Surname Saturday -- Carter & Cully

This evening, as I was looking over a timeline that I had created for my husband's grandfather, Hezekiah Carter, I noticed that one of the witnesses at his first marriage was G.W. Cully. Since connecting with Yvette Porter Moore of Digging Roots: My Family History, my eye has become keen to any Cully connections in our family documents.

Hezekiah Carter; Marriage Register, Volume 6, pp. 65-66; Craven County Register of Deeds, Craven County, NC.

The marriage license was issued on October 20, 1896 to Hezekiah Carter, age 25, Colored, and to Stella Cannady, age 25, Colored. They were married on October 22, 1896 by the Rev. A.F. Mitchell in Township No. 6. Witnesses were M. F. [Omm], GW Cully, and CC Godett.

GW Cully. The first thing I checked was the Census record on Ancestry.com. What I discovered was even more interesting than I had anticipated.

George W. Cully's age was recorded as 5/12; however, the Census was recorded on August 20, 1870 and his month of birth is recorded as January. . . which would make him abt. eight months old. His parents were  William (35) and Nancy (33) Cully; his siblings: Sarah (9), Ambrose (7), Melvina (4), and Mary (2). 

The 1880 Census shows the William & Nancy Culley household with two servants: Matilda Carter and Mary J. Canady. At that time, the children at home were Ambrose (18), Melvina (14), and George [H.] (10).

Recently, Yvette had posted on Facebook a photo of her grandmother Agnes and her older brother, Osborne Ambrose Cully (b. March 29, 1899; d. young). Hmmmm . . . another clue. The 1900 Census shows that the Cully family, which had migrated to the Worcester, MA area before 1900, lived on Eastern Ave. The family consisted of: Ambrose (b. Apr. 1866), his wife Nora (b. Nov. 1870), and children: S. Hannah (b. Dec. 1890), F. Sarah (b. Jan 1891), E. William (b. Jan 1893), E. Kate (b. Oct 1895), A. Osborne (b. March 1899), and M. Agnus (b. May 1900).

It appears that it was Yvette's great grand uncle, George W. Cully, who was one of the witnesses 

at 

Hezekiah Carter's marriage to his first wife, Stella Canady.

Amanuensis Monday -- The Estate of Abel Carter

[NOTE: Abel Carter was my husband's 4th Great Grandfather. Special thank you to Michaud Robinson who found this document and notified me of its existence on FamilySearch: Craven County Estates 1740-1870; pp. 75-77. Previously I had believed that he had died abt. 1795. Here his Inventory is made in 1807.]

                                         June 13 Day 1807

The Estate of Abel Carter Deceased the Count of Said

one Case with bottles to Wm Dove JunR     1--17--6

11 pewter Spoons to John Fenner                0--7--6

one Case & one Vial to Richard Morris Junr 0--9--6

one hackle and mouse traps to John Fenner  0--2--6

two Slays and 1 Guears to Isaac Jesop         0--5--6

one Adds and howel to Jacob Dove             0--6--0

one plain and Drawing knife to John Fenner 0--0--2

one peck to                    George Jesop        0--3--0

one pail and kealer to Wm Howard              0--7--0

one tub one pail to Alexander Thomson        0--2--0

one Gun to Kelser Bradick                          2--0--6

one Earthenpot to Jamesann Godett             2--2--0

one wedge to Silas Richards                        0--5--0

three hoes to John Fenner                           0--8--6

three Razors and Shaving Box to Kelser Braddick     8--0

one hat to. . . Jacob Moore                         0--7--0

wooling wheel without Rim Wm Howard     0--1--0

one pail of trumpery to Jeffery Sampson      0--5--6

two pot trammels to John Fenner                 0--4--0

one Spider to Silas Richards                        0--10--0

two Mugs to Lainah Howard                       0--2--6

one Cup to Wm Physoc                              0--8--0

                                                                 ______

                                                                 8  18  2

one Earthen Bole to Silas Richards               0--2--5

Lot of Crockery wair to Wm Howard           0--8--0

Spice morter to Abel Moore                         0--2--6

one Barrel to Richard Morris Junr                 0--5--0

one hammer to Wm Physiock                       0--3--6

one Ax to Wm Howard                                0--12--6

one hatchet to Jacob Moore                          0--7--6

one Dish and three plates Willy Cully             0--7--0

one Cagg to Jeffery Sampson                        0--4--0

one Bason to [crossed out] Wm Physiock      0--1--6

one Case and other things to Richard Mooris  0--1--0

one Jug to John Fenner                                 0--0--6

one Chest and all that is in to to George Jesop 0--10--0

three powder horns to Kelser Bradick             0--1--0

two pare kneedles to Wm Howard                  0--2--0

knives and forks Wm Howard                        0--2--0

one Cagg to Richard Morris                            0--3--6

one Case and trumpery Richard Morris            0--1--

one pot to Jamesann Godett                            0--5--0

                                                                    _______

                                                                    12--18--8

one pot [crossed out] to Jno Fenner                  0--1--6

three Bottles to Wm Physioc                            0--1--0

Fish hooks Alexander Thompson                      0--3--6

Cagg of trumpery to Wm Physioc                     0--1--6

one Bible to Silas Richards                               0--8--0

one Cagg and Trumpery to Wm Physioc           0--0--6

one hand Saw to John Fenner                           0--12--0

one Bed to Wm Dove Junr                               10--10--0

                                                                      _______

                                                                      28--17--2

Sotd By John Fenner [unreadable]

Treasure Chest Thursday -- Beginning an inventory, Part 2

A couple weeks ago I started inventorying the treasures I received following my Dad's death in 2004.

1. As I unfolded the flaps, a green binder labeled Photographs . . . dated between September 1955 and about 1962. 



Courtesy of Hobbizine.com

2. The next item came in a heavy cardboard tube, yellowed with age, with white,  metal caps on each end. Affixed to the tube was a Parcel Post label: From Registrar's Office, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. To: Mr. Richard A. Newton, 1960 North Road, Vestal, New York. FIRST CLASS. Affixed to the upper right hand corner was a forty-cent John Marshall stamp, postmarked: LEHIGH VALLEY, OCT 19 PM [unreadable] PA. Inside was my Dad's rolled-up Master's Degree and tassels, which he had never displayed.

Wondering why Dad had received his Master's on October 9, 1966 while living in Vestal, NY, I called Mom for some insight. 

Dad had taught at Pleasant Valley High School from 1961-1966, when we relocated to New York State . . . close to where my Dad grew up. While teaching in Pennsylvania, he attended graduate school nights and summers. He graduated just before we relocated to Vestal, NY; and since he did not attend commencement, his degree was mailed to him.

Upon relocating, he had to apply for New York State  teacher certification, which meant he needed additional coursework to be completed at the State University of New York at Binghamton. There he took Photographic Design and 3-Dimensional Design. Mom said they liked his work so much they were going to offer him an Associate Professorship, but his Master's Degree was in Education, rather than Art.

Dad was very talented in many areas, receiving degrees and certifications in various fields, but never really found his niche in life. His passion was in Art Psychology and Guidance, but never found an opportunity to work in that field. Instead, he taught Drafting and Art in the public schools for twenty years.

Richard Allen Newton
(1933-2004)
1st year teaching, circa 1960
Pleasant Valley High School
Broadheadsville, PA

Wednesday's Child -- Nichelle Rae Carter

Our baby girl.

 (Photos taken September 2008
on our last trip back to Northampton, MA. 

Spring Grove Cemetery is in Florence, MA.)

Going Backward to Move Ahead: 6 steps toward a well-documented family history

For my birthday this year, one of the gifts I received was a T-shirt with the logo Family History Detective on the front. That says it all.

Among my favorite detectives are Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, and Hercule Poirot. Each has a unique style for getting to the truth of a mystery; but they always  pursue the clues, and in the end expose the truth.

Being a genealogist is a bit like being a detective. We search for clues...make inquiries...check sources...and follow the trail back to the place where it all began.

If you're like me and you've been researching your family for some time, you've accumulated files and binders and notebooks galore! You may have worked on a particular aspect of your research in the early years, and now find that you must access and re-examine some of that information for a lead in your current explorations. Such was the case last night.

Back in 2005 I received four reels of microfilm from the Library of Virginia on Inter-Library Loan. The condition of the Virginia documents was much worse when they were microfilmed than those of Massachusetts. Parts of the pages had been torn or blotted out, and ink had faded in places. Parts of the document were very difficult to read. I recall completing the transcription, and I thought I had printed the document. . .

. . . but last night when I pulled the file box and notebooks 

containing my Virginia sources and notes, 

I could not find the Will, nor could I find the transcription!

It's been  six years since reading the Will of Ann Southey Littleton, and nearly four-and-a-half years since we relocated to Western North Carolina. It could be anywhere. At any rate, it seems that I will have to re-order the microfilm.

There are several things you can do to use 

all your existing clues to work back to the original sources, 

and avoid having to retrace your steps later.

• When you find a clue that sets you on the path to solving your mystery, check the author's sources. On our first visit to Craven County, NC I had photocopied  the Carter, George and Cannady sections of Paul Heinegg's book, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and made notes on the sources he used. In this case, it appeared that he relied mainly on county records: apprentice indentures, county court minutes, and deeds.

• Always look for a means to contact the author. The online version of this book included a note: "Send questions and comments to . . . ." Sometimes authors have their own website to promote their books, or their publisher or agent may have a page devoted to their client where they are willing to act as an intermediary for them. I have contacted authors by all these means, and for the most part they usually write back. On September 9, 2005, Paul Heinegg wrote, 

"I did that research when I was first starting about 20 years ago. At that time I used  Joseph Douglas Deal's PhD thesis,  Race and Class in Colonial Virginia: Indians, Englishmen and Africans on the Eastern Shore during the Seventeenth Century. Years later I went back and ordered the microfilms from the Library of Virginia. . . . "

• If you're as lucky as I was to discover a source not mentioned previously, go directly to that source, and check it's sources. While I had learned of Deal's dissertation  in 2005, it wasn't until this year (2011) that I was able to locate a copy of the book for my own collection. While Paul was gracious enough to email me scans of the chapters on the Carter and George families, having the original source right in front of me provided critical analysis of the original texts found in Virginia county records. 

• If you have access to Ancestry.com's public member trees . . . look for a well-sourced tree containing your ancestors and contact the owner of the tree. Sometimes, not only will you find new leads, you may learn of a rootsweb surname list that will widen your opportunity for clues. Make sure to print out or save to disk all emails pertaining to your research. Years later, if you need to retrace your steps, these are very valuable. From one member of the LITTLETON-L, I was informed that:

"CARTAR or Carter was a family name somewhere . . . ."

And another reports: 

"My family who are descendants of Littleton's carry a Carter middle name as a family name so lost in the past. My father carried the name as David Carter Wood." 

• Keep following the trail until you come upon a primary source . . . one that was written by an eye-witness. In this case, it would be wills, deeds, and court minutes; but the greatest find would be a slave ledger, a ship's manifest, or a diary. 

• At every step of the search, document--document--document. While researching my New England ancestors on microfilm, I had the foresight to keep each print in an archival sleeve, tagged with a label: 

While I am usually very careful in my documentation, I can at times neglect this important step. I hope this helps you to prevent the pit-fall which I have stumbled into. 

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 of completing restoration of the house. He gave us a guided tour...and we learned that Robert Livingston had been Little River's Postmaster. 

My husband relished the idea of the descendants of slaves becoming the owners of their slave master's house...possibly turning it into a bed and breakfast...but it was a dream.

In the rear of the house was what first appeared to be a shed, but upon closer examination proved much more. The rough wood structure served many purposes over the years...a lodging...a jail...slave quarters...But the sign about Washington's horse was truly amazing! 

Tombstone Tuesday -- Lucinda F. Culley Carter

Last Tuesday the blog featured the headstone of Martha Ann Carter Cully. This week's Tombstone Tuesday features Lucinda Francis Culley Carter. This headstone was from the collection of photographs by Harrison David Carter, taken at Piney Grove Cemetery in North Harlowe, Craven, NC in 2005.

Lucinda F. (CULLEY) CARTER
15 Sept 1904 - 19 Dec 1979
Piney Grove Cemetery

I wanted to find out how Martha Ann and Lucinda were related...


Lucinda Culley was already in my database. She was the youngest child of  James H. and Lucinda (Dove) Culley, Joe B.'s little sister. . . or,

Martha's aunt.

I was able to locate a record for Martha Ann's Aunt Lucinda in the North Carolina Marriage Collection, 1741 - 2004, at Ancestry.com:

Lucinda Culley (age 37) 

married 

Herbert Carter (age 21) 

on 24 May 1943 

in Harlowe, Carteret, North Carolina 

That would place Lucinda's year of birth at about 1906. It was close. But, there were no official birth records kept in North Carolina until 1914, so one must allow for a margin of error in a year of birth.

The marriage record proved the Carter connection, but I had never heard of a Herbert Carter in our tree. Yet in Craven County, people with the Carter surname are bound to be related somewhere . . . so, next I tried to find Herbert Carter in the Census to determine his position in the family tree.

Since Lucinda and Herbert weren't married until 1943, I would only be able to find Herbert living with his parents. Without much trouble, I was able to locate Herbert in the household of Willie E. & Sophie J. Carter. The aggregate Census record for the family group looks like this:

Willie E. Carter, b. June 1877

Sophie J. (wife), b. abt. 1878

CH:

1. Sarah, b. abt. 1901 (1930, 1920, 1910)

2. Rebecca, b. abt. 1904 (1920, 1910)

3. Elisha, b. abt. 1906 (1910)

4. James, b. abt. 1908 (1930, 1920, 1920)

5. LeRoy, b. abt. 1911 (1920)

6. W. R., b. abt. 1913 (1930)

7. David, b. abt. 1914 (1930, 1920)

When I checked the Craven County Register of Deeds Index, I discovered three additional children: 

8. Charlotte, b. 1915

9. Edward, b. 1918

10. Herbert Lee, b. 1921.

I also discovered that Sophie's maiden name was Sophia Jane Fenner. 

With all this information, it seemed that the relationship between Martha Ann and her Aunt Lucinda was not the real mystery here, but                  . . . what was Martha Ann's double relationship 

to Uncle Herbert Lee Carter?

I traced back through the generations till I could find a common ancestor:

Martha Ann¹⁰ (Malachi⁹, Isaac ^{8,7, 6}, Abel⁵, John⁴, Thomas^{3, 2}, Paul¹) Carter

Herbert Lee¹⁰ (Willie E.⁹, Rufus L.⁸, William⁷, Isaac⁶, Abel⁵, John⁴, Thomas ^{3, 2}, Paul¹) Carter

Martha Ann and her Uncle Herbert Lee Carter 

were also 3rd Cousins!

Double relationships are quite common in geographically isolated areas. I have found many for the Carters, Georges and Moores; but, this is the FIRST time I have found an uncle who was also a cousin.


Correction:
Since writing this post, I have been given new information from a cousin, Michaud Robinson, who has clarified a confusion over which Willie Carter is in consideration here. Michaud writes:

William Edgar Carter is the son of George Carter and Nancy Willoughby. His wife is Sophia Jane Carter, daughter of Charlotte Carter and Eddie George. They were married 10 Sept 1899. George Carter is my g-g grandfather's brother. Willie Carter the son of Rufus and Nancy Godette married Henrietta Cooper 19 May 1901. Willie and Henrietta's children are listed on the quit claim deed. Rufus Sr. also has had another son named William H. Carter.

One thing that is great about blogging is that it gets the whole family involved in examining the research and honing our relationships within out trees. Many thanks to Michaud, who is a frequent contributor to my research!

Now, what does this new information mean to the relationships above?

Herbert Lee¹⁰ (William Edgar⁹, George⁸, .....⁷, .....⁶, .....⁵, .....⁴, ..... ^{3, 2}, Paul¹) Carter

More to come in the days to follow as  I re-examine new documents to prove them. 

Treasure Chest Thursday -- Beginning an inventory

When I researched my New England Ancestors, the inventories which followed the Last Will and Testament always intrigued me. One such inventory of Fearnot King of Westfield, Mass.begins:

February 12: 1702/3. The Inventory of the Estate of Fearnot King Deceased Was Taken by us Whose Names are Under written. [Saml Root, Saml Taylor, Saml Fowler]

The one and one-half page inventory consists of 59 line items, including the House valued at 15 pounds, 4 tracts of land valued at 49 pounds; one yoke of oxen, 3 cows, 3 heifers, one horse, a mare and colt, one mare more, 10 sheep and 5 swine with a combined value of 29 pounds 40 shillings; one gun and one sword valued at 3 pounds 2 shillings; 2 hats, one cloak and other apparel valued at 7 pounds 2 shillings; 3 saw mill saws valued at 6 pounds; and so on and so forth. . .

For several days I had been thinking about which family treasure I should describe for today's blog post. And then, today, as I stood in the doorway to the walk-in closet which houses documents, brochures, maps, baby books, photo and slide albums, and family reunion booklets, I still could not decide which treasure to share. 

Among the inventoried file boxes are several uninventoried cardboard boxes. Today I pulled out one of the boxes I received from my Mom after Dad died in 2004, and started making an inventory of all my treasures. It looks like this may become a series of blog posts as I share with you my journey into preservation.

As I unfolded the flaps, a green binder labeled Photographs sat on top. Inside were five black and two grey pasteboard pages with ten horizontal strips where double-sided photo protectors were once attached. With age the strips became brittle and the protector sheets are now loose, sandwiched in a jumble between the pasteboard pages.

The square, black and white photos were dated between September 1955 and about 1962. Obviously, I need to get an archival album for these treasures. Some of the photos are family portraits, others were taken when Dad was stationed at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC, and others when he toured Europe and North Africa with the Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps. Some of these I recognize . . . but for others I will need assistance in identifying them.

Below is a small selection of these photographs. Some could be American sites, and others from overseas. Please feel free to assist me in identifying some of these world sites.

Wordless Wednesday -- Charles Spencer Livingston Homeplace: Then and Now

 Charles Spencer Livingston Homeplace, circa 1943
Whiteville, Columbus, North Carolina

This is the original home place.
It burned down and was rebuilt years ago.

Charles Spencer Livingston Homeplace in 2010

Tombstone Tuesday--Martha Ann Carter Culley

I had never realized how much participating in GeneaBlogger's Tombstone Tuesday would benefit my research in connecting family relations between those whom I've met at family reunions, and the generations which have predeceased us.

This week I am examining the headstone of Martha Ann (Carter) Culley. I had received a CD of photos from my brother-in-law, Harrison David Carter, of the 2005 George Family Reunion which my husband and I were unable to attend. The last section of photos on the CD were labeled, "Headstone Pics from Piney Grove Cemetery."

I checked my Family Tree Heritage database and discovered that Martha Ann Carter was the daughter of Malachi & and Emma Jennettie (Fisher) Carter. Malachi was my grandfather-in-law's younger brother; the family relationships look like this:

Through communications with Yvette Porter Moore of Digging Roots: My Family History, I am led to believe that we are connected through our 2nd Cousin by marriage, Joseph Benjamin "Joe B." Culley,  and Ambrose Culley. After consulting with another Carter/Culley cousin, Michaud Robinson, we are led to believe that they were first cousins.

Ben and Ambrose must be first cousins. Their fathers, James and William Cully, were apprenticed on the same day and always lived close to each other. James and William might have had other siblings. There is an Eliza and Adam Cully who are close in age to them.

More to come. . . 

Church Record Sunday -- A Call for Volunteers

While researching the descendants of Capt. John KING of Hartford, CT and Northampton, MA, I thoroughly appreciated the availability of Church history resources found at Forbes Library. At the link provided, you can search finding aids, including the Guide to Microfilm Resources at Forbes Library. A few highlights include the following, among many others:

• The Judd Manuscript (reel 15H) records marriages by Mr. Hooker;
• The First Church of Christ, Northampton (reels 22-23) includes Church records from the Old 1st Book (1661-1846) and 3rd Book (thru 1924), list of members. Original record books are kept in the Hampshire Room for Local History and Genealogy;
• First Baptist Church, Northampton, MA (reel 160) includes the Church clerk's records, Church covenant, constituent membership list, detailed meeting records, and a brief history of events leading up to the founding of the church (1826-1848);

In addition to microfilmed and original manuscripts are bound, typewritten transcriptions from the original manuscripts. These were largely compiled by members of The Daughters of the American Revolution, who volunteered their time to preserve and distribute local Church history. Two which I used quite frequently are:

• Congregational Church Records, Southampton, Massachusetts, 1743-1937;
• Church Records of the Town of Chesterfield, Massachusetts, 1st Book, 1762-1820.

Since Northampton was the beginning point of my genealogical gleanings, I had taken for granted that most communities were as rich in Church history resources as Massachusetts towns were; but when I moved South, I found that few churches, especially African-American churches, had such well-preserved records available to the public. 

My research focus for the past four years has been on Craven County, North Carolina. I have found that New Bern-Craven County Public Library houses numerous books of Church records for Virginia, and some for South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticutt, and even Barbados. 

In the Vertical Files Subject Headings one finds several headings for churches, but only one for AME Zion, with no particular churches listed. 

Among the microfilmed records appear several collections for Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. . . . but none for AME Zion churches.

In speaking with several cousins who attend or have held office in the African-American churches of the Havelock, NC area, I discovered that early records do not exist largely because of the following factors:

• lower levels of literacy during the Reconstruction period,
• fires which destroyed records,
• and church secretaries and officers who had limited foresight in the value of such records in the years to come, who either didn't keep good records, or disposed of them.

Of all the African-American churches located in the Havelock area, only one--Piney Grove AME Zion Church-- has a website, and offers a brief historical account of its founding and development. There is, however, no comparison between such an account and the church records made available of white churches, and especially those of the North, and of New England.

It is my hope that someone with ties to the following churches would have the desire and foresight to gather the existing church records into a manuscript, similar to those created by members of the DAR, so that generations of history are not lost forever:

Craven Corner Missionary Baptist,

Green Chapel Missionary Baptist Church,

Hyman Chapel, 

Pilgrim Rest United Church of Christ, and

Piney Grove AME Zion Church.

"Re"- Sorting Saturday--Digging to expand on church history

When I first relocated from Southern New England to Western North Carolina, I spent every day I had off from work, and some nights after work when I got out early enough to take the bus into town, at Pack Memorial Library on Haywood Street in Asheville. I treated each visit as though my last was not too far ahead... I believe this was due to the previous six months when I had to prepare to relocate from Northampton, MA to Asheville, NC. My KING ancestors' information would remain in the North unless I could immerse myself in their records and bring them along with me.

And so I photocopied anything and everything that minutely corresponded to the history of Free Negroes in Craven County from the Colonial Period to the present. When I returned to the North Carolina Room one day, about three years into my research, the local history librarian said, "I thought you'd just about exhausted everything we had." Yes, I thought so too...but there's always some new connection...laws and Negro Codes and Jim Crow; transportation, railroads and boating; wars and battles; elections, voting and Census records; geography and geologic formations, land and platting; turpentine distillation, Craven Corn distillation and logging. . . finally religion and churches.

After pulling the boxes and sifting through the files, I was surprised to find that I had only one file labeled "Church History." This is what I discovered there:

• "Black Religion In North Carolina From Colonial Times to 1900," in The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina, Volume I, 1900, pp. 75-80.
• "The AME Zion Church celebrates its bicentennial," by Lisa Jones Townsel; [online].<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n12_v51/ai_18736489/print> Available 1 June 2007, 3 pages.
• "Historic African American Churches in Craven County, North Carolina: 1864-1947," National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, prepared by M. Ruth Little, Ph.D.
• The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, by William J. Walls. Charlotte, NC: A.M.E.Zion Publishing House, 1974.
• Francis Asbury in North Carolina: The North Carolina Portions of The Journal of Francis Asbury. Nashville, TN: The Parthenon Press. 
• History of Methodism in North Carolina, From 1772 To the Present Time [1905], by W. L. Grissom. Nashville, TN: Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 1905.
• "Some Aspects of Negro Life in North Carolina During the Civil War," by B. H. Nelson, in The North Carolina Historical Review, pp. 143-167.
• "The History of Piney Grove African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1864 thru 1992," by Eilatan. [online]. <http://pineygroveamez.tripod.com/history.html> Available 1 June 2007.
• A Guide to Researching the History of Religion in North Carolina. UNC University Libraries. [online]. <http://lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/study/religion.html> Available 14 February 2010.
• Several articles related to pulpwood, timber and lumber companies. . . How did they get in there?!

Combining these sources with the clues from emails I had recently collected, I have just enough information to barely construct a loose interpretation of what religious life was like in the isolated area of North Harlowe, Craven County, North Carolina from Colonial days through Reconstruction. 

So much information lies dormant in dusty rooms, shut off from the world because of budgetary cuts. My only hope is to connect with someone who has viewed the sources I have yet to seek and hope that they will be willing to share information. 

In the meantime, I believe I must go with what I have and begin the writing.

Funeral Card Friday--Homegoing Services

While my family has traditionally memorialized our deceased loved ones through funeral cards, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion tradition in my husband's family is a much more complete Homegoing Service program. Photos and a complete obituary mark the contributions their lives made to us and others in the community. 

Below is the Homegoing Service program for a double funeral. . . .sisters, who died a day apart. Hattie (CARTER) BECTON had been a founding member of the George Family Reunion Committee, and the first of my father-in-law's first cousins whom we met through correspondence, and then later met at the 2007 George Family Reunion. After that same reunion we were able to meet her sister, Mattie Genora CARTER, at her home. They were both very remarkable women.