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Nancy Murphy.pdfDavie County Public Library 1 7/14/2017 Nancy Kelly Murphy Nancy Kelly Murphy has logged over 30 years of volunteer service to the Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society and the Martin-Wall Local History Room of the Davie County Public Library. Nancy typed the copy of The Squire, Daniel, and John Boone Families in Davie County, North Carolina booklet in 1982. She began editing and producing the Davie Dossier in 1988. She compiled and produced the Davie County Marriages book in 1998, and produced the Davie County Cemeteries books in the same year. In 1999, working with Everette Sain, Nancy transcribed and compiled the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Census record books for Davie County. In Nancy’s words: Davie County Marriages, 1836-1900 Davie County Marriages, 1900-1959 “Ruth Hoyle called the Register of Deeds to give my name as a legitimate researcher. The History Room gave me legal size copy paper and off I went. Henry Shore (the current Register of Deeds) gave me free rein of the copy machine and the men's register of marriage bonds. (There is also a bride's register, which I did not use). I copied every page in the men's register and brought it home where I copied every name and pertinent information into the computer. When that was done, Glenna Lagle helped me proofread all I had done. There were some questions that arose about some names, and Glenna went back to the Deeds office to check them out (there were some names where the man put down his name, but neglected to say who the bride would be - maybe he just took out a "blanket" deed in hopes of finding someone - who knows?). When I thought everything was OK, I alphabetized all the men's names and put them in book form - then went through, changed some columns around and alphabetized the bride's names so I could cross index them. Put everything together and that is what we published.” Davie County Cemeteries, Volumes I and II “Many years ago (probably in the 30's - 40's), Flossie Martin and her friend Mary Jane Heitman went around to different cemeteries and recorded all the tombstones they could find. Then, in the 50's and on, Jim Wall had some of his History classes visit different cemeteries and record what they found. All of these records were placed in the files in the History Room. Also, some churches made records of what they had and individuals brought in lists that they had made and these were filed. When it was decided to try to list ALL cemetery records, Doris (and maybe Miss Flossie - check with Doris) made a concerted effort by contacting all churches, etc., and asking for their help. As we had some Mormon missionaries volunteering at the Library during Davie County Public Library 2 7/14/2017 the first part of this research, they started putting things together, using Microsoft Word. Then, their time up, they left. Well, the lists started coming in and Doris asked me to try to finish up the work all ready started. Gadzooks! As it had all ready been put in a Word document, I continued on. Then, when we thought we had all of them listed, I went to the files of all the old lists we had and compared them. That is where different dates showed up and names appeared on the old lists that were not on the new lists. Why? The tombstones had deteriorated and were so very hard to read in many cases or had completely disappeared. Thank goodness we had the old lists! So, instead of choosing a date that we had more than one of, I put down all the dates so that a researcher could use what he thought was correct. We did not make the final decision. So, all of the old lists were used as well as the new readings and that is one reason we feel so fortunate. Just wish we had some listings for old cemeteries we found that were never inventoried. After Doris and I (or any other volunteer I could find) did all the proofreading, I had another dilemma - how to index all these names. Everyone then said I should have put it in a different program but, hey, what did I know? I went to Dean Tutterow who thought he could do it (he failed) and then Neal Smith (county computer guru) and he tried, also got his interns to try. They all failed. Thank goodness, my son came home from Raleigh (he was working at IBM at that time) and he sat down one afternoon and figured it all out and voila! I got it indexed. (It was a convoluted process, but it worked! In fact, I wrote it all down and have used it a few times since.) As the file was so large, we had to cut it in half and make two books instead of one. After we had the first 100 books published, lo and behold, someone came in with another large cemetery that we had completely overlooked - Eaton Cemetery - and so I added it into Volume I. The succeeding reprints have the additional cemetery listed.” 1860 Federal Census – Davie County 1870 Federal Census – Davie County 1880 Federal Census – Davie County “I copied each page from the microfilm, brought them home and entered in my computer. I used as much information from each page that I could, limited to the size of the paper I was using. When I finished entering all the information, I had Everett (Mutt) Sain help me proof read the mess. He was wonderful to work with and VERY precise. If we had doubts about the name of the person, he would go to the files and try to find the family so we could double check and find names of children, or wife, etc., so that we were sure to have the correct family. As a true interpreter, I used the names just as they were written and, of course, there were many errors in spelling. As we all know, the person writing the census entered what he heard and spelled phonetically. Also, when visiting families, often times, the only person available to answer questions might have been a child, an elderly person, etc., who might not have known correct age or given name. Regardless, we used what the census taker wrote. Also, I have a strong suspicion that the census taker might have written names on Davie County Public Library 3 7/14/2017 a paper and when he returned home that evening, copied the information onto the official census page. Therefore, more errors might have been made. After the proof reading was done, I indexed the book and entered the "see also" notes as many names that we knew to be incorrect would never be found using current day spellings. We tried to pick up those names while we were proof reading. I hope we got them all. One nice thing about doing an “every name index" is that sometimes, children went visiting and were listed with other people when the census taker came by. In my own family, my father was counted twice as he was visiting his grandmother the day the census taker came by and a month later he was counted again when he was at home with his father and mother. This was in Herkimer County, NY. When we published the 1860 book, I had already started working on the 1870 book so they came out pretty close together. The 1860 and 1870 censuses went pretty quickly but I know that the 1880 census took me over a year and a half to put in the computer and then about 4-5 months to proof read. After that one, I swore off and refused to tackle the 1900 list. That would take two years or more to enter into the computer!!” Before volunteering in the History Room, Nancy was active in the Mocksville Jaycettes and the Women’s Club. She managed American Red Cross visits to the county for seven years. She served first as bookkeeper, then treasurer for Twin Lakes airport. When she began helping with research and typing in the History Room, Miss Flossie Martin, who established the collection in the History Room, pondered how long Nancy might last in her new role. Flossie later said, “She’s a cheerful person to be around. The first time I saw her, she was sitting over there in the office typing and smiling. A lot of volunteers have come and gone, but Nancy has stuck with us.” In addition to her time spent compiling and producing books, Nancy donated some 70 CD-ROMs to the History Room for genealogy researchers’ use. A native of New Jersey, Nancy Kelly married Joe Murphy, a Davie County native and retired AT&T engineer. They have two sons, Steve and Mike, who are both married.