BLOUNTS CREEK — Bunyon Keys, a historian and now author, offers readers some insight about the folks in the Blounts Creek area in his new book, “Over 300 Years of Black People in Blounts Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina.”

Perhaps for the first time, Keys elaborates upon family structures from the late 1690s to the present, showing changes over the many years, Keys said.

“The book gives them (in Blounts Creek) a history of their ancestors,” Keys said. “A lot of people cannot go back much further than what they remember of their grandparents. This book takes them back much further and gives them a platform for them to start additional research on their families. I hope it (the book) inspires them to do more research.”

Keys said his inspiration came from the stories his grandfather, Orlando Keys, told him as a boy. The stories included histories of the African-American populace in the area, and in Keys’ new book, he allows his readers to look back at these families from a genealogical perspective.

“It is a dream come true,” Keys said. “I was with him just about everyday in that horse and cart. We would ride around and he would continue to tell me stories. To me, it was fascinating.”

In his book, Keys explains that in North Carolina, although free blacks could, and in some cases, did own slaves and have them as common law spouses, there was also a law that prohibited free people from marrying slaves, Keys said.

These societal realities of the time shaped the culture of the people who lived then and there and influenced their development, Keys said. He shares more information in his work and said he plans to follow up this research in his second book, he said. Keys noted there might have been some families left out or incomplete information about families. He said he hopes, with additional research, these families might be included in his second book, which will cover younger generations.

“In this area, there is very little family history documented,” Keys said. “Book one focused on the baby boomers. Book two is going to cover the younger generations up to the time it is published.”

Keys said he has donated copies of his book to the Brown Library in Washington as well as to BHM Regional Library in Washington. He used both libraries for research purposes while writing his book.

“Both libraries were very good to me and took a considerable amount of time to answer my questions to help me with the book,” Keys said. “They never told me they didn’t have time nor did they cut me short on any question I asked.”

 “Over 300 Years of Black People in Blounts Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina” can be found and purchased online.