Your Olde Meck Board of Directors is currently seeking nominations and volunteers for 2025. We continually require a group of volunteers behind the scenes to keep the society running smoothly. The 2025 board positions and basic duties are:
President: presides at all society meetings, coordinates society activities and projects, signs all official society documents.
Vice President: serves as backup to president and handles special projects at the direction of the president.
Program Chair: contacts and schedules speakers for monthly member meetings, manages logistics for and coordinates payment to said speakers, provides information about the speaker and presentation to include in promotional communications, and provides a summary of the speaker presentations to be included in the Mecklenburg Messenger newsletter.
Membership Secretary: oversees membership database, handles membership renewals and other member issues, collects society mail, creates a mail log, and distributes all items to appropriate staff.
Treasurer: maintains all financial accounts of the society, processes all incoming monies and pays all society bills, creates regular financial reports.
Recording Secretary: keeps a record of the proceedings of all unrecorded meetings of the Society and all meetings of the Board of Directors, provides a physical copy of the Board of Director minutes annually for the society files.
Corresponding Secretary: mails all book and publication orders, keeps records of all orders, mailings, and money expended, writes correspondence, as directed by the president.
Director, a two-year term: attends society board meetings, provides input on key decisions, contributes expertise or guidance as appropriate, supports the board, including handing special projects, as needed.
If you would like to join our board or nominate someone who could serve in that capacity, email us at info@oldemeck.org.
We continue to sell items from our Used Book Sale as more people become aware of the great opportunity to find valuable genealogy-related books at rock bottom prices! We also continue to add more volumes to our offerings thanks to generous donations from individuals who have books they are no longer using. We are pleased to have recently added more than 20 excellent titles thanks to our beloved Quarterly editor Ellen Poteet. Click on the link above to discover nearly 200 books from a variety of categories.
If you would like to purchase any books, you may: come by the FRC; mail us at PO Box 32453, Charlotte, NC, 28232-2453; phone 704-568-1774, Ext.109; or email info@oldemeck.org.
Please list item numbers and titles in all requests. We can ship within the United States. Shipping charges will apply, but these are still wonderful deals! This is First Come, First Served ... so contact us soon!
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Sutcliffe-Ferguson
Family Research Center
Dedication
December 2, 2023
George Sutcliffe
Lita Sutcliffe
Herman Ferguson
At the Olde Meck Holiday Party on December 2, President Jeff Houser made an official presentation to dedicate our research room to three former members who contributed greatly to the advancement of our society. The name of our facility is now the Sutcliffe-Ferguson Family Research Center. See more at Sutcliffe-Ferguson FRC Dedication.
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Tracing Your Family Tree
Check out the link below to see what Lynn Bancroft, Olde Meck Vice President, and others have to share about "Tracing Your Family Tree." This is an article written by Cailyn Domecq for the Our State online magazine.
For our August meeting, Olde Meck member and owner of Visual Story Media, Kimberly Melton, joined us to deliver a presentation entitled, “DIY Photo & Media Organization for Genealogists.”
Most of us probably have boxes of old photos and documents and a phone and computer full of too many photographs to count. It’s time to think about organizing all of that media so you can actually look at it and share it with others! It doesn’t have to be a daunting process if you break it into five easy steps:
Set goals and deadlines.
Select the items for your project.
Sort.
Save and scan your printed photos and slides.
Share your hard work with family and friends.
Refer to the DIY for the Genealogists cheat-sheet to help guide the way. Members may also view a recording of the entire program behind our Member Login tab.
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Blackwelder Files Offer a Wealth of Information
Olde Meck volunteers have completed the task of going through the impressive collection of genealogical materials donated by Linda Blackwelder. Linda has been a prolific researcher in the Steele Creek community of Mecklenburg County for many years. In addition to doing research for hire, she also compiled the book, Steele Creek, an Early History of the Steele Creek Community, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Over the years many Steele Creek families have shared their information with Linda, in addition to her own research. We are grateful Linda has entrusted us with her files so that even more people can benefit from her efforts.
Here is a list of the folder headings from her files. If you find something you'd like to explore further, either come by the Family Research Center or contact us at info@oldemeck.org.
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Ferguson Errata
Mecklenburg County, NC, Will Abstracts, 1791-1868, Books A-J
If you purchased a copy of Herman W. Ferguson's Mecklenburg County, NC, Will Abstracts, 1791-1868, Books A-J, from Olde Meck, and it did not have a loose copy of the “Errata” in the front, you may wish to print this Errata page and insert it. Ferguson made these corrections in 2010, but some copies sold after that time may not have had the page of “Errata.”
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Organizing Your Genealogy Research
Does your genealogy area look anything like the picture here?
If so, you may want to view the recording of Olde Meck member Lynn Bancroft's talk Organizing Your Genealogy Research.
This is an updated program from one she gave to Olde Meck in 2019 and was presented at the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Black History Month Conference. Lynn discussed useful hints and presented a sampling of different charts which can also improve our efficiency. Based on ideas from many genealogy experts, she described how the following tips may be helpful:
Keep the big picture in mind.
Designate a workspace.
Take charge of paper files.
Establish an organization routine.
Go digital.
Use Additional Charts.
Create a kit for on-site research.
We are sharing the recording here in the hopes it can provide some tips for all of us to better organize our research.
(1) Click Start Button below to begin. Be sure to view in Full Screen (icon at bottom right of video)
Katie Grafer presented our January program about how to use historic newspapers to assist in genealogical research. In her presentation, "Extra! Extra! Getting Clues and Context From Historic Newspapers," Katie shared many tips about how to look beyond the obituaries and wedding announcements to help guide your newspaper research. She explained the other types of useful information that can be found in old publications, including public notices, social columns, and even advertisements. She gave specific examples from her own research that allowed her to ‘connect the dots’ on elusive ancestors.
The following list of websites may help you find historic newspapers:
Deed records can provide a wealth of information to fill out our ancestors' stories but can oftentimes be difficult to access. We are excited to announce an addition to our website which will make the process of finding valuable Mecklenburg land records easier than in the past.
As part of her internship for a course in her Masters of Library Science program at East Carolina University, Ann Martin, now an Olde Meck member, has recently completed a helpful video tutorial to walk users through the process of accessing the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds website. If you have Mecklenburg ancestors and have ever wanted to view old deeds and land transactions, this video will facilitate your journey.
Ann describes the basics of deeds, what they consist of, and how they can help with family research. She then provides easy to follow navigation through the Register of Deeds website using a specific example.
(1) Click Start Button below to begin. Be sure to view in Full Screen (icon at bottom right of video)
We hope you will find Ann’s video tutorial useful and search for the deeds of your ancestors. Please feel free to give us feedback on this new feature.
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Picture Formatting Suggestions
Below are links to YouTube videos created by Louise Nottingham, leader of the Olde Meck Writers' Group. They are designed to help you format photos and images of documents that you may want to include in a Microsoft Word family file:
We have added an Olde Meck Wish List on Amazon if you would like to help the FRC in an easy way. Updates will be posted in the newsletter, and your donations are tax deductible. Thank you for supporting Olde Meck!
October 19
Rock House Birthday Party!
The Hezekiah Alexander Homesite is turning 250 years old! To honor this milestone, the Charlotte Museum of History, where the house is located, is holding a special event on Saturday, October 19th. Known also as the Rock House, this is the oldest ...
Save the Date for the 2024 North Carolina Genealogical Society Fall Conference. This year's theme is North Carolina Homecoming. Find details at ncgenealogy.org.
Kendall McGeorge, Public Programs Manager at the Charlotte Museum of History, will share the story of the historic Siloam School Relocation from an abandoned lot in south Charlotte to the museum property. She will detail what the school was and how ...
Genealogy Essentials: A Beginner’s Roadmap for Successful Research
Join Genealogy Librarian Danielle Pritchett for an interactive workshop that will provide you with research strategy tips, basic tools to organize your research, and access to free library databases such as Ancestry Library Edition and HeritageQuest. Presented by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, ...
Mark your calendars now for the 2025 National Genealogical Society Conference, to be held at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. The theme of this conference is Tales and Trails, connecting us with the stories and places that our ancestors ...
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by Linda Blackwelder. Linda has been a prolific researcher in the Steele Creek community of Mecklenburg County for many years. In addition to doing research for hire, she also compiled the book, Steele Creek, an Early History of the Steele Creek Community, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Does your genealogy area look anything like the picture here? 