The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, part 3

On July 10th, 1788, Jonathan Godwin received two patents from the State of North Carolina for 46 and 47 acres each of land lying in Sampson County on the East side of the Little Cohera River and the East side of the Black Mingo River. 

When Jonathan Godwin died in 1791, his widow, Rachel, was allowed to keep his estate in her possession. No mention, however, was made of what was contained in his estate. In 1792 Richard Godwin took an inventory of Jonathan's estate which included only one tract of land containing 50 acres. You can view the contents of his estate in The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, part 1. No description of the land included in the inventory was provided. If Jonathan Godwin received two tracts of land, each approximately 50 acres from the State of North Carolina in 1788, but only one tract appeared in his estate records, then what happened to the other 50 acre tract of land he received from the State in 1788?  

At least one of those tracts of land was identified as being sold by Nathan, Rachel, and Dred Godwin to John Dormond in 1795 (See Part 2). This tract was on the East side of the Little Cohara River. What about the 2nd tract he received on the East side of the Black Mingo River? It is not possible to search the deed records by land description. However, since Nathan, Rachel and Dred Godwin sold the first parcel of land, I thought maybe they might have sold the 2nd one as well. I started my search by looking for Nathan, Rachel or Dred as the grantor in the Sampson County Deed Records (they are on microfilm at the North Carolina State Archives). Since the land was sold after Jonathan's death in 1791, I restricted my search to records after 1791. 

I found one other deed from Rachel Godwin but it was on the Beaverdam Swamp. This was land she had inherited or purchased from Thomas Bullard who was presumed to be her brother. I then moved on to Nathan. There were actually two Nathan Godwins living in Sampson County at this time and they were both buying and selling land quite often. I had to read through each deed in which Nathan was the grantor to find either 1) a description of 50 acres of land on the East side of the Black Mingo being sold or 2) land originally granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing date of 1788. 

I finally found one deed from Nathan Godwin to Elizabeth Bagley which satisfied both of the above requirements. The deed was for 50 acres of land lying on the East side of Black Mingo which was originally granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing date of 1788! (See deed images and transcript below. Click on the image to make it bigger). 

Sampson County, North Carolina
Nathan Godwin to Elizabeth Bagley

To all to whom these presents Shall come greeting know ye that I Nathan Godwin Junior of Sampson County and State aforesaid planter for and in consideration of the sum of Twelve pounds ten shillings L12.10 current money of the State to me in hand paid by Elizabeth Bagley of Sampson County and State aforesaid the receipt whereal I do hereby acknowledge that I have bargained and sold and by these presents do fully freely and absolutely give grant convey assign and set over to her the said Elizabeth Bagley forever One certain tract or parcell of land lying and being in the county of Sampson containing fifty acres of land more or less situated and lying on the East side of Black Mingo and on the North side of the Beaverdam swamp beginning at a post Oak on the side of mingo Swamp thence South 31 East 120 poles thence a pine thence South 59 West 63 poles to a pine thence North 31 West 120 poles to a Stake thence to the Beginning it being a tract of land granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing date the 10th of July 1788. To have and to hold the same bargained lands and premises together with all buildings fencings houses water ___ and Improvements thereunto belonging unto it and Elizabeth Bagley her heirs, executors, Administrators and assigns forever and I disavow? Nathan Godwin Junior for himself his heirs, Executors, administrators and assigns forever the said bargained lands and premises unto the said Elizabeth Bagley her heirs Executors administrators and assigns against any person or persons whatsoever shall come and I the said Nathan Godwin myself my heirs Executors administrators and assigns will and shall warrant and forever defend the same bargained land and premises unto the said Elizabeth Bagley her heirs and assigns forever and by these presents. 

In witness whereof I the said 
Nathan Godwin have herunto set his hand and affixed his seal this the 26th day of January one thousand eight hundred and one 1801.

Signed sealed and Delivered in the presence of
Nathan Godwin
John Godwin
Micajah Godwin

Nathan Godwin Junior (seal)

State of North Carolina
Sampson County, Feburary court one thousand eight hundred and one then was the within deed from Nathan Godwin to Elizabeth Bagley was proved in open court by the oath of Micajah Godwin and ordered to be registered. 
H Holmes, Clk

State of North Carolina Sampson County then registered this third day of April Anna Domino one thousand Eight hundred and one 
O Holmes Regr

There are several important pieces of information included in this deed: 

1)  This land was located on the East Side of the Black Mingo and contains 50 acres. This is the exact description given of one of the tracts of land that Jonathan Godwin received from the State of North Carolina in 1788. 

2) This land was granted to Jonathan by patent bearing date July 1788, thus further confirming that this is the same tract of land Jonathan received from the State in 1788. 

3) Nathan Godwin is the sole grantor on this deed. However, Micajah, Nathan, and John Godwin were listed as witnesses. It is possible they were relatives of Nathan. 

4) Nathan is listed as "junior" in this deed. At first this threw me off because I was surmising that this Nathan Godwin was the son of Jonathan Godwin. However, many new researchers make the common mistake of believing that someone listed as "junior" is the the son of someone with the same name. This is not necessarily true. More likely, there was another man with the same name who was older, thus he was probably called "Senior" and this younger Nathan was therefore called "Junior." I mentioned earlier that there was another Nathan living in Sampson County at the same time. He was older; probably around Rachel and Jonathan's age. This Nathan was also called "Junior" in the 1795 deed he sold along with Rachel and Dred to John Dormond as discussed in Part 2 of this post series. 

Conclusion: 

In this series of blog posts, I discussed Jonathan Godwin's Estate which was inventoried by Richard Godwin in Sampson County, North Carolina in 1792 and the land grants which he received prior to his death and their subsequent distribution by his heirs. 

According to the land grants, Jonathan Godwin received two patents of 50 acres each from the State of North Carolina for lands lying on the East side of the Little Cohera River and on the East side of the Black Mingo River. 

When he died in 1791, his widow was allowed to keep his estate in her possession. In 1792, only 50 acres of land was inventoried in his estate. In 1795, Jonathan's widow Rachel, Nathan, and Dred Godwin sold 50 acres on the Little Cohera, land that was originally patented to Jonathan Godwin in 1788, to John Dormond. In 1801, Nathan Godwin sold the 2nd tract of land containing 50 acres lying on the East side of the Black Mingo River to Elizabeth Bagley. This land was also originally patented to Jonathan Godwin in 1788. Therefore, both tracts of land that were originally granted to Jonathan Godwin in 1788 were accounted for and sold by his heirs in 1795 and 1801 respectively. This was determined by using original deed and estate records found at the North Carolina State Archives. 

Because Jonathan's widow Rachel was allowed to keep his estate in her possession following his death in 1791, I can assume that the Rachel Godwin who sold the 50 acres of land on the East side of the Little Cohera in 1795 was his widow. I am also surmising that because Nathan and Dred Godwin were listed on the deed as well (actually Nathan was the grantor and Rachel and Dred were co-signers), that the three of them were co-owners of the land and therefore heirs of Jonathan. More specifically, I believe Nathan and Dred were both sons of Rachel and Jonathan Godwin. This belief is further supported by Nathan Godwin selling the 2nd tract of land originally granted to Jonathan Godwin in 1788 lying on the East side of the Black Mingo to Elizabeth Bagley in 1801. Although there is no deed (that I could find) in which Jonathan sold this land to Nathan, I believe Nathan inherited it from his father, Jonathan Godwin either shortly before or after he died in 1791. 

By using original estate and deed records, I am able to hypothesize that Nathan and Dred Godwin were sons of Jonathan and Rachel Godwin. 

Can this be proved? 

Possibly...maybe a DNA test can provide me with more information? What do you think? Have I provided a good enough case to convince you that my family structure is correct?  

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 1
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 2
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 3

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, part 2

On July 10th, 1788, Jonathan Godwin received two patents from the State of North Carolina for 46 and 47 acres each of land lying in Sampson County on the East side of the Little Cohera River and the East side of the Black Mingo River. 

When Jonathan Godwin died in 1791, his widow, Rachel, was allowed to keep his estate in her possession. No mention, however, was made of what was contained in his estate. In 1792 Richard Godwin took an inventory of Jonathan's estate which included only one tract of land containing 50 acres. You can view the contents of his estate in The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, part 1. No description of the land included in the inventory was provided. If Jonathan Godwin received two tracts of land, each approximately 50 acres from the State of North Carolina in 1788, but only one tract appeared in his estate records, then what happened to the other 50 acre tract of land he received from the State? 

It appears as if one tract of land that was granted to Jonathan Godwin by the State in 1788 was sold by Nathan Godwin in 1795 to John Dormand. Rachel and Dred Godwin were co-signers on the deed. Nathan and Dred Godwin were probably sons of Rachel and Jonathan Godwin and this tract of land was probably the 50 acres of land that was left in Rachel's possession after the death of her husband in 1791 and probably the same 50 acres of land that was mentioned in Jonathan's estate inventory. The tract of land described below was the one that was located on the East side of the Little Cohara (River) on the Mill Branch. (Click each image to make them bigger - Transcripts below)

State of North Carolina, Sampson County Deeds

Nathan Godwin and others to John Dormond, 14 Dec 1795

This Indenture made this 14th day of December one thousand seven hundred and Ninety Five Between Nathan Godwin Junior of Sampson County of the one part and John Dormond of the same County at the other part and State of North Carolina Witnesseth that the said Nathan Godwin for and in consideration of the sum of Seven pounds to him in hand paid By the said John Dormond at and before the unsealing and delivery of these presents the Receipt whereof I as hereby acknowledge myself to be fully satisfied contented and paid Hath given granted bargained and sold unto the said John Dormond his heirs and assigns forever. One parcell or tract of land containing by estimation forty six acres of land be the same more or less it lying in Sampson County on the East side of Little Cohara and on the Mill Branch. Beginning at a pine near the corner of a pond thence South 55 West 86 poles to a Red Oak thence South 35 East 86 poles to a pine thence North 55 East 86 poles to a Stake thence to the Beginning. It being a parcell of land granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing date July one thousand seven hundred and Eighty Eight in the thirteenth year of our Independence to have and to hold the said piece or parcell of land aforesaid with all woods, waters, house, orchards, gardens, advantages, privileages, and appertanances thereto belonging to him the said John Dormond his heirs and assigns forever the said Nathan Godwin for himself his heirs and assigns doth promise and agree to and with the said John Dormond his heirs and assigns forever that the said Nathan Godwin hath in himself rightful power to give grant sell and deliver and convey the said piece of land unto the said John Dormond his heirs and assigns forever and the said Nathan Godwin and my heirs will forever warrant secure and defend the just right and title to the above said tract and parcell of land and priviliges unto the said John Dormond his heirs and assigns forever against all lawful claims of any person _____ and all ____ of my kind whatsoever. 

In witness whereof I the said Nathan Godwin doth hereby hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal the day and year first and before written.

Signed sealed and delivered in the presence of: 

Benjamin Dormond

James Beaman

Nathan Godwin (seal)

Dred Godwin (his mark) (& seal)

Rachel Godwin (seal)

State of North Carolina

Sampson County November Term One thousand Seven hundred and Ninety six then was the within deed from Nathan Godwin and others to John Dormond was proved in open court and ordered to be registered

Hardy Holmes, clk

State of North Carolina

Sampson County Registered in the Registers office at the aforesaid county this the nineteenth day of January anna domino 1798

O. Holmes Regr

There are several important pieces of information included in this deed: 

1)  There are three signatures on the deed - Nathan, Dred, and Rachel Godwin; I believe this is significant and provides evidence that Dred and Nathan Godwin were sons of Rachel and Jonathan Godwin

2) This land was located on the East Side of the Little Cohara on the Mill Branch and contains 46 acres. This is the exact description given of one of the tracts of land that Jonathan Godwin received from the State in 1788. 

3) This land was granted to Jonathan by patent bearing date July 1788, thus further confirming that this is the same tract of land Jonathan received from the State in 1788. 

We still do not know what happened to the other tract of land that Jonathan received from the State in 1788. My next step is to look through the Sampson County deeds to see if it was bought of sold. Because Rachel was his widow and Nathan and Dred were presumed to be sons of Jonathan, I started by looking at deeds carried out by them. 

I will discuss this process in Part 3. 

Afterword: 

The Sampson County deeds are all online now at the Sampson County Register of Deeds. They can be downloaded for free! Check it out!

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 1
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 2
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 3

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, part 1

In this series of posts, I show how I used original estate and deed records to track the distribution of land originally patented by Jonathan Godwin in Sampson County, North Carolina in 1788; I also try to build a case to suggest that Nathan and Dred Godwin were the sons of Jonathan and Rachel Godwin.

In this post, I will look at the estate record of Jonathan Godwin of Sampson County, North Carolina who died intestate about 1791. (Intestate means he did not leave a will). He left behind a widow, Rachel Godwin, who is believed to be the sister of Thomas Bullard and daughter of Jeremiah Bullard. His estate record, however, was only a single page and did not mention either his widow Rachel, or any of his children. The only clues I was able to glean from this record were the following:

1. Richard Godwin was the administrator of the estate 
2. There was only 50 acres of land in the possession of the estate

Estate records are housed at the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh, North Carolina. They can be requested by call number in the form of a two digit county code (Sampson County's code is 87), followed by a "508" which is the 3-digit code for estate records, followed by the number of the box in which the folder is housed that contains the surname of interest. The box number is not  known when you request the file, but should be noted for future reference.

The estate file of Jonathan Godwin[1] contained only a single page with writing on both sides. One side stated that it was an inventory of his estate recorded in that court's term; The other side is an actual inventory taken by the administrator, Richard Godwin. Here are the scans of the front and back copies of the single page. (Click on the image to make it bigger). The transcript follows below:

Back side:

"Inventory of the Estate of John Godwin dec’d, May Term 1791"

Front side:

"Sampson County the 15^th of Feb 1792

An inventory of the Estate of Jonathan Godwin Deceased
50 Acres of Land
3 Head of Horses
1 Heifer
12 Head of Sheep
48 Head of Hog
3 Beds and Furniture
4 Dishes, 5 Basons
6 Spoons and 4 Plates
3 Knives and 7 Forks
2 Pots and 1 Kettle
2 Spinning Wheels
2 Pairs of Cards

1 Chest 12 Bottles
2 Jugs 1 Hackle
2 Chairs 2 Ploughs
2 Axes 1 Iron wedge
3 Weeding Hoes 1 Grubbing Hoe
2 Augers 1 chissel and Gouge
1 Griddle and fire Tongs
1 Box Iron and Heater
1 Mares Saddle

Richard Godwin" (signed)

[End of Transcript]

There was actually another document included in this file at one time pertaining to Jonathan's widow. Supposedly, it got lost when it was sent off for microfilming [2] 

In an estate record of 15 February 1791, Rachel Godwin, the “widow of Jonathan Godwin, deceased,” was allowed to keep the estate in her hands, "she entering into bond with good security for 250 pounds." Tenders Richard Godwin and Philip Tew were approved as sureties. This is a crucial piece of evidence tying both Jonathan and Rachel together as husband and wife.  

Jonathan actually owned two tracts of land, both 50 acres a piece, however only one of these tracts of land was included in his estate inventory. He may have given the other tract of land to one of his sons prior to his death.  Nathan Godwin, presumed to be a son of Jonathan and Rachel Godwin, sold a 50 acre tract of land to Elizabeth Bagley in 1801, it being a tract of land "granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing the 10th day of July 1788." This could be the other 50 acre tract of land and will be discussed in Part 3 of this post series. 

The 50 acres tract of land that WAS included in his inventory above was sold by his widow Rachel Godwin, along with Nathan and Dred Godwin, in 1795 to John Dormond. This deed of sale will be discussed in Part 2 of this post series. I believe the Nathan and Dred Godwin who were included on this deed with Rachel Godwin were sons of Jonathan and Rachel Godwin. This land was a "parcel...granted to Jonathan Godwin by patent bearing date July 1788." Jonathan Godwin was only granted a total of two tracts of land and the descriptions match up, so I believe these two tracts of land to be those originally belonging to Jonathan, one of which was given to his son Nathan prior to his death and the other passed down to his widow Rachel and sold between Rachel and her sons Dred and Nathan to John Dormond after Jonathan's death. 

I had to use a combination of original deed and estate records in order to start piecing together this family. The family of Jonathan and Rachel Bullard Godwin is a very controversial one and my construction of their family is actually very different than what has been previously portrayed and accepted as fact by other researchers. However, I am confident that I have sufficient evidence and I have already written up several proof statements backing up my claims. Living in North Carolina where my Godwin family originated from has been very helpful; in addition, having such easy access to the North Carolina State Archives has also been a tremendous help in my research. 

Sources: 

[1] Estate Records of Jonathan Godwin, 1791, North Carolina State Archives, Sampson County, NC, Series of Original Loose Documents of Estate Records, 1784-1923; Call No. 087.508.23; Copied 20 January 2007;

[2] Bizzell, Oscar. Sampson County Court Minute Abstracts, 1784-1800, p. 117. This information was included in Bizzell’s Abstracts, however, the Raleigh archives does not have the actual documents from 1784 to 1794. The microfilmed court records start at 1794. Jerome Tew said these records were removed from Clinton for publishing, however, they were never returned, thus lost. Bizzell copied this abstracted information from an earlier typed abstract of the court minutes.

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 1
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 2
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 3

Identifying Land Grants Using the NC State Archives’ online MARS Catalog

In 1795, Nathan Godwin, Dred Godwin, and Rachel Godwin sold 46 acres of land in Sampson County, North Carolina to John Dormond for seven pounds. The land was located “on the east side of the Little Cohara and on the Mill branch.” Although I searched high and low, I could not find any deed records in which Nathan, Dred, or Rachel Godwin were grantees, having purchased this 46 acres of land from someone else.

In North Carolina, much of the land that came into the hands of the settlers up until the end of the 18^th century (and even well into the 19^th century) was purchased NOT from existing owners, but from the State of North Carolina (1777-1959). Prior to the Revolutionary War, settlers purchased land from the Lord Proprietors (1663-1729), including Lord Granville, and the Crown (1729-1776). Records relating to these land purchases are kind of confusing, so it is important to know what time period and approximate location your ancestor might have purchased land.

If you have an ancestor, or ancestors, like mine above, who came into land with no story behind how it came into their hands, then chances are they may have been involved in a land grant purchase.  All land grants issued by the Crown, the Lord Proprietors, and the State came from the Secretary of State’s office. Those issued by Lord Granville were issued by the Granville Office. Records from both offices are indexed by the North Carolina State Archives and are accessible online via their MARS online catalog. Navigating the online catalog can be a bit tricky, so follow these steps below for a sure success.

Navigate to the new North Carolina State Archives Homepage and click on the "For the Public" Link at the top: (Click on each photo to make them bigger).

Then click on the "Online Catalog and Finding Aids" Link on the left side of the page: 

Then click on the MARS online catalog link to access the catalog:

Once you have the MARS online search open, type in your ancestor’s name into the search box, then where it says "Class, Collection, Series" click on the “Browse” button. I have typed in "Nathan Godwin" in the search box . 

When you click the “Browse” button, a list of all of the indexed collections appear with subcollections hidden within the “+” signs. Scroll down to the bottom and click the “+” sign next to “State Records.”

Then click the “+” sign beside “Governor's Papers – Jonathan Worth (18 November 1802 – 5 September 1869) … University of North Carolina Board.” Then scroll down and check the box beside "Secretary of State Record Group."  All land grants, including the Lord Granville Grants, are now indexed within the State Record Group collection. All results will include those for the Granville Grants, which usually occurred before the Granville Land office closed in 1763.

Once you have selected the State Record Group collection, click the "done" link at the top left-hand side of the page. 

This will take you back to the search page. Now you can click the SEARCH button. 

I got 12 results for searching on Nathan Godwin in the Secretary of State Records.

Looking on the right-hand side you will see the Call Number, whether there is a digital image available for download[1], and the years involved. In the middle of the page, you will see the name and the file number associated with the name. This file number is required if you visit the Archives and you want to find the land grant in the microfilm. This collection is contained on microfilm and is organized by county first and then by file number.

Clicking on a title in the search results brings up a brief summary of the item.

Things to note are the County at the top, the person’s name, and the geographical names which are usually included in the description at the bottom and used for indexing purposes. At the bottom, we see the actual details of the land grant. In this example, Nathan Godwin applied for 150 acres between Black Mingo and Chokeberry Pond which was entered on February 6^th, 1793. The land was surveyed, found to be vacant, and returned to the Secretary of State’s Office and subsequently granted to Nathan Godwin on December 17^th, 1794, almost two years later. This grant (number 429) was copied into the Patent Book Number 86, page 311.

I checked the descriptions of all 11 of these land grants, but none of them mentioned the 46 acres on the Cohera River that was mentioned in the grant at the beginning of this post. I also did a search for Rachel and Dred (Netheldred/Etheldred) Godwin but found nothing.

I then changed my search criteria from “Nathan Godwin” to “Godwin, Cohera” to see if another Godwin had received a land grant on the Cohera River. But again, I got 0 results. Changing it to “Godwin, Coharie” gave me several results.

I clicked on Jonathan Godwin and found that he had received a land grant for 46 acres on the “East side of the Little Cohera [Little Coharie Creek] and on the Mile Branch.” This sounded exactly like the same land that Nathan, Rachel, and Dred were selling in 1795 to John Dormond – it was the same 46 acres (an odd amount for that time period) and it was on the “East side of the Little Cohera and the Mill branch.” Only the Mill / Mile branch description was a little off.

Doing a little bit more research, I learned that Rachel Godwin became the widow of Jonathan Godwin in 1791. I also learned that in 1788, Jonathan Godwin received another patent for 47 acres of land on the East side of Black Mingo and the North Side of Beaverdam Swamp. In 1801, Nathan Godwin sold land with this same exact description to Elizabeth Bagley. Since there are no deeds from Jonathan to Nathan Godwin, or from Jonathan to Rachel Godwin, it is possible that Nathan received the land through inheritance.

This is just one example of how land grants can be very useful in genealogical research. I find them to be a very good starting point, especially if you are trying to track parcels of land through several hands. We are fortunate that our land grants are indexed through the North Carolina State Archives’ website. If you visit their onsite location in Raleigh, you can use the card catalog which is organized first by surname, then by county – that is the county they lived in at the time the land grant was issued.

What about the terminology?

I get a lot of questions about the terminology involved in the Land Grant process. In case you were wondering yourself, here is a brief synopsis of how the Land Grant Process worked in North Carolina:

1. ENTRY:  This is an application that a person filled out to apply for a PATENT to occupy and purchase vacant land
2. WARRANT:  This is issued once the ENTRY is approved, telling the county surveyor to measure the tract of land
3. PLAT:  This is drawn up by the surveyor describing the land in metes and bounds
4. PATENT:  This is the final document written by the Secretary of State conveying the surveyed land to the applicant. Also known as a Land GRANT

You may be wondering why this is called a Land “Grant” Process but the end product is a “Patent.”  This is because it is a process involving the transfer of vacant land from a granting body to a private person.  

Have you checked out your land grants yet? If so, please share your experiences in a comment below, or feel free to email me.

For more information on using the North Carolina State Archives online catalog (MARS), check out their YouTube videos here. 

---

[1] At this time, the only digital items that I know of in MARS are the colonial wills. The colonial wills (written before 1776) were filed with the Secretary of State’s office. Wills written after the Revolutionary War were filed with the county. Digital images require the user to download a proprietary viewer called “deja-vu” in order to view the images.  

To Cite This Post:

Ginger R. Smith, "Identifying Land Grants Using the NC State Archives’ online MARS Catalog" Genealogy By Ginger, 06 May 2013, (http://www.genealogybyginger.blogspot.com : accessed [date])

Ordering Records from the North Carolina State Archives

I have always enjoyed visiting the North Carolina State Archives that is located in downtown Raleigh. But I rarely have the chance to get down there on a Saturday anymore.  Especially since I’ve been trying to get my feet in the door with the Wake County Public Library system. Because of this, I have been working several Saturdays a month for the past 6 months or so and will continue to do so until I graduate from UNC in May. Even if I could visit the Archives on a Saturday, they have started limiting their hours from 9 am to 2 pm. They used to be open until 5 pm. It’s unfortunate; however, as we’ve seen from archives across the country, funding is short and they are doing what they can to stay open to the public and I am grateful that they are open 5 days a week and on Saturdays!

The North Carolina State Archives does have an alternative for ordering records for those people who have a busy schedule and cannot visit the Archives during regular business hours. If you live In-State, you can order records via an online form found on their website.  They recommend that you read about what they will and will not search for you and that you provide as detailed a description as possible in your request. I decided to give this a try and order some records I had been looking for.

You can request materials from the “Services” link on the left side of the page. Clicking on the “Requesting Information by Mail” link will take you to the general information page which includes information about what kind of requests the Archives CAN and CANNOT answer. This page also has a link by which NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS can order materials – just click on the link at the top that says “North Carolina Residents.”

You have the option to submit an online form via email or to print out the form and submit by snail mail. When completed, click the “Submit Request” button and if you checked the box to “Send a copy of this request to your e-mail address,” then a copy of your request will be delivered to your email box. I created a special filter in my email to send all of these requests to.

You won’t receive a reply back from the Archives until an invoice is ready for your review and approval.  My first request for a marriage record was placed on 12/23/2012 and I received an invoice on 1/3/2013. It took 11 days to receive a reply, however this was probably delayed due to the holidays. In my reply, I was given the option to print the invoice and either pay by check or credit card and then mail back the completed invoice to the Archives, allowing for up to ten business days for delivery of copies of materials.

The alternative option, and the one I chose to use, is to pay the invoice online using the Archives’ new Correspondence Portal. I talked about this in a previous post. This is the section of the online ordering process that Out of Staters can use to order materials. They are charged a flat $20 fee for each record.

Speaking of fees, although it is free to order records for North Carolina Residents, there is a $2.00 minimum copying fee associated with each order. That is what I was invoiced for. I still find this to be a fairly reasonable rate considering it is about 25 miles from my house to the Archives. If I were charging the IRS rate of $0.55 / mile to drive there and back, it would cost almost $30 round trip!

Using the online portal to pay my invoice was quick and easy. I entered my shipping address and credit card information into the form and then submitted it. I received 3 emails immediate after my order was processed. One was from the Archives letting me know my order was received and would be processed. Two additional emails arrived from the NC Dept of Cultural Resources letting know that my credit card was charged $2.00 for my order.  

Copies of the record I ordered should arrive in the mail any day now.  Have you ordered materials from the Archives? If so, feel free to share your experiences below or email me at ginger.reney [at] gmail.com.

The North Carolina State Archives offers new Correspondence Portal

I just received the following news from the North Carolina State Archives' online blog History For All the People:

Online Correspondence is here!  The State Archives of North Carolina is excited to announce a new web portal for correspondence.  Online Correspondence will allow persons residing outside of North Carolina to request a search for a record and pay the search and handling fee using the Online Correspondence portal.  Persons residing outside of North Carolina will still have the option of sending a check, a money order or credit card information through the USPS but the Online Correspondence portal will give the additional option of paying electronically.

http://correspondence.archives.ncdcr.gov

But wait – there’s more!

The Online Correspondence portal will also have a feature that will allow residents and non-residents to pay their invoice electronically too!  Researchers will receive an invoice with instructions on how to find and use the online payment option.

http://correspondence.archives.ncdcr.gov/invoice.asp

And that’s not all!

North Carolina residents will now find a new option on the North Carolina online request form.  North Carolina residents can now opt-in to receive an electronic invoice.  If the researcher selects the electronic invoice option they will receive the invoice via email instead of a paper copy sent by USPS.  This service should save time for the customer and reduce operational costs for the Archives!

http://req.archives.ncdcr.gov/

We hope these new features will help us serve you faster and more efficiently.  Try them out and give us your feedback!

I personally have not yet used the website to request materials but I am excited by this new feature to pay for our materials online. I think it will streamline the process and free up the Archives staff for other things, like, oh, say, fulfilling our requests! 

If you are out of State you can check out the new Online Correspondence Portal. This website has records broken down into seventeen categories, including the following:

• Civil War
• Deed Books
• Land Grants
• World War I
• Selective Service
• Cemetery Records
• Bible Records
• Private Collections
• Court Minutes
• Death Certificate
• Estate Records
• Maps
• Marriage Bonds
• Marriage Licenses
• Revolutionary War
• War of 1812
• Will Records

When you find the record type you want to order, you can fill in the form with your ancestor's name, county, and any other pertinent information you think will help the Archivist find the record. All search fees start at $20.00 for Out of State residents. All requests can then be added to your cart.

If you are a North Carolina State Resident, you can use the standard records request by email form posted here. The form does not specify what the charge is to North Carolina Residents. My guess is the charge is accrued for copies only. It is on my "To-Do" list to try this out sometime.

What about you? Have you ever requested materials from the North Carolina State Archives online? If so, please tell us about it in the comments below.

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The quoted portion of this post was reprinted from the following source:

Christopher Meeks, "New Services Available for Correspondence Requests," History For All the People, 6 September 2012, (http://ncarchives.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/new-services-available-for-correspondence-requests/ : accessed 6 September 2012).

Many Alamance County Records now Offsite at Archives

I just received this notice from the North Carolina State Archives today on their blog, History For All the People. One item to note is that many records in Alamance County, including the Record of Wills, are stored offsite and are no longer available for viewing on Saturday. If you would like access to any of the following records from Alamance County on a Saturday, you will need to call 919-807-7310 to request to view them.  

Polk County:
 ·         Record of Inheritance Tax, 1921-1968; C.R.080.513.1 (Arranged alphabetically by last name of the deceased)
 ·         You may also find Inheritance tax records in the loose estate records (C.R.080.508).

 Alamance County:
 (Records stored offsite.  No access available on Saturday.  Please call (919-807-7310) and request to view volumes on Saturday.)
 ·         Record of Wills, 1849-1968; C.R.001.801.9-C.R.001.801.30
 ·         Record of Administrators, 1902-1968; C.R.001.504.1-C.R.001.504.16 (15 volumes)
 ·         Record of Settlements, 1919-1951; C.R.001.518.4-C.R.001.518.10 (7 volumes)
 ·         Guardian Bonds, 1910-1953; C.R.001.511.3-C.R.001.511.5 (3 volumes)
 ·         Guardian Returns, 1879-1951; C.R.001.509.02-C.R.001.509.06 (5 volume)
 ·         Guardian Record, 1954-1963; C.R.001.509.07 (1 volume)
 ·         Record of Guardians and Trustees, 1963-1968; C.R.001.509.08 (1 volume)
 ·         Record of Accounts, 1932-1951; C.R.001.501.04-C.R.001.501.07 (4 volumes)

I LOVE using the Will Records! These are the original wills written by or for my ancestors. These records are organized first by county, then alphabetically within each county, then by date, so it is really easy to find all of the people of the same surname who wrote wills in each county because they are all grouped together in the same box. I'm kind of surprised that the Alamance County Wills are being stored offsite because in my mind, it seems as if it is a break in the collection. If I were looking for a will in Randolph County, for example, and I did not find it, the next place I would look would be in Alamance County because they are right next to each other. Since I can only go to the Archives on Saturdays, I would have to plan ahead of time for them to pull all of those records for me prior to my arrival. 

Also, I usually investigate the Guardian returns, records, and accounts at the same time I look at the wills and estate files, so it seems again odd to me that the Estate files would be left onsite for Alamance County, but the wills and associated administration and guardian records would be stored offsite. 

Oh, and did you notice that in the Record of Wills for Alamance County listed above, that the list starts at box 9? Does anyone else find that odd? Why not start at box 1? Hmmm.....

I just found out about the Record of Inheritance Tax files last week. They are not really of much interest to me because most of them did not start until the 1920s. However if you are researching in Orange County, NC, these records started in 1820!!! So do check them out if have exhausted all avenues (wills, estates, guardians, etc) and looking for something new to check out. You can check out the complete list here. 

Francesca, “Recent Transferred County Records: Alamanace and Polk Counties,” History For All the People, posted 24 May 2012 (http://ncarchives.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/recent-transferred-county-records-alamance-and-polk-counties-2/ : accessed 24 May 2012). 

Ginger Smith, "Many Alamance County Records now Offsite at Archives," Genealogy by Ginger, posted 24 May 2012, (http://genealogybyginger.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). 

Email from Reader: Looking for Wills at the Archives

I receive a lot of emails from readers of my blog, some of them surname related and some of them North Carolina and State Archives related. I would like to share the following reader email regarding locating wills at the North Carolina State Archives and my response to her questions.

Hello Ginger,
I just finished reading your blog about the MARS catalog, and just wanted to add that I've been using it for awhile now and think it is great.  I always tell people who write to me to try it out. I have been able to have a field day with the land grants.  I noticed the recent change in how the catalog was organized, and it has thrown me off.  Old dogs have trouble learning new tricks.

I am also an avid genealogist and am one of the administrators at the Glover Surname DNA project. I was so lucky to have our Glover patriarch's will be one of the digitalized ones....and that's because it was way back in 1754. It was spelled Glovyer, but we all know it is the correct person.

My generalized question for you is this:  I can see by the MARS catalog that there are several wills located at the archive center of collateral people who married into the families, but they are not available as scanned images.  Are you aware of any plans underfoot to have these records scanned?  Or 2ndly, are there microfilms of these wills?

Thanks,
Wendy.......from out in California

Just FYI for background purposes, Wendy is referring to the MARS online catalog on the North Carolina State Archives website. MARS stands for Manuscript and Archives Reference System and is an online catalog of many of the Archives' holdings in Raleigh, NC. Here is my response to Wendy from California:

Hi Wendy, 

Thanks so much for writing. That is great that your Glover/Glovyer patriarch's will has been digitized! The digitized wills are the colonial wills that were held under the Secretary of State's Office. Usually these wills were written prior to 1776. These have been digitized because they are too fragile to be brought out to the public for viewing and handling. 

Most of the wills have been microfilmed, however, it was not the original wills that were microfilmed, but rather copies or transcripts that were made from the original wills and bound in books. Only 5 county's "original" wills have actually been microfilmed by the Archives - Beaufort, Caswell, Granville, Pasquotank, and Person.

FamilySearch.org has digitized most of these non-"original" transcriped copies of wills on their site and you can access them here 

They are still in the process of digitizing and uploading to the site and they are not yet indexed. But if you go to the will index and find your ancestor, it is pretty easy to then find them in the appropriate book and page of the scanned image. 

My only word of caution is to remember that these are transcripts which means that someone wrote what they thought they saw on the original will and these were sometimes written 3 or 4 times and mistakes were made. I have found several mistakes in the microfilmed and digital copies I have pulled off of the FamilySearch site. So if you question any information in the will, I recommend to order the original from the Archives right away before pulling your hair out over a mistake that a county clerk probably made during transcription. 

I hope this helps to answer your questions. I have not heard of any intentions to digitize the original wills from the Archives. However, many records are being scanned and uploaded to the North Carolina Digital Collections site here, including bible records. 

Ginger

Follow-up Friday - Nov 3 2011

Last weekend I had a pretty good genealogy day over the weekend because I finally got my new desk set up. I heard that many of my genealogy pals got some good genealogy time put in over the weekend as well. I don't know if it's because the weather is getting cooler and we are staying inside more or if it's just because things are starting to slow down or what. But I definitely have a happy face on, despite the trials and tribulations I've been experiencing at work.

So in my genealogy news, I've been working on finding the parents of William Peters who was born in 1874 in Thomasville, Missouri. One of my DNA Family Finder matches believes the Peters line is our connection, however I don't have a leg to stand on because I can't get past William Peters. I did find a Martha Peters on the 1880 Oregon County, Missouri Census Report who could have been his mother as she had a young William living with her that fit my William. But then I got distracted by trying to trace this Martha to a James Peters family out of Anderson County, Tennessee. Turns out this family moved to Missouri and James disappeared leaving Martha to fend for herself and their 2 (or 3) children. Descendants of this family are not receptive to the idea of them having a son named William though, nor to the idea that Martha was living in Oregon County, Missouri in 1880! Another find I had is a newspaper article in which a John Peters was shot and beaten to death on his employer's farm by a gang of brothers in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I had heard my William was beaten to death but his death certificate said he died of a heart attack in Pocahontas, Arkansas. I wonder if maybe this John was William's father (or close relative) and he was the one the family remembers who was beaten to death. Only problem was that the 1880 Council Bluffs census says John Peters was single (William was born in 1874), he was living in Iowa and not in Missouri or Illinois where William was rumored to have been born, and John was from Denmark. Surely I would have heard something about Denmark in the family! Well the nice thing is that I've been able to comb through a bunch of newspapers that my University subscribes to.Click on this post to view newspaper article for the death of John Peters of Council Bluffs Iowa.

In addition to working on my Peters line, I have done some research on my Dunlap family in Stokes County, North Carolina.  Jesse Dunlap left North Carolina about 1820 and moved to Tennessee and then moved to Texas and then finally settled in Arkansas about 1840. His two sons, Jesse Dunlap, Jr and Lorenzo Dow Dunlap were killed in the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857 in Southern Utah. You might have heard about it. Click the above link for more information. Anyways, I started off my search in the totally wrong direction and it took a nice genealogist named Rex Bertram to set me straight. He sent me back to the North Carolina original records. So I have been combing through the Stokes County, North Carolina deeds (they are online – whoo hoo!), using the NorthCarolina State Archives online catalog called MARS to find land grants and wills, and compiling census records in order to piece together the history of the Dunlap family prior to their removal from North Carolina. This was also prompted by a Family Finder DNA match.

Lastly, I finished transcribing the estate files of John F. Dry of Perry County, Illinois. I happened upon these scans as I was making a list of files that I needed to scan during the next Scanfest. If you don’t know what this is, it happens the last Sunday of the month and it’s a time when genealogists all over the world get together in a chat room and chat while they scan their photos and documents. I usually do a pretty good job of keeping up with my scanning, but I always have a lot to catch up with after a trip to the library. These estate files were scanned once but at a very low resolution. I must have had a problem with the scanner. So they have not been transcribed. I did manage to rescan this set of estate files, so I was able to transcribe them. And then, my biggest feat of the week is that after reading Michael Hait’s blog post on Do you understand source citations? I decided to try my hand at writing an “official” citation to the estate file I was sent copies of and transcribed as mentioned above. It is probably missing several pieces because I was not the actual person who went to the courthouse and made the copies. In fact, I probably would have copied where the book sat on the shelf!

Anyways, here’s the citation I came up with (complete with footnote note):

John F. Dry Estate File No. 128, dated 1847; Perry County, Illinois Probate Records, Box 307; Perry County Courthouse, Pickneyville, Illinois. This estate file was copied by Stella Runyon, sarjas@hughes.net, Illinois, USA, in February of 2007 and sent to me by snailmail. Note that Stella told me this was file no. 158, however according to the Perry County Probate Index that is online at sarjas.com, and accessed 03 November 2011, (this is Stella’s homepage), it is file no. 128. I have change it to File No. 128 because I believe this index was compiled since 2007.

Check out Michael’s post if this citation doesn’t make sense to you!