at Broadway High School, Broadway, VA, 10 to 4. Over 150 posters of vintage photographs are arranged by families, churches, communities, schools, and other topics. Researchers can use Pat Turner Ritchie’s personal library of family local and regional histories. Other genealogists and local historians will share their material and gather new information.
3 programs:
11:00 An Unsung World War II Hero from Fulks Run, Harrison May, by Joe T. May
12:30 George May: from Ireland to Brocks Gap—How DNA & new research led to a revised picture of George May & his family, by Diane Langston
2:00 The Forgotten People of Rockingham County, by Rev. William Zirk
**The school’s safety rules will be in effect.**
Currently masks are required for everyone.
Please be prepared to abide by the rules so that we can hold this
event.
Rocktown History (Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society) will
be on hand to sell new books and to tell visitors about the work of the Society
.
Sponsored by Pat Turner Ritchie, patritchie@verizon.net
If you are interested in having a display table, let me know by April 29 so we
can save you a space.
My newest book will be ready the middle of February: “African Americans in Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia.” Yes, there were enslaved and free African Americans in the Gap. There was a free family who owned a farm on Crab Run at Bergton about 1806-1845 who were industrious and thrifty. Another free family lived in the Gap a few years but moved to Winchester about 1850. Their stories are another aspect of life in Brocks Gap. The book has over 200 pages, some photographs, and photos of some original documents.
Last year I finished “Portraits of the Past: Bergton and Criders Communities, 1903.” This 127-page book has photos of various families of the area, taken by traveling photographer J. M. Hill of Bridgewater. It includes a brief biography of each person in the photos, when we could identify them, several pages of unidentified photos (maybe you’ll know some!), and some other photos from the 1880s of local people. The Portraits book is $22 plus $4 for shipping, and you can order them from me.
