Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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AUGUST 12-18, 2015 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Geneology can be a lot of fun. Technology provides many resources for digging into your past and uncover- ing family history, but there are other resources that can be useful, too. Learning about your family history usually starts at home by talking with relatives and friends, and recording information about your ancestors. You start with what you know and work backward. You may have useful sources at home such as birth certificates, obituaries, wed- ding announcements, a family Bible, etc. You may find that others in your family have already done work on your family genealogy, so don't hesitate to ask close or distant relatives if they have already started researching your family. FamilySearch.org has some excellent suggestions to help start your genealogy quest on its "How to Start" page. Another source is Ancestry.com. Both resources provide a way to trace your family. One caution is to not just accept what you find. Anyone can add to these resourc- es so, question everything and compare with other sources before you accept information as fact. Just because you find it on the Internet does not make it true. There generally comes a point in fam- ily history research when you have to turn to sources beyond your immediate circle. Our local Cumberland County Library has a historical records section with access to printed material and computers available to search online. The library staff will be happy to help you get started. You just have to ask. The Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution are two lineage organization that assist folks interested in becoming members. Each has a 'registrar' who can guide you in your search. You can find them on the Internet at http:// dar.org or http://sar.org. So don't wait ... start your search today. It will open lots of possibilities as you build your family tree. Finding Your Ancestors: Here's How to Begin the Journey. by BOB ERVIN There are many resources availalbe to help find ancestors and long lost family relatives. Start with what you know. BOB ERVIN, Contributing Writer. Ervin is the president of the Marquis de Lafayette Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200. bobervin@nc.rr.com. A classic love story full of mountain music from one of North Carolina's greatest living balladeers, a loving portrait of a North Carolina beach by a modern prophet of coastal catastrophe, a fictional look into the recent past in small eastern North Carolina towns and a novel that explains an old mark- er in a Beaufort graveyard. These are the latest and the final summer reading assignments (I mean suggestions) for your vacation reading. Madison County's Sheila Kay Adams is a living legend among the fans of the music of the Appalachian moun- tains. Thanks to Doug Orr's and Fiona Ritchie's recent book, Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia, Adams has gained an even wider group of admirers. For her storytelling gifts and musical talents, the book cites her more than 25 times, and the accompanying CD contains her perfor- mance of the ballad "Young Hunting/Elzig's Farewell." That tune begins, "Come in, come in my old true love, and spend this night with me," and is the source for the title to Adams' 2004 novel, My Own True Love. Set in the mountains during Civil War times, it is, like the old ballads Adams sings, a story of fierce and lost love. Two boys, close friends and cousins, battling for the love of the same girl, cannot make for a happy ending. But for the reader it can be a poignant reading experi- ence, akin to listening to Adams singing a ballad. For many years, retired Duke professor Orrin Pilkey has been studying the North Carolina coast. Like an Old Testament prophet he has been warning us of com- ing catastrophes unless we change our policies. Global warming, rising sea levels, thoughtless development near water's edge and barrier building will lead to the devastation of our shore- lines. His new book, The Last Beach, co-authored by J. Andrew G. Cooper, makes an unassailable case for preserving and strengthening regulations controlling building at or near the beaches. His earlier book, How to Read a North Carolina Beach, though much less policy oriented, is a valuable introduction to the complex history and make- up of our shorelines, even showing us that some of the sands on our beaches came from our mountains not far from where Sheila Kay Adams lives. Sheila Kay Adams is not the only musician who writes books. Charles Blackburn, author of Sweet Soul, played guitar and sang with the group, When Cousins Marry, beginning in 1981. He grew up in Henderson and worked all over the Carolinas as a reporter and editor, book- store owner and publicist for a medical center and a national scientific fraternity. Those experiences gave him a rich source for his imaginative short stories. For example, in The Outlaw, set in Anson County's Lilesville, the outlaw, "Fireball" Catlett, demands from the editor extra copies of his paper's coverage of his gang's exploits. The editor agrees on the condi- tion that his newspaper will have exclusive coverage of Catlett's planned surrender to authorities. Catlett asks only, "Will you take pictures?" The Story of Land and Sea, Katy Simpson Smith's debut novel, is set in the small coastal town of Beaufort around the time of the American Revolution. It follows generations of families under stress — fathers and daughters, mother and son, masters and slaves. There is war and piracy, kidnap- ping and escape and a challenge to religious faith in a God who presides over tragic loss. It is also a story that provides a fictional solution to the puzzle of a gravesite in Beaufort marked with "Little girl in a rum keg." UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch will feature these authors on upcoming programs. Summer's Final Reading Assignments by D.G. MARTIN D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Bookwatch, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200