Classes are available starting today at 6 pm MT– all you need is a free FamilySearch account. There are over 1500 classes covering a wide range of topics. Below you will find a small sampling of classes that may interest those researching in North Carolina and other southern states.
Tarheels: Genealogy in Colonial Virginia and the North Carolinian backcountry
Do you have roots in the founding of the New World in North America? In this class you will learn how to trace your ancestry through the swampy lowlands and virgin wilderness of the Old Dominion and back country North Carolina. From deed mapping to ethno-mapping, you’ll learn to glean your story from among the criminals, contractors and cavaliers of the 17th century Colonial South.
Using the Freedmens Bureau and Probates | Ancestry®
Using both the Freedmen’s Bureau record and probate records can yield powerful new family stories. Explore more with Nicka-Sewell Smith.
17th-, 18th- & Early 19th-Century Free African American Families of the Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas
Paul Heinegg is the leading authority on early African American families and the author of three major works in this field: FREE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES OF NC, VA, and SC From the Colonial Period to About 1820; FREE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES OF MD and DE From the Colonial Period to 1810; and LIST OF FREE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION From VA, NC, SC, MD and DE. In this lecture he describes the sources and methods he has used to discover and document early black families.
The Lay of the Land: Using American Land Records in Your Family History Research
Understanding the basics of land records requires learning a suite of new terms such as grantor, grantee, deed, metes, bounds, and state versus federal land. This session introduces the family historian to the unique language of land research. The session also covers the steps for acquiring a parcel of land and the paper trail the process generates.
Use land records to locate an ancestor at a place and time, confirm kinship, supply biographical data such as marital status and occupation, and help disentangle common names. Once the family historian understands the language and process of creating land records, they can apply that knowledge to genealogical problems.
The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged mass settlement of federal lands in the frontier, resulting in millions of records documenting the transfer of public land to private ownership. Learn how these land entry case files can assist in researching your homesteading ancestors.