Entries written by: Lazar "Larry" Odzak

Larry Odzak, Ph.D., taught American history at the University of North Florida before moving to North Carolina, where he now serves as a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an Archivist-Historian at the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. He recently published "Demetrios is Now Jimmy": Greek Immigrants in the Southern United States, 1865-1965 (Durham, 2006).

Act Concerning Marriages (1669) Encyclopedia

Settlers wishing to marry soon experienced a problem: only ministers of the Church of England were entitled to perform the rite of marriage and few visited or settled in Carolina.  As a result, the Assembly of Albemarle in 1669 discussed the need to authorize civil officers to perform marriage ceremonies.

read more »

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (Raleigh) Encyclopedia

In 1924 the Greek-American community of Raleigh decided to establish a Greek Orthodox parish, and in 1935 they were served by the first resident priest.  Parishioners overcame the economic difficulties of the 1930s and collected enough money to lay the cornerstone of the first Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on November 30, 1937.  Five months later, construction was complete.  

read more »

Marriage, History of Encyclopedia

The state government has regulated the solemnization of marriages from North Carolina’s earliest days, and although the law continues to prohibit any “minister, officer, or any other person authorized to solemnize a marriage” from performing a ceremony without a license issued by the Register of Deeds,  a marriage ceremony conducted without a license--except in a few cases--is nevertheless a valid marriage.

read more »