Observations: September 2008 Archives

Back home again and I believe I can safely say that the trip was productive.  I spent most of Friday at the State Archives building in Raleigh and I spent most of Saturday in Halifax, the morning at the local genealogy society's monthly meeting and the rest of the day touring historic Halifax.

Pressed for time I can only throw up som tidbits  but:

While digitally recording the family information pages from the Fenner Family bible, we found that  There were THREE children. siblings of Major Fenner that had not been accounted for  at least we had no names for them, although there was mention made of  additional children born in the 1880 census for the fenner household (10 born 7 living)

Found the name of the mother of Lula Pittman - which extensive research had not turned up. I actually found her listed in the marriage index - with Charles Pittman - who is listed as Lula Pittman's Father on her death certificate.

What is compelling about this is that from the 1880 census, we find Lula almost 2 years old in the household of her grandmother Anne Wilkins, The marriage index listing names her as Roxanna Wilkins.

While I have been warned about the "dearth" of marriage license copies in Halifax, This is one record we are going to definitely be looking to see if we can obtain a copy.

Addition to this find we found the Military service records for several members of the Fenner Family and what was significant or profound I guess if you will about this is the awards and honors bestowed upon each and every one of them.

I will blog about each and every find and even more about this trip later on. But for now work/duty calls.

Until

Thursday I will be traveling down to North Carolina for my first actual research trip. The average person may be nonplussed to learn that it will primarily consist of time spent in research and library rooms poring through old documents.  However those of you non-initates where genealogy and research is concerned take heart.  There willbe some field work which will probably be done mostly en route from one research spot to another.

Yes its a short trip and its pretty full but its still one that I am looking forward to. While in North Carolina I will be visiting a local registrar of deeds office in Halifax and I will be visiting the  North Carolina State Archives Office. I am  at this point primarily focusing on locating Marriage records.  the majority of the family members are accounted for with several instances usually of records including for most birth and death records.  After doing some extensive data entry and moving most of my files into a new genealogy software program I found that the thing mainly missing were marriage dates and documentation to support them. so I decided that this mini research trip should focus on that.

Additionally on this trip I will be  digitally photographing the family bible. This is the only instance in several cases of any dates with regards to family members.  There are a few that fall in between the timeline that documentation was required for births and or deaths and so if not for the bible we might never have found out some of that information. It is not I am told in all that great a shape so its imperative that the information be put into a digital format as soon as possible. So I and tripod and camera will attempt to do just that.

When I get back I will work on transcribing and placing the information on the internet for others that might find it of use.

After having spoken to the family as well as the director of the department at state archives that oversees family records and archives it has been agreed all the way around that this information will be shared/provided to state archives and that they would make sure it would be available to any researcher.

I dont know that I will get a chance to blog while I am away although I shall try to do that if not I know that I will have a lot to speak about when I get back.

Until then - Namaste'