Vague NC Genealogy Help

[saw119]

I've posted something similar a while ago but I find I'm still feeling unfulfilled with what I've found out so I'm hoping for some more of your wonderful help. I am an English guy who has a long held interest in things Civil War and Appalachian so I was somewhat heartened to discover a pocket of people with my surname in North Carolina. I have a very unusual surname in England never mind the U.S. so I decided to go ahead and research them despite not having any concrete proof that they are part of my line just for the heck of it (I just love doing historical research).
Anyway, to cut a very long story down just a little I've become somewhat obsessed with idea of 19th century life in the western Piedmont & Appalachian regions of NC. However, what I still haven't got is a good sense of what it was like there to live, to work & to have fun. I have lots of questions but I will ask one specific query. On the U.S. census returns I can't seem to find a specific place of residence. Is this possible to work out? (It just seems to say things like 'Northern Division, Guilford County' or 'Deep River, Forsyth County' & I can't work out where these places are).
This is a long, rambling, and very possibly unclear, post. If anyone thinks they can help then please do not hesitate no matter how small you think your help may be.
If you remember my previous post along these lines and are thinking 'Oh no, not again' then I apologise. I just really want to know what these places looked like and what life was like.

 

[Allie]

I've posted something similar a while ago but I find I'm still feeling unfulfilled with what I've found out so I'm hoping for some more of your wonderful help. I am an English guy who has a long held interest in things Civil War and Appalachian so I was somewhat heartened to discover a pocket of people with my surname in North Carolina. I have a very unusual surname in England never mind the U.S. so I decided to go ahead and research them despite not having any concrete proof that they are part of my line just for the heck of it (I just love doing historical research).
Anyway, to cut a very long story down just a little I've become somewhat obsessed with idea of 19th century life in the western Piedmont & Appalachian regions of NC. However, what I still haven't got is a good sense of what it was like there to live, to work & to have fun. I have lots of questions but I will ask one specific query. On the U.S. census returns I can't seem to find a specific place of residence. Is this possible to work out? (It just seems to say things like 'Northern Division, Guilford County' or 'Deep River, Forsyth County' & I can't work out where these places are).
This is a long, rambling, and very possibly unclear, post. If anyone thinks they can help then please do not hesitate no matter how small you think your help may be.
If you remember my previous post along these lines and are thinking 'Oh no, not again' then I apologise. I just really want to know what these places looked like and what life was like.

It can be tricky to figure out exactly where your ancestors lived using online resources. In many cases you can Google the name of the town and find out where its modern equivalent was, but if your ancestors lived in a division or district, you're stuck with looking for a map of the census districts. In my case I have ancestors who lived in "Jessamine," in Shelby county, Tennessee - and no one seems to know where Jessamine was. It's listed briefly under historic Shelby county post offices, and that's that.

Have you tried contacting relatives who live in the area and may be more familiar with it, or able to search records which are not online? I don't know how US Ancestry hooks up with UK Ancestry - can UK researches see American researchers working on the same people? If not, I may be able to help you find some living descendants of these people you're interested in.

 

[rbasin]

I'd try with those counties. I imagine they all have some sort of historical society. Maybe search for maps of those counties

 

[saw119]

I have just come across what are called Township maps which seem very helpful. I'd never heard of them before and that's the kind of thing I need. Unfortunately, the map of Rockingham county is ripped so no help there. It also occurs to me that county boundaries are quite fluid. I have a reference to Deep River, Forsyth County in the 1860 census but Deep River is in western Guilford in the late 19th Century.

 

[Allie]

I have just come across what are called Township maps which seem very helpful. I'd never heard of them before and that's the kind of thing I need. Unfortunately, the map of Rockingham county is ripped so no help there. It also occurs to me that county boundaries are quite fluid. I have a reference to Deep River, Forsyth County in the 1860 census but Deep River is in western Guilford in the late 19th Century.

Yep, county lines were often redrawn. I have one ancestor who lived in three different counties without ever moving.

 

[Allie]

Okay, for some reason Google is not listing a place in NC called Deep River - but Google Earth does. Try it, it takes you right there. I'm trying to figure out if it's now a town or a neighborhood or what.

 

[Allie]

What I'm seeing seems to be that Deep River is now part of High Point.

Can you find the non-population social schedule for your district and see if this church is on it?

 

[saw119]

Yes it's quite funny how sometimes it appears and sometimes it doesn't. It also moves from one county to another as it's on the eastern border of Forsyth and the western border of Guilford.

 

[saw119]

This is all helping by the way. Sometimes it's useful just to find a way of having a chat about things and working them out in your head.

 

[rbasin]

Found it on Bing maps.

 

[Allie]

Was anyone still living in their original location in 1940? You can pick up the U.S. Enumeration district maps. Also sometimes turn of the century censuses have the street names written sideways next to the names, if you look at the image. If your Woollens stayed put for a bit, you may be able to find them.

 

[Allie]

It looks like one of the Guilford county Woollens served in Arkansas - John A. Woollen.

It also looks as if a whole bunch of Woollens live in High Point during the 1930s and 1940s. Finding out where they lived exactly and where the earlier ones were buried is probably about as close as you're going to get to an actual residence, since apart from the Deep River Meeting House, it looks like this area is now mostly parking lots.

 

[saw119]

That's pretty sad about the parking lots. I suppose I'm not so bothered about the actual people I'm more looking to get an understanding of the sense of the place. I'm looking to understand the geography and peoples place within and their effect on it. I suppose that's perhaps a little high concept and may very well be beyond the information available. I really appreciate any help have no doubt of that.

 

[Allie]

That's pretty sad about the parking lots. I suppose I'm not so bothered about the actual people I'm more looking to get an understanding of the sense of the place. I'm looking to understand the geography and peoples place within and their effect on it. I suppose that's perhaps a little high concept and may very well be beyond the information available. I really appreciate any help have no doubt of that.

There are some folks here who have focused on the history of NC, hopefully they will be along shortly. I completely understand your interest in sense of place. The non-population schedules can help somewhat - you can see how many fields everyone had and what was growing, how much livestock of each kind.

The closest I've ever been to this area is Raleigh, which is a lovely town today - so many trees. Lots of old tobacco barns, as I understand it NC has antebellum tobacco sheds the way Tennessee has antebellum cotton gins.

Also take a look at some of the NC archives, they have wonderful architectural collections online in particular. I have modeled several antebellum houses and other buildings from their architectural collections.

http://library.unc.edu/services/digitalcollections/

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua110_041

Historical architecture from nearby Greensboro:
http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/c...110_041&f[location_facet][]=Greensboro+(N.C.)

 

[CSA Today]

I found this service record for Private George H. Woolen Company B, 27th North Carolina infantry

"Born in Guilford County prior to enlisting in Guildford County at age 23, April 28, 1862 for the war. Present or accounted for until wounded at Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862. Returned to duty on an unspecified date. Captured at Bristoe Station, Virginia, October 14, 1863. Confined at Old Capitol prison, Washington D.C., until transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland February 3, 1864. Died at Point Lookout on or about September 18, 1864. Cause of death not reported."

Source: North Carolina Troops, 1861-1862, A Roster. Vol. VIII, Infantry, 27th- 31st Regiments, page 31.

 

[saw119]

You see I've never heard of the non-population schedules before so straight away that's a new avenue to explore. We just don't have those in the UK census. Also, those architecture links are just the stuff I'm after.

 

[saw119]

It looks like one of the Guilford county Woollens served in Arkansas - John A. Woollen.

Just out of interest what makes you think that John A Woollen was a NC man? I've never been sure. He serves in the Arkansas Infantry & Cavalry all the war.

 

[Allie]

Just out of interest what makes you think that John A Woollen was a NC man? I've never been sure. He serves in the Arkansas Infantry & Cavalry all the war.

Ancestry.com trees say he was born in Greensboro, Guilford county, and in the 1900 census his place of birth is given as NC. I haven't checked everyone else's data yet but just glancing at it I didn't see anything obviously wrong.

There should be a widow's pension application online somewhere under his wife's name, LJ Woollen. Quite possibly it gives his date and place of birth and that's where others are getting the info.

 

[saw119]

Ancestry.com trees say he was born in Greensboro, Guilford county, and in the 1900 census his place of birth is given as NC. I haven't checked everyone else's data yet but just glancing at it I didn't see anything obviously wrong.

There should be a widow's pension application online somewhere under his wife's name, LJ Woollen. Quite possibly it gives his date and place of birth and that's where others are getting the info.

I was just interested to see where you got your info from that's all. I have singularly failed to find him on the census so was interested in following up the info you had posted. I don't use trees from Ancestry and 'what have you', I prefer to do it all myself then I know how I got where I did.

 

[Allie]

I don't use Ancestry trees as valid sources, but they can contain good clues about where to look, and save a lot of work in finding sources others have already found.

I took a poke at researching John A Woollen and he is stubborn - but he does show up in 1850 with his parents in Guilford county NC and in 1900 he is listed as a newspaper editor in Lonoke, Arkansas. His daughter (wife had died) is with her grandparents in the 1880 census but I haven't found him yet, although there is a similar named person who may be him. Still looking.

I did find some biographical information on him, though. This is from "History of the Arkansas Press for a Hundred Years and More," 1922.