Aycock Newsletter Winter

The Orator
264 Governor Aycock Road
Fremont, NC 27830
Phone: 919-242-5581
Fax: 919-242-6668
Email: [email protected]
Volume, XXX Issue, 1
Winter/Spring 2013
“Universal Education”
Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site
On January 12th, Aycock Birthplace hosted an intermediate genealogy workshop. The following article was
originally printed in the January 20, 2013, edition of the Goldsboro New Argus. Aycock Birthplace has been given
permission to reprint the article in this edition of The Orator.
The Future is Rooted in the Past
Hours of Operation
Tuesday - Saturday
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Closed Sunday and
Monday
Site Staff
Leigh Strickland
Site Manager
Sarah Pittman
Historic Interpreter
Larry Barnes
Site Assistant
Hilda Manriquez
PartPart-Time Staff
The Orator Editor
Sarah Pittman
Check us out on
our new Facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/
pages/Governor-CharlesB-AycockBirthplace/218203418307235
By Becky Barclay
Genealogy workshop gives Wayne County people tools to overcome
roadblocks when searching for their ancestors.
Vandora Blount has heard
the stories over the years—
her great-grandfather was
beaten and thrown into a
river, causing him to catch
pneumonia and die.
But she hit a roadblock in
her quest to find his death
certificate, or even a newspaper article about the incident.
That’s one of the reasons
she attended an intermediate
genealogy workshop at the
Gov. Charles B. Aycock
Birthplace recently. She was
one of about 40 people who
have been researching their
ancestors, but have come up
against roadblocks.
Ms. Blount has been looking for her ancestors for 20
years, doing most of her
research at the State Archives in Raleigh.
But she’s run into a lot of
dead ends because she’s
African American.
“Presently I’m researching one family line trying to
find out who the slave owners were,” Ms. Blount said.
“In another family group, I
did find the slave owner’s
will and what surprised me
was that this man left some
land to my great-greatgrandfather. In his will, he
said he was leaving the land
to someone who was just
like his own.”
Ms. Blount is also looking
for information about her
great-grandmother, but again,
can’t find a death record. She
did find the woman listed on
the 1910 census, but not on
the 1920 census, and has narrowed it down to her greatgrandmother dying somewhere between 1910 and
1913. But that’s where the
paperwork trail ends.
Being Native American has
thrown many a roadblock
into Robin “Sunshine” Riddle’s way over the past 10
years.
“It makes it very hard to
research my ancestors because all of the records have
been changed,” she said. “My
grandmother was taken away
from her family and put into
an orphanage, and they
changed her name.”
Another hindrance is the
fact that in the Native American world, everything goes
by the mother’s clan and her
name.
Ms. Riddle has gone
through tons of census records, but found out that
sometimes Native Americans
were included in the census,
sometimes they were not.
Ms. Riddle, who is from
Oklahoma, has discovered
that her ancestors were forced
from their land over in this
part of the United States and
sent to Oklahoma on the Trail
of Tears.
“It’s very important to me
to do this research and prove
my heritage, just to know
who I am,” she said.
Helping people overcome
the roadblocks in their genealogical research is why a
team from the State Archives
of North Carolina and the
Government and Heritage
Library presented the workshop.
Kay Tillotson, genealogy
research librarian with the
Government and Heritage
Library, noted that genealogy
is the second most popular
hobby practiced in the United
States, second only to gardening.
She said people who have
been researching their ancestors for a while are going to
run into roadblocks.
“But when you overcome a
roadblock, it feels really
good,” Ms. Tillotson said.
Pageon1 page 3
Continued
Manager’s Report
Aycock Birthplace
has a wonderful group
of people and organizations who support the
site! It is impossible to
list them all, but I will
mention a few of them.
First, there are the volunteers who help give
tours of the site, perform
living history demonstrations, and provide
refreshments for other
volunteers and staff
during these times. They
have also helped with
such mundane tasks as
sweeping the historic
buildings.
Second, support
comes from local
schools as well as colleges and universities.
Students from Northeast
Elementary provide
handmade decorations
for one of the site’s
Christmas trees. Students from Gov. Charles
B. Aycock High School
often help with living
history programs. History instructors at
Wayne Community College encourage their
students to tour the site
and to participate in our
programs. Barton College provides interns
and East Carolina University students have
assisted the site with
projects over the years.
Third, organizations
such as our local travel
and tourism office,
which has helped the
site with event publicity
and printed rack cards
for the site. Also, the
Fremont Rotary Club
which has helped fund
site programs and equipment and has helped the
site receive the Rotary
Foundation’s District
Simplified Grant for two
consecutive years.
Last, but not least, is
the Gov. Charles B Aycock Birthplace Advisory Committee. This
group provides support
in numerous ways.
Thank you all!
New Staff Member
There is a new face at Aycock Birthplace! Hilda
Manriquez began working as a part time employee
at the site in October. Hilda and her family are very
active volunteers at several historic sites. She
enjoys giving tours and interacting with people of
all ages. Welcome aboard!
Blue Ribbon Volunteer Award
winner Carlton Moye.
Celebrating Aycock Volunteers
Last fall, the site recognized its outstanding group of
volunteers at the annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. During
the year over 35 volunteers donated a total of 1,325 hours of their
time to the site. Carlton Moye received the 2012 Blue Ribbon
Volunteer award. As a token of appreciation, each volunteer was
given a certificate and a thank you gift. The site is so fortunate to
have such a wonderful group of volunteers!
Hilda (standing) and her family.
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Finding their ancestors
helps ground people, she
said. “They belong to something larger than themselves.
You respect your ancestors
and what they went through
to get you where you are
today.”
Ms. Tillotson has been
doing genealogy since she
was a young girl and she
would watch her mother go
through documents to find
their ancestors.
And through her research,
Ms. Tillotson discovered
that her ancestors were just
ordinary people—most were
farmers who had large families, married locally, bought
land and passed it on to their
children.
“Genealogy starts as a
hobby, but then you can’t let
go,” she said. “It’s like an
addiction, and until you get
back to Noah, you are not
through.”
Ms. Tillotson does most
of her research at home in
front of her computer until 2
in the morning.
“It’s almost like your ancestors call to you in the
night, and you have to get
up and look for them again,”
she said.
Presenter Chris Meekins
has been practicing genealogy since he was 18, quite a
few years now. The workshop presenter is the correspondence archivist for the
public reference unit at the
State Archives.
He got hooked when he
went to the Outer Banks as a
young man.
“My grandfather told me
when I got to Currituck
County, stop there and say
hello to his grandfather who
was buried there,” Meekins
said, “I stopped at the graveyard and there was his
grandfather and his two
wives and their extended
family all in that cemetery.
From that point on, I wanted
to know more about my
family.”
And he has found out
some interesting things.
Like the fact that one of his
ancestors joined the Union
Army, so he has both Confederate ancestors and those
who were United States soldiers.
Another ancestor was the
last white man hanged in
Tyrrell County, having
killed somebody during the
period of the War of 1812.
This day Meekins was
here to help others overcome their roadblocks in
genealogical research.
“We just wanted to add to
their toolbelt and give them
more tools to get more into
genealogy,” he said. “We
talked a lot about deeds and
what information you can
find in them.”
Debbie Blake, public services branch manager at the
State Archives, talked about
intermediate level records of
all kinds, some that people
may not have thought to
look at.
“It’s important for them to
know what their family history is,” she said. “They
want to place themselves or
their family in a particular
place and time.”
Through Ms. Blake’s 25
years of research, she has
found out a lot about her
ancestors.
But one of the most interesting things happened
when a man come to the
search room desk at the
State Archives looking for
his family—the Rackleys,
who had lived in the same
area as Ms. Blake’s
mother’s family.
Later in the day, the man
began talking to Ms. Blake
and discovered that his
great-great-grandfather had
murdered Ms. Blake’s greatgrandfather.
“I was absolutely thrilled
to pieces to meet this man,”
she said. “We’ve been
friends since then. It was
pretty cool.”
Yvonne McLamb has hit
several roadblocks trying to
find her ancestors.
She has the name of a
great-great-grandfather that
she got from his death certificate, but can’t find where
or when he was born.
And her father’s mother
died on Christmas Eve when
he was just 7, so Ms.
McLamb never got to know
that side of her family.
“I don’t even have a picture of her,” she said. “But I
do have a piece of her furniture. By doing this research,
I feel this link to the past.
Finding my ancestors connects me to my past.”
Ms. McLamb had also
heard stories on her father’s
side of the family about her
great-great-greatgrandfather serving in the
Civil War. Many long
nights of research turned up
copies of his enlistment papers and his muster roll
calls. She tracked him all the
way to the Battle of Fort
Fisher. But that’s where she
loses him.
“So many of his company
was either killed or imprisoned,” Ms. McLamb said.
“The war was winding down
and they were very slack in
keeping attendance rolls.
Perhaps he just returned
home. I’ve been down to
Fort Fisher, so I feel like
I’ve walked where he
walked.”
Ms. McLamb said genealogy can take a lot of time
and money, but in the end,
it’s worth it.
Photos by Aycock Birthplace
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A Unique Learning Experience
Last fall, Matt Vollmer, a senior at Barton College, interned over 100 hours at Aycock Birthplace. Below he describes
his internship experience.
Working at the Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site has been a real eye
opening experience. I did not know that so much work went into running an historic site, other than giving
tours and working on occasional projects. Staff members have to plan and organize all the events that take
place at the historic site, which can take many hours that the average sightseer does not experience. As tour
guides, they have to know an extensive amount of historical knowledge and be able to interpret it to the public. They also have to be able
to present the information to diverse audiences, including school children. The staff must also handle many routine tasks including the
care of the artifacts and historic buildings.
When I first started at Aycock Birthplace, I was a little overwhelmed by the idea of giving tours to the public. I am the type of
person that has to take time to study historical information. The staff gradually eased me into the touring process, which made it a more
rewarding experience and I actually enjoyed giving tours to the school children that came to the site.
I also gained a great understanding for artifact preservation. I was assigned the task of cleaning some of the textiles used within
the historic birthplace, and it takes longer than one would think to clean a quilt. I learned that you have to be very gentle with the antique
textiles to protect them from further damage.
I was also given the opportunity to inspect and clean many of the site’s North Carolina Historical Review journals, dating all the
way back to 1924. The process is straightforward, dusting each page of the journals using a brush and wearing gloves to prevent further
deterioration. Each journal is then fitted with a piece of clear mylar film to protect them from wear. I cleaned a total of 75 journals.
Overall the internship at Aycock Birthplace was very rewarding. It definitely expanded my horizons, by giving me more
insight into the daily tasks and duties that a historic site must perform. Being able to work with the public and learn about preservation,
has given me great experience within the field of public history.
Upcoming Events
March
May
March 9th—1:00 p.m.—4:00 p.m.
“Let’s Go Fly A Kite!”
Visitors are welcome to come out and
fly their kites.
No registration necessary.
May 1st—9:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Living History Wednesday
Butter Making, Open Hearth Cooking
and Corn Shelling & Grinding
March 13th—9:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Living History Wednesday
Spinning, Natural Dyeing and 19th
century toys
March 22nd—9:00 a.m.—2:00 p.m.
Daffodil Open House
Area program for Wayne County
first graders
May 8th—9:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Living History Wednesday
School Marm, Quill Pen & Ink
Writing and Townball
April
April 10th—9:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Living History Wednesday
Butter, Lye Soap and Candle Making
April 22nd, 23rd, 25th, & 26th
9:30 a.m.—1:00 p.m.
Farm Heritage Days
Area program for Wayne County
fourth graders.
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Summer—Coming Soon
June 8th
July 13th
August 10th
Our 2nd Saturdays series is back! Updates and event info
coming soon! Call 919-242-5581 or check out our website
for more information.
http://www.nchistoricsites.org/aycock/aycock.htm
2012: A Year in Photos
The Orator is published by the Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace
Advisory Committee, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the
development of the Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State Historic
Site. The newsletter is published bi-annually and is available free of charge.
To receive this publication, please call (919) 242-5581 or e-mail:
[email protected]. The Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State
Historic Site is an agency within the Historic Sites Division of the North
Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, www.ncculture.com.
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