Brocks Gap Virginia

33rd annual

Brocks Gap Heritage Day

April 26, 2025

J. Frank Hillyard Middle School, Broadway, VA, 10 - 4.
Free and open to the public.

Over 180 posters of vintage photographs are arranged by families, churches, schools, communities, 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, sell their books.

Three programs:

11:00 "Who Threw Rocks in the Garden?" Exploring Family History

through Court Records. by Chaz Haywood, Clerk of Court, and Megan Pullen, Deputy Clerk

12:30 Forrest Elwood Fulk; An unreported Rockingham County hero

by Joe T. May

2:00 Forest Forensics: Finding Clues to the Past in our Woods Today

by Chris Bolgiano, former JMU Special Collections Librarian

Other participating organizations:

Rocktown History (Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society HRHS) selling new books & telling visitors about the work of the society.
Plains District Memorial Museum, Timberville, highlighting their collections and mission.
Chimney Rock Chronicle, the area's monthly newspaper with emphasis on good news from the local community.
DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), photographing old family Bible records to transcribe and put in their national database. Joint project with HRHS.

Donations accepted to purchase tombstones for family cemeteries in Brocks Gap: Dove, Caplinger, and others. Sponsored by Pat Turner Ritchie, patritchie@verizon.net

Want a table space? RSVP by April 14 to save a space. Bring your own table and extension cord if you need an outlet. Contact patritchie@verizon.net

Pat's newest project: A book on all schools in Bergton, Criders, Fulks Run, with as many photos as possible from each school. If you have pictures and or information on the one- and two-room schools, please bring it so we can copy for the book.

New Book in 2024:

Phillip Hoover & Sydney Belle Turner of Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, VA, Ancestors & Descendants by Jane Hoover Smootz & Pat Turner Ritchie. Most of the book’s 260 pages concentrates on Phillip and Sydney’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Many of the 300 photos are in color, plus images of old documents and newspaper clippings.
There is a chapter on each of Phillip’s Hoover ancestors Sebastian, Peter, Jacob, David, and Emanuel Hoover by Pat Ritchie.

The final chapter has brief histories of Phillip and Sydney’s other ancestors such as Riddle, Turner, and Custer. Some of the Riddle land near Chimney Rock between Broadway and Fulks Run, VA, has been owned continuously by members of the Riddle family since early 1800 or before.

If you are a Hoover with Brocks Gap connections but not a direct descendant of Phillip and Sydney, this book may have information on your earlier Hoover generations. Write me at patritchie@verizon.net if you have any questions.

Also featuring: African Americans in Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia. There were enslaved an

d free African Americans in the Gap before 1865. A free family who owned a farm on Crab Run at Bergton about 1806-1845 was industrious and thrifty. Another free family lived in the Gap a few years and moved to Winchester about 1850. Their stories are another aspect of life in Brocks Gap. Over 200 pages, some photographs, and photos of some original documents. $25 plus $5 for shipping. Order them from Pat Turner Ritchie. patritchie@verizon.net

Portraits of the Past: Bergton and Criders Communities, 1903. This 127-page book has photos of 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. $22 plus $5 for shipping, and you can order them from Pat Turner Ritchie. patritchie@verizon.netAppa

See some programs from previous Heritage Days: