Did you miss the last NC Archive & Library Tour? Here is your second chance!

Back by popular demand! Join us for a repeat of our February tour of the NC Archives and genealogy library in downtown Raleigh. We will offer a free tour of the NC Archives and the State Library, organized by President Barbara McGeachy.

June Tour Details -

• Event: Tour of NC Archives and Genealogy Library
  
  
• Date: Monday, June 23, 10 AM - Noon (followed by optional lunch)
  
  
• Location: 109 E. Jones St., Raleigh (meet in the lobby)
  
  
• Lunch: Optional at the cafeteria in the basement of the legislature building, featuring hot food, salads, and sandwiches. Security check required; no special ID needed.

This tour is open to everyone, with 30 spots available. Sign up here:                                             https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044CA9A72CAAFA7-56338096-tour

Each tour lasts 45-60 minutes, concluding by noon. The Archives tour is optional; participants can choose to visit only the library first. Research is not permitted on this day as both facilities are closed to the public on Mondays.

The NC Archives has original documents and some books but it's only about North Carolina. The staff will explain the types of materials in the archives and how to request them. They will have documents ready for us to look at. You can ask questions. The tour includes the vault which is normally closed to the public.

The State Library (Genealogy Room) has books and materials from other states in addition to N.C. The staff will explain the types of materials and how to request them. The library has many resources including vertical files (miscellaneous documents donated to the library), free access to databases including newspaper websites and Fold3, an overhead copy machine, and more. N.C. residents can get a free library card to check out books and to use some databases from home.

For questions, contact Barbara McGeachy at President@WakeCoGen.org

We look forward to seeing you on June 23!

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

First Colonies: 1565-1700 - This video will help with your early colonial research

What happened where and when is important. You will find this short video very important for establishing historical location and context for you Colonial ancestors.

First Colonies: 1565-1700 | American Colonial History | Jamestown, Plymouth, Puritans, Quakers This presentation outlines the development of European colonies in the future United States and Canada, from 1565 to 1700.

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Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Find your Family with WCGS! Join us Saturday, May 31 at Laurel Hills Community Center.

Join us this Saturday, May 31 at the Laurel Hills Community Center. This will be a fun, family event.

Questions - info@wakecogen.org

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Wake Wednesday - Wake County Yearbooks for Filling in the Gaps

Shared by WCGS member and former webmaster - Cynthia Gage

Cynthia found this collection when she was searching for something else. I am so glad she shared it with me. Who can resist old yearbooks? 

The collection includes Wake County high school and junior high books from a time span of 1909 to 2009. Cynthia also mentions that she found some reunion booklets, university catalogs and Elizabeth Murray Reid's Wake History Book through this link. The collection is digitized and offered online by Olivia Raney Local History Library.

What fun to be able to find your parent or grandparents in these pages. Maybe you will find your own photo or that of a cherished friend. Bonus gold is lurking in the ads that were included. Looking for a small family business? You may find evidence of it this way. 

Enjoy these delightful images from the 1913 Raleigh High School Rattler! 

Are you from elsewhere in North Carolina, but still curious about your relative's school history? Visit Digital NC's Yearbook collection. You might just strike gold!

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Wake Wednesday - Turn of the Century view of Fayetteville Street

Raleigh - 1891

I am really enjoying this very quaint view of Fayetteville Street in 1891 that I found at NCPedia. The Mahler building features prominently, exactly center in the photo.

It looks like Henry Mahler, an immigrant from Prussia, made quite the name and place for himself in Raleigh as a jeweler and engraver. The NCPedia article on him is filled with detail. If you are researching Henry Mahler or his descendants, you will want to check it out.

 

I believe the two brick buildings in this photo still stand and the two story wooden J. C. S. Lumsden & Sons building was replaced after 1896 with a 3 story brick building.

 

See the Google street view here. Notice  the arch window features on the middle brick building are a perfect match for the H. Mahler building.  Modern day Mahler building. The building at the extreme right of this photo is now a UNC Health Care facility. The molding trim at the top and window trim make a strong case that it is the same building.

Do you have any old photos of street scenes around Wake County that can be compared to their present day location? I would love to see  how much changed and how much stayed the same!

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

 

 

Wake Genealogy Watch - Summer 2025, 8.4. Latest issue of our newsletter is live now!

The Summer 2025 issue (Vol. 8, Issue 4) of our award-winning newsletter, Wake Genealogy Watch, is now available online for reading or download. Visit the WCGS website or click the link here: Wake Genealogy Watch, Summer 2025.

 This issue features:

• Details and Registration for three WCGS events that are fast approaching.
• Barbara McGeachy shares a special family heirloom written in WWII code.
• Tips to pull more clues from a WWI registration form that just what is included on the form.
• A special announcement about one of our own members.
• Learn about the excellent research guides available at NARA.
• Take a trick or two from this short and simple AI use case to make extracting information from your documents easier and quicker.
• A busy summer events calendar that you won’t want to miss!

Dive in and explore all the resources and stories designed to enrich your genealogy journey!

 

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 Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Wake Wednesday - Early Wake County Fire History and links to more

Wake County has been blessed with plentiful woods and forests as since its beginning. This blessing forced on the inhabitants the need for a contingency plan for the inevitable fiery conflagrations. In fact, fire protection was on the minds of the original city planners and the need for protection and prevention dictated portions of the layout requirements of the town of Raleigh.

The width of the streets were dictated in an attempt to protect fires spreading between building. The four main roads were 99 feet wide and all others within town limits were 66 feet wide. Among early fire regulations was a rule forbidding private porches, platforms, or other wooden structures located at building fronts that would encroach on the streets of Raleigh. 

In 1800, the city charter was revised to give the City Commissioners the power to do anything they deem necessary to to stop the progress of a fire, even removing structures in the path of the fire to prevent its spreading. Every adult male was required to take a turn on the City Watch. At the sounding of the fire bell, it was every citizen's duty to help and turn out with "water buckets, sand buckets, ladders or whatever equipment he might have" to battle the blaze. At that time there were no fire trucks and the only water sources were wells, mostly private and without pumps. Every citizen fell in line to help with the bucket brigade. 

The first fire engine in Raleigh was ordered by the City in 1814 and arrived in March of 1819. Engines of this era were basically pump wagons that were hand drawn and needed access to a water source. It may have needed a water brigade to feed it water if there was not a sufficient source available. It would take the whole village and a lot of ingenuity to fight a fire with this contraption but it was the sweet tech of its day. The first engine in Wake County may have looked something like the ones on display at this link - https://hallofflame.org/hand-and-horse-drawn-apparatus/  

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This story of the early fire protection is highlighted in the Raleigh Fire Department publication of 1984. It covers this and much more. If you have an ancestor who was a firefighter, you will want to read this book. It is available for reading online thanks to Digital NC. The updated volume from 2002 is here. 

Another source for researching local fire lore is the Raleigh Fire Museum website. There you will find links to their Flickr account of fire history photos, a YouTube page, a page detailing notable fires in Raleigh history and a link to a more detailed downloadable 60+ page list of fire history in Raleigh. Did this impact any of your forbears?

Visit the Raleigh Fire Museum for their monthly second-Saturday fire museum opening. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. The are located just south of downtown at 105 Keeter Center Drive, at the fire training center. Details appear at their Facebook page.

Another good collection of local fire lore was the Legeros Fire Blog that shuttered in 2015. The archives still exist and you can find them here. Mike Legeros has taken up posting to his own Facebook page and many of the important stories will be found there.

Here is a link to some Wake Forest fire history regarding the Downtown Blaze of 1896

If you know of other good fire fighting resources for Wake County, please let me know so we can add them here.

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Next WCGS Meetup Saturday, May31 - Community Outreach Event - Roots Finders!

AI image generated with Google Gemini2.0 flash

Genealogy Sleuths - We need you!

Join us for the next
Wake County Genealogical Society

Spring Meetup

Laurel Hills Community Center, 3808 Edwards Mill Rd., Raleigh 27612

Saturday, May 31, 10am - noon.

Our Spring meetup is an outreach event inspired by the 2023 NGS SLAM! winning video - 

"Street Genealogy". See the five-minute free video  at the National Genealogical  Society YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD8P6Q_93ps&list=PLPuFl1BJIibPkE9BtKL-R_txCT5ZNDM4W&index=3

The original Street Genealogy event took place on a busy sidewalk. We will be inside the community center to help anyone who is curious about their family history. 

We are looking for 10 volunteers...

...who can bring their laptops and sit at inside tables and help people get started with genealogy by looking up their family online. For example, finding their family in the 1950 census. People can take a screen shot using their phone camera. Depending on demand, volunteers may spend 5 to 10 minutes per visitor. 

If the Wi-Fi is not working, we'll have paper pedigree charts and the volunteers can work with people to show them how to fill out the chart. 

We need more volunteers for these spots:

We also need volunteers to sit at our table of handouts to explain and share our handouts on local resources (free Ancestry Library Edition at all Wake Co Public libraries, NC Archives, etc.), WCGS, genealogy classes, upcoming events, etc. 

We also need volunteers at 9:15 to help set up the tables & chairs & signs.

Volunteers are needed for closing up at noon (fold the tables, stack the chairs, and get the signs).

When you watch the video, you can see how much fun this event will be. 

Sign up here:

Please sign up for a volunteer slot to help us make this a successful event!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044CA9A72CAAFA7-56695930-find

Any questions? Please email Barbara McGeachy, President@WakeCoGen.org

Come join us in the fun. We are planting genealogy seeds for the next generation of researchers!

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Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Local Learning and Cultural Events in May

Details on two events in the near future that you may find interesting!


14 May, 2025

Join the SLNC Government & Heritage Library for a Personal Digital Archiving Webinar!

When: on Wednesday, May 14th at 10 AM via Zoom. 

This webinar will explore the concept of Personal Digital Archiving (PDA), offering insights into the affordable and efficient practices, tools, and techniques for preserving your digital files. Learn how to organize and save digital files such as emails, photographs, videos, family histories, and more!

A Q&A session with the GHL Digital Projects Librarian will follow the presentation.

Details:

Date/Time: Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 10:00 - 11:00 am

Registration is required, and the webinar will be recorded and posted on the SLNC YouTube channel. This event is free and open to the public.

Register here  - for Personal Digital Archiving Webinar

Questions: GHL.info@ncdcr.gov



18 May, 2025

Ribbon Cutting for Ivey-Ellington Historic Home in Cary

In-person event: May 18 from 1:30 - 4 p.m. (308 S. Academy Street, Cary).  

After a two-year restoration, the Ivey-Ellington House is celebrating new life. A ribbon cutting and open house event will be held for this rare Wake County example of Gothic Revival cottage architecture. 

 

Join us for tours of the house, photo opportunities, and information booths featuring the Friends of the Page-Walker, Cary's Historical Society and the Town of Cary Historic Preservation Commission. Light refreshments will be served. 

 

Questions Contact - Laura Aldag, Corresponding Secretary, Friends of the Page-Walker Historical Society