North Carolina Genealogy

The last couple of columns have been about different ways to organize your data. This one is about trying to make sure that your data is here for a long time to come. The first tip here is with regards to backups. If your data is on the computer (all your folders and organization), then make sure that it’s copied to a cd/rw or dvd/rw (or several) on occasion. I like putting the date on a cd like this, so if/when you collect multiple backups you have an idea of which is the freshest.

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There are a few more thoughts I wanted to pass along on getting your research organized. I wasn’t sure if they were emphasized enough in the last article on the topic. The main thing is this. For a good while, I was content transcribing (writing down) what I found in my notebook and having my notes as the source. Eventually, that wasn’t good enough for me. I started photocopying anything that was a relevant clue. Marriage record? copied… death certificate – request a copy, (I have quite a collection of those now…. that’s a relatively obscure collectable.)

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The Jamestown news (Jamestown, NC) had this article about two weeks back and I never got a chance to mention it.

Another Thanksgiving has passed and for most people thoughts of pilgrims and Plymouth Rock will be quickly set aside until next November. But Jamestown residents Martha Ward, Al Sampson and Betty LaBella maintain memories of that point in history year round. They are descendants of the Mayflower’s first passengers to America and members of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of North Carolina, Piedmont Colony.

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There’s an writeup in the Asheville-Citizen times by someone living in the Asheville area. He has touched base with some of his local ancestry although he moved here from outside the area. He deals with the eternal conflict between the “been here’s” and “come here’s” and finds that he is struggling to see if he fits into both camps, or neither…

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Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving day here in the U.S., I thought it might be appropriate to give a historical reference on the day….

The History of Thanksgiving in North America

Most people recognize the first Thanksgiving as taking place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, when the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the bountiful harvest they reaped following their first winter in North America.

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Berry Bowen, b. 1812-3-9, d. 1883-3-18 and Matilda Susannah Odum b. 1826-01-14, d. 1909-1-14 were married on January 30, 1841 in Rutherford County. They both died in Buncombe County, NC and are buried in Wagner (Waggoner) Cemetery. They are my 3rd great-grandparents through their daughter Mary Bowen. I’ve seen the name spelled many ways (Bowen, Boin, Boen).

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I guess this counts as a genealogy column. It’s been a while since I’ve formally done one and it’s something I’ve been interested to pass along for some time. I don’t claim to have invented this way of organizing stuff, but thought some of those just getting started might like to see some ideas of how to keep track of all that “stuff”.

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It seems that, advertising programs are quite a profitable thing for websites (mileage varies by the type of site and traffic.) For some time parking a popular domain name with a bunch of sponsored links on the subject was a way that some would try to take advantage en masse, now it seems genealogy will see the next gold rush….

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As I was learning about the HeritageQuest deal with the Asheville-Buncombe library system which was announced today, I also discovered that the Pack Library special collection is available for searching online. Not all of the collection is digitized yet, but a number of images are and it is searchable. The search form is at this link. The special collections include images, newspapers among other items.

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This is just hitting the news today, but I’m not sure when this went live… The Asheville-Buncombe Library system has a deal with heritagequest to access genealogy resources online (Census data, selected Revolutionary war (pension/land bounty) records, and a book and article database are available.) The login is only for Asheville-Buncombe library card holders at this time (although other library systems may have similar arrangements.) The link is available here and the 13 digit library card number is to be entered with no spaces.

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