North Carolina and Halifax County, NC Websites and Assets.

Howell/Vincent
General Help
Website Reviews (North Carolina)

Background.

I have been researching my wife’s 3^rd great-grandfather, Burkett Vincent. I really don’t know much about Burkett. He appears as the head of household in the 1810, 1820, 1830, and 1840 censuses. I also speculate that he appears in the household of Philip Vinson, his apparent father, in the 1790 and 1800 censuses. I have no birth record for him, although he was probably born between 1775 and 1780 in the North Carolina colony. I also have no death record for him, although he appears to have died before the 1850 Census.

He was apparently married twice. His first wife’s name is unknown and it appears that they had five children, 2 boys and 3 girls, between 1804 and 1820. I don’t know the names of any of those children. He was also married to Elizabeth Rose. With her, he appears to have had seven children. William, John, James, Elisha, Susan, Nancy, and Burkett. Born between 1814 and 1824.  It is possible some of the seven children were part of the initial five. I am pretty sure that Burkett was born, married, and died in Halifax County, North Carolina.

I have had several people ask that I share my research approach and some of my links.

Typically, my “first pass” uses I am familiar with and use for everyone. I use my various search tricks in doing so. For example, I might use “Vincent of Halifax” and North Carolina as a search term. For newspapers, I often use the individual’s address as a search term.

My regularly used “First Pass” sites include:

• Family Search
• $$ Ancestry
• $$ Newspapers
• $$ Genealogy Bank
• $$ Newspaper Archive
• Elephind Searches Chronicling America, and the Newspaper collections from several states.
• Internet Archive
• Google

My Special North Carolina Links (Second Pass)

I had 29 Links in my North Carolina Bookmarks.  I went through them to clean them up and determine if any of them are particularly useful in my quest. Several links I moved to a separate subdirectory for bookmarks – Counties. I deleted several links as not being useful. I ended up with 11 North Carolina links I think are useful, and another four which are county sites, that make up my second pass.

Top 3 (In my opinion) – Non-Paid North Carolina Sites

1. North Carolina – County Formation Maps – Interactive Slideshow. – Select a year and see the counties as they existed then.
2. Digital North Carolina – Includes Yearbooks, Newspapers, Images, Memorabilia, City Directories & Audiovisual.
3. North Carolina Digital Collections – Browse 26 separate collections or use a single search.

Top Paid North Carolina Sites

1. $$ – North Carolina Pioneers – Databases for several states – $150.00 per year – I’m not currently a subscriber, but I’m thinking about it.

Other North Carolina Sites worth checking

1. East Carolina Roots – Genealogy & History of Eastern North Carolina.
2. North Carolina Encyclopedia (NCpedia) – Biographies, State Symbols, Counties, Geography, World War I, Digital Textbook.
3. North Carolina Land Grant Images and Data – 216,000 land grants from 1663-1960.
4. North Carolina Legislative Publications – Session Laws of North Carolina
5. North Carolina State Historic Preservation – HPOWEB GIS Service (General Audience) – Note: This site requires Adobe Flash player to use.
6. North Carolina State Library
7. North Carolina State University Libraries

Counties – List of Counties

Finally, in my “2^nd Pass” are county focused links. In my case, I have done research in the following counties and have these in my bookmarks.

• Cabarrus County – Cabarrus Genealogy Society – Concord, NC.
• Halifax County – NCGenWeb – Includes a list of resources. For GenWeb sites, I prefer doing a Google search of the county’s site.
• Martin County – NCGenWeb
• Martin County Register of Deeds – Full System, Includes Old Deed Books U (08/26/1866) thru 0XXXX; There are no “I” books, nor book N-05. Also, there are scanned index books for 1925 through 1984.

Review other potential sites (Third Pass)

For my “Third Pass,” I basically, review the following webpages for resources I haven’t used in my first and second passes. These are specifically for North Carolina; however, the concept works for any location. State and County resources recommended on these sites.

The Ancestor Hunt – North Carolina (for newspaper, obituary, and BMD suggestions.”

Family Search Wiki – North Carolina Online Genealogy Records.
Family Search Wiki – Halifax County, North Carolina Genealogy

Cyndi’s List – United States, North Carolina
Cyndi’s List – United States, North Carolina – Halifax County

$$ Ancestry – North Carolina (in the Card Catalog)
$$ Ancestry – Halifax County, North Carolina (in the Card Catalog)

Road trip or hire a genealogist – (This is a 4^th step if needed).

1. North Carolina State Archives. – Includes a listing of the various records held by each county by the County Offices. It is a very important document to review before a trip to the County Offices.
   1. The Halifax County Guide is here.
   2. The Martin County Guide is here.