Jason Williamson Papers, PC.5354

[identification of item], PC.5354, Jason Williamson Papers, Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, NC, U.S.A.

The Jason Williamson Papers, 1958-1990, consists of research materials collected by Jason Williamson during the course of his research into his family's genealogy. The collection includes family histories, correspondence, and other genealogical research files. Family history files generally include narrative descriptions of Williams' ancestral lines as well as data taken from various genealogical records. Williams' correspondence consists of letters between Williams and several other genealogists working on the same family trees as well as several folders containing inquiries received from various individuals researching families in Williams' family tree or tracing their ancestry to the Columbus/Bladen County area. Williams' research files consist of data abstracted or photocopied from libraries, archives, newspapers, and other records, including deeds, wills, census records, and maps. Many of the documents in this series mention enslaved individuals who were sold or inherited as property of the families that enslaved them; often, these individuals are identified by name.

Researchers should note that, in the case of photocopied material, the dates listed for each folder refer to the date that the information was photocopied by Williamson, not the date of the original record. The original records represented by this collection date from the colonial era to the present.

The collection is arranged into three series: Family Histories, 1962-1990, Correspondence, 1961-1990, and Research Files, 1958-1990.

Jason McLeod Williamson was born 30 August 1927 in Florence, South Carolina, to Bessie Mae Williamson (1898-1958) and Andrew Jackson Williamson (1889-1965) of Cerro Gordo, North Carolina. His siblings included Andrew Jackson Williamson, Jr. (1910-1999), Edward Walton Williamson (1926-1987), and Donald Pitts Williamson (1930-1958). He graduated from Cerro Gordo High School in 1944 and worked in his aunt's grocery store before enlisting in the United States Army. He served as a postal clerk for the 59th Army Postal Unit in Korea from 1946 to 1947. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1951 with a B.A. in history. He married Margaret Frances Carson (1930-2013). The couple had two sons named Patrick and John.

Williamson was an avid genealogist and was particularly interested in his own family history as well as the history of the family's ancestral home of Columbus and Bladen Counties. He published several volumes of abstracted records from Columbus County and the surrounding areas, and he served as an advisor and source of information for numerous genealogists who were also researching individuals in his family tree. Williamson died in 1991 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

1. Family Histories, 1962-1990

2. Correspondence, 1961-1990

3. Research Files, 1958-1990

Donated by Frances Williamson, November 1997.