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Cemetery Project Needs Your Help!

The Cemetery Records of Johnston County were compiled between 1975 and 1982 and published as a seven-volume set of books. Despite that effort, many cemeteries were missed in this first attempt of documenting the gravesites of our ancestors. The North Carolina State Archives is now encouraging every county in the state to complete and update records and to keep this as an ongoing project. The Johnston County Heritage Center and the Johnston County Genealogical and Historical Society are directing the local effort. Numerous church, family, and community cemeteries need to be surveyed for the first time. Others need to be revisited for changes made since the 1982 survey. If you can help with this project, call the Johnston County Heritage Center at (919) 934-2836 or e-mail heritagecenter@johnstonnc.gov. We'll give you instructions on how to survey and document this genealogical information, including how to identify unmarked graves and read tombstones. Participants will be given credit for their work in the new compilation.

 

Other Ways You Can Help Us

The Johnston County Heritage Center operates as a department of County Government, funded in part by the taxpayers of Johnston County. Even so, we also rely on donations of historical materials, volunteers, and financial contributions to make it possible to build up and preserve our collections and to provide public programs.

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Materials Acquisition Policy

Collection of significant artifacts of local history helps fulfill the Heritage Center’s mission of “preserving the history and material culture of Johnston County.” For purposes of this policy, “artifacts” include books, manuscripts, correspondence, reports, journals, photographs, audio-visual recordings, and other memorabilia that may be securely stored yet made accessible to the public.

The Heritage Center director will determine whether an object meets the center's collecting criteria. In evaluating the object for acceptance into the Heritage Center’s archives, the director will consider the following questions:

• Was the object made or used in Johnston County?
• What is the object's historical significance?
• Is there documentation, written or oral, on the object?
• Does the object need conservation work?
• Does the object augment or duplicate items in existing collections?
• What is the object's exhibit potential?
• What impact would the object have on available storage space?
• Is the object’s size and weight manageable by the Heritage Center’s staff?

If the object meets the criteria, the director may accept it outright or report to the Johnston County Heritage Commission for advice on whether the object should be accepted. If the object is accepted, the director will provide the donor a Deed of Gift. This legal document certifies that the object is the donor’s property and that the donor agrees to assign all rights associated with the object to the Heritage Center. When the donor signs and returns the Deed of Gift, the object becomes part of the permanent collection of the Heritage Center.

The Heritage Center does not appraise a donated item for income-tax purposes. That is the responsibility of the donor. The Heritage Center will provide a letter to the donor acknowledging receipt of the gift.

In some cases, a donor may wish to lend an object to the Heritage Center rather than make an outright donation. In that case, the donor may sign a Loan of Artifacts or Materials Agreement allowing the Heritage Center to archive and display the object until such time that the donor requests that it be returned. The Heritage Center will safeguard loaned objects in the same manner as deeded objects are secured.

 

Heritage Center's Contributing Patrons List for 2024 - 2025