Barnetta McGhee White, Ph.D.
University Professor Emerita
Avid researcher of African American history and genealogy

---

   

        I learned about AfriGeneas on the Internet many years ago and the information and contacts it provides makes it still my favorite Website for keeping abreast of current resources concerning African American genealogy.  During the past 25 years of practically living at the North Carolina State Library and Department of Archive and History I have concluded that  the single most important category of papers needed to reconstruct the genealogy of many African Americans are the pre-1865 estate papers of former slaveholders. Those papers, housed in the Archives and catalogued by county, contain documents that generally identify family members of the deceased along with wills, inventories, and sales of property, including slaves. The index that I prepared for Granville County shows the alphabetized names "A" to "Z" and the approximate year of decease of those in Granville County, NC, from early 1746  through 1919. These records are often rearranged and added to, yet as of December, 1995, there were papers for 4, 664 individuals in this one county.

Click here

            In addition to my addiction to rambling around in musty courthouses and punishing my eyes reading barely legible microfilm, my personal interests are my children, grandchildren, genealogy, birds and Boxer dogs and not necessarily in that order.  I'll read anything that Toni Morrison writes, and it still amazes me that most people, upon reading BELOVED still don't get it.

            These are the surnames and locations of my searches. Click on "Publications" at the bottom of this page for a list of my publications.

            Granville County, NC                                            Person County, NC
            Person County, NC                                               Charlotte, Halifax, Pittsylvania,
            Caswell County, NC                                              & Prince Edward Counties, VA

        COLATERAL SURNAMES                                   COLATERAL SURNAMES
            Hester, Hicks,                                                            Crowder, Walker, Woody
            Littlejohn, Norman
 

                Let me hear from you.  E-mail address: [email protected]