Sign up for Genealogy Pointers »

Membership in the distinguished Order of the First Families of North Carolina requires having an ancestor who lived in North Carolina before it became a royal colony on July 12, 1729. The work at hand--the first in a new series--describes and documents family histories of the first 200 persons named to the Order's Ancestor Roster. Undertaken with the blessings of the Order of the First Families, renowned genealogist John Brayton here establishes the origins (if known) of each ancestor, the facts of all their children’s families (not just the ones through whom descent is proven), and any other accessible data to round out the family history.

Ancestor Biographies, Vol. 1, in a nutshell, draws upon two bodies of information: (1) Data compiled by members of the Order who undertook to document their ancestry; and (2) Mr. Brayton's unsurpassed knowledge of the pioneering families of the Tar Heel State and its repositories. In this context the author treats each ancestor and his or her children as a distinct genealogical unit, providing abbreviated but appropriate proof for each statement made concerning his or her spouse(s), children, and their children's spouses. Many of these ancestors are contained in the collections of First Families of Virginia, and in a dozen or so cases, new chains of descent for the FFV families appear in this monograph. The volume also demonstrates the migrations of North Carolina colonists from all points in the colonies: Pennsylvania, Long Island, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Among other things, Mr. Brayton demonstrates that North Carolina was indeed a migratory melting pot, about which much research needs to be done. Following is a list of the ancestral surnames treated in the essays of this volume: Albertson, Alderson, Alston, Archbell, Bailey, Baker, Barecock, Barnes, Bass, Bateman, Baum, Bennett, Bigg, Blanchard, Blount, Bond, Bonner, Boon, Boswell, Branch, Bridgers, Bright, Bryan, Bryant, Bunn, Cake, Carter, Chancey, Charles, Charlton, Coleman, Collins, Cotton, Coward, Coxe, Crisp, Cullen, Culpeper, Cunys, Curry, Daniel, Daw, Delamare, Dew, Dickinson, Drake, Drummond, Cudley, Durant, Edwards, Ellis, Everard, Everitt, Fort, Freeman, Futrell, Gibbs, Glaister, Goldbee, Godley, de Graffenreid, Grandy, Green, Gregory, Hardison, Hardy, Herring, Hill, Hilliard, Hobbs, Hobson, Hodges, Hoskins, Hunter, Isler, Jeffreys, Jenkins, Jennings, Jernigan, Kent, King, Kornegay, Laker, Langston, Lanier, Lee, Leigh, Lillington, Lowe, Luten, McDaniel, Mann, Martin, Mason, Mayo, Merritt, Midyett, Moore, Morris, Nelson, Newby, Nicholson, Norfleet, Pace, Parrott, Pearson, Peele, Perry, Peyton, Pike, Pope, Powell, Powers, Pritchard, Pugh, Reed, Reeves, Ricks, Salter, Sanderson, Sawyer, Sebrell, Sellers, Sessums, Sexton, Sharbo, Sherrod, Shine, Sims, Smith, Smithwick, Snoad, Spann, Speir, Spruill, Strickland, Sutton, Swaine, Symons, Torksey, Travis, Turner, Tyson, Vail, Vinson, Waller, West, Weston, White, Whitehead, Whitfield, Whitmel, Williams, Wilson, Windley, Woodward, and Wynne.