I am my family's historian and have done a lot of research on my own family in New York, New England, and Canada. My partner's family is in Virginia, going back to Jamestown. They are in Smithfield, Isle of Wight, New Kent, Hanover, and Henrico in the 1600s and early 1700s. So far I have just researched on Ancestry, so I don't have a grasp on what sources are out there.
Wow, Karen, you are doing wonderful work there! What a fabulous thing- seeing a gap and providing a way to fill it. Your growing group is already vitally needed and so very organized! Please continue to give us out here information to share with researchers to find yall, and ways we can support what you’re doing by getting the word out!
Thanks for the feedback. Our event went really well yesterday -- we talked to more than a dozen visitors and I think that a couple of them will join our group. I realized I didn't include the WAGS website in my post, so here it is. https://wagsva.org/ I monitor the info email address, so I'll seen any general inquiry emails that come in. Please share our website widely and encourage people to reach out to us if they have ideas as we move forward with this project.
Congrats! I will share and please keep us posted on your work with the org. I giggle when I read your WAGS cuz Im part of WHAGS here - the West Houston Area Genealogical Society. I wonder how many more there are that share “our” similar acronym? (rabbit trail warning). Are yall thinking of a virtual component to your meetings?
Thanks! Glad to see another AGS group. We'd love to have hybrid meetings, but we don't have a permanent meeting space that allows us to have the necessary technology in place. We could do it badly, but I don't want to do that. If we gain enough support (both locally and from other areas), CW might find us valuable enough to help us find a permanent meeting place. Then we could trick it out with the right kind of cameras etc. to make hybrid meetings possible.
Karen, Congratulations on the success of your Williamsburg Area Genealogical Society (WAGS) group. It's challenging to start, grow, and maintain a group with in-person meetings and a mission focused on a place. You've discovered the perfect spot for all three.
Though I'd love to visit Colonial Williamsburg one day, how can this community be helpful?
Hi Barbara -- I knew you would enjoy this. We just finished our inaugural event at "The Rock," and it went very well. We had more than a dozen visitors at our table, and I think we'll gain a couple of new members from this exposure. We were able to assist some individuals with the resources in the library, while others simply wanted to discuss their genealogy research goals and accomplishments. We will be hosting genealogy Office Hours on most Tuesday mornings for the rest of this year (see our website https://wagsva.org/ for details). Even with the relatively small number of people who came by to talk to us, we were able to begin familiarizing ourselves with the collection at this library as we attempted to answer their questions. One way the broader genealogy community can help us in this project is to let the people at the Rockefeller Library know how you plan to encourage your people to utliize WAGS as a resource. The more people who contact The Rock with genealogy questions, the more they will value our input. If you ever make it to Williamsburg, we'll have to hang out!
Great job, Karen and WAGS! I can see loads of folks taking advantage of this resourse.
I need this! Thank you!
Let me know what you're up to so we can figure out how to help.
I am my family's historian and have done a lot of research on my own family in New York, New England, and Canada. My partner's family is in Virginia, going back to Jamestown. They are in Smithfield, Isle of Wight, New Kent, Hanover, and Henrico in the 1600s and early 1700s. So far I have just researched on Ancestry, so I don't have a grasp on what sources are out there.
Wow, Karen, you are doing wonderful work there! What a fabulous thing- seeing a gap and providing a way to fill it. Your growing group is already vitally needed and so very organized! Please continue to give us out here information to share with researchers to find yall, and ways we can support what you’re doing by getting the word out!
Thanks for the feedback. Our event went really well yesterday -- we talked to more than a dozen visitors and I think that a couple of them will join our group. I realized I didn't include the WAGS website in my post, so here it is. https://wagsva.org/ I monitor the info email address, so I'll seen any general inquiry emails that come in. Please share our website widely and encourage people to reach out to us if they have ideas as we move forward with this project.
Congrats! I will share and please keep us posted on your work with the org. I giggle when I read your WAGS cuz Im part of WHAGS here - the West Houston Area Genealogical Society. I wonder how many more there are that share “our” similar acronym? (rabbit trail warning). Are yall thinking of a virtual component to your meetings?
Thanks! Glad to see another AGS group. We'd love to have hybrid meetings, but we don't have a permanent meeting space that allows us to have the necessary technology in place. We could do it badly, but I don't want to do that. If we gain enough support (both locally and from other areas), CW might find us valuable enough to help us find a permanent meeting place. Then we could trick it out with the right kind of cameras etc. to make hybrid meetings possible.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Karen, Congratulations on the success of your Williamsburg Area Genealogical Society (WAGS) group. It's challenging to start, grow, and maintain a group with in-person meetings and a mission focused on a place. You've discovered the perfect spot for all three.
Though I'd love to visit Colonial Williamsburg one day, how can this community be helpful?
Hi Barbara -- I knew you would enjoy this. We just finished our inaugural event at "The Rock," and it went very well. We had more than a dozen visitors at our table, and I think we'll gain a couple of new members from this exposure. We were able to assist some individuals with the resources in the library, while others simply wanted to discuss their genealogy research goals and accomplishments. We will be hosting genealogy Office Hours on most Tuesday mornings for the rest of this year (see our website https://wagsva.org/ for details). Even with the relatively small number of people who came by to talk to us, we were able to begin familiarizing ourselves with the collection at this library as we attempted to answer their questions. One way the broader genealogy community can help us in this project is to let the people at the Rockefeller Library know how you plan to encourage your people to utliize WAGS as a resource. The more people who contact The Rock with genealogy questions, the more they will value our input. If you ever make it to Williamsburg, we'll have to hang out!
Thank you, Karen and Debbie!