Wake County Death Certificates
January 6th, 2012
FamilySearch.org has begun adding original death certificates from the Wake County Health Department beginning with 1900. As the records are added, I will try to keep this list up to date.
The state of NC did not begin requiring death certificates until 1913, so these early records are a treat!
Records currently available include:
Jolly Jewelry & Optometry
January 4th, 2012
The NC Digital Collections website has recently added several photos of the Jolly family members of Raleigh, and their family jewelry and optometry store. The store was opened in 1881 by Benjamin Rush Jolly and closed in in 2011 – quite an established history.
Jolly Jewelers in the 1925 Raleigh directory
Photos added to the online collection vary but include pictures of Frank Moseley Jolly, Susan Jolly, and various interior and exterior shots. I particularly love this photo of the inside of the store – it just looks so peaceful.
And, wasn’t their model cute?
Visit the NC Digital Collections site to see more Jolly family & business photos. These images, and more, are part of the Albert Barden photo collection.
Frank Mosely Jolly (1880-1919), son of Benjamin Rush Jolly
Interested in more? Check out this article that features Benjamin’s great-great grandson, Frank Ragsdale Jolly as he talks about his family’s history with the store.
Gaston Alonzo Edwards (1875-1943)
September 9th, 2011
Success In Many Fields
Indianapolis Recorder
28 Aug 1909
Rising Young Architect Who Designed Masonic Temple at Raleigh
An example of what thorough preparation will do for those who are willing to qualify themselves for the higher duties of life along educational lines is found in the thrift and industry of G.A. EDWARDS of Raleigh, NC. Mr. Edwards after graduating from the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Greensboro, NC, spent three years at Cornell and one year at Chicago university, doing postgraduate work. His high averages in studies at these schools won for him the special prize. As instructor in natural sciences at Shaw university, where he was also superintendent of the men’s industrial department, he displayed rare ability both as teacher and manager. Because of his ability to bring things to pass himself and start others on the road to success the state board of managers of the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb at Raleigh, which is maintained for the benefit of Afro-Americans, appointed Mr. Edwards to organize a mechanical department, which has proved a great blessing to the students. Professor Edwards is now devoting his time to architecture and is meeting with splendid success.
Gaston Alonzo Edwards
He was the first Afro-American to design and superintend the construction of buildings for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. The main building of Waters Institute at Winton, N.C., which is conceded to be the prettiest Afro-American school structure in the state, was designed by Professor Edwards. He is now designing the new A.M.E. church at Raleigh. The old church was recently destroyed by fire. The new structure when completed will cost about $75,000. He has also been given a contract to design school building in Missouri that will cost $600,000. The new three story brick Masonic temple at Raleigh, the finest structure owned by Afro-American Masons in the state, was built by his design. His success is largely due to the fact that he makes a specialty of church and school architecture. Realizing that Afro-Americans must perfect commercial institutions if they are to contribute to the upward movement of this age, this young man is connected with many concerns in Raleigh that are giving Afro-Americans larger opportunities and is a director in the following corporations: Capital City Savings Bank, Pioneer Mercantile and Investment Company and Capital City Building and Loan Association.
Article transcribed by Taneya Koonce from online digital issues of the Indianapolis Recorder newspaper.
1927 Raleigh Directory
August 5th, 2011
The 1927 Hill’s city directory for Raleigh was added to the Internet Archive yesterday. The directory is more than 800 pages. A link has been added to the Directories page, but you can access it directly by clicking on the image below.
Facebook Connections
June 19th, 2011
Are you a member of Facebook? If so, you may be interested in joining two new Facebook communities to expand your genealogy networking online.
1) The Wake County Genealogical Society now has a Facebook page – you can find it here.
2) FamilySearch, the genealogy organization of the Church of Latter Day Saints, has established a Facebook community for genealogy research across the state. You can find that community here, and an icon has now been placed on this site’s sidebar for quick access.
Come visit and participate with us!
Raleigh Schools Annual Reports
May 29th, 2011
Newly added to the Internet Archive are at least a couple editions of ”Annual report of the Raleigh township graded schools, Raleigh, North Carolina.” At the time of this writing, there are two editions – one from the 1915-1916 school year, and the other from the 1916-1917 school year.
These books are helpful for understanding the educational environment in the county back then. Some of the information provided includes:
- the names of administrators and teachers for each school (both White and African-American schools)
- budget data for each school
- list of graduates for that year
- reports from the superintendent, and other system officials
- pictures of some of the schools
- teacher requirements
- course curriculum of the students by grade
- textbooks used for each grade
Richard H. Lewis High School
Want to get a picture of what school was like back then? These are great resources for doing so! Links have been added to the Education page.
Tombstone Tuesday: Ellen Mordecai (1790-1894)
March 22nd, 2011
The NC State Library’s Family Record Collection now includes a new type of record – cemetery photos!
- Ellen Mordecai (1790-1884)
The above photo is included in their collection of photos from Historic Oakwood Cemetery. Links to their photos have been added to the Cemeteries page on this site.
Index to Raleigh, City of Oaks
February 5th, 2011
I don’t live anywhere near Wake County, but I try and do what I can to help provide access to information about the area. Last weekend while shopping at a local used bookstore, I found a copy of James Vickers’ Raleigh, City of Oaks: an Illustrated History, originally published in 1982 by the Wake County Historical Society. Since I can always stand to learn more history of the area, I snapped it up for only $5!
The book is slightly under 200 pages and as the title indicates has many pictures. The history of the county is covered from the area’s beginnings to 1982. It is organized as follows:
- Chapter I – An Eventful Birth: to 1792
- Chapter II – A Planned City: 1792-1820
- Chapter III – The City of Oaks Grows: 1829-1850
- Chapter IV – Yankees Come and Go: 1850-1880
- Chapter V – Capital Improvements: 1880-1905
- Chapter VI – From Prosperity to Depression: 1905-1940
- Chapter VII – A Modern City Blossoms: 1940-1982
- Chapter VIII – Heading Toward the 21st Century
- Chapter IX – Chronicles of Leadership
I’ve also scanned the index so it’s easy to see who is or is not included in the book. Also, I’ve added information about the book to the small but growing Bibliography page on this site. There’s some interesting history covered in the book. If you have any questions or would like a lookup, just let me know (email address on sidebar).
Added: Korean Conflict Casualties
December 29th, 2010
New on the Military page is a list of Wake County men who died during the Korean Conflict in the 1950s. The list comes from an online database of the National Archives & Record Administration. The link is at http://www.ncgenweb.us/wake/military/korean-conflict.
Wake County Deaths in New Database
December 12th, 2010
Many researchers are familiar with the seminal work by Carrie Broughton to collect deaths reported in Raleigh newspapers. A former State Librarian of North Carolina, she compiled a massive set of marriage and deaths from the papers that span 1799-1893. Ms. Broughton was a Raleigh native, so no doubt these records were near and dear to her heart.
Currently, the full-text PDF files are available in the Digital Collections website of the NC State Library at http://goo.gl/FsJlh. These are a fabulous resource! The files are also searchable online with a paid subscription to Ancestry.com.
However, as I started working with them I realized I wanted to be able to do more. As PDF files, there is not a way to obtain an organized list of people associated with any one particular county. In genealogy and family history research, locality is paramount. So.. I began to enter material into a database to create a free, searchable resource. This database is now part of the NCGenWeb and is called NC People in the Papers. While the site is designed to accommodate news articles in general, the bulk of it are records from Broughton’s work. Currently, I’m working on adding the DEATHS from her books, not the marriages. Other records come from a few misc. resources.
With that said – follow this link to find A LIST OF DEATHS OF PEOPLE FROM WAKE COUNTY. Deaths from 1799-1815 had been added so far. A link to it has also been added to the Deaths/Obits page on this site.
