The Wise County Historical Society would like to thank everyone who helped make Family History Days so successful.   The members who were on the lawn of the courthouse and the members who worked in the office were kept busy with visitors from Northern Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, West Virginia, Illinois, Georgia and many places in Virginia. 

  Special thanks are made to Jack Kennedy who kept his office open on Saturday to enable visitors to search records in his office. The members were able to help many people with records that we have in our office and the Clerks Office.  Very often we would hear someone exclaim, “I found a (marriage, birth or death record). I have been hunting for this for a long time and here it is!”  The ones of us who had ancestors here at the beginning of the county can only imagine their joy to have traveled so far and found the record they were searching for. 

    One gentleman from Alexandria has already paid a return visit to the county and is looking at property to purchase, as he is planning to move here.  His mother was born in Toms creek but moved away when she was young.He was born in Michigan and had only been here one previous time, when he was very young.  He has no family here but is planning to write a novel about the coal camps and feels he needs to be here to do his research.

  Visitors were able to purchase books and records from The Book Store.  We have many Civil War books, Native American books, books on the Melungeons, local genealogy and records from other counties.  We have out-of-print books in our archives, and visitors are welcome to use these in our office.

  Plans are already being made for our next Family History Days.  As the year 2003 will be the 140th anniversary of the capture of Wise, we are planning to have the re-enactment of the capture.

  We are in the process of writing a book on Wise County Civil War Veterans.  More than 1, 100 Confederate soldiers have been recorded, and 300 Union soldiers.  Anyone with information or pictures of Civil War soldiers who lived in or are buried in Wise County is asked to please get in touch with Wand Rose, 328-6569, Lillian Gobble, 523-1817, or Rhonda Robertson, 523-3000.

The Wise County Historical Society is located in room 250, Wise Courthouse, and is managed by volunteers Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Friday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 368, Wise, VA 24293, telephone: 276-328-6451, e-mail: wchs@naxs.com.  We are a non-profit corporation.
 Submitted by Wise County Historical Society