In Memoriam: Winona Solomon
The NCGenWeb Project is saddened to announce the passing of Winona Ott Solomon, county coordinator for the Bute county website.
Winona was born December 6, 1944 and died May 4, 2011. She was a long-time contributor to the NCGenWeb project, providing numerous records and material for area researchers. Winona was also actively involved with Warren County research and collaborated with family members and friends on the Pegram Family website.
Winona, a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, was a graduate of Brigham Young University. She was also a cousin to Nola Duffy, another coordinator here in the NCGenWeb project. Our thoughts are with Winona’s family.
NCGenWeb County Coordinator Makes Eastman’s Blog
Dick Eastman runs one of the most popular genealogy blogs out there today – Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter. Recently, Dee Gibson-Roles, county coordinator for several counties (Buncombe, Cherokee Reservation, Jackson, Macon, Madison & Swain) was highlighted in his newsletter!
Dee writes a genealogy column for the Asheville Citizen-Times paper of Asheville, NC and the surrounding region. Her recent article on reading and understanding deed records was noted by Dick on November 1st. You can read his overview here and you can find Dee’s article here. If you’ve ever read old deeds or wish to learn more, you’ll be sure to want to read through her article for great tips on understanding the terminology.
NCGenWeb Mourns Loss of Shelia Hanna
All of us here in the NCGenWeb project mourn the loss of Franklin County Site Coordinator, Sheila Hanna. Sheila passed away February 11th in her hometown of Louisburg, NC. She was 49 years old.
Our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time. Memorial services for Sheila are being held on Thursday, February 18th.
NCGenWeb on TV!
Okay, not really, but let me tell you about an interesting connection the NCGenWeb has to a recent television show.
Brigham Young University has an ongoing series on their cable station called “The Generations Project.” I am at the moment I write this, watching the most recent episode and have seen a great example of how USGenWeb fits in the larger picture. In the current episode, the subject of the show, John Robert Searcy, is seeking to learn more about his ancestors. In one of his meetings with a genealogist, she informs him of her research and finding out about his first Searcy ancestor to come to the United States.
The first one in his family to come to the U.S. was John Searcy born 1694 in Nottingham, England and died in 1787 in Granville County, NC.
John Searcy detail from The Generations Project Episode
When I saw this, I wondered – hmm.. is there anything that is on the NCGenWeb site/ USGenWeb Archives that the genealogist may have used? Of course, I don’t know for sure as it was not stated. But, I did find that back in 2002, Waunita Powell submitted the will of John Searcy to the Archives site. In 2004, she submitted the same information to the Granville site, along with other Searcy documents (here and here). Additional Searcy information can be found by searching the site using the FreeFind Search Engine.
John in the television show is descended from John’s son (John Jr.) as named in the 1787 will. In less than 10 minutes, I quickly found several trees in Ancestry Public Member trees that document the family and can provide a lead to locate original source documents for the family tree. Just thought I would share this as a way to show how our volunteers efforts could potentially make a difference in any person’s quest to learn more about their families.
If you’ve not seen this show, you must watch it. This is the second episode I’ve watched and they are done quite well and bring an extremely intimate and personal touch to learning more about your ancestors. You can view the episode I describe by going to http://www.byub.org/thegenerationsproject/, though, as each new episode comes out, the video is replaced. Enjoy.
Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-1894)
Today on one of the blogs I follow in my feed reader, Southern Graves, there was a posting of the tombstone of North Carolina governor Zebulon Baird Vance. Upon reading the post I decided to do a little more reading about Zebulon, for even though I knew the name, I don’t know much about him. I commented on the blog post that the first time I knew anything about Zebulon was as a grad student at the University of North Carolina. The financial aid office is in Vance Hall, which is named after him. Someone obviously did not pay attention in her 8th grade North Carolina history class!
I did some online searching to see if I could locate an obituary for Zebulon, as I’m sure it must have been printed in many newspapers. Sure enough, I quickly found one in the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America newspaper collection. Here is an obit that appeared in the 15 Apr 1894 issue of the San Francisco Call newspaper.
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DIED FROM APOPLEXYWashington, Apr 14. — Senator Vance of North Carolina died at his home, 1726 Massachusetts avenue, this city, at 10:40 o’clock tonight. He had a stroke of apoplexy this morning. He had been suffering for some time from paralysis and a complication of diseases, but the end was sudden and unexpected, as he was regaining his health, and was thought to be on the road to recovery. He was compelled during the winter to leave the Senate and go to Florida. There he grew somewhat better, and in view of the struggle over the tariff returned to Washington. He was a member of the Committee on Finance, but took little or not part in framing the present tariff bill.
Zebulon Baird Vance was born in Buncomb [sic] County, North Carolina, May 13, 1830. He was educated at Washington College, Tennessee, and at the University of North Carolina, where he studied law. In 1852 he was admitted to the bar and established himself at Asheville, N.C., where was chosen County Solicitor, and in 1854 was elected to the Legislature. Vance was opposed to the secession of North Carolina, but after that step was taken he raised a company and soon afterward was appointed colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, a regiment that became the most famous organization of Southern soldiers. (read more at the Library of Congress website) |
The cities of Zebulon in Wake County & Vanceboro in Craven County are both named after him as well. His papers are held in the UNC Southern Historical Collection. Do you have any research connections with Zebulon or his family?
