Virginia Genealogy Books

Staff Officers in Gray: A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia (Hardcover)

by Robert E. L. Krick

This indispensable Civil War reference profiles some 2,300 staff officers in Robert E. Lee's famous Army of Northern Virginia. These men--ordnance officers, engineers, aides-de-camp, and quartermasters, among others--worked at the side of many of the Confederacy's greatest figures, helping to feed and clothe the army, maintain its discipline, and operate its military machinery.

A typical entry includes the officer's full name, the date and place of his birth and death, details of his education and occupation, and a synopsis of his military record. An introduction discusses the role of staff officers in the Confederate army, describes the evolution and importance of individual staff positions, and makes some broad generalizations about the officers' common characteristics.

Two appendixes provide a list of more than 3,000 staff officers who served in other armies of the Confederacy and complete rosters of known staff officers of each general in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Synthesizing the contents of thousands of unpublished official documents, Staff Officers in Gray will be of interest to anyone studying the battles, personnel, and organization of the Army of Northern Virginia.

It Was Different Then: 1870 to 1885 Through the Eyes of the Loudoun County, Virginia Press (Paperback)

by Jerry Michael

This compendium of newspaper articles offers a different sort of look at this period in our nation's history. At the time there were three local papers in Loudoun County, Virginia, an area which was then mostly rural. Major news is covered, but more importantly, one gets a feel for the culture of the times through a description of the local happenings, opinion, humor and advertisements of those years following the Civil War. This first-generation material is copied directly from the microfilm but is cleaned up for easy reading.

About the Author
Mr. Michael graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Randolph-Macon College, class of 1952, with majors in English and History. It would be a long time, however, before he would follow these academic pursuits, for in his younger years he was busy establishing a dairy farm in Loudoun County. Eventually, he discovered a rich fund of microfilm data on the old county newspapers and his appetite became whetted in this direction.

Today he lives on a farm in western Loudoun but his main dairy facility is in Maryland. He currently divides his time between his research and his beloved Holsteins.

The Quaker of Olden Time: The Life and Times of Israel Thompson (d. 1795)--His Land, Plantation, Mills, Tanyard & Mansion House, and the Rise of Wheatland, Loudoun County, Virginia

by Roberto Costantino

This original contribution to American cultural geography concerns backwoods developmental dynamics in the Blue Ridge Uplands during the second half of the 18th century. It is a book about American folk like and the life and times of a certain woodland pioneer named Israel Thompson of a distinctive culture who transformed a temperate wooded area into farmland or a material culture.

It traces his family from Anglo Irish Quaker roots through the Province of Pennsylvania to the Colony of Virginia and to his heirs, some of whom lived and prospered in Virginia, including his son and daughter-in-law, Jonah and Margaret Peyton Thompson of Alexandria.

In his time, Jonah Thompson was one of the most respected citizens and one of the most active merchants in Northern Virginia. Original research, family papers, illustrations, insurance records, account sales of Israel’s personal estate, Israel’s last will and testament, real estate plats, endnotes, and an every name index add up to an excellent narrative history, rich with genealogical data, which will appeal to historians and genealogist alike.

Here I Lay My Burdens Down: A History of the Black Cemeteries of Richmond, Virginia (Paperback)

by Veronica Davis

This book is an important source of genealogy and serves as a history of the final resting places, funeral homes, and family traditions of Richmond's African-American residents.

About the Author
Veronica Davis earned her undergraduate degree from Hampton University and a Masters of Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She is active in a number of professional organizations, among them the American Library Association.

Her background includes service as a former children's librarian, founder and editor of the Virginia Correctional Librarian Newsletter, and as a contributing writer to the American Libraries Magazine and the Library of Virginia's Dictionary of Virginia Biographies.