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...

If you have the surnames - Alford, Liles, and High - in your family lines, you will want to check out Eureka: Proving an Ancestor in Wake County, N.C . by Lodwick Houston Alford describing his efforts to discover and prove the parents of Green Alford , b.1787 near Wakefield, Wake County ( Wake Treasures , vol.10, nbr. 2, p. 17). I read his account hoping for a workflow strategy or inspiration to solve my own elusive ancestor. His efforts included: disambiguating between two similarly named men  proving/disproving the various family stories passed down for generations working with several local history librarians in the area using the Bastardy Bond abstracted records * published in the Wake Treasures   calling in another set of eyes when it seemed all possible lines of research had been exhausted The sum of all these efforts led to his success. This was a compelling report, one I could not stop reading even though it was NMF (not my family). He has given me some ideas to appr...

Records for Insolvent Debtors in Wake County  -  individuals unable to pay their debts were abstracted from  the box of “Wake County “Insolvent Debtors 1800-1837 (broken series).” The box is located at the N.C. State Archives’ search room, with call number CR 099.914.11.  This series originally appeared in an older version of the WCGS newletter and was republished in the Journal Volume 18 Number 2 (Summer/Fall 2008) to enable access for researchers. This excerpt and additional information is available in our archived Journal content which is currently available to all. From the folder “Insolvent debtors 1800, 1803,” there is a document showing the following abstracted information:  “… We or either of us promise to pay Thomas Taylor Guardian to James Ridley … Seventy nine Dollars and Twenty Cents with Interest from the date, It being for value of him rec’d …” Dated 18 March 1800.  Witness                  ...

A selection of the slave narratives relevant to Wake County were transcribed as noted below. The Wake Treasures Journal Archives are currently free to all to view.  Note that historical materials often include viewpoints, language, norms, and values of the original creators that may be harmful to our sensibilities today. There is language here that some may wish to skip. The words of the original speakers were preserved as originally expressed.* SLAVE NARRATIVES – A FOLK HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE US, FROM INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER SLAVES Transcribed by Jerry J. Lewis NORTH CAROLINA NARRATIVES, Pt. 1, Vol. 14, NC District #2. This can be found in the North Carolina State Library. This was a project of the Works Progress Administration in 1937. These narratives were can be found in Vol 8.2 (starting p. 57 ) and Vol 9.1 (starting p. 59 ) The narratives include accounts from former enslaved persons who lived in Raleigh at the time of the WPA survey. Many were enslaved in Wake County...

Did you know that the land that is currently known as Moore Square was once referred to as the Baptist Grove ? source I happened upon this tidbit while browsing thru an old issue of our Wake Treasures Journal. The reference is in an article titled Reminiscences of Grandmother Mary Ann Towles in Volume 1, number 4, Winter 1991 , p15. Enjoy this picturesque description: Uncle William SHAW had a store on Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, and his dwelling house was on Wilmington Street. It was a large three story building with a beautiful garden, a large front, and a back yard. In one corner of the front yard, a big oak spread its branches over a large portion of the yard. Back of our lot was the Baptist grove. 2 In the center of the grove stood a small wooden church, lighted with tallow candles in tin scones. The candles were lighted by a maiden lady, Miss Lucinda BRIGGS.    The location is noted in this footnote:  2 The Baptist Grove is now what is known as Moore...

Hi Wake Researchers. We have some very exciting news for all of you. Wake County Genealogical Society has recently decided to change the way we share our Wake Treasures Journal content with you at the Wakecogen website. I think you will enjoy this surprise. Here is the announcement from webmaster, Cynthia Gage: "Wake Treasures Goes Public! It is well-known how technology has changed the way information is disseminated.  The growth of online platforms are providing new ways of sharing and reaching a broader audience.  WCGS has seen these changes and over the years has expanded its outreach through our WCGS Facebook and WCGS Blog social-media pages.  We also modernized our website several years ago and then converted our newsletter distribution to an on-line digital format where issues can be stored and made available at the click of a mouse!   In the past hard-copy publications provided the standard format for keeping information available, but these are only u...

I am returning to Reminiscences of Grandmother Mary Ann Towles in Wake Treasures, Volume 1, number 4, Winter 1991 , p15, for this vivid remembrance of General LaFayette's visit to Wake County in 1825. Can you imagine what an attraction his visit must have been? Mary Ann's memory in her words: I was eight years old when General LaFAYETTE visited Raleigh and everyone went to see him. Uncle carried (m)y brother and me. It was a proud day for me when he shook hands with me, and laying his hand on my head, said, “God bless you.”  source  You can read more on General Lafayette's journey thru Wake County and the rest of NC at NCpedia . If you want to see some artifacts and other first hand accounts of General Lafayett's trip, visit the Little House Museum in Rolesville . Contact the museum for more info. Journal access is a great perk of your Wake County Genealogical Society membership and a handy tool for those researching in Wake County remotely. Members have 2...

By Carla Stancil, WCGS President   Wake Treasures is our multi-award-winning journal first published in 1991. Over the years, Wake Treasures has brought us a mountain of primary source documents with historical or genealogical significance for Wake County. It has also published primary source documents from related counties when there was no other outlet for those records.   As technology has evolved and record access has improved, the WCGS Board of Directors has made the decision to combine the journal with the WakeCoGen blog and Wake Genealogy Watch , our award-winning newsletter, to better bring our members and researchers the best possible resources.   To our current editor, Donna Shackle , we can only provide humble thanks for curating a wonderful archive of important Wake records and information. Donna has been editor of Wake Treasures for the past several years and has worked diligently to provide well-sourced and documented data and records that cannot b...

On Nov. 19. 1806, Hartwell Parrish, John S. Robeteau, Dury Brown, Isham Utley and William Spright, Jr conducted business at the William Hill General Merchandising Store .   This account appears in an abstraction of the original ledger in the Wake Treasures Journal. This abstraction of the ledger Contains 250 pages, approximately 2500 names, and activities from November 1806 to March of 1807. The abstraction is divided into three parts appearing in Vol. 1, Issues 2 , 3 , and 4 . If you had Wake County ancestors living in the area in the early 1800's, this may be a record set you want to check out. image source   (not original to Wm Hill ledger) Journal access is a great perk of your Wake County Genealogical Society membership and a handy tool for those researching in Wake County remotely. Members have 24/7 access to the Journal. With 20 plus years of content, you will likely find the surnames and place names you are researching.  Access the Journal issues ...

I am taking the Wake Wednesday posts in a little different direction for a change of pace. In an effort to highlight the vast wealth of content that is held within the pages of the Wake Treasures Journal , I will be featuring small snippets from the Journal in hopes that you might find something useful for your own family research. I hope you will let me know if you are inspired to search there or make a great discovery for your family story.  Now let's get started... As we close out Black History Month, I want to feature this listing of African-American Businesses compiled in the 1909-1910 Hill City Directory for Raleigh, NC. The list was transcribed by Fred Turner for the Winter/Spring 2004 issue - v.14, nbr.1 . There are 5+ pages of listings (in excess of 230 individual listings) that include name, business type, and address.  Included in the transcription: Alford, Nick     eating houses     206 1/2 e Martin Alle, John    ...