Webtember is an annual, month-long online genealogy conference hosted by Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Held every September, the event features a large assortment of high-quality educational webinars led by international family history experts. The nice surprise is that the offerings are free to view for the full month of September with registration (as opposed to the usual 7-day view period). With 31 webinars on the schedule, there is a lot of high quality learning lead by favorite and familiar instructors, right at your finger tips from your favorite comfy chair. You will find a variety of topics including solid genealogy methodology, locality-based research, DNA topics including working matches and using third-party tools. The series starts Wednesday, September 9, so don't waste a minute.  You can view the full lineup here .  While you are checking out the Webtember content, browse a little further to check what they have in their library. I know you will find something...

This sounds like fun. Does WCGS have enough trivia buffs to pull a team together? From NC Archives: Think you're an expert on North Carolina history, geography, and culture? Here's your chance to show off your skills about North Carolina whiskey, the Regulators movement, and historic mills across North Carolina. On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 7 pm * , players can participate—individually or in teams—at the Transfer Co. Food Hall as we present fascinating trivia about the Old North State. Bragging rights are on the line in this Carolina contest of wits! We look forward to seeing you there.  * All details at this link . Any questions should be directed to the the contact info at the weblink.   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 | Donate | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

The three men who saw the colony of North Carolina through the transition from British rule to independence are pictured below. Did you know that none of these men were born in colonial NC? Each found their way here on their path to destiny. Their fate was to leave a legacy for those who came after. Portraits by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c. 1876, Library of Congress as viewed at USHistory.org These three men were William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and John Penn.  They were the same delegates who with other local leaders outlined the NC colonists' needs and grievances in Halifax on April 12, 1776 and distilled these sentiments into the document historically known as the Halifax Resolves.  The trio presented  the Resolves to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia just months later. That document became the bones of the Declaration of Independence written in June of the same year by Thomas Jefferson and a committee of men. This timeline is remarkable. Just 83 days elapsed from...

Connie Knox of Genealogy TV  took a road trip to Raleigh recently to find information about a patriot ancestor. Her destination was the NC Archives and State Library of NC. The experience and findings are detailed in this video. Though she did not find the information she had hoped for, she covered a lot of records sets that might help you in your search for your own ancestors.  Watch on Youtube:  Patriot or Legend? Captain William Clark's Rev War Service & Genealogy Research Image generated using Google Imagen You will find other patriot research possibilities in the following articles from past issues of Wake Genealogy Watch. Identify Your Revolutionary Ancestors - Vol 9, Issue 2, pp. 11-13. More Than a Musket: Who Qualified as a Revolutionary Patriot? - Vol 9.3, p11. Your Patriot’s Experience: Two Websites to Help Your Discoveries - Vol 9.4, p.6 Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery...

An article from the N&O has haunted me for years. It was about the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Wake County and what that must have been like. I saved it. Can't find it now, but every summer at this time I think of it and how it captured my historic fancy those several years ago. So much so, that my young family including my two sons, husband and my father and step-mother made the trek downtown that hot, hot July 4 to tour the Joel Lane house and stand at the Boylan Bridge spot and imagine (despite construction detritus all around) what it must have felt like and sounded on that hill at the first reading in August of 1776. Well, it haunted me enough to go searching for the article again. After several failed attempts - success! I must give mad props and a plug to the NC Government and Heritage Library for their library card and the online access it provides. From their site, with my library card to log in, I was able to search the N&O Archives t...

Before the parades, barbeques and fireworks send us into sensory overdrive, let us sit a minute with the document that defines our very existence as a country. This particular anniversary should not pass without some quiet reflection on who we are, what we can be in our best iteration and what so many before us sacrificed for us to live in this still great, but troubled country.  The Declaration of Independence  Project was created online by the National Constitution Center (NCC) to honor and celebrate the Declaration as we pass through a most special moment in time. The online project from NCC "provides the Declaration's plain text with media links to related content for each section. The links take you to an annotated version of the Declaration, as well as essays and videos that present key principles and history and biographical information on the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Visit the website . You will find two versions to explore as well as articles and...

This extract is from a document recorded in the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. This record set is housed at UNC and many can be accessed online through the Documenting the American South website . This particular document is a first person account from March 10, 1776 of the Loyalist rout at Moore's Creek. The letter was written shortly after the battle (February 1776) and nearly exactly one month before the Halifax Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves and selected NC delegates Joseph Hewes, William Hooper and John Penn to present them to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  "Letter from an Unknown Source, Dated the 10 th of March, 1776. ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ Parties of Men are dispersed all over the Colony, apprehending all suspected persons, and disarming all Highlanders and Regulators that were put to the rout in the late battle. The Conquerors have already taken 350 guns and shot-bags; about 150 swords and dirks; 1,500 excellent rifles; two medicine-ches...

A post at the end of May looked at colonial North Carolina and how the Mecklenburg and Halifax Resolves were like bookends of political sentiment among the populace in the journey to American freedom. Let's look at the timeline of extra-legal assembly that was happening in 1774- 1776.  First Provincial Congress: New Bern, August 25, 1774 - No more complaining. Resist! Bear in mind that all thirteen colonies had just spent the spring of 1774 looking on as Britain imposed the five coercive acts that stripped more and more representation and freedom from the colonists of Massachusetts. They watched Boston suffer and pushed back to avoid the same fate. In North Carolina, this meant trying to make nice with Britain with conciliatory language while simultaneously gearing up to participate with other colonies in the upcoming Continental Congress (Fall of 1774). The First Provincial Congress adopted a statement to Britain and the King, a document called the New Bern Resolves that whi...

This article was published in the Summer 2026 issue of the Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter. Volume 9, Issue 4, p7. Do you have an ancestor who you suspect might have been a Loyalist? They would be alive in the 1775-1783 timeframe in your tree. Have you noticed some clues that have you wondering? - CD If your ancestor showed no obvious signs of being a Patriot, did they show any inclination to the opposite? Maybe they signed an association paper to the British cause, or they left town abruptly.  Is there evidence that their property was confiscated or that they were prosecuted for treason (or worse!) by the new American government?  Those wishing to remain British subjects called themselves Loyalists. The Patriot rebels derisively called them Tories. Loyalist support was especially strong in parts of the southern colonies, including South Carolina, Georgia, and the North Carolina backcountry. The Loyalists’ motives were many.  Southern plantation owners and merchants with ...

Britain had spent the better portion of 1774 trying to squelch all dissent and rebellion in the colonies by making Massachusetts the scapegoat and example in their hard line drawn with the Intolerable Acts . The Acts had the exact opposite effect. The other colonies were wat ching and sensing that they would suffer equal harshness soon enough. Rather than standing by, the other colonies acted in support of Massachusetts by engaging in boycotts of British goods. They sent aid and support to Boston and they began organizing and holding clandestine meetings to discuss their dissent and possible actions. They were,  in effect,  forming a shadow government. This was occurring widely across all thirteen colonies.   "Halifax Resolves mural" by Francis Vandeveer Kughler. Source   In North Carolina, these clandestine meetings led to two very important documents written in the year leading up to the Revolution. The documents are the Mecklenburg Resolves made May 31, 1775, and ...