Web Final Oct 2015

Northeast North Carolina Family History - Happy Family History Month! By: Irene Hampton -
nencfamilyhistory@gmail.com
Yes, genealogists have adopted October as Family History Month. To aid you in your genealogy pursuit, I will continue with even more on Internet research
– but this time – BOOKS!
As I mentioned last month, the FamilySearch website has a large collection of digitized books. You may access them by going to their homepage, choosing the
Search link, and then the link for books. The site partners with many other well known U.S. genealogy depositories including the Allen County Public Library,
Houston Public Library, Mid-Continent Public Library and the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research as well as others.
Closer to home the East Albemarle Regional Library provides an online service with the use of your library card barcode to HeritageQuest’s catalog of over
28,000 books. Go to www.earlibrary.org and the fourth link down on the right will be the HeritageQuest logo. After choosing it you will be asked to enter the
number on your card. You will have access to a number of data bases including the US census, US Indian Census rolls, city directories and others as well as their
book collection. While I’ve not had this experience, a patron came in and we checked under the surname she was interested in. When a book written 100 years
previous about her family by an ancestor who had known the people he wrote about popped up, I admit to feeling a little jealous.
HeritageQuest has also digitized a book I often used “The Map Guide to the U. S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920” by Thorndale and Dollarhide. It is a reference
book at local libraries so being online is a real benefit. It allows you to see the county development in each of the states. Your ancestor may never have moved
but may appear in different counties when the boundaries were redrawn.
East Carolina University has a wonderful digital collection through the Joyner Library. “Three Hundred Years Along the Pasquotank: a biographical History of
Camden County” by Jesse Forbes Pugh was an oft requested reference book and therefore not available to check out. It IS available through ECU’s digital collection
at digital.lib.ecu.edu where five categories are listed. The last three are of particular interest; “The Daily Reflector” 1949-1967, Eastern North Carolina Digital
Library and the East Carolina Manuscript Collection. I found all kinds of interesting books worthy of exploration including “General History of the pyrates”
by Captain Charles Johnson from the 1720’s. I’ll be looking at that one.
An online book search I had never really used before is Google books. A search for one of my husband’s Currituck Munden ancestors turned up an account in
the “North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction” by Paul Escott I would not have thought to look at. He was testifying on behalf of a
Simmons neighbor.
I also recommend a search on worldcat.org to discover books about family surnames. I did a few random searches and turned up a Brabble relative in the “International
Who’s Who Among Hotel Men” from 1927-1928. The closest libraries with the article or book are available if you add your zip code further down on
the left. Since it is a worldwide catalog, I decided to look for a few of my French-Canadian ancestors and turned up a relevant book held at
Old Dominion University!
Over the past six months I hope I have given you insights into why family history is important and what I hope have been helpful suggestions as to how to go
about researching yours. Celebrate Family History Month by pursuing your family history – what a wonderful Christmas gift to share. Start NOW. I might
just share more of our stories next time, one including “pyrates” or at least one very well known one.
Irene Hampton earned a Certificate in Genealogy
from Brigham Young University and worked as the
Genealogical/Local history Researcher for the Pasquotank-Camden
Library for over 12 years. She has also
abstracted and published “Widow’s Years Provisions,
1881-1899, Pasquotank County, North Carolina”;
“1840 Currituck, North Carolina Federal Census” and
“Record of Marriages, Book A (1851-1867) Currituck
County, North Carolina”. You may contact her at
nencfamilyhistory@gmail.com.
26 Albemarle Tradewinds October 2015 albemarletradewinds.com