Two years ago, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center launched a mass digitization project to digitize college and  high school yearbooks from across the state.  With the vast amount of information available in these yearbooks, I started an index database for graduating seniors.  The index focuses largely on classes graduating in 1930 and prior, but does include some later classes as well. 

Recently, I reached a milestone for the database and it now includes over 30,000 students! If your ancestor attended a college in NC during this time frame, you may very well finding them listed here. Of course, there are probably many schools whose yearbooks have not been digitized, but as more yearbooks are added, I will keep indexing 🙂

The database is searchable by name, county, city, state and school.  

If you are interested in keeping track of updates to the database, please subscribe to the RSS feed. I try to update at least once a month.  Additionally, you can visit the blog and sign up to get the updates sent directly to your email; just look for the sign-up box on the right side of the screen. 

If you are interested in helping contribute to the index, please let me know! Volunteers are always appreciated. You can visit the NC Yearbook Index by clicking on the graphic below.

Today, April 2, 2012, is an exciting day in the genealogy world; the 1940 census is being released after the federally-mandated 72 year embargo!

At 9am EST, the National Archives & Records Administration is releasing the images on their website at http://1940census.archives.gov/.  You may wish to visit the site at 8:30am EST however for the live webstream event that will preface the release. When the images are made available online, there will not be an index right away – you’ll need to have the Enumeration District for the people/places you wish to search.  More information about how to start your census search is available from the NARA website. 

As equally exciting though is that YOU CAN HELP CREATE A FREE INDEX; Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, and FindMyPast have partnered to create the US Community Indexing Project to recruit volunteers to help with the indexing.  After all, the sooner the index is created, the sooner you can get started searching your family members.  Visit www.the1940census.com for details on how to get started.  Most importantly – why not let those indexing credits count towards a good cause!

On April 11, 2012, the images for North Carolina were made available to be indexed.  You can sign up to contribute your efforts to the USGenWeb one of 4 ways.

• The first time you sign into the Indexing program, you can select the group you want to be a part of.  Choose “US Genweb Project.”  If you need to download the program, you can go here to get it. 
• If you have a FamilySearch account, sign into indexing.familysearch.org, click My Info in the top right corner, then click the Edit button to select the “US Genweb Project.”
• Email Linda Lewis (webmaster@cottonhills.com) or Sherri Bradley (usgenwebnc@windstream.net)
• Contact FamilySearch Indexing Support and they can move your account into the group you want to belong to.

Go ahead! Join the cause and help us get this index online. I plan to do some indexing, will you?

When James Earl Dillard was born January 7, 1911 in Caswell County, NC , his father, James Edgar Dillard caused some upward eyebrows:

Some thought Ed DILLARD was having fits the other morning. They said he went out and turned over his buggy, then climbed on top of the house and crowed like a rooster. Closer enquiring revealed that a little stranger had come to Ed’s home, and he was rejoicing. Ed lives at Corbett. — pg. 1 of the January 12, 1911 issue of the Mebane Leader newspaper of Alamance County, NC.

That’s a way to celebrate!   😀

This birth announcement appeared in the January 12, 1911 issue of the Mebane Leader newspaper of Alamance County, North Carolina.  It is one of many articles I’ve abstracted for the NCGenWeb NC People in the Papers database. This newspaper, along with several others, have recently been added to the DigitalNC.org website to their North Carolina Newspapers collection.  Full-text issues are up and can be searched or browsed so you definitely will want to check them out.

Also of interest for those seeking birth records in the state is that FamilySearch.org’s North Carolina Birth Index which spans 1800-2000.  Records are from the NC State Library and while not all counties are included, it is definitely worthwhile to consult.  In fact, young baby boy Dillard’s birth record is included.

While browsing the North Carolina Genealogy Research Community Facebook page tonight, I noticed a link shared to a story about a woman’s journey to document the life of one of her ancestors.

The story, published today in the Courier-Tribune newspaper of Asheboro, NC, describes the work done by Margo Lee Williams in tracing the life of her ancestor, Miles Lassiter.  Lassiter, was an early African-American Quaker and Ms. Williams has spent more than 20 years researching his life and his family. She’s learned quite a bit about him and I’m sure her work can serve as inspiration for many of us working on our family history.

Ms. Williams will be doing a book-signing this weekend at the Asheboro Public Library – an event sponsored by the Randolph County Genealogical Society.

The book is available in print and electronic format.

Davidson County is home to several unique hand-carved headstones made out of soapstone in German folk art tradition.  Katherine Benbow, our Western Piedmont Regional Coordinator, recently visited Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church and took pictures of these unique stones.

Learn more about them on the Davidson County, NCGenWeb site.

If you ask me, I think we have one of the best overall digitization programs ever.  The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is building a robust collection of digital items – photos, yearbooks, scrapbooks and more.  The latest addition is their City Directories collection.

They are still continually adding to the site, so you will want to check often.  You can browse by the city, by the county, or by the date of the directory.  Directories are valuable sources of genealogical information so you will definitely wish to take a look.  So far, the counties with the largest collections of directories are Buncombe, Forsyth, Wake, New Hanover and Durham.  If you have family that you’ve been looking for try here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release – Palatines To America, German Genealogy Society Forms NC Chapter

RALEIGH, NC (September 22, 2011) – Would you like to learn more about your German ancestors? A group of people from all across the state have come together to form a North Carolina Chapter of the Palatines To America, German Genealogy Society. It is open to all who are of German descent or who have an interest in German genealogy and history.

The national Palatines To America organization was founded in 1975 in Columbus, Ohio and has seven state chapters and over 2,000 members. The national society publishes a quarterly journal, “The Palatine Immigrant”, which focuses on research and a quarterly newsletter, “The Palatine Patter”, which focuses on the activities of the national and state chapters.

North Carolina has two areas that had significant German immigration during the 18th century: New Bern was founded by German Palatine and Swiss settlers in 1710, and the piedmont which had several German groups including the German Reformed, Lutherans, Moravians, and others who settled during the mid 1700s.

In succeeding generations, many families of German descent traveled down one of three branches of the great wagon road from Pennsylvaniato North Carolina and settled in the piedmont as well as others who settled along the coast coming from the coastal northeast. In the 1920s, a group of descendants of the New Bern German Palatines formed The North Carolina Society of the Descendants of the Palatines. Their group was active until the 1950s. During the last century, there have been many people of German descent who have moved to all parts of the state.

The inaugural meeting of the North Carolina chapter will be Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the Wake County Southeast Regional Library, 908 Seventh Avenue, Garner, NC 27529. The meeting will be held in a seminar format from 10:15 am to 3:15 pm.

Three speakers will be featured: Mr. Jerry Miller, President of the Palatines To America NC Chapter who will make a presentation about the Palatines To America organization and conduct a short business meeting; Mr. Victor T. Jones, Jr., Special Collections Librarian at the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, Kellenberger Room, and President-Elect of the North Carolina Genealogical Society, will make a presentation about the “Early Settlers of New Bern”, and Mrs. Bonnie
Everhart, Past Chairman of the Palatines to America Immigrant Ancestor Register and former PalAm National Librarian and Historian, will make a presentation about “Researching the Holt Family Line Into North Carolina.”

There will also be a panel discussion about the resources available to Palatines To America members by Mrs. Everhart, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Miller. The Inaugural Meeting/Fall seminar is open to the public with a $10.00 registration fee. Registrations at the door are fine, please call or email to confirm your attendance.

For more information about the society, North Carolina charter membership, and to register for the Fall seminar, please visit www.PalAm.org, or email ncpalam@palam.org, or call 919.744.0219.

Contact:

Jerry Miller, President, Palatines To America, German Genealogy
Society, North Carolina Chapter
www.PalAm.org
919.744.0219 (President’s Direct Telephone)
NCPalAm@PalAm.org (President’s Email)

David French, NC Chapter Publicity Director (Media Contact)
919.480.2011 (Media Telephone)
PalatinesToAmericaNC@gmail.com (Media Email)