If you go to Williamsburg, Va., check out the Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. Their Special Collections Research Center has some genealogy papers worth seeking out if you have Virginia ancestors.
Check their online listings ahead of time to see what is available, lists of contents of collections, and especially the geographical areas covered.
My lucky break was using the Young Tyree Collection, the papers of a genealogist who specialized in Chesterfield, Henrico and York counties, among others. My ancestors were from Chesterfield County, near Richmond, and I would not have automatically assumed a collection related to that part of the state would be at William and Mary.
Tyree’s collection consists of hundreds of small notebooks of his courthouse records abstracts. Discoveries there got me to the next clue.
Check swem.wm.edu and look under research. There is a great collection of Virginia county genealogy books in the open stacks in the regular part of the library. As with any college, check the hours of operation before planning a visit. While you are researching, your family can tour nearby Colonial Williamsburg.
Indentured servants
A lecture on indentured servants was delivered at the recent National Genealogical Society Conference by Nathan W. Murphy of familysearch.org, who has done in-depth research on the subject as well as convicts sent to America during the Colonial period.
Murphy’s article on “Virginia Emigration and Immigration” is found on the familysearch site in the wiki section. His research indicates that 75 percent of Colonial immigrants were indentured servants, meaning someone paid their passage to the colonies and in exchange they had to work off the debt under a seven-year indenture. In the 1680s, the most popular reasons for entering into such a contract were being fatherless, friendless or just out of jail.
Indentured servants should not be confused with apprentices. They could not marry during their indenture.
There is an Immigrant Servants Database at pricegen.com as well as a digital copy of Murphy's article on "Origins of Colonial Chesapeake Indentured Servants" from the March 2005 National Genealogical Society Quarterly. The site has a lot of other great articles and links.
Murphy also recommends books by the late Peter Wilson Coldham found in most genealogy collections and the Virtual Jamestown site, virtualjamestown.org.
World War II descendants
Sons & Daughters of World War II Veterans is a fairly new society. Check sonsanddaughtersofww2veterans.org.
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