Project Scope
To index and publish an alphabetical surname listing of all extant loose estates found within the North Carolina Archives county record series, in addition to those found within the colonial records of the Secretary of State and District Courts.
Volunteers Needed
- Indexers from microfilm. Individuals will abstract from microfilm the name of the individual and the year of probate. This record series was microfilmed by the LDS in the 1980s, and virtually all extant loose estates held at the North Carolina State Archives are contained on these reels. Volunteers can work at any local library in North Carolina through the interlibrary loan system. Special arrangements will be made to accommodate volunteers who live outside North Carolina, and film will be sent from the North Carolina State Library. Abstracted information can be keyed into a personal computer from a downloadable template provided by NCGS and then uploaded, or the template can be printed if necessary and the microfilm abstracts handwritten. These completed forms can then be e-mailed, faxed or mailed back to the society for data entry.
- Data Entry Individuals will key in handwritten abstracts.
- Onsite Verifiers Individuals will need to be able to work at the State Archives in Raleigh, NC. These volunteers will manually verify that the records abstracted from microfilm match the current holdings at this repository and make additions and corrections where necessary.
All volunteers will be recognized publicly for their contributions to this project.
How Can I Volunteer?
Please send e-mail to Vickie Burns at secondvicepresident@ncgenealogy.org.
Microfilm Indexers: You may sign up for your county of choice when available, and you may request up to 5 reels of microfilm at a time. Please make sure prior to volunteering that you have access to a library with a microfilm reader. Once you have signed up you will be contacted by a coordinator who will be available to answer any questions that arise. Each reel of film takes approximately 2 hours to abstract. We ask that you request no more than what you can commit to complete in a 2-week time period. Once you have submitted your information and returned the film you may then repeat the volunteer process .
Data Entry Volunteers: You will be assigned a coordinator who will work with you to forward handwritten entries. The project template can be used online to enter the variable information and then simply uploaded. In addition, we will need individuals to input the names of the 36 counties that have already been indexed by NC Archive staff for verifiers to work from.
Onsite Verifiers: You will be given a listing of names within a particular county and asked to verify that the information abstracted accurately matches the extant file. There may be some estate records found on site that were accessioned since the LDS completed microfilming, and these will be added to the index through the verifying process.
Questions?
Please send e-mail to Vickie Burns at secondvicepresident@ncgenealogy.org.