As part of our VA History Exchange we are starting this new blog, and in it we will be sharing various articles we have written and information about new and exciting projects that we are working on. As a way to get our blog started, I wanted to share with you why the VA History exchange was founded, and why we work hard to keep history alive.
The following was written by Ellen Apperson Brown, the founder of the VA History Exchange.
“History is important to me. I am curious to know, not just the names and vital statistics of my ancestors, but of their stories. I read a book once which made the statement ‘there are voices in your blood,’and I am becoming convinced that it is true. As I read old letters, visit places where my family has lived, and consider the real people who emerge, I am enriched and encouraged. My sense of family identity and of rootedness – to places and to traditions – is cultivated and enlarged. This VA History Exchange is a way for me to celebrate and memorialize the lives of individuals who are significant to me, and to help others in their quest to discover the truth about the voices in their blood. I suspect the VA History Exchange fits into the newer style of historical writing which examines and respects the experiences of individuals, finding as much worth in the private and personal as in the public records of global events. My focus for the VA History Exchange is to promote projects that offer “just” a glimpse of the people in my family and the families of others who have influenced us, and our world, and for a moment, ever so brief to allow history to have a voice and come to life.”
Join us the next few weeks, as publish a series of blogs on the Essay written by Ellen Apperson Brown entitled “For the Love of Virginia”. We hope you will visit our blog regularly, or subscribe to our blog via email so you can stay informed about all of our latest projects and events. We are very excited about the future of the VA History Exchange, and we hope you will be a part of it !