I moved from Fairfax County (2020 population 1,150,292) to Fauquier County (72,964) to escape the congestion and gridlock of Virginia’s most populous county. However, the demographics of 1820 paint a different picture entirely. Back then, Fauquier...

Echoes of the Civil War still resonate throughout Northern Virginia. To truly understand this pivotal period in our history, look no further than the life of Eppa Hunton. A prominent figure in our region, Hunton played a key role in the Secession Convention,...

My research often involves transcribing handwritten deeds, wills and other historical documents. It’s a painstaking task made even more difficult when documents and scanned images of documents have poor penmanship, are faded or damaged. I’m finding artificial...

https://youtu.be/CL8K6ShVm6c There are two stories here. One is the exceptionally detailed and vivid news account of Lafayette’s August 23-24, 1825, visit to Jeffersonton, Warrenton, New Baltimore and Buckland. The other is the creation by AI of...

The stories of Buckland’s John Love and Ravensworth’s William Payne remind us that the history of Northern Virginia is woven into the fabric of our nation’s founding. Their intertwined paths, from the battlefields of the Revolution to the halls...

John S. Mosby’s gravestone in Warrenton Cemetery Historical marker in Marshall, VA near where Mosby disbanded his command Friday December 6 was John Singleton Mosby’s birthday. Known as the Gray Ghost, he is a popular figure in Northern Virginia...

The U. S. Capitol building was in the early stages of construction when the seat of government moved from Philadelphia to Washington, DC in 1800. Only the north wing was ready to house the Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court and Library of...

Current reporting has Democrat Suhas Subramanyam winning Virginia’s District 10 election to the U. S. House of Representatives by 51.9 percent of 207,138 votes cast.* In 1807 Buckland’s John Love, like Mr. Subramanyam, was a first-timer. He...

An early (1789) act of the first U.S. Congress provided for the creation of a permanent seat of government on the Potomac River, and there “prior to the first Monday in December, in the year one thousand eight hundred, provide suitable buildings...

Thinking of driving out Route 29 to enjoy the fall color on Skyline Drive this weekend? Consider this picture instead: It’s Saturday afternoon, October 19, 1863. As you travel west from Gainesville to Warrenton on the road, known then as the Warrenton...

Ravensworth, the largest colonial land grant in Fairfax County, and Buckland, Prince William County’s pioneer inland town which thrived despite its distance from the era’s primary commercial waterways, offer a glimpse into the history and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3cBWbl-xxM&t=313sThe phrase “older than dirt” labels something as exceptionally old. Deep time is the term scientists use for the billions of years of Earth’s history. Both terms proved apt In researching...

Nothing could be more appropriate for the lead article kicking off this site than an account of my debt to Beth Mitchell. Her body of work is the best example I could offer of mapping history and sharing it with others. The Fairfax County History Commission...