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HYDE COUNTY BOOK REVIEWS
[Unless otherwise specified, all books are available here]

Landmarks of Hyde County, North Carolina
The Mainland & Ocracoke Island
by Claudia R. Brown & Duane E. Lea
Edited by J. Daniel Pezzoni
© 2007


Front Cover - Mattamuskeet Lodge


Back Cover - Ocracoke Lighthouse

Did you ever wish you could travel back in time and see how your ancestors lived?  Well, now you can!  Take a delightful journey back to the time when homes were well-built and stood the test of time and the ravages of coastal storms. This beautifully illustrated clothbound 288-page book takes you through the sixteen-mile island of Ocracoke to the small fishing and farming villages of mainland Hyde County.  The book traces more than four centuries of Hyde County's historical architectural development.  A brief history of the county is given at the beginning of the book and then is followed by an inventory of homes, churches, and business establishments in the townships in which they reside.  A brief history, architectural details, and photographs accompany most of these establishments.  There are 26 magnificent color plates in the front and in the back a glossary of architectural terms is included.  Fully indexed.  This book will do justice to any coffee table and will give you hours of pleasant reading about your Hyde County ancestors.  The price is $55.00 + $6.00 shipping.  North Carolina residents add 7% sales tax.

Capt. John Clark & Son “Major” Clark
by Joliene Byrd Clark

This is a well prepared book on the descendants of the John Clark, an early settler and merchant of the town of Bath, NC, and his son Major Clark (1727-1786) of Hyde County, North Carolina. The book is composed of descendant trees, a registry reports, kinship reports and a full name index. This is a welcome research tool for all researchers of the Clarks of Beaufort and Hyde Counties and their allied families. For those interested in obtaining this book, please contact Joliene Byrd Clark.

Ocracoke Island: Its People,
the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Base During World War II

by Earl William O'Neal, Jr.

A mere six weeks after Pearl Harbor, U.S. involvement in the Second World War became a terrible reality to natives of North Carolina's Outer Banks with the sinking of the tanker Allan Jackson just 60 miles of Cape Hatteras. The thick black smoke which streamed skyward from the burning ship on January 18, 1942, marked the end of innocence for the islanders, and in the ensuing months they observed firsthand the hardships, human toll, and devastating effects of the war effort along the Atlantic seaboard.

Mr. O'Neal's book provides a vivid description of the culture and life of Ocracoke Island both before and during the war, accompanied by a collection of 365 photographs, many never before published. With a practical historian's eye, O'Neal leads his readers through a comprehensive view of the war years. Beginning with the Navy's appropriation of land from the islanders, he proceeds to the construction and commissioning of the Navy Section Base on Ocracoke's harbor, cites events, tragedies, and anecdotes of the war, and throws in a few happy-ending stories along the way. He chronicles the ever-changing functions of the Base, details the story of the torpedoing of the HMT Bedfordshire, and provides a comprehensive listing of all the Ocracoke men and women who served in the military during the World War II. One fine aspect of the book is O'Neal's inclusion of numerous conversations and quotes from island residents as well as from Navy men stationed at the Base. These eyewitness accounts and memories are invaluable for presenting the story of a war located incredibly close to the U.S. mainland-far closer than most citizens ever suspected. Ocracoke Island: Its People, the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Base During World War II provides a fascinating window on a past era for those lovers of old Ocracoke, satisfies the history buff's thirst for specific knowledge of the World War II, and pleasantly entertains the casual reader. The book sells for $32.95 plus tax and shipping and handling. It is available at Sunflower Books, Washington, NC, R.S. Spencer's in Engelhard, NC, Bookhaven, Belhaven, NC, Booksellers, Manteo, NC and at various stores and museums in Ocracoke, NC or by calling (252) 928-3417.

Daileys of The Outer Banks
Their Ancestors and Descendants

by Earl William O'Neal, Jr.

The book covers the genealogy and history of the Dailey (Daily) family that that resided on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands and in mainland Hyde County. Mr. O'Neal prepared this book for the Genealogy Committee of the Hatteras Island Genealogical & Historical Society to preserve both the history and genealogy of the Dailey family and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One fine aspect of the Dailey book is that it not only provides the family genealogy of interest to the family members but also provides stories and history of the Outer Banks of interest to the casual reader. It also contains other family documents along with 120 pictures. Due to the limited number of people and families on the Outer Banks in the early years, many are double related and some are married to cousins. With this situation many of the other typical family names are also tied in the book - Austin, Balance, Barnett, Basnett, Carawan, Covey, Etheridge, Farrow, Fulcher, Garrish, Gaskill, Gaskins, Gray, Howard, Jackson, Jarvis, Jennette, Mason, McArthur, McGowan, Meekins, Midgett, O'Neal, Quidley, Scarborough, Simpson, Spencer, Stowe, Styron, Williams and Willis. Daileys of The Outer Banks Their Ancestors and Descendants provides a fascinating window to the past and way of life on the Outer Banks and should entertain the casual reader. The book sells for $30.00 plus tax, shipping and handling, and is available at the Bookhaven, in Belhaven, NC, Sunflower Books, Washington, NC, R.S. Spencer's, Engelhard, NC, Booksellers, Manteo, NC, at many facilities in Ocracoke or by calling (252) 928-3417

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN!
Abstracts of Hyde Co., NC Wills entered for Probate 1776 to May Court 1819
Book II
by Ellen Louise Amidon Williams

The author has broadly abstracted all original wills from this time period on file at the Archives in Raleigh and all wills recorded in Hyde County Record of Wills and Estates, Volumes 1 (parts I & II), 2, and 3 (parts I, II, III, & IV) also found at the Archives. Also included are wills from Hyde County Will Book 1-2-3 which is found at the courthouse in Swan Quarter, NC as well as Hyde County wills entered for probate in other counties in NC. Hyde County's Court Minutes also mentioned wills which were not located in any of the above places: as much information about these wills has been extracted from the minutes and included in this book. Following each will is the Date of Probate and all sources for the will. This publication contains the abstracts of 359 wills.  The author is well known for the accuracy of the will abstracts contained in her first book of this series which is also available.

THE ESTATES OF HYDE - 1700'S
Abstracts of Loose Estate Records of Hyde County
found in the North Carolina State Archives
by Romulus Sanderson Spencer, Jr.
Indexed by Sandra Carawan

The author states in his preface to this book that estate records are generally those of deceased persons who left no surviving will although there are numerous cases of Hyde citizens who had both a will and estate record. Estate records are filled with bonds, allotments, divisions, dowers, inventories, accounts of sales, guardian information, identification of heirs, petitions, copies of deeds and surveys, litigation, summons and various other types of legal records.

While this book would have been huge had it included every item listed in these 600 folders of loose records, it will be an excellent guide to these 1700's estates housed at the North Carolina State Archives. This book includes several photostatic copies of just what some of these estate records really looked like. After viewing them you will be fully aware of the difficulty and time-consuming job it took to extract the information that is now readily available to us with just a flip of a page.

John H. Oden, III writes in the forward , "Researchers will be quite pleased with these abstracts. Rarely does one get a complete listing of exactly what documents may be found within the estate folders located at the North Carolina Division of Archives and History in Raleigh. It is even more of a rarity to have such abstracts prepared by an individual who has devoted more than thirty years of research to one particular county. Through his [R.S. Spencer, Jr.] devotion to Hyde County, he has produced an expertise that is unexcelled in this domain, and his work reflects all of the finer aspect of this expertise."

Available in soft cover, perfect binding, 96 pages, fully indexed for $25.00 per copy + $4.00 postage.

HYDE COUNTY, N.C. RECORD OF DEEDS B, 1762-1783
Abstracted and indexed by Allen Wilkinson Hart Norris
Edited by Betty S. Mann and Ellen A. Williams

The Hyde County Historical & Genealogical Society is proud to present its second book of Hyde County deeds. You may be surprised to find many items in this publication which were not copied into the bound volume found at the courthouse in Swan Quarter. There are births, burials, and marriages of citizens of Hyde County as well as fragmented deeds which Ms. Mann carefully copied and indexed. Betty S. Mann and Ellen A. Williams serve as the Publishing Committee of the Hyde society and are responsible for the editing of manuscripts offered to the society for publication. These two ladies had an extraordinarily troublesome time with this manuscript, the most recent one being Hurricanes Dennis, "Dennis Revisited" and Floyd which all caused blackouts in Hyde County not to mention flooded homes and roads. They have persevered and offer this newest work as a research tool.  Available in soft cover, perfect binding, 165 pages, fully indexed for $25.00 per copy + $4.00 postage.

LAKE MATTAMUSKEET:
NEW HOLLAND and HYDE COUNTY

New Book on History of Lake Mattamuskeet: The Mattamuskeet Foundation, in cooperation with Arcadia Publishing of Charleston, S.C., has just released a new 128-page soft cover book entitled Lake Mattamuskeet: New Holland and Hyde County. The book, written by the foundation's executive director, Dr. Lewis Forrest, is a fundraising tool for the nonprofit organization whose mission is to engage in research and educational activities to preserve, publish, and otherwise "tell the stories" of the rich history and ecology of Lake Mattamuskeet and the surrounding areas of eastern North Carolina. The 25-year story of the Mattamuskeet Drainage District, from 1909 to 1934, is the central focus of the book. The development projects in the reclaimed lake bed were became the "New Holland project" because of the similarity of the engineering designs of land reclamation projects in the Netherlands. Three private companies attempted to develop the reclaimed lake bed for residential and agricultural use, and each gave up their attempt without achieving their dreams. There are also chapters on the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at Lake Mattamuskeet and the history of Mattamuskeet Lodge. The book can be ordered directly from:

The Mattamuskeet Foundation, 4377 Lewis Lane Road, Ayden, NC 28513
The cost is:
$18.99 plus $3 postage and $1.14 tax for N.C. residents.
Credit card orders may be placed by calling 252-746-4221.

HIDDEN ANCESTORS:
ABSTRACTS OF BASTARDY PAPERS AND SELECTED COURT MINUTES HYDE CO., NC  1740-1896
Abstracted by Crestena Jennings Oakley
Edited and Indexed by Ellen A. Williams

As noted by a local, well-known genealogist, this publication is not for everyone -- just those who are really serious about researching their families. If you have looked everywhere for your ancestors and come up empty-handed, you might find them in this publication either as the mother or alleged father of an illegitimate child. The papers found in Hyde’s Bastardy Papers file at the Division of Archives and History, have been placed in alphabetical order by the name of the mother or the alleged father if the mother’s name is not given. (Review by Ellen A. Williams - May 1999)  Available in soft cover, perfect binding, 161 pages, fully indexed for $25.00 per copy + $4.00 postage.

DARE COUNTY, NC MARRIAGE REGISTER; VOL. 1 (1870-1915)
Extracted from microfilm and indexed by Lois Johnson Meekins

This first book of marriage records held by the Dare County, N.C. Register of Deeds office covers the years from 1870, when the county was formed, to 1915. This marriage register gives the name of the bride and groom, the date the marriage took place and the minister, Justice of the Peace or witnesses. In most cases the ages of the brides and grooms were given. The parents of the bride and groom were given from 1870 to September 27, 1903.

Mrs. Meekins states that while working with this copy it was noticed that the same handwriting was used from May 1870 through November 1904 which gives the impression that these records were copied from an earlier source and therefore errors seem to have occurred. Every effort was made to leave the spellings of the names as they appear on the register used. This book contains approximately 1800 marriage records and four indices--brides, grooms, mothers and fathers.

Now available in soft cover, 189 pages, fully indexed for $27.00 per copy (NC residents add 7%). To order, send your check to:

Lois Meekins, 142 Waterlily Road, Coinjock, N.C. 27923.

 

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