North Carolina Genealogy

I spent a good part of February and perhaps March over at the South Carolina Genealogy site expanding and revising the county pages to make them more of what I had envisioned from the outset and I’m starting the process here as well. I’ve toyed with the idea of forgoing frequent posts while I’m in this process and that may happen. I had always hoped that the county pages could be a single stop for resource information (and links) for each county and hopefully we can get there. Of course, North Carolina has 100 counties (South Carolina only has 46), so… it may take me some time to go through the entire list.

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This Civil War Battle is remembered as the last Cavalry battle of the Civil War. It took place on what is now the present grounds of Fort Bragg (near Fayetteville). It took place on March 10, 1865 and involved mounted Confederate cavalry against dismounted Union Cavalry. About 4500 men were involved. The Battle lasted several hours and was a Confederate Victory which delayed the Federal entrance into Fayetteville (which denied Union Brevet Major General Kilpatrick the honor of taking the city.) This battle has also been known as Kilpatrick’s Shirttail Skedaddle and the Battle of the Fayetteville Road.

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North Carolina has some wonderful historic sites, one of which is Somerset Place in Washington County. Somerset Place was one of the largest North Carolina Plantations before the Civil War. (The slave population was among the largest in NC). Through most of its existence it was operated by the Collins family. The current Historical Site includes the main Plantation house as well as 8 other original structures and 4 reconstructed buildings (including the Plantation Hospital and Overseers House.)

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After the Last Wordpress Upgrade the Map page has stopped working and I haven’t had a chance to investigate. I do hope to get it back in use as I really liked the idea of putting either Cemeteries or Historic Sites on the map where you could browse by location. Given that I’ve broadened the idea beyond just Cemeteries as I look to revise/repair the plugin I will likely rename the page.

The other site related news: I had originally set June as the month I would start the newsletter here at the North Carolina Genealogy site, but I’m now thinking I will postpone that until August for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that one of the locations that I work has had some sudden news that we need to be finding a new location. I’ve been involved with meetings and what not… doing what I can to help. I don’t know that everything will be resolved by August, but the flurry of activity that’s taken place the last month has really cut into the time I’ve had for my other projects. The other note I would like to pass along…

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I thought I’d take another sidetrip from the usual Genealogy and History content to talk about “the bugs” again. Back in May I saw the first of the 17 year cicadas (locusts) emerging and mentioned them here. Well, they’re now probably at or just passing their peak for this cycle. They have been in full voice over the next few weeks and in most of Western North Carolina North of I-40 you’ve been aware of their presence. It’s kind of funny that Buncombe County and points North seem to be the extent of these critters… I suppose..

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This great news story crossed the wires over the weekend. Elfriede Wilde, who previously lived in Henderson County, NC (and before that had emigrated from Germany) has donated a 1686 Luther Bible to Mars Hill College. The Bible had been passed down to her from her Grandfather and he had acquired it from a friend with whom he studied the Bible in the years leading up to the Second World War.

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The Monroe Library in the Charlotte area will be having a workshop of sorts helping introduce people to the different methods of genealogy research online. The meeting/workshop will be at 6:30PM on June 2nd in the Griffin Room, considerable time will be spent using Heritage Quest’s census records. Some computer experience is recommended and a portable flash drive is suggested if you think you may want to save any census images you find. (No printer available in the lab.)

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Just a quick note to pass along a meeting this Saturday (the 24th) in Henderson County, NC. The meeting will be 10 AM until Noon. (From the Blue Ridge Now Community Calendar.)

Western North Carolina Society of Genealogical Research will meet from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 24, in the Kaplan Auditorium of the Henderson County Library. Program: Using DNA in Genealogy Research with Ray Rhoads.

The Outer Banks along the coast of North Carolina are simply amazing. Barrier islands of sand that seem to shift and change with the very winds and seas. If you’ve ever visited the Outer Banks, you know what a feeling it is to know that ocean can lie just a few feet in front of you AND 20 or 50 feet behind you is the sound or protected seawaters. What a challenge this area must have been to settle.

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It’s really amazing how many peoples ancestors passed through North Carolina. At one point in this countries history St. Louis was considered the jumping off point for points west. I’ve come to think of Western North Carolina as a similar “jumping off point” a bit earlier in this countries history. This area was frontier from it’s official opening at the end of the Revolution into the early 1800s. The fact that Buncombe county was created to encompass the entire western part of the state is remarkable and at the time had the area called the State of Buncombe, but I think one of the essential factors was that it was so loosely populated and rugged that carving individual counties at the outset would have been pretentious. How many genealogies pass through North Carolina?

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