To learn about my upcoming history programs at the Wilkes Heritage Museum:
Presentations
More information from my history presentations.
December 2025 - Mapping Our History
- Wilkes County land grants and maps, including many in the Elkin area
- NCLandGrants.com, images of all NC land grants
- Carter Falls History article that I wrote in 2023
- Daivd Allen's Iron Works History
September 2025 - Interpreting and Mapping Old Deeds
- Wilkes County land grants and maps
- NCLandGrants.com, images of all NC land grants
- Catalog Search on Familysearch, then type place name and click "search"
- Full Text AI Search on Familysearch
- Wilkes County
- Wilkes County Register of Deeds, then click to acknowledge disclaimer
- Wilkes County GIS
- Wilkes County on Familysearch
- Rockingham County
- Rockingham County Register of Deeds, then click link to acknowledge disclaimer
- Rockingham County GIS
- Rockingham County on Familysearch
- Tools to Sketch Property Boundaries
- NCLandGrants.com, simple text-based polygon creating tool
Example data for Elijah Joyce (Rockingham Grant File #439. 1803)
- W 54 po
- N 70 po
- W 68 po
- N 26 po
- E 61 po
- N 23 po
- E 61 po
- S 119 po
- Tractplotter.com, simple text-based polygon creating tool
- Deedplotter.ai, upload survey image, enter starting location, AI creates tract
- Deedprosoftware.com, enter metes and bounds or upload images for AI to create tract
- DeedMapper software ($99)
September 2024 and
January 2025 - Wilkes County in 1799
May 2024 - Local Colonial Land Records
- Someone mentioned the possible location of an old mill site, and there was a conversation about a possible cemetery hidden in the woods. Contact me to discuss it more!
- Someone brought up Cub Creek. It was called Cub Creek in 1778 when the first land grant surveys were made. Earlier, in 1752, the Moravian survey for their lower tract was located on Cub Creek. While the creek is shown on the survey, none of the rivers, creeks, or branches are labeled. I don't know when Cub Creek got its name.
- The one-page handout from the presentation.
- The first six slides of the presentation (pdf)
- The capture of Solomon Sparks:
George Parks' pension papers (page 14 of 102) about the capture of Solomon Sparks.
Transcription of George Parks' pension papers, typed so that you don't have to deal with the old handwriting.
- Search all pension records through the National Archives
In the search bar, type the first and last name of the soldier, followed by the phrase 'pension north carolina'. For example: George Parks pension North Carolina
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Wilkes Land Grants
This page has a list of all 8,000+ Wilkes grants along with an interactive map.
February 2024 - Wilkes Slave Records
- 1860 Census Statistics
The first six pages of the presentation show how much of the county's population was made up of slaves.
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Wilkes Slave Records file from NC Archives
Digitized from microfilm on familysearch.org. The slave records start at image 340 and continue to the end at image 782. You'll need to create a free login/password to view the records.
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Wilkes Cohabitation Records from NC Archives
54-page pdf file of cohabitation papers. Immediately after the Civil War, former slaves applied to the county to be recognized as husband and wife. Many of these documents list how long the couple had been living together. Some of these families continued to live in Wilkes, and others moved away.
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Wilkes Land Grants
Since 2014, I've been mapping Wilkes County land grants, and I continue to update my online maps and tables. This is useful to determine where early Wilkes residents lived.
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Jason Duncan
222 Sundance Cir
Statesville, NC 28625
704-929-2643
jason@webjmd.com
Maintaining a website since April 1995