Here are some bits and pieces I've collected concerning the Everton surname in Craven County. I am fairly confident that John Everton (d. 1754) was the father of Ezekiel. However, proving it is a different matter. Whether or not this family connects to those of...
Boaz Squires is a rather enigmatic figure. Appropriate, wouldn't you say, for a man legend says was a wizard? Local stories claim he was a rather lazy fellow who made demons build boats while he lounged beneath the pines smoking his pipe. He even fought the Devil,...
There were, demonstrably, two William Brights living within, what was then, Craven County during the mid 1700s. Look at the Petition to Change the Seat of Government of 1733. Among the signatories of this document were William Brite and William Bright. So, how do we...
While Ancestry is notorious for spreading false information, you should also be wary of Find-a-Grave (link to her page). Remember, both sites depend on users, who are human, to create family trees/bios. Always, always, always check the facts against contemporary...
A couple of years ago, I posted this on the forum under with Williams surname: I'm not at all sure about this one, but it's a possibility. I am descended from Andrew Grinder and his wife, Elizabeth, through their daughter Ann Sevilla who married Esau Tingle. In the...
When you have a brick wall in your family tree, what else can you do but chase down every lead of anyone who had any relation to your mystery relative? This annotated marriage bond serves that purpose for me. On Thursday, August 22, 1805, John KING (son of Joel KING)...
(This article was originally published July 25, 2018. It was most recently updated June 6, 2019.) It's now worth investigating the possibility that Harriet Morris is a daughter of Thomas Morris of Beaufort County and granddaughter of Elisha Morris. While Laban...
(This article was originally published January 22, 2014. It was most recently updated June 6, 2019.) Nancy MORRIS shows up in the household of Laban MORRIS in 1850 and 1860, and best I can tell from ages on census records, she was living with the family as early as...
My 5th great-grandfather, Jesse P. Vendrick, was probably born in Craven County circa 1760. The identities of his parents and the mother of his children are mysteries. Why? Because there were two Jesse Vendricks in this generation. I think. Thought? I don't...
Dewitt Sumrell was born circa 1825 in Lenoir County. This date is a guessimate based upon the birth dates of his two known sons in the mid to late 1840s. The place, though, comes from the death certificate of his son, James Henry Sumrell. According to James's son,...
The word "brother-in-law" is becoming the bane of my research. In earlier times, the term "in-law" had a broader scope than is now the case. Pretty much anyone related to you by marriage was an in-law. Therefore, a brother-in-law could be one in the modern sense, a...
I was reading through some court records yesterday, when I came across this entry dated 9 Dec 1799: Ordered that notice issue to Mary Gaskins to appear at the Next Term and show cause to why the nuncupative will of Joseph Gaskins decd. should not be Established. Who...