Cape Lookout Lighthouse Anniversary

Back in September, family researcher Mark Green posted about the anniversary of Cape Lookout Lighthouse in the Outer Banks (Carteret County) of NC.   His ancestor, Joseph Fulford, donated the land for the lighthouse back in 1805.  Today, October 10, marks the 150th anniversary of Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Digital image. Life Images @ Google. Web. <http://is.gd/3cyaS>.  Picture taken March 1946.
Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Digital image. Life Images @ Google. Web. Picture taken in March 1946. <http://is.gd/3cyaS>

The current lighthouse was the 2nd one built and was completed in 1859.  An article about the lighthouse was published in several newspapers; this one is from the September 28, 1859 issue of The Constitution, a paper from the District of Columbia.  It is a notice from W.H.C. Whiting, corps of engineers of the United States Army that the lighthouse was finally complete.

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Article courtesy of GenealogyBank.com

New Book on Caswell County

The Caswell County Historical Association announces the offering of their latest book, Images of America: Caswell County, published by Arcadia Publishing.

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The book is 128 pages and features an introduction by noted archivist, Dr. H.G. Jones (read more about him at http://www.ncdcr.gov/news/2003/jones.htm).  The book can be ordered from the society by visiting their website.

I personally am a fan of the Images of America series and have several in my home collection.  If you have research interests in Caswell County, you’ll want to be sure to check this out.

Dizzy Gillepsie & Scotland County

What does this famous jazz musician have to do with North Carolina?

dizzyDizzy Gillespie. October 1948.  Digital image. Life @ Google Images. Google. Web. <http://is.gd/3Rcs4>

Even though I was raised in North Carolina, there is so much history in this state that I know I will never learn it all. I do love learning various trivia about the state and its residents from time to time. Just 5 minutes ago, I learned that Dizzy Gillepsie attended the Laurinburg Music Institute in Laurinburg back in 1932. (Visit their official website).

These are the kind of things you learn when you visit our NCGenWeb sites.  I happened to look this up because Richard Phillips, our recently designated Scotland County Site Coordinator announced the redesign of the website today.  Visit the site now. Even if your ancestors are not from Scotland County.  You won’t regret it.  🙂

scotlandhttp://www.ncgenweb.us/scotland

Jones County Redesign

Do you do research in Jones County, NC? If so, then you may wish to revisit the county pages as the site has recently been redesigned. As part of the redesign process, many pages have new URLs, so please check your bookmarks.

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The site now also features a blog so you can stay on top of changes/additions to the website.

New Site for Davidson County

The Davidson County NCGenWeb site has a newly updated site & location.  The new location is http://www.ncgenweb.us/davidson and your new county coordinator is Trent Briles.   Trent also  maintains the Randolph County site and we all are fortunate to have him take on another county.  Trent also makes it easy to stay abreast of updates via his news page and a Twitter account.

Be sure to check it out if you have associations with the county.

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NC State Archives – Container List of County Records

The North Carolina State Archives is a wonderful source for original county records.  As part of their services, from time to time they will provide lists of items in their collections.

If you have not visited their Container List of Selected County Records page, you’ll want to be sure to do so.  There are lists of records in their holdings for many NC counties – Avery, Buncombe, Cherokee, Columbus, Cumberland, Davidson, Durham, Graham, Greene, Harnett, Haywood, Hyde, Jackson, Mecklenburg, Lenoir, Pamlico, Polk, Richmond, Rowan, Stokes, Swain, Washington, & Wilkes

The page can be found here.

Fee Increase for NC Certificates

North Carolina Vital Records has recently announced a fee increase for vital records.   Effective August 24th, it will now cost $24 to order a birth, death, marriage or divorce certificate.  The fee also applies to searches, so is kept even if no record is found.  Additional copies of the same record from the same search will cost $15.  Visit their website for more details.

Ordering vital records at the state level is usually an expensive route.  For less expensive options, try contacing the county in which the event happened (or was likely to happen) to find out their policies on ordering uncertified/genealogical copies of records.  Some counties also provide indices of their records to help you locate those you need.  Check the North Carolina page at Online Death Indexes for places to search around the state.