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.