A Little Client Work

I have a friend, Amanda, who is a National Park Ranger.  She's what's called a "seasonal" ranger, meaning she works only from May to November.  For the last few years, she has served at Doughton Park, North Carolina, even though she lives in Florida.  Her specialty is as an "interpretive" ranger, which means she talks about the history of the park's specific location, or about features at the park.  At Doughton Park, Amanda's feature is the Brinegar Cabin, built by James Martin Brinegar, known to all as Martin Brinegar, in about 1881.



The Brinegar Cabin, east view, Doughton National Park, North Carolina. Photo by Karen Packard  Rhodes.

Coming up real soon -- like this next weekend -- is the park's celebration of the family and their legacy at the park.  The celebration, titled "Brinegar Days," features the cabin and Amanda's talk there.  Inside the cabin is a loom that Amanda has set up and at which she gives weaving demonstrations.  She talks about weaving, and about many other aspects of the Brinegars' daily lives.  One of the aspects of the Brinegars Amanda wants to discuss this year is their family history.  So she contacted me to do a little quick research, since there is not time to delve deeply into the Brinegar genealogy.  I checked Ancestry.com and did discover several of the family members' death certificates -- including two for two infants, children of John William Brinegar and Nannie (or Nonnie) Blevins Brinegar that Amanda seems not to have known about.  Also available was some birth-index information, from which Amanda can obtain copies of the birth certificates from the North Carolina State Archive.



Brinegar Cabin, rear, Doughton National Park, North Carolina.  Photo by Karen Packard Rhodes.

Martin and Caroline Brinegar had three children:  Susie Alice Brinegar (known as Alice), Sarah LouRenna Brinegar (whose middle name has seen a variety of spellings), and John William Brinegar.  Alice married Robert C. Caudill, having at least four children:  Charity Mae Caudill, Kate Louise Caudill, Hallie Caroline Caudill, and Levi James Caudill.  Sarah married Squire Lawson Pruitt, bearing at least three children:  Elmer Pruitt, Leonard Pruitt, and John Sherman Pruitt.  John William married first Cessie Choate, who apparently died of pneumonia when her first and only child, Verl Milton Brinegar, was just an infant.  John William married second Nannie (or Nonnie) Blevins.  John and Nannie had five children  Breese Foy Brinegar, Homer Cecil Brinegar, Jimmy Brinegar, Cletus Brinegar, and Kyle Brinegar, who all apparently lived into adulthood; there were also two children who died in infancy.  These were Iva Grace Brinegar and Ralph Lee Brinegar.



James Martin (known as Martin) Brinegar and Caroline Joines Brinegar.  Plaque at Doughton National Park, North Carolina.  Photo by Karen Packard Rhodes.

Some of the family have proved more elusive, and on-site research at the surrounding county courthouses and the state archive is probably in order.  One of the problems of family research in this area, especially vital, probate, and court records, is that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, county boundaries in this part of North Carolina were quite fluid, changing with the whim of politicians who decided they needed these or those votes.  It was also a practice in days when transportation was difficult that people would transact their official business at the nearest county courthouse, whether it was their own county's courthouse or not!

It is nice to be able to say that I have done some "pro bono" work for the National Park Service.



Amanda and I, Doughton National Park, North Carolina.  Photo by M. K. Rhodes.

Asheville Public Library Genealogy and Local History Collection

My husband and I have come to Asheville's main public library, known as the Pack Memorial Library of the Buncombe County Public Library System for a little internet time. So I took the opportunity, as a visiting genealogist, to browse the local history and genealogy collection. It is located on the main floor, in the reference department.

They have an extensive collection of North Carolina regional histories, providing wonderful coverage of all parts of the state. They do, of course, have a concentration of materials on Asheville and Buncombe County, of which it is the county seat. Buncombe County is the origin of our word "buncombe" or "bunkum," meaning nonsense, information with no foundation whatsoever. The term was applied to a particularly hot-air-filled state legislator, the gentleman from Buncombe, whose inflated prnouncements led to the use of the county's name as a synonym for bombast and hokum.

One of the highlights is the Pack Memorial Library Newspaper clipping collection, consisting in several volumes of photocopied newspaper clippings about the area and its people. Prominent among them in the volume covering the "Pa" part of the alphabet, is George W. Pack, local resident in the early 20th century, described by one of the newspaper articles as "the greatest public benefactor" in Asheville's history. The articles are arranged alphabetically by subject, with a table of contents at the beginning to indicate the contents of each particular volume.

Also wonderful is the postcard collection, kept in binders, again arranged alphabetically. The collection does not consist in actual postcards, unfortunately, but only in black and white photocopies of them. Arranged by subject, the postcards reflect decades of Asheville area history, covering the city, the people, places, and the surrounding National Park areas which include the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mount Pisgah National Park.

Photocopying the newspaper articles and the postcards is a way of preserving them. The newspaper articles, especially, are subject to deterioration and subsequent loss. Photocopying the postcards not only preserves the images from deterioration, but also from pilfering by light-fingered people, the bane of any librarian's existence.

Censuses are naturally a part of the genealogy collection. Census microfilms are available, and there are transcriptions of most of the censuses, as well. The library also subscribes to the library edition of ancestry.com.

City directories form part of the collection, from the mid-1800s onward. This library has also bound copies of their telephone directories from the mid 20th century onward. I know of few libraries which have taken the trouble to do that, but it is a boon to genealogical researchers attempting to fix their ancestors in place and time.

People wishing to trace western North Carolina ancestries could do well to stop by at the Pack Memorial Library in Asheville.