By Diane L. Richard, NCGS Journal Editor, journaleditor@ncgenealogy.org
Happy fall everyone! To help everyone enjoy this delightful time of year, and in preparation for Thanksgiving and beyond, this issue is short and sweet!
Contribution Spotlight
I am always encouraging your submissions for the Journal. In the last issue of Journal Jottings we talked about how you can contribute photos. In this issue, I spotlight a type of contribution that many of you could also make: a 1-2 Pager. As you can tell from the name, these are short, sweet, and to-the-point pieces!
Sometimes you come across one particularly helpful document. Or, as you research, you learn about an interesting and new-to-you piece of history. Or you find your ancestor named in a unique document along with other family members and neighbors. Or you just happen to be researching in a non-North Carolina archive and come across a document referring to North Carolinians. Just last week, I was looking in a Georgia collection and found the will of a North Carolinian. All of these are great candidates for the 1-2 Pager category of contribution. The only requirements are that they are short and are related to North Carolinians!
Toll Roads, et al.
Recently I became fascinated by toll roads. Many books and articles have been published about the history of toll roads, bridges, ferries, canals, and more.
Guess what my interest is? If you guessed records, you are correct!
I would love to include some data in a future issue of the Journal about those who worked for or owned toll roads, ferries, bridges, canals, etc., or used such to transact business and/or travel.
Think how much we can learn about our ancestors by knowing where and how they traveled. If your ancestor was documented as paying tolls on a certain route, then we have more places to look for records. If your ancestor owned or managed a toll road, ferry, bridge, etc., what was on the other side? A different county or state? Are there records there that could be relevant?
I’m not sure if there are records of tolls collected to be found, but let’s take a collective look. If you know of possibly relevant records held by your family or in a repository, or you are willing to check out the holdings of an archive, please do so! Maybe we can find some of these fascinating records to publish in a future issue of the NCGS Journal. If your ancestor worked collecting tolls or owned/managed a toll road, bridge, ferry, canal, etc., please share with us about that individual.
Thanks again to all who have helped and to those who will volunteer in the future. It does take a village to create the Journal. As always, I can be reached at journaleditor@ncgenealogy.org to answer your questions and to receive your submissions and suggestions.
Go Journal Team!