Research Projects

Virginia Society of the War of 1812

This is a very ambitious project directed by the Society. The goal is to publish this material of some 4,500 servicemen from the War of 1812. Target date: 2012. This project is utilitzing a plethora of sources, most importantly of which is the Works Progress Administration (WPA) New Deal era cemetery surveys. (Current.)

Morattico Land Titles Project, 1888 - present

Morattico Watefront Museum. This once thriving, free-wheeling oyster & crab center on the Rappahannock River was recently designated as a state historic district. Its fascinating history begins in 1888 and the chore here is to trace the titles of 36 parcels of property back to the original developers, John H. S. and John H. Whealton. Yes, two brothers both named John. They came from Somerset County, Maryland to found a maritime and real estate empire, until it all went bust around 1910. This is the sort of work I was made for. (Current)

White Paper, Northern Neck of Virginia Tourism Council

For National Historic Area designation by United States National Parks Service, History of the Northern Neck 1800-1860 (current.) This is one of my volunteer projects. It is just one part of a lengthier paper being compiled by several historians and authors. (Current)

Lancaster County Estates 1835-1865

Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library, with the Virginia Foundation For the Humanities (completed). This project abstracted all wills and probate records for this period. You may view the final product at mbwm.org. This was a fascinating project in every aspect. A major focus was compiling slave records, but we learned much more in the process. For example, did you know that a refrigerator was a part of a stil, and the word itself is of French origin? Oh, those clever French!

And here's a word you WON'T find in the dictionary: mobby. Yet another fun word we learned. This is another form of a stil used to make brandy (usually from peaches.)

Speaking of Virginia and estates, you'll be surprised to learn our Virginia forebearers were a rather lazy lot. Most did not bother with boring chores like building fences. Livestock simply roved around whereever the path took them, which was usually under fruit trees (preferably ones which produced brandy) which were haphazardly planted. There are tons of fascinating little details at <mbwm.org> where you can read all about it.