Keeping the Dead Alive - Part 2
How the York County Project of the late 1970s and 1980s continues to put flesh on the bones of the residents of York County, Virginia
When I was a teenager, after publishing Colonial Virginia, a fourth-grade reader in Virginia history, alongside the Research Studies, The Gunsmith in Colonial Virginia and The Apothecary in Colonial Virginia, my late father spawned the idea of applying statistical analysis aided by the computer power available at the time to the records of the York County Courts, which, in spite of the Civil War having destroyed the records of James City County, had survived that conflict.
To this day, the York County Project exists as a resource. It was the work of a slew of fine historians who made up the Colonial Williamsburg Research department. Most have shuffled off this mortal coil, so the work of The Harold B Gill Foundation, LLC is helping to “keep the dead alive” in their case, as well. After being awarded a Fellowship to study the application of statistical analysis to historical research at the Newberry Library in Chicago in 1977, my father got the team underway and by the Summer of 1979, the Director of the Research Department, Cary Carson with Dad, Kevin Kelly, and Linda Rowe published an article on their “Zero-Base History” in the Colonial Williamsburg Today publication:
Note the punch-card technology was in use!
While the article does not appear to be freely available online, it is at the John D. Rockefellar, Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg in the stacks. Particularly affecting to me is the second page header which gives a photo story titled “Six Steps to Immortality” — and that is just what my father’s whole career was about, keeping the dead alive.
The broader effort of my own work as the Executive Director of the Harold B Gill Foundation, LLC is dedicated to doing the same. This is taking different paths but, for now, here is this tidbid from a box of records that my parents preserved. There is much more to come and therefore, I’ll again ask that readers consider becoming paid subscribers of “Harrowings” and please give feedback through a comment. You can also call, write, or email!
