The Harricanes ("hair-uh-cuns") Ain't On No Map

"The Harricanes", pronounced "her-uh-cuns" or "hair-uh-cuns"or some say "hairkins" depending on who you ask, is a real place with a real history.

Even though national prohibition didn't become law until 1920, good ole NC took the lead  in the fight of good vs. evil and was the first southern state to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages 11 years earlier, all the way back in 1909.  Of course, "ain't nobody got time for that" and moonshine and liquor stills throughout North Carolina answered the call. Moonshine and North Carolina have a long and sordid history together including the area known as "The Harricanes" which encompassed parts of Wake, Franklin and Granville Counties in North Carolina.

The Harricanes was a place nobody claimed and nobody went to. To this day no one can tell you exactly where it begins and ends. I don't know precisely where it begins and ends but I do know when I'm IN it. If you take Highway 96 west of Youngsville and take a left at Pokomoke and travel west across the Granville County line where the road becomes Bruce Garner Road while you are in Granville County, and stay on that road until it crosses into Wake County where the road name changes to New Light Road then you are IN the Harricanes.  Exactly where it begins and ends north, south, east and west of that is anyone's guess. Some say it runs all the way to Highway 50 to the west and Highway 98  to the south,  and Pokomoke to the east, with the Grissom area of Granville County being just about dead center of the Harricanes. The Harricanes isn't on any map you will find, that's for sure. While you might find folks now that will admit to living there, back in the day  if you asked the folks around there, you would get a different answer each time. That is, IF you got an answer at all.  Most times the answer was "just up the road a ways" and up the road they would tell you it was "back that way" or "just over yonder". Because nobody lived in the Harricanes, or to rephrase that ,nobody SAID they lived there. The Harricanes was always someplace else.  

 The Harricanes had a reputation of being a place full of renegades and secrets. The area then was a well known dangerous place. In Raleigh's backyard, the Harricanes was the slums of  it's time, the "wrong side of the tracks" so to speak even though there were no tracks or boundaries that anyone would claim.  Even without a sign to mark  the Harricane's location anywhere, the invisible "Keep Out" sign was clearly hung.  A place known for moonshine, violence, cock fighting, gambling and late night dirty deals with a few dead bodies here or there, that was "The Harricanes".  Just the stuff that legends are made of except it was all true. Ok, mostly true.  It's been called many things over the years but I  kinda like "The Bermuda Triangle of the Triangle" description the best. 

Only the brave or just plain foolish intentionally went to or even through the Harricanes. You didn't just go for a Sunday drive through the Harricanes. The people of the Harricanes looked out for one another and had each others back. If you crossed one, you crossed them all and revenge was sweet. These folks stuck together. They were resourceful, independent and hard working. Despite what went on in the Harricanes that nobody talked about, they would all be in church come Sunday!

Folks from the Harricanes liked the bad reputation the area had and that bad reputation served a purpose. It kept people out and they liked it that way. The fewer strangers snooping around, the better. The only good reputation the Harricanes had was that some smooth, strong moonshine came from there if you were lucky enough to get your hands on a jar. Even if you heard about moonshine from the Harricanes through the grapevine, it was still only available if you knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody and even then it was doubtful.  Even the Revenue Officers didn't like to venture into the Hurricanes looking for stills. There are a few stories of when they did, rarely successfully.
 

My Mother, Betty Matherly, age 16

My mother was raised in the Harricanes, on Bruce Garner Road and depending on who you talk to about where the Hurricanes was or wasn't located, my father Valton Mitchell, raised on a farm near Pokomoke was too. I remember when none of the red dirt roads were paved and were lined instead with chicken houses, tobacco fields, rock houses and an old country store or two. While no one back then would have dared say it, I'm proud to say "My family comes from The Harricanes". I pronounce it "hair-uh-cuns". 

Back of my Grandparents home on Bruce Garner Road, Granville County, NC, about 1960

These days the Harricanes roads are mostly all paved and the area is full of subdivisions with homeowners who have never heard of "The Harricanes". All these years later nobody still can tell you where the Harricanes is. I'd say they did a pretty good job of preserving their secrets. The legend lives on.




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Just How Popular IS Genealogy and Why Should You Care?

How many people are searching for their ancestors? There is no genealogy website more popular than Ancestry.com. More than 11 million people use the resources located at Ancestry.com each month. That number is just a drop in the bucket to the billions, yes billions of ancestors that are documented at the "world's largest" family history resource. 

Genealogy is a massive industry in the marketplace around the world. You Tube has over 100,000 video's just on the subject of genealogy alone. There are millions of Facebook pages, countless blogs, websites and forums on the subject not to mention a good share of the 230 million people on Twitter who tweet about genealogy.  Let's not forget Pinterest where you could literally spend forever it seems perusing the links and resources on categories related to genealogy and family history. Click on the links on the right to visit my Pinterest Boards on Genealogy or Facebook Group. 

In addition to the endless amount of resources available on the web, much of it free, there are books, magazines and Genealogical societies in almost every major city in the world. There are podcasts, and apps for your smartphone and TV shows like Who Do You Think You Are, and Genealogy Road Show. Some of the most famous libraries in the world  exist for sole purpose of housing and preserving genealogical records. The amount of information available is truly amazing.

Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

 So where do you begin?  Well, honestly, the world is your oyster when it comes to answering that question.  There are countless sites where you can create your family tree and search for your ancestors. I wouldn't begin to recommend any particular one but just Google "genealogy" and you will have more links than you will care to visit. 

The Family Search website is completely free and offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Library in Salt Lake City is the largest genealogical library in the world and is open to the general public at no charge. In addition the main Library in Salt Lake City there are LDS Family History Centers located around the world. A great amount of their collection is digitized and searchable on their Family Search website  for free and more is added every day.  Thanks to the internet, more than ever before, much of the resources regarding genealogy are now available online just waiting for you to find them.

My grandfather Thomas Fritz Matherly,1893-1965, age 16, , and his Mother, Cornelia Elvira Hamby, 1863 -1918.

You might find old photographs of your one of your ancestors or learn what they did for a living. There are birth, marriage and death records where you can view the actual documents along with military service records, land records, immigration documents, wills and  the list goes on. Within some of these documents you can find many hidden facts like the color of their eyes or an address where they lived. Armed with an address, with Google Earth and Google Maps street view you can see the location, which is really cool. Each breadcrumb of information leads you just a little bit further down the road they traveled and you get to go with them.

Starting your search is as easy as knowing a name. Just start with what you know and it will lead you to what you don't know. It's like turning the pages of a good book, each page making you want to know what happens next, only this book isn't about a fictional character but instead the true story of your family, your story and your history! 

I am grateful for the things I have learned along the journey of researching my family and their place in the world. I get excited with each new piece of information not only for the find itself, but because I know it will lead me down the road just a little bit further.  It's fun and rewarding and has brought my family history to life. I encourage you to look into your family's past. You don't know what you don't know and you might be surprised with what you find. 

Contact me if I can help get you started.