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The Award for Excellence in Publishing

Given in three distinct categories:

  • A book, or a set of books, of abstracts or transcriptions of an original North Carolina record.
  • A publication relevant to North Carolina genealogy.
  • A book of family history relevant to North Carolina.

The books must have been published within the eighteen months preceding the end of the nominating period.
The deadline for submissions is August 15. Submitted publications become the property of NCGS and will be donated to the Genealogical Services collection of the State Library of North Carolina.

How to Nominate a Book or Set of Books

  1. Review the judging criteria
  2. Fill out a Nomination Form

3. Submit by mail along with the nominated publication to:

NCGS Awards Committee
6300 Creedmoor Road, Suite 170 #323
Raleigh, North Carolina 27612


Previous Winners

Book Awards – Original North Carolina Record

  • 2023  John A. McGeachy for Warren County, NC, Pleas & Quarter Sessions Court Minutes, May Term, 1848-November Term, 1851
  • 2022  John Stemmons for North Carolina Petitioners, Etc. 1780 [1755-1784]
  • 2021  Judy Swink Watts and Betsy Dodd Pittman for Burke County, North Carolina Road Records (1787-1897)
  • 2020  Morgan Jackson for The Families of Northern Moore County – Abstract of Miscellaneous and Rare Records, Volume II
  • 2019  Sharon Rea Gable for Camden County, North Carolina, Deed Books G-H, 1795-1799
  • 2018  John A. McGeachy for Wilkes County, North Carolina Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions; October Term, 1798 – February Term, 1805 and May Term, 1805 – October Term, 1810
  • 2017  Linda Gray Mayo, editor, for Early Hyde County, North Carolina Marriage Records: 1735-1899
  • 2016  Robert C. Carpenter for Gaston County, North Carolina, in the Civil War

Book Awards – Primary Source Material

  • 2014   John A. McGeachy for New Hanover County, North Carolina Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 3 vols: 1814-1825
  • 2013   E. B. Munson, editor, for Confederate Incognito: The Civil War Reports of “Long Grabs,” a.k.a. Murdoch John McSween, 26th and 35th North Carolina Infantry
  • 2012   John Anderson Brayton for Annotated Transcriptions of Colonial Currituck County, North Carolina Wills
  • 2011   Laura Edwards for Dead or Disabled: The North Carolina Confederate Pensions 1885 Series
  • 2010   Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society for Minutes of the Henderson County, NC Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1839-1848, Volume 1
  • 2008   Herman W. Ferguson for Abstracts of Deed Books 24-28 and Books 1-3, Second Series, Mecklenburg County, NC 1831–1850
  • 2007   Ellen Poteet for General Order Book, 1862-1863, 11th North Carolina Troops
  • 2006   Bradley R. Foley for The Greensboro Patriot Index: 1847 to 1856
  • 2005  William L. Byrd III and John H. Smith for their series North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color
  • 2004   Martin County Genealogical Society for Martin County, NC Church Records from Bear Grass, Conoho, Skewarkey, Smithwick Creek Primitive Baptist Churches
  • 2003   Kathy Gunter Sullivan for Tryon County Documents 1769-1779: A North Carolina County
  • 2002   Kathleen Summers for Abstract: Henderson County, NC Estate Records 1838-1900
  • 2001   James Vann Comer for Central North Carolina Vital Statistics
  • 2000  John A. Brayton for By a Line of Marked Trees
  • 2000  Irene and Russell Black for their seven-volume set of Iredell County, North Carolina Cemeteries
  • 1999   Rick Frizzell and Jackson County Genealogical Society for Docket Book, Jackson County Superior Court, 1866-1896
  • 1999   Agnes Moseley Wells and Iris Moseley Harvey for their abstracts of Surry County records
  • 1998   James W. Kluttz for Abstracts of Deed Books 15-19 of Rowan County, North Carolina, 1797-1807
  • 1999
    1.  Timothy W. Rackley for his abstracts of Nash County records
    2.  Herman W. Ferguson for his abstracts of Mecklenburg County records
  • 1997
    1.  Dr. Patrick M. Valentine for The Episcopalians of Wilson County: A History of St. Timothy’s and St. Mark’s Churches in Wilson, North Carolina, 1856-1995
    2.   Juanita E. Caldwell for her Cleveland and Rutherford counties court minutes
  • 1996  Excellence in Publishing: Old New Hanover County Genealogical Society
  • 1995   Excellence in Publishing: Weynette P. Haun for North Carolina Revolutionary War Army Accounts Part I-V
  • 1994  Excellence in Publishing: Dr. Stephen E. Bradley Jr. for Early Records of North Carolina: From the Secretary of State Papers Vols. I-VIII
  • 1991   Book Awards:
    1.   Margaret M. Hofmann for her land grants of North Carolina series
    2.  Paul Heinegg for Free African Americans of North Carolina
    3.   Mildred J. Miller and Pat M. Crooks for Time Is, Time Was: Gravestone Art, Burial Customs and History, Iredell County, North Carolina
  • 1990   Award for a Book published in the last 12 months:
    1.   Anne McAllister and Kathy Sullivan for Civil Action Papers of Lincoln County 1771-1806
    2.   Henry deLeon Southerland Jr. and Jerry Elijah Brown for The Federal Road through Georgia, the Creek Nation and Alabama
  • 1989   Award for a Book published in the last 12 months: Kay Duncan and Anita Barfield for The People of Columbus, Volume 1
  • 1988   Award for Excellence in Publishing: Dr. A. B. Pruitt for Glasgow Land Fraud Papers 1783-1800 and North Carolina Revolutionary War Bounty Lands in Tennessee
  • 1987   Award for Excellence in Publishing: Thornton W. Mitchell for North Carolina Wills: A Testator Index, 1665-1900

Book Awards – Publication Relevant to North Carolina Genealogy

  • 2023  Rev. W. Becket Soule for A Documentary History of the Diocese of Charlotte, 1972-2022
  • 2022  Judge J. Matthew Martin for Cherokee Supreme Court: 1823-1835
  • 2021 Junaluska Heritage Association and Susan Keefe, Editors, for Junaluska Speaks: An oral history of one of Appalachia’s oldest black communities
  • 2020 Emily Skinner for Until We Sleep Our Last Sleep
  • 2019  Chotsey Winborne for Berea Notebook: Tracing the Early History of Berea, North Carolina, Through Property Deeds
  • 2018  John Anderson Brayton for Order of First Families of North Carolina Ancestor Biographies, Vol. 3
  • 2016  Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. for Hertford County North Carolina’s Free People of Color and Their Descendants.

Book Awards – Secondary Source Material

  • 2015  Dr. A. B. Pruitt for Index to People & Places in New Hanover Co., NC Deed Books A-AA (1726-1845)
  • 2014   C. Rudolph Knight (posthumously) and Lawrence W. S. Auld for African American Heritage Guide: Tarboro, Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County
  • 2013   Edgecombe County Genealogical Society for Edgecombe County, North Carolina Cemeteries – Greenwood Cemetery, Volume III, edited by Janice Dew
  • 2012
    1.   Jackson County Genealogical Society, Inc. for Macon County Cemeteries, Volume II (West of the Little Tennessee River)
    2.   John Anderson Brayton for Order of First Families of North Carolina Ancestor Biographies, Vol. 1: “The First Two Hundred”
  • 2011   Marie Benge Craig Roth for History of Davie County Schools
  • 2008   William B. Kittrell for Pitt County Cemetery Book, Volumes 1 and 2
  • 2005   Susan Wazmunski Todd for Heroes of the Sixties: Lest We Forget

Book Awards – Family History

  • 2023  John D. Beatty, CG for The Vick Genealogy: The Study of a Southern American Family in White and Black (2 volumes), for the Joseph Vick Family Association of America
  • 2022  David Leatherwood for Calamity and Liberation: Barcos and Related Barkers (1861-1865)
  • 2021  Barbara Voorhees for To the Stars: The Glenns of Gaston County, North Carolina
  • 2020  David Leatherwood for Lives Along the Water: The Barcock/Barco Family of Carolina (1666-1782)
  • 2019  Roy A. Archbell, Jr for Archbell Genealogy: The Descendants of John Archbell of Beaufort County, North Carolina
  • 2018
    1. Sharon Castle with the Castle Genealogy Project Work Group for George and Ruth Castle: Our Family’s Journey 1613-2016
    2. B. Darrell Jackson, CG® for Ruffin Family History: Lineal Descendants of William Ruffin (1618-1674) of Isle of Wight County, Virginia to John Henry Ruffin (1861-1951) of Pettis County, Missouri 
  • 2017  Nancy Sherrill Wilson and Mary Katherine Sherrill Lowder for Ancestors and Descendants of John Vernon Guyer and Georgia Winifred Pate Guyer: Their North Carolina Heritage, Volumes I and II.
  • 2015   Jean Wood Paschal for One Branch of the Wood Family Tree in Northeastern North Carolina
  • 2014   Barbara McGeachy for Wiley Thomas Snyder, Nora Bessie McNeil: Their Stories
  • 2012   Margo Lee Williams for Miles Lassiter (circa 1777-1850): An Early African-American Quaker from Lassiter Mill, Randolph County, North Carolina
  • 2011   Dr. John Quinly Williams Jr. for Our Roots: African Origins and the Reclaimed Legacy of Three American Families
  • 2010
    1.   Gates County Historical Society for Just Down the Road … in Our Own Words
    2.   Jonathan A. Underwood for The Underwood Family of Stanly County, North Carolina: A Biography and Genealogy
  • 2007   Ruth Shipp Yarbrough for Remember Who You Are
  • 2006   Rebecca L. Dozier for Descendants of John Jenkins, Colonial Governor of North Carolina, 1672–1850
  • 2004   Rev. Nelson Weller for A Family History/Genealogy of the Schauss/Shouse Family in North Carolina 1755 – 1900
  • 2003   Jeffrey Lewis Williams for Lore and Legacy: A History for the Cheek, Sale and Sparks Families (2nd ed.)
  • 2002   Dorothy N. Perkins for Thomas Norfleet of 1666 Vols. I & II
  • 2001
    1.   Agness Wiggins Gunter for Descendants of Captain John Wiggins of Martin County, North Carolina
    2.   Oren Alston Palmer Jr. for The Descendants of Colonel Robert Palmer
  • 2000   George W. Willcox for A History of the House in the Horseshoe: Her People and Her Deep River Neighbors
  • 1999   Henry and Willard Wright for The Life and Legend of Henry Cannon Smith
  • 1998  Plummer Alston Jones Jr. for The Jones Family of Blounts Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina with Allied Families
  • 1995   Excellence in Publishing: Merrill Hill Mosher for John Freeman of Norfolk County, Virginia, His Descendants in North Carolina and Virginia & Other Colonial North Carolina Freeman Families
  • 1994   Excellence in Publishing: Boyt Henderson Cathey for Cathey Family History & Genealogy, Vol. I: 1700-1900
  • 1993   Excellence in Publishing: Anne Williams McAllister for Heinrich Weidner 1717-1792 and Catherine Mull Weidner 1733-1804, through Four Generations
  • 1991   Book Award: Thurlo V. Byers for Descendants of David & Margaret Byers
  • 1990   Award for a Book Published in the last 12 months: Carrie M. Jennings for Messick Ancestral File
  • 1989   Award for a Book Published in the last 12 months:
    1.   Jo White Linn for A Holmes Family
    2.   Judith Garner Hinton for Letters Back Home