Family Collections
All Black Crew, Pea Island Life Saving Station
Keeper Richard Etheridge (on left) and the Pea Island Life-Saving crew in front of their station, circa 1896. Pea Island, North Carolina.
undated, Photographer Unknown
According to the description of a similar scene, these stations "housed courageous men who risked their lives to rescue those who fell prey to the dangerous waters."
Source: UNC-Chapel Hill Library
Boyd Family
Escaped Slave Joins Co K, 37th Regt., USCI
AUTHOR: Kenneth Whitehurst
My great-great-grandfather Toney Boyd was a slave of Frederick Boyd at a place called Long Acres near Bath, NC in Beaufort County. He married my great-great grandmother Harriett Ann Windley, a slave of John Windley also near Bath in Beaufort County, NC, with permission of their owners around 1850. In 1862, they escaped first to Washington, NC after it was captured by the Union forces and in 1864 made their way to James City outside of New Bern, NC.
Cain Family
"This is a picture of my oldest known ancestor, my great-great grandmother on my mother's side -- Winnie Weaver Cain.
From the census it appears that she was born around 1861 in Orange County NC which later became part of Durham County.
I recently found a cancelled deed dated 1866 due to the Emancipation Proclamation which freed her and several others in the household.
Cain, Weaver, Page, Harris, Mack, McMannen
YOU'RE INVITED TO AN EVENT OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Tuesday 9 am Dec. 13, 2022 at Orange County Courthouse
If your ancestors once resided (were free & enslaved) at Pleasant Grove Plantation or Cain Plantation (Hardscrabble), you're invited to the ownership transfer of a newly discovered grave site thought to be where many of our ancestors may be buried.
Crosslin Family
We would like to introduce you to some family history we've added to our collection provided by Doc Crosslin. It is our pleasure to preserve and make available to all this Crosslin family history.
From Dr. Gloria Crosslin:
"Hi to The G.C. and Frances Hawley Museum. My mom’s legacy is that she’s a Civil Rights Champion for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII against employment discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 establishes methods of securing relief for individuals complaining of discrimination in employment.
Cumbo Family
A Mixed-Race, Mixed-Marriage
From the Cumbo Family Website
Posted on May 6, 2016
Images & narrative by Andre Kearns
Left image: Edward Biggs, likely born in Martin or Bertie County, North Carolina between 1867 and 1870. Edward Bigg’s father, based on his death certificate was a man named Kader Biggs, one of the larger slave owners in Bertie County, North Carolina. His mother Sarah Peele was a bi racial woman born into slavery around 1848 in Bertie.
Deshong Family
Deshong Family Photo Collection
Album description
Four Glass plate negatives depicting members of the family of Nathaniel DESHONG (1790-1871) of Alamance County.
Three of the negatives are copy work in which small gem sized portrait photographs were copied eight to a plate and likely date from c.1880s-1890s.
Early Free People Of Color In Chatham County, NC
Top image: Portrait of George W. and Asenanth Jane Allen Burnett, gg-grandparents of Calvin Dark, who provided the photo.
Middle image: Portrait of Cyrus and Eliza White Bowden.
Photo provided by their gg-grandson Calvin Dark.
Bottom image: Surnames were those recorded as heads of free Black and Mulatto households
in Chatham County in the 1850 U.S. Census.
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Ezekiel Black's Last Will and Testament from 1831- Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Note: For those doing family research, the will's of enslaver's are good documents to look through.
"I will and direct that the Negro Boy Frank given in my will unto my Son Ezekiel—now deceased, be Sold to my Executors, and the money equally divided among my children—to wit—Eli, Thomas, Joseph, and Betsy—now the wife of Jonathan T. Maxwell."
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Free People Of Color In Halifax County, N.C.
A chart showing that by 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Halifax and Pasquotank Counties had the highest population of free Blacks in North Carolina. Of the 2452 free Blacks in Halifax County that year, 192 of them lived within the Halifax town limits.
Source: NC Historic Sites
Free People of Color in Slaveholding North Carolina: The Andersons of Granville County-Part 2/2
Left Image: Reward Ad for Baldy Kersey a free person of color from Oxford, Granville County, NC.
Source: From the Daily Conservative, Oct. 7, 1864. Courtesy Kianga Lucas
Right photograph: Baldy Kersey's nephew, John Thomas Tyler (1862-1943), son of William Tyler Jr. and Sally Kersey. One of many Granville Co. citizens who registered to vote under the Grandfather Clause. Who, like Wm. Tyler, protested KKK outrages during Reconstruction.
Halifax County Slavery Petitions - State: North Carolina Year: 1785-Location: Halifax County
Researched and compiled by: Deloris Williams for the NCGenWeb Project, Inc.
Following are abstracts of petitions filed by Halifax County citizens from the Digital Library on American Slavery Collection. These records include the names of many slaves and can be very valuable for those researching their slave ancestors. I've included the outcome of the petition if it was indicated in the record.
-Deloris Williams
Halifax County Slavery Petitions- State: North Carolina Year: 1790- Location: Chowan County
Researched and compiled by: Deloris Williams for the NCGenWeb Project, Inc.
Following are abstracts of petitions filed by Halifax County citizens from the Digital Library on American Slavery Collection. These records include the names of many slaves and can be very valuable for those researching their slave ancestors. I've included the outcome of the petition if it was indicated in the record.
-Deloris Williams
Hester and Smallwood Families
RICHARD SMALLWOOD --- THE HAYTI CONNECTION
Gospel legend Richard Smallwood is known the world over for his prolific musical creations and his mesmerizing performances. But what is less known is his connection to Hayti and his Durham relatives, one of whom is his cousin Denise Hester.
Jefferson Family
COUSINS.
Written by Lucian K. Truscott IV
"You are looking at a photograph of me and my cousin Shannon Lanier. It’s a photograph that illustrates why the 1619 Project is such a white supremacist’s nightmare, teaching that racism and slavery played a major role in the founding of this nation. It’s a photograph of the truth exposed, at least in part, by critical race theory, an academic discipline that teaches the same thing. It is not only a photograph, it is a fact. It is history staring you in the face, history in flesh and blood, history that cannot be rewritten, cannot be buried, cannot be denied, because we are alive to tell it.
K.C. Williams Family Part I
Picture #1: This is my great-great-grandfather, Rev. Abram B. Williams (Alice's husband). He was born January 1842 in Washington County, NC, near the Somerset Plantation, to Jack and Eliza Williams. He was the father of nine children, a cotton farmer, minister, and founder of Whiteville Grove A.M.E Zion Church in Hertford, NC. He died November 29, 1918, in Greenville, NC, at age 76. This picture was taken at a conference for the Eastern NC A.M.E Zion District in 1898 in New Bern, NC.
Kornegay Family
Image description:
NEW BERN, NC April 17, 1819
50 Dollars Reward
Ran Away From Subscriber,
In December Last, A Negro man named,
NERO,
About 30 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches high, of stout make and yellowish complexion,
has an impediment in his speech, is insolent in his address, and has lost one of his upper teeth.
Mr. Carter Walker Wesley
Note: We are grateful that Mr. Preston Middleton a grandson of Mr. Carter W. Wesley reached out to us providing this information about his grandfather so we could add it to our Family Collection. His mother is Dolores Wesley, one of the three children of Carter and Doris Wesley.
Outlaw and Smallwood Families
We, #Irememberourhistory would like to share with our community some information about the Outlaw and Smallwood families who originally are from Merry Hill, NC.
Samantha Dorm has been researching for years her family's genealogy and has amassed a treasure of information.
She and others are also researching the migration of the Black people buried in Lebanon Cemetery in York, PA.
Platt Family
The Lookout
This is my great-grandma, Christina Levant Platt at age 100, weeding her garden. She was born into slavery. Her “owner” was a wife that taught my great grandma to read and write secretly, which was illegal and quite dangerous at that time for both of them. She learned to read the Bible.
She had 11 children, she lost two, one son was one of the first black attorneys in US. She sent the 4 boys to college in Boston.
The African American Genealogy Resources Guide Part 1
From This Website:
A guide for connecting you with resources for finding your African American ancestors
The African American Genealogy Resources Guide Part 1 will connect you with various online resources that may assist in your African American research endeavors.
The Chowan Discovery Group: Documenting the Mixed-Race History of North Carolina’s “Winton Triangle”
Right top: During the Civil War, Sgt. Parker D. Robbins fought for the Union with the 2nd Cavalry of the U.S. Colored Troops.
Photo courtesy Benj. Gary Robbins and Marvin T. Jones.
Left bottom: Elf and Annie Jones Family, circa 1914.
Photo courtesy of Alice Jones Nickens and Marvin T. Jones
The Pea Island Life Savers And The Cookhouse
Background: The Outer Banks has the distinction of being home to one of the most highly awarded rescue crews in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard, the all-Black surfmen of Pea Island Lifesaving Station who earned Gold Lifesaving Medals posthumously for valiance protecting mariners in peril along our coast.
Tucker Family
Photograph: Three Generations of Documented Military Service Surrounded by family members, William A. Tucker a WWII and Vietnam veteran (center) accepts Butler Medal posthumously for Thomas Bell while holding the burial flag of his great grandfather Willie Bell a Spanish American War veteran.
Walking in Proud Shoes: Pauli Murray’s Family Genealogy Story
"The past is the key of the present and the mirror of the future. Therefore let us adopt as a rule to judge the future by the history of the past, and having the key of past experience that has opened the door to present success and future happiness."
Written by Robert Fitzgerald, Dr. Rev. Pauli Murray’s grandfather, July 1867 in his diary.
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