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f the many ways to learn history, one is to examine the individual threads and see how they are woven in to the larger tapestry. That’s the approach underway right now as Oriental’s History Museum kicks off a new series of exhibitions about Oriental’s long-time families.

The first exhibition, appropriately enough, focuses on the Delamar family who can trace their roots to a French Huguenot, Francis de la Mare who sailed to Pasquotank County from France in 1691. It is thought that he was, by training, an attorney and was seeking religious freedom away from France.

Delamar Family exhibit now on display at Oriental’s History Museum.

From that initial foothold in northeastern NC, the family migrated south. Some settled what became the thriving community of Kershaw, before coming back down the Kershaw Creek to Oriental.

Two and a half centuries after the first Delamars landed in NC, brothers Paul and Ned Delamar were running a store at the base of the bridge that spans Greens and Smiths Creeks. One of the photos in the museum exhibit shows Ned Delamar in front of that store, wading in the flood waters of a 1950’s hurricane. A decorated WWII vet, Ned Delamar became a state legislator and is credited with ushering in the community college system in NC.

Ned Delamar outside his store at the base of the Oriental bridge.

He still lives in Oriental and visited the museum to see the exhibit a day before the official opening.

Among those on hand for the opening December 14 were Ned Delamar’s daughter, Mary Delamar Flythe who had worked on the exhibition, her cousin Paul Delamar Junior, his wife Cynthia, and the latest generation, Paul Delamar III and his wife Sarah, Oriental residents who are attorneys in Bayboro.

Delamar family members check out the display.

Museum president Marsha Shirk told the small crowd that taking this family-centric approach to displays was the idea of long-time resident Grace Evans. From Day One of the museum, “Grace always wanted us to do family histories.” Shirk said, adding that she always wanted the Delamar family to be done first.

Memorabilia and photos in the display, including a calendar given away during one of the last years of the Delamar store..

Two museum volunteers – Sharon Breitling and Pat Elliott – developed the display which will be up for several months. Pat Elliott, confesses to being a “genealogy nut” regardless of whose family she’s looking at. Drawing up the Delamar family tree, she says, was like “being a history detective.” Part of the job had been done by a Delamar family member in 1952 and left in an archive in Raleigh.

Pat Elliott and the Delamar family tree which she worked on.

[page] The work is not finished, either. Elliott says that during the Spirit of Christmas weekend, a Delamar visiting from Charleston came by and left 16 pages of his family’s tree, which shares some major branches with the Oriental Delamars.

The steps leading up to what was the county’s first Methodist church, on Kershaw Road.

Elliott’s historic sleuthing also lead her to an overgrown lot on Kershaw Road, where a Methodist Church once stood and was attended by the family. That part of the genealogy search involved several hours of clearing away the vines that had overtaken the foundation.

Sharon Breitling, history museum volunteer who worked on the genealogy and the display.

Sharon Breitling, also worked on the genealogy and on organizing the display which includes photos over the generations and promotional relics from the Delamar family store, including a paint stirrer, a calendar from one of the last years it was in business, and a thermometer.

Mary Delamar Flythe and her cousin, Paul Delamar, Jr. on a boat like the ones their fathers used to rent out from their store near the base of the bridge.

Some history emerged just in conversation on opening day. Pointing to the boat in front of the museum, Paul Delamar, Jr laughed about bailing out boats like it when his father and uncle ran a boat rental out of the store near the bridge. Bailing and cleaning the boat of scrap fish was a daily occurrence, he said. “They always leaked. We never had one that didn’t leak a little bit.”

In the 1950’s, the boats rented for $2 a half day, $3 a full day, and for that, Delamar said, you’d get a boat and a set of oars, but no motor. His family had a fleet of about a half dozen that they bought from the Mason family boatbuilders for $40 apiece. Before renting them out he said, they’d intentionally sink them in the water for a week.

Portrait of Monterey Delamar.

The history museum is planning future exhibitions about other long-time Oriental families, including the Masons, Midyetttes, and Styrons. “We really appreicate the hard work,” that went in to the display, Paul Delamar, Jr. said. But with characteristic humility he also said, “When they move on to someone else, it’ll be fine.”

Mystery portrait from the Dr. Delamar home on Broad Street.

The Delamar Family History will be on display at Oriental’s History Museum for the next few months. The museum is in Village Square on Broad Street. Museum hours are: 11a-3pm Friday, Noon-4pm Saturday, 1-4pm Sunday. For more info call 670-9318.

Posted Tuesday December 30, 2008 by Melinda Penkava