THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: 110 lines
Perquimans County native Ray A. Winslow Jr. has mined the records of courthouses, state archives and old homes for 35 years. He has pored over old books, Census records, family Bibles and tattered letters.
He has written 23 of 44 chapters of the pre-eminent book on genealogy in the state, ``North Carolina Research, Genealogy and Local History.'' He has been editor of the North Carolina Genealogical Society's quarterly magazine for 11 years. He has co-written a book on Perquimans County archaeological history.
Those efforts have made him one of the most respected genealogists in the state.
``I was just born into that kind of thing,'' Winslow said from his home just outside Hertford. ``I started asking about family when I was old enough to know about things. You learn why you are here as opposed to over there and why your name is what it is.''
Genealogy is history and history is genealogy, Winslow says. Knowing the people behind the events makes history come alive.
``Part of the fun of finding it is the impossibility of looking for it,'' he said. ``There is no way you can ever look at everything everywhere.''
Winslow has tried. He has devoted his life to researching family history. He never married. He lives with his aging and ailing mother and spends much of his spare time caring for her. He does not own a car. When he needs something, he rides his bicycle downtown. If he has to travel farther, he catches a ride with somebody.
Winslow, 55, admits to being a homebody. He rarely needs to leave, anyway: Records and ancient books pack several rooms in his home, and there are hours of research to do.
He earns most of his income by typing and editing submissions for the North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal. He makes extra money by doing research for people as a professional genealogist. In his spare moments, he transfers his notes, handwritten from original documents, onto his computer and organizes them into large, neat binders. His years of labor could save someone else years of work.
``If these notes remain in my handwriting, some relative will probably toss them out one day when I'm gone,'' he said.
Many of his notes include valuable information from other families. Winslow plans to donate his records.
``I've got notes on so many families, and I'd like to get that published before I go to visit my ancestors,'' Winslow said.
Lucille Winslow, a distant relative, has worked with Winslow on several occasions for historicalresearch. She has served or is serving on the Edenton Historic Commission, the Roanoke Island Historic Association and the Perquimans Restoration Association. Winslow first introduced Lucille to genealogy.
``He is our most valuable asset,'' Lucille said. ``He knows more about it than anyone I know. He is meticulous, and he is as thorough as he can be.''
That is exactly what Winslow would want her to say about him. Accuracy is his hallmark. He spares no time or trouble to make sure he gets it right.
Winslow once reviewed a pedigree chart on which one man was born before his grandmother and was married to his mother.
He warns of trusting courthouse records. Many of them are in error and have to be checked against other documentation, such as Census records or war rosters.
``Some people just starting out go to the courthouse where people lived and expect to find their records,'' Winslow said. ``It's much more important to go to the North Carolina archives in Raleigh than to go to the individual counties.''
Finding an ancestor means establishing three things: a name, date and place.
``Start from where you are and what you know, then go to your living relatives and get what they know and whatever records they may have,'' Winslow said.
Winslow's research spreads beyond Perquimans County. He has read and copied verbatim every 17th century document in and about most counties in northeastern North Carolina. He admits to being a bit of a nerd. He says some people believe he's read every book in the library.
He might have, he says, except that ``some of the books in there are not worth my time.''
Everything he is and does, he can tie to an event in his family's past. He is the only member of his family to join the Episcopal Church - since 1856 that is. The ancestor was a man who defied the norm, says Winslow, much like himself.
If it were not for the Great Depression, his parents probably never would have met. His mother, Sarah Linson Winslow, has ancestors that come from all over the eastern United States. All his late father's family are from Perquimans. They met when both their parents ended up at a boarding house in Winston-Salem looking for work.
Winslow calculates, by thorough research, mind you, that about one-fourth of the land in Perquimans County belongs or has belonged to his family. Of course, most natives of Perquimans County are related to him. He's traced his line to a man who died in Perquimans County in 1724. Winslow is a direct descendant of three of the man's daughters.
``I'm kin to myself,'' he said.
It's called pedigree collapse. It happens to every family sooner or later. It occurs often among families that have stayed in one place for generations, as Winslow's did.
Most of his early family lived in northern Perquimans County as Quakers. A cemetery there proves the point. The first person buried there was Esther Jane Winslow, who died in 1865. The person with the earliest birth date buried there is Elizabeth Winslow, born in 1797. Both were Winslows who married Winslows.
Winslow has no horse thieves in the family, but one ancestor in Massachusetts was a magistrate and performed his own marriage ceremony. It caused such an uproar that the town passed a law against such practices.
``I come from a long line of stubborn people who were very independent,'' said Winslow, proudly. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
JEFF HAMPTON
Ray Winslow Jr. has traced his family roots to graveyards as well as
courthouses, folks' attics and libraries - to name a few.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB