Category Archives: Research

Can you help a fellow CVGA member?

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CVGA member Pat Wilczek would like to know if anyone can help her out.  She has a 1777 will written in German and is looking for someone who could translate it.

If you know someone with this ability, please email her at pat.wilczek@comcast.net.

 

November 9, 2019: Evernote for Cemetery Research

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Evernote is a web-based note taking app which you can use to find the graves of your ancestors. At the November 9, 2019 meeting of the CVGA, Patricia Lukas will share with us how to use this handy app to make the most of a cemetery visit.

NOTE: THE TIME OF THIS MEETING IS 10am to 12 noon.
The meeting will take place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The address of the Church is 1275 Timberwood Blvd., Charlottesville, VA. It is located on the corner of Airport Road and Timberwood. Coming from U.S. 29, the entrance is on the right (north) side of Airport Road immediately before you reach the church. Drive to the back of the building where you will see the entrance to the Family History Center.

Central Virginia Heritage Fall 2019 Now Available

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 In this issue, we have articles by Charles C. Crenshaw, Joanne L. Yeck, and Karen Lucas Williams, among several others!

Crenshaw’s article on Chestnut Grove Baptist Church of Earlysville begins:

“The Chestnut Grove Baptist Church in Earlysville, Virginia, was established on May
9, 1773, as Albemarle Baptist Church. Forty-six white and two black members met at the Lewis’s meeting house on Staunton Road, which we now know as Ivy Road and Route 250 West. The meeting house was located where people now enjoy playing on the Birdwood Golf Course. It was the first Baptist Church in Albemarle County. Andrew Tribble was ordained the first minister in June 1777. William “Billy” Woods, pastor of the church for many years after 1780, sent a petition to Virginia General Assembly Delegate Thomas Jefferson, requesting the Anglican Church be disestablished, to put every denomination on an equal footing.” …

For the rest of this article, and several others, CVGA members should go to “Members Only” on the menu bar above, and choose “Central Virginia Heritage — Current Issue.” (Note: You have to be logged in to this website in order to see “Members Only.”)

If you have trouble logging in to the site to download your copy, please contact me at the webmaster link at the bottom of this page.

For those who are not members of CVGA, we offer the opportunity to purchase a printed copy of each issue. The Fall 2019 issue is available from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1690639504 for $6.50. Click on the Amazon.com link above or search for “Central Virginia Heritage” on Amazon.com.

Contents of the Fall 2019 issue:

  • Chestnut Grove Baptist Church History, by Charles Conway Crenshaw
  • One Man’s Black Sheep … is Another Man’s Local Hero: Discovering Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam, by Joanne L. Yeck
  • The Spiller Family of Buckingham County, Virginia, by Karen Lucas Williams
  • Will of Mary “Polly” (Spears) Spiller, Buckingham County, Virginia (circa 1848)
  • Documents from the Case of James M. Spiller, etc. vs. Reuben Sorrell, Hanover County, Virginia, including the Will of James Spears (1833)
  • Henry Spiller & Wife vs. Mary Calvert, Culpeper County, VA, including the Will of Ralls Calvert, Culpeper County, VA
  • Marriage Announcements in the Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA), August-December, 1894, by Diane Inman
  • Gathering to Share African American History and Genealogy in Central VA, by Andi Cumbo-Floyd
  • The Tale of a Black Sheep: Stephen Price Maury, compiled and annotated by Richard L. Nicholas
  • Fluvanna Historical Society Preserves Court Records, by Tricia Johnson
  • Fluvanna County Circuit Court Awarded Grant to Preserve Local Records
  • President’s Column, by Patricia Lukas
  • August 2019 CVGA Field Trip

If you have any articles you’d like to share with CVGA members, please send an email to the editor, eleanordew@gmail.com. — The Editor.

Summer 2019 Issue of Central Virginia Heritage Available Online

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In this issue, we have a fascinating article by Karen Lucas Williams, presenting research and analysis of “a letter written by Margaret Donald of Aberdeen, Scotland, to her cousin Patrick Henry in Virginia, dated 13 April 1790. The original letter is housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., in the personal correspondence of Patrick Henry.

“The letter is important to the descendants of Col. John Henry of Virginia, father of the famous orator, lawyer, and first post-colonial governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry, and also to the descendants of William Diuguid of Buckingham Co., Virginia. It allows us a glimpse into the family relationships of the Henry, Diuguid, and Donald lines in Virginia and helps us to find traces of their elusive common Henry ancestors and relatives in Scotland. It is my hope that other researchers will build upon these findings and share any new findings in the spirit of kinship with which I have presented this article. …”

For the rest of this article, and several others, CVGA members should go to “Members Only” on the menu bar above, and choose “Central Virginia Heritage — Current Issue.” (Note: You have to be logged in to this website in order to see “Members Only.”)

If you have trouble logging in to the site to download your copy, please contact me at the webmaster link at the bottom of this page.

For those who are not members of CVGA, we offer the opportunity to purchase a printed copy of each issue. The Summer 2019 issue is available from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1099658888/ for $6.50. Click on the Amazon.com link above or search for “Central Virginia Heritage” on Amazon.com.

Contents of the Summer 2019 issue:

  • Margaret’s Letter by Karen Lucas Williams
  • Diuguid Funeral Home Database, Lynchburg, VA
  • Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, by Charles C. Crenshaw
  • Armed Forces Medical Examiner System: The DNA Identification Laboratory, by Diane Inman
  • The Story of Bleak House, by Alice Cannon
  • President’s Column, by Patricia Lukas.

If you have any articles you’d like to share with CVGA members, please send an email to the editor, eleanordew@gmail.com. — The Editor.

June 8, 2019 – Making the Most of a Cemetery Visit

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For our June meeting we will discuss visiting the cemeteries where our ancestors are interred and taking care of their gravestones. We will hear from Amy Johnson Crow in her Ancestry Academy video, Written in Stone and talk about cleaning tombstones and markers. One question we hope to answer is: What’s best for cleaning a stone marker – a special cleaner or just plain water?

The meeting will take place from 1:30 pm-3:30 pm at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The address of the Church is 1275 Timberwood Blvd., Charlottesville, VA. It is located on the corner of Airport Road and Timberwood. Coming from U.S. 29, the entrance is on the right (north) side of Airport Road immediately before you reach the church. Drive to the back of the building where you will see the entrance to the Family History Center.

Preservation of Revolutionary War Veteran Gravesites

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You never know where you are going to find useful information.

I was randomly searching on the Internet, and came across a JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit And Review Commission) Report on the Preservation of Revolutionary War Veterans Gravesites. Why would I be interested in a Virginia government audit? Because this audit just happens to have “Lists of the Revolutionary War Veterans Buried or Recognized at Specific Locations in Virginia” in its appendices. These reports give the first and last names, the birth and death dates (if known), and the location of burial (city/state) in various indexes.

  • Appendix B-1: Index of Revolutionary War veteran burials reported during this review, organized alphabetically by the last name of the veteran
  • Appendix B-2: Listing of veterans reportedly buried within the boundaries of Virginia’s counties, organized alphabetically by the name of the county
  • Appendix B-3: Listing of veterans reportedly buried within the boundaries of Virginia’s independent cities, organized alphabetically by the name of the city
  • Appendix B-4: Listing of the French veterans honored at the French Memorial Cemetery, organized alphabetically by the last name of the veteran
  • Appendix B-5: Listing of veterans honored by the Yorktown Victory Monument Tablet, organized alphabetically by the last name of the veteran
  • Appendix B-6: Inventory of the sources used in compiling these lists of veterans reportedly buried in Virginia

I was delighted to find this report! The link is http://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt264.pdf

I think I’m going to look through the JLARC files and find more historically useful reports!

Spring 2019 Issue of Central Virginia Heritage Available Online

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This issue begins with Joanne L. Yeck’s article, Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way:

“The Fall 2018 issue of Central Virginia Heritage included three Allen family wills transcribed by Jean L. Cooper. These rare documents go a long way toward illuminating one of Buckingham County’s earliest and largest families who migrated west from New Kent County, Virginia, to Henrico/Goochland/ Albemarle/Buckingham counties during the eighteenth century.

“In 1995, Rev. Richard Fenton Wicker, Jr. published a genealogy of this line entitled The Allen Family of England, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas and Illinois, 1600–1995. Over the years, along with many other Allen researchers, I have relied heavily on his solid research. Genealogy, however, is ever evolving and, recently, I learned that some of Rev. Wicker’s conclusions have been disproved based on subsequent findings, including Y-DNA evidence. While it is always best to seek primary documents, secondary sources, such as Rev. Wicker’s book, remain useful and his work is fundamental to this article.

“The patriarch of this Allen line, Capt. William Allen (1692–1751/1752), born in eastern Virginia, was destined to become one of the founders of the newly formed Albemarle County. …”

For the rest of this article, and several others, CVGA members should go to “Members Only” on the menu bar above, and choose “Central Virginia Heritage — Current Issue.” (Note: You have to be logged in to this website in order to see “Members Only.”)

If you have trouble logging in to the site to download your copy, please contact me at the webmaster link at the bottom of this page.

For those who are not members of CVGA, we offer the opportunity to purchase a printed copy of each issue. The Spring 2019 issue is available from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/Central-Virginia-Heritage-Spring-2019/dp/1798551527 for $6.50. Click on the Amazon.com link above or search for “Central Virginia Heritage” on Amazon.com.

Contents of the Spring 2019 issue:

  • Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way: Dissecting Last Wishes in Three Buckingham County Wills, by Joanne L. Yeck
  • Buckingham County 1764 Tithable List & 1782 Personal Property Tax, by Joanne L. Yeck
  • Planning Your Cemetery Research, by Susan DuBar
  • Marriage Announcements in the Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) June 1893, by Diane Inman
  • New Jersey to Virginia: Murphy–Henry/Hendry—Borden, by Dr. Shelley Murphy
  • Library of Virginia and Virginia Museum of History and Culture Combine Databases of Enslaved Virginians
  • Statue of George Washington by Jean Antoine Houdon
  • Some Musings on the U.S. Census and Birth Dates, by Jean L. Cooper
  • Message from CVGA President, by Patricia Lukas

If you have any articles you’d like to share with CVGA members, please send an email to the editor, eleanordew@gmail.com. — The Editor.