found in an attic of a North Carolina home and sold to collector Keya Morgan. I learned of this after reading a brief article about it on Eastman’s Genealogy News site. There is a full article that can be read at ksl.com that describes more.
This afternoon, while doing some housekeeping on the NCGenWeb site, I saw a new incoming link. I’m glad I followed it, the result was fascinating. Maggie Jochild has written a wonderfully detailed blog post outlining strategies and techniques that may possibly help locate the family of said John given her analysis of census records and information found here on NCGenWeb.
The deed of sale was in Brunswick County, so much of Maggie’s research focuses on Brunswick and New Hanover counties as she traces the Potter & Grist families. John was sold by the Potter family to the Grist family. Maggie links to a Potter family pedigree and a James Grist biography on the New Brunswick & Beaufort county sites respectively.
Read Maggie’s post – it is absolutely fascinating and a good example of using online material to begin research. Of course, many things are not available online, but this is a great way to start.
Consider submitting material to NCGenWeb – your contributions just may help others as it has helped Maggie formulate some interesting hypothesis on finding out who this John may be.
Digital Southern Historical Collections
Just had to share this news from the UNC Southern Historical Collections – today they unveiled a new digital collection of African-American Resources. Thirty-five of their collections w/ more than 8,600 items make up the first installment of this amazing resource.
In addition to materials relevant to NC history, the new digital offerings include materials from other southern states as well.
You can read more at http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/news/index.php/2010/01/digital-shc/.
Have fun exploring!
One of our ASC’s Featured in News Article
Deloris Williams, one of the NCGenWeb’s Assistant State Coordinators is featured in a news story today in the Greensboro News & Record.
The article highlights UNC’G's Digital Library of American Slavery, a new database of data extracted from court & legislative records from 1775-1867. The database contains more than 80,000 names of slaves from 15 states in the Southeastern US.
We have a link to the site on the African-American page, but if you read the article, it provides a great example of how useful this resource can be. Way to go Deloris!
Granville County Slaves
If you’ve been doing African-American research in North Carolina you are probably familiar with the text, Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina County by County by Dr. Barnetta McGhee White. This book is an excellent resource as Dr. White searched records of many counties in the state to create this listing of marriages & cohabitations declared by blacks in North Carolina after the Civil War. I’ve found several of my own ancestors mentioned in this book and her documentation of plantation records in Edgecombe County even led me to the identification of my ancestors’ slaveholders.
Recently, Dr. White informed me that she has another resource on her website that is often overlooked – a documentation of all slaves mentioned in Granville County deeds from 1768-1864. If you have enslaved ancestors from or near Granville County, you must check this out! You can find her index at her website.
Granville county co-hosts Nola & Deloris have also added the link to the African-American resources page at the site, so you can also access it from there.
