241 East Market Street

Smithfield, NC 27577

 

Let's gather in person and check out the repository of records for Wake County settlers and ancestors before there was even a Wake County! Prior to its formation in 1770, the land we think of as Wake lay partially in Johnston county (also Cumberland and Orange, stories for another day).   The Johnston County Heritage Center holds approximately 2,500 books, 800 reels of microfilm, 300 maps/atlases, 100,000 photographic images, 600 private collections of books and papers, and vertical files on genealogy, biography, and local history. The focus for genealogical records primarily includes the eastern half of North Carolina and the Virginia Tidewater region. Todd Johnson, Executive Director of the Center has offered to give us a tour and help us get our bearings on searching Wake County Records.

Here is a sneak peek for what JCHC offers!