A very exciting project is under way in Southampton County.

Every page from the oldest written records of life in Southampton — from 1749 to 1880 — have been photographed with digital cameras. Kenneth Brantley, a genealogy consultant from Georgia, donated his time and equipment to make that possible.

Now comes the hard part: The next phase of the project is to go through every digital image of every page and jot down all of the names that are listed.

The Southampton County Historical Society is looking for volunteers.

For anyone interested in genealogy, the history of Southampton County, or being part of an important project for the county, this is a marvelous opportunity.

It should be easy for people who have lived in the county their entire lives, or have spent a good deal of time here, to recognize the names and help list them. Who knows? You may even come across an ancestor’s name in a deed book.

Once all of the names are found and listed, they will be entered into a computer program that will index them. The ultimate goal is to have the digitized pages and the indexes available for everyone to peruse online.

The availability of this information online will be a boon to people doing research both inside and from outside Southampton County. It will also earn the county recognition as being the first in the nation to have these digitized pages and indexes available online.

We hope many people will be interested in participating in this project.