Historic Smithfield Plantation

Blacksburg, Virginia

On the eve of the American Revolution, the Virginia backcountry was a place of colliding cultures, clashing ideals, and physical danger. Wolves howled at night; panthers roamed the forest. Europeans and native Shawnee and Cherokee vied for the same fertile farmlands, often erupting into murderous violence.

It was here, at the eastern continental divide - the literal edge of European/American civilization - that leader of westward expansion and Revolutionary War patriot William Preston established Smithfield Plantation. In a land of log cabins and physical hardship, Smithfield provided a haven of aristocratic elegance and became the social and political center of the county.

Historic Smithfield is on the National Register of Historic Places, the Virginia Landmarks Register, and is a Preservation Virginia property.

To visits the plantation's web site: Click Here.

The Montgomery Museum

The Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Regional Art Center houses and displays historical artifacts relating to Montgomery County and its environs. The museum maintains a library of historical and genealogical texts for use by researchers. In addition to its permanent exhibits on Montgomery County and Lewis Miller, the museum hosts a series of changing art and history exhibits which focus on aspects of life in Montgomery County.

Works of local artists are hosted in the second floor art gallery. The exhibits are changed on a bimonthly basis. The museum's collectibles includes works or prints by well known artists with local ties, such as Lewis Miller and Walter Biggs.

Montgomery Museum perspectiveThe building housing the museum was originally built circa 1852 as the Manse for the Christiansburg Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Nicholas Chevalier was one of the first occupants of the home. The construction of the original portion is an interesting combination of American and Flemish bond brick. According to oral tradition, the bricks were made on the property and fired in an earthen kiln. Support beams and joists are of hewn oak. The rafters are of logs planed on one side and secured by dowel pins.

To visit the museum's web site: Click Here.

Floyd County History and Genealogy

According to tradition, present day Floyd County was among the first areas explored when Virginia Colonists began to push into the mountains of Virginia. In the mid-to-late 1600's, expeditions began to map the area that was then principally a hunting-grounds by Indians, including the Canawhay tribe. The first white settlements in the area occurred in the mid-18th century. By the 1790's, English, German, French, Scottish and Irish immigrants settled in what is now Floyd County. One of the first industries, Spangler’s Mill, was also established in this time period. Watermills such as this one continue to symbolize the resourcefulness of residents and the importance of natural resources and living in touch with the land.

In 1831, Floyd County was established and was named for Governor John Floyd. Governor Floyd was a native the Montgomery County, the parent County of Floyd.

To visit the Floyd County USGenWeb site: Click Here.

To visit the Floyd County Historical Society site: Click Here.

United States Board on Geographic Names

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is a Federal body created in 1890 and established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government. The Board comprises representatives of Federal agencies concerned with geographic information, population, ecology, and management of public lands. Sharing its responsibilities with the Secretary of the Interior, the Board promulgates official geographic feature names with locative attributes as well as principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic names, foreign names, Antarctic names, and undersea feature names.

The original program of names standardization addressed the complex issues of domestic geographic feature names during the surge of exploration, mining, and settlement of western territories after the American Civil War. Inconsistencies and contradictions among many names, spellings, and applications became a serious problem to surveyors, map makers, and scientists who required uniform, non-conflicting geographic nomenclature. President Benjamin Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the Board and giving it authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions. Decisions of the Board were accepted as binding by all departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

The Board gradually expanded its interests to include foreign names and other areas of interest to the United States, a process that accelerated during World War II. In 1947, the Board was recreated by Congress in Public Law 80-242.

To search the Board's database of domestic names: Click Here.

Data returned by searches include the latitude, longitude and elevation of matching geographic features as well as alternate names and spellings.

The Board's homepage includes search facilities for foreign and antarctic names.

To visit it: Click Here.

Defining the Melungeons

A Research Article
By MHS President Jack Goins

The Melungeons were a very dark skin group of settlers who settled in the mountains of East Tennessee and the extreme Southwestern area of Virginia beginning 1790's. Originally they were Portuguese adventurers, who came to the long shore parts of Virginia, they became friends with the Indians and intermixed with them, and subsequently with the pioneer settlers. Some of them took the names of the first settlers. The main body of this group migrated from the Pamunkey River area of Virginia to the Flat River area of NC 1730's-1740's. Then around 1767 they migrated from the Flat River to the back woods New River area’s of Virginia and North Carolina before migrating to the Clinch River areas of Southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Global Genetic History of Homo sapiens

Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4
Special Review Issue

The journey started around 60 to 70 thousand years ago in Africa, where modern humans evolved more than 150 thousand years ago, and where human diversity is still the highest among all continents in terms of genetic variation and languages. From there, humans settled Europe and South Asia and reached Oceania. The Americas (apart from the remote Oceanian islands) were settled last.

The course and the extent of these first migrations remains evident in the genetic makeup of humans living today, but later migrations and the cultural practices that people carried with them—farming in particular—have also left their legacy. That legacy looks remarkably similar wherever farming spread, in Europe, Africa, and East Asia. Natural selection also left its mark: A review by Jonathan Pritchard of the University of Chicago examines evidence for the genetic basis of human adaptations and the extent to which differences among human populations in characteristics such as lactose tolerance have been selected for over evolutionary time.

Each of the reviews is packed with fascinating insights. For instance, a review by Mark Stoneking and Frederick Delfin at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology tells of an early migration of modern humans from Africa along a southern route to East Asia. Europe is perhaps the best-studied continent in terms of archaeogenetics, writes Martin Richards of the University of Leeds and his colleagues, and includes what Richards refers to as five major episodes, including the repopulation of Northern Europe after the Late Glacial Maximum. In the case of the Americas, DNA evidence has confirmed the Asian origin of indigenous Americans and more precise estimates of when Native Americans emerged. Dennis O'Rourke and Jennifer Raff of the University of Utah note, however, that many questions about the date of the initial colonization of the Americas remain.

To read this special issue online in its entirety at no cost: Click Here.

Note: A PDF reader is not required to read the articles; however, the articles contain numerous illustrations and all the articles may be downloaded in PDF format for maximum image quality.

Early Portuguese Settlements.

Phase in Ethnology
Mr. James Mooney Investigates
Early Portuguese Settlements.

Washington Post -- 1902

Mr. James Mooney, who has just returned from Indian Territory, where he has been making a study of the Kiowa tribe for the Bureau of Ethnology, has also during his career as an anthropologist done considerable work in the way of investigating the Portuguese settlements along the Atlantic coast of the United States, a subject about which less is known than most any other phase of the modern ethnology of America. All along the southern coast there are scattered here and there bands of curious people, whose appearance, color, and hair seem to indicate a cross or mixture of the Indian, the white, and the negro. Such, for example, are the Pamunkeys of Virginia, the Croatan Indians of the Carolinas, the Malungeons of Tennessee, and numerous other peoples who in the days of slavery were regarded as free negroes and were frequently hunted down and enslaved. Since the war they have tried hard by act of legislature and other wise to establish their Indian ancestry.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Glencoe Museum

Radford, Virginia

Explore the heritage of Radford and the New River Valley in this 19th-century Victorian home on the banks of the New River. Elegant furnishings, photographs from Radford's past, an old-time woodworking shop, Native American artifacts, one room school house and more, make Glencoe a place where memories come alive.

Glencoe was the home of Confederate general Gabriel Colvin Wharton. Glencoe highlights the contributions of the Native Americans, early settlers, industries, educational institutions, businesses, local artisans, handicrafts, as well as topics of local interest. Exhibits include permanent and changing presentations of our region's continuing story.

The visit the museum's web site: Click Here.

Powwow Calendar

Pow Wow time is the Native American people’s way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships and make new ones.

The most comprehensive powwow calendar on the net is maintained by Powwows.com.

To view the calendar: Click Here.

A Note on the Melungeons

By Swan M. Burnett, M. D., Washington
Read at a meeting of the American Society of Anthropologists
February 5, 1889

Legends of the Melungeons I first heard at my father’s knee as a child in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, and the name had such a ponderous and inhuman sound as to associate them in my mind with the giants and ogres of the wonder tales I listened to in the winter evenings before the crackling logs in the wide-mouth fireplace. And when I chanced to waken in the night and the fire had died down on the hearth, and the wind swept with a demoniac shriek and terrifying roar around and through the house, rattling the windows and the loose clapboards on the roof, I shrank under the bedclothes trembling with a fear that was almost an expectation that one of these huge creatures would come down the chimney with a rush, seize me with his dragon-like arms, and carry me off to his cave in the mountains, there to devour me piecemeal.

To read more: Click Here.

Note: This MHS Blog entry, the first mention of Melungeons in an academic context, is a reblogging of an entry originally November 14, 2008.

Burned Record Counties of Virginia

Several Virginia counties, most of them in the eastern part of the state, have suffered tremendous loss of their early records during the intense military activity that occurred during the Civil War, and others lost records in fires. At some point, almost everyone conducting genealogical or historical research will face the problem of finding information from a so-called "Burned Record county." Burned record counties might be grouped into three basic categories: Hopeless, Almost Hopeless, and Difficult. Included in the Hopeless category are James City, New Kent, Buckingham, Nansemond, Dinwiddie (before 1782), Appomattox, Buchanan, King and Queen, Warwick, and Henrico (before 1677). Almost Hopeless are Hanover, Prince George, Elizabeth City, and Gloucester. Difficult counties are Caroline, Charles City, King William, Mathews, Prince William, Stafford, Rockingham, and Nottoway.

If you are working with a county that has suffered a loss of court records, you must devote all your genealogical energy and historical knowledge to the project. First, survey any extant records as well as all existing indexes; second, read every surviving record page by page; third, consult the records of the surrounding counties; finally, seek out other types of records, such as church, business, private, and government documents.

To continue reading: Click Here.


Lost Records Localities Database at the Library of Virginia

This database consists of entries for a wide variety of court records found as part of chancery and other locality records-processing projects. The entries are for surviving records from localities, most of whose records are no longer extant. The original record is photocopied. The copies are filed together in an artificial collection—the Lost Records Localities Collection—and are readily accessed through the manuscript room at the Library of Virginia.

To consult the database: Click Here.

Clay County Genealogical and Historical Society

The Clay County [Kentucky] Genealogical and Historical Society has a brand new web site.

To visit it: Click Here.

For more Clay County, Kentucky online resources: Click Here.

A History of The Middle New River Settlements

And Contiguous Territory

By David E. Johnston (1906)

INTRODUCTION

I have had in mind for several years to write and publish a history of Mercer County and its people, but finding on research and investigation that the settlement of the territory thereof and incidents connected with the life of its people are so interwoven with that of the people who first crowned and crossed the Alleghanies and made settlements on and along the upper waters of the Clinch, Sandy, Guyandotte, Coal, and other rivers and streams, that it will be necessary to broaden the scope of the work beyond what was at first intended.

Mercer County as originally created, and as it now exists, embraces territory which was formerly a part of that vast domain known as Augusta, later and in succession, Botetourt, Fincastle, Montgomery, Greenbrier, Wythe, Monroe, Tazewell, and Giles Counties.

The early history of the County, and that of its settlers and people, is largely common to all those who occupy the territory referred to.

To read this book online: Click Here.

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Extracted from the Original Court Records
Of Augusta County 1745-1800

By Lyman Chalkley

Complete in Three Volumes
Now Available Online

This publication is very sizable, the hardbound volumes contain approximately 600 pages each. We have included navigation aids within the documents, as well as added hypertext links to the index. Other than that we have tried to keep the original formatting as close to the original books as possible. We hope you enjoy these pages, and find them useful

The Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia: 1745 to 1800 by Lyman Chalkley is really the best starting place for anyone researching ancestors in Augusta County during this time period. This three volume series contains most of the abstracts of court records in Augusta County between those dates.

Chalkley is not without its problems, as Daphne Gentry of the Publications and Educational Division of the Library of Virginia has pointed out. Not all documents are included. There are not only errors of omission, but errors of transcription have also been documented. This simply means that the careful researcher should send for a copy of the original document, as with any secondary source, and should not assume that because it doesn't appear in Chalkley it does not exist.

To go to the online edition: Click Here.

Podcast Appalachia: Appalachian Music

Transcript:

Music has become one of the most widely recognized aspects of Appalachian culture, both inside and outside the region. With the help of concerts and radio, Appalachian music and musicians have achieved worldwide fame, and the distinctive styles of Appalachian music and musicians have become representatives of the Appalachian region to fans throughout the world. Additionally, Appalachian music has proven to be very influential within numerous other genres of music as well.

The two most obvious genres of music with heavy Appalachian influence are Bluegrass and Country, but, as is often the case, the reality is far more complex than many observers assume. Appalachians have indeed been critical in the development of Bluegrass and Country music, but they have also provided much influence to various other genres as well, including rock, rhythm and blues, and even pop.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: The concludes my blogging of all the Appalachian Podcast episodes, saving for last, as a Valentine's Day present, an episode on one of my favorite topics. As I said on Wednesday, it is a shame this series was so short-lived. Fortunately, however, we have Dave Tabler's always to be recommended weekly Appalachian history podcasts which have been produced continuously for years now.

To find them: Click Here.

Since Dave's podcasts are not available as transcripts but must be downloaded and actually listened to, a broadband connection is highly recommended.

Podcast Appalachia: Appalachian Literature

Transcript:

An aspect of Appalachian society that is sometimes overlooked is literature. Although it does not always get the attention it deserves, Appalachia has produced a significant body of literature. Although these works are sometimes lumped into the general category of Southern Literature, Appalachian literature is unique. In contrast to the more general genre of Southern literature, Appalachian literature usually not concentrated on North-South conflicts, which is also a characteristic of the Appalachian region at large.

Appalachian literature is also unique in that it’s very centered around the setting of the stories. The setting is usually viewed as an influence on the motivations and values of the characters involved. This fact has led some observers to diminish the literature as “regional,” but in reality it gives rare insight into the values and culture of a particular time and place. Literature in general is best when it reveals great truths, and Appalachian literature is certainly very good at this.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Podcast Appalachia: Mountain Religion

Transcript:

Religion is a key ingredient of most cultures, and Appalachian culture is no exception. In most societies, including Appalachia, it is difficult to seriously discuss culture without at least some discussion of religion. Faith has always been and remains very important to most of the people of Appalachia, and anyone who wishes to understand the Appalachian people should take a serious look at the various churches of the region.

An honest examination of the churches of Appalachia will indicate much more diversity than many might assume. Appalachian religion in the popular imagination reveals images of tent revivals, circuit riding preachers, fire and brimstone sermons, and serpent handlers. All of these exist, but they are only part of the picture.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Podcast Appalachia: The Scots-Irish

Transcript:

The Scots-Irish have been crucial to defining Appalachian culture even though they probably did not comprise a majority of settlers in most regions. Many early settlers were not Scots-Irish, but German, English, Welsh, and other ethnicities. However, these settlers were mostly absorbed into Scots-Irish culture, which is, as James Webb points out, a highly assimilative culture. This culture was, and remains, the dominant culture of Appalachia.

The Scots-Irish have also been variously stereotyped, and these stereotypes are nearly identical to Appalachian stereotypes. For example, they are often viewed as strongly independent, religious, and family oriented, as well as violent, poorly educated, belligerent and backwards. Certain writers and Hollywood executives have made a fortune selling such images about Appalachians.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: Historically, the Scots-Irish have been known as the Scotch-Irish, a term still very commonly used, but Scot-Irish is more grammatically correct.

Podcast Appalachia: Daniel Boone

Transcript:

When we last spoke, we looked at some of the early explorers of the Appalachian region. Today, I want to examine one of the most important of these explorers in greater detail. This explorer is Daniel Boone, one of the most famous Americans who ever lived, and a name that is known by virtually everyone, regardless of their knowledge of history. In this episode, I will present a brief biography of Daniel Boone and attempt to separate the facts from the myths.

Daniel Boone became one of the greatest folk heroes in American history. A skilled hunter, frontiersman, and Indian fighter, Boone would become a legend in his own time and was instrumental in encouraging the “pioneer spirit” and an inspiration for countless writers, explorers, and pioneers, including James Fennimore Cooper, whose Hawkeye character from The Last of the Mohicans is largely based on Boone.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: This week is being devoted to blogging all the remaining Podcast Appalachia episodes. It is too bad this very interesting series did not last longer than it did.

Podcast Appalachia: Appalachian Absolitionism

Many people today would be surprised to learn that the first anti-slavery society formed in the United States was formed in East Tennessee, but it is true. [Charles] Osborn established anti-slavery societies in most of the places he visited, and the first was in Jefferson County, TN. In 1815 Osborn and a small group of Quakers founded the Tennessee Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves. Over the next year sixteen chapters were created in East Tennessee, boasting hundreds of members. These chapters were united under the renamed Manumission Society of Tennessee. Elihu Embree was also an early leader of this group. This society was the first in America dedicated to the abolition of slavery, truly a visionary group.

To read the transcript of the Podcast Appalachia episode from which the above excerpt was taken: Click Here.

Podcast Appalachia: King Coal

Transcript:

Hello and welcome to Podcast Appalachia. I’m John Norris Brown.

Today I want to discuss Appalachia’s most important natural resource, a black, dusty rock that fueled the industrial revolution and one that countless people have given their lives to extract from the earth. This rock has led to an unprecedented increase in the standard of living, but has also done much damage to the natural environment. This resource, of course, is coal.

No single rock has had a great influence on Appalachian society than coal, nor has any other single mineral been more controversial. Coal is very important in generating energy; indeed, it’s difficult to imagine our economy functioning without it. Certainly, without coal, the industrial revolution as we know it would not have been possible.

In the Appalachian region, mining has shaped, or given rise to, thousands of mountain communities and provided employment for generations of mountain people. At the same time, the extraction of coal is very dangerous. Many miners have lost their lives in pursuit of this dirty rock. Additionally, the mining and burning of coal has produced many pollutants. Coal truly is a blessing and a curse, and which of these it is more of is a topic that has been debated for years.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Institute of Outdoor Drama

The Institute of Outdoor Drama has been a public service agency of The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for 46 years. It is the only organization in the U.S. providing national leadership in fostering artistic and managerial excellence and expansion of the outdoor drama movement through training, research and advisory programs. The Institute serves as a national clearinghouse for more than 102 constituent theatre companies across the nation.

Sounds good but the only trouble is that no one appears to be maintaining this site which still contains listings for 2009, not 2010. I have put off blogging it for over two months now, first expecting, then hoping and finally praying that someone would update it. But alas, it was not to be, and since the year is not getting any younger, I decided it was time to go ahead and blog it anyway as the site is still valuable despite being out of date.

What you must do is to follow the site's links for any outdoor event of interest -- and it does list a good many of them -- until you reach the site's page for the event, then click where it says to go for more information. For most, if not all, events, that will take you to the event's web site, where, with any luck, you can obtain the dates for 2010 performances and other current information.

To go to the Institute's web site: Click Here.

Note: What might be called the Melungeon Renaissance was sparked in no small part by an outdoor drama, Walk Toward the Sunset, by Kermit Hunter, which was performed in Hancock County, Tennessee from 1969 to 1976.

Historic Fincastle

Fincastle, Virginia was the eastern terminus of the Fincastle Turnpike, completed in 1841, leading to what is now far Southwest Virginia and thence to the Wilderness Road and the Cumberland Gap. Incorporated in 1772, it has been the County seat for Botetourt County since that time. It is currently a town of 350 people and is a virtual museum of American architecture from the late 1770's through the 21st. Century. Both the County Courthouse and the museum are filled with records of families who migrated through the Shenandoah Valley on their way south and west. An historic tour of this quaint village is available, through Historic Fincastle, Inc. William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) married local resident, Judith Hancock, after the great expedition. The center of town, Courthouse Square, contains the famous courthouse reportedly designed by Thomas Jefferson. It is one of 100 contributing buildings to the Historic District that has both state and national designation.

To visit the Historic Fincastle web site: Click Here.

Calendar of Genealogical Events

Courtesy of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

This calendar is extensive and well maintained and should be checked periodically for new entries as the months go by. Each entry contains a good description of the event and a link to where more information about it can be found.

To view: Click Here.

Migration Trails East of the Mississippi

There are a few famous migration trails in American history, including the recently blogged Wilderness Road and trails such as the Oregon Trail, the Sante Fe Trail and the Natchez Trace, but in reality many, many more trails were actually used at various times, from the early colonial period to the end of the 19th century.

The web site linked to below features a large map of the United States showing the routes of 122 migration trails east of the Mississippi River. Each trail is identified on the map by a number with legends above, below and to the right of the map giving the name of the trail corresponding to each number. The names of the trails are all links to a web page specific to that trail giving much additional information about each trail.

To view the map: Click Here.

Note: Trails west of the Mississippi are shown but are not numbered or labeled and no additional information on them is provided.

Encyclopedia of Genealogy

Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy, a free-content encyclopedia created by its readers, people like you. The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is available to everyone, free of charge. Everyone can also contribute information, again free of charge.

You can search this encyclopedia at any time by clicking on Search in the menus. You can also click on Index to view a list of all the entries.

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy serves as a compendium of genealogical tools and techniques. It provides reference information about everything in genealogy except people. Look to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy to provide explanations of how to look up your family tree, explanations of terms found in genealogy research, including obsolete medical and legal terms. It will describe locations where records may be found. It also will describe how to research Italian, German, Polish, French-Canadian, Jewish, Black, Indian and other ancestors. In short, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy will serve as your standard genealogy reference manual.

To peruse the encyclopedia: Click Here.

Indian Slavery in Colonial Times

Within the Present Limits of the United States

By Almon Wheeler Lauber

New York: Columbia University, 1913

OF the processes in vogue among the English for the acquisition of Indian slaves, the most productive was that of warfare. With the exception of the Pequot War and King Philip’s War in New England, the Indian wars in the English colonies were confined to the south, and there the greatest number of Indian war captives were enslaved.

After the Indian massacre of 1622 in Virginia, there was published in London, in the same year, a tract entitled “The Relation of the Barbarous Massacre in Time of Peace and League, treacherously executed by the native infidels upon the English, the Twenty-second of March, 1622, published by Authority.” The general trend of the tract is to show the good that might result to the plantation from this disaster. Number five of the possible results reads: “Because the Indians, who before were used as friends, may now most justly be compelled to servitude in mines, and the like, of whom some may be sent for the use of the Summer Islands.”

The policy advocated by the tract was carried out in succeeding Indian wars in Virginia. The accounts of a certain Thomas Smallcomb, lieutenant at Fort Royal on Pamunkey, who was probably killed in the war with Opechancanough, show him possessed at the time of his death, 1646, of several Indian slaves. It seems probable that these slaves were captives in war. After his rebellion, 1676, Bacon sold some of his Indian prisoners. The rest were disposed of by Governor Berkeley.

To continue reading: Click Here.

February is African American History Month

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

For more information: Click Here.

Note: Links to the related programs and activities of the various governmental agencies involved are to be found on the lower right hand side of the web page.