Birth of a Colony

As Thanksgiving approaches, we stop to honor those who went before without whom, our Nation would not have existed. Like all births this birth was not without pain. JC

Watch Birth of a Colony: North Carolina on PBS. See more from UNC-TV Presents.

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Ocracoke History Hunting Trip Tomorrow at 9:00 AM

Time	Saturday, October 22 · 9:00am - 12:30pm
Location	Ocracoke Island, NC
Created By	Jennifer Farrow Creech, Dawn Taylor
For	Hatteras Island Genealogical and Preservation Society
More Info	Ocracoke History Hunting Trip Date: October 22, 2011 Where to meet: 8:30 a.m - Ferry terminal parking lot in Hatteras Village. We will be car pooling from there unless other prior arrangements are made. Please feel free to drive separately if desired. Ferry will be departing at 9 a.m Start of tour: 11 a.m until noon (give or take). Phillip Howard will be giving our group a guided tour of the the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum. He will be sharing some fascinating island history and discussing the museum and it's holdings. 12-ish - 1:30-ish p.m= Lunch @ the Flying Melon. 1:30 - 2:30 p.m: The walking tour of Howard Street and it's cemeteries will begin. Phillip will be sharing some spooktacular stories of the families of Ocracoke and their final resting places. Tour will end at the Village Craftsman. Please follow the below link for more info on Phillip Howard and The Village Craftsman After the tour, it will be up to the individual group members as to whether they stay on the island or head for the ferry. Please be sure if you are car pooling, to check w/ all who are riding with you as to their plans prior to leaving Hatteras that morning. It is a 14 mile drive from the south ferry dock to Ocracoke Village. NCDOT: Ferry Division - Ferry Schedule Fees: $12 for walking tour. Will be due on day of tour. The ride on the Hatteras/Ocracoke Ferry is free. No charge. Update: Due to Hurricane Irene, those who are planning to join us and do not live on Hatteras Island, may have to change their travel plans by taking the Swan Quarter/Cedar Island ferries to Ocracoke. Please follow the NCDOT's link below in order to keep up with the latest info on NC HWY 12's Recovery Project. http://www.ncdot.org/ Cost for touring the museum is a donation of your choice.

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Fall lecture series at the North Carolina History Center in New Bern.Saturday Oct. 22th

Behalf Of David A. French
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 2:42 PM


Hi All,

We are pleased to host Mr. Dennis Jones and Ms. Cheryl Fetterman this
Saturday, October 22nd at 1pm for the second history feature of our Fall
lecture series at the North Carolina History Center in New Bern.

*Colonial Settlers Along the Lower Trent and Neuse Rivers*
Mr. Dennis E. Jones, a historical geographer, will talk about the French
Huguenot, English, Scots, Irish, German, and Swiss families
who settled along the Trent and Neuse Rivers during the Colonial period and
their geographical migrations.

*French Huguenot Society of North Carolina*
Ms. Cheryl Fetterman, President of the French Huguenot Society of North
Carolina, will talk about the French Huguenot Society organization.

*Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 at 1 pm*

Cullman Performance Hall . North Carolina History Center . 529 South Front
St., New Bern, NC

*Mr. Jones' and Ms. Fetterman's Presentations are Free and Open to the
Public. Everyone is Welcome!*

Delicious refreshments will be served after the presentation by Grandma's
Goodies of New Bern, 252.617.5828.

Come early and visit the beautiful Tryon Palace and the new North Carolina
History Center which has an excellent permanent exhibit about the history of
Eastern North Carolina. To learn more, please visit their website at
http://www.TryonPalace.org <http://www.tryonpalace.org/>.

For more information about the Family History Society of ENC and Upcoming
History and Cultural Events relating to Eastern North Carolina, please see
our website at http://www.ENCFamilies.org <http://www.encfamilies.org/>.
Also, a detailed flyer about the Jones and Fetterman talk are available on
our website as a PDF.
*
*
If you have a meeting, event, project, or book that relates to the
historical or cultural history of Eastern North Carolina that you would like
to be listed on our website, please contact us at
info@encfamilies.org<info@encfamilies.org?subject=Please%20list%20our%20even
t>
. It is a free service.

All the Best,

David French

--
*The Family History Society of Eastern North Carolina*
252.349.0405 (Telephone)
www.encfamilies.org
Visit the Hyde Co., NCGenWeb Pages at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nchyde/HYDE.HTM Contribute your research and
exchange info with others.


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Dr. James Horn to lecture at Roanoke Island Festival Park Auditorium Oct 15

 Anyone who is able to attend these events would surely benefit. JC

Roanoke Colonies Archaeology and History Week


All of the following events are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, Oct. 12

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. archaeological fieldwork continues and can be publicly viewed at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

7 p.m. Roanoke Island Festival Park Auditorium, Roanoke After Raleigh: Resettlement of the Island in the 17th and 18th Centuries lecture by Phillip W. Evans.

Evans is president and co-founder of the First Colony Foundation. Now in his second career as an attorney in private practice concentrating on juvenile and mental health law in Durham, he focused on colonial and pre-colonial American history in his first career -- most of which was spent at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site where he served the National Park Service as a park ranger/historian for 17 years.

Thursday, Oct. 13:

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. archaeological fieldwork continues and can be publicly viewed at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

7 p.m. Roanoke Island Festival Park Auditorium, Raleigh's Other Lost Colonies lecture by Dr. Eric Klingelhofer

Klingelhofer is a First Colony Foundation Board member and research vice president. He has led archaeological research efforts at sites related to Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland and the Caribbean, and since the 1990s, has worked numerous digs on Roanoke Island. In addition, he was senior archaeologist during the Colonial Williamsburg excavations under Ivor Noel Hume. Currently, Klingelhofer is a professor of history at Mercer University in Georgia

Friday, Oct. 14

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. archaeological fieldwork continues and can be publicly viewed at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

7 p.m. Roanoke Island Festival Park Auditorium, The Lost Colony -- New Theories lecture by Dr. James Horn.

Horn is a First Colony Foundation Board member and is vice president of research and historical interpretation, and Abby & George O'Neill Director of the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg; author of A Land as God Made It; Jamestown and the Birth of America; and A Kingdom Strange -- The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

Saturday, Oct. 15

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. archaeological fieldwork continues and can be publicly viewed at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

Sunday, Oct. 16

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. archaeological fieldwork continues and can be publicly viewed at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.


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Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts

New Exhibit Opening At Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

National Parks Traveler

New Exhibit Opening At Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

 

 October 9, 2011 - 1:36am 

 

A new exhibit that explores how archaeology can help unravel the story of what happened to the "First Colony" opens Monday at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

The exhibit, Beneath the Sands: Past and Present Archaeology at Fort Raleigh, is a joint production of the National Park Service, the First Colony Foundation, and Friends of the Outer Banks History Center.
The exhibition is presented as part of Roanoke Colonies Archaeology and History Week and is made possible by support from the Percy W. and Elizabeth G. Meekins Charitable Trust. Other activities of the week will include a weeklong series of events with theatre, symposium, and archaeological research at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

Outer Banks Superintendent Mike Murray announced that many of the artifacts, on display for the first time, show how scientific analysis of these objects, when combined with historical context, can provide clues to what may be America's greatest historical mystery.

Roanoke Colonies Archaeology and History Week includes a week-long professional archaeological search for evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies and Algonkian Indian habitation on Roanoke Island, with an interactive educational classroom without walls, and a public symposium focused on new discoveries.
Among the planned activities:

Click here:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2011/10/new-exhibit-opening-fort-raleigh-national-historic-site8868
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Ships of the Roanoke Voyages

	Ships of the Roanoke Voyages

No plans for vessels used in the Roanoke voyages are known to exist, but reasonably accurate inferences about those vessels can be drawn from contemporary paintings, construction and performance records, woodcuts, and maritime treatises.   The wooden sailing ships of the period, while much trimmer and sleeker than their tub-like fourteenth-and fifteenth-century ancestors, had considerable strength, durability and maneuverability. Rather than battering and slamming their way through the forces of a North Atlantic gale, the typical sixteenth century English ship was able to slip and bob through the waves with comparative ease. Disasters at sea were rarely caused by the structural failure of a ship. Typically, the hull or shell of the vessel was either clinker-built, that is, with plank edges overlapped and fastened with nails; or carvel-built, with planks laid flush, edge to edge, over a skeleton frame. Both methods of hull construction had advantages and drawbacks. The clinker-built ship, while extremely strong and durable, was difficult and expensive to repair, the services of a master shipwright being required. Moreover, gunports, which were cut through the overlapping, weakened the hull significantly. In spite of these drawbacks, the average life of a typical ship was an impressive sixty-five years. Even though this method of construction was being phased out by the mid 1540s, it is likely that some of the vessels that took part in the Roanoke ventures were clinker-built. The carvel-built of skeleton-frame ship was also strong, durable, and difficult to repair. The skill of a master shipwright was not always required, however; a competent carpenter could handle many repairs and alterations. Whether a merchantman or a ship of war, a sixteenth-century vessel contained a vast array of small pieces of wood, nails, iron bolts, washers, wooden pegs, and knees or braces. All seams were made water tight with a caulking of tarred hemp fibers. The result of the shipwright's art was a springy, flexible vessel able to work under the various and variable stresses exerted by the wind; the weight of cargo, the crew, and the ship itself; and the violent impacts of the sea. The vast majority of sixteenth-century oceangoing vessels were three-masted and square-rigged. On a square-rigged ship, the large main square sails were laced to a yard or bar, which was attached horizontally to a mast. In addition to the square sails carried on the main and foremasts, square-rigged ships of the period also had, on the aftermast, a small lateen, or triangular sail which acted as a stabilizer. The square-rigged ship of the Elizabethan era was able to sail well to windward, that is, approximately in the same direction from which the wind was blowing. The versatility of this particular style of rigging enabled mariners to adjust sails to meet constantly changing wind conditions. Because of the strength and durability of its hull, its maneuverability, and its adaptability, the three-masted, square-rigged ship was the mainstay of the European voyages of discovery and exploration. In sixteenth-century England, the size of a vessel was estimated in terms of tunnage --the ships capacity to carry 252 gallon tuns of hogshead barrels of wine. A 50-tun ship could carry fifty hogsheads. The tun was a measure of volume, not weight, and it was hardly uniform. The capacity of a Spanish tun, for example, was considerably less than that of an English tun. Thus a Spanish vessel of 50 tuns was not the same size as a 50-tun English ship. During the Elizabeth Era, tonnage, a more accurate and sophisticated measurement system based on a ship's dead weight and its displacement of water was in the early stage of development. As a system for standardizing the measurement of ship size, it was not uniformly applied to English shipping for many years thereafter. Though sometimes used interchangeably by post-Elizabethan writers, tunnage and tonnage are not synonyms. The majority of ships used in the Roanoke ventures were privately owned, well-armed merchant ships ranging in size from 20 to 400 tuns. Other than names and tunnage, very few details about the vessels survive. The lack of information is complicated by the inexact system for estimating ship size--one ship could be listed with different tunnages. Identification of the vessels is made more difficult--and in some cases rendered impossible--by the Elizabethan practice of renaming ships often. Sir Francis Drake's Pelican (Golden Hind) is famous enough to be traceable, but most of the vessels associated with the Roanoke voyages are not. Contemporary descriptions of these vessels vary. A vessel called one thing in one document might be called something else in another. Further, more-or-less standard modern usage and definitions have little in common with sixteenth-century terminology.

Cont. here:


http://www.nps.gov/fora/forteachers/ships-of-the-roanoke-voyages.htm


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