Research Blog

Craven County Marriage Bonds, 1773–1867
This is an index of the surviving Craven County marriage bonds from 1773 to 1867. The original bonds are held…
Swift Creek Timeline
This is a running timeline of Swift Creek events that turn up in the records I've shared here on East…
Corrections and Updates to Older Posts — dating back to 2007!
East Carolina Roots turns 20 next year. That's a lot of years, and a lot of posts written while I…
Family Tree Fact-Checking Myself! Correcting the record about Laban Morris and Selah Averitt
Over the past few months, I've been excited as I thought I was pulling together a strong case for identifying…
How far back can autosomal DNA actually reach?
A reader wrote this week to ask a question I hear in one form or another all the time: his…
Will of Mary Holmes (Craven County) – 1824 and Apprentice Bond for Richard Holmes (UPDATED)
UPDATE 09/01/2026 – This article was originally published May 9, 2018, but I have found a great deal more information…
The Origins of Laban Morris – A compendium of data points and information spanning nearly a century
UPDATE [31 Aug 2026]: X-DNA comparisons on GEDmatch (strict SNP thresholds) between a lady who is an X-DNA descendant of…
1942 case deals with 18th century Beaufort County land deeds
I was searching for some familiar names on FamilySearch Full Text Search, just in case I stumbled on anything I…
Was Selah Averitt the mother of Betsy Holmes (wife of Dennis Wiggins) and William Holmes (husband of Alpha Morris)? What do you think?
I'll put my cards on the table right now. No. I don't think Betsy Holmes or William Holmes are the…
1767 Petition to Move Pitt County Courthouse to plantation of Edmond Tyson
This petition was published previously on this site from a transcription by Roger Kammerer, but it was identified as a…
Pitt County to Tennessee: Hidden Gem of a Rare Revolutionary War Land Bond in Loose Court Papers
I have thoroughly enjoyed poring over the pages in the the only surviving folder from the colonial and early statehood…
1786 List of Taxables for Pitt County (perhaps Swift Creek area?)
I found this list crawling through a folder of Pitt County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions records on FamilySearch.…