Series 4 - Echoes in Action Echo 17 — When the Map Changed Around Them When we search for our ancestors, we tend to think of place as something fixed. A person lived in Cumberland County. Another lived in Harnett County. Another lived in Moore County. But the geography recorded beside our ancestors' names was not nearly so permanent. County boundaries changed. New counties were created. Townships were divided and renamed. A family could appear to have moved from one place to another between...

Series 4 - Echoes in Action Echo 16 — Dr. Conrad B. Codrington: From Barbados to the Sandhills A blog essay tracing the life, service, and lasting community legacy of Dr. Conrad B. Codrington in Dunn, North Carolina. Every now and then, a name that first appears almost in passing begins to show up everywhere. That has been my experience with Dr. Conrad B. Codrington. I first encountered him while following another story—that of Lucy S. Herring, the Jeanes supervising teacher whose work...

Series 4 - Echoes in Action Echo 15 - Rev. R. F. Jamerson: Educator, Principal, and Pastor When Jeanes Supervisor Lucy S. Herring arrived in Harnett County in 1925, she boarded in the Shawtown home of Mr. and Mrs. Ragland. In her memoir, Strangers No More, Herring recalled sharing the home with another couple whose lives reflected the close relationship between education and the church in African American communities. Clara Jamerson taught at nearby Shawtown High School, while her husband,...