North Carolina Genealogical Society

The Donald Mosher Award was presented at the 2010 National Genealogical Society Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Nathan W. Murphy, MA, AG, for his paper "The Devon Seafaring Origins of William Byrd's Mother's Family: Grace (Stegge) Byrd of London, England, Thomas Segge of Westover Parish, Charles City County, Virginia, and Captain Abraham Reed of Charles City County, Virginia; Including Additional Details about His Father John Byrd's Career as a London Goldsmith."

Loose Estates Records of North Carolina

Over the pasts four months, the Publications Committee  has been working hard to create the database infrastructure to successfully begin utilizing volunteer efforts. Using indexes that were created by staff members at the NC State Archives beginning in 1992, our current database has an alphabetical listing of almost 60,000 estates.  These entries are now in the second phase of the project - validation - which must be performed by individuals who can volunteer at the State Archives in Raleigh.

It is estimated that when this project is complete, it will contain an alphabetical surname listing of approximately 500.000 estates!  But this cannot happen without your help.

We Need Volunteers

This week, 30 volunteers were given their "first assignment."  Most volunteers are borrowing microfilm through ILL and will begin abstracting the name and date of each testator's loose estate record county by county.  Each reel requires about 2 volunteer hours to abstract. Won't you consider donating some volunteer hours? The NC  State Library has made an exception to their lending program, and these films are being permitted to leave NC on loan.  Our current volunteers live in over 9 states - including Illinois, Kansas, Washington, and Texas!

If you are interested in volunteering, or have questions on the project,  please contact the Publications Chair Vickie Burns ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).