January 2011: Welcome to the NEW Mosaic RPM website. We are so excited to finally have our
site updated and ready to go for the start of the new year! Most of the information found on the
site is the material that you are familiar with, though it might be found in different places. Please
do take a few minutes to check it out! And, some material has outlived its usefulness and is no
longer included. As before, on this "blog" we will post monthly updates mentioning "select" bits
of research et al that we have been involved with during that month.
NOTE: Due to technical issues, between September 2011-December 2011, this blog was not
active
NOTE: Ppre-January 2012 entries do not contain active hyperlinks nor graphics [pulled from
older website]
August 2011: It's hard to come back from two weeks of vacation! Have updated the list of
articles written for several publications. Once the e-mail and snail mail are all cleared out, then
it will be completing reports of research finished before vacation, resuming research on some
other projects and starting in on a few other projects. Hopefully, we'll update this page before
the end of the month. WARNING -- we have just learned that our web pages server will no
longer support Frontpage extensions come September -- as you may have guessed, this
website is written using Frontpage. So, if you have any issues accessing the website after
Labor Day, know that we will be in the process of migrating the website to using a supported
webpage editing software.
July 2011: Happy 4th of July! Tomorrow will be some 18th century land tax research at the
Library of Virginia. Have added more Internet Genealogy and Family Chronicle articles written in
2010 to this site. Did a lot of research that just didn't make it to the blog -- at the NC archives and
the State library of NC -- covering 18th through 20th century NC research. Also research in the
records of other states. Continue to be busy posting news at Upfront with NGS (the blog).
Created a WCGS Facebook page and have also been busy posting relevant news to that
platform. Google+ has emerged on the scene and some effort has been put into exploring that
new service. Additionally, articles written for Volume 37, issues No 2 & No 3 of the North
Carolina Genealogical Society (NCGS) Journal have also been added to the articles authored
page.
June 2011: Have written pieces on The Freedmen's Bureau Records -- Research Your
Southern Ancestors and the CCC for Archives.com. Gave the last of 4 presentations on the
Freedmen's Bureau to the Durham-Orange County Genealogical Society. Spent 1.5 weeks
involved with a high school graduation, company in town and some down-time at the beach.
And, then seemingly, the rest of the month catching up! Did research on several projects -- NC
African-American Research, Revolutionary war service research, trying to document the parents
of a late 18th century female (for a lineage society application), land research, a "born in NC"
where the NC birth place (county) has yet to reveal itself!
May 2011: Where to start? Several projects currently being worked on involve: 1. African-
American research, post and pre-Civil War, 2. Proof of Revolutionary War service along with
documenting family connections, 3. Using early 19th & late 18th century NC records to try and
prove a family connection -- loose court records being a primary resource, 4. research in the
records of burnt counties and then looking for activity in adjacent counties and/or predecessor
counties [successfully got a family "back to NC" from out-of-state in the early 1800s to run into a
"burnt county" in NC -- still plugging away on that], 5. VA tax & related research [including
research at LVA], 6. Several projects where "like-named" individuals are found and am working
to separate out these individuals where key records are not extant. 7. Obscure record searches
for projects where more conventional records have not been sufficient -- county accounts, road
records, etc. Also provided a brief overview for resources for select states for the Archives.com
site ["State Resources for Genealogy Research" for AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, SC, TN & TX] ... and
much, much more ... time to get back to those projects!
March-April 2011: Too busy researching and giving talks to post! Have talked 2 more times on
the Freedmen's Bureau Records and on June 1st will do so again for D-OGS (Durham Orange
Genealogical Society) -- if you heard any of Diane's talks, she would greatly appreciate your
posting feedback at SpeakerWiki. Have proofed several articles for Internet Genealogy and
Family Chronicle [in May announced a new iPhone, iPad etc app]. Continue to be busy with
WCGS though Diane's term as President ends in May.
February 2011: Diane gave her talk on the Freedmen's Bureau Records at the 6th Annual NCGS
Speakers Forum on Saturday, 19 February 2011 -- this is a fascinating group of records that
provides information on ALL types of post-civil war individuals -- Freedmen and their families,
widows, ex-soldiers, the old and disabled and just so much more!
January 2011: Happy New Year! Internet Genealogy now has a FREE e-mail newsletter, you can
sign up using this link - tips from several genealogists are included and Diane's contribution is
census tips. Also, the current edition of IG is now out and contains an assortment of Net Notes
by Diane. If you live in the Piedmont of NC, do check out the 6th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum
on Saturday, 19 February 2011. Registration details. Diane will give a talk titled Freedmen’s
Bureau Records: Much More Valuable to Anyone’s Research Than You Might Have Thought!
[Regardless of race or origin circumstances, many pertinent post-Civil War records are found in
the Freedmen’s Bureau Collection. While it contains records of freedmen, it also includes
information about impoverished North Carolinians of all races.]. Otherwise we've hit the year
running with an assortment of projects from collecting land and deed records to searching for
Revolutionary War service to seeking records for families living in "burnt" counties to trying to
identify the parents of freed slaves, learn those NC origins of those whose families migrated out
of the state before the 1850 census. Early next month Diane will talk with some college-age
students at UNC-CH (INLS 754: Access, Outreach and Public Service in Cultural Heritage
Institutions at the School of Information and Library Science) about what genealogists do so that
our future librarians will have a better sense of how to best serve us! DNA test results continue
to help or redirect research directions -- this past week I've seen results that match what one
would expect (e.g. surname matches) and another project where the only match is to another
surname -- we are upgrading the results on that test to see if that was an anomaly of the lower-
level results or holds for 67 markers; if so, we'll be off in a new direction for that project. We
were reminded last week that records are not always archived how one would expect. Typically
in NC, records are housed in the collection of the county as it was at the time the record was
created (e.g. pre-1771 Wake county records are found in Johnston county). And, an exception is
that pre-1759 Edgecombe County records are housed with Halifax County records -- the county
created later! Off to label, scan and e-mail some recently collected documents which will
hopefully benefit our clients research! We were saddened to learn of the "demise" of Ancestry
Expert Connect -- it was a powerful tool helping to match those needing research to providers of
research.
December 2010: Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous
2011! Some Christmas gift projects are in the process of being completed and we continue to
research other "hard to find" ancestors -- ex-slaves, Native Americans, the "westwardly" mobile,
the "only stopped" in NC for a generation or less, the "most common of names," Revolutionary
War/War of 1812/Civil War service and other projects that continue to keep us challenged. The
Upfront with NGS blog keeps us busy as we share news about NGS and the genealogy world at
large. We have been reminded by two projects, that though we may have a "specific" birth place
(e.g. a city or county) that it was much easier for ancestors to "live under the radar" and not be
documented. If they didn't own land -- no deeds, no voting records, etc. If they moved frequently
enough -- the tax man might not have found them! And, not all records created, survive -- even if
the tax man found them, if those records don't survive, we will never know! And, a lack of extant
records does not have to stop your research in it's tracks -- you might never find that one
document that proves the relationship and you can often still build a strong circumstantial case
as to who your ancestor was. When you create your circumstantial case -- do DOCUMENT the
basis for your assertions. We have recently read many colorful narratives about various
ancestral lines, none of which can be substantiated. We understand that when you share your
research results it is tempting to want to "fill in the gaps" to humanize your ancestors -- please
just make it clear what is "fact" and what is "fiction." You can use historical facts and information
on a community to provide some context for your ancestor. You can use information on
disasters and other circumstances (e.g. economic, religious, etc) to suggest what may have
motivated your ancestor and unfortunately, unless your ancestor left a diary, we will "never" truly
know what they were thinking or what motivated them. And, we don't have to completely get
inside an ancestors head to appreciate the role they have played in the families history. When
gathering with family this holiday season, take the opportunity to collect more family lore, pool
what the family knows or discuss the merits of DNA testing. Though DNA testing has added
another tool to our research arsenal -- a lack of matches, unexpected matches to other
surnames, distant matches, etc can challenge us to make the best use of this tool. And,
remember, that is you don't match the person you were targeting as a distant ancestor -- that at
least helps you know what family to not pursue! That said, we need to finish working on those
promised Christmas gifts and see if we can deliver some good news to the other ancestor
hunters we are pursuing.
November 2010: Glorious colors of fall -- enjoyable to the eye, though, the much shorter days
make it harder to work past 5pm! Busy this month with lineage research and applications -- all
off to now be vetted! Several "successful" African-American (ex-slave research projects) with
one straddling the NC/VA line -- a marriage here, a census record there, a marriage there, a
census record here, etc. Just learned that we have the "cover" article for the now available issue
of Internet Genealogy with "25 Obscure Databases You Need to Know About." Busy with the
Upfront with NGS blog for NGS and collecting material for the 2011 editions of the NCGS
Journal as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Several "born in NC"
projects continue to occupy our time -- to show you how challenging these can be, with two of
them we have "clues" as to "where" in NC and we still cannot find proof that they came from
where was stated or attach the person to parents -- fortunately, not all projects are as
challenging as these. Creating some family trees from compiled information to create a "visual"
of one's ancestral tree. Reviewing DNA results to see if we can get some leads or end up with
more questions than answers (e.g. the results don't match anybody or don't match that
"surname"). Many other projects, from document gathering, to proving Revolutionary War, War
of 1812, Civil War, etc services, to filling in the gaps of known ancestors lives, etc have and will
keep us busy. Our trip to NARA II last month was not fruitful for my client (though we will be
making one more push into other European records) and it did inspire the identification of more
fun records to abstract for the NCGS Journal (previously mentioned). With Thanksgiving just
around the corner -- we wish you the best as families far and wide celebrate together. If you are
able to join your family this holiday, it is a great opportunity to either listen to the stories of your
parents, grandparents etc, or, if you are the elder statesman of your family, be sure to share your
memories of your life and what you "know" of your deceased parents, grandparents, etc with the
younger generations. If no visits and they will be forced, as we are, to try and reconstruct our
lives.
October 2010: October has finally brought cooler weather -- after setting a record of over 90 days
of 90+ degree weather, we were more than ready for some nice cool fall weather! October has
been busy doing African-American research (both NC and VA), military research (Rev War, War
of 1812 and Civil War), writing articles for Internet Genealogy (and we've just learned that the
November edition has one of our articles as the cover article -- "30 Top Genealogy Websites!"
along with Net Notes, Ulster Historical Foundation and In Motion: The African-American
Migration Experience), providing content for the next NCGS Journal and also starting as the blog
editor for Upfront with NGS (free news blog of NGS). Also busy trying to turn over all kinds of
"rocks" looking for several elusive individuals in NC while also trying to make the "leap" from TN,
GA, MS/AL and other states back to NC for those "born in NC" projects. We continue to support
WCGS and have agreed to give a talk next spring on Freedman's records -- documents in the
Federal collection that most people aren't aware of and that help research "anyone" in post Civil
War Confederate states. We also continue to serve as the "legs" for those that can't get to NC to
obtain documents to support their research. Later this month we will be visiting NARA II to look
at Consular records for France and Germany -- we have been tracking an American citizen
arrested in 1908 on the road to Paris from Berlin and we very much want to learn more about
his arrest and any information we might glean on his parents, etc -- got our fingers crossed!
September 2010: Hope everyone had a super Labor Day weekend! Writing more articles for
Family Chronicle, and just learned that our article "Replacing the Irish Census" has been
published in the October issue of Family Chronicle. And, the current copy of Internet Genealogy
on the stands has several pieces by us -- Net Notes, "African-American Newspapers,"
"Researching Your African-American Roots," and "Georgia Digital Archives." Lineage related
research and applications abound! Continued research into the ancestors of freed slaves (who
often left NC for elsewhere) and those who "were born in NC" and left the state for places west
of here. Continuing to look for those who kept a low profile in 19th and 18th century NC -- not
mentioned in wills or estates, bought land from strangers ... they just seem to "appear" in a tax
record, census, marriage record, etc and so looking into tax records, road records, loose court
papers and under many other rocks to try and learn more about them and to also try and
connect them to their parents, siblings, etc. And much more though it's now time to actually do
the work and not report on it!
August 2010: A month sure does go fast when you take some vacation time, return to a busted
hot water heater and have to get a kid back to college! And, that said, we've done a lot in the last
few days and will just keep working through our various projects. We are mostly doing reports
for all the research we did before we went away. It has been satisfying to put some packets in
the mail, including some in support of a client claiming Irish citizenship. Our archives bag is
starting to fill up and a trip to Wilson Library, UNC-CH, is planned for next week. Another two
articles of ours have been published at Genealogy Archives, Tips to Help You Find Seemingly
“Lost” Ancestors.and How To Find Immigration Records & Passenger Lists. We've also been
busy proofing articles for the next edition of Internet Genealogy. More later as we continue to dig
out of our post holiday mail/e-mail/"to do" list!
July 2010: Hope everyone had a super 4th of July weekend -- instead of reading, writing and
arithmetic, our July has started out with reading, writing and researching! And lots of all three!
Continuing to prepare for Diane's talk on the 24th and her week long stay in DC for NIGR ...
we've decided that clones is the only way we'll make it through July! And, we weren't imagining
how hot June was -- it was record setting! Working on several "born in NC" projects (if there is a
state west of as far as TX we are probably tracking someone who was "born in NC!"), research
for the descendants of ex-slaves, still tracking a mystery musician around the globe -- last found
in France and Germany in 1908, pursuing Revolutionary War military and other service for
lineage applications as well as Scottish and Irish ancestors for others, writing articles for Family
Chronicle, helping clients give great gifts in the forms of family trees with supporting research
and just so much more! Need to meet that article deadline, close out some current projects,
continue fascinating research for several projects and line up those projects which might
benefit from some time at the Library of Congress (LOC) or National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) -- which we might squeeze in next week. Otherwise, stay cool as we
experience even more heat!
June 2010: Hope you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend -- and, if you are like us, May
just whizzed by! June is off to a busy start -- the newest edition of Internet Genealogy is now in
print and Diane has written several pieces for it as she also writes some pieces for future
editions. Weekly trips to the NC archives keep us busy with research in colonial records,
revolutionary war and civil war records, documents that hopefully shed insight into the lives and
extended family of former slaves, and those that might help with those "born in NC" families
found elsewhere in the 1850 census or whose parents, in the 1880 census are identified as
born in NC. DNA continues to play a role in our projects -- whether suggesting other locales to
research or that there was a non-parental event (e.g. the last name of the person and the DNA
group don't match). And, sometimes we are just busy trying to document the numerous
branches of a family tree where we are slowed as we hit mid-19th century records, especially if
the family didn't own land. And, we are always trying to track those families whose middle name
seemed to be "move" as in they are never found in the same place in the census records, never
mind those in between periods! We hear those client files calling to use ....
May 2010: Hope everyone had a super Mother's Day, even if just having a lazy Sunday! Mine
was great with daughter home from college! We are sad to announce that Discovering Family
History ceased publication with it's April 2010 issue -- Moorshead Publications will be
incorporating more beginner type articles in Family Chronicle as a result. It was great to see all
the people that showed up at the Raleigh Family History Center for the May 1st Seminar -- Diane
gave talks "Online Maps" and "Born in NC." Lineage society research and applications, trying to
determine the parents of slaves, making use of DNA test results to bridge from MS to NC (and
beyond), Orange & Durham counties slave research, Revolutionary War era research and so
much more has kept us busy as this month starts. In July, Diane will give a talk about
Timelines for the 5th Annual North Carolina Genealogical Society Speakers Forum and she'll be
attending National Institute on Genealogical Research (NIGR) in July to improve skills with
regards to Federal Records research and the DC-area research repositories ... now it's time to
do some of that promised client work!
April 2010: Hope you all survived "Tax Day!" ... with that now past, many of you can now spend
more time researching your family! Projects involving families in many counties during many
different time periods and with all different kinds of objectives have kept us at the State Library of
NC and the North Carolina State Archives on a regular basis this month! We have also spent
some time working on some articles for future editions of Family Chronicle and Internet
Genealogy (for Moorshead Publications). We also spent some time preparing to give 2 talks on
May 1, "Online Maps" and "Born in NC" for the Raleigh FHC Seminar. We recently had another
piece published as part of the Learn from the Experts Series at Genealogy Archives -- Why They
Moved and How To Find Them. Some lineage and hereditary society applications have been
submitted and others are in process. African-American research projects, post slavery and
during slavery, keep us on our toes as we try to document and learn the ancestry of these
elusive family members. Continued research into 19th and 18th century NC records for clues for
seemingly "invisible" individuals. Several projects involve those "born in NC" types -- searching
for clues where they were found to be living, marching backwards on their lives and those of like-
named individuals in the area and neighbors to see if we can find "where" they were from in NC
and/or whom their parents were! Revolutionary war and civil war research trying to prove
participation and/or service and/or trying to obtain service and pension records continue to keep
us busy! Tracking an early 20th century musician who traveled the world of NY, UK, France,
Germany and Australia has us scratching our head as to where did he go next (not a passenger
record yet to be found!) And, other hard-to-find individuals, each with their unique stories, have
us busy in the records of NC, multiple states in the US, emigration/immigration records, etc. We
have also been reminded that in early records, keep your eyes wide open for name variants that
might be quite different from what you "thought" the name was! Phonetic spelling by clerks and
illiteracy can make for quite a variety of names as found for one person. So, another busy and
exciting month and we're only half-way through it!
March 2010: The month started with a slight break to enjoy being with college-age daughter and
husband away from home for a few days -- a respite much needed. Since then it's been fast
and furious with research -- lineage to African-American to the ubiquitous "born in NC" problem
to 20th century Wake/Johnston county people and land research to writing pieces for the WCGS
publications (Wake Treasures and Wake Updates, journal and newsletter respectively) and
more articles for the various Moorshead publications. Also busy dusting off some talks to give
to a May 1st event at the local LDS church (and Family History Center). So far we have been
reminded of the role that looking into any "name" even close has in our research as well as
though we hope that intense research will yield the answer to the question, serendipity definitely
can be the sledgehammer that breaks the brick wall. And, how can we forget those DNA results
which don't confirm what we are hoping and throw us for a loop as we find that our results
match an "unexpected" surname! Someone the other day asked me how I find some of the stuff
I do and my response was along the lines of "look under every rock and think outside the box of
conventional genealogy research." Stuck in the past, come back to the future (did you actually
get every vital record and census document?). Stuck on your line, look at extended family (or
anyone with the same surname, especially if born in the same state). Stuck on extended family,
look at neighbors. Stuck in your county and/or state, look at nearby counties/states. Still stuck --
look at church formation and records, migration trails ... Don't just focus on the obvious, try and
document every mention of your ancestor/family, no matter how small. Even if this information
doesn't solve your research question, you have at least learned more about your ancestor and
can produce a more "colorful" family history. Time to go check some newspaper indexes, meet
with a client, visit the state library and then the state archives -- a typical Friday!!
February 2010: Snow and lots of it greeted us this month -- enough to keep the kids out of
school for 3 days as we tried to defrost, though, nothing compared to Snowmageddon as it's
hitting VA and north! Lots of articles written so far this month (1/3rd of the way in) and also lots
of research! Projects focusing on land in colonial Chatham county to those families who
migrated from NC to the Mid-west and seemed to stop in every state along the way, to African-
American/Slave search -- trying to determine parents and/or plantations of birth, searching on
20th century families who left their NC farms in the 1920s-1930s for elsewhere such as NYC,
Philadelphia, DC, Norfolk/Portsmouth, etc., many "born in NC" projects where we are
desperately trying to connect them to their ancestral homes, lineage application requirements
from DAR/SAR to Sons of Colonial Wars to Society of the Cincinnati have us deep in
Revolutionary War era records seeking "proof" of ancestors service. And not to loose sight of
just basic "deep" research into early 19th and mid-to-late 18th century documents, of the more
obscure variety, to try and learn as much as possible about those North Carolinian families with
deep roots. And, let's not forget the quest to try and find "where" an ancestor emigrated from --
for many of the families I research, the answer will be England/Wales, Scotland or Ireland -- the
hard part is determining which, trying to find information on their passage and then identifying
specifically "where" back home might be. And, that's just the first 10 days ... let's see what the
rest has us doing!
January 2010: HAPPY NEW YEAR! We don't know about you and it was hard to return to work
after an enjoyable holiday break. Though, visits to the Library of Congress (researching the
patent card file and books for an early 1900s Tin Pan Alley musician was fun) and the National
archives (unfortunately, no research there and did visit the public displays) were a great treat for
this genealogist! We hope to spend about one day per month at these and other great DC
facilities doing research. Otherwise, there are projects not completed in December on our plate
-- involving many types of records, across centuries of time, for both NC and other locales! Once
we catch our breath mid-way through the month, we'll update you on what we've been up to!
Articles have been written an proofed, much research at the NC archives has taken place,
project binders filled with family documents and reports have been created and so much more!
December 2009: Hope you had a super Thanksgiving and have an enjoyable time preparing for
the December holiday season. We have just published another article at Genealogy Archives,
UK Census Records Uncovered. This will mostly be a month of starting and completing
projects promised in time for Christmas -- whether it's a lineage application, producing binders
of research already completed, starting research or meeting some article deadlines -- we will
be busy between now and years' end. A trip to UNC-CH as well as regular visits to the NC
archives will also be on our plate. We are happy to report that some long-term projects finally
had some breakthroughs late last month -- as they say "patience" is a virtue though impatience
is probably a middle name had by many of us! It's time to complete those projects ... best
wishes for a wonderful holiday and a safe, healthy and prosperous 2010!
November 2009: Hope you had a super Halloween and remembered to turn your clocks back 1
hour! We have a just published article at Genealogy Archives, Locate Ancestors with UK Vital
Records, and Diane is polishing up her talk for the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum. The
topic of her talk, "Born in NC: making the connection back to North Carolina, a case study," (you
can read about this same topic in a Discovering Family History Article titled "North Carolina and
Beyond," Discovering Family History, May/June 2009, pages 8-11) is timely since in the last two
weeks we have received about 8 inquiries where in each case, from the 1850 census or some
other resource, an ancestor has been identified as "born in NC" with no other information
provided! These are tough projects and success if possible ... Involved with several projects
where families just love to use the same names over and over again in each generation and
across generations -- when combined with somewhat common surnames, we have been kept
busy with the Glenn and Turner and Jackson families -- trying to separate out the various
branches and generations of these family trees! Will visit the Greensboro courthouse this week
for some estate papers, having been researching estate records for slave lists, and am
searching diligently to see if proof can be found that some individuals "served" in the
Revolutionary war while living in North Carolina.
October 2009: We have already been busy writing Net Notes and an article for Internet
Genealogy, spending every afternoon at the NC archives looking at land grant documents,
maps, tax records, marriage records and so much more for several NC counties. We continue
to help many individuals with two classic questions -- My ancestor was "born in NC," can we
figure out where and to whom? (both those who learn this from the 1850+ census and those
who through other records know this for an 18th century ancestor) AND My ancestor was either
a slave (negro or mulatto) or free black, can we learn what plantation they came from and
possibly who the parents were? These are both challenging questions -- both focused
research and some serendipity normally come into play to answer these questions. We
continue to support research in Wake County and the Wake County Genealogical Society
(WCGS) -- Diane is now President of WCGS and continues to spearhead "publishing" volumes
of abstracted/transcribed material for those researching Wake County Ancestors. And, next
month will be the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum -- if you are in the Raleigh area, do check
out the exciting day of talks (Saturday November 7) including one by Diane titled "Born in NC:
making the connection back to North Carolina, a case study."
September 2009: Hope you had a super Labor Day weekend -- we all know that it unofficially
marks the end of summer! Kids are back in school and life takes on a new rhythm! We have
started the month by writing, writing, and doing more writing! We are working on articles for
Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle right now and the Oct/Nov edition of Internet
Genealogy has been published with our article "Understanding County Boundaries Through
Time!" We have welcomed some new clients via the Ancestry Expert Connect service. We will
be writing a piece for a newly just "opened" new web-service (we'll let you know more once our
article is posted!). We continue to regularly visit the NC archives and State library of NC
(Raleigh), later this month we will trek out to Duke (to examine some manuscript collections)
and we also plan to take our first foray to the National Archives (NARA) and the Library of
Congress (LoC) as we familiarize ourselves with the DC-area repositories. Several lineage
related projects have been worked on as well as some special projects meant as gifts! Not
directly related to work and we've had a spate of computer and printer issues -- given how much
we use both to research on, document and share with others -- it has slowed us down a bit! We
continue to acquire vital records documents for individuals (in NC, SC, NJ and elsewhere) to
help facilitate our clients and their needs. We know we have much more up our sleeve this
month and we'll tell you about it later, when we catch our breath!
August 2009: Besides bringing some extremely hot weather it has seen us doing research for a
variety of NC-focused families, non-NC-focused families and migrant families across the US.
And, before going further we want to express our continued appreciation of our clients and their
extreme patience with us this year -- we have never experienced such a personally chaotic year
(husband work lay-off, illness, NGS conference, more illness, child graduating high school,
husband finding job in DC -- 4+ hours away, child going off to college and so much more ...
hectic to say the least and the dust has mostly settled). Projects are being completed and
started which are meant as "gifts" for their recipients -- we consider these one of the best gifts
someone can get! We have been working on several projects of the group we call "born in NC"
-- in the 1850 census, someone is found living outside NC and their birth date is listed as in NC
-- these can be very challenging projects. A lot of individuals/families migrated through NC on
their way to their final destination. Sometimes we are successful in determining the NC birth
county and other information and sometimes not. Separating out families using land, tax, court,
will/estate and other records where they just loved to use the same forenames in every branch
of every generation! Tracking down revolutionary war era information for those that "served" as
well as others continues to keep us busy. Additionally, tracking down land grants and deeds as
ways to document where a family lived and/or connect them to one another, continue to keep us
busy. How about those families who we find in NC that migrated from VA -- we have tracked a
family from Wake County back to Bertie and figure that they probably came from Isle of Wight VA
-- the hard part is "proving" this! Two active projects are ripe with name variants -- though
names are pretty standardized now, back in the 1700s and 1800s it was not unusual for a
single document to spell one name a bunch of different ways -- compound this with different
clerks, different pronunciation, illiteracy, etc and you can find yourself having to check out 15-20
variants as you trawl through the records! So, what is the "correct" name for a branch of the
family and can we read any significance into these name variants in the early records?
Hopefully our research will answer those questions as we review documents and signatures to
figure out who is who.
July 2009: Needless to say, the month of June was so busy that we didn't get back to letting you
know what we've been up to. First, we hope that everyone had a super 4th of July weekend.
Second, starting next month, we'll be regularly traveling to DC and will be available to access
any of the wonderful archives and repositories located in the greater DC metro area. Third, the
August 2009 editions of Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle are now available and
we have articles in both -- "First Things First" and " Godfrey Memorial Library" in DFH and
"Looking for a Man Who Didn't Want to be Found!" and "Capturing WWII Veteran Memories" in
FC. And, I don't think we mentioned that just in time for the NGS 2009 conference in May, the
Wake County Genealogical Society has made available via lulu.com several new publications
and a reprint of the much-in-demand Wake County Heritage Book -- check out the society's
store, http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1837949, to learn more! So, obviously not "lazy
days" for us this summer! As far as research we have continued to search in Revolutionary War
era records to learn more about a Duplin County family. We are also working on about five
Wake County focused projects covering from the county's formation in 1771 to the circa 1830s
time period! We continue to work on some lineage projects and will be starting another one
shortly. We have also continued to work on some families who loved to move around or were
itinerant emigrants -- necessitating research into the records for several different states. Never
mind "crossing the pond" for some families with the main focus being on the records of
England, Wales and Scotland. And, there are the projects where we start by knowing "born in
NC" and little else and so we try to determine "where" in NC the ancestral birth place might be.
We also are still working to straighten out several like-named like-aged individuals in Randolph
County -- which ones are the target family! And, so much more ...
June 2009: The month is starting off with finishing a project involving research in Newberry
County SC and starting up several Wake County NC focused ones. A trip to UNC-CH has taken
place to photograph some estate records in family collection and also look into the
correspondence of an avid genealogist -- did he leave any clues about his own family's
research? This month will bring some DAR and Sons of Colonial Wars related research. We
continue to try and correlated DNA results with research performed. Research into NC
Revolutionary War records and early 18th century NC shipping records will benefit two other
projects. As the month progresses, we'll fill you in on even more exciting projects! Diane will be
giving a talk at the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum program in November -- "Born in NC
According to 1850 Census – Now What?” described by: How often do we have a project and at
some point we have an 1850 census entry that says born in NC (or it could be any other state
other than where the person is currently living!). What do you do? This talk will present some
general strategies for how to approach this challenge and also look at a case study where we
successfully used these strategies in combination with a family diary (no locations mentioned)
to determine where in NC the father of John Jackson Boyce came from, starting with the family
in Cass County GA c. 1850. Details will be posted at the NCGS web-site.
May 2009: Today (May 4) was the last planning meeting for NGS 2009 -- I hope to meet many
clients, colleagues and friends as they come visit Raleigh next week. On Tuesday and
Wednesday (May 12 & 13) look for me at Exhibitor Registration and about the exhibit hall, on
Wednesday at the Local Societies event that evening, Thursday evening at the History Museum
Dessert Reception and on Saturday at the WCGS sponsored luncheon -- otherwise I will be
attending sessions and out and about the hallways! Don't hesitate to come up and chat with
me -- I'd love to meet you! Otherwise, articles have been written and proofed for upcoming
Moorshead Publications (Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle) and other now
published in Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History. Compiled some information
on Mecklenburg VA Will/Estate records, pre-civil war to try and identify the slave owners of a
family. Been busy in the records of McKeesport PA tracking down several families who
emigrated from England and Wales. Researching several families in Davidson, McNairy, Shelby
counties and elsewhere in TN, along with Cherokee ancestry in western NC! And, the month is
just getting started! The NGS 2009 Conference went well -- it was nice to meet so many e-mail
and facebook friends! And, life is now somewhat back to normal!
April 2009: Hope everybody got their taxes filed in time! The last month we have been writing
and reviewing articles for Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History, blogging for the
NGS 2009 Conference Blog, working on WCGS publications to have available at NGS 2009,
photographing collections at UNC-CH and the NC Archives, and doing lots of fun research --
which we will report on soon ... Provided information to Ancestry's new service, Expert Connect --
it's a new way to connect potential clients with researchers. Took photographs of NC county tax
records (1782 forward) at the NC archives, acquired NC death certificates via the archives and
obituaries via the State Library of NC, checked out NC land grant indices and documents and
had our hands in so many more original and microfilmed NC records! Continued African-
American/slave research in VA and NC. Also spent time looking into deed indices, land grant
documents, will/estates and more ....
March 2009: FLU, FLU, FLU -- On and off since the 1st till the 18th, Diane has been suffering the
flu -- she hopes (she says with fingers crossed) that maybe she is on the road to recovery! ... as
soon as she is, she'll post what she's been up to -- by the time we resurfaced from the flu,
working hard to catch up and then a road-trip to FL, it was April ... so, know that we were busy in
March though look to April for the details!
February 2009: We don't know where January went and in February we've been busy with land
grant and land research -- Edgecombe/Nash/Franklin counties. We have been tracking a family
with TN roots (Davidson and Maury Counties) which connections to SC and GA! Continued
writing and proofing for Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History. Another project has
us deep in the records of PA while another has us trawling the records of Burke County (NC) for
a family -- marriage records have really helped with the latter. Several families continue to
challenge us -- by keeping a low profile in the extant records while other families just loved to
use the same names in each branch for each generation and the challenge is to separate them
out! We continue to be busy with the NGS 2009 Conference Blog and WCGS activities --
everything from blogging to looking at early 20th century Wake County postcards. We will go out
to UNC-CH to photograph documents from 3 collections. We gave a presentation titled "
Exploring Maps for Research or Curiosity" which focused on using maps (online and offline) in
your genealogy and family history research. We have continued to research African-
American/Slavery roots in Mecklenburg County VA (and later this month will be writing an article
on the same subject for a Person/Caswell county family researched extensively last year).
Additionally, we started a new project where one branch of a NC family has Cherokee roots and
we have been deeply immersed in the Indian Census, Federal Census, vital records and other
records to learn more about this heritage. Check back with us later in the month and we'll let you
know what else we got up to!
January 2009: HAPPY NEW YEAR! A governor's inauguration, inventory and snow all have
made getting to the NC archives a bit of a challenge this month and that hasn't stopped our NC
projects from moving forward! Several projects have us separating several branches of family
who in late 18th century NC loved to use the same forenames and lived within small geographic
areas of a county -- lots of research into land, taxes and election records. Other projects are
focused on NC land and land grants -- what land did a family purchase, what did they buy, what
were they bequeathed and where would that land be today? The March 2009 edition of Internet
Genealogy will be hitting the streets and we have several articles included (as we are writing
other pieces for future editions): Read up on Research: Genealogy Book Reviews, Family Tree
Connection and Live Roots, Family Research Labs: One-Stop Genealogy, Olde-English
Handwriting: An Online Course, and several Net Notes -- 1. In the First Person, 2. Slave Trade,
3. Cassini Maps, and 4. Memeo Share. Projects involving Finnish and Croatian records are
advancing ... with success in locating baptismal records. Research in MS, OH, PA and other
states are slowly revealing those ancestral trails. With NGS 2009 only a few months away, more
blog entries are to be written and planning for the vendor area will ensue and WCGS has
started prepping for it's conference luncheon program and wrapping up planned publications.
We abstracted the Wake County Civil Action Papers for 1778-1793 and finished abstracting
some Wake Court Documents found at UNC-CH to be published in the next edition of the Wake
Treasures. These and more are keeping us busy this month!
December 2008: We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a safe, prosperous and healthy
New Year! Though we have been busy with preparations for the holiday, we have remained
committed to our clients and their projects also! In addition to continuing to write articles for
Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History, we have been busy with completing some
research support (e.g., "I am elated as I received the message below from our XXXX Chapter
DAR Registrar. I appreciate all you did on finding the information on XXXXX of Orange County. It
was something that I would not have found. I mailed what you had sent to me - without even
abbreviating it - directly to DAR ... Again, thank you ... XXXXX was verified." and application "filling
out" for various Lineage Societies. Two emigrant projects have kept us on our toes as we work
in non-English records -- for a Finnish project we are communicating with the local Parish in
somewhat butchered Finnish and Swedish to get 20th century records to help us bridge the
emigrant to the older parish records available online -- for a Croatian project we will be delving
into microfilmed parish records at the local FHC. We have also done some research, both
genealogical and a survey of surviving local newspaper to support two in-the-works
documentaries! In support of NC-focused projects, we have researched the records of Halifax,
Granville, Buncombe, Lincoln, Randolph, Madison, Sampson, several coastal counties and
other NC counties. We are wrapping up an extensive NC family research project which will be
produced as a print publication for extended family members. For another project, we will be
shifting from the paternal side in Eastern NC to researching the maternal side. We continue to
support clients from around the world -- recent clients call Australia, Thailand, Norway and
England home. We have just started another African-American research project -- a slave-era
born gentlemen shows up in Northampton county and marries -- where did he come from?
These and other unique ancestral and historical projects have kept us busy, challenged and
excited!
November 2008: We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! As genealogists and family historians
-- this is one of the holidays most special for sharing with family -- enjoying good food and good
company! If you are meeting with family members whom you see infrequently or are
increasingly frail -- please do spend time with them, learn their stories and share them with
others! Several net notes have been written and three articles are in process for what will
hopefully be included in the January issue of Internet Genealogy. The December edition of
Discovering Family History is now available -- besides our recurring piece "First Things First" it
contains an article on reCAPTCHA and one titled "If I were to start my genealogy now." Treks to
the Manuscripts Collection at UNC-CH (photograph part of the J.M Dent collection -- a British
book publisher) and the NC archives (many projects across several collections) took place. We
continued work with Deedmapper, WCGS publications, the local NGS 2009 Planning
Committee and the NGS 2009 Blog. Projects involving Finnish, German/French, Croatian and
other emigrants have kept us busy with passenger, naturalization and related paperwork.
Colonial research in North Carolina helped clients with DAR, OFFNC and Society of Colonial
Wars applications. The research of African-American ancestry continues to keep us
challenged. Four projects involving ancestry in Randolph County have kept us busy in the
records of that county, while several other projects have expanded how many different NC
counties we have researched in to 66! DNA testing and results continue to both help with
research and puzzle us! All too often the results do not match the surname that we are
accustomed to and that necessitates trying to document how that happened. And, as always,
other unique projects keep us challenged as we search out illusive ancestors!
October 2008: It seems like I was just reporting on the September issue of Internet Genealogy
and now the November issue is issue is available -- it includes 4 net notes and 2 articles
(Explore Maps From the Comfort of Your Home! and What's With All the Fuss About Wikis?) from
Diane. A news flash -- Internet Genealogy is now available in an online edition! And, next
month look for the next edition of Discovering Family History with our recurring piece "First
Things First" and maybe more! We've had several projects this month where we have made use
of 19th century NC (e.g. Craven County) school records and voting lists! These are both great
ways to identify who one's neighbors are and/or who lives in the same geographic area. And,
for the school lists -- the children's names are grouped by family! You can also watch the
evolution of districts and the families living within a district! Several projects have had us in the
records of Randolph County NC. And another project has branched from MN to now OH and IN
as emigrant siblings dispersed around the country in the early 1900s as we continue and start
projects focusing on NJ, RI, PA. Lineage society research for DAR, Society of the Cincinnati, and
Order of First Families of NC have kept us busy. Several projects are winding down -- some
where we have continued to be frustrated in our inability to make connections and others where
we successfully learned more! And, land (with and without using Deedmapper) continues to be
a focus of NC research in the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- Chatham and Iredell and
other counties. Other projects are waiting on DNA testing results -- cases where the paper trail
is a little muddy and we need some guidance -- e.g. somewhere in the tree we know the mother
and not father! We continue to photograph documents in the Manuscripts Collection at UNC-CH
and at the NC archives (select online finding aids and MARS catalog) -- we have done so for
family researchers and also individuals involved in radio, tv or book projects. Last and not least
-- wrapping up a project intended as a November birthday present and will be starting a
Christmas research project soon!
September 2008: Hope you all had a super Labor Day weekend ... We've been working hard on
a land tracing problem -- e.g. what do you do when the property you are tracing is now under a
man-made lake ?!?! We hope to bridge that and identify the original land grant for the property!
Several of our client projects with "brick walls" are turning to DNA testing! In one case, only the
mother is known and in others, which "branches" of a family tree to investigate, is unknown!
Otherwise, we are collecting Land grants, doing deed research and generally "following the
land" for several NC projects. This has necessitated spending quite a bit of time with
Deedmapper, trying to plot and make sense of those NC deeds (e.g. thence from the pile of
stones N 86 E 15 poles, to a stake, thence ...) Also we are doing lots of research in our
neighboring state SC for a family that seemed to weave it's way through time and space along
the NC/SC border! Another project has us extensively looking into death notices and death
certificates to complement census research for a family which appears to have no tombstones
in the cemetery where they are buried and so family connections are a bit vague! And, so much
more!
August 2008: A busy month researching pre-Revolutionary War records in Mecklenburg County,
Land records in Lincoln, Buncombe and Rockingham Counties amongst other locales, writing
pieces for the next edition of the WCGS Updates newsletter, the NGS 2009 conference blog,
and the next edition of Discovering Family History, spending a day in the Manuscripts Collection
at UNC-CH photographing early 19th century letters and 20th century documents, doing
research in St. Louis County MN on an emigrant family (Yugoslavia), researching some deaths
in TX, working with DNA results on a couple of projects -- coupled with traditional documentation
research, work on several lineage focused research projects -- DAR, OFFNC, Sons of Colonial
Wars, and Society of the Cincinnati. And, the September edition of Internet Genealogy hit the
newsstands contains two net notes "FamilyRelatives" and "Bloodlines of Salem" and articles
about "Project StoryKeeper and LifeLenz" and "CPS Alumni: School's In on the Web!" The former
article was appealing to Diane as she was able to include some information about her
deceased mother and family in the article while for the latter article her examples are from her
husband's family! Another busy yet interesting month of research and writing!
July 2008: Half of this month was spent preparing for vacation and then actually taking it! We
traveled to the beautiful Canadian province of Quebec -- toured Quebec City, the Gaspesie
Region, Montreal and more. Additionally, we enjoyed traveling Interstate 81 through NY, PA and
into VA -- just a delightful drive! Though we were away, we still did some proofing for pieces for
the September/October edition of Discovering Family History and that is pretty much it for work in
the latter part of the month! Before leaving we did some work on almost every project that we
are currently involved with and actually closed a few out including one of trying to determine did
a specific person serve in the Revolutionary War and if so, is he the same person connected to
the target family -- little evidence of Revolutionary War service and even less evidence of a family
connection. We also made a break through on some African-American research -- looking at
Person and Caswell county estate records we found mention of a slave consistent with the one
we were seeking -- listed on 5 children's death certificates as their father. Given no surviving
wills for the target slave-owners, his wife's remarriage by the early 1860s and no documentation
for this individual, this was a real find! In addition to NC-focused research, we also did some
19th and 20th century research for individuals in TX and elsewhere in the US to assist with
some MA estate issues. Basically, we did a lot more in the first part of this month and our
memory of that flurry of work has dimmed as we return from vacation and resume researching
and writing!
June 2008: As we are writing this is the day before July starts, it's obvious that this month just
flew by! The July/August edition of Discovering Family History is printed and carries our new
reoccurring column "First Things First" as well as an article on "Blacksheep". We also finished
writing articles for the next edition as well as planned some future articles and Net Notes for
Internet Genealogy. We are on the local planning committee for NGS 2009 which is coming to
Raleigh in May 2009. We are responsible for the NGS 2009 conference blog and got it up and
running this month -- check it out! We took a trek out to an African-American cemetery in Wilson
to take photographs of some surviving tombstones. On the research front we have researched
numerous NC families, families along the TN/MS border, families that migrated from VA to NC
and those that migrated from NC to GA! Several projects involve those challenging individuals
for whom we only know -- born in NC! We have successfully traced one of these individuals
back to NC to only learn that it appears that the family lived near the border area of NC/SC and
originally came from SC! So, now we start again to see if we can determine where in SC! On a
less successful note, there are a few long-term projects where we appear, for now, to have
exhausted "what" to research -- we will now pause for a bit an wait on some serendipity or the
availability of new research sources as increasing amounts of materials are digitized and put
online. We have also started or continue to do research in support of lineage society
applications -- Order of the First Families of North Carolina, Daughters of the American
Revolution and Society of the Cincinnati. And, as usual, so much more!
May 2008: The May/June edition of Discovering Family History carries our new reoccurring
column "First Things First" and we also finished writing and proofing articles for the next
edition. Currently researching several families for whom the oldest ancestor is one of those
"ubiquitous" "born in NC" and that is all we know! These are always such a challenge -- the
best hope is to get "clues" from records in the state to which they migrated! The next WCGS
Updates is in process and pieces have been written for that and the 1st compilation
"Apprenticeship Bonds" should be going to press any day. Have agreed to give the talk "Explore
NC through maps from the comfort of your home!" next month for the Durham-Orange
Genealogical Society of North Carolina. Many hours have been spent in the deeds, wills, court
minutes, marriage, tax records of many counties from Nash to Davidson to Wayne and several
other counties! And, several recent projects have had links to MS and TN! A recent project has
us tracking both the lineage and land of an individual whose family has early 18th century NC
roots as we try to untangle and connect the NC/VA connections for another family. The most
recent Internet Genealogy (June/July 2008) will be hitting the stands with our pieces on A New
and Improved World Vital Records and Net Notes on Ghost towns, ResourceShelf and The
Poorhouse Story.
April 2008: The month started with a vacation, preparing for the NCGS Speakers Forum
(4/12/08), proofing articles for the next edition of Internet Genealogy (June/July 2008),
scheduling articles for future editions of that publication and it's sister publication, Discovering
Family History. We also jumped back into some projects -- one with a focus on MS and St.
Louis MO, another with historic Onslow county (NC) roots, and a new project that currently
focuses on Cleveland, Gaston and Polk Counties (NC) -- we'll have to see where that project
might take us! Before months end we'll be exploring the records of about 15 NC counties
(some familiar friends and some we haven't researched in before) as well as starting research
on a new project with a Rhode Island/MA focus.
March 2008: Busy with WCGS activities -- preparing and giving a talk titled "Online Maps,
Focusing on North Carolina" (this same topic will be the basis of "Explore NC through maps
from the comfort of your home!" to be given next month at the NCGS Speakers Forum), finishing
the newsletter WCGS Updates (now posted), working on miscellaneous publication projects
and more. For NGS 2009 -- continued preparation for that exciting event! Arranged a tour for our
local NC APG group to visit the Wilson library at UNC-CH. Also visited UNC-CH to photograph
an extensive family document collection and research in another collection looking for
references to an individual who married into the family. Busy with research at the NC archives
on several families representing several counties across many different time periods! Also
doing research into an African-American family that migrated from post-Civil War MS to St. Louis
and appears to have roots in VA. This month has seen several "clients" with previously closed
projects ask us to work on new projects or continue efforts on old projects. And, we continue to
plan and write articles for Moorshead Publications. And, we are doing so much more! This
month's mail included the May 2008 edition of Internet Genealogy -- which includes our pieces
"Accessing Family History Books Online" and "US Passport Applications Online" as well as a
Net Note on "Paper of Record." The month ended with the office closing for vacation.
February 2008: We received our most recent issue of Internet Genealogy (March 2008) -- we
have a Net Note on "LostCousins" and an article about "Passenger Records and Naturalization
Records." And, the newest edition of Family Chronicle actually includes a pilot version of a new
publication Discovering Family History (you can download the full preview edition). We are
pleased in that we authored what is to become a regular feature "First Things First." The first
week of this month we will work with an out-of-town client with NC connections who is coming to
Raleigh -- we will meet at the NC archives/State Library building and work together on
advancing his research. We will also resume work on a couple of extensive NC projects where
the families have been in the state for at least 200 years and also a couple of projects where we
are trying to use DNA results to further the research and make connections, sometimes to
individual with differing surnames (meaning the male client has one surname and yet the DNA
results point to a different surname based on genetics!). Regular visits to UNC-CH, Olivia
Raney Local History Library, State Library of North Carolina and the NC Archives.
January 2008: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Regrettably, the rising costs of parking, office supplies,
gasoline, subscriptions and the like have necessitated an increase in our fees -- the first in over
4 years! Please check out Genealogy_Pricing for the new fee structure. Existing clients will
continue to pay as before until the current project is completed. Published a new resource guide
at lulu.com -- Internet Resources for Genealogy and Family Research in North Carolina. We are
honored that ThinkGenealogy has just listed Diane L. Richard (of Mosaic Research and Project
Management) as the most prolific of the "Top 10 Genealogy and Technology Most Published
Authors of 2007!" It has been confirmed that we will be part of the NCGS 2008 Speaker's Forum
(Explore NC through maps from the comfort of your home!). We continued to some research to
identify heirs-at-law for estate issues. Have posted some of our 2006 articles from Internet
Genealogy. Started to crumble some brick walls -- one connecting someone from NC to NY
and another connecting someone from NY to NC! Continue to research in Colonial and late
18th century records to find the origins of some Welsh and other emigrants! Two projects have
us doing research to prove an African-American/Negro ancestry from post-civil war to slavery
and possibly earlier. And, so much more! The month ended with a trek to UNC-CH the
Manuscript Department -- photographed a mid 1800s map, several early 1960s television
program scripts and some early 1800s family papers.
December 2007: This month passed in a flurry of activity, not all genealogy research related! A
binder was compiled for a coast-to-coast research project, many days were spent at the NC
archives and NC library doing NC research -- including one project that involved collecting
many, many documents and getting them certified for submission to a UK ancestral authority. A
trek to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department was made -- about 1600+ photos of documents
were taken! A few projects were finished just in time for the holidays. For one project involving
adoption and an African-American born in NYC with NC roots -- after 18 months of on again, off
again research, there was a big break! As the year ended, we can point to some wonderful
successes though also a few projects where brick walls were not "broken down!" Time was
also spent creating a NC internet genealogy research guide -- hopefully in early 2008 this will
become available! As usual, some time was put into WCGS (finalizing Vol 17, Issue 2 of Wake
Treasures) and other activities.
November 2007: The NC archives has re-opened in it's new home -- it's a nice arrangement
that makes researching easier and more efficient! The rest of this month and December will be
very busy with NC projects including the continued research into several projects started earlier
in the year, several new projects where there is DNA information suggesting familial
relationships that need to be proven/documented, plans to work in tandem with a novice
researcher at the local research facilities, acquiring wills/estates, court records, deed copies etc
to support the research of others, and so much more! A set of binders went out to a client,
documenting maternal and paternal family back several generations -- connecting Russia,
Wisconsin, Canada, Oregon, and many other locales! Most recent edition of Internet Genealogy
(January 2008) has been published - "Lineage, First Family and Pioneer Societies on the Web,
"National Genealogical Society," "World Vital Records" and net note "Free Public Records
Directory." Another edition of the WCGS Updates is in process and includes our contributions.
We hope that whether you celebrated Thanksgiving or not this month, whether you visited with
family or not, that your family and ancestors were a part of your thoughts this month!
October 2007: Several projects are winding down and binders have been produced (using page
inserts and with dividers) to be distributed to clients and their extended families. Articles have
been written and reviewed for publication in the December/January issue of Internet Genealogy.
Wrote an article on visiting UNC-CH Wilson Library and the Manuscripts Department that
includes information on some Wake County related finds for the next edition of the Wake County
journal, Wake Treasures. Have been busy plotting land deeds in Hertford and Wayne County for
two projects to locate land -- using civil war era maps, topographic maps, flood plain maps, soil
survey maps, division of land maps, etc! Gave a program to a local genealogy club titled
Emigration, Immigration and Naturalization Research. Continued working on projects involving
about a dozen NC counties and so much more!
September 2007: September is ending in a flurry of activity -- with the NC archives closing for 4
weeks to relocate to it's permanent space, it was the month to work on every project with a NC
connection -- and we did! Also traveled to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to photograph a
civil war era diary, information on the contents of an 1825 New Bern bank and circa 1850
guardian documents. The Wake County newsletter, WCGS Updates, will be published shortly
and the Wake County USGenWeb site was updated. Gave a talk to the local NC APG chapter on
internet resources (based on items published in WCGS Updates, the Family Chronicle article
from earlier this year and an updated version of Internet Resources for Searching Anywhere
USA). This month sees published three articles and some net notes for Internet Genealogy
(October 2007) - "Chronicling America," "Black Studies Center," "When Disaster Strikes:
Genealogy and Mother Nature" and net notes "GenWeb Search," Encyclopedia of Genealogy"
and "Geni and Zooof." And, several projects with non-NC connections were also worked on and
are almost completed. So, the typical smorgasbord of projects!
August 2007: As always with the end of a vacation, a large stack of mail and e-mail awaited as
the month started .... working on several projects across many NC counties ... these same
projects span from the late 1700s to the early 1900s from individuals that just popped into the
state for a few years to families with long, long roots! Proofed some articles for Internet
Genealogy and dug into a variety of projects -- finishing out two complete family tree research
projects that took us coast-to-coast, continuing researc in several NC counties and so much
more!
July 2007: Been busy at the Wake County Local History Library (Olivia Raney) and with the NC
archives and NC library now open, all NC research is going full steam ahead! Researching
everything from property to people across several NC counties and from the mid 1700s to the
early 1900s. Working on a few projects involving post-Civil War African-American research and
also 20th century European/Slavic emigrants. The last few weeks have seen the Wake County
Journal, Wake Treasures, and it's newsletter, WCGS Updates, both published. And, as always,
working on some articles for Internet Genealogy. Wrapped up some at-heir research involving
several families coast-to-coast and winding down on a project focused on OR, MN, WI and mid
1800 emigrants from Russia and Ireland. Took some time out for a vacation and so much more!
June 2007: We can honestly report that June just zipped by! Finished the article for Wake
Treasures and gave the related talk for North Carolina Genealogical Society -- "Looking for
Scots Heritage Becomes a Lesson in the History of Wake and Johnston Counties." Worked on
several Wake County projects and traveled to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look at
Civil War era diaries and early 19th century correspondence to Ireland. Also continued research
to settle some estates by finding heirs-at-law, literally coast-to-coast in the US! Started several
projects for individuals with 18th century NC roots in Halifax, Duplin, Wake and other counties.
Additionally, started a project to research one of those pesky immigrant ancestors for someone
-- you know the type, a surname that can be spelled a seeming zillion ways! And, worked on
researching several families with African-American heritage in NC -- a challenge whether
looking at 19th or 18th century records! In parallel, started an African-American Research Guide
that will be posted shortly on the Wake County GenWeb site.
May 2007: Where did April Go?!?! The early part of May was spent recovering from working as
much as possible at the NC archives and NC library the latter half of April as they are both
closed then until July 11 and early June, respectively! Once they closed, this month has been
spent writing on an article for Wake Treasures and a related talk for North Carolina
Genealogical Society (to be given June 30th), doing Wake County research (since ORL is still
open), wrapping up the project on Finnish ancestry and working hard to finish two projects that
spanned the US, attending the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond (VA)
where I attended numerous invaluable programs, picking up some new research projects
looking for heirs-at-law with MA connections, writing two articles and a net note for the next
edition of Internet Genealogy and these were just published in the June/July edition, Family
Search Labs: You Be the Judge, Searching Digital Documentation on HistoryKat, Immigrant
Servants Database, Prologue, WorldCat, and Free on Ancestry, while in Family Chronicle was
published "40 Fabulous Websites You've Got to Try!)," working on a project with NC, VA and KY
connections, continuing to do some challenging African-American research, and so much more!
April 2007: Spring is arriving and spring break is over ... we will be continuing with most of the
projects listed for March, starting a few new NC projects (various families with roots in Bladen,
Burke, Montgomery, Surry & Yadkin Counties), trying to locate the NC ancestral origins of some
individuals who lived and died elsewhere though were born in NC (the proverbial needle-in-a-
haystack project, though, we have had success finding the ancestral county and ancestors for a
few!!), writing some more articles/net notes for Internet Genealogy, plus finishing research on
these projects: Finnish-Canadians, TN/KY families, and a pesky character that has been
tracked from NE to IL to WI to OR to WA to NM ... never mind at least 3 marriages along the way!
And, as usual, so much more!
March 2007: Made regular treks to the NC archives & State Library, kept busy working on Civil
War era records for Onslow County, late 18th century records for Wake County, searched for
Revolutionary War connections in several counties and prepared for several other soon-to-be-
started projects involving several NC counties. Continued to do research coast-to-coast
searching for heirs-at-law to help close out MA land cases while also doing 20th century and
civil war research for authors of upcoming books. For a change of pace, published an article for
Family Chronicle "Web Sites Worth Surfing," wrote an article for the June 2007 issue, wrote
several Net Notes and published two articles for Internet Genealogy (May 2007) - "20 Billion
Names: One Year Later" and "Are You Ready to Unlock Your Genealogy." Also started a new
column for the WCGS newsletter titled "Research the Cosmos - Learn about internet resources
all over the planet." Continued work on all the projects started or continued in February and so
much more!
February 2007: Hit the road running finishing an article for Internet Genealogy on two new web-
based databases that were improving and updating in real-time (several re-writes involved to
keep the article current)! Continuing work on a project involving Irish and Russian emigrants
with OR, WI and MN connections and another project with connections to Christian County KY
and Giles County TN! More work on an adoptee trying to trace his historical family connections
to NC and for another individual with Canadian and Finnish connections. And, several NC
projects are in motion involving Wake County and several other counties spread throughout
NC. Another trip to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look at Civil War era documents for 3
different families as well as documentation on an African-American choir c. 1930. Add to that
projects involving research in LA, OH, WI, FL, NJ and elsewhere. Updated the Wake County
Genweb site and wrote articles for the WCGS update (newsletter) and so much more!
January 2007: HAPPY 2007! As the NC archives was closed the first half of the month, the main
focus early in the month was Finnish ancestry, writing more articles for Internet Genealogy (and
wrote an article for the companion publication Family Chronicle), gave a talk "Preserving your
families history" at Oak View Historic Park on Genealogy/Family History, continued research into
a myriad of events of the early 20th century (including filing FOIA requests) for a book project,
compiling an individual's research data, planned the next visit to the UNC-CH the Manuscript
Department to photograph a manuscript and some family papers and check out an interview
transcription, researching various families outside NC and starting research into several new
NC-focused projects. As the archives opened, worked on projects involving Wake,
Northampton, Lincoln, Hertford and many other NC counties, while also tracking a family from
MA to CA to OH and learned more about a Louisiana born family, assisted in many searches for
heirs tied to probate, submitted a presentation proposal for the 2008 NGS Conference and
confirmed a talk to be given in June for the NCGS titled "Looking for Scots heritage becomes a
lesson in the history of Wake and Johnston Counties" and so much more!
December 2006: Just this month ... in advance of the holiday season wrapped up work on
several familiar projects and started some new ones. Proofed some future articles for Internet
Genealogy, visited the UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to photograph a lawyer's letterpress
book, a civil-war era hymn book and more modern documents dealing with lynching in the
south, started compiling a persons genealogy files by putting the details into Family Tree Maker,
started new projects on emigrants from the early 1900s, 19th century Irish emigrants, another
family with Wake County connections, and other NC focused research. Also continued research
into a myriad of events of the early 20th century (including filing FOIA requests) for a book
project. Have several new NC-focused projects on our plate that will be started in the New Year,
put the finishing touches on the recent edition of the WCGS Updates and as usual, so much
more!
November 2006: Just this month ... Published the resource list that we use with our talks (Lulu.
com ), gave a talk titled "Research the Cosmos - Learn about internet resources all over the
planet," wrote several articles for the WCGS Updates, wrapped up some Revolutionary War
service searches and also looking for mysterious roots in Cumberland County. Cont'd with
projects involving Finnish, Irish and other non-US origins. Performed some research on
historical figures who lived during WWI and WWII that involved tracing emigration records.
Started a project to help an orphan trace his mother's North Carolina roots using information
collected after her death. Will also be searching the Wisconsin, Irish and other roots for
someone else. Always checking for new resources to continue research on various Wake
County records projects. Started another new project to trace a very mobile family that migrated
from NC to various mid-western and western locales. Spent much time in the court records of
Rowan County (NC) -- one individual over a 10 year time span was involved in four different
court actions in the 1760s, ranging from not paying rent, to something to do with a horse and
eventually "papering/bad money!" Starting a project to help someone organize all the data they
have collected (10+ paper files) in Family Tree Maker. And, as always, so much more ....
October 2006: Just this month ... besides continuing some previous projects into Finnish
records and historical figures tied to McKinley's assassination, we've started a new project that
has taken us to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look into Railroads and Texas in the
mid 1850s, done some old-fashioned research into some NC Families (Cleveland, Buncombe,
Alexander, Cumberland, Sampson and other counties) at the NC Archives/Library, connected an
individual who died in Dallas TX to his roots in Guilford County NC in the late 1800s, researched
into Native Americans with NC connections, and have continued to trace families in Brooklyn NY
and southern California. Wrote an article for Internet Genealogy the December/January issue
about several new exciting databases now available or to be available in early 2007. Will be
starting a project to document the Revolutionary War service of several North Carolinians and
another one to search for "rumored" Irish Roots ... and so much more!
September 2006: Just this month ... cont'd several projects started in August and earlier!
Recently explored North Carolina Civil War Records (Pension Application, Compiled Service
Record, etc) for a Wake County individual. Will be starting a new project to explore a 1905
Murder Trial and another new project looks at Anarchists and the assassination and President
McKinley. Yet another project is exploring the ancestry of a North Carolinian with purported
Native American ancestry. Let's not forget research for a family with lots of pieces already
researched (Harnett County and successor counties) and our task is to confirm the
relationships and if possible, make a key "connection" between two generations. And, what's a
month without writing a couple of articles for future editions of Internet Genealogy and the just
published November edition has "Iron Range Research Center" !?! Also visited UNC-CH, the
Southern Manuscript Collection to look at a Civil War era diary and look at the correspondence
of a WWI era attaché and so much more!
August 2006: Just this month ... started with a week's vacation in New England, then proposed
and wrote a few articles for future editions of Internet Genealogy, picked up on several projects
started in July or earlier including the project tracking 11 siblings, the Finnish research, the
Wake County project, the Bertie County (NC) project, the illusive mid-westerner (eventually found
in New Mexico!), and also started a new project with an Edgecombe County (NC) focus (and
some Quaker connections, with ties to VA) and another involving several NC counties and
another project to photograph correspondence of a famous Civil War Confederate General (out
at UNC-CH Wilson Library), learned more about a diary author connected to an interesting piece
of late 19th century history, updated the Wake County GenWeb site, wrote articles for the WCGS
Updates and so much more!
July 2006: Just this month ... continued looking into the records of Bertie, Wake and other
counties (NC projects), continued trying to track someone who did not want to be found in the
1930s, continued on a big project tracking 11 siblings to identify spouses, children,
grandchildren (mostly located in the Midwest though as far as CA), research into some CA
families, continued work on Finnish and French-Canadian projects, looked into a NC individual
who committed a crime in the mid 1800s, starting a project tracking some purported Scots in
NC, did some research into North Carolinians involved in the Civil War, met with someone to
obtain a letter written in the early 1930s by a brother-in-laws great grandmother, had more
pieces published in Internet Genealogy and so much more!
June 2006: Just this month ... started a family research project with ties to Bertie and Currituck
counties, completed a project that tracked a family from IA to WA to OR to NV to CA and also
created a compilation of the work done on the Czech families in Chicago, continued work on a
family of French-Canadian origin, on a Finnish ancestry project, and also on several families
with strong Wake County roots. Did several small projects involving a will in Surry County,
locating someone in Long Island, someone else in Brooklyn, tracking a family around the mid-
west, a Kansas-based family and was busy with the most recent edition of the Wake Updates
(newsletter of the Wake County Genealogical Society) and a "Net Notes" for Internet Genealogy
Magazine.
May 2006: Just this month ... wrote more "Net Notes" for Internet Genealogy Magazine and had
two articles published (one in a print version and one in an online version), continuing our
"Wake County" records project, completed another phase of a Quebec -> NY -> MA project,
researching in CA records & Marshall County IL and OH for 3 very-hard-to-find individuals(!),
continuing work on the Bohemian (Czech) families who lived in Chicago, completing a project
that looked at Slave owners, slaves and their progeny in NC, starting projects related to the
Spencer family, a family that migrated from Iowa to Oregon with a stop in Idaho thrown in and a
MA family of 12 children, we are getting more heavily in to 18th & 19th century Finnish records for
project of Finns who migrated to WA and also Canada. Also posted many new links to the
Wake County Gen Web site.
April 2006: Just in the past month ... we started with looking at NC Bastardy Bonds at the NC
archives, continued research of Bohemian (Czechoslovakian) families in Chicago, continued
projects involving Wake County, Northampton & Halifax & Vance Counties and also Beaufort
and Hyde Counties (all in NC), started a project on Finnish families with ties to Washington USA
and Ontario Canada (so, we have looked at Emigration, US, Canadian and Finnish records), a
project connecting a family from MA to NY and now hopefully Canada! We again revisited
California records for a new project.
March 2006: Just in the past month ... we have continued doing research at the NC Archives,
done research on Laura Keene (the actress who was with President Lincoln when he was
shot), gave the talk on "Help, I Live in Raleigh and My Family Comes from Outside North
Carolina), traced a 19th century family from Massachusetts back to New York, continued
research on projects involving families in Beaufort, Wake, Warren and other NC counties,
started a project involving slave owners, slaves, their plantations and their progeny (white and
mulatto), wrote several pieces for "Internet Genealogy," and tracking some families living in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
February 2006: Just in the past month ... we have done research at the NC archives and Library
and at the Wake County History Library (Beaufort, Warren, Edgecombe, Wake & other counties),
research on Bohemian / Czechoslovakians from Chicago, obituary research around the country,
writing Net Notes for "Internet Genealogy," preparing to give a talk on "Help, I live in Raleigh and
My Family Comes From Outside North Carolina," provided research consultations to over 30
individuals, finished the TX research, keep revisiting New York, Ireland and Scottish records for
another project, and so much more!
January 2006: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California (Los Angeles
County etc.), Brooklyn NY (Kings County), Dallas County, Bexar County, Deaf Smith County and
other parts of TX, Pitt County, NC (at the Archives), visited the Southern Historical Manuscripts at
Wilson Library (UNC Chapel Hill), back again in the Chicago records, starting a Raleigh, NC
project, writing an article on the Illinois online databases for a new magazine "Internet
Genealogy," and so much more!
December 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California (Kings County),
Brooklyn NY (also Kings County!), Oregon, Dallas and other parts of TX, and passenger records
and a glimpse at Canadian and Scottish records ... and, we just kept researching through the
holidays.
November 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California, Chicago, Ohio
(Warren, Hamilton and neighboring counties), New Jersey (Ocean County), Massachusetts
(Weymouth area and Boston), DC, North Carolina (Wake & Chatham Counties), Indiana
(Hammond area) -- projects have involved 19th & 20th century records some projects are to
locate descendents of individuals to help with Probate or Land issues.
October 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in Florida (St. Petersburg and
Jacksonville records), Illinois (Warren County & Lake County & Chicago), Indiana (Lake County),
Lancashire UK & UK Military records, California, Massachusetts, Wales, Ohio, Alsace France, a
mobile family in North Carolina, and Pennsylvania -- projects have involved 19th & 20th century
records -- one project was to find a common surname between non-related individuals ("Great
news on "Wilson" ... Thank you so much!") -- other projects are to locate descendents of
individuals to help with Probate or Land issues.
September 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in Chicago and Illinois
counties, Pennsylvania (several counties), Alsace France, Belarus (Minsk area), Glamorgan &
Monmouth Wales, the UK (several counties) ... making use of census records, passenger
records, church & cemetery records, newspaper articles, archives near and far, newsgroups
and anything we can think of and get our hands on!
site updated and ready to go for the start of the new year! Most of the information found on the
site is the material that you are familiar with, though it might be found in different places. Please
do take a few minutes to check it out! And, some material has outlived its usefulness and is no
longer included. As before, on this "blog" we will post monthly updates mentioning "select" bits
of research et al that we have been involved with during that month.
NOTE: Due to technical issues, between September 2011-December 2011, this blog was not
active
NOTE: Ppre-January 2012 entries do not contain active hyperlinks nor graphics [pulled from
older website]
August 2011: It's hard to come back from two weeks of vacation! Have updated the list of
articles written for several publications. Once the e-mail and snail mail are all cleared out, then
it will be completing reports of research finished before vacation, resuming research on some
other projects and starting in on a few other projects. Hopefully, we'll update this page before
the end of the month. WARNING -- we have just learned that our web pages server will no
longer support Frontpage extensions come September -- as you may have guessed, this
website is written using Frontpage. So, if you have any issues accessing the website after
Labor Day, know that we will be in the process of migrating the website to using a supported
webpage editing software.
July 2011: Happy 4th of July! Tomorrow will be some 18th century land tax research at the
Library of Virginia. Have added more Internet Genealogy and Family Chronicle articles written in
2010 to this site. Did a lot of research that just didn't make it to the blog -- at the NC archives and
the State library of NC -- covering 18th through 20th century NC research. Also research in the
records of other states. Continue to be busy posting news at Upfront with NGS (the blog).
Created a WCGS Facebook page and have also been busy posting relevant news to that
platform. Google+ has emerged on the scene and some effort has been put into exploring that
new service. Additionally, articles written for Volume 37, issues No 2 & No 3 of the North
Carolina Genealogical Society (NCGS) Journal have also been added to the articles authored
page.
June 2011: Have written pieces on The Freedmen's Bureau Records -- Research Your
Southern Ancestors and the CCC for Archives.com. Gave the last of 4 presentations on the
Freedmen's Bureau to the Durham-Orange County Genealogical Society. Spent 1.5 weeks
involved with a high school graduation, company in town and some down-time at the beach.
And, then seemingly, the rest of the month catching up! Did research on several projects -- NC
African-American Research, Revolutionary war service research, trying to document the parents
of a late 18th century female (for a lineage society application), land research, a "born in NC"
where the NC birth place (county) has yet to reveal itself!
May 2011: Where to start? Several projects currently being worked on involve: 1. African-
American research, post and pre-Civil War, 2. Proof of Revolutionary War service along with
documenting family connections, 3. Using early 19th & late 18th century NC records to try and
prove a family connection -- loose court records being a primary resource, 4. research in the
records of burnt counties and then looking for activity in adjacent counties and/or predecessor
counties [successfully got a family "back to NC" from out-of-state in the early 1800s to run into a
"burnt county" in NC -- still plugging away on that], 5. VA tax & related research [including
research at LVA], 6. Several projects where "like-named" individuals are found and am working
to separate out these individuals where key records are not extant. 7. Obscure record searches
for projects where more conventional records have not been sufficient -- county accounts, road
records, etc. Also provided a brief overview for resources for select states for the Archives.com
site ["State Resources for Genealogy Research" for AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, SC, TN & TX] ... and
much, much more ... time to get back to those projects!
March-April 2011: Too busy researching and giving talks to post! Have talked 2 more times on
the Freedmen's Bureau Records and on June 1st will do so again for D-OGS (Durham Orange
Genealogical Society) -- if you heard any of Diane's talks, she would greatly appreciate your
posting feedback at SpeakerWiki. Have proofed several articles for Internet Genealogy and
Family Chronicle [in May announced a new iPhone, iPad etc app]. Continue to be busy with
WCGS though Diane's term as President ends in May.
February 2011: Diane gave her talk on the Freedmen's Bureau Records at the 6th Annual NCGS
Speakers Forum on Saturday, 19 February 2011 -- this is a fascinating group of records that
provides information on ALL types of post-civil war individuals -- Freedmen and their families,
widows, ex-soldiers, the old and disabled and just so much more!
January 2011: Happy New Year! Internet Genealogy now has a FREE e-mail newsletter, you can
sign up using this link - tips from several genealogists are included and Diane's contribution is
census tips. Also, the current edition of IG is now out and contains an assortment of Net Notes
by Diane. If you live in the Piedmont of NC, do check out the 6th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum
on Saturday, 19 February 2011. Registration details. Diane will give a talk titled Freedmen’s
Bureau Records: Much More Valuable to Anyone’s Research Than You Might Have Thought!
[Regardless of race or origin circumstances, many pertinent post-Civil War records are found in
the Freedmen’s Bureau Collection. While it contains records of freedmen, it also includes
information about impoverished North Carolinians of all races.]. Otherwise we've hit the year
running with an assortment of projects from collecting land and deed records to searching for
Revolutionary War service to seeking records for families living in "burnt" counties to trying to
identify the parents of freed slaves, learn those NC origins of those whose families migrated out
of the state before the 1850 census. Early next month Diane will talk with some college-age
students at UNC-CH (INLS 754: Access, Outreach and Public Service in Cultural Heritage
Institutions at the School of Information and Library Science) about what genealogists do so that
our future librarians will have a better sense of how to best serve us! DNA test results continue
to help or redirect research directions -- this past week I've seen results that match what one
would expect (e.g. surname matches) and another project where the only match is to another
surname -- we are upgrading the results on that test to see if that was an anomaly of the lower-
level results or holds for 67 markers; if so, we'll be off in a new direction for that project. We
were reminded last week that records are not always archived how one would expect. Typically
in NC, records are housed in the collection of the county as it was at the time the record was
created (e.g. pre-1771 Wake county records are found in Johnston county). And, an exception is
that pre-1759 Edgecombe County records are housed with Halifax County records -- the county
created later! Off to label, scan and e-mail some recently collected documents which will
hopefully benefit our clients research! We were saddened to learn of the "demise" of Ancestry
Expert Connect -- it was a powerful tool helping to match those needing research to providers of
research.
December 2010: Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous
2011! Some Christmas gift projects are in the process of being completed and we continue to
research other "hard to find" ancestors -- ex-slaves, Native Americans, the "westwardly" mobile,
the "only stopped" in NC for a generation or less, the "most common of names," Revolutionary
War/War of 1812/Civil War service and other projects that continue to keep us challenged. The
Upfront with NGS blog keeps us busy as we share news about NGS and the genealogy world at
large. We have been reminded by two projects, that though we may have a "specific" birth place
(e.g. a city or county) that it was much easier for ancestors to "live under the radar" and not be
documented. If they didn't own land -- no deeds, no voting records, etc. If they moved frequently
enough -- the tax man might not have found them! And, not all records created, survive -- even if
the tax man found them, if those records don't survive, we will never know! And, a lack of extant
records does not have to stop your research in it's tracks -- you might never find that one
document that proves the relationship and you can often still build a strong circumstantial case
as to who your ancestor was. When you create your circumstantial case -- do DOCUMENT the
basis for your assertions. We have recently read many colorful narratives about various
ancestral lines, none of which can be substantiated. We understand that when you share your
research results it is tempting to want to "fill in the gaps" to humanize your ancestors -- please
just make it clear what is "fact" and what is "fiction." You can use historical facts and information
on a community to provide some context for your ancestor. You can use information on
disasters and other circumstances (e.g. economic, religious, etc) to suggest what may have
motivated your ancestor and unfortunately, unless your ancestor left a diary, we will "never" truly
know what they were thinking or what motivated them. And, we don't have to completely get
inside an ancestors head to appreciate the role they have played in the families history. When
gathering with family this holiday season, take the opportunity to collect more family lore, pool
what the family knows or discuss the merits of DNA testing. Though DNA testing has added
another tool to our research arsenal -- a lack of matches, unexpected matches to other
surnames, distant matches, etc can challenge us to make the best use of this tool. And,
remember, that is you don't match the person you were targeting as a distant ancestor -- that at
least helps you know what family to not pursue! That said, we need to finish working on those
promised Christmas gifts and see if we can deliver some good news to the other ancestor
hunters we are pursuing.
November 2010: Glorious colors of fall -- enjoyable to the eye, though, the much shorter days
make it harder to work past 5pm! Busy this month with lineage research and applications -- all
off to now be vetted! Several "successful" African-American (ex-slave research projects) with
one straddling the NC/VA line -- a marriage here, a census record there, a marriage there, a
census record here, etc. Just learned that we have the "cover" article for the now available issue
of Internet Genealogy with "25 Obscure Databases You Need to Know About." Busy with the
Upfront with NGS blog for NGS and collecting material for the 2011 editions of the NCGS
Journal as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Several "born in NC"
projects continue to occupy our time -- to show you how challenging these can be, with two of
them we have "clues" as to "where" in NC and we still cannot find proof that they came from
where was stated or attach the person to parents -- fortunately, not all projects are as
challenging as these. Creating some family trees from compiled information to create a "visual"
of one's ancestral tree. Reviewing DNA results to see if we can get some leads or end up with
more questions than answers (e.g. the results don't match anybody or don't match that
"surname"). Many other projects, from document gathering, to proving Revolutionary War, War
of 1812, Civil War, etc services, to filling in the gaps of known ancestors lives, etc have and will
keep us busy. Our trip to NARA II last month was not fruitful for my client (though we will be
making one more push into other European records) and it did inspire the identification of more
fun records to abstract for the NCGS Journal (previously mentioned). With Thanksgiving just
around the corner -- we wish you the best as families far and wide celebrate together. If you are
able to join your family this holiday, it is a great opportunity to either listen to the stories of your
parents, grandparents etc, or, if you are the elder statesman of your family, be sure to share your
memories of your life and what you "know" of your deceased parents, grandparents, etc with the
younger generations. If no visits and they will be forced, as we are, to try and reconstruct our
lives.
October 2010: October has finally brought cooler weather -- after setting a record of over 90 days
of 90+ degree weather, we were more than ready for some nice cool fall weather! October has
been busy doing African-American research (both NC and VA), military research (Rev War, War
of 1812 and Civil War), writing articles for Internet Genealogy (and we've just learned that the
November edition has one of our articles as the cover article -- "30 Top Genealogy Websites!"
along with Net Notes, Ulster Historical Foundation and In Motion: The African-American
Migration Experience), providing content for the next NCGS Journal and also starting as the blog
editor for Upfront with NGS (free news blog of NGS). Also busy trying to turn over all kinds of
"rocks" looking for several elusive individuals in NC while also trying to make the "leap" from TN,
GA, MS/AL and other states back to NC for those "born in NC" projects. We continue to support
WCGS and have agreed to give a talk next spring on Freedman's records -- documents in the
Federal collection that most people aren't aware of and that help research "anyone" in post Civil
War Confederate states. We also continue to serve as the "legs" for those that can't get to NC to
obtain documents to support their research. Later this month we will be visiting NARA II to look
at Consular records for France and Germany -- we have been tracking an American citizen
arrested in 1908 on the road to Paris from Berlin and we very much want to learn more about
his arrest and any information we might glean on his parents, etc -- got our fingers crossed!
September 2010: Hope everyone had a super Labor Day weekend! Writing more articles for
Family Chronicle, and just learned that our article "Replacing the Irish Census" has been
published in the October issue of Family Chronicle. And, the current copy of Internet Genealogy
on the stands has several pieces by us -- Net Notes, "African-American Newspapers,"
"Researching Your African-American Roots," and "Georgia Digital Archives." Lineage related
research and applications abound! Continued research into the ancestors of freed slaves (who
often left NC for elsewhere) and those who "were born in NC" and left the state for places west
of here. Continuing to look for those who kept a low profile in 19th and 18th century NC -- not
mentioned in wills or estates, bought land from strangers ... they just seem to "appear" in a tax
record, census, marriage record, etc and so looking into tax records, road records, loose court
papers and under many other rocks to try and learn more about them and to also try and
connect them to their parents, siblings, etc. And much more though it's now time to actually do
the work and not report on it!
August 2010: A month sure does go fast when you take some vacation time, return to a busted
hot water heater and have to get a kid back to college! And, that said, we've done a lot in the last
few days and will just keep working through our various projects. We are mostly doing reports
for all the research we did before we went away. It has been satisfying to put some packets in
the mail, including some in support of a client claiming Irish citizenship. Our archives bag is
starting to fill up and a trip to Wilson Library, UNC-CH, is planned for next week. Another two
articles of ours have been published at Genealogy Archives, Tips to Help You Find Seemingly
“Lost” Ancestors.and How To Find Immigration Records & Passenger Lists. We've also been
busy proofing articles for the next edition of Internet Genealogy. More later as we continue to dig
out of our post holiday mail/e-mail/"to do" list!
July 2010: Hope everyone had a super 4th of July weekend -- instead of reading, writing and
arithmetic, our July has started out with reading, writing and researching! And lots of all three!
Continuing to prepare for Diane's talk on the 24th and her week long stay in DC for NIGR ...
we've decided that clones is the only way we'll make it through July! And, we weren't imagining
how hot June was -- it was record setting! Working on several "born in NC" projects (if there is a
state west of as far as TX we are probably tracking someone who was "born in NC!"), research
for the descendants of ex-slaves, still tracking a mystery musician around the globe -- last found
in France and Germany in 1908, pursuing Revolutionary War military and other service for
lineage applications as well as Scottish and Irish ancestors for others, writing articles for Family
Chronicle, helping clients give great gifts in the forms of family trees with supporting research
and just so much more! Need to meet that article deadline, close out some current projects,
continue fascinating research for several projects and line up those projects which might
benefit from some time at the Library of Congress (LOC) or National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) -- which we might squeeze in next week. Otherwise, stay cool as we
experience even more heat!
June 2010: Hope you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend -- and, if you are like us, May
just whizzed by! June is off to a busy start -- the newest edition of Internet Genealogy is now in
print and Diane has written several pieces for it as she also writes some pieces for future
editions. Weekly trips to the NC archives keep us busy with research in colonial records,
revolutionary war and civil war records, documents that hopefully shed insight into the lives and
extended family of former slaves, and those that might help with those "born in NC" families
found elsewhere in the 1850 census or whose parents, in the 1880 census are identified as
born in NC. DNA continues to play a role in our projects -- whether suggesting other locales to
research or that there was a non-parental event (e.g. the last name of the person and the DNA
group don't match). And, sometimes we are just busy trying to document the numerous
branches of a family tree where we are slowed as we hit mid-19th century records, especially if
the family didn't own land. And, we are always trying to track those families whose middle name
seemed to be "move" as in they are never found in the same place in the census records, never
mind those in between periods! We hear those client files calling to use ....
May 2010: Hope everyone had a super Mother's Day, even if just having a lazy Sunday! Mine
was great with daughter home from college! We are sad to announce that Discovering Family
History ceased publication with it's April 2010 issue -- Moorshead Publications will be
incorporating more beginner type articles in Family Chronicle as a result. It was great to see all
the people that showed up at the Raleigh Family History Center for the May 1st Seminar -- Diane
gave talks "Online Maps" and "Born in NC." Lineage society research and applications, trying to
determine the parents of slaves, making use of DNA test results to bridge from MS to NC (and
beyond), Orange & Durham counties slave research, Revolutionary War era research and so
much more has kept us busy as this month starts. In July, Diane will give a talk about
Timelines for the 5th Annual North Carolina Genealogical Society Speakers Forum and she'll be
attending National Institute on Genealogical Research (NIGR) in July to improve skills with
regards to Federal Records research and the DC-area research repositories ... now it's time to
do some of that promised client work!
April 2010: Hope you all survived "Tax Day!" ... with that now past, many of you can now spend
more time researching your family! Projects involving families in many counties during many
different time periods and with all different kinds of objectives have kept us at the State Library of
NC and the North Carolina State Archives on a regular basis this month! We have also spent
some time working on some articles for future editions of Family Chronicle and Internet
Genealogy (for Moorshead Publications). We also spent some time preparing to give 2 talks on
May 1, "Online Maps" and "Born in NC" for the Raleigh FHC Seminar. We recently had another
piece published as part of the Learn from the Experts Series at Genealogy Archives -- Why They
Moved and How To Find Them. Some lineage and hereditary society applications have been
submitted and others are in process. African-American research projects, post slavery and
during slavery, keep us on our toes as we try to document and learn the ancestry of these
elusive family members. Continued research into 19th and 18th century NC records for clues for
seemingly "invisible" individuals. Several projects involve those "born in NC" types -- searching
for clues where they were found to be living, marching backwards on their lives and those of like-
named individuals in the area and neighbors to see if we can find "where" they were from in NC
and/or whom their parents were! Revolutionary war and civil war research trying to prove
participation and/or service and/or trying to obtain service and pension records continue to keep
us busy! Tracking an early 20th century musician who traveled the world of NY, UK, France,
Germany and Australia has us scratching our head as to where did he go next (not a passenger
record yet to be found!) And, other hard-to-find individuals, each with their unique stories, have
us busy in the records of NC, multiple states in the US, emigration/immigration records, etc. We
have also been reminded that in early records, keep your eyes wide open for name variants that
might be quite different from what you "thought" the name was! Phonetic spelling by clerks and
illiteracy can make for quite a variety of names as found for one person. So, another busy and
exciting month and we're only half-way through it!
March 2010: The month started with a slight break to enjoy being with college-age daughter and
husband away from home for a few days -- a respite much needed. Since then it's been fast
and furious with research -- lineage to African-American to the ubiquitous "born in NC" problem
to 20th century Wake/Johnston county people and land research to writing pieces for the WCGS
publications (Wake Treasures and Wake Updates, journal and newsletter respectively) and
more articles for the various Moorshead publications. Also busy dusting off some talks to give
to a May 1st event at the local LDS church (and Family History Center). So far we have been
reminded of the role that looking into any "name" even close has in our research as well as
though we hope that intense research will yield the answer to the question, serendipity definitely
can be the sledgehammer that breaks the brick wall. And, how can we forget those DNA results
which don't confirm what we are hoping and throw us for a loop as we find that our results
match an "unexpected" surname! Someone the other day asked me how I find some of the stuff
I do and my response was along the lines of "look under every rock and think outside the box of
conventional genealogy research." Stuck in the past, come back to the future (did you actually
get every vital record and census document?). Stuck on your line, look at extended family (or
anyone with the same surname, especially if born in the same state). Stuck on extended family,
look at neighbors. Stuck in your county and/or state, look at nearby counties/states. Still stuck --
look at church formation and records, migration trails ... Don't just focus on the obvious, try and
document every mention of your ancestor/family, no matter how small. Even if this information
doesn't solve your research question, you have at least learned more about your ancestor and
can produce a more "colorful" family history. Time to go check some newspaper indexes, meet
with a client, visit the state library and then the state archives -- a typical Friday!!
February 2010: Snow and lots of it greeted us this month -- enough to keep the kids out of
school for 3 days as we tried to defrost, though, nothing compared to Snowmageddon as it's
hitting VA and north! Lots of articles written so far this month (1/3rd of the way in) and also lots
of research! Projects focusing on land in colonial Chatham county to those families who
migrated from NC to the Mid-west and seemed to stop in every state along the way, to African-
American/Slave search -- trying to determine parents and/or plantations of birth, searching on
20th century families who left their NC farms in the 1920s-1930s for elsewhere such as NYC,
Philadelphia, DC, Norfolk/Portsmouth, etc., many "born in NC" projects where we are
desperately trying to connect them to their ancestral homes, lineage application requirements
from DAR/SAR to Sons of Colonial Wars to Society of the Cincinnati have us deep in
Revolutionary War era records seeking "proof" of ancestors service. And not to loose sight of
just basic "deep" research into early 19th and mid-to-late 18th century documents, of the more
obscure variety, to try and learn as much as possible about those North Carolinian families with
deep roots. And, let's not forget the quest to try and find "where" an ancestor emigrated from --
for many of the families I research, the answer will be England/Wales, Scotland or Ireland -- the
hard part is determining which, trying to find information on their passage and then identifying
specifically "where" back home might be. And, that's just the first 10 days ... let's see what the
rest has us doing!
January 2010: HAPPY NEW YEAR! We don't know about you and it was hard to return to work
after an enjoyable holiday break. Though, visits to the Library of Congress (researching the
patent card file and books for an early 1900s Tin Pan Alley musician was fun) and the National
archives (unfortunately, no research there and did visit the public displays) were a great treat for
this genealogist! We hope to spend about one day per month at these and other great DC
facilities doing research. Otherwise, there are projects not completed in December on our plate
-- involving many types of records, across centuries of time, for both NC and other locales! Once
we catch our breath mid-way through the month, we'll update you on what we've been up to!
Articles have been written an proofed, much research at the NC archives has taken place,
project binders filled with family documents and reports have been created and so much more!
December 2009: Hope you had a super Thanksgiving and have an enjoyable time preparing for
the December holiday season. We have just published another article at Genealogy Archives,
UK Census Records Uncovered. This will mostly be a month of starting and completing
projects promised in time for Christmas -- whether it's a lineage application, producing binders
of research already completed, starting research or meeting some article deadlines -- we will
be busy between now and years' end. A trip to UNC-CH as well as regular visits to the NC
archives will also be on our plate. We are happy to report that some long-term projects finally
had some breakthroughs late last month -- as they say "patience" is a virtue though impatience
is probably a middle name had by many of us! It's time to complete those projects ... best
wishes for a wonderful holiday and a safe, healthy and prosperous 2010!
November 2009: Hope you had a super Halloween and remembered to turn your clocks back 1
hour! We have a just published article at Genealogy Archives, Locate Ancestors with UK Vital
Records, and Diane is polishing up her talk for the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum. The
topic of her talk, "Born in NC: making the connection back to North Carolina, a case study," (you
can read about this same topic in a Discovering Family History Article titled "North Carolina and
Beyond," Discovering Family History, May/June 2009, pages 8-11) is timely since in the last two
weeks we have received about 8 inquiries where in each case, from the 1850 census or some
other resource, an ancestor has been identified as "born in NC" with no other information
provided! These are tough projects and success if possible ... Involved with several projects
where families just love to use the same names over and over again in each generation and
across generations -- when combined with somewhat common surnames, we have been kept
busy with the Glenn and Turner and Jackson families -- trying to separate out the various
branches and generations of these family trees! Will visit the Greensboro courthouse this week
for some estate papers, having been researching estate records for slave lists, and am
searching diligently to see if proof can be found that some individuals "served" in the
Revolutionary war while living in North Carolina.
October 2009: We have already been busy writing Net Notes and an article for Internet
Genealogy, spending every afternoon at the NC archives looking at land grant documents,
maps, tax records, marriage records and so much more for several NC counties. We continue
to help many individuals with two classic questions -- My ancestor was "born in NC," can we
figure out where and to whom? (both those who learn this from the 1850+ census and those
who through other records know this for an 18th century ancestor) AND My ancestor was either
a slave (negro or mulatto) or free black, can we learn what plantation they came from and
possibly who the parents were? These are both challenging questions -- both focused
research and some serendipity normally come into play to answer these questions. We
continue to support research in Wake County and the Wake County Genealogical Society
(WCGS) -- Diane is now President of WCGS and continues to spearhead "publishing" volumes
of abstracted/transcribed material for those researching Wake County Ancestors. And, next
month will be the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum -- if you are in the Raleigh area, do check
out the exciting day of talks (Saturday November 7) including one by Diane titled "Born in NC:
making the connection back to North Carolina, a case study."
September 2009: Hope you had a super Labor Day weekend -- we all know that it unofficially
marks the end of summer! Kids are back in school and life takes on a new rhythm! We have
started the month by writing, writing, and doing more writing! We are working on articles for
Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle right now and the Oct/Nov edition of Internet
Genealogy has been published with our article "Understanding County Boundaries Through
Time!" We have welcomed some new clients via the Ancestry Expert Connect service. We will
be writing a piece for a newly just "opened" new web-service (we'll let you know more once our
article is posted!). We continue to regularly visit the NC archives and State library of NC
(Raleigh), later this month we will trek out to Duke (to examine some manuscript collections)
and we also plan to take our first foray to the National Archives (NARA) and the Library of
Congress (LoC) as we familiarize ourselves with the DC-area repositories. Several lineage
related projects have been worked on as well as some special projects meant as gifts! Not
directly related to work and we've had a spate of computer and printer issues -- given how much
we use both to research on, document and share with others -- it has slowed us down a bit! We
continue to acquire vital records documents for individuals (in NC, SC, NJ and elsewhere) to
help facilitate our clients and their needs. We know we have much more up our sleeve this
month and we'll tell you about it later, when we catch our breath!
August 2009: Besides bringing some extremely hot weather it has seen us doing research for a
variety of NC-focused families, non-NC-focused families and migrant families across the US.
And, before going further we want to express our continued appreciation of our clients and their
extreme patience with us this year -- we have never experienced such a personally chaotic year
(husband work lay-off, illness, NGS conference, more illness, child graduating high school,
husband finding job in DC -- 4+ hours away, child going off to college and so much more ...
hectic to say the least and the dust has mostly settled). Projects are being completed and
started which are meant as "gifts" for their recipients -- we consider these one of the best gifts
someone can get! We have been working on several projects of the group we call "born in NC"
-- in the 1850 census, someone is found living outside NC and their birth date is listed as in NC
-- these can be very challenging projects. A lot of individuals/families migrated through NC on
their way to their final destination. Sometimes we are successful in determining the NC birth
county and other information and sometimes not. Separating out families using land, tax, court,
will/estate and other records where they just loved to use the same forenames in every branch
of every generation! Tracking down revolutionary war era information for those that "served" as
well as others continues to keep us busy. Additionally, tracking down land grants and deeds as
ways to document where a family lived and/or connect them to one another, continue to keep us
busy. How about those families who we find in NC that migrated from VA -- we have tracked a
family from Wake County back to Bertie and figure that they probably came from Isle of Wight VA
-- the hard part is "proving" this! Two active projects are ripe with name variants -- though
names are pretty standardized now, back in the 1700s and 1800s it was not unusual for a
single document to spell one name a bunch of different ways -- compound this with different
clerks, different pronunciation, illiteracy, etc and you can find yourself having to check out 15-20
variants as you trawl through the records! So, what is the "correct" name for a branch of the
family and can we read any significance into these name variants in the early records?
Hopefully our research will answer those questions as we review documents and signatures to
figure out who is who.
July 2009: Needless to say, the month of June was so busy that we didn't get back to letting you
know what we've been up to. First, we hope that everyone had a super 4th of July weekend.
Second, starting next month, we'll be regularly traveling to DC and will be available to access
any of the wonderful archives and repositories located in the greater DC metro area. Third, the
August 2009 editions of Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle are now available and
we have articles in both -- "First Things First" and " Godfrey Memorial Library" in DFH and
"Looking for a Man Who Didn't Want to be Found!" and "Capturing WWII Veteran Memories" in
FC. And, I don't think we mentioned that just in time for the NGS 2009 conference in May, the
Wake County Genealogical Society has made available via lulu.com several new publications
and a reprint of the much-in-demand Wake County Heritage Book -- check out the society's
store, http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1837949, to learn more! So, obviously not "lazy
days" for us this summer! As far as research we have continued to search in Revolutionary War
era records to learn more about a Duplin County family. We are also working on about five
Wake County focused projects covering from the county's formation in 1771 to the circa 1830s
time period! We continue to work on some lineage projects and will be starting another one
shortly. We have also continued to work on some families who loved to move around or were
itinerant emigrants -- necessitating research into the records for several different states. Never
mind "crossing the pond" for some families with the main focus being on the records of
England, Wales and Scotland. And, there are the projects where we start by knowing "born in
NC" and little else and so we try to determine "where" in NC the ancestral birth place might be.
We also are still working to straighten out several like-named like-aged individuals in Randolph
County -- which ones are the target family! And, so much more ...
June 2009: The month is starting off with finishing a project involving research in Newberry
County SC and starting up several Wake County NC focused ones. A trip to UNC-CH has taken
place to photograph some estate records in family collection and also look into the
correspondence of an avid genealogist -- did he leave any clues about his own family's
research? This month will bring some DAR and Sons of Colonial Wars related research. We
continue to try and correlated DNA results with research performed. Research into NC
Revolutionary War records and early 18th century NC shipping records will benefit two other
projects. As the month progresses, we'll fill you in on even more exciting projects! Diane will be
giving a talk at the 4th Annual NCGS Speakers Forum program in November -- "Born in NC
According to 1850 Census – Now What?” described by: How often do we have a project and at
some point we have an 1850 census entry that says born in NC (or it could be any other state
other than where the person is currently living!). What do you do? This talk will present some
general strategies for how to approach this challenge and also look at a case study where we
successfully used these strategies in combination with a family diary (no locations mentioned)
to determine where in NC the father of John Jackson Boyce came from, starting with the family
in Cass County GA c. 1850. Details will be posted at the NCGS web-site.
May 2009: Today (May 4) was the last planning meeting for NGS 2009 -- I hope to meet many
clients, colleagues and friends as they come visit Raleigh next week. On Tuesday and
Wednesday (May 12 & 13) look for me at Exhibitor Registration and about the exhibit hall, on
Wednesday at the Local Societies event that evening, Thursday evening at the History Museum
Dessert Reception and on Saturday at the WCGS sponsored luncheon -- otherwise I will be
attending sessions and out and about the hallways! Don't hesitate to come up and chat with
me -- I'd love to meet you! Otherwise, articles have been written and proofed for upcoming
Moorshead Publications (Discovering Family History and Family Chronicle) and other now
published in Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History. Compiled some information
on Mecklenburg VA Will/Estate records, pre-civil war to try and identify the slave owners of a
family. Been busy in the records of McKeesport PA tracking down several families who
emigrated from England and Wales. Researching several families in Davidson, McNairy, Shelby
counties and elsewhere in TN, along with Cherokee ancestry in western NC! And, the month is
just getting started! The NGS 2009 Conference went well -- it was nice to meet so many e-mail
and facebook friends! And, life is now somewhat back to normal!
April 2009: Hope everybody got their taxes filed in time! The last month we have been writing
and reviewing articles for Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History, blogging for the
NGS 2009 Conference Blog, working on WCGS publications to have available at NGS 2009,
photographing collections at UNC-CH and the NC Archives, and doing lots of fun research --
which we will report on soon ... Provided information to Ancestry's new service, Expert Connect --
it's a new way to connect potential clients with researchers. Took photographs of NC county tax
records (1782 forward) at the NC archives, acquired NC death certificates via the archives and
obituaries via the State Library of NC, checked out NC land grant indices and documents and
had our hands in so many more original and microfilmed NC records! Continued African-
American/slave research in VA and NC. Also spent time looking into deed indices, land grant
documents, will/estates and more ....
March 2009: FLU, FLU, FLU -- On and off since the 1st till the 18th, Diane has been suffering the
flu -- she hopes (she says with fingers crossed) that maybe she is on the road to recovery! ... as
soon as she is, she'll post what she's been up to -- by the time we resurfaced from the flu,
working hard to catch up and then a road-trip to FL, it was April ... so, know that we were busy in
March though look to April for the details!
February 2009: We don't know where January went and in February we've been busy with land
grant and land research -- Edgecombe/Nash/Franklin counties. We have been tracking a family
with TN roots (Davidson and Maury Counties) which connections to SC and GA! Continued
writing and proofing for Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History. Another project has
us deep in the records of PA while another has us trawling the records of Burke County (NC) for
a family -- marriage records have really helped with the latter. Several families continue to
challenge us -- by keeping a low profile in the extant records while other families just loved to
use the same names in each branch for each generation and the challenge is to separate them
out! We continue to be busy with the NGS 2009 Conference Blog and WCGS activities --
everything from blogging to looking at early 20th century Wake County postcards. We will go out
to UNC-CH to photograph documents from 3 collections. We gave a presentation titled "
Exploring Maps for Research or Curiosity" which focused on using maps (online and offline) in
your genealogy and family history research. We have continued to research African-
American/Slavery roots in Mecklenburg County VA (and later this month will be writing an article
on the same subject for a Person/Caswell county family researched extensively last year).
Additionally, we started a new project where one branch of a NC family has Cherokee roots and
we have been deeply immersed in the Indian Census, Federal Census, vital records and other
records to learn more about this heritage. Check back with us later in the month and we'll let you
know what else we got up to!
January 2009: HAPPY NEW YEAR! A governor's inauguration, inventory and snow all have
made getting to the NC archives a bit of a challenge this month and that hasn't stopped our NC
projects from moving forward! Several projects have us separating several branches of family
who in late 18th century NC loved to use the same forenames and lived within small geographic
areas of a county -- lots of research into land, taxes and election records. Other projects are
focused on NC land and land grants -- what land did a family purchase, what did they buy, what
were they bequeathed and where would that land be today? The March 2009 edition of Internet
Genealogy will be hitting the streets and we have several articles included (as we are writing
other pieces for future editions): Read up on Research: Genealogy Book Reviews, Family Tree
Connection and Live Roots, Family Research Labs: One-Stop Genealogy, Olde-English
Handwriting: An Online Course, and several Net Notes -- 1. In the First Person, 2. Slave Trade,
3. Cassini Maps, and 4. Memeo Share. Projects involving Finnish and Croatian records are
advancing ... with success in locating baptismal records. Research in MS, OH, PA and other
states are slowly revealing those ancestral trails. With NGS 2009 only a few months away, more
blog entries are to be written and planning for the vendor area will ensue and WCGS has
started prepping for it's conference luncheon program and wrapping up planned publications.
We abstracted the Wake County Civil Action Papers for 1778-1793 and finished abstracting
some Wake Court Documents found at UNC-CH to be published in the next edition of the Wake
Treasures. These and more are keeping us busy this month!
December 2008: We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a safe, prosperous and healthy
New Year! Though we have been busy with preparations for the holiday, we have remained
committed to our clients and their projects also! In addition to continuing to write articles for
Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History, we have been busy with completing some
research support (e.g., "I am elated as I received the message below from our XXXX Chapter
DAR Registrar. I appreciate all you did on finding the information on XXXXX of Orange County. It
was something that I would not have found. I mailed what you had sent to me - without even
abbreviating it - directly to DAR ... Again, thank you ... XXXXX was verified." and application "filling
out" for various Lineage Societies. Two emigrant projects have kept us on our toes as we work
in non-English records -- for a Finnish project we are communicating with the local Parish in
somewhat butchered Finnish and Swedish to get 20th century records to help us bridge the
emigrant to the older parish records available online -- for a Croatian project we will be delving
into microfilmed parish records at the local FHC. We have also done some research, both
genealogical and a survey of surviving local newspaper to support two in-the-works
documentaries! In support of NC-focused projects, we have researched the records of Halifax,
Granville, Buncombe, Lincoln, Randolph, Madison, Sampson, several coastal counties and
other NC counties. We are wrapping up an extensive NC family research project which will be
produced as a print publication for extended family members. For another project, we will be
shifting from the paternal side in Eastern NC to researching the maternal side. We continue to
support clients from around the world -- recent clients call Australia, Thailand, Norway and
England home. We have just started another African-American research project -- a slave-era
born gentlemen shows up in Northampton county and marries -- where did he come from?
These and other unique ancestral and historical projects have kept us busy, challenged and
excited!
November 2008: We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! As genealogists and family historians
-- this is one of the holidays most special for sharing with family -- enjoying good food and good
company! If you are meeting with family members whom you see infrequently or are
increasingly frail -- please do spend time with them, learn their stories and share them with
others! Several net notes have been written and three articles are in process for what will
hopefully be included in the January issue of Internet Genealogy. The December edition of
Discovering Family History is now available -- besides our recurring piece "First Things First" it
contains an article on reCAPTCHA and one titled "If I were to start my genealogy now." Treks to
the Manuscripts Collection at UNC-CH (photograph part of the J.M Dent collection -- a British
book publisher) and the NC archives (many projects across several collections) took place. We
continued work with Deedmapper, WCGS publications, the local NGS 2009 Planning
Committee and the NGS 2009 Blog. Projects involving Finnish, German/French, Croatian and
other emigrants have kept us busy with passenger, naturalization and related paperwork.
Colonial research in North Carolina helped clients with DAR, OFFNC and Society of Colonial
Wars applications. The research of African-American ancestry continues to keep us
challenged. Four projects involving ancestry in Randolph County have kept us busy in the
records of that county, while several other projects have expanded how many different NC
counties we have researched in to 66! DNA testing and results continue to both help with
research and puzzle us! All too often the results do not match the surname that we are
accustomed to and that necessitates trying to document how that happened. And, as always,
other unique projects keep us challenged as we search out illusive ancestors!
October 2008: It seems like I was just reporting on the September issue of Internet Genealogy
and now the November issue is issue is available -- it includes 4 net notes and 2 articles
(Explore Maps From the Comfort of Your Home! and What's With All the Fuss About Wikis?) from
Diane. A news flash -- Internet Genealogy is now available in an online edition! And, next
month look for the next edition of Discovering Family History with our recurring piece "First
Things First" and maybe more! We've had several projects this month where we have made use
of 19th century NC (e.g. Craven County) school records and voting lists! These are both great
ways to identify who one's neighbors are and/or who lives in the same geographic area. And,
for the school lists -- the children's names are grouped by family! You can also watch the
evolution of districts and the families living within a district! Several projects have had us in the
records of Randolph County NC. And another project has branched from MN to now OH and IN
as emigrant siblings dispersed around the country in the early 1900s as we continue and start
projects focusing on NJ, RI, PA. Lineage society research for DAR, Society of the Cincinnati, and
Order of First Families of NC have kept us busy. Several projects are winding down -- some
where we have continued to be frustrated in our inability to make connections and others where
we successfully learned more! And, land (with and without using Deedmapper) continues to be
a focus of NC research in the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- Chatham and Iredell and
other counties. Other projects are waiting on DNA testing results -- cases where the paper trail
is a little muddy and we need some guidance -- e.g. somewhere in the tree we know the mother
and not father! We continue to photograph documents in the Manuscripts Collection at UNC-CH
and at the NC archives (select online finding aids and MARS catalog) -- we have done so for
family researchers and also individuals involved in radio, tv or book projects. Last and not least
-- wrapping up a project intended as a November birthday present and will be starting a
Christmas research project soon!
September 2008: Hope you all had a super Labor Day weekend ... We've been working hard on
a land tracing problem -- e.g. what do you do when the property you are tracing is now under a
man-made lake ?!?! We hope to bridge that and identify the original land grant for the property!
Several of our client projects with "brick walls" are turning to DNA testing! In one case, only the
mother is known and in others, which "branches" of a family tree to investigate, is unknown!
Otherwise, we are collecting Land grants, doing deed research and generally "following the
land" for several NC projects. This has necessitated spending quite a bit of time with
Deedmapper, trying to plot and make sense of those NC deeds (e.g. thence from the pile of
stones N 86 E 15 poles, to a stake, thence ...) Also we are doing lots of research in our
neighboring state SC for a family that seemed to weave it's way through time and space along
the NC/SC border! Another project has us extensively looking into death notices and death
certificates to complement census research for a family which appears to have no tombstones
in the cemetery where they are buried and so family connections are a bit vague! And, so much
more!
August 2008: A busy month researching pre-Revolutionary War records in Mecklenburg County,
Land records in Lincoln, Buncombe and Rockingham Counties amongst other locales, writing
pieces for the next edition of the WCGS Updates newsletter, the NGS 2009 conference blog,
and the next edition of Discovering Family History, spending a day in the Manuscripts Collection
at UNC-CH photographing early 19th century letters and 20th century documents, doing
research in St. Louis County MN on an emigrant family (Yugoslavia), researching some deaths
in TX, working with DNA results on a couple of projects -- coupled with traditional documentation
research, work on several lineage focused research projects -- DAR, OFFNC, Sons of Colonial
Wars, and Society of the Cincinnati. And, the September edition of Internet Genealogy hit the
newsstands contains two net notes "FamilyRelatives" and "Bloodlines of Salem" and articles
about "Project StoryKeeper and LifeLenz" and "CPS Alumni: School's In on the Web!" The former
article was appealing to Diane as she was able to include some information about her
deceased mother and family in the article while for the latter article her examples are from her
husband's family! Another busy yet interesting month of research and writing!
July 2008: Half of this month was spent preparing for vacation and then actually taking it! We
traveled to the beautiful Canadian province of Quebec -- toured Quebec City, the Gaspesie
Region, Montreal and more. Additionally, we enjoyed traveling Interstate 81 through NY, PA and
into VA -- just a delightful drive! Though we were away, we still did some proofing for pieces for
the September/October edition of Discovering Family History and that is pretty much it for work in
the latter part of the month! Before leaving we did some work on almost every project that we
are currently involved with and actually closed a few out including one of trying to determine did
a specific person serve in the Revolutionary War and if so, is he the same person connected to
the target family -- little evidence of Revolutionary War service and even less evidence of a family
connection. We also made a break through on some African-American research -- looking at
Person and Caswell county estate records we found mention of a slave consistent with the one
we were seeking -- listed on 5 children's death certificates as their father. Given no surviving
wills for the target slave-owners, his wife's remarriage by the early 1860s and no documentation
for this individual, this was a real find! In addition to NC-focused research, we also did some
19th and 20th century research for individuals in TX and elsewhere in the US to assist with
some MA estate issues. Basically, we did a lot more in the first part of this month and our
memory of that flurry of work has dimmed as we return from vacation and resume researching
and writing!
June 2008: As we are writing this is the day before July starts, it's obvious that this month just
flew by! The July/August edition of Discovering Family History is printed and carries our new
reoccurring column "First Things First" as well as an article on "Blacksheep". We also finished
writing articles for the next edition as well as planned some future articles and Net Notes for
Internet Genealogy. We are on the local planning committee for NGS 2009 which is coming to
Raleigh in May 2009. We are responsible for the NGS 2009 conference blog and got it up and
running this month -- check it out! We took a trek out to an African-American cemetery in Wilson
to take photographs of some surviving tombstones. On the research front we have researched
numerous NC families, families along the TN/MS border, families that migrated from VA to NC
and those that migrated from NC to GA! Several projects involve those challenging individuals
for whom we only know -- born in NC! We have successfully traced one of these individuals
back to NC to only learn that it appears that the family lived near the border area of NC/SC and
originally came from SC! So, now we start again to see if we can determine where in SC! On a
less successful note, there are a few long-term projects where we appear, for now, to have
exhausted "what" to research -- we will now pause for a bit an wait on some serendipity or the
availability of new research sources as increasing amounts of materials are digitized and put
online. We have also started or continue to do research in support of lineage society
applications -- Order of the First Families of North Carolina, Daughters of the American
Revolution and Society of the Cincinnati. And, as usual, so much more!
May 2008: The May/June edition of Discovering Family History carries our new reoccurring
column "First Things First" and we also finished writing and proofing articles for the next
edition. Currently researching several families for whom the oldest ancestor is one of those
"ubiquitous" "born in NC" and that is all we know! These are always such a challenge -- the
best hope is to get "clues" from records in the state to which they migrated! The next WCGS
Updates is in process and pieces have been written for that and the 1st compilation
"Apprenticeship Bonds" should be going to press any day. Have agreed to give the talk "Explore
NC through maps from the comfort of your home!" next month for the Durham-Orange
Genealogical Society of North Carolina. Many hours have been spent in the deeds, wills, court
minutes, marriage, tax records of many counties from Nash to Davidson to Wayne and several
other counties! And, several recent projects have had links to MS and TN! A recent project has
us tracking both the lineage and land of an individual whose family has early 18th century NC
roots as we try to untangle and connect the NC/VA connections for another family. The most
recent Internet Genealogy (June/July 2008) will be hitting the stands with our pieces on A New
and Improved World Vital Records and Net Notes on Ghost towns, ResourceShelf and The
Poorhouse Story.
April 2008: The month started with a vacation, preparing for the NCGS Speakers Forum
(4/12/08), proofing articles for the next edition of Internet Genealogy (June/July 2008),
scheduling articles for future editions of that publication and it's sister publication, Discovering
Family History. We also jumped back into some projects -- one with a focus on MS and St.
Louis MO, another with historic Onslow county (NC) roots, and a new project that currently
focuses on Cleveland, Gaston and Polk Counties (NC) -- we'll have to see where that project
might take us! Before months end we'll be exploring the records of about 15 NC counties
(some familiar friends and some we haven't researched in before) as well as starting research
on a new project with a Rhode Island/MA focus.
March 2008: Busy with WCGS activities -- preparing and giving a talk titled "Online Maps,
Focusing on North Carolina" (this same topic will be the basis of "Explore NC through maps
from the comfort of your home!" to be given next month at the NCGS Speakers Forum), finishing
the newsletter WCGS Updates (now posted), working on miscellaneous publication projects
and more. For NGS 2009 -- continued preparation for that exciting event! Arranged a tour for our
local NC APG group to visit the Wilson library at UNC-CH. Also visited UNC-CH to photograph
an extensive family document collection and research in another collection looking for
references to an individual who married into the family. Busy with research at the NC archives
on several families representing several counties across many different time periods! Also
doing research into an African-American family that migrated from post-Civil War MS to St. Louis
and appears to have roots in VA. This month has seen several "clients" with previously closed
projects ask us to work on new projects or continue efforts on old projects. And, we continue to
plan and write articles for Moorshead Publications. And, we are doing so much more! This
month's mail included the May 2008 edition of Internet Genealogy -- which includes our pieces
"Accessing Family History Books Online" and "US Passport Applications Online" as well as a
Net Note on "Paper of Record." The month ended with the office closing for vacation.
February 2008: We received our most recent issue of Internet Genealogy (March 2008) -- we
have a Net Note on "LostCousins" and an article about "Passenger Records and Naturalization
Records." And, the newest edition of Family Chronicle actually includes a pilot version of a new
publication Discovering Family History (you can download the full preview edition). We are
pleased in that we authored what is to become a regular feature "First Things First." The first
week of this month we will work with an out-of-town client with NC connections who is coming to
Raleigh -- we will meet at the NC archives/State Library building and work together on
advancing his research. We will also resume work on a couple of extensive NC projects where
the families have been in the state for at least 200 years and also a couple of projects where we
are trying to use DNA results to further the research and make connections, sometimes to
individual with differing surnames (meaning the male client has one surname and yet the DNA
results point to a different surname based on genetics!). Regular visits to UNC-CH, Olivia
Raney Local History Library, State Library of North Carolina and the NC Archives.
January 2008: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Regrettably, the rising costs of parking, office supplies,
gasoline, subscriptions and the like have necessitated an increase in our fees -- the first in over
4 years! Please check out Genealogy_Pricing for the new fee structure. Existing clients will
continue to pay as before until the current project is completed. Published a new resource guide
at lulu.com -- Internet Resources for Genealogy and Family Research in North Carolina. We are
honored that ThinkGenealogy has just listed Diane L. Richard (of Mosaic Research and Project
Management) as the most prolific of the "Top 10 Genealogy and Technology Most Published
Authors of 2007!" It has been confirmed that we will be part of the NCGS 2008 Speaker's Forum
(Explore NC through maps from the comfort of your home!). We continued to some research to
identify heirs-at-law for estate issues. Have posted some of our 2006 articles from Internet
Genealogy. Started to crumble some brick walls -- one connecting someone from NC to NY
and another connecting someone from NY to NC! Continue to research in Colonial and late
18th century records to find the origins of some Welsh and other emigrants! Two projects have
us doing research to prove an African-American/Negro ancestry from post-civil war to slavery
and possibly earlier. And, so much more! The month ended with a trek to UNC-CH the
Manuscript Department -- photographed a mid 1800s map, several early 1960s television
program scripts and some early 1800s family papers.
December 2007: This month passed in a flurry of activity, not all genealogy research related! A
binder was compiled for a coast-to-coast research project, many days were spent at the NC
archives and NC library doing NC research -- including one project that involved collecting
many, many documents and getting them certified for submission to a UK ancestral authority. A
trek to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department was made -- about 1600+ photos of documents
were taken! A few projects were finished just in time for the holidays. For one project involving
adoption and an African-American born in NYC with NC roots -- after 18 months of on again, off
again research, there was a big break! As the year ended, we can point to some wonderful
successes though also a few projects where brick walls were not "broken down!" Time was
also spent creating a NC internet genealogy research guide -- hopefully in early 2008 this will
become available! As usual, some time was put into WCGS (finalizing Vol 17, Issue 2 of Wake
Treasures) and other activities.
November 2007: The NC archives has re-opened in it's new home -- it's a nice arrangement
that makes researching easier and more efficient! The rest of this month and December will be
very busy with NC projects including the continued research into several projects started earlier
in the year, several new projects where there is DNA information suggesting familial
relationships that need to be proven/documented, plans to work in tandem with a novice
researcher at the local research facilities, acquiring wills/estates, court records, deed copies etc
to support the research of others, and so much more! A set of binders went out to a client,
documenting maternal and paternal family back several generations -- connecting Russia,
Wisconsin, Canada, Oregon, and many other locales! Most recent edition of Internet Genealogy
(January 2008) has been published - "Lineage, First Family and Pioneer Societies on the Web,
"National Genealogical Society," "World Vital Records" and net note "Free Public Records
Directory." Another edition of the WCGS Updates is in process and includes our contributions.
We hope that whether you celebrated Thanksgiving or not this month, whether you visited with
family or not, that your family and ancestors were a part of your thoughts this month!
October 2007: Several projects are winding down and binders have been produced (using page
inserts and with dividers) to be distributed to clients and their extended families. Articles have
been written and reviewed for publication in the December/January issue of Internet Genealogy.
Wrote an article on visiting UNC-CH Wilson Library and the Manuscripts Department that
includes information on some Wake County related finds for the next edition of the Wake County
journal, Wake Treasures. Have been busy plotting land deeds in Hertford and Wayne County for
two projects to locate land -- using civil war era maps, topographic maps, flood plain maps, soil
survey maps, division of land maps, etc! Gave a program to a local genealogy club titled
Emigration, Immigration and Naturalization Research. Continued working on projects involving
about a dozen NC counties and so much more!
September 2007: September is ending in a flurry of activity -- with the NC archives closing for 4
weeks to relocate to it's permanent space, it was the month to work on every project with a NC
connection -- and we did! Also traveled to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to photograph a
civil war era diary, information on the contents of an 1825 New Bern bank and circa 1850
guardian documents. The Wake County newsletter, WCGS Updates, will be published shortly
and the Wake County USGenWeb site was updated. Gave a talk to the local NC APG chapter on
internet resources (based on items published in WCGS Updates, the Family Chronicle article
from earlier this year and an updated version of Internet Resources for Searching Anywhere
USA). This month sees published three articles and some net notes for Internet Genealogy
(October 2007) - "Chronicling America," "Black Studies Center," "When Disaster Strikes:
Genealogy and Mother Nature" and net notes "GenWeb Search," Encyclopedia of Genealogy"
and "Geni and Zooof." And, several projects with non-NC connections were also worked on and
are almost completed. So, the typical smorgasbord of projects!
August 2007: As always with the end of a vacation, a large stack of mail and e-mail awaited as
the month started .... working on several projects across many NC counties ... these same
projects span from the late 1700s to the early 1900s from individuals that just popped into the
state for a few years to families with long, long roots! Proofed some articles for Internet
Genealogy and dug into a variety of projects -- finishing out two complete family tree research
projects that took us coast-to-coast, continuing researc in several NC counties and so much
more!
July 2007: Been busy at the Wake County Local History Library (Olivia Raney) and with the NC
archives and NC library now open, all NC research is going full steam ahead! Researching
everything from property to people across several NC counties and from the mid 1700s to the
early 1900s. Working on a few projects involving post-Civil War African-American research and
also 20th century European/Slavic emigrants. The last few weeks have seen the Wake County
Journal, Wake Treasures, and it's newsletter, WCGS Updates, both published. And, as always,
working on some articles for Internet Genealogy. Wrapped up some at-heir research involving
several families coast-to-coast and winding down on a project focused on OR, MN, WI and mid
1800 emigrants from Russia and Ireland. Took some time out for a vacation and so much more!
June 2007: We can honestly report that June just zipped by! Finished the article for Wake
Treasures and gave the related talk for North Carolina Genealogical Society -- "Looking for
Scots Heritage Becomes a Lesson in the History of Wake and Johnston Counties." Worked on
several Wake County projects and traveled to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look at
Civil War era diaries and early 19th century correspondence to Ireland. Also continued research
to settle some estates by finding heirs-at-law, literally coast-to-coast in the US! Started several
projects for individuals with 18th century NC roots in Halifax, Duplin, Wake and other counties.
Additionally, started a project to research one of those pesky immigrant ancestors for someone
-- you know the type, a surname that can be spelled a seeming zillion ways! And, worked on
researching several families with African-American heritage in NC -- a challenge whether
looking at 19th or 18th century records! In parallel, started an African-American Research Guide
that will be posted shortly on the Wake County GenWeb site.
May 2007: Where did April Go?!?! The early part of May was spent recovering from working as
much as possible at the NC archives and NC library the latter half of April as they are both
closed then until July 11 and early June, respectively! Once they closed, this month has been
spent writing on an article for Wake Treasures and a related talk for North Carolina
Genealogical Society (to be given June 30th), doing Wake County research (since ORL is still
open), wrapping up the project on Finnish ancestry and working hard to finish two projects that
spanned the US, attending the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond (VA)
where I attended numerous invaluable programs, picking up some new research projects
looking for heirs-at-law with MA connections, writing two articles and a net note for the next
edition of Internet Genealogy and these were just published in the June/July edition, Family
Search Labs: You Be the Judge, Searching Digital Documentation on HistoryKat, Immigrant
Servants Database, Prologue, WorldCat, and Free on Ancestry, while in Family Chronicle was
published "40 Fabulous Websites You've Got to Try!)," working on a project with NC, VA and KY
connections, continuing to do some challenging African-American research, and so much more!
April 2007: Spring is arriving and spring break is over ... we will be continuing with most of the
projects listed for March, starting a few new NC projects (various families with roots in Bladen,
Burke, Montgomery, Surry & Yadkin Counties), trying to locate the NC ancestral origins of some
individuals who lived and died elsewhere though were born in NC (the proverbial needle-in-a-
haystack project, though, we have had success finding the ancestral county and ancestors for a
few!!), writing some more articles/net notes for Internet Genealogy, plus finishing research on
these projects: Finnish-Canadians, TN/KY families, and a pesky character that has been
tracked from NE to IL to WI to OR to WA to NM ... never mind at least 3 marriages along the way!
And, as usual, so much more!
March 2007: Made regular treks to the NC archives & State Library, kept busy working on Civil
War era records for Onslow County, late 18th century records for Wake County, searched for
Revolutionary War connections in several counties and prepared for several other soon-to-be-
started projects involving several NC counties. Continued to do research coast-to-coast
searching for heirs-at-law to help close out MA land cases while also doing 20th century and
civil war research for authors of upcoming books. For a change of pace, published an article for
Family Chronicle "Web Sites Worth Surfing," wrote an article for the June 2007 issue, wrote
several Net Notes and published two articles for Internet Genealogy (May 2007) - "20 Billion
Names: One Year Later" and "Are You Ready to Unlock Your Genealogy." Also started a new
column for the WCGS newsletter titled "Research the Cosmos - Learn about internet resources
all over the planet." Continued work on all the projects started or continued in February and so
much more!
February 2007: Hit the road running finishing an article for Internet Genealogy on two new web-
based databases that were improving and updating in real-time (several re-writes involved to
keep the article current)! Continuing work on a project involving Irish and Russian emigrants
with OR, WI and MN connections and another project with connections to Christian County KY
and Giles County TN! More work on an adoptee trying to trace his historical family connections
to NC and for another individual with Canadian and Finnish connections. And, several NC
projects are in motion involving Wake County and several other counties spread throughout
NC. Another trip to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look at Civil War era documents for 3
different families as well as documentation on an African-American choir c. 1930. Add to that
projects involving research in LA, OH, WI, FL, NJ and elsewhere. Updated the Wake County
Genweb site and wrote articles for the WCGS update (newsletter) and so much more!
January 2007: HAPPY 2007! As the NC archives was closed the first half of the month, the main
focus early in the month was Finnish ancestry, writing more articles for Internet Genealogy (and
wrote an article for the companion publication Family Chronicle), gave a talk "Preserving your
families history" at Oak View Historic Park on Genealogy/Family History, continued research into
a myriad of events of the early 20th century (including filing FOIA requests) for a book project,
compiling an individual's research data, planned the next visit to the UNC-CH the Manuscript
Department to photograph a manuscript and some family papers and check out an interview
transcription, researching various families outside NC and starting research into several new
NC-focused projects. As the archives opened, worked on projects involving Wake,
Northampton, Lincoln, Hertford and many other NC counties, while also tracking a family from
MA to CA to OH and learned more about a Louisiana born family, assisted in many searches for
heirs tied to probate, submitted a presentation proposal for the 2008 NGS Conference and
confirmed a talk to be given in June for the NCGS titled "Looking for Scots heritage becomes a
lesson in the history of Wake and Johnston Counties" and so much more!
December 2006: Just this month ... in advance of the holiday season wrapped up work on
several familiar projects and started some new ones. Proofed some future articles for Internet
Genealogy, visited the UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to photograph a lawyer's letterpress
book, a civil-war era hymn book and more modern documents dealing with lynching in the
south, started compiling a persons genealogy files by putting the details into Family Tree Maker,
started new projects on emigrants from the early 1900s, 19th century Irish emigrants, another
family with Wake County connections, and other NC focused research. Also continued research
into a myriad of events of the early 20th century (including filing FOIA requests) for a book
project. Have several new NC-focused projects on our plate that will be started in the New Year,
put the finishing touches on the recent edition of the WCGS Updates and as usual, so much
more!
November 2006: Just this month ... Published the resource list that we use with our talks (Lulu.
com ), gave a talk titled "Research the Cosmos - Learn about internet resources all over the
planet," wrote several articles for the WCGS Updates, wrapped up some Revolutionary War
service searches and also looking for mysterious roots in Cumberland County. Cont'd with
projects involving Finnish, Irish and other non-US origins. Performed some research on
historical figures who lived during WWI and WWII that involved tracing emigration records.
Started a project to help an orphan trace his mother's North Carolina roots using information
collected after her death. Will also be searching the Wisconsin, Irish and other roots for
someone else. Always checking for new resources to continue research on various Wake
County records projects. Started another new project to trace a very mobile family that migrated
from NC to various mid-western and western locales. Spent much time in the court records of
Rowan County (NC) -- one individual over a 10 year time span was involved in four different
court actions in the 1760s, ranging from not paying rent, to something to do with a horse and
eventually "papering/bad money!" Starting a project to help someone organize all the data they
have collected (10+ paper files) in Family Tree Maker. And, as always, so much more ....
October 2006: Just this month ... besides continuing some previous projects into Finnish
records and historical figures tied to McKinley's assassination, we've started a new project that
has taken us to UNC-CH the Manuscript Department to look into Railroads and Texas in the
mid 1850s, done some old-fashioned research into some NC Families (Cleveland, Buncombe,
Alexander, Cumberland, Sampson and other counties) at the NC Archives/Library, connected an
individual who died in Dallas TX to his roots in Guilford County NC in the late 1800s, researched
into Native Americans with NC connections, and have continued to trace families in Brooklyn NY
and southern California. Wrote an article for Internet Genealogy the December/January issue
about several new exciting databases now available or to be available in early 2007. Will be
starting a project to document the Revolutionary War service of several North Carolinians and
another one to search for "rumored" Irish Roots ... and so much more!
September 2006: Just this month ... cont'd several projects started in August and earlier!
Recently explored North Carolina Civil War Records (Pension Application, Compiled Service
Record, etc) for a Wake County individual. Will be starting a new project to explore a 1905
Murder Trial and another new project looks at Anarchists and the assassination and President
McKinley. Yet another project is exploring the ancestry of a North Carolinian with purported
Native American ancestry. Let's not forget research for a family with lots of pieces already
researched (Harnett County and successor counties) and our task is to confirm the
relationships and if possible, make a key "connection" between two generations. And, what's a
month without writing a couple of articles for future editions of Internet Genealogy and the just
published November edition has "Iron Range Research Center" !?! Also visited UNC-CH, the
Southern Manuscript Collection to look at a Civil War era diary and look at the correspondence
of a WWI era attaché and so much more!
August 2006: Just this month ... started with a week's vacation in New England, then proposed
and wrote a few articles for future editions of Internet Genealogy, picked up on several projects
started in July or earlier including the project tracking 11 siblings, the Finnish research, the
Wake County project, the Bertie County (NC) project, the illusive mid-westerner (eventually found
in New Mexico!), and also started a new project with an Edgecombe County (NC) focus (and
some Quaker connections, with ties to VA) and another involving several NC counties and
another project to photograph correspondence of a famous Civil War Confederate General (out
at UNC-CH Wilson Library), learned more about a diary author connected to an interesting piece
of late 19th century history, updated the Wake County GenWeb site, wrote articles for the WCGS
Updates and so much more!
July 2006: Just this month ... continued looking into the records of Bertie, Wake and other
counties (NC projects), continued trying to track someone who did not want to be found in the
1930s, continued on a big project tracking 11 siblings to identify spouses, children,
grandchildren (mostly located in the Midwest though as far as CA), research into some CA
families, continued work on Finnish and French-Canadian projects, looked into a NC individual
who committed a crime in the mid 1800s, starting a project tracking some purported Scots in
NC, did some research into North Carolinians involved in the Civil War, met with someone to
obtain a letter written in the early 1930s by a brother-in-laws great grandmother, had more
pieces published in Internet Genealogy and so much more!
June 2006: Just this month ... started a family research project with ties to Bertie and Currituck
counties, completed a project that tracked a family from IA to WA to OR to NV to CA and also
created a compilation of the work done on the Czech families in Chicago, continued work on a
family of French-Canadian origin, on a Finnish ancestry project, and also on several families
with strong Wake County roots. Did several small projects involving a will in Surry County,
locating someone in Long Island, someone else in Brooklyn, tracking a family around the mid-
west, a Kansas-based family and was busy with the most recent edition of the Wake Updates
(newsletter of the Wake County Genealogical Society) and a "Net Notes" for Internet Genealogy
Magazine.
May 2006: Just this month ... wrote more "Net Notes" for Internet Genealogy Magazine and had
two articles published (one in a print version and one in an online version), continuing our
"Wake County" records project, completed another phase of a Quebec -> NY -> MA project,
researching in CA records & Marshall County IL and OH for 3 very-hard-to-find individuals(!),
continuing work on the Bohemian (Czech) families who lived in Chicago, completing a project
that looked at Slave owners, slaves and their progeny in NC, starting projects related to the
Spencer family, a family that migrated from Iowa to Oregon with a stop in Idaho thrown in and a
MA family of 12 children, we are getting more heavily in to 18th & 19th century Finnish records for
project of Finns who migrated to WA and also Canada. Also posted many new links to the
Wake County Gen Web site.
April 2006: Just in the past month ... we started with looking at NC Bastardy Bonds at the NC
archives, continued research of Bohemian (Czechoslovakian) families in Chicago, continued
projects involving Wake County, Northampton & Halifax & Vance Counties and also Beaufort
and Hyde Counties (all in NC), started a project on Finnish families with ties to Washington USA
and Ontario Canada (so, we have looked at Emigration, US, Canadian and Finnish records), a
project connecting a family from MA to NY and now hopefully Canada! We again revisited
California records for a new project.
March 2006: Just in the past month ... we have continued doing research at the NC Archives,
done research on Laura Keene (the actress who was with President Lincoln when he was
shot), gave the talk on "Help, I Live in Raleigh and My Family Comes from Outside North
Carolina), traced a 19th century family from Massachusetts back to New York, continued
research on projects involving families in Beaufort, Wake, Warren and other NC counties,
started a project involving slave owners, slaves, their plantations and their progeny (white and
mulatto), wrote several pieces for "Internet Genealogy," and tracking some families living in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
February 2006: Just in the past month ... we have done research at the NC archives and Library
and at the Wake County History Library (Beaufort, Warren, Edgecombe, Wake & other counties),
research on Bohemian / Czechoslovakians from Chicago, obituary research around the country,
writing Net Notes for "Internet Genealogy," preparing to give a talk on "Help, I live in Raleigh and
My Family Comes From Outside North Carolina," provided research consultations to over 30
individuals, finished the TX research, keep revisiting New York, Ireland and Scottish records for
another project, and so much more!
January 2006: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California (Los Angeles
County etc.), Brooklyn NY (Kings County), Dallas County, Bexar County, Deaf Smith County and
other parts of TX, Pitt County, NC (at the Archives), visited the Southern Historical Manuscripts at
Wilson Library (UNC Chapel Hill), back again in the Chicago records, starting a Raleigh, NC
project, writing an article on the Illinois online databases for a new magazine "Internet
Genealogy," and so much more!
December 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California (Kings County),
Brooklyn NY (also Kings County!), Oregon, Dallas and other parts of TX, and passenger records
and a glimpse at Canadian and Scottish records ... and, we just kept researching through the
holidays.
November 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in California, Chicago, Ohio
(Warren, Hamilton and neighboring counties), New Jersey (Ocean County), Massachusetts
(Weymouth area and Boston), DC, North Carolina (Wake & Chatham Counties), Indiana
(Hammond area) -- projects have involved 19th & 20th century records some projects are to
locate descendents of individuals to help with Probate or Land issues.
October 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in Florida (St. Petersburg and
Jacksonville records), Illinois (Warren County & Lake County & Chicago), Indiana (Lake County),
Lancashire UK & UK Military records, California, Massachusetts, Wales, Ohio, Alsace France, a
mobile family in North Carolina, and Pennsylvania -- projects have involved 19th & 20th century
records -- one project was to find a common surname between non-related individuals ("Great
news on "Wilson" ... Thank you so much!") -- other projects are to locate descendents of
individuals to help with Probate or Land issues.
September 2005: Just in the past month ... we have done research in Chicago and Illinois
counties, Pennsylvania (several counties), Alsace France, Belarus (Minsk area), Glamorgan &
Monmouth Wales, the UK (several counties) ... making use of census records, passenger
records, church & cemetery records, newspaper articles, archives near and far, newsgroups
and anything we can think of and get our hands on!
Mosaic Research and Project Management
Blog
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