Research & Genealogy
A vast amount of public research has traced the family units of the enslaved men, women, and children named in the 1859 Inventory of the Estate of Joseph Mumford Foy — lives rich with history and documentation.
Among our most significant sources is the oral history of Nora Foy Brown — one of the only recorded accounts of a Gullah childhood before WWII in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Her 60-minute cassette interview, transferred to digital and fully transcribed in 2017 by Executive Director Caroline C. Lewis, revealed a treasure of information about the tenant-farming families who lived and worked here through the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s.
This historic site seeks to amplify the histories of the Black families who lived and worked at Poplar Grove and contributed to the settlement, development, culture, and history of Wilmington, North Carolina. We have a history together. Let’s learn it together.
The uploading of this research is a continual process — please keep checking back for new family histories, census records, wills, and documents.