UpFront with NGS: Petitions

07 February 2017

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks … Petitions to Courts, 1775-1867 – a Finding Aid NOT to be Missed!

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks … Petitions to Courts, 1775-1867 – a Finding Aid NOT to be Missed!

This is a resource that has been around for quite a while and yet I find that many don’t take advantage of it!

Essentially, finding aids can provide you with tremendous data. A detailed finding aid gives you insight into the existence of documents that have relevance to your research. You can then take the next step and access any referenced material.

The Race & Slavery Petitions Project has had detailed finding aids online via Proquest and LexisNexis for quite a while and then subsequently a website (housed at UNC Greensboro) was created to house the information. Interestingly, because of how the information was coded, it is sometimes easier to use the Proquest PDF documents, than the website, depending on what you seek. Additionally, the finding aid entries and the database entries are not identical.

First, a bit of history …

Established in 1991, the Race and Slavery Petitions Project was designed to locate, collect, organize, and publish all extant legislative petitions relevant to slavery, and a selected group of county court petitions from the fifteen former slaveholding states and the District of Columbia, during the period from the American Revolution through the Civil War.

… the Project has collected 17,487 petitions (legislative and county court) representing about half of the counties (606 of 1,127 in 1860) in the fifteen southern states. The following table gives the number of legislative and county court petitions in each state.

Let’s look a bit more into both of these resources …

For the online version, if I search on Wake (as in Wake County NC) having selected North Carolina and the entire time period, only 3 petitions reveal themselves – 1822 (Janet Corn), 1840 (Ephraim Conyers), and 1862 (Sally Scott). Now, I happen to know that Simon Turner had a petition in 1790 and if I search on his name, that petition shows up. This was all using the basic “Search the Petitions.”

Now, there is the “Search By Name” option, meaning the names of slaves, where you can limit our search to a particular county within a state. If I just search on Wake County, I get 10 pages of results! If I check “Show only slave owners” and enter Wake and select North Carolina, then I get just over 1 page of entries, including Simon Turner. So, when searching on slave forenames for a county, the basic “Search By Name” option works best, and when searching for a slave owner, selecting “Show only slave owners” is important.

Now, the online finding aids via Proquest are nice easily searchable PDFs where you can easily search on any term.

· (via LexisNexi) Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks: Series I, Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1777–1867

· (via Proquest) Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks, Series II, Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1775–1867, Part D: North Carolina (1775–1867) and South Carolina (1784–1867)

The above is NOT a complete list of the collection and you can find a list of the books and guides (aka finding aids) here (UNC Greensboro).

In some ways, I like the PDF documents (when available) as you can more quickly see the overall context of the petitions – who, what, when and where, which is an at least two-step process on the website.

Just a reminder that different formats for finding aids/databases each have their strengths as far as usage.

Regardless of which (or both) of these you access, any data found will probably be a gem you’ll want to add to your genealogical collection!

Which entry caught your eye as possibly having relevant to your research?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow NGS via Facebook, Flipboard, Google+, Twitter, YouTube

27 June 2013

Petitions – do you make use of them in your genealogy research?

The source for this petition is the NC General Assembly Records (GASR), Apr-May 1783, Box 1, Folder: Misc Petitions at the NC archives (Raleigh, NC)
Image taken & copyrighted by Diane L Richard, www.mosaicrpm.com

People often think of petitions as just “a list of names.” They are so much more! They are very interesting lists of names.

Did your ancestor sign a petition to request a new county be formed? If so, you know where he was living when.
Did your ancestor protest the building of a mill near him? If so, you know something about where he lived.
Was your ancestor a Quaker and petitioned that slaves be freed? If so, you know his religious affiliation and something of his beliefs.
Did your ancestor sign any kind of petition? Then you probably have his original signature!

Petitions tell us so much about our ancestors and what was important to them. They also provide us context on neighbors and neighborhoods. They also provide us with an original signature for our ancestor! When doing 18^th and earlier research – it can be very challenging to find anything “original” to do with our ancestors and so such a signature can be quite special.

Some posts/resources about petitions and their use in genealogy research:

QuickLesson 14: Petitions—What Can We Do with a List of Names? (Elizabeth Shown Mills)
Clues in Petitions: Did Your Ancestors Petition the Government? (GenealogyBank)
Treasure trove: legislative petitions (Judy G Russell, The Legal Genealogist)
I have again underestimated what the Library of Congress has online -- have you? (Upfront with NGS, early VA Religious Petitions)
The Race and Slavery Petitions Project Locates My Virginia Tinsleys in Ft. Wayne, Indiana (Rootdig.com)
Legislative Petition Digital Project Up and Running (Out of the Box, Virginia Memory)
Session Laws of North Carolina – Links to Individual Volumes (they can also be searched on)

What is the neatest petition that you have come across?

Did finding your ancestor on a petition result in a major break through in your research?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com