My GGF lost two-of-three first cousins from Anderson County, Ky. at Shiloh (in Butternut) and unknown to him at the time, had at least 6 second-and-third cousins fighting in the Army of Northern Virginia with the “Little Fork Rangers,” who were from the Little Fork of the Rappahannoc River in and about Culpepper County, Virginia.
My branch of the family first “re-visited” Culpepper County in 1980. We met a man my father’s age who said, “we always knew my Great-great-grandfather had a brother move to Central Kentucky in 1808, but we never heard back from him.”
It was spooky meeting third-and-fourth cousins who looked as much like us as do our Kentucky kin.
Met a lovely lady, aged 90+ years at a swank retirement home in Richmond, the widow of a cousin who’d graduated Harvard, written a family history and taught at UVA. She insisted we take a look at a massive portrait above her bed: her Dad and six Uncles who had served as Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia, their seven photos surrounding Lee in the middle.
Virginia in 1980 was so amazing. It reeked of history, but did not even have road signs to direct you to Washington or Jefferson’s homes. In contrast, if you were from Harrodsburg, Stanford, or Danville, Kentucky, every state highway entering the state from 1965 on, told you how many miles you were from Fort Harrod, Constitution Square and the William Whitley House.
Virginia has since taken note, and taken a great leap or two in marking their amazing historical sites.