Wake Wednesday - Samuel Nathaniel Vass

I like to find interesting posts of Wake County origin to share with you on Wednesday, but when someone else does it better, my time and yours is best served by referring you to an original post. 

Today I want to send you in the direction of the Wake Forest Museum blog where assistant director, Jennifer Smart, has shared the life story of early civil rights activist, Samuel Nathaniel Vass.  She tells his story in all its shades of pain and inspiration. Please read here.

Favorite quotes:
“There is one thing certain and that is: We’ve got to live side by side, so why can’t we be friends, respecting the rights of each other at all times.”
- Dr Rufus Vass, Federal Writers Project interview.

"Here at the museum, we constantly search for our local African American history. Too often, we hit a dead end.It’s like sitting in a theater, waiting for the show to start. We hear the murmur of voices coming from backstage–men, women, old, young, all different ages and accents and dialects. Then the curtain rises and there’s this group of really dignified white men in suits. They are phenomenal talkers. Super smart. Sometimes they make speeches. But all the time, the only story they tell is their story. They never stop to listen to anyone else. They never even look around. And yet we can still hear those voices whispering.It makes us want to shout from the audience, “For history’s sake… look into the wings! If you can’t move aside for the next act, at least tell us what’s going on back there!” "

- Jennifer Smart

Read now. You will be glad you did.

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Online Learning Opportunities for Febuary - Black History Month

The International African American Museum is teaming up with the the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor for a series of Zoom webinars this month. 

Here are the topics and sign up links provided by International African American Museum:

• On February 4th at 1:00 PM (ET), we’ll be hosting a panel about African American Genealogy Challenges, where we dive into information about researching your ancestry.
• Register here for African American Genealogy Challenges
  
  
• On February 11th at 1:00 PM (ET), we'll be hosting a seminar titled “Getting Started with Lowcountry Genealogy” with Taneya Koonce, Deputy Director of the Center for Knowledge Management at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vicki McGill, Professional Genealogist and Instructor at the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI), and Toni Carrier, Director of IAAM's Center for Family History. 
• Register here for "Getting Started with Lowcountry Genealogy."
  
  
• On February 18th at 1:00 PM (ET), we’ll be hosting a panel discussion with IAAM’s very own genealogist Darius Brown and special guests as they discuss the military history of the United States Colored Troops.
• Register here for Darius Brown 
• On February 25th at 1:00 PM (ET), we’ll close out our Black History Month Webinar Saturday Series with a panel discussion moderated by yours truly and featuring “accidental historian” Margaret Seidler about the Charleston Slave Trade.
• Register here for The Charleston Slave Trade

Do check out both organizations' websites. They offer a lot of resources and learning opportunities for those researching Black ancestry. 

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WCGS - Wake Genealogy Watch, Winter 2023 - Newsletter now available

The Winter 2023 Issue (Vol.6 Issue 2) 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, Winter 2023

Features included in this issue include:

• Details on a super OLLI class that will be taught by WCGS Member, Barbara McGeachy – Genealogy:  Starting with the Basics

• Links to a host of online resources that are outside the traditional research sites
• A super timeline/map visualization video packed with historical context for the American First Colonies (1565 – 1700)
• Family History Guides to each state that provide rich access to a world of records and research strategies from your pc or cell phone
• The latest Enslaved Persons research resources
• International research groups and blogs for Germany and France
• Wake County Civil War Pension File links and useful Wake County map links   
• Highlights from our December NC Government and History Library tour
• A Genetic Genealogy review of the latest tools to hit your match lists – AncestryDNA’s Parent SideView, My Heritage’s new match sorting options, and FTDNA’s new Discover tool and Time Tree. All exciting stuff!

• Our handy events calendar will help you save the dates, so you don't miss a single moment of WCGS excitement.

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 inclusions 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 - Cohabitation Record for a Christmas couple

I was searching for Christmas images and happened upon this image. It fit my search "Carolina Christmas," but it took me in and entirely different direction. 

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This Wake County cohabitation record issued in 1866, records that Seth Christmas and Sallie Christmas "if said County, lately slaves, but now emancipated, and acknowledged that they do cohabit together as man and wife, and that said cohabitation commenced the 11 day of Oct.,1855. " The record was recorded by J. J. Ferrell.

I checked for more images but did not find them. This is a treasure indeed. Any Christmas descendants out there reading our blog?

 If you would like to search for other similar documents, be to check the NC State Archives store where you may request a Cohabitation Bond and Record Lookup, 1866-1867. NC residents may request a search for free and be invoiced if a record is found. Nonresidents must pay a $20 search fee either way. 

The following information is required for the search:

County
Name of Groom
Name of Bride

It is worth noting that there is one roll of digitized Cohabitation Record images for 1866 in Wake digitized at FamilySearch.org. The files are not indexed and require browsing. It would be useful to check both places. Check the North Carolina Cohabitation Records wiki to see what exists in what format in each county. 

This was a lucky find when I was searching something else. I hope it helps someone's research. 

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Wake Treasures - Vol 31, Issue 2 is Available

Welcome to the last issue of Wake Treasures in 2022  In this issue Carla Stancil contines her vignettes on her Wake County ancestors, and shares the letters her father wrote while away from home in Marines.  You'll also read the Wake County Court Records (batch 6), Wake County Deaths in WW1, and the 1896 Tax List.  

Look for continuation of the 1896 Tax Records, the Ferguson Family Ledger, and the Gertrude Weil Papers in the next issue.  Warm thanks again to Carla for sharing this piece of history with us.

If you have any Wake County an ancestors or research, Wake Treasures would love to feature your work in a future issue.  We welcome submissions of research reports, narratives, and special articles.  If you have questions or want to learn more about being published in our award winning journal, feel free to contact me at journal@wakecogen.org.

 

Please consider joining the journal team.  In order to make the publication possible, a team of volunteers works behind the scenes and needs your help.  There are currently openings for a content curator and transcribers.  If you're interested in learning more about how you can help, please contact me at Journal@wakecogen.org and I will be happy to discuss volunteering opportunities.

 

Happy Reading, Donna, editor

 

To download this new edition, log into the Members Area and go to the Wake Treasures webpage. And if you have personal stories of people, places, and events connected to Wake County, please consider sharing them for inclusion into future editions!

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Wake Wednesday - Christmas Wishes: Letters to Santa c.1932

Some things change, some stay the same. Santa Clause is still receiving a sleigh full of letters in early December. Here are some great examples from the NC Arcives Flicker photostream.

Margaret wants a big ball, some galoshes, and doll clothes!

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A. C. Allen decorated his request with this handdrawn picture of Santa!

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This child was an artist and had great manners, too!

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Wishing all a Merry Christmas! 

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Wake Wednesday - Merry Christmas from Raleigh c. 1907

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So, I was casting about for a WW post with a holiday theme and happened on this quaint turn of the century Christmas postcard that was featured in the North Carolina Postcards section of the digital North Carolina Collection at UNC. 

This is a postcard that B. H. Woodell, of Raleigh, had personalized and printed to send to his friends and colleagues in December 1907. It is a very classic and formal card typical the ones I have seen from that time period. 

I am not familiar with Mr. Woodell and wondered what sort of footprint he left in Wake County for that time period. 

A Google search turned up several entries for him in an 1887 Raleigh City Directory housed at the NC Archives. This ad from the directory shows that he was a business man in downtown Raleigh at that time.  

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There are several other mentions of Mr. Woodell in this directory. They document his dual occupations of shoe merchant and broker/commission merchant, and his membership in the Odd Fellows, a fraternal and benevolent society. His home address of 118 N. Dawson and business address of 230 Fayetteville Street indicates that Raleigh was truly a walk-able city back then. He could have walked the half mile trip in about 10 or 15 minutes.

The next hit on my Google search turned up several newspaper articles that documented his activities as Grand Secretary in the Odd Fellows, his travels, his visitors, and even an illness. He was active and well known in his community.

Another hit turned up a free ebook on Google books documenting the 1907 Annual Session of the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of North Carolina. Mr. Woodell was a busy man! I count more than twenty mentions of him in this book. (If you have ancestors from Wake who were Odd Fellows, you want to check out this free book.)

Next, my search pulled a hit at My Heritage that told me that his daughter Mary married into the Briggs family, also prominent at that time. 

I made all these discoveries about someone I am unfamiliar with, and I hadn't even touched Ancestry or FamilySearch yet. 

A quick search at Ancestry tells me that Mr. Woodell was born in August 1839. His full name was Burwell Henry Woodell. He married Emily Jane Buchanan in his home county of Chatham in 1868. They were living in Raleigh at least by 1871. They had six children, four of which were born here in Raleigh. They lived at various times on Blount Street and Person Street. B. H. died in Wayne County in 1919, but was buried in Raleigh at Oakwood Cemetery.

A biography Mr. Woodell's life can be found on Ancestry in "History of North Carolina, Vol. 5." It chronicles his early life in rural Chatham County, his military service in the Civil War, and his early entrepreneurial career in Raleigh. There is a very thorough and impressive accounting of his time and activities in the Odd Fellows. As the other sources hinted at, he was a very important man in this organization, not only for Raleigh, but for all of the state as well. From the text:

"Mr. Woodell has personally organized a large per cent of the Odd Fellow lodges in North Carolina, and his voice has been heard in almost every lodge room in the state. In 1885, when he was elected grand secretary, there were forty-two lodges in North Carolina, with 1,208 members. In June 1916, there were 240 lodges with more than 15,000 members, and a large part of this gain in membership may be directly attributed to his faithful and untiring efforts."

Mr. Woodell must have had many, many of those postcards printed up! I suspect the high esteem was mutual many times around.

For me, this exercise was certainly a lesson in being open to non traditional sources to fill in the gaps in your research. I will make every effort to"peek around the corners and under the rugs" for my next search.

Merry Christmas, Mr. B. H. Woodell.

Glad Holidays Tidings to all of our readers!


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Reminder: Next Saturday - December 10 - Visit the State Library of North Carolina - WCGS meetup

Join members of Wakecogen for an in person meet up at the State Library of NC. 

• Learn what resources and services are available.
• Grab a library card. 
• Browse the collections. 
• Reconnect with friends at a lunch spot nearby. 

We are looking forward to seeing you there! Free and open to all. Questions?

Here is a sneak peek at their Genealogy and Family History offerings.

What:  WCGS visits SLNC
When: Dec.10, 10am - 12pm
Where: 109 East Jones St.

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Member Spotlight: Barbara McGeachy will teach Genealogy Basics class at OLLI in March

OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at NorthCarolina State University.  It is open to anyone age 50 or over; no affiliation with NCSU is required.  Membership is $50 per year and allows you to take classes, go on study trips, and attend Special Interest Groups.

Barbara McGeachy is a longtime WCGS member, teacher and friend. She is my very knowledgeable go to person when I am stumped for a new research resource or technique. It is your great good fortune that she is teaching this “Genealogy- Starting with the Basics” class in a couple months. Her class begins in March 2023.  It's a six week, 90 minutes per session  class taught at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh.  Registration is already open so sign up now if you are interested. 

Here is a little bit more about the class from an OLLI email feature:

Interested in exploring your family history?  OLLI has two perfect opportunities for you! First is our spring course “Genealogy- Starting with the Basics” taught by Barbara McGeachy. This course will teach you how to research your family history in the U.S. You will discuss what records are available and where to find them, which websites and software programs are best, and how DNA can help. Find out how to record and analyze the information you find. 

If this course doesn’t mesh with your schedule or if you have already started researching your family tree, join the Family History Group! Also led by Barbara McGeachy, members exchange information about genealogical searches and resources. Contact barbnral@gmail.com for more information. This Special Interest Group tends to meet on Friday mornings at the McKimmon Center.

If you are well into your genealogical journey, this is a great chance to have a reset moment to add in all those details and techniques you wish you had known about as a newbie. If you are just starting out or have a friend who is interested in genealogy but timid to get started, this is a perfect opportunity to start on the right track. 

Check out the OLLI course book for details and pricing. You will be surprised at all the classed offered!

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Wake Wednesday - Wake Forest Christmas c. 1875

I have shared this before, but I just love this account of Christmas in Wake Forest in 1875.

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Visit the Wake Forest Museum Blog for the full story of Christmas from the students point of view. It was too difficult for some to travel home at that time and they left to their own devices for merry making! Local residents took them in for the holidays. In addition to the traditional Christmas activities, the students spent their time at Tackey Parties and Night Suppers. Travel back in time here!

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Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Celebration and Tradition in North Carolina

Thanksgiving as we know it was not celebrated in North Carolin until 1849. Read about the history and evolution of the traditions at this article from NCDNCR.

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WCGS sends best wishes. May you have a bountiful and peaceful Thanksgiving where ever you are.

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Wake Wednesday - Guest Post from George Thomas - More Wake Migration

George Thomas is working his magic again with records and maps. Enjoy another Wake centric post as he tracks the westward migration of early Wake settlers. This time to parts in Cabarrus and Stanly counties. Read George's post here - A RIDE DOWN PINE BLUFF IN CABARRUS COUNTY

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Attention researchers for these families - 

Reed 

Keiser 

Howell 

Teeter 

Barker 

Byrd 

 

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