And you thought collateral reading was just for college students!

Collateral reading. . .
Have you ever noticed how one book flows into the next? I mean if you're serious about research, you're checking all the references and end notes and traveling along a path covered with titles and authors, which in turn could end up in an InterLibrary loan list a mile long! The trick is to know when to stop searching & start writing.

Before starting this part of the project, I outlined what information I already had and made a list of objectives. That list is growing smaller. . . but there still is room to grow. . . . Today I returned two ILLs and requested one more: David Henry Bradley's A History of the A. M. E. Zion Church.

Amy Muse's The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort (1941) didn't offer much to help with details of the churches in Township 5; but I did pick up a bit of information on travel and living conditions of that era, as well as a sampling of insights about conditions in the church circuit.

Update on church charters in NC. . .
Both repositories questioned offered the similar answers:

The North Carolina State Archives' genealogy reference librarian referred me to Helen Leary's North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History's (with which I am already well acquainted): search Livingstone College's archives in Salisbury...however, we've already determined that the archives is closed, in disrepair, and lacking an archivist...
Both the North Carolina State Archives' and New Bern-Craven County Public Library's special collections librarians referred me to the church...however, it has already been determined that documents prior to 1913 were lost in a church fire...
The last and only option left would be to search the annual conference reports...as stated above, the AME Zion records held at Livingstone College are not available; however, the early Methodist Episcopal Church records, 1784-1984, are available at Duke University's archives. So, this last possible solution will have to wait until I can plan a research trip to Durham, NC...

Conclusions...
It seems that I have yet to complete my reading of Dark Salvation, followed by William E. Montgomery's Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South 1865-1900 (1993), followed by Christopher Rush's A Short Account of the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, John Jamison Moore's History of the A. M. E. Zion Church in America, J. W. Hood's One hundred years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and finally, Bradley's A History of the A. M. E. Zion Church.

Comments

Honoring our Ancestors: Free Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War

When I was first contacted last October to assist in some research for a member of the DAR who was looking for the burial ground of her ancestor, Isaac Carter, I had no idea it would lead to such a wonderful tribute--with full honors--to our free black ancestors of Craven County, North Carolina. Nor would I have guessed that I would be meeting together with Ms. Maria William Cole, National Vice Chairman Insignia, of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and a host of other dignitaries, from the highest officials of the SAR to state and local political and community service leaders, to pay tribute to these patriots. The turnout exceeded my expectation when this event proceeded on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, with close to a hundred and fifty people or more, seated on folding chairs under three canopy tents. The microphone cable lay along the wet grass and soon died out, and we, the speakers, were asked to use our "mother's voices" to make o

How Family History Writing Forces Us to Dig DEEPER

February is Family History Writing Month During the month of February, I went on hiatus from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter in order to participate in the Family History Writing Challenge. My goal was quite ambitious, but I did succeed in setting up the framework of the family history memoir, and wrote a rough draft of the opening scenes. The memoir focuses on a promise I had made to our Cousin Hattie Carter Becton in an interview, following the the 2009 George Family Reunion in North Harlowe, North Carolina. In case you missed the Challenge, you can find the posts here . The site was developed especially for writing challenges, beginning with this year's; so, you may want to go back to the first posts in the archive. March was memoir reading, research & development month Last month I continued working on the writing, but also began focusing on webinars and YouTube videos related to writing memoir. Two really great sites are National Association of Memoir Writ

Those Places Thursday -- Robert Livingston House, Little River, SC

In July of 2008 we attended the Prince Livingston Family Reunion in Wampee, Horry County, South Carolina (my husband's maternal family). During our down time we decided to take a drive through Little River where the plantation owner, Robert Livingston, had once lived. We inquired at the Visitor Center, and learned that the Robert Livingston House had been preserved as an historical landmark. The brochure we received listed several different sites that interested us, but the Livingston House was our first destination. We drove along Highway 17S and drove past the turn off for Lakeside Drive. At the next light we turned around and headed back down the highway until we came to the street. About two-thirds of the way down the road we saw a sign along the roadside: 19th Century Victorian Home for Sale. Was that the house? The number on the mail box was 4441. That's it! We got out of the car and looked around only to find that the owner was at home, and he was in the process

In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy

Search This Blog