Cousin Doug and Our Family's 1780 Mill

A few years ago, my daughter Allison and I took a road trip, exploring Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields, then heading into Virginia to explore our Graves family line. The line goes back to Captain Thomas Graves, a Jamestown settler.

We had planned to stop at the Madison County, Virginia Historical Society after a beautiful drive through Shenandoah National Park in western Virginia.  The night before, Allison stayed up late doing some research, and excitedly woke me up the next morning with the news that she had discovered that the Graves family mill in Madison County not only still existed but had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. We knew we had to find it.

Entering the historical society, the kind volunteers asked if they could help. We told them we were from Ohio and were part of the Graves family. They excitedly pulled out their phones and started dialing: “You have to talk to Doug Graves!  You are cousins.”  As it happened, Cousin Doug was in town in his old truck running an errand. (We later found out he was a board member of the historical society and the volunteers knew him well.)

Doug is a fifth cousin. My ancestor John Graves and his ancestor Thomas Graves were brothers. Both lived in the mid to late 1700s—but my ancestor came West, migrating down the Ohio River to the Cincinnati area in 1800.

Doug invited us to see the mill, which he had worked to restore and place on the National Register.

We followed him in the old truck out to some of the most spectacular country I’ve ever seen, right at the base of the Shenandoah mountains.

The mill is located in what was a tiny town—the town of Graves Mills. Graves Mills once included general stores, blacksmith shops, and churches—one of which still exists. Built in 1798, the mill is thought to be built on the foundation of an earlier mill from around 1745.

We spent two wonderful hours with Doug, discovering how he had learned to do genealogy and historical research as he prepared the application for the mill to be placed on the National Register of Historic places.

Travel to the places your ancestors lived. You never know what, or who, you’ll find.