On May 4, 2013, I attended a day-long educational meeting, held at the Georgia Archives, of
the Georgia Genealogical Society. This was my first visit to the Georgia Archives, and as I mentioned during some
earlier blog posts, you never know what materials you will find in a library or
archives.
No matter what town, city or state you find yourself in, the local library and genealogy society will likely have some out-of-state material.
I was amazed
to find several shelves of books on North Carolina (as well as many other
states) in the Georgia Archives. I came across what is known in genealogical
circles as a “heritage book.” This type of family history can focus just on one
family, as in the heritage of the Shelton Family, or can focus on many
prominent families in a particular county, as did the book I found in the
Archives -- The Heritage of Old Buncombe County Volume I. Before I discuss this particular heritage book, I want to
talk about this genre of genealogy books in general.
Connie Lenzen, a Certified Genealogist,
talked about “county-level heritage books” in the article, Heritage Books and Family Lore, that she wrote for the National Genealogical Society’s journal, the NGS Quarterly.
In this article, Ms. Lenzen first describes family lore or
oral tradition as “one of the oldest sources of family history and one of the
least reliable.” We all have come across
these family stories that have been passed down from one generation to another
with no documentable source detail. Did the story really happen?
It’s only fantasy until documented facts are brought forth. Ms. Lenzen cautions family historians to carefully evaluate and try to verify these stories -- whether they come across them from interviewing family members or find them in “county-level ‘heritage books.’”
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Onkels Rekruten
by Gustav Igler, Illustrirter Katalog der internationalen Kunstausstellung im
Königl. Glaspalaste in München 1883, 4. Auflage, München, September 1883, wikimedia
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It’s only fantasy until documented facts are brought forth. Ms. Lenzen cautions family historians to carefully evaluate and try to verify these stories -- whether they come across them from interviewing family members or find them in “county-level ‘heritage books.’”
In the article, Ms. Lenzen provides an excellent definition
of these county heritage books and how they often come about:
“As commonly structured, their publishers focus upon an area
(geographic), solicit local-(genealogical) society sponsorship, invite area
residents to submit family sketches, and then publish the contributions
unedited and – almost invariably – undocumented.”
Forewarned with this information from Ms. Lenzen, I opened The Heritage of Old Buncombe County Volume I:
From the title page we see the book was published by The Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society located in Asheville, NC. The mission of the Society is stated right at the top of its website: " ...to serve the community through its publications, workshops and otherwise as a medium of exchange of genealogical information."
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| Used by permission from OBCGS |
From the title page we see the book was published by The Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society located in Asheville, NC. The mission of the Society is stated right at the top of its website: " ...to serve the community through its publications, workshops and otherwise as a medium of exchange of genealogical information."
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Map of
Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States with township and municipal
boundaries, US Census, Ruhrfisch, June 2007, wikimedia
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In the book, the selected families from different parts of Buncombe County are presented alphabetically, and I was so excited when I came upon “Roderick Shelton and Descendants” # 571, p. 324. I looked at the author and another surprise – it was Kenneth C. Wilde, the researcher I introduced in my post of May 24, 2013. Because I already knew of Mr. Wilde’s professional research background, I was sure that I would find sources in his article. He cited Buncombe County land, jury and census records. Mr. Wilde also included “family lore” about Glumdalclitch, a.k.a Mary Franklin, whom I introduced in the May 24, 2013 post, but he used the word “claimed” to let his readers know that this story is just that, a story, until documentation is found.
One of the most valuable parts of the article for me came at
the end when Mr. Wilde listed his lineage or Ahnentafel, starting with William Duckworth Franklin, said to be the son of Glumdalclitch, the ancestor that we may both have in
common. We all love to compare our family trees.
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Family
record of [blank] / Chapman Bros. Lith. Chicago. c1888, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
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What have I learned about heritage books? They can provide
an introduction to families in a county, give some local color and be a good
resource. But the careful genealogist must be sure to check the information to
see if sources are given. Where to find heritage books? Be sure to check libraries (on-line catalogs), local
genealogical societies, and family search wikis, see my post of March 12, 2013,
to locate individual and county-level heritage books.
