Press release
Point of Fork Chapter, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), is honored to receive a Shining Our DAR Light Grant at the Virginia DAR State Conference, held March 25-27.
The Fluvanna chapter plans to share the award with the Fluvanna Historical Society (FHS) making it possible to acquire a portable computer and scanner for use at offsite locations throughout the county preserving family treasures of Fluvanna area residents.
Since its beginning on December 8, 1936, Point of Fork Chapter NSDAR members have been actively involved in the preservation of Fluvanna County history and records. Starting with organizing marriage records in the mid-1940s, the Chapter then indexed Fluvanna County death records occurring in the 1800s, presenting the county with bound copies of the indices. ,
The Chapter raised $1000 in 1963 to restore Fluvanna’s Old Stone Jail Museum and document room containing historical papers, books, and grants. The chapter has helped keep, preserve, and index papers of historical interest to the county. This work gave birth to the Fluvanna Historical Society in 1964. Oral tradition says that because of a lack of storage space, some old county records were about to be taken to the dump. Local history-minded ladies stood in front of the trucks, blocking their path, while others climbed into the back to rescue the papers. An arrangement was made with the county of Fluvanna for the newly formed Fluvanna Historical Society to hold its offices and archives, and to create a museum, in the Old Stone Jail. The rest is history. Point of Fork Chapter members continue to support the historical society in many capacities from providing research to indexing and cataloging historical family records. More recently the Chapter hosted the Library of Virginia scanning project to capture family memorabilia from World War II.
A community “Family Treasures” scanning event in public spaces and churches throughout the county is being planned soon. As folks bring in their old photographs, documents, letters, etc, trained volunteers will scan the items for the FHS database, returning the documents as well as a digitized version on a thumb drive to the patron. The historical society will train members in the use of the equipment. Additionally, Point of Fork Chapter yearbooks and reports will also be scanned.
FHS is housed at Maggie’s House in Palmyra, adjacent to the Old Stone Jail.
Point of Fork Chapter, founded in Fork Union, meets the first Thursday each month September through May at various locations in the county. Anyone interested in joining the organization may contact Linda Gore at FHS or Regent Janet S. Woods, pointofforkdar@gmail.com.
