This collection consists of the family records, photographs, and genealogy records collected by Sarah Westray Bunn of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. She was an East Carolina Teachers' College 1936 graduate and served in the Army Nurse Corps from 1941 to 1966. Included are genealogy notes concerning the Lewis, Suggs, Speight, Powell, Harrison, and Exum families of Eastern N.C.; late 19th century and 20th Century photographs; correspondence (1905-1998); an 1847 book of children's poetry; clippings; genealogy charts; and a tombstone rubbing.
Sarah Westray Bunn was born on September 13, 1915, to James Pettigrew Bunn and Jessie Powell Speight Bunn in Battleboro, Edgecombe Co., North Carolina. Bunn graduated from East Carolina University (ECTC at the time) in 1936 and then the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York City. She joined the Army Nurse Corps in March 1941 and began her service at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. Bunn served stateside during World War II until March 1945 when she was sent to Tinian Island. During her tenure after World War II, she was posted to Japan during the Korean War and later to Germany. She retired in 1966 as a full Army Major and RN in the Army Nurse Corps after 25 years of service. After her retirement she embarked on genealogical research for the Bunn, Powell, Lewis, and Speight families. She passed away on September 21, 2012, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Sources:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyadvance/obituary.aspx?pid=160103967
This collection contains Sarah Westray Bunn's genealogical research on the Lewis, Speight, Powell, and Bunn families largely of Edgecombe County, North Carolina. The bulk of the research is applied to the Lewis and Speight families. Her meticulous and vast research begins with Exum Lewis and Elizabeth Figures line of Edgecombe County in the mid-eighteenth century; however, there is also information on the Lewis and Speight branches in Virginia, Georgia, and England. A detailed family chart of the Lewis-Speight family tree from 1770's through 1987 is included. Bunn's research is very detailed and her research notebooks from her visits to various libraries, archives, and county record offices are also included.
While there is not a great deal of primary documents in the collection there is some 19th century correspondence of the Speight family and family mementos such as a handwritten cookbook dated 1896, a children's poetry book inscribed to R.H. Speight, and a 1936 calendar featuring "Chessie" of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Sarah Bunn also undertook travels to Europe to do family research and her thoughtful and detailed impressions of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada are available as well.
Nine nineteenth century photographs of members of the Lewis/Speight family and several Bunn family snapshots spanning the twentieth century round out the collection.
Oversize material includes maps of the Cedars homestead (built 1859 by John Francis and Emma Lewis Speight), family charts, the 1936 C&O Railroad calendar, a front page article in the Columbia Record (August 27, 1941) concerning Sarah Bunn's life at Fort Jackson (Columbia, South Carolina) in the Army Nurse Corps and her plans to re-enlist for another year, a tombstone rubbing,
February 28, 2023, (unprocessed addition 1), 1.25 cubic feet; This addition primarily includes genealogy records such as charts, wills, birth and death certificates, and family Bible records. Also included are some photographs, handwritten letters, and newspaper clippings. Transferred from Museum of the Albemarle.
Transferred from Museum of the Albemarle
Gift of George Watson
Processing completed December 8, 2016, by Samantha Sheffield
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
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