African American Ancestry
True Stories from Colonial North Carolina
I was recently asked by Wake County Public Libraries to give a virtual Zoom presentation on fascinating but little known…
Update on the William S. Morris family of New Bern
Nearly five years ago I published a post for a will I had stumbled upon for a William S. MORRIS…
Did you know all of these new records were at FamilySearch? I’ve got all of the links right here!
FamilySearch has been steadily putting a ton of North Carolina records on their site that aren't yet easy to access…
John Holmes sells wife’s interest in slaves to Church Chapman (1833)
Below I have transcribed a deed from my 4th great-grandfather John HOLMES to Church CHAPMAN of Craven County. In the…
Will of Willoughby MOORE – Beaufort County (Feb 1824)
The following is from Beaufort Orphans — 1808-1828. Willoughby Moore and this particular Moore family were listed as "Other Free"…
Researching Apprentice Records
When researching one’s genealogy, an often neglected resource is a county’s apprenticeship bonds. At times, children apprenticed out were poor…William S. Morris of New Bern’s will provides instructions to emancipate “my negro woman and three mulatto children”
[Update: This 1831 will turned out not to be the end of the story. William S. Morris was still living…Indians and mixed-race people named in court records of Carteret County
If you are researching your ancestry, and know that one of your forebears was one of North Carolina's earliest citizens,…
North Carolina Slave Narratives
Between 1936 and 1937, the Works Progress Administration conducted a series of interviews with men and women who were born…
Free People of Color – by County – 1790 Federal Census
I originally compiled and published this list at CoastalCarolinaIndians.com for the purpose of helping people with their Indian ancestry research.…Apprentice Bonds for Free People of Color in Craven County, North Carolina (1769-1820)
I originally published this list at CoastalCarolinaIndians.com due to the fact that Indians were sometimes listed in census records as "Other…