Volunteer Opportunities Fall 2024

Want to get involved with Wakecogen on a more interactive level? We have the following positions open.  If you are interested in these positions, please email our Volunteer Coordinator, Saundra R. Cropps - info@wakecogen.org

Let’s Make Some HERstory: Women Vets in Raleigh Nat’l Cemetery

Volunteers needed to gather military and civilian records for the 30 women veterans buried in the Raleigh National Cemetery. Their stories will be added to the Military Women's Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. See the article in the current Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter for more details. 

Meet-Up Planner for 2025

If you are a social creature who loves to talk genealogy, this is your niche in WCGS! Volunteer to arrange quarterly meet-ups: the casual events can be an in-person event, tour of a museum or archive, or just a meal!  This would also be a great assignment for two people who would like to work together. It is always fun to tag team inspiration and efforts. 

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Wakecogen September Meet & Greet

When:  Saturday, Sept 14, 3:00 - 5:00pm

Where:  Overture at Crabtree, 4408 Marriott Drive, Raleigh, NC. 
Visitor and street parking available.

Why:  Enjoy the company of other local genealogists!

Please RSVP acceptances only to CarlaStancil@gmail.com            

Please join us in person! We would love to see you at our next meet and greet "potluck."  Let's each bring a light snack (optional). Carla will provide beverages. You can look forward to some great genealogy chat. No formal program is planned, just an opportunity to meet like minded folks! We will gather in The Cork conference room behind the kitchen in the common area of Overture.

Can't wait to meet you and greet you !

March 2024 Meetup

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Wake Genealogy Watch - Fall Edition 2024, v8.1 - Live Now at our website

The Fall 2024 Issue (Vol. 8 Issue 1) of our award-winning newsletter, Wake Genealogy Watch, is now available online for reading or download. You can visit the WCGS website  or access through this link - Wake Genealogy Watch, Fall 2024 

Features in this issue include:

• A welcome message from our new President – Barbara McGeachy

• Details for the Sept. 14 WCGS Meet and Greet.

• A summary and video preview of the new Ancestry ProTools Enhanced Matches Feature.

• Details on a project to add deceased local women veterans in the Raleigh National Cemetery to the national Military Women’s Memorial project, and a call for volunteers to get our lady vets represented.

• An update on NC cemetery oversight protection and a new pilot project to help build the database of lost, abandoned, or historically or culturally cemeteries­ thus aiding their protection.

• A WCGS member inductee into a lineage society based on the service of her free black ancestor’s service in the Revolutionary War.

• Fall 2024 OLLI Classes of interest to genealogists.

• A look at some very early North Carolina Tax records imaged and hosted at NC Digital.

• A recap of the Wake County Enslaved Persons Project (presented at our July virtual meeting) with links to the collection and associated projects.

• A guide to the FamilySearch Full Text Tool with a review of a searched image and the AI transcript results produced by the feature.

• Another packed events calendar!
  
  

Photo Note: If you choose to read a printed version of this newsletter, some of the photos will be difficult to view due to size constraints. Please refer to the online edition where you can enlarge the photos to accommodate better viewing. 

Click this newsletter page link to view this and all past newsletter content. 

We welcome your feedback, input, and submissions for inclusion in future editions. Please address all concerns to newsletter@wakecogen.org.

Visit the WCGS Blog for more events, late breaking news, tutorials, updates, and other special posts.  

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Wake Wednesday - When Piggly Wiggly came to Raleigh: a new kind of grocery store!

Seems he was right. Just a quick dash through any modern grocery store will tell you that. 

Now in a post-covid world, it seems like the list and collect model is returning too with the ease of internet ordering and delivery. What goes around, comes around...

Link through to this post about the Piggly Wiggly stores in Raleigh. The first opened in Raleigh in 1921. The store featured in the image below was located in the Cameron Park Apartment building on Hillsborough Street. Image is circa 1940. 

View this Olde Raleigh on Facebook post here to read the whole story.

Clarence Saunders, Founder: 

“If you see something you want to buy of your own free will that you can exercise without argument with anyone, without persuasion from anyone, without intimation from anyone, without suggestion from anyone, without mental contact with anyone whatsoever,”  

 Enjoy other images of nostalgic shopping trips including Piggly Wiggly, other Raleigh grocery stores, and department stores at the Flicker page of NCArchives Albert Barden Collection. Have fun browsing!

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WCGS Membership Renewal Time is Upon Us

Members and interested followers - 

The new membership year runs from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025. Members have received an email reminder to renew your subscription. You can also log in and renew through the website. The grace period ends mid-October. Renew soon so you don't miss any updates or content.

Those of you who are new to us or who have been following along for a while, consider joining our community! If you have caught any of our virtual monthly meetings, you know we offer only the best and you will always leave the evening with some new tip or hint you can use. Your support fuels our efforts, allowing us to continue offering great content, including our monthly virtual meetings, newsletter, blog and special projects with your help. For information on joining the society, click here.

Wakecogen Holiday Gathering 2023

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2024 Wake County Genealogical Society Virtual Meetings - next - August 27

Tuesday, Sept. 24 @ 6:30pm - Virtual

Topic:  Tracing Land Ownership Over Time: Forwards, Backwards, and from the Middle 

Speaker: David McCorkle, NC Historical Records Online, GenWebinars   

Reconstruct historical communities by following land ownership over time. Records can be traced backwards from today, forwards from the original owner, and points in between.

 

Join us!  Free and virtual!

*Please register by 4pm day of meeting.

*Please save your passcode and link for ease of entry at start time. 

*Presentation starts promptly at 6:30 pm.

Link to register at the Wakecogen website events page.  

Registration is now open!

Upcoming Events - view events page for details

Tuesday, Oct 22 @ 6:30pm - Virtual

Topic:  Using Genealogy Research Plans (recorded video) 
Speaker: Connie Knox, Knox Genealogical Services, Genealogy TV & NC Ancestry

Tuesday, Dec 3  @ 6:30pm - Virtual

Topic:  Civil War Prisoner of War Records 
Speaker: Craig R.Scott, MA, CG, FUGA

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 @ 6:30pm - Virtual

Topic: Be a Super Sleuth! Accessing and Using Images on Family Search  

Speaker: Jill Morelli, CG, CGL

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Wake Wednesday - Fourth Ward, a Wake County Neighborhood That Disappeared

In post Civil War Raleigh, a community grew out of the land that that had once been the Cannon Plantation. Simple homes were built and rented to freedmen and became the Fourth Ward Neighborhood. 

The Fourth Ward is long gone.  The community was razed in 1971 to build roads that provided a faster access out of town taking out homes, churches, and local commerce in the process. The plight of the community and efforts to permanently protect and honor its memory is recreated in this recent article by Josh Shaffer in the N&O. The story is told by the reminisences of former residents. The haunting black and white photos speak volumes themselves. I refer you here to the article. 

In addition, this week is a week of celebration in recognition and remembrance of the Fourth Ward.  The week-long schedule of events has been arranged by Octavia Rainey, a Raleigh Historian and leader of the effort for permanent recognition. Full details of the events and instructions to RSVP are included at this link-    https://livableraleigh.com/event/the-fourth-ward-cookout/

Here is a summary of the event schedule: 

Monday, August 26, 6p.m. – 7p.m.: A Celebration of Mount Hope Cemetery Fourth Ward, Mount Hope Cemetery, 120 Prospect Avenue

Wednesday, August 28, 6p.m. – 8p.m.: Kickoff of the Fourth Ward Exhibit at the City of Raleigh Museum, 220 Fayetteville Street (Exhibits will run through Sunday, Sept. 21 2024)

Thursday, August 29, 6p.m. – 8p.m.: The Fourth Ward Meet and Greet, at the Raleigh Pathways Center, 900 S. Wilmington Street (Additional parking is available at the Memorial Auditorium, 2 E. South Street)

Friday, August 30, 6p.m. – 8p.m.: A session on Restrictive Covenants, the African Enslaved Project, and Black Land Loss, Dorothea Dix Chapel, 1030 Richardson Drive

Saturday, August 31, 1p.m. – 5p.m.: The Fourth Ward Cookout, Roberts Park, 1300 E. Martin Street

 Sunday, September 1, 4p.m. – 6p.m.: Gospel Extravaganza – The Five Black Churches of The Fourth Ward – Black Neighborhood Expo, Fletcher Hall, 2 E. South Street

View Fourth Ward images at the NC State Archives Flickr page. In addition to the image, there is a detailed summary of who is in the photo and locations where available. Be sure to click each thumbnail and scroll down to get the written details. 

Wedding Party Fourth Ward 1958, NC Archives Flickr

See also:

https://www.wral.com/story/activists-urge-raleigh-to-honor-city-s-urbanized-fourth-ward/21095999/

Raleigh residents remember downtown's 'Fourth Ward'

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Wake Wednesday - Major General Calvin Jones, M. D. of Wake Forest

Did you miss the Summer 2024 feature about Major General Calvin Jones, M. D. of Wake Forest in the Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter?

If so, here is your reminder to seek out the feature to correct that mistake! Ed Morris, the former executive director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum shares his vast knowledge on Jones and illustrates why he can truly be called an early Wake County renaissance man. Jones was a soldier, medical man, entrepreneur, educator, politician and founder of a school that would eventually become Wake Forest University. This is not guilding the lilly. There is much more to know. I don't want to spoil Ed's masterful telling of the story, so I will direct you to it with the encouragement to keep a sharp eye. You don't want to miss how Major General Calvin cleverly saved North Carolina from being a battleground state in the War of  1812. He was truly a masterful strategist!

Dr. Calvin Jones  of Wake Forest. Portrait
 photo by Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University

This featured article can be accessed in this issue of the WGW on pages 3-7.

You can browse all the past issues of The Wake Genealogy Watch at this link.

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NCGS Fall Conference - Oct 25-26, 2024

Mark your calendars now!

NCGS will offer its conference live this year. Come mingle with your fellow genealogists at McKimmon Center in Raleigh. There will also be a livestream option for portions of the lectures. All the lectures will be available to all registrants as view-on-demand content after the conference through Dec. 31, 2024.

Visit this link for registration details and fees. 

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FREE to registered members - MEMBER APPRECIATION DAY And Annual Meeting. November 7, 2020 at 10 am EST. Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, "The Legal Genealogist", will be presenting 4 virtual lectures. Click the event title link above for more details.