Diggin' in my Dishner Line

Recently, I’ve switched gears just a bit back to my paternal line, just to keep things interesting.  I’ve been fleshing out some of my Dishner cousins starting with some online genealogies and going through and checking documentation on them to see if that checks out and that I’m related to them.

One thing I do think I need to start doing is to start collecting Scott County, VA maps because I have a feeling I’m related to a large portion of Scott County, VA.  I see a lot of the same names, I see a lot of these folks as neighbors on census records and I need to start connecting some more of those dots.  Who was living where, who was married to who, etc.

Map of Virginia highlighting Scott County

By David Benbennick [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

My paternal grandmother, Mary Ruth Dishner was born in Scott County, VA as well as both her parents.  I am lucky to have had access to the family bibles for her family so I have documentation from that (and a lot of the delayed birth certificates have references to these bibles).

On a funny note, we think we might have found the person who now owns the family farm in Scott County.  Apparently the owner is the cousin of our dental hygienist (who used to live right down the street from us and I went to school with her daughter) who worked for our cousin who was a dentist (this cousin is also related to the same family who lived at that farm).  I know...that's weird and convoluted.  But, I have ancestors buried there and I have been unable to find the cemetery online (probably because it's just a small family cemetery) and I need to try to hunt that down.

I need to set some time aside to go and wander around the county and see what all is there, what resources are there, what resources are in the library vs other county offices.  I also need to hop up to Richmond, VA (which isn't too far from where I live in NC) and check out the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia to help flesh out more of my knowledge about SW Virginia and how my ancestors fit into the overall story of what was going on.

So, I hope to do more posts regarding this line of inquiry.  I apologize for not posting for a while but real life took a wild turn both with my job and a death in the family.  But, I am hoping to start sticking to a publication schedule a bit more regularly than I have been doing.