Newspapers, City Directories, and Maps

Newspapers – Martin County, N.C.

The Weekly Herald, 1935-1983 & The Enterprise, 1901-1954: https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/the-enterprise-williamston-n-c/  

The Weekly Herald & The Enterprise, 2019-2020: https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/martin-county-enterprise-weekly-herald-williamston-n-c/

Democratic Banner, 1856-1857: https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/democratic-banner-williamston-n-c/

The Martin County Times, 1883: Microfilm available at the State Library of North Carolina and the North Carolina Division of Archives & History in Raleigh.

Williamston Expositor, 1866-1867: https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/williamston-expositor-williamston-n-c/

Williamston Mercury, 1859: Microfilm available at the State Library of North Carolina and the North Carolina Division of Archives & History in Raleigh.

Newspaper Indexes and Locators –North Carolina

North Carolina Newspaper Index: https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/north-carolina-newspaper-index/3280828?item=3291336

·        Requires a state Library Card to access

·        Last updated in 2002 but should list newspapers up to that point in time

·        Arranged by county

North Carolina Newspapers Digitization Project: https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/#advsearch

·        Includes issues from 1856 – 2020 from various newspapers published there over the years

·        Searchable by newspaper title or location

·        Review more than just the county of interest. Newspapers in Raleigh and nearby counties often have mentions of relatives or events related to the family being researched

North Carolina Newspaper Locator: https://statelibrarync.org/newspaper/

·        A database of newspapers on microfilm at the NC Government and Heritage Library

·        Searchable by county, town, newspaper, and date range

·        Includes links to other libraries that may have copies

Union List of North Carolina Newspapers 1751-1900: https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/union-list-of-north-carolina-newspapers-1751-1900/2421767

·        A digitized & downloadable copy of a book published in 1963 by the North Carolina State Library

City Directories

Hills’s Williamston, 1959 &1961: https://lib.digitalnc.org/search?ln=en&p=773%3A%22North+Carolina+City+Directories%22+AND+location%3A%22williamston%22&f=&sf=year&so=a&rg=10&fti=0

·        Due to the rural nature of Martin County, directories are limited to the county seat of Williamston.

·        No other forms of directories have been found at this point in time

Maps

North Carolina Maps: https://web.lib.unc.edu/nc-maps/

·        Curated by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

·        Has 3000 digitized maps from the late 1500s to 2000

·        Includes detailed maps of every North Carolina county

·        Maps collections included are from the State Archives of North Carolina, the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Outer Banks History Center

State Archives of North Carolina: https://archives.ncdcr.gov/search-catalog/search-doc

·        Searchable by collections, date range, records type and creator

·        Includes city, town, and county maps, Sanborn insurance maps, colony maps, transportation maps, state boundaries maps, maps of NC waterways, navigational charts, railroad maps, military maps, confederate maps, cemetery maps, Indian Lands, and geological surveys.

·        A guide to searching the collection: https://archives.ncdcr.gov/documents/doc-search-guide-maps

NC Dot: https://www.ncdot.gov/travel-maps/maps/Pages/state-transportation-map.aspx

·        Includes current and historical highway maps from 1922 - present

Corbitt, D. (2000) The Formation of North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. 6th ed. 'ebook' Raleigh: NC Division of Archives and History. Available at: https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/the-formation-of-the-north-carolina-counties-1663-1943/3692099?item=4553233  (Accessed: 12 August 2024).

·        Details the splitting of other counties over time to form what is now known as Martin County

Confederate Engineer’s Maps from the Jeremy Francis Gilmer Collection:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3900.cw0304660/?r=0.322,0.618,0.235,0.178,0 .

·        Maps show rural areas of the county with roads and land owners’ names from the Civil War era