Wake County Genealogical Society Blog: June 2025

Thursday, June 26, 2025

2025 Wake County Genealogical Society Virtual Meetings - next - July 22

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 @ 6:30pm – Virtual

Topic: Creating an Ancestor Sketch

Speaker: Thomas MacEntee

Face it: most genealogists never get around to publishing that family history book based on their genealogy research. How about a different approach: producing short 3-5 page “sketches” about an ancestor? You’ll learn how to include a cover, photos, facts, family stories, source citations and more! And guess what, once you get a few of these ancestor sketches done, you can compile them together for one big book!

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, Aug 26, 2025 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Military Collection at the NC Archives
presented by Ashley Latta, Military Records Archivist

Tuesday, Sep 23 , 2025 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Revolutionary War: Moore's Creek Battleground and the Scots-Irish in NC
presented by John Miles

Tuesday, Oct 28, 2025 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Reconstruct your Ancestor's World with Google
presented by Lisa Louise Cooke, GenealogyGems.com

Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Become a Power User of DigitalNC.org
presented by Taneya Koonce

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Wake Wednesday - FamilySearch Wiki - Wake County

Have you used the FamilySearch.org wiki for Wake county in your research. It is a great place to check for resource locations and contact points. You will find info on church, land, military and probate records, as well as maps and county history and border changes. Check it out. There is a wealth of information there. It is a good place to start if you are just beginning your Wake County research.

source

Visit the wiki and be sure to scroll all the way down the page or you might miss something!

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Wake Wednesday - Fort Family Builders

The Fort Family Builders, renowned for their carpentry and finishing settled in Wake county in the late 1700.

"...Frederick and Mary Ann Fort moved from Sussex County, Virginia, to Wake County in the 1780s, along with their son, William Knight. The younger carpenter sons, John and Elias, were born in Wake County and joined William—who was old enough to be their father—in the carpenter's trade, and they were probably trained by him as well. By the 1790s,William Fort was busy at his trade in Wake County, where he took several apprentices to the carpenter's and wheelwright's trades in 1798, 1804, 1809, and 1814. Another brother, Foster, also took an apprentice to the carpenter's trade in Wake County in 1804, but little is known of his work as a carpenter.

The Fort brothers' chief known work is the plantation complex at Fairntosh (1810-1822) in the section of Orange County that became present Durham County. It was built for Duncan and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron..."

The full family bio is here - Fort Family (1764-1845)

View detailed photos of their most famous work, Fairntosh.

source

Monday, June 16, 2025

Upchurch and Allied Families Association Newsletter - June 2025

For those following along, here is the latest Upchurch and Allied Families Association Newsletter.

June 2025

This issue includes a nice biography of Phil Upchurch and a useful guide to the Enrolled Families and Descendant Reports in their Biofile collection.

View past UAFA newsletters here

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Wake Wednesday: Don't Forget, Wake Treasures Journal Access now open access for all

We just can't help reminding folks. This is such a great boon to researchers. Be sure to check the highlighted collections below.

All past issues of the WCGS Wake Treasures Journal are now available to all Wake researchers any time they need to browse! 24/7. All the time.

There are 31 years of valuable Wake-centric content stored at this link. If you have not checked the offerings yet, you better take a peek to see just what you are missing.

WCGS Publications > Wake Treasures. From the journal landing page, you can browse issues by year or check the subject index that is available for years 1-25 (1995 - 2015). There is an impromptu index that was created for another project. It was covers the years 2007—2022. I started with the year 2022 and works backwards. While not complete, you may still find it helpful for discovery of content and location. It is available in searchable spreadsheet form here. I hope to get this list completed with the earlier content and that from 2023 soon.

Just to show the power of the files available in the Journal, here are some Freedmen’s Records* found in these volumes found by searching freedmen in the newer index: vol. 17.1 (2007), 24.1 (2014), and 24.2 (2014).

Insolvent Debtors* can be found in these issues: vol. 18.2 (2008) all townships, 22.1 (2012), 22.2 (2012), and 28.3 (2018).

Divorce records* are found here - vol. 18.2 (2008), 19.1 (2009), 20.2 (2010), 21.1 (2010/2011), 26.3 (2016), and 27.2 (2017).

* This is a sampling of some of the record sets and topics covered in the journal and is not complete. You will want to browse further in the earlier issues. Check out both indexes described above. Hopefully all issues will be in an index soon.

Once you start browsing within the individual issues, they are searchable by any name, location or topic within. Have fun looking for your ancestors!

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Wake Wednesday - 1914 Raleigh Street Car Map

This wonderful street car map from 1914 recently passed thru my Facebook Feed. Mike Legeros of Legeros Fire Blog shared his map with the "You know you grew up in Raleigh when..." group there.
His map is an annotated version showing the street car lines of the time. It is viewable at his website. Click map to see larger.

Source

The original is available via North Carolina Maps site from UNC-CH.

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

New Member Special - Join in June for Special Access

Sign up in June and Get 15 Months instead of 12!

Join WCGS in June 2025 and your membership will be valid until August 2026!

If you follow the blog and newsletter or have joined us for a virtual meeting in the past year, we hope you have appreciated the insights, tools, and inspiration we’ve shared through our various outreach channels. We invite you to take the next step and become a full member of the Wake County Genealogical Society.

Your membership grants you access to a wealth of resources available at our website, such as:

24/7 access to both our award-winning publications:
- Wake Treasures, our journal - 31 years of issues from 1991 to 2022.
- Wake Genealogy Watch, our quarterly newsletter.
Eleven virtual monthly meetings on the fourth Tuesday (Nov/Dec combined meeting).
Access to recordings from prior monthly virtual programs.
Members-only presentation materials.
Reduced pricing for special events.
Member directory and surname database - connect to those who are researching similar interests and family lines so you can collaborate.
Personalized notification of WCGS meetings and events.
50% off Legacy Family Tree Webinars (only for new LFT members).
Our WCGS Welcome kit.

We are offering extra value exclusively to new members who register in June. With our special offer of 15 months for the price of 12, there’s no better time to join. When you become a member, you’re not just signing up for benefits—your membership is an investment in a shared journey of discovery. Your support advances our mission to further genealogical research, provide education through virtual meetings and in-person events, promote collaboration, and preserve records important to your history and ours. Genealogy isn't just about looking back. It's about moving forward together.

Join now and be part of something enduring.
Questions? Reach out to Membership Chair Carol Kimball Stahl at membership(at)wakecogen.org.

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