Here at the NCGenWeb Project we are pleased to announce new county coordinators (CC) for three of our counties! And, both are named Susan 🙂
Union County – Susan Sullivan is our new CC for Union County. Susan has family roots in the area that go back many years and has been practicing genealogy for many years. Her family also is from nearby Chesterfield County South Carolina. Susan is a graphic designer by profession and we look forward to her plans for adding additional content.
Perquimans County & Pasquotank County – Susan C. Griffin is our new CC for Perquimans and Pasquotank counties. Susan G. also has strong family ties to both of these areas. A third-generation genealogist, Susan G. is well qualified to help make these county resources better for you.
Of course we also welcome contributions from our researchers, so if you have family from Union, Perquimans, Pasquotank or any NC county, please keep the NCGenWeb project in mind.
Congrats to Richard Phillips, one of our active North Carolina genealogy researchers! One of his blogs was highlighted during the GeneaBloggers Radio Show #18 on Friday, May 27th.
GeneaBloggers Radio is held weekly on Friday evenings. You can listen live and access previous shows here. It is a great platform for learning new information while at the same time socializing with other genealogists. This latest show focused on military records. Guests included Curt Witcher of the Allen County Public Library and professional genealogist Jeffrey Vaillant. Each week, Thomas McEntee, the show host, picks a blog to highlight. This week, Richard’s African American Soldiers & Sailors blog was the one picked.
Not only is Richard an active researcher but he briefly helped us out as coordinator of the Scotland County pages. He has several web projects and this particular blog focuses on African American Soldiers and Sailors of Onslow County during the Civil War period. This and another of his blogs is listed on the Onslow County Military page.
African American Soldiers & Sailors Blog
You can also find his blogs listed on our NC Genealogy 2.0 page along with many other NC genealogy & history related blogs.
How cool for Richard to be featured on GeneaBloggers Radio. Here at NCGenWeb we value our volunteers such as he and our many others. If you in fact, have information to share, please let us know.
The NCGenWeb Project sends a big welcome to our newest County Coordinator, Jane Gouge!
Jane has adopted McDowell County, one of the counties that sits on the western side of the state.
An active family researcher, Jane has also recently started a blog and discusses her Conner family roots on her site, Connor Trails of North Carolina. Be sure to check her blog out.
Thank you Jane for joining us; we look forward to seeing what new data you gather for the site.
The Gale Cengage company is offering a wonderful treat during the next two weeks. From now until April 24th, several databases will be available free of charge in celebration of National Library Week.
Several databases will be available, the one most likely to be of highest interest for most genealogy researchers is Gale News Vault becuase of its vast collection of historical newspapers. The database includes both US & UK newspapers and has more than 10 million pages available.
For North Carolina — the following newspapers and ranges are available in the 19th US Century Newspapers subset of Gale News Vault:
News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) from 1880-1899 – close to 6,000 issues
Raleigh Register from 1800-1899 – more than 3500 issues
Fayetteville Observer from 1816-1899 – more than 3,000 issues
Daily Register (Raleigh, NC) from 1850-1861 – more than 500 issues
Remember, newspapers often covered items over a wide geographic area so you’ll want to be sure to especially check for news in counties near to where the paper was published. For example, the Raleigh Register newspaper covered news from across the state — here’s an 1858 excerpt of an account on the death of Mr. George Hensley of Madison County (all the way on the other side of the state) who unfortunately met his demise due to an accidental gun discharge after a bear hunt.
Published in the Weekly Raleigh Register - Wednesday, January 27, 1858; Issue 10; col D
As county coordinators, we often receive inquiries from researchers on how to find various types of information. A common request is how to locate obituaries and death information – sometimes even going back before official state and county records.
Over the years, many have taken the time to go through historical newspapers and pull out items of genealogical interest such as births, marriages & deaths. Many of our county sites have detailed information on how to locate such records, but as an additional aid, we’ve put together a bibliography of print resources to help you locate information extracted or abstracted from various newspapers in the state.
The new page is hosted on the FamilySearch Research Wiki in light of our collaboration with FamilySearch.org. The page has a purposeful emphasis on PRINT resources. When available, each book will link to the catalog record for either the Family History Library or WorldCat.org to help you find the book at other libraries.
Snapshot from the NC Newspaper Extracts Bibliography page.
Northampton County co-coordinators Ken Odom & Tom Davis are pleased to announce a new addition to their site. You can now search and access a database-driven compilation of close to 3,000 burials in the county!
Cemetery & Burials Database
The database is searchable by last name and by cemetery. Each record includes death & birth dates as applicable. Headstone photos and a map showing the location of the cemetery are also included.
Today, February 19th, 2011, the North Carolina Genealogical Society (NCGS) hosts their Sixth Annual Speakers Forum in Raleigh, NC. Throughout the day, NCGS members will share their expertise on a variety of topics.
Presentation titles include:
State Land Grants: Accurate Information?
WorldCat: It’s Not Just for Librarians
Use of Facial Recognition Tools for Ancestor Identification
Freedmen’s Bureau Records: Much More Valuable to Anyone’s Research Than You Might Have Thought!
No Person Shall … Gallop Horses In the Streets: Using Court Records to tell the Story of our Ancestors’ Lives
Shoot…I already had this
Social Media: Share Your Genealogy Without Losing Your Mind
Story-Catching While You Can
The full details of the day can be found here. I’m hoping that NCGS Speakers may share brief recaps of their presentations for those of us that can’t make it in person. Be sure to check the NCGS website for future notifications.
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.
On January 25, 2011, Josh Howard, a research historian in the Research Branch of the N.C. Office of Archives, will discuss his work on the North Carolina Civil War Death Study. Through his work Mr. Howard has been able to provide details of North Carolina Confederate and Union units – for both black and white troops.
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.
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.
