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.
North Carolina Treasures
The North Carolina State Archives announced a new site this week – their “Treasures” collection.
Treasures is an online exhibit of some of the most priceless items from the collections at the North Carolina State Archives, with supplemental materials from the State Library of North Carolina to be added later. These archival documents are not available for public viewing except at specifically designated times due to their importance to the state’s history and, in some cases, their fragile condition. Also included in this online collection are some examples of presidential signatures that the State Archives has collected over time.
Upon visiting the site you’ll quickly understand why these are very much state treasures. Having them digitized for online viewing will certainly increase their accessibility and many a researcher will be thankful. The site is easy to navigate with content clearly presented in 12 time periods that spans 1600-present day.
Treasures web site
There are many interesting items to be found here – as an example of one among many is the will of John Penn (of Granville County) - one of the NC representatives to sign the Declaration of Independence. John died in September of 1788 and his will, dated 1 Mar 1784, divides his estate between his two children – a son and a daughter. What a great document for a descendant, or Penn family researcher, to know about and access. Spend some time exploring the stie and see what you find.
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.
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.
