A mysterious grave marker for James William "Willie" Redwood (1846 - 1871) in last month's article produced several responses and more information. Maude, Willie's widow was living in New York City in 1876. Willie was staying at Albion Farm, across the Rappahannock, east of Fredericksburg when he died.

Family ties are so important and interesting. The Heritage Center has a vast collection of genealogical material. It ranges from a single page in a collection to an entire collection. In 2005, the Center inherited the Isabel Martin Wermeyer papers. Mrs. Wermeyer had Caroline County roots, but did not live there. Her husband had been an engineer who worked all over the world. Mrs. Wermeyer did her genealogy the old fashioned way; she visited and wrote to the places where her ancestors lived, using no computers. Knowing the Center has extensive Caroline County court records, she would contact The Center for information. Several volunteers at the Center are authorized to issue certified copies of documents and photographs that have an imprinted seal. When Mrs. Wermeyer died, The Center was the fortunate recipient of over 1,000 pounds of her genealogical research. It was all neatly organized, by family, in binders. All that was necessary was to put the files into archival folders and boxes, and build the database. Due to the size of the project, it took several years to enter Mrs. Wermeyer's research into PastPerfect, our database retrieval system. Visitors have used the Wermeyer files to substantiate eligibility for membership in a lineage organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution.

A one-page family tree can even provide valuable information. Once, two visitors to The Center realized they were working on the same families. A moment like this is exciting not only for the people doing the research, but for the volunteers, who are always thrilled when visitors find valuable information.

If your family is from this area and you have done your genealogy, consider sharing it with The Center.