2008 Meeting Programs

January 3rd Program Details
Featured Speaker: Allen Dew
“Cemetery Records”

The Granville County Genealogical Society 1746 Inc., at its January 3, 2008 meeting will have as its speaker Allen Dew, owner of the Cemetery Census web site, member and webmaster of the GCGS.

Allen grew up in Rocky Mount NC, graduated from North Carolina Wesleyan College and married Neva Daniel, a fine Granville County girl from the Wilton Community. Allen and Neva have lived in Greensboro, Nashville Tenn. and Durham. And now they live in Granville County on the farm where Neva grew up. They have two children.

Allen started working on cemetery surveys in 1995 when the Orange County cemetery surveys were in danger of being lost because the old county computer system was to be replaced and the cemetery data files would not be transferred to the new computer. He rescued the data files and converted them to Personal Computer format. In 1996, he converted the Durham County cemetery survey files to PC format, and made everything available on computers at each county Library. A few years later the cemetery records were made available on the Internet. The cemetery records have expanded to include Granville, Chatham, Caswell, Alamance, Wake, Surry and other counties. The web address is: http://cemeterycensus.com

Our speaker will discuss the Cemetery Census web site and other web sites with valuable cemetery records and information. North Carolina passed new legislation in 2007 which revised the laws concerning public cemeteries, abandoned cemeteries, access rights, desecration and restoration of public cemeteries. These laws directly affect all of us with an interest in old family cemeteries.

Please plan to attend this meeting, which promises to be both interesting and informative. The meeting will be held in the conference room at the Thornton Library on Main Street in Oxford at 6:30 PM, January 3, 2008.

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Questions or comments send to: GCGS.office@gmail.com