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Davie County register of deeds honors volunteers who identified 929 enslaved people in 'People Not Property' project
Summary
Register of Deeds Kelly Thunderberg told the Davie County Board of Commissioners that volunteers transcribed 2,198 handwritten deed-era pages (1837–1865) and identified 929 enslaved people as part of the 'People Not Property' digital-history project; volunteers were recognized at tonight's meeting.
Kelly Thunderberg, the Davie County Register of Deeds, told the Board of Commissioners that her office completed a local portion of the People Not Property project, a collaboration with UNCG, the North Carolina network of register of deeds offices and university libraries.
Thunderberg said volunteers reviewed 2,198 handwritten pages covering the period from 1837 through 1865 and identified 929 enslaved people recorded as property in deeds, bills of sale, chain of title records and similar documents. "This project was worthy of our undertaking and it will remain a valuable piece of Davie County history," Thunderberg said in presenting the effort and recognizing the volunteers by name.
The project creates searchable metadata from handwritten documents that previously were not computer-searchable, Thunderberg said, allowing researchers, genealogists and family members to find names and details that were previously hidden in cursive, pre-type records. She said Davie County was the 24th county to participate statewide and one of only four counties to complete the project led from the local register of deeds office.
Thunderberg listed individual volunteer contributions: Karen Chapel (114 pages), Dr. Charles McAllister (745 pages), Angela Naylor (115 pages), Mara Phillips (113 pages), Donna Rouse (114 pages), Perry Studivant (113 pages), Kathy Vich (437 pages). Two volunteers (Sharon Anderson and Carol Demi) were unable to attend and were acknowledged for 114 and 108 pages respectively.
Public commenter Alis Garrett Brown, who identified herself during the public-comment period, thanked the commissioners and volunteers and said the culmination of the project "has a special meaning to me" during Black History Month. Brown closed her remarks with a short song of resilience.
The board publicly thanked Thunderberg and the volunteers; there was no formal action on the presentation itself. The record compiled by the project will be part of the People Not Property digital collection and is intended to be accessible to the public and researchers.
