Starting Fresh for the New Year

It's been a month since my last post; 

but even though I've been silent, 

I have NOT been idle!

The Conclusion of Dark Salvation
In late December I finished reading Dark Salvation, by Harry V. Richardson.While I had been summarizing my gleanings on the formation of the AME Zion Church as related to the development of post-Emancipation churches in rural Craven County, NC, the final chapters outlined:

• the fight for ordination of black pastors 
• and the continual power struggles between Methodist groups -- both black and white,

so they were omitted from the series.

Books for 2012
Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South 1865-1900, by William E. Montgomery, is the next book I'll be reading. I have not yet decided if I will post a series on this book, which focuses on the missionary efforts to rebuild the South following the Civil War.

After that I plan on checking the first-hand accounts of AME Zion Bishops Rush, Moore and Hood, as outlined below:

1. One hundred years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, by J W Hood
2. A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, by Christopher Rush
3. History of the A.M.E. Zion Church in America, by John Jamison Moore

Old discoveries lead to NEW direction . . .

Around the same time I had finished reading Dark Salvation, I started looking through the TEMPLE family history, compiled by T. J. Tolson. A curious entry -- one I know I must have read several times and overlooked -- stood out for the first time. 

Records indicate that William bought one acre of land from Cilas (sic) Richards in June 1854 for $2.00. The deed described the land as Tourneykill's Branch and purchased for a church site (p. 5).

By the first week of the New Year, I held in my hands a copy of the deed shown below:

Craven County Register of Deeds,
Deed Book 1854/Page 353

You might remember that in 1860, the Rev. William Thomas was enumerated in the William Temple household. This deed dated 1854 . . . just one year after Isaac Carter and his younger siblings had been apprenticed to William Temple . . . marked the beginnings of a house of worship for the Methodist Episcopal Church South congregation in North Harlowe. 

When does the research end and the writing begin?

At this time, the bulk of the research is completed. I will begin focusing more on adding to the timeline, and asking myself probing questions about how events in our family history impacted the lives of individuals. My key focus will be on Isaac Carter, my husband's great grandfather. 

You might remember that Civil War Pension File I obtained earlier last year . . . 

more to come . . .